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Just As . . . Continue

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JUST AS . . . CONTINUE

I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you and delight to see how disciplined you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.

So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in Him, – rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness  (Col. 2:4-7).

There is no doubt that Paul was a hard worker! But how could he be a hard worker in prison, for example? He may not have worked hard manually, but his mind and his spirit were always busy – he had many churches and many fellow believers for whom to contend.

His one goal for which he ceaselessly strived, was to present everyone mature in Christ. He bent all his energies towards this one purpose – thinking, praying, writing and teaching – whether he knew them or not and whether he was with them or not. How many pastors and spiritual leaders have a goal like that for their people today?

Maturity was not about how successful they were or how well they coped in life as individuals, but how they functioned together in the body of Christ. They were to be one in heart and mind as they did life together in union with Jesus as their head.  They were to draw their life from Him, and live in submission to Him and in mutual submission to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Sounds like a tall order, doesn’t it? It is if it were not for the Holy Spirit in them whose role was to lead them into all truth and to reveal Christ to them as their model. The Holy Spirit provided the energy to do what was impossible for them to do without Him. He was the ‘umbilical cord’ which joined them to Jesus, and the source of power to obey Jesus as their Master and Lord.

The world around them was alienated from Christ and full of wickedness, trying to lure them back, through deception, into their old lives of rebellion against God. There was also an enemy within, their old nature, against whom they had to contend to remain faithful to Jesus in spite of its pull. And, on top of that, the devil was in league with their old nature, always there to dangle the pleasure of sin before them and never to remind them of the small print!

Paul’s answer to these powerful enemies who were always there to put stumbling blocks in their way, to trip them up or to lure them off course, was to continue as they had begun. How had they begun their new lives in Christ? By faith in Him! They trusted His word that He had forgiven their sin, and reconnected them with Him as their life source. They were no longer out of touch with God and left to navigate their own way through life.

Their way had not worked. Their own rules had landed them in fear, guilt and shame but in Christ they had been set free. They were a new creation, on a new path back to the Father, full of joy, and really living instead of existing. Now, said Paul, remain in Him, rooted, built up and strengthened in the faith.

This is where so many new believers in Christ, and even many who have been on the way for years, go wrong. Having been joined to Jesus by faith, they try to carry on on their own. They do what they think Jesus wants them to do or they ‘work’ for the Lord in order to ‘pay His back’ for His grace, instead of simply ‘remaining’ in Him.

Before Jesus left His disciples to go to the cross, He spent His final hours teaching them about the Holy Spirit. He wanted them to know, above everything else, that the Holy Spirit whom the Father would send after His passion and resurrection, would be His personal representative. He would live within them and would be the link between Him and them, providing everything they needed to live their new lives.

‘I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me, and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.’ (John 15: 5).

Paul’s work was to partner with the Holy Spirit in prayer and instruction so that his beloved fellow-believers would learn to rest in Jesus. Sounds contradictory, doesn’t it? Paul rested, but he also worked at resting in God as He worked in the lives of others in response to his teaching and his prayers. This is the paradox of Christian ministry – labouring to rest.

There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God, for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his work, just as God did from His. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience (Heb. 4: 9-11).

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.

 

To Go Or To Stay?

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TO GO OR STAY?

“If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labour for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith so that, through my being with you again, your boasting in Christ will abound on account of me.” Philippians 1:22-26.

It is essential for some people to be around for as long as possible for the sake of others. Paul knew that. It was not arrogance that made him say that it was better for him to remain in the body for a while longer. There were groups of infant believers scattered across the empire. The Philippian church was one of them. They were in the charge of elders but even the elders were relatively new believers coming out of paganism.

Paul knew just how much they depended on him as their spiritual father to lead them on towards maturity. Even though he was in prison, there were still those who visited him and interacted with him for their benefit. He was still able to communicate with the people in the little church groups, and leave a legacy of teaching and instruction which would benefit the church through the ages.

What choice did Paul have in the matter? We don’t know. He was in the hands of the Roman authorities but, even more sure than that, he was in the hands of his heavenly Father who determined his destiny over and above Rome. He knew what he wanted to do – pass the baton on and go home to the Lord. Yet, at the same time, it was imperative that he remain a while longer to shepherd the little flocks as long as he had breath in his lungs

Paul knew that his prayers and the prayers of the saints would count with God even though He had a master plan for all of them. If He removed Paul, there would be others who would continue to shepherd them. There was, of course, the indwelling Holy Spirit in whom Paul had the utmost confidence. Had he not already expressed the assurance that God would finish what He started?

The thought of passing on is always daunting, even for a believer in Jesus. It’s not about doubting His promises as much as it’s about wondering how it will happen. Will it hurt? Will I have to suffer serious illness, weakness and incapacity? Will it be sudden and painless? What will it feel like? It is natural to feel apprehensive about the unknown.

There is nothing in our experience to draw from to fire our imagination. For us, the future remains a blank except for His promise:

“What no eye has seen, what no ear had heard and what no human mind has conceived – the things God has prepared for those who love Him…” 1 Corinthians 2:9.

We must remember that, from Paul’s perspective, he was already a dead man and had been since the day of his conversion. Any benefit he was to people, any blessing to the churches, was purely because of Christ’s life in him. He knew that, as long as he was still alive, he would go on spreading the message and passing on the understanding of the gospel and the wisdom to live it out for others to see.

When he considered it better to remain in the body for the sake of the believers, it was purely for them, so that he could continue to impart truth to them and spur them on to be joyful and productive in their faith even in the face of persecution.

Not only did he anticipate staying alive but he also believed that he would be released to continue his work for as long as possible. For Paul, his destiny was not in the hands of Nero but in the hands of God. Nero was nothing but an instrument that God used to carry out His purposes. When he was finished with them, both Paul and Nero, their lives here on earth would come to an appropriate end. For both of them, their end would be the completion of what they had chosen to do and to be.

Paul had no qualms about what and where his end would be – the beginning of an eternity in the presence of the Lord he had loved and served through thick and thin. We have an amazing example of a man who lived and died for Jesus.

What about you? What about me?

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.