Monthly Archives: May 2012

Priorities

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Lesson 58: Romans 15:22-29

Priorities

by Bob Burridge ©2012

There are somethings in life that can’t be neglected for long. They demand our attention. When you try to hold your breath you discover that at best you can only do it for a few minutes. Our lungs normally take in air about 12 times every minute — that’s 720 breaths per hour. They slow down some when we are sleeping, and speed up for a while when we are active.

Imagine that a truck pulls up in front of your house tomorrow afternoon, and the driver delivers 90 gallon jugs of water. Think of how much space you would have to find to store them. Then the driver tells you that every hour another truck would arrive with 90 more gallon jugs. By the same time tomorrow you would have received 2,160 containers to store.

That’s how much air your lungs move. It comes to an average of 90 gallons per hour, 2,160 gallons every day!

Our lungs work that hard all our lives because every cell in our bodies has a constant need for a supply of Oxygen. Most of what you breath in is Nitrogen. But what your lungs are after is the 21% of the air that is Oxygen. That’s the important part that your cells need to stay alive. Your blood goes to your lungs to pick up oxygen on its way to all the parts of your body. When cells don’t get oxygen they can’t function. Then they die. Some of them die very quickly. That’s why breathing is such a high priority in our lives.

You can go without a drink for a little longer, because the body stores water longer. You can go without food even longer than that, because the body stores food very well. But without a supply of these things you would not last long. You would die in just minutes if your air supply was cut off. So our bodies won’t let us deprive them of air for long. After you hold your breath for a few minutes you instinctively struggle to start up again. We have the sensations of thirst and hunger to make sure we get water and food when it’s needed. We get tired so that we won’t starve our body of needed sleep. These are hard drives to resist.

It is an important part of life to learn how to get enough of all these things we need. Some needs must come before others. Our bodies need to average a certain basic amount of air, water, food, sleep, hygiene, and exercise. We also need to spend part of our lives either working to provide for our needs, or in school preparing to eventually go to work. We need time to show care for the emotional needs of our family members and friends. We need time to repair some things when they break.

We need to spend time every day in prayer, in thinking about God and his word, and in shining as lights to the world. We need to gather weekly for worship and instruction in holy living as a church. We even need some time to relax and just enjoy being part of God’s wonderful creation, and to benefit from the fruit of our own labors.

With so many things in our lives it gets very complicated to keep our priorities as they should be. Balance is hard. But we must make sure that none of the important things are neglected. With limited resources, time, and energy, careful budgeting needs to be done.

When the time spent on each gets mismanaged, serious problems occur. Often obsession with less important things such as hobbies, video games, watching TV, and playing on the internet can lead to neglect of family, health, church, or work.

Sometimes even necessary things can be over done. There are limits to how much a person should eat, sleep, work, exercise, or rest. And you would be neglecting other responsibilities if you spent all your time in worship, prayer, or telling people about Christ.

Even within the service of Jesus we need a balance. We need to make sure we spend some time in each of the means of Grace, and that we serve in a variety of ways, not just the one part of service that appeals to us.

Even the Apostle Paul had some things he wanted to do, good things, that he did not get to do. He often had to put his plans on hold while God busied him with other matters. We see here, in Romans 15:22-29, how Paul explained this balance he had to maintain.

Paul explained his travel plans to the Roman believers:

Romans 15:22-24, “For this reason I have often been hindered from coming to you; but now, with no further place for me in these regions, and since I have had for many years a longing to come to you whenever I go to Spain– for I hope to see you in passing, and to be helped on my way there by you, when I have first enjoyed your company for a while –“

The Apostle Paul had gained a reputation among the early believers for his sound teaching. The Roman believers would have wanted a visit from God’s Apostle to the Gentiles. Paul wanted them to understand why he had not been able to go there yet. This long and detailed letter to the Romans would be helpful, but it was no substitute for direct fellowship. So Paul told them about the deep longing he had to see them in person too.

While it is true that some people let their feelings overcome their better judgment, we should not be afraid to sense how deeply God leads us to feel about people and things in God’s world. We were created to have desires. It is our drive for air that will not let us forget to breathe. It is our tiredness, hunger, and thirst that make sure we do not neglect sleep, food, and water. It is our deep longing toward our family in Christ that often drives us to minister to them. God directs our desires as one of the most common means by which he advances his great plan for his people to be a spiritual family.

Even in overseeing his work of missions, God tells us only a few times that he directed the Apostles by direct revelation. Most of their plans appear to have been based upon what they judged were the best places to go. Sometimes God intervened and would not let them follow their plans. But those were the exceptions. God moves us to move his way by moving our heart’s desires.

God stirs us by grace through the work of Christ, to want to obey him. That obedience makes us learn more about what his word says is good. Knowing the word helps us desire right things. His Spirit then makes us grow in grace to love those good things all the more. Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.”

Though we may only be aware of our part in the planning process, we must never forget that it is the power of God behind it directing every thought and step we take. This is not some obscure theological idea weakly supported from a few verses taken out of context. It is repeated all through Scripture. For example:

Proverbs 16:9, “A man’s heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.”

Proverbs 19:21, “There are many plans in a man’s heart, Nevertheless the LORD’s counsel — that will stand.”

Jeremiah 10:23, “O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.”

Paul’s mission to unevangelized territories in Macedonia was just about completed. That work had prevented him from being able to satisfy his strong desire to visit them in Rome. He had kept the priority work first. It was that which God had assigned. He presumed he would soon be free to take the trip to Spain and to Rome on the way. Things did not go exactly as Paul seemed to think they would.

Did Paul ever make it to Spain? We don’t know for sure. Tradition says that he did get there. But tradition is not evidence. The Book of Acts ends with Paul in Jail in Rome. Up to then, a trip to Spain could not have taken place. After his release from that first Roman imprisonment Paul traveled again. We can reconstruct some of his travels by comments he makes in his epistles to Titus and to Timothy. It is certainly possible that Spain might have been visited, but it is not mentioned.

It is not important to prove that he did or did not get there. This passage is about Paul’s desires, not what God revealed to him about what would happen. There were other times when Paul was not able to accomplish what he had planned. For example, there was his change of direction on the 2nd Missionary Journey in Asia, the one that turned him to Troas and the direct call of God for him to go to Macedonia.

Paul did eventually make it to Rome. However, he came under very different circumstances than what he shows he was expecting here. He did not come by choice as a missionary on his way to Spain. He came twice as a prisoner under Roman guard.

The classic Christmas movie It’s A Wonderful Life shows how George Baily’s plans seemed never to work out. But when it all came together in the end, things worked out better than he could have dreamed. Our plans are also sometimes turned aside by God’s providence, often through the duties he gives us to keep us involved in one way rather than in another.

We need to remember that behind our personal disappointments are the perfect plans of God. Earlier in this epistle Paul wrote, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

There is a principle in Scripture that should encourage us when things do not go as we plan. We may not get the job we expected, or the loan we thought would be necessary. Sometimes there are emergencies that keep us from what we expected to be doing. We may not get to go to all the places we want to visit, or to do the things we dream of doing. God’s providence may create schedule conflicts which demand that we make hard choices.

It’s all a matter of priority. It is important not to neglect any of the clear duties God puts before us. We need to keep them all balanced in the best way we can. We need sometimes to set aside mere pleasures if they keep us from honoring our God and Savior, or those he loves.

When Paul says that he hopes to see them as he passes by toward Spain, he was not speaking with the same confidence he had in the hope of God’s promises. This was hope in a personal desire. Our hope in Christ and in God’s covenant is not just a personal longing. It is a promise from the Creator himself. That in which we hope is only as certain as the thing in which we hope.

What is certified by the word of God ought to be a firm expectation. If, as it was in this case with the Apostle Paul, it is just our own heart’s desire, we cannot be sure it is the unchangeable plan of God.

All our plans and dreams must be first of all agreeable with the moral principles God has revealed to us in his word. But we must also be willing to submit to the secret councils of God which only become known as they take place. We are warned in Proverbs 27:1 “Do not boast about tomorrow, For you do not know what a day may bring forth.” and in James 4:13-15, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’ ”

Paul had confidence in the Roman believers. He knew he could count on them to help him on his way to Spain. The word used for his being “helped” on his way is propempo (προπεμπω). Literally it is a compound word meaning “to send forth”. It was often used of escorting someone along the way as they left for a journey. It might also mean that Paul expected material help in making it financially possible for him to make his planned trip.

He expected his visit with them to be fulfilling to him. Probably the exact wording means that he knew that his visit with them would be short, never the less he knew it would be very encouraging for him as well as for them.

Next, Paul explained that he had one more duty to perform.

Romans 15: 25-27, “But now I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints. For it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem. It pleased them indeed, and they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things.”

He was on his way to Jerusalem with help from the Christians in Macedonia and Achaia. The need in Jerusalem was great. Early history shows that the Jerusalem saints faced very hard times materially. First, it was a city held in the grip of apostate Judaism. The ones who accepted the Messiah were cut off from the synagogues. The city resources were not available to them for relief of the sick and widows. They were not included in political or business decisions. They found it hard to compete economically in the hateful Jewish population. Second, a famine had hit the empire in the days of Claudius Caesar. Jerusalem was often more vulnerable to droughts which made it even harder for the Christians.

God was using this need to help heal the rift that was hurting the church. Tension existed between believers who were Jewish, and those who were Gentile.

So this was more than a mere relief mission. Paul was not getting his priorities confused. He was not doing diaconal work, or neglecting his mission to Rome and Spain. This gift from the Gentile believers in Macedonia and Achaia, probably the cities of Philippi and Corinth, showed the change God had worked in their hearts, and the gratitude they had to the Jews not only for the Savior who was born to them, but also for the missionaries they had sent out with the good news. Paul expected this gift would be a remedy to cure tragic prejudices and jealousies. The Gentile saints had given sacrificially, out of love and a sense of Christian duty.

Perhaps this was God’s purpose in letting Jerusalem suffer so much need. God who rules all circumstances not only creates in us a love to give and to help the truly needy, he also provides needs to showcase his mercy and care. As much as he calls the able to help, he calls the unable to receive. All is to be done with respect for the other, and with humility of self. All is to be done to the glory of God.

Paul explained his plan: After he left Jerusalem
he would be free to go to Rome.

Romans 15:28-29, “Therefore, when I have performed this and have sealed to them this fruit, I shall go by way of you to Spain. But I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.”

Paul’s personal commitment and intention was important. He calls it setting his seal upon this fruit of theirs. It does not mean that he was the only one who could safely guard the gift, or that he was worried the givers might not get proper credit for it. Those simple matters could have been done by anyone and are not worthy of Apostolic time.

He was the one chosen to deliver the gift to attest that it was a genuine fruit of love done for Christ’s glory. God must receive the honor for good works, or else we glorify the giver as if he is good on his own. When we forget to glorify Christ in our good, we steal the praise from God.

There was that other dimension too. He wanted the Jews to realize how God had changed these Gentile hearts, and made them true brothers in the family of Christ, brothers who truly cared. The gift was a fruit of their being redeemed by the Messiah.

We should not be among those who are afraid to commend other believers for good works they do. Every good motive is a testimony to the power of God to mercifully conquer our fallen hearts. We need to appreciate the evidence of God at work in redeemed hearts.

Here again, Paul expressed his plan to come to Rome on the way to Spain. It is true that he did not end up doing what he said he would do. This was neither a broken promise nor a lie. We commonly speak in terms of what we expect will be. If we are sincere it is not a lie. We always presume that human plans are subject to divine intervention. We only see the secret will of God when it unfolds. Paul explained that there were many times before this that he had intended to come to Rome, but God had hindered him. He undoubtedly realized as he wrote this that his plans could likely be changed again. Yet he made plans based upon what he expected at the time.

We should do the same. We make our plans with first things first, and all important things considered. However, we always plan in submission to what God would reveal as his secret plan. We keep in mind, “But thy will be done”.

The inspiration of the Bible is not at question here either. It is not a mistake. It accurately recorded what Paul in his heart intended. That is how biblical history is always written. Scripture records even the fallible notions of men, yet always showing the overpowering directing of God who unfolds his eternal plan in the course of time.

Paul fully expected that when his mission to Jerusalem was over, he would come to Rome overflowing with joy at what God would accomplish. Though his coming to Rome was not victorious in the way he expected, we see from his letters written from Roman imprisonment that he did come to Rome abounding in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.

From that Roman imprisonment he wrote these words to the Philippian believers:

1:12, “But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel,”

1:18, “What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.”

4:11, “Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content:”

He had come to know that God is always victorious, even when we cannot discern the real battle. He did come “… in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ”, just not in the way he thought it would happen.

When I was little there were a number of “but first’s”.

When I was still a child up and wanted to do something, I’d hear things like, “but first you need to clean your room” or “but first you have to finish your home work” or “but first you have to come in and get washed up for dinner.” There are always priorities. We need to learn how to keep things in balance. No important things should be neglected. Our first responsibilities must get our proper attention.

We should be careful to respect how hard it is for others to keep that balance. Sometimes our friends may not give us the time we expect from them, but if they are doing what God calls them to do we should not be hurt. If we think they have the wrong priorities we should pray for and encourage them to correct the problem for their own good. Often we cannot fully appreciate the burden God puts upon their hearts. We do not want our own selfish desires to grieve friends who cannot do what we want because they are trying to be responsible. Sometimes visits cannot take place as often as we prefer, as with Paul and Rome.

As we order our own lives, we need to consider how to prioritize in ways that God approves. We should put the necessities and duties to others over our own luxury time. We should make sure we do not just focus on our personal preferences and leave the less enjoyable tasks undone or done poorly.

On the positive side, when we order our lives to promote the glory of God in all we do, and to encourage other believers in the best way we know how, God promises to satisfy our hearts with a fullness of joy and blessing.

(The Bible quotations in this lesson are from the New King James Version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.)

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The Promise of Success

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Lesson 57: Romans 15:17-21

The Promise of Success

by Bob Burridge ©2012

I remember the excitement I experienced when I successfully typed my first command lines into a computer. Before the 1970’s, computers were only found in universities, government facilities, and large businesses. The idea of a home computer was unheard of. Then there was the development of the first microprocessors. I was a science teacher then, so it was normal for me to stop in the Radio Shack at one of the local shopping malls. There I saw the newly announced TRS-80 home computer on display.

I had always been intrigued by computers from the time I first saw the Hollywood versions in the movies and on TV. There were the mysterious knobs, buttons, and banks of blinking lights on the Superman TV show, and the more sophisticated blinking lights and gauges on Star Trek. I thought of devices like the real ones those represented as existing only in the mystical domain of the mathemagically gifted.

I stood there at the counter of the Radio Shack looking with amazement at this legendary device, now compacted into what looked like a small black and white TV set with a bulky keyboard hooked up to it. There on the almost blank screen one word was displayed; it said “READY”.

I had no idea what that meant, but I wanted to know. I asked the clerk, but he had no more idea than I did. He told me that it could be programmed to do things using a computer language called BASIC.

I walked down to the book store in the mall where in a rather obscure section I found a few books about computers. Then, almost as if I’d seen a golden key from heaven, my eyes fixed upon a little yellow paperback book called “Basic BASIC”. I glanced at the first chapter where it said that when the screen says READY you can type in programs or commands. That was encouraging. I read a little more and discovered how to write a simple little program to print words on the screen, or the results of simple mathematical calculations.

I hurried back to Radio Shack, typed in a few simple lines, and it worked! I was hooked! I thought to myself “I can do this!”

I wrote a proposal to our school board. Within a few weeks we had one of those new computers. I also bought that book and a few others to learn how it worked, and how to write well designed programs for it. By the start of the following school year I had written a curriculum making our school the first in our county to offer a class in this new technology. It was such a curiosity that we received coverage by the local newspapers and television news programs. In time, my Middle School students found out they could do computer programming too.

It all seems so old fashioned now with what our personal computers can do. But it was a beginning. What seemed hopelessly beyond me was not as hard as it seemed, once I found out how these new machines worked.

There are a lot of challenges in life that seem overwhelming to us. We often avoid things we believe we cannot do. We tend to leave them in the hands of a few experts. Sometimes we even abandon growth in Christ because we are not confident that our spiritual weaknesses can be overcome. We are led to believe we are not able to help others spiritually. We leave these kinds of things to the formally ordained and professionally trained as if only they can tap the resources needed for us to mature into what God calls us to be.

Our Redeemer has given us all we need to be a part of the advance of his kingdom in the world around us, and in the lives of those who live in it. We not only have the book that tells us how the Creator made things to operate here, we also have the Holy Spirit who works in us and in others to do what we are unable to do on our own.

The Apostle Paul was encouraged to see Christ at work in his life, and that he was able to tell the Roman believers that they could also be successful servants of the Savior.

Paul had shown in Romans 15:1-16 that believers in Christ are the most able, the only ones able, to really help and encourage one another to be maturing in Christ. In verse 13 he showed how God empowers us to patiently help, and to strengthen the weak among us to lovingly admonish one another as brothers in Christ. In this next text (Romans 15:17-21) Paul draws from his own success to encourage us who are also redeemed to serve our Savior.

Paul was pleased with the success of his
ministry by the power of Jesus Christ.

Romans 15:17, “Therefore I have reason to glory in Christ Jesus in the things which pertain to God.”

His success had to do with the things pertaining to God. Of course all things have to do with God. However, here Paul evidently meant the special sense in which God had blessed his ministry of spreading God’s word, and of encouraging believers to live obediently for God’s glory. So, though everything we do ought to be centered upon God’s glory and done in God’s ways, there are times when his glory is more directly and immediately promoted, times when we talk directly about him and help others to walk more closely with Christ.

Paul rejoiced in one thing only regarding his success. It was because of his being in Christ that he had been a part of the conversion of so many Gentiles. The word translated “glory” or “boast” in some translations puts the focus upon what has been done. The bringing in of Pagans, who knew nothing of the ancient Covenant of God, was astounding! But Paul was careful not to imply that his success was due to anything in himself.

Self-glory is a motive promoted by the fallen world, but one that is a deceptive narcotic to our fallen souls. A proud spirit is wrong because all glory belongs to God. He is the purpose for which all things were created and exist. He made the universe, and all of us who are a part of it, to display his nature and character. We are here to promote his glory.

This is exactly why it is so wicked for humans to take self-glory in their accomplishments. They steal from God what is not theirs to take.

It is refreshing when successful people turn the glory back to God. We think of athletes like Tim Tebow and Kurt Warner of the Rams. I remember when Kurt corrected a TV interviewer who spoke of his winning Super Bowl touch-down pass of 73-yards as “putting first things first”. Warner said in response, “First things first, I’ve got to give the praise and glory to my Lord and Savior up above. Thank you, Jesus!” Comments like that are so rare among celebrities today, that when they occur they get our attention.

If our primary goal is to gain earthly things, self-pride seems as if it is a good motive. But it is also morally destructive and robs us of the true pleasure available to us in the things we actually accomplish. Awe in being able to take part in the wonderful work of God is a far better motivator, and brings a satisfaction with it that the one who boasts in himself will never know.

This does not mean we should never be motivated to do wonderful things here on earth. But our intent in all things should be that we do them for God’s pleasure. One of the memorable lines in the movie Chariots of Fire was when Eric Liddell explained that when he ran, it was for God’s pleasure. He said, “to win is to honor him.”

We must remember that not only our ability, but even our motive to accomplish good things, only come when God, out of his mercy, brings them to pass in us. In Psalm 115:1 the writer says, “Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, But to Your name give glory, Because of Your mercy, Because of Your truth.”

In 1 Corinthians 1:29-31 Paul wrote, “that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God — and righteousness and sanctification and redemption — that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the LORD.’ ”

Once we realize the source of and reason for our success, we can take great pleasure in the wonderful things we accomplish in Christ. Paul understood what a great privilege it was to be a human instrument in the hand of God. When used by him we are not like a gear, microprocessor, or cable. We are living, thinking, feeling, fallible humans, enabled by grace to do the work of the King of kings.

God certainly could do his work by supernatural means without us. But He chose to use mere humans, redeemed by grace alone. 1 Corinthians 1:21 reminds us, “… it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.”

No one should hesitate to be pleased with his work in Christ. Nor should we fail to encourage God’s laborers as if it is wrong for them to have a sense of accomplishment.

There was a philosophy of child rearing for a while that warned parents never to praise a child so that they will not become proud and self-centered. That is just plain cruel and unbiblical. Self-pride is not the necessary result of praise and success. Paul commended many for what God did in them. His epistles are filled with encouragement about how God had used individuals and churches. Here he glories in what God had done in his ministry.

Paul knew that he owed his whole effort to the work of his Savior.

Romans 15:18-19, “For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me, in word and deed, to make the Gentiles obedient — (19) in mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.”

Paul would only speak of Christ’s accomplishments in his ministry. There was no need to multiply stories or reports of what Christ had done which the Apostle did not know personally and with assurance. He would not brag about his own abilities and talents as if they were done aside from or in addition to the work of Christ. This is consistent with what had always been true in the lives of God’s true laborers.

Isaiah 26:12, “LORD, You will establish peace for us, For You have also done all our works in us.”

Philippians 2:13, “for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”

Paul’s success in Christ was seen in the obedience of the Gentiles to the Gospel promises. Pagans who grew up outside the influence of the Covenant had been radically transformed. Their testimony and their deeds proved that such a change can be accomplished by the hand of God at work in his human servants.

Paul’s success was also confirmed in the power of signs and wonders. God sent miraculous evidences as the gospel first spread to the Gentiles. These did not only occur as deeds of the messenger, they were also produced miraculously among the early converts. Some spoke in un-known tongues, or were healed of diseases. These supernatural events demonstrated that God was the one who was expanding the covenant blessings to include all races of mankind. It was these evidences that silenced the objections of the Jews in Jerusalem. Supernatural miracles like those were not intended to continue in the church. They accomplished their purpose by attesting to the apostolic message in the first century. They clearly affirmed that the new era of God’s kingdom had begun.

Paul’s success was confirmed in the power of the Holy Spirit. It was not just the outward miracles that showed that changes were taking place. It was the inner change in the heart of lost souls that produced faith, repentance, and a desire to live by God’s revealed truth and moral principles. It is that regenerating change that is the root of all gospel success.

It was this simple teaching of the word in the power of the Spirit that was “turning the world upside down” (as Luke recorded it in Acts 17:6).

Paul knew very well, that his success did not depend upon his own skill. It was the proclaimed word of God by the power of the Holy Spirit that did it. He wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:4, “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,”

Paul had taken the gospel from Jerusalem to Illyricum. Jerusalem was the South East extent of his work. From there, up to the time of the writing of this epistle to the Romans, he went as far as Illyricum (just north-west of the boarder of Macedonia). There he had preached the gospel in full, the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27). He had done what God had called him to do.

Paul was driven by a strong desire, a passion, to go into new territory.

Romans 15:20-21, “And so I have made it my aim to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man’s foundation, (21) but as it is written: ‘To whom He was not announced, they shall see; And those who have not heard shall understand.’ “

Paul was engaged in pioneer missionary work. He had introduced Christ in places where our Lord’s name was unknown. He understood his particular calling as that of preaching Christ where no one had spoken of him before. It makes me think of the old Star Trek lead in, with its annoying split infinitive that sticks in the mind. The starship Enterprise and its crew set out on a mission, “to boldly go where no man had gone before.”

In this way, Paul entered new cities, new regions, entering into hostile pagan cultures. He was a planter of new seed. It was for others like Apollos to water the seed of the gospel that others like Paul had planted. But every step of the work was a work of God. In 1 Corinthians 3:6 he wrote, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.”

Of course this does not mean that Paul never engaged in other aspects of the work. He often helped out in places where others had laid the foundation. However, his passion, his main calling, was to venture into new territory with the good news.

The work he did was done with pure joy. The expression that begins verse 20 is translated in various ways in an attempt to bring the impact of the Greek word philotimeomai (φιλοτιμεομαι) into English. The New American Standard translates it as “aspire”. The King James Version has “strive”. Literally the word means “to love honor”. It was a great honor to be able to tell God’s promises to other people. That honor toward God highly moved Paul. This is why the word that means “to love honor” came to be used commonly of striving or aspiring toward a goal. As the New King James translates it, it was Paul’s “aim to preach the gospel”. This was the deep passion Paul had for the work God had given him. It was a joy to serve Christ, even though he was repeatedly persecuted by beatings and times in jail.

This honorable passion lives still in the hearts of many modern missionaries. God still raises up laborers to go where his Spirit is about to move. Lost souls are still saved by means of God’s proclaimed word and life giving Spirit. Those who love Christ should never become indifferent or lazy in their attitude toward mission work. Those not sent to the mission field are called upon to pray diligently for the work, to support the material needs of keeping missionaries on the field and of equipping them to do the work effectively. All of us can be a personal encouragement to missionaries by keeping in contact as brothers and sisters united in the work of the Christ’s Kingdom.

It is an unbiblical idea that we need no sense of passion and urgency for the work since it is God who is behind it all. Quite the opposite is true. God’s work is done by the very passion and urgency he puts into common people like you and me. How amazing that God, who could do it all on his own, determined that the best way to reveal his power, grace, and glory is to use us! Paul, this former persecutor and blasphemer, was privileged to bear this good news. He became the one to first take the gospel to many towns and into many homes.

Paul understood that this was the fulfillment of an ancient promise God had made. The spread of the gospel beyond the Jews to the whole world was not an innovation. It had been what God said he would do long before the time of the Apostles. The earliest chapters of the Bible hint at this truth. Moses spoke of it to Israel in the wilderness. The later prophets hundreds of years before Christ repeated it.

Here Paul quotes from Isaiah 52:15. It promises that the gospel would come to the Gentiles. The Prophet wrote, “So shall He sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths at Him; For what had not been told them they shall see, And what they had not heard they shall consider.”

This verse introduces Isaiah 53 which tells of the coming work of the suffering Messiah. The Gentile Kings will be speechless, because what was not told to them they will have seen, what they did not hear they will have considered. Today we know that the suffering Messiah described in that chapter was Jesus. Paul was bringing the message of that fulfilled promise. He was seeing the gentile nations transformed just as God said they would be.

>> No mission can fail when it is the mission of God. << Gospel missionary work was not why Paul brought this up here. The context, remember, was about brothers in Christ being loving and patient toward one another, even toward the spiritually weak, toward those who quite plainly were wrong about things, toward people who were easily offended. Paul says all this about his own success in the ministry of the gospel because it shows the hope we have in doing the work Christ calls us to do. It was a fitting illustration because many of the Romans were themselves Gentiles who were part of the evidence he was citing. Paul wanted the Roman believers to be encouraged by this in their own labors. Since God was fulfilling his promises so clearly in the gospel and by Paul, why should any doubt that he will fulfill his promises to us as we patiently labor to encourage one another and to admonish one another in love, to walk in Christ clinging without doubt to the principles God gives us in his word? There is reason to glory in the great things God enables us to do for him. He does not leave us on our own to succeed in our callings. Even our motive and great concern comes from him. The Romans were not left to their own skills and devices to mature in Christ, nor are we left to struggle hoping someone stronger will take the lead. We are the laborers who raise God's children, who help our neighbors, who pray for and comfort the needy, who pioneer the gospel into new territories. I do not mean foreign nations necessarily, though who knows where we all may one day be? All the unevangelized regions of your own family and neighborhood are included in this great commission. Your mission field is where you are at the moment. It may be your department at work, your class at school, the team you compete with, those you chat with digitally. You live on the frontier of the gospel. Take up that pioneering spirit and driving passion. What hope can we have as we take the gospel to others in such simple ways? What hope can we have in showing patience and encouragement to our weaker brothers? How can we heal a morally decaying land and a fragmented and confused community of churches? It is all contained in this one collection of infallible and inspired books we call the Bible. It is all accomplished by the power of God, not by your own innate abilities. It is something you can do. It is not a complex duty which rests upon your own skills and power aside from the intentions of your Creator. You can do these things through Christ which strengthens you! (The Bible quotations in this lesson are from the New King James Version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.)

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Good Counselors

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Lesson 56: Romans 15:14-16

Good Counselors

by Bob Burridge ©2012

It’s good to have those we can count on to give us loving advice when they believe we need it. Children may not always appreciate it when parents tell them to slow down when they chew, to go back to wash their hands again (this time to include both sides), to change clothes into something more appropriate for an occasion, or to get to bed when they aren’t feeling all that sleepy. Parents generally do not say those things to annoy their children. Believe it or not, those kinds of advice are for the most part acts of love. They are trying to help their children to be healthy, and to grow up to be responsible and happy adults.

As we get older we learn that some people give us advice in misleading and unloving ways. We discover that help is not always aimed at our own best interests. Some tell us that if we know what’s best for us we will always buy their brand of cereal, or vote for their candidate, or wear their style of shoes. They tell us to read certain books so that we will see things as they do. We are told to watch TV shows on their network, but it is so their ratings go up. They call us on the phone to get us to switch long distance services, or to contribute to so many charities and services that we would go into debt if we supported even just most of them.

When there is so much self serving guidance out there, it is necessary and good to be cautious. We often develop a defensive response to advice. The problem is that we often carry this over to where we see all advice as meddlesome and interfering. Extreme resistance to counsel can interfere with obeying God’s word.

This is not just advice for parents training up their children with loving counsel. We as believers, ought to know how both to give and to take admonitions so that we can responsibly help one another, and benefit from seeing things from a more biblical point of view.

Rather than allowing someone we love to continue in dangerously wrong behavior, we need to offer good and helpful counsel. We also need to be ready to receive it from others.

In Romans 15:14-16 Paul explains who is able to admonish those in the community of believers. Previously in this section of the letter he expressed his tender concern toward his readers. He told believers to learn to walk in a humble, considerate, patient manner. He urged them to encourage one another toward Christian maturity, specially toward the spiritually weak among them. He pointed them to the God of hope who fills his children with that joy and peace they need as counselors, so that they show in their own lives what they are encouraging others to be and to do. Our lives ought to be godly examples to others of patience, compassion, and restraint.

There are times when we need to deal with another person’s persisting sins. Paul expressed a confidence toward his Roman readers. In Christ they were not only full of goodness and knowledge. They were also able to be admonishers when it was needed.

Romans 15:14, “Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.”

Who is qualified to admonish?

We are living in an age of expertism. Secular views of the world reduce everything to physical laws and experiences. Humans are seen as merely highly evolved animals. We are told that since all reduces to the physical, only those trained in medicine and the objective social sciences are able to help what we view as emotional or behavioral problems. Secular Psychiatrists, Psychologists, and Sociologists are considered to be the only ones competent to help emotionally troubled people and their societal relationships. Some offer the appealing and anesthetizing idea that when we are lazy, mean, impatient, violent, rebellious, immoral, drunken, destructive, or even criminal, it is really not our fault. We are really just suffering from a physical illness, some type of syndrome, bad influences, or a simple misunderstanding.

These secularly trained professionals tend to make it clear that ministers and other counselors should not be trusted. Many blame the illness of their clients on the restrictions of biblical morality, or on their belief in a god who makes them feel guilty unnecessarily.

Certainly there are real organic physical problems that need to be treated. Medical professionals are valuable assets if they carry out their work responsibly. Some behavioral issues can be caused or aggravated by clearly identifiable physical brain damage from injury, chemical toxins, or birth problems. There can be genetic, and glandular irregularities that effect how the brain works. These are treated best by physicians who specialize in these matters. However, when it comes to most behavioral and attitude issues, God does not send us to Physicians. The God who made us sends us in a very different direction.

Here in Romans 15:14 we are told to help one another as a family in Christ, as brothers and sisters. This verse gives the biblical qualifications for those who are able to admonish one another.

The admonisher ought to be a born-again Christian. Paul calls them brothers. They are people redeemed by the grace of God in Christ. An unbeliever may know case histories, psycho-biology, and neurology, but he does not know the whole scope of human nature. In 1 Corinthians 2:14 the Bible says, “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

The non-Christian sees sin as nothing more than a violation of subjective moral standards. He sees what some consider to be bad behavior as the result of imposing personal opinions upon others. Counselors of this sort often recommend therapies that just compound or hide the real problem. They may tell the counselee to go out and have sex with some one outside of marriage, or to beat up on a pillow to relieve pent up hostilities, or to use various techniques to shift the blame to their parents, teachers, or Pastors. They may give them drugs to dull or to control their feelings of guilt or depression.

Only a regenerate believer is able to see the true spiritual dimension of sin problems. Since they love God’s word and desire to submit to it, they have a sound foundation from which to reason. They understand we are not victims. We are fallen sinners who ought to admit our failings. They see one another not as either victims or experts, but as members of a spiritual family who are here to help one another grow up in Christ. They know that for a person to deal successfully with sin issues, he must first be born-again through faith in the Living Lord Jesus Christ. They respect the fact that sin must be confessed and overcome, not explained away or blamed on someone else.

Paul names two qualities the Christian counselor ought to possess:
1. The godly admonisher ought to be full of goodness. This is a general term that includes the qualities that are pleasing to God. It includes the inner motive of directing whatever we do toward the glory of God, not for the benefit of ourselves for personal comfort or gain. This is the central desire of true biblical love. It seeks the spiritual benefit of its object. 1 Corinthians 13:5 says, love “… does not seek its own.”

The self-serving counselor maybe more concerned with how his treatments make him feel successful, or with how satisfied customers improve his career security. The concerned brother in Christ is able to rise above these self-serving motives. He works for a greater good, the glory of God being realized and enjoyed in the heart of each of his redeemed children. This does not mean that we always have pure hearts when we advise one another, but it does mean that only the redeemed have the potential to put God’s glory first.

Of course there is nothing good in any of us in our fallen condition. Without Christ no one does good, not anyone (Paul said this directly in Romans 3:12). However, in Christ we are enabled to perform the works of God. Ephesians 2:10 tells us, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Therefore, only redeemed believers, all of them, have this important quality necessary for effective counseling.

As we progress in growing in these Christ-like qualities, we have the confidence that in the eyes of God as our Eternal Judge we are clothed in the righteousness of the Savior who credits us with his own perfect goodness by his grace alone. This enables us to stand in the presence of the Holy Creator to receive his enablement to live more and more as we ought to live, and to be maturing spiritually.

If you want to be a greater help to others, make your own salvation sure, then pray for goodness. 2 Thessalonians 1:11 says, “Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power.”

2. The godly admonisher ought to be full of all knowledge. This does not mean he has all knowledge about everything. No one has that. It does not even mean that in order to give godly counsel you have to know all there is to know about God’s word.

Certainly the more we know about what God has said, the more helpful we will be. The brother who cares for others will look into God’s word for advice. That is our invaluable tool for helping another person both see his sins and know the assurances he has for overcoming them by the promises of God. Psalm 119:99 reminds us, “I have more understanding than all my teachers, For Your testimonies are my meditation.”

Admonition partly involves reminding others or teaching them about what God says in His word. Teachers have a fundamental obligation to properly present what is revealed in the Bible. This is why counselors who are not submissive to God’s word are dangerous. This is true both of secular counselors, and of so called Christian counselors if they follow the worlds theories and try merely to sanctify them by quoting a few Bible verses. In 1 Timothy 1:7 Paul warned Timothy that there are those who want “… to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.”

We should never admonish others to adopt our ways, but rather to take on God’s ways. This is why first of all we must know the ways of God. No one is competent to counsel if he is not trusting in the principles of the gospel, and in the ways of God’s word. These lay the foundation for the help being offered.

Believers are able to admonish one another. Here Paul expresses his confidence that these qualities exist in the believers at Rome too. They are fully competent to do this. No better counselors could be recommended.

They did not need professional experts in the secular sciences. They needed biblical counsel from brothers in Christ. Jesus taught this during his earthly ministry. As part of his advice in Matthew 18:15 he said, “if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother.”

How we admonish others is very important.

The word “admonish” is commonly used today with negative overtones. It often implies a harsh scolding, or a lording it over someone as their moral superior. Too often human pride gets in the way of trying to help others struggling in sin.

In the Bible, the word has a much richer and more positive meaning. The Greek word “nouthetein” (νουθετειν) is the one translated as “admonish” here in verse 14. This word is used in the New Testament 11 times. By looking at those uses we see that the Bible uses this word for loving brotherly admonition.

Biblical admonition treats others with respect, not with a critical attitude of fault finding or belittling. It treats others as if we really care for them as members of our own family who are in danger. We take the danger seriously and want them to look at the cause of their problems, not merely at the symptoms.

1 Corinthians 4:14, “I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I warn you.”

2 Thessalonians 3:15, “Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.”

Ephesians 6:4, “And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.”

This admonition is the tender guiding of someone we value as if they were our own child or brother. It is not the way we would treat someone who was our enemy. It is done lovingly, humbly, not with arrogant scolding or judgmentalism.

We often call this approach to counseling “Nouthetic”, using the Greek word for admonishing in this loving way as we deal directly with sin and help believers to be encouraged in to grow in Christ-likeness.

Biblical admonition is done patiently with those who are weak in their Christian understanding and commitment. 1 Thessalonians 5:14 says, “Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all.” The Greek word translated as “warn” is this same word nouthetein.

The goal of biblical admonition is to make others complete in the Lord Jesus. Colossians 1:28 says, “Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.”

God’s revealed word is the sure foundation for helping one another. After commenting on the Old Testament story of Moses and Israel, Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:11, “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”

Biblical admonition is persistent, and is often done with tears. When Paul addressed the Elders of Ephesus he said in Acts 20:31. “Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.”

Here in Romans 15:14 the meaning is clear. We are to help the spiritually weak to become stronger in the Lord. We have Christ’s enablement to do so. We do it by loving, tender, patient, humble brotherly advice drawn from God’s word.

Biblical admonition can even be done with music. Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”

Of course it’s not the music that admonishes our soul. God never recorded even one note of music in his word for his people to use. Music may help create the setting or a mood, but it is God’s truth in the lyrics of music that admonishes us.

We must be careful that the words of the songs we teach our children, or sing to ourselves or with friends are soundly and accurately based upon God’s word.

This is why the lyrics of music used for admonition and in worship should be subjected to the same careful crafting that a pastor puts into the content of his worship messages. No one should choose admonition music just for its sound or feeling. It should not be selected for its popularity. It must rest upon the solid principles and promises of the Holy Scriptures.

Paul was a good example of lovingly admonishing others.

Romans 15:15-16, “Nevertheless, brethren, I have written more boldly to you on some points, as reminding you, because of the grace given to me by God, that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.”

Paul was called by God to be a minister to the Gentiles, that is “to the nations”. He had a message for all the redeemed, not just for those of Israel. He did not write to Rome because of personal concerns or disagreements, but because of a divine commission. He was driven by a sincere love and sense of duty. Paul refers to his calling as a grace of God. In Ephesians 3:8 he said, “To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.”

His Apostleship gave him a high authority from God the Creator. However, he did not arrogantly scold as someone superior to his readers. He used his Apostleship with great humility and desire for their spiritual growth. His letters are fine examples of biblical admonition. There is no better course to take to prepare for counseling than a good study of the Bible as God’s word.

His admonitions were to help others become sanctified by the Spirit. Paul was not acting as a priest in the Levitical sense. Jesus was the great High Priest who made the final sacrifice of his own body and blood. True Christianity has ministers teaching and leading the people. As good shepherds they are there to lead and to train us all to be competent in admonishing one another by the word of God.

Verse 16 speaks of making an “offering” in the sense of Romans 12:1. We are to present our whole persons as a living sacrifice, a giving up of ourselves in gratitude since we are the Lord’s, not our own. Paul’s offering of the Gentiles was not that somehow they should be literally offered. It is that by the gospel as applied by the Holy Spirit, they might be offered up as the living redeemed who had become one with Christ, and brought into a body of caring believers living for God’s glory.

Biblical counsel is not like that offered by the world.

Those who build their view of counseling upon an unbiblical understanding of how God made us, are not able to directly address the causes of our needs. Just calling our approach “religious” or “Christian” does not make it biblical.

In contrast with popular trends in counseling, the Bible does not call sin a sickness as if we are unwilling victims of some evil that floats around looking for someone to infect. God’s word does not teach us to psycho-analyze our souls as if to excuse wrong behavior because of what others have done. It does not tell us to vent our frustrations on some surrogate object of hate. It does not tell us to elevate our emotions into some mystical state of consciousness by emotional music, compelling altar calls, or alarming predictions of future horrors.

Biblical nouthetic counseling is when believers help one another by humbly admonishing them in love. It is firmly based upon the truths of God’s word, and is directed toward helping even the weakest among us to grow in spiritual maturity.

Sadly, some who need to see their own sins and foolish behaviors, will not accept loving admonitions. Paul warned Titus of this in Titus 3:10, “Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition.” If they show no evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives we need to change our course of help. Instead of treating them as a brother in the Lord, we need to assume they are outside the family of God. We need to begin with bringing the life-changing Gospel of God’s Grace to them before we can proceed.

Samuel is a sad example of loving admonition being rejected. Samuel’s sons rebelled and turned away from the things of the Lord. God said these words about this neglectful father, “For I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knows, because his sons made themselves vile, and he did not restrain them.” (1Samuel 3:13)

The word translated as “restrain” in this verse is the Hebrew word kihah (כהה). Its root meaning is “to make someone feeble, timid, or weak”. It came to be commonly use meaning “to rebuke”. The idea is to admonish someone so they would have a humble, holy, worshipful attitude before God. That is where the original concept of to make weak came to mean being humbled by admonition. The ancient Greek Septuagint’s translation of this word is the same one used for these loving admonitions in the New Testament, “nouthetein” (νουθετειν).

Samuel failed to admonish his rebellious and foolish sons. He failed to admonish them. When warned he did not correct and counsel his children. The Bible faults him for his failure as a parent.

God’s children ought not treat loving admonitions negatively. Loving counsel should neither be neglected by the giver nor by the receiver. 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13 says, “And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. Be at peace among yourselves.” Again, the word used there for “admonish” is the word nouthetein.

Paul admits that his writing has been somewhat bold at times. He was very direct in his correction. But it was always done humbly and in love. Though it was persistent, it was not without tears, and was always based upon the advice and warnings of God’s word, not upon Paul’s own customs and preferences.

Paul was also confident that these Romans who were so troubled by issues about which he was writing to them, were still the best hope of good counsel for one another.

Biblical counsel is always nouthetic, redeemed people admonishing one another as a family in Christ. Enabled by the Holy Spirit to goodness, and armed with the knowledge of God’s word, they persist, sometimes even in tears, to help all, even the weakest, toward mature spiritually.

Our love for one another is too dear, and our love for God is too overwhelming, to substitute superficial remedies for the real joy and peace promised to us in our Savior. Biblical counsel is good biblical advice given in a way that is truly reflective of the love of God toward his children.

(The Bible quotations in this lesson are from the New King James Version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.)

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Enabled toward Spiritual Maturity

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Lesson 55: Romans 15:13

Enabled toward Spiritual Maturity

by Bob Burridge ©2012

When I was growing up, in our house the last of October was never celebrated with gross horrors, monsters, and demonic characters. Thoughts of pagan celebrations and witchcraft were far from our minds.

It was the time of year when we got to dress up as our favorite characters or heroes. What costume we chose was more important than the candy we expected to collect. My mom loved to help us put the outfits together. She spent loving hours sewing them into shapes never intended for the garments we started with.

I remember when long underwear was dyed blue and accessorized with red shorts, red snow boots, a cape, and a large emblem bearing the letter “S” sewn on the chest. That night I became a grown up: Superman. Sometimes it was Hopalong Cassidy, Roy Rogers, George Washington, a spaceman (this was before they were astronauts), a soldier, a New York Yankee, a Canadian Mountie, the great King Arthur, and a few others I can’t remember any more. The nice thing was that after the night of gathering treats, the costume was available for play until we either wore it out or outgrew it.

Children generally love to dress up. It is fun to have a hero to admire, to want to be like that image, to learn to copy his heroic ways. This is why it is so important that parents supply good role models for children. Those offered in the media are not usually examples of admirable qualities.

It was most of all fun to imagine you are a grown up. To be able and free to do more things, things that seemed more important. Of course pretending does not make a child really mature. This superman still scraped his knees and elbows. This soldier still ran home for lunch when his mother called him. Until they actually aged and experienced certain things they were just pretending.

We all start out our spiritual lives as children in Christ who need to grow up. In our study of Romans 15, we have seen so far that we need to bear up the weaknesses of brothers in Christ who are not yet strong spiritually. Like Christ we need to humble ourselves for the spiritual benefit of others.

However, to be able to help others we need to be mature ourselves. We have a wonderful role model in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Just knowing about him, and imagining ourselves able, does not make us like him.

There is more to spiritual maturity than good intentions, words, and outward actions. Like children playing at being grown ups, pretending does not make it so. There must be a true growth inwardly, not just a costume of religious words or behaviors.

Our needy brothers who are weak in faith need mature believers to guide them, not pretenders dressed up to make it look as if they are able to help.

Paul was able to invite believers to follow his example to the degree that he also modeled Christ. That example began with a heart made secure in the confidence of the gospel promises.

The characteristics we need to help others do not spring up in us in full maturity right away. Christian growth begins in spiritual childhood. It matures all through this earthly part of our lives. Paul ends this section by turning our attention to the source of our own spiritual growth:

Romans 15:13, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

The qualities Paul prays for in his readers are joy and peace.

What wonderful things! Most of lost humanity tries desperately to get them. There are many fake substitutes and deceptive paths that only lead to frustrations. As God’s children, we know he promises that we can grow in these good things. However, they do not come from outward circumstances as so many think. They are inner attitudes that must begin in the heart if they are to bring true joy and peace.

As we appreciate the promises made to us in Christ, and the fellowship God has with his people, we can make these rare treasures our own possessions. The joy we have is a sincere delight. As Peter puts it in 1 Peter 1:8, “… yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.”

The peace God gives is an inner contentment. Paul wrote in Phil 4:7 about “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding.”

These are the things David rejoiced over in Psalm 4. He thanked God saying in verses 7-8, “You have put gladness in my heart, More than in the season that their grain and wine increased. I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; For You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.”

Paul prayed that believers might be filled with this joy and peace. God’s covenant promise is not just that we enjoy these a little bit. He wants his children to be filled up with them, to have them dominate their lives.

This is the process of maturity we ought to be experiencing as believers. When we have but a little joy and peace, we ought to confidently ask for more. We should seek God to so fill us that they crowd out the despair, the dreariness of hopeless living.

The world tries to fill its people with empty and unsatisfying things. It imagines that peace and joy come only when all is going smoothly, when there are no challenges, when they have all the material things they can imagine. However, those ways of finding joy are the junk food of the soul. Instead of nourishing us with healthy contentment, it does us harm.

When we put our hope in the outward offerings of this fallen world we are bound to have a joy and peace that fleetingly comes and goes. It does not really satisfy when it’s there. It is more a distraction from the distorted reality that holds us in its grip, than a confident blessing.

When Christ makes us holy by his grace, and satisfies our heart with his promises, we have a foundation for joy and peace that carries us through the hardest of times. As Psalm 16:11 says to God, “You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

Here Paul joins these blessings with believing.
Faith is the means God works in us so that we can grasp the promises we have in Christ. It is that assurance, that we are accepted as holy in our Savior, that brings this joy and peace. Our guilt is covered by the atonement of the Savior. By his work we are made right with the Sovereign Creator and Sustainer of all that is. The opposites of joy and peace offered by the world are irrational and unsatisfying. How can the redeemed not rejoice and rest in this promised peace of God?

Peter said, “… you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory” (1 Peter 1:8-9).

These qualities, along with the righteousness we have in Christ, are the essence of God’s Kingdom. Romans 14:17 says, “for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

By pursuit of these blessings we are rendered able to help the weak. The helper must abound in these qualities. Without them we are no example to the immature. We will lack the genuine tender spirit of patience that is most effective as a tool of God.

This maturing joy and peace in believing abounds in hope.

The false hope of the world is all wrapped up in mere probabilities and possibilities. All hope that is not of God is based upon deception and is illusory. That kind of hope is just an empty wish for things that might be. Hope becomes more of an empty dream than a real confident hope.

We in Christ have a certainty based upon an implanted confidence in a divine promise. It arises by grace from the implanted joy and peace of the redeemed soul. It is not based upon good circumstances or any moral innocence we have to achieve on our own. Rather, this hope may come to the most despondent or the most wicked. It may be expected in the midst of the greatest calamity. Hebrews 6:19 “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast …”

If you were to have been there to witness the plea of the pagan thief about to be crucified for his crimes, what hope could you have given him? How could anyone imagine that in his situation he might find joy and peace that day? But when God transformed his heart and he turned in faith to Jesus on the cross beside him, he heard those words, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43)

If this convicted criminal could be given such abounding hope in his situation, how foolish and immature it is for us to doubt that this too can be our portion in the common things that trouble us every day?

1 Peter 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

If we are to abound in this hope, we must go to the source.

God is the author of all true hope. He alone brings hope out of despair. He shifts the circumstances from the outward to the inward, and blesses us by grace in our knowledge of his sovereign mercy and omnipotent love. Nothing can fail if God himself has pledged these graces to his children.

It shows the whole Trinity at work. The Father gives it by his certain and unfailing eternal decree. In fact, there is no true blessing that is not the sovereign gift of God. James 1:17 reminds us, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”

He gives this to his children by the power of the Holy Spirit. The hope that abounds from true joy and peace are among the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22). This is not a natural attribute of fallen persons. This is a supernatural assurance. This hope abounds to those who are redeemed by the finished work of God the Son.

The one who made us and who redeems us is properly called the God of Hope.

As Paul prays here for his readers, it shows that this is a proper thing for us to pray in faith. David, when he had sinned and lacked the abounding of inner peace and joy, prayed in Psalm 51:12, “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.

David then asked to be a help to the weak, once he was made strong again. In verses 13 of that same Psalm he wrote, “Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You.”

Paul does not leave us with vague theological ideas or goals that frustrate. He promises rewarding success by the power of the Holy Spirit. Only then can we be able to help the weak as explained in the previous section of this letter.

It is wrong to separate all the elements in this verse. They work together. Joy and peace come from God by the faith he implants when we are redeemed by Christ. This joy and peace abound toward hope, because the God of hope has saved us and revealed his promises to us. He indwells us by his Holy Spirit to keep these promises growing in our souls.

This is a Covenanted Blessing God has
Promised to those who are in Christ.

Our part is to strive with all effort and the means of grace praying earnestly to abound in this way, studying the promises and examples of spiritual life in his word, giving thanks in regular worship of the God who saved us, and encouraging those who struggle to help them to grow to be Christ-like too.

God’s promise is that he will grant joy, peace, and hope to those he redeems by grace through Christ.

When God grants to us even the least taste of joy and peace, we are obligated to remember to humbly thank him for his unmeasurable gift. If we give the glory to our circumstances we rob God of his honor, and put created things on our altar of worship, instead of the one true God.

Our maturity in Christ is not a game of dress up. We are not to pretend and be satisfied with the trappings of religion. Instead we must put on Christ’s righteousness and copy his example by the real power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. We are to trust confidently in his promises to us. Then we must put our own maturity to work in encouraging other believers.

This is real maturity: that which grows in abundance of joy and peace, and abounds in hope for the glory of God.

(The Bible quotations in this lesson are from the New King James Version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.)

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