Tag Archives: stand firm

PARTNERSHIP AT WORK

Bible Study, ,

Philippians 4:1-3 NIV
[1] “Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends! [2] I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. [3] Yes, and I ask you, my true companion, help these women since they have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life.”

Paul’s “therefore’s” always formed the bridge between faith and practice. How believers lived their lives was firmly anchored in what they were taught and what they believed. It was imperative for them, then, to build their lives on the solid foundation of truth.

In this final section of his letter, Paul urged his readers to stand firm on what he has taught them of the faith, which was all about Jesus. As Jesus Himself had counseled His disciples in the Upper Room, “Remain in me.”

Staying in union with Jesus was the safeguard against thinking and doing things that would endanger their lives together as a family. This partnership they enjoyed in all its various facets would only work if they guarded their unity by sticking to everything he taught them, as well as to their personal commitment to their church family.

There was a weak place in their ranks…two women who were allowing self to intrude. Paul doesn’t give us details. Details weren’t important. These women disgreed about some issue which had sent ripples through the whole group.

Since he was stuck in prison in Rome, Paul called on an unnamed faithful co-worker to step in to sort out the problem. Paul knew he could trust this partner to help restore unity which was the real issue.

Paul’s example of “conflict management” is a shining light for leaders in today’s church families to follow. He didn’t urge his fellow worker to find out who was right and who was wrong, to “name and shame” the guilty party. This conflict was not about WHO was right but about WHAT was right.

Can you understand the real issue in most of the conflicts between individuals in the body of Christ? Usually, conflicts happen over minor issues. When leaders focus on who is right, they play one person against another. The winner goes up in his/her own estimation, the loser goes down…and the rift is deepened.

If the leader zooms in on the disunity the argument has caused, he deals with the root cause…pride. Someone’s pride is boosted, another’s is offended. Since pride is always “the spanner in the works”, as the saying goes, the conflict can become a war zone if left to fester.

Paul was quick to value the contribution Euodia and Syntyche had made to the spread of the gospel. He would not allow a small difference of opinion to spoil their ministry together in the church. All they needed was another perspective to help them identify and correct the real issue.

So precious was unity, based on love in the body of Christ, that Paul used a strong word to appeal to these ladies. “I PLEAD with you…” Whatever else was at stake, unity was never to be sacrificed on the altar of non-essentials.

Ephesians 4:2-6 NLT
[2] “Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. [3] Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. [4] For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. [5] There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, [6] one God and Father of all, who is over all, in all, and living through all.”

Do you see the pattern? Love and unity…leading to peace… the two most important qualities in the family of God, and the only guarantee of a powerful witness for Jesus in a rotten world, was under attack.

Jesus said that we are to be salt and light, standing apart as different from the world, preserving society from total decay and piercing its darkness with His light. Nothing must be permitted to corrupt the salt and dim the light, least of all pride, the poison that kills unity.

So Paul, helpless to step in himself, calls in a partner to help close ranks in this family of God’s people. His example here, his tactics expressed to his unnamed true partner, leads the way for church leaders today to treasure and preserve unity in the body whenever it is threatened. The way to deal with issues is to identify and deal with the real issue.

TWO FEET OF PEACE

Christian Life, ,

TWO FEET OF PEACE

“Stand firm, then…with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace…” (Ephesians 6:14a, 15, NIV).

I often wonder why this verse is interpreted as an encouragement to evangelise, as though preaching the gospel somehow acts as a protective measure against the devil’s schemes. I prefer to understand it in the context of Paul’s counsel, in this passage, to “stand firm”.

It takes two feet to stand firm and maintain one’s balance. Someone standing on one foot is easily unbalanced.  What is the “gospel of peace”? Isaiah offers an explanation in Isaiah 52:7, (NIV).  “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace…who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns’.”

The good news is that, “since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.” (Romans 5:1, NIV). We have a firm footing in grace because we have believed that God does not count our sins against us because Jesus paid our debt.

Peace with God secures our eternal destiny but what about our day-to-day struggles in a world of trouble? It is imperative that we fully appropriate the legacy of peace Jesus left us to steady us in this world where we need it the most. To stand only on the “foot” of peace with God will leave us unsteady and unbalanced when the crises come and we are tempted to collapse in a heap of fear and doubt.

The Apostle Paul addresses the other “foot” in Philippians 4:4-9. Since the battle with Satan goes on in the mind our minds need to be secured against his wiles. Transforming our minds is the way to secure them and Paul gives us a plan of action.

The first step is to live in God and not in our circumstances. “Rejoice in the Lord.” (vs 4). When we derive our happiness from the good things that happen, we will lose it when things go wrong.

Secondly, we are to “let (y)our gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.” (vs 5). We must not punish other people for the way we feel. God hasn’t gone anywhere. He is still near and He’s in charge!

Thirdly, we must be honest with God about our anxieties. “Don’t be anxious about anything.” (vs 6). It‘s not our problem that’s the problem; it’s our anxiety that blocks the channel of our faith. We must confess our anxiety to God and He will exchange it for His peace.

Lastly, Paul says, “Fill your mind with good things and the God of peace will be with you. He will powerfully support you and act for you.” (vs 8,9).

Since the battle is in the mind and Satan’s ploy is to unbalance us, we need both feet of peace with God and the peace of God to stand firm.

WORTHY BEHAVIOUR

Bible Study, ,

WORTHY BEHAVIOUR

“Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved – and that by God. For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in Him but also to suffer for Him, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had and now hear that I still have.” Philippians 1:27-30.

That’s quite a tall order, Paul, isn’t it?

It would be if it were given to people in any other religion. Or would it? Take, for example, those who were so convinced that they were right that they were willing to kill Christians for their conviction. They were representing the character of the god they worshipped.

The God of the Jews was, for them, a hard taskmaster. He demanded perfect obedience to a host of petty rules, or else… The gods of the Greeks and Romans were immoral, unscrupulous and unpredictable. It would not be difficult for those who worshipped them to be worthy of them. Nero was a good representative – using Christians as living torches to light up his garden parties, and putting them in the arena to face starving and ravenous wild beasts!

Paul’s call to a worthy walk was quite different from, and far more difficult than for all these others. Believers in Jesus represented a God of grace – one who stepped in to do for them what they could not do for themselves. He was not a taker but a giver. He not only gave people, and that included those who did not even believe in Him, everything they needed to live on this planet; food, water, clothing, shelter and the beauty and bounty of the world around them. He also gave His Son as a substitute for their sin.

However people defined sin, they could not get rid of it. People today who reject God’s provision of Jesus as a sacrifice for their sin, have to come up with another solution – like going through various rituals, trying to wash their sins away, kissing or touching an object, eating the right food, etc. How can that affect their standing before a holy God? Some even come closer to the truth by offering animal blood for their sin. Blood is required, yes, but animal blood has no value to God because no animal can atone for human sin.

For the believer in Jesus, however, behaviour and a life worthy of Him is not impossible. First of all, Jesus came to earth as a human being to live a perfect, sinless life. It had to be for Him to take our punishment for sin. The prophet Micah asked a very relevant question:

“With what shall I come before the Lord and bow before the exalted God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgressions, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” Micah 6:6, 7.

Of course, none of these things can clear a guilty conscience. If they could, why do people keep going through the same rituals year after year?

Then Jesus died as a substitute for our sin. He was even made sin for us! Only a sinless human being could take the place of a sinner and pay his debt to a holy God.

“God made Him who had no sin, to be sin for us…” 2 Corinthians 5:21.

And then, miracle of miracles, He rose from the dead to set us free from the power of sin so that we are able to live a life worthy of Him. Anyone can live like the gods they worship but only through God’s power can a believer in Jesus live a life worthy of Him. Paul’s call to the Philippian church was not a vain hope but a powerful possibility because the very God they worshipped was in residence in them.

This was not a call to the Philippians and to us to self-effort or self-help, ten easy steps to holiness! This was an encouragement to live out who they were, sons and daughters of God, because they were forgiven and set free from the power of sin, and they had the Holy Spirit in them to energise them to be who they were.

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.

EPAPHRAS – FAITHFUL PRAYER WARRIOR

Bible Study, ,

EPAPHRAS – FAITHFUL PRAYER WARRIOR

Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. I vouch for him that he is always working for hard for you and for those in Laodicea and Hierapolis (Col. 4: 12-13).

Epaphras – this is the second time his name was mentioned in Paul’s letter to the Colossians. Who was this man?

Paul described him as a ‘dear fellow servant’ and a ‘faithful minister of Christ on our behalf.’ Paul took his responsibility to fulfil his commission so seriously that he regarded Epaphras’s ministry in Colossae as being carried out on his behalf. Paul was only one man. It was impossible for him to take the message of Christ to every city, town and village in the Roman Empire. Therefore, every person who shared the gospel of Jesus with others did it for him – being an extension of his ministry wherever they went.

Epaphras was Paul’s mouthpiece in Colossae and, through his faithful witness, a church was born there. But Paul still regarded it his responsibility to teach the people and warn them not to fall for the heresy of the Gnostics that threatened to lure them away from their pure faith in Christ.

As a faithful minister to them, Epaphras went to Paul in Rome when the alarm bells began to ring. He needed Paul’s understanding of the gospel and his ability to explain it clearly to the church to help him deal with this threat among his beloved church family members.

Epaphras took his role as leader so seriously that he also worked hard in his prayer closet for them. He was neither prepared to allow error to steal them away from Christ, nor would he allow them to fall away through the fear of persecution. These two threats were very real in the infant church. They were a small band of vulnerable people who were at the mercy of ruthless opponents of Jesus and His message from two quarters – the unbelieving Jews and the Roman government.

Both Paul and Epaphras had no means of protecting these people except through prayer and to prayer they turned to enlist the aid of the greatest power on earth. Night and day Paul prayed for the churches all over the empire, and night and day Epaphras prayed for the Colossians. Paul described his prayer as ‘wrestling’. With whom was he wrestling? Surely not with God because God was on his side.

Epaphras understood that the enemy of their souls was a liar. The devil would use every trick in the book to deceive believers and to lure them away from faith in Jesus when their circumstances seemed as though He had abandoned them. Fear was the great enemy of faith and Epaphras knew how easily they could be overcome by fear.

He was also aware of another equally dangerous enemy – the enemy within. The old sinful nature was always lurking in the shadows, waiting to trip them up in unguarded moments. Through guilt and shame, they might shrink from the Father who loved them and, instead of running to Him for pardon and reconciliation when they fell into temptation, they might pull away and become reabsorbed into the world system which pandered to their evil desires.

And so, the faithful prayer warrior wrestled in prayer, building a wall of protection around and within his people through his intercession for them. It was not that he could add anything to what Jesus has done on the cross. Jesus has unmasked and defeated the devil and rendered him powerless to deceive them but he was still around, trying to obscure the truth with his lies.

What did Epaphras pray? Did he ask God to keep them safe from their persecutors? No! Was he concerned about their earthly circumstances? No! Did he ask God to keep them from sickness and trouble? No! What was his greatest desire for them? Paul spelt it out so that his readers, and that includes us, would know what was most important for them and for us. To the Colossians he wrote, ‘that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.’

Above all the earthly comforts and conveniences they craved, one thing mattered more than everything else, that they would be so secure in God, who He is and who they were in Him that nothing would be able to lure them away from dependence upon and obedience to Him. As for them, so with us also.

Imagine how different the church of the Lord Jesus Christ would be if, firstly, its leaders, instead of seeking fame and fortune for themselves, would wrestle in prayer for its members. Secondly, if their prayers were answered, the church would be a body of people standing firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. What then?

We need many an ‘Epaphras’ to wrestle in prayer before the church ever becomes an instrument of transformation in a messed-up world.

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.

 

Connected!

Bible Study, , ,

CONNECTED!

With the help of Silas, whom I regard as a faithful brother, I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it. She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you her greetings, and so does my son Mark. Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ.   (1 Peter 5: 12-14)

Is this writer the same rough and ready fisherman who put his foot in his mouth every time he opened it? What a long way Peter has come since the days when he walked with Jesus on earth!

As we have moved through this letter, we couldn’t help feeling that there was a strong connection between Peter and Paul. So many of his thoughts and expressions echoed Paul’s that it was almost as though they had spent hours together honing their understanding of the gospel entrusted to them. We know that Peter had read many of Paul’s letters because he mentioned them in his second letter.

Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. (2 Peter 3: 15-16)

After his initial suspicion, Peter had a high regard for Paul. Whether or not they actually spent time together, he was able to read his letters which he regarded as inspired, putting them in the same category as ‘the other Scriptures’.

Silas, if he was the same Silas who accompanied Paul on his second missionary journey, was also a link. We have no idea how Silas came to be with Peter when he wrote this letter. Was he Peter’s scribe? Did he help Peter to form his ideas in the Greek language which was not Peter’s first language? Scholars have noted that Peter’s Greek is the most complicated of all the New Testament writers. Where did he learn to write Greek like that?

And what about Mark whom he also mentioned in his final greeting? He called him ‘my son’, obviously indicating a very close association with him. Mark’s Gospel is based, according to New Testament scholarship, on Peter’s preaching which Mark may have recorded or he may have had access to Peter’s written notes, upon which Matthew and Luke based their gospels.

All of this clues point to an interconnection between the leaders in the early church. This is remarkable, considering that there was no technology to keep them in touch, and that they ministered to groups of people across the Roman Empire which spanned the whole Mediterranean area, without the luxury of motorised vehicles or air travel. They had to get around by ship or on foot and letters were delivered by hand, not even by ‘snail mail’!

Who was the ‘she’ and where was ‘Babylon’? ‘She’ could have been any prominent and well-known Christian woman or even a group of believers who resided in ‘Babylon’ and who were known to Peter’s readers. Why did he not mention her name or identify them? We don’t know. It may have been for security reasons.

Where was ‘Babylon’? Was it a cryptic title for Rome? The ancient city of Babylon no longer existed at that time. Did the spiritual leaders of that day already recognise in Rome some of the characteristics of the city of Babylon where God’s ancient people had suffered under Babylonian captivity? The church was, in a sense, in captivity as well because of persecution at the hands of Roman rulers.

‘Babylon’ in the book of Revelation is a pseudonym for the counterfeit church or the bride, the scarlet woman, the great prostitute who was a counterfeit of the bride of Christ. The church was in the world just like the Jews were in Babylon, and even there God protected them and restored them to their own land.

Whatever Peter meant by his words, we are comforted to know that God protects His church in the midst of the pain and suffering we experience as part of this world system.  He will rescue and restore His people to their own ‘land’; the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, when He returns to restore everything to its original purpose.

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.