Tag Archives: honour

Give Honour

Bible Study, ,

GIVE HONOUR

“Therefore I am all the more eager to send him to you so that, when you see him again you may be glad and I may have less anxiety. So then, welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honour people like him because he almost died for the work of Christ. He risked his life to make up for the help you yourselves could not give me.” Philippians 2:28-30.

We can learn a great deal from Paul about how to treat our brothers and sisters in the Lord.

The first valuable lesson is to acknowledge our fellow believers for what they are and what they do.  Paul did not ignore or treat lightly the sacrifice Epaphroditus had made to come to him all the way from Philippi and to serve him selflessly while he was in prison.  He was quick to recognise the risk he took either by travelling overland on foot or going by sea to Rome. Either mode of travel was long and dangerous but he did it out of love for Paul.

The next lesson is that there is no place for false humility in Christ’s body. As much as we are aware of our hopelessness outside of Christ as far as any effort to save ourselves is concerned, at the same time we are of infinite worth to God the Father as His sons and daughters. He gave His Son for us and He values us highly as people created in His image and redeemed by the blood of His Son to reflect Him in the world.

He has put His image in us and He gave us gifts and abilities to use for His glory. That includes His heart of compassion towards one another. Paul was in miserable and lonely circumstances, surrounded by hostile pagans to whom he meant nothing. The Philippian believers recognised Paul’s need and sent Epaphrodittus to serve him, to comfort him and to provide him with his everyday necessities about which the Roman authorities probably cared nothing.

It was natural that Paul would be grateful both to the Philippians and to Epaphroditus for their sensitivity to his need, and that he would express his gratitude to them and honour Epaphroditus for his willingness to come. Imagine how distressed he must have been when their care and generosity almost cost Epahproditus his life! Did they take that into account when they commissioned him to go to Paul?

Paul was not slow in giving honour to Epahroditus. This did not mean that he was paying more attention to him than to God. Not at all! It was right for him to recognise what Epaphroditus had done for him and to express his gratitude to him because it was only through God’s grace at work in him that he could have done what he did for Paul.

As much as he welcomed Epaphroditus with open arms when he arrived at the prison, so Paul urged them to welcome him back with equal joy. Mission accomplished! It was just as unselfish for Paul to send him home as it was for them to send him to Paul. After his brush with death, Epaphroditus was terribly homesick. He was happy to serve Paul but he longed for his brothers and sisters in Philippi. Paul recognised that and willingly sent him back, knowing that it would not be long before Timothy would return with news about them.

All Paul lived for at this moment was the reassurance he received from those who brought news about his beloved converts. Some of them caused his anxiety and heartache when he heard that they were caught up in the sinful practices of the world or deceived by false teachers. Others brought him great encouragement and joy by their steadfastness in the face of hardships and persecution.

He had time and opportunity in prison to pray long and hard for the churches across the empire. And pray he did! He was more concerned about them than about the thousands of unbelievers he had met and to whom he had preached the message of Jesus. He knew that the believers were the message. It was the witness of their changed lives that impacted people with the truth of what Paul preached. He knew that his prayers played a significant part in the multiplication of the church through ordinary Christians everywhere.

Paul did not rely on the “big shots” to do the work. God’s way of spreading the gospel was through people reaching people. Therefore it was imperative that his coverts learn to live pure lives in the midst of corruption and wickedness. And for that he prayed!

He was lavish in his expressions of gratitude and encouragement because he knew that they needed it in the face of the hardships they endured for Christ. How much better it would be if believers would take a leaf out of Paul’s book! There are many out there who look for opportunities to pull fellow believers down, either by failing to honour them for what they do or by exposing every flaw and fault they can find, real or imagined.

God came down hard on Ham for exposing and making fun of his father, Noah’s nakedness. I wonder what He thinks of those who show disrespect for the “nakedness” of others. Let us be quick to recognise the worth of our brothers and sisters and give honour where honour is due.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

 

Spiritual Gifts – For What?

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SPIRITUAL GIFTS – FOR WHAT?

“We have different gifts according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is  prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil, cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honour one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord.” Romans 12:6-11.

Have you noticed how Paul focuses on the non-spectacular functions in the church here? Are these any less gifts of the Spirit than, say, speaking in tongues or healing? What makes us think that it takes the power of the Holy Spirit to do a miracle but not to be generous or to show mercy? The one reveals God’s power through you, the other, in you otherwise, the old natural selfish nature will still be controlling you attitudes.

The use of spiritual gifts is not so much the issue but the motive for which they are used to benefit others. If you use your spiritual gift as a platform to gain anything for yourself, be it visibility, popularity, admiration, accolades or any other personal glory, there will be consequences in the end. Ananias and Sapphira are a case in point. They sold property, gave some to the church as if it were all, wanting to appear generous in competition with Barnabas; but they were quickly exposed by the Holy Spirit in Peter and put to death!

Is not this the reason why Paul warned his Roman readers (and us) not to be conceited but to think realistically about ourselves, and not suppose that we are indispensable or have to do everything. It takes humility to admit that we can do one thing well but not something else, and to be content to be who we are. When we can take responsibility for our part, and not try to do what we cannot do, we fit in comfortably with the other members of the body and, in partnership with one another, we can accomplish what Jesus wants His body to do.

Once again, it’s not about us – it’s about Him. Our task, in harmony with one another, is to bring restoration to each member through the use of our gifts and, in this way, to mirror Him to the world around us. The gifts He gives us are His, not ours, and are for the benefit of others, not ourselves. But, like everything God does, the blessing always boomerangs back on us!

We do what we are gifted to do through His grace, but it our attitude that determines whether we are blessed in return, or whether we stand in line for judgment as did Ananias and Sapphira. Behind the attitude with which we use our gifts lies another attitude – our attitude to God. The Bible calls it “the fear of the Lord”. When we have the right attitude towards Him, it will regulate the motives and attitudes we have towards ourselves and the ones we serve.

Solomon summed it up aptly in Proverbs 9:10. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”  Wisdom is, very simply, doing the right thing. When we have a reverential awe of God, remembering who He is, we will not take what He says lightly or treat Him with contempt because, as Solomon concluded in Ecclesiastes 12:14, “For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether good or evil.” In the end, God is inescapable.

Every thought, attitude and motive will one day be exposed in His light. I am sure none of us would like to see our selfish and self-seeking motives in neon lights for everyone to see! How can we prevent our old corrupted nature from intruding into our ministry and service in the body of Christ?

Paul gives us some simple but effective steps:

1. Give God your body for His use and change the way you think – from your thoughts to His thoughts. That comes about as we spend time in His Word.

2. Put yourself in the right perspective. You are not the whole – only a small part. You cannot be and do everything.

3. Do what you are gifted to do and do it faithfully with zeal and fervour.

4. It’s not about competition but about harmony, working towards a greater goal, the health of the whole body. Keep the bigger picture in mind and fit into it with joy.

5. Wrap it up in a blanket of love – for Jesus and for His body. Put Jesus and others before yourself Meet the needs of others at your expense.

Imagine what the church would look like if we all did that!

Acknowledgement

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

No Sense Of Need

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NO SENSE OF NEED 

“‘For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son of Man gives life to whom He is pleased to give it. Moreover, the Father judges no one but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father. Whoever does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent Him. Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.'” John 5:21-24 (NIV).

Wow! That was a mouthful for His opponents to swallow!

Did these men who thought and acted in the natural, understand what Jesus was saying? What was their first impression?

Even if they did not get what He was saying, they could not miss that fact that He was talking about unity, partnership and authority in His relationship with God that clearly put Him on the same level as the Father. This must have riled them to the core because no one would have the gall to make such claims unless he were either crazy or speaking the truth.

They were face to face with someone who was evidently completely human and yet He was talking about God as His Father and claiming intimacy and unity with Him and the functions that belonged to God alone; raising the dead and judgment. And then, on top of that, He was demanding equal honour with the Father as though He were on a par with Him! To them this man was a complete lunatic or a dangerous blasphemer.

Yet Jesus did not behave like either. Could someone who was out of his mind do the things He was doing? He had just healed a man who had been paralysed and helpless for thirty-eight years. Was that the action of a madman? And the way He did it was equally miraculous — He simply spoke to the man; told him to get up and walk. That’s how God worked — spoke the universe into being and it happened!

The facts stared them in the face but their minds could not process the facts or the explanation He gave about the facts. On top of that they had their prejudice and their resistance because they did not want to believe in Him. If they did, their comfortable lives and the power they wielded over the common people would be shaken to the core.

What was the problem that lay at the heart of these religious leaders’ thinking, and the difference between them and the tax collectors and “sinners” they despised? They had no sense of need. Religion is the most difficult disease to cure because it infects with such self-righteousness that no sense of need remains.

What was Jesus doing when He spoke to these stubbornly insensitive people? He was trying to awaken in them an awareness of how far they were away from the truth, as one insightful preacher said, “He offended the mind to expose the heart.” Jesus’ words do that. He either offends or informs His hearers in order to expose the deception they have swallowed and followed. People either react or respond to Him according to their sense of need.

The Samaritan woman, by contrast, responded to His exposure of her unsavoury lifestyle by telling the people of her home town what Jesus had revealed. She was neither ashamed nor embarrassed by His disclosure. She was transformed and she wanted everyone to know it.

The Pharisees reacted in anger towards Him and schemed to kill Him rather than respond to Him because, unlike the Samaritan woman, they felt no guilt and had not sense of need. Their self-righteousness, based on their performance which they put on for the sake of their audience, left them with the idea that God was obliged to them because of their “goodness” and they had no need of His mercy or grace.

There is only one thing that will keep us aware of our need of God’s mercy — our utter inability to reach God’s standard of perfection. We can either keep trying and failing or we can fall upon His mercy and receive His forgiveness and the gift of His perfect righteousness which Jesus gives to us at the expense of His own life.

Outsiders In – Insiders Out

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OUTSIDERS IN – INSIDERS OUT

“Paul and Barnabas didn’t back down. Standing their ground they said, “It is required that the Word of God be spoken first of all to you, the Jews. But seeing that you want no part of it — you’ve made it clear that you have no taste or inclination for eternal life — the door is open to all the outsiders. And we’re on our way through it, following orders, doing what God commanded when He said,

‘I’ve set you up as alight to all nations. You’ll proclaim salvation to the four winds and seven seas!’

“When the outsiders heard this they could hardly believe their good fortune. All who were marked out for real life put their trust in God — they honoured God’s Word by receiving that life. And this Message of salvation spread like wildfire all through the region.” Acts 13:46-48 (The Message).

What is this thing called “God’s Word”? According to ancient rabbinic teaching, God’s Word is a manifestation of Himself in another form. This means that what God says is who He is in words that humans can understand. His Word, therefore, carries the same authority as God Himself.

Unlike humans who can say one thing and be something else, God’s Word cannot contradict Him and therefore what He says is what He is. He cannot lie because He cannot say anything contrary to who He is. That makes God’s Word reliable, trustworthy and unchangeable and allows us to understand what He requires because He has made His will known to us through the medium of language.

Paul and Barnabas were dealing with two groups of people. The Jews who were God’s covenant people were custodians of God’s Word entrusted to them in a covenant relationship sealed with blood. The Gentiles were associated with the Jewish religion but were considered “outsiders” because they had no claim to the covenant or the promises of God.

Written into the Old Covenant was the promise that the time would come when Messiah would open the door to Gentiles to have a share in the covenant and in the blessings promised to Abraham. Because of Jewish prejudice, this group of Jews and many others that Paul encountered on his journeys, refused to honour God’s Word by believing the message and receiving their Messiah. They pooh-poohed Paul’s teaching and turned violently against him with full intention of killing him.

The Gentiles, on the other hand, gladly received their message and honoured God’s Word by believing the truth and entering into all the benefits of this new life. Part of the Jewish resistance to the message must surely have been their refusal to accept that Gentiles could share in this salvation on equal terms with them.

When Paul announced that, because of their persistent rejection of the good news he was proclaiming, he would no longer waste his time preaching to deaf ears, and offering God’s gift of salvation to people who had no desire for it, they went ballistic. How dare he take what they thought was exclusively theirs and give it away freely to the despised “outsiders”!

But that is exactly what God intended them to do from the beginning and which they failed to do because they did not honour God’s Word themselves and they thought that they were better than everyone else. Instead of embracing God’s grace and gladly sharing it with anyone who would believe, they shut themselves out of the new covenant and all the blessing promised to them through their revered ancestor, Abraham.

God’s Word gives us glimpses into His big heart. When we take what He says seriously and act on it, we both honour Him and we also gain access to everything He has said. What fools we would be to pass that up in favour of our own paltry opinions!

Honoured to be Dishonoured

Christian Life, , ,

HONOURED TO BE DISHONOURED

“That convinced them. They called the apostles back in. After giving them a thorough whipping, they warned them not to speak in Jesus’ name and sent them off. The apostles went out of the High Court overjoyed because they had been given the honour of being dishonoured on account of the Name. Every day they were in the Temple and homes, teaching and preaching Christ Jesus, not letting up for a minute.” Acts 5:40-42 (The Message).

Isn’t this a rather strange way to react to an unfair whipping? What had these men done to deserve such drastic treatment at the hands of their justice system? Given people back their health and a better quality of life? Introduced them to the God who forgave their sin and gave them inner peace? What kind of crime was that?

The authorities might just as well have beaten them with an ostrich feather, for all the effect it had on the apostles. In fact, instead of deterring them, it made them even bolder and more determined to obey the Lord Jesus in spite of the consequences. Their response? They were honoured to be dishonoured for the Name of their Master.

What is the significance of that specific statement “for the Name”? In Hebrew thought a name had far more meaning than the handle by which a person was known. A name was a prophetic utterance of character. When a child was named it was sometimes a reflection of the circumstances of the child’s birth but often prophetic of what that child would become. “‘You are to give Him the name Jesus,'” Luke 1:31b (NIV), “Saviour”.

The name of Jesus is much more than His handle; it is the character of the Person whose name we carry. We have been given the name of Jesus to wear as the distinguishing garment of our identity. When we were baptised, we were immersed into the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as representatives of the triune God; and those who wear His name are to be witnesses to the world of who He is and how He behaves towards all people.

The apostles were delighted to be dishonoured for the honour of wearing His name because He was willing to suffer disgrace in the eyes of man to rescue them, and us, from the clutches of the enemy. How different from the attitude of many so-called believers today. We whine and even walk away when God does not answer our “prayers” when we issue our instructions.

What did these incorrigible apostles do about the beating and the warning that went with it not to propagate the name of Jesus ever again? They went right back and carried on from where they were interrupted! No puny Sanhedrin had the power to stop them from obeying their divine Master.

Such was the focus of these men on the mandate they had been given to make Jesus known that nothing could veer them off course — not even the physical and verbal abuse of the highest court in their land. Their guiding star was, “We must obey God rather than men.” These were only unexpected interruptions which they brushed off like flicking off an irritating fly so that they could get right on with the task at hand.

If we claim to wear the name of Jesus we, too, must learn to flick off every irritating interruption to our calling to be His witnesses. It may not mean beatings and imprisonment, but it does mean not being fazed by the circumstances of living in a fallen world. Instead of whining, “Why me, Lord?” Let’s get on with the business of being His witnesses by walking in the unshakeable confidence of who He is and serving a broken world with all our hearts.