Righteous Indignation

The Psalmist said:

⁵ O God, you know how foolish I am;
    my sins cannot be hidden from you.
⁶ Don’t let those who trust in you be ashamed because of me,
    O Sovereign Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
Don’t let me cause them to be humiliated,
    O God of Israel.
⁷ For I endure insults for your sake;
    humiliation is written all over my face.
⁸ Even my own brothers pretend they don’t know me;
    they treat me like a stranger.

⁹ Passion for your house has consumed me, 

I once heard a version of the familiar quip that promised: “God watches over fools and Englishmen.” I feel doubly blessed by that thought because of my ancestry and my propensity to act foolishly at times. Because I have chosen to write for a public audience, many others besides God know of my foolishness. I have argued in the past that my insistence on being right about everything may border on foolishness in some cases. I also share the Psalmist’s concern that something I write may cause someone else to be “ashamed” or “humiliated.” Or, as has happened too frequently, that some may “pretend they don’t know me.” I have been un-friended on Facebook and shunned in real life because of my stated positions. I am sorry about that.

However, as I wrote before, “If God’s Word offends people, and I suffer the consequences, I am getting what Jesus promised: “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.” In other words, my love of God’s Word and His ways will sometimes drive me to stake out a position that makes others uncomfortable. I am reminded of the only time recorded in Scripture when Jesus was angry. The Gospel writer tells us that he was acting in accord with the psalm that says, “Zeal for your house has consumed me.” The word “zeal” can be translated indignation. Because it was the Perfect Son of God doing it, it was righteous indignation. The word “consumed” means to be overwhelmed. That tells me that there are times when that kind of attitude is called for – let the chips fall where they may.

The reason I am writing about this again is because of what I see happening in America. Although the percentage is shrinking, polls still suggest that a significant number of Americans are conservative, believe in God, read their Bibles (occasionally), and express a concern for the sanctity of life and family values. In spite of this, society is becoming ever more pagan, and officials continue to be reelected at all levels who share none of those traits. Since we are entering another presidential election season, the disingenuous claims and outright lies of politicians are filling the airwaves once again.

What I want to ask is where is the righteous indignation? Young people are being subjected to “gender affirming therapy” which has proven to be disastrous far too often. Cities are being turned into war zones because of the idiocy of defunding the police. Billions of dollars are being sent overseas to fund questionable causes while our national debt soars to stratospheric heights. The border with Mexico is being left undefended allowing millions of people to flood the country, many of whom are dangerous criminals or terrorists who wish us harm. Meanwhile, church attendance dwindles, and anti-Christian sentiment rises.

I remember a time when we sang songs like this in church:

Stand up; stand up for Jesus / Ye soldiers of the cross.

Lift high the royal banner / It must not suffer loss.

Or

Onward Christian soldiers / marching as to war

With the cross of Jesus / going on before

Where are the Christian soldiers? As I have said before, we are in a cosmic battle against the forces of darkness. When Jesus told Peter the gates of Hell would not prevail against His church, He was invoking military imagery. He once implied that His kingdom would be taken back from the enemy by force. Almost without exception, the church in America has forgotten that aspect of being the church. There is an old theological term not often heard anymore that should be revived; the body of Christ in this age was referred to as the “Church Militant.” I feel like the Psalmist when he wrote, “My eyes pour out streams of tears because people do not follow your instruction.”

Wake up, church, or we will lose the battle without firing a shot. I know; we will ultimately win the war. Christ assured that on the cross. But there are battles to be fought in the meantime. Take Paul’s admonition a little more seriously: “Put on the full armor of God… and stand!” To mix my metaphors, we need to get our light out from under the basket and charge into the kingdom of darkness carrying Kingdom light. Turn your righteous indignation into righteous assignation.

Related posts: When Being Right is Wrong; For God’s Sake; The Importance of Being Right; Disagree Agreeably

 

 

Recounting Christ’s Comings

To Bible believers, “The Second Coming” refers to the close of Jesus’ ministry to the church on earth. They consider Christ’s first coming to be the one that began in a Bethlehem stable and culminated with His death on the cross and ascension into Heaven. There is a large faction of the American church that believes the culmination is really a second, third, and fourth “coming” that will span 1007 years. I have written several articles explaining why I don’t subscribe to that eschatology; you can read them in the related posts below.

The seed that got me thinking about this subject again was planted by my wife when she came across something in her daily Bible reading that she had forgotten. She was reminded that a common phrase we have used in our fifty-some years of sailing the Great Lakes was spoken by Jesus. Our modern version is “Red sky at night – sailor’s delight; red sky at morning – sailor’s take warning.” At first, I went to what some refer to as Jesus’ end times discourses near the close of the Gospel of Matthew. Failing to find it there, I did what any modern Bible scholar would do: I Googled it.

Turns out, it is not in the longer section of Jesus’ discussion of the topic, but much earlier in His ministry. The Jews had demanded a sign to validate His claims and authenticate His teaching. He chided them by citing their belief in the folksy sailor’s rhyme while missing the signs that He was indeed the promised Messiah. He followed that with one of His very politically incorrect pronouncements that they were evil and adulterous. The evil part became clear when the morally bankrupt, power-hungry leadership murdered an innocent man. The adulterous part makes me want to look back at their history with God.

Throughout much of the poetry of the Old Testament, God was pictured as the loving husband of the repeatedly unfaithful wife, Israel. In this metaphor, their consistent dalliance with other “gods” was adultery. The beautiful part of this sad story is that God always took them back. True, they often had to pay for their transgression with some significant punishment, but there was always a remnant that came back to the loving Husband. God is also poetically referred to as the heavenly vineyard owner, the gardener, and rarely as the Father.

It may be Jesus’ reference to God as His Father that irked the Jewish leadership the most. They believed He was illegitimate both literally and theologically, so His assertion that God was His father and the attendant claim to be Son of Man (another OT usage) made them livid. When the High Priest asked at His trial if He claimed to be the Son of God, He replied, “It is as you say.” Though He never used the title Himself (although a voice from Heaven did), He accepted the High Priest’s application as valid. The Jews knew that when Messiah came, He would be the Son of God, so the question had an ulterior motive: get the Man to condemn Himself. He did.

This made me think about how many times Jesus had made Himself known before His “first coming.” Jesus coming in the manger of Bethlehem is called the incarnation because in that instance, God took on flesh in human form. John says plainly, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” However, just prior to that John had said that the Word was present at the creation of the world. In fact, it is the Apostle’s declaration that everything that was made was made by Him. So, Jesus’ first coming was in Genesis chapter one, “In the beginning.”

Here is the startling fact about that understanding: the Old Testament (and the New) says plainly that God created all things. No question. The name that is most often cited as the divine Creator is the Hebrew word “Yahweh.” In almost every English translation of the Scripture, the Hebrew word is substituted with the word “lord” spelled “LORD.” This practice was instituted to mimic the Jews’ reverence for the name of God. They believed it was sacrilege to pronounce it out loud. Whenever the Hebrew word represented by the consonants “YHWH” appeared, they substituted “LORD.” We don’t know exactly how to pronounce God’s name because the vowels are omitted, but most modern scholars agree that Yahweh is a good guess. Some older translations use Jehovah, but that is not thought to be as close to the original Hebrew as Yahweh.

I said it was startling; here is why. After God revealed His name, Yahweh, to Moses, the Bible writers repeatedly asserted that Yahweh created the Earth. John says Jesus created the Earth. Wait! What? Either John is mistaken (NOT!) or else Yahweh is Jesus in His preincarnate form. If that is true, as I believe it is, then Jesus had appeared to His people dozens of times throughout their history, most notably to Abraham and Moses, but to others as well. He also made numerous predictions about how He was going to appear one day in a unique form, often referred to as the Servant, to bring His program with the Children of Israel to completion. It is clear to us on this side of the Cross how those prophecies came to be. The evil and adulterous minds of the Jewish leaders in the first century refused to see it. They wanted a different Messiah, one who rode a warhorse and defeated the Romans.

I have to admit at this point that Jesus is distinct from Yahweh in some ways. Paul told the Philippians that Jesus “emptied Himself” when He became a human being. He left some of His eternal divine attributes behind when He came into the manger. He was no longer omnipresent; He was restricted in location to where His physical body was. His omnipotence (power) was there to a degree as evidenced by healing the sick, calming the storm, raising the dead, and so on. It is unclear from Scripture what level of omniscience He retained; the Gospels do say He knew what was in man, and He demonstrated that by revealing what the Pharisees were thinking. Much of the remainder of the divine character was still there, as He told Phillip that if they had really seen Him, they had seen the Father. In other words, all our finite minds can fathom about God, we can see in the human Jesus. Phillip didn’t see it at first; the Jewish leaders never did.

That had to be both frustrating and heartbreaking to Jesus. So, He told the Jews the sign they were seeking would be the sign of Jonah: three days out of sight then ta-da “I’m back!” Most of them didn’t even get that. So, Yahweh/Jesus did what He had foretold: He came in judgment on His adulterous people and used Rome to destroy their idolatrous temple and end their mockery of worship. (That’s the Book of Revelation.) Yahweh/Jesus introduced an entirely new way of worship: worship in spirit and truth. The old paradigm of select priests at a designated temple was done away. Peter said it: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s possession.”

Our God is Yahweh. Our God is Jesus, and He is coming again. We are used to calling that the Second Coming, but I think a more Scriptural understanding is that He always has been and always will be here. His special “coming” to Bethlehem and victory on the Cross are wonderful beyond imagining. His current place as the Son of God at the right hand of the Father is also unfathomable to our finite minds. How He brings it all to a conclusion when He creates the New Heaven and the New Earth is still a mystery. I want to see that! I say with John, “Amen; come [again] Lord Jesus!”

Related posts: Taking the Bible Literally, Part 2; Heaven Can Wait; Binding Satan

Vengeance is Sweet

We all know the verse, “Vengeance is mine the; I will repay says the Lord.” Moses knew it too; so did David. The verse we often quote is in Romans twelve, but Paul is rehearsing his Old Testament. The concept first appeared in the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32 (verse 35). David picks up the theme in several of his psalms which Bible scholars classify as imprecatory psalms. The word imprecatory describes the act of invoking evil or cursing. You may be shocked to find that David regularly asked God to curse his enemies. At first it seems out of character for “a man after God’s own heart.” But it is not – not if you understand God’s heart.

When Moses introduced the idea, he was in the midst of telling the Children of Israel about the nature of God’s judgment. He told them that Yahweh would protect them by wreaking havoc on the nations that opposed them. It is fascinating to me that God says He is judging the nations because they didn’t remain faithful but followed other gods – demons actually – instead of Him. The implication is that the nations had the option to follow Yahweh but turned away. The Psalmist underscores this saying, “He rules forever by his might; he keeps his eye on the nations. The rebellious should not exalt themselves. Because they did “exalt themselves,” God chose Israel to demonstrate what His people were supposed to look like. We know they failed miserably, but God never abandoned them completely; there was always a remnant He saved.

We also know now, on this side of the cross, why God kept His people around: they were going to fulfill His promise to Adam and Eve. He would crush the head of the Serpent who led them astray. It seems that the Serpent also led the nations astray. We might not remember that every nation was descended from Noah and his sons. It was after the flood when God divided the nations and then chose Abraham to be the father of His chosen people. My point is that the nations knew who God was; their ancestors were all saved by the same ark. At some point they forgot Who saved them and went after other gods.

I am not going to suggest that we have to justify anything God does or even understand it necessarily. What I am saying is that the nations deserved what they got because they turned their backs on God. This explains the cryptic remark God made to Abraham: He couldn’t let him have the promised land because, “The iniquity of the Amorites [was] not yet fulfilled.” The Amorites is a catch-all term for the nations. God wasn’t ready to destroy them yet in Abraham’s day. He wanted them to be fully iniquitous before He executed justice on them.

If you look closely at Old Testament history, the nations are all over it. God forbade the Israelites from destroying Moab when they conquered the promised land. It could be that God needed Moab to be around years later so a Moabite girl named Ruth could become the great-grandmother of King David, the promised one. God left the Philistines unconquered so they could test the faithfulness of His people. God let the nation of Assyria thrive so they could take captive the ten tribes who rebelled against God’s chosen dynasty and worshipped other gods. Later God let the powerhouse Babylon do the same with the remaining Israelites to punish them for turning from Him. And don’t forget what Peter said in the first gospel sermon: God used evil men, men of His own people, to goad the nation of Rome into crucifying their Savior.

I may offend some people with what I am about to say, but I believe it needs to be said. God still controls “the nations.” I have no trouble believing that He would use nations to discipline His people, the church. After the tragedy of 9/11, a conservative leader suggested that perhaps God was using the jihad to chastise a wayward people. I can’t say I know that for sure. What I can say is that the church in America has large factions that are slipping more and more into apostasy. The faithful believers in this country are not holding up their end of the representative government they are blessed with. (See The Faithful Have Vanished.)

I truly believe that if we understood the dire threat to Christianity posed by the progressive movement in America, we would storm the voting booths in every election to change the leadership. It is not just our right as citizens; it is our duty as the faithful children of God. All the children of Israel had to do to reinstate God’s blessing was to smash their idols and worship the one true God. There are idols among us in this country. (I have named them.) We need to do some smashing of our own. We need to beg God for vengeance on our enemies. Strange as it sounds, that’s biblical. And it would be sweet.

Related posts: Idol Worship; Keep Yourselves From Idols; Storming the Gates

The Faithful Have Vanished

In Psalm twelve, David mourns, “the pious have ceased to be for the faithful have vanished.” Sometimes I think this is true of America today. Pious is an old word we don’t use much anymore, but it is a good biblical description of people who possess devotion, reverence, fervor for the things of God. David mourns the passing of this class of people and explains their absence by saying, “the faithful have vanished.” The biblical meaning of “faithful” is those who trust in God. Having lost faith or trust in God, devotion, reverence, and fervor for the things of God have mostly ceased to be in America.

I think there are at least four reasons why this condition exists today. The first is our ridiculous wealth and prosperity. America is one of the wealthiest nations on earth, and despite the presence of endemic poverty and a growing homeless population, our “poor” are better off than most of the rest of the world’s population. We rank seventh in yearly income on a list of sixty nations reported by World Bank. The poverty level in America for a family of four is $31,200 annually; that’s $21.37 per person per day. Currently, 1 billion people in the world live on less than $1.00 per day. We hardly qualify as “poor.” This level of wealth causes people to feel self-sufficient with no need for trust in God.

The second reason for our vanishing faithfulness is the pervasiveness of evil. The Psalmist says, “The wicked [evil] prowl about when vileness [worthlessness] is exalted among the children of humankind." Many of the highest paid persons in America are either athletes or entertainers. I don’t mean to denigrate sports or entertainment; there is a place for them in a healthy society. Our problem is found in the word “exalted.” It means to lift up or raise higher than all else. The truly worthy people in our country are the pastors, the teachers, the police, the healthcare workers, the common laborers who fuel the engine of our economy. When those people struggle to get by while athletes and entertainers make millions for a single performance, the inequity represents the exaltation of worthlessness.

Rampant commercialism is another aspect of worthlessness being exalted. When Jesus said believers should lay up treasures in Heaven and warned that no one could serve God and materialism, He cautioned that treasuring wealth places our hearts in the wrong place. While money itself is not evil, treasuring it is. The new car, the bigger house, the better everything represents the things that are passing away in contrast with the things that are eternal. Faithfulness has vanished in the face of material wealth.

I believe the third explanation for our lost faithfulness is the commercialization of religion. While we are travelling this summer, I have the opportunity to visit the church my daughter introduced us to which we have been “visiting” online regularly. I would be lying if I didn’t admit I am enjoying the experience. The worship is thrilling; the preaching is biblical and direct; there are programs for just about anyone. The attendance in four services is in the thousands. But I can’t help thinking that for many attenders it’s about being in a beautiful place with beautiful people. There are two other such mega-churches within a few blocks. I drive past half-a-dozen smaller churches on my way there. Attending one of these churches gives many people a sense of having fulfilled their religions responsibility, and further demonstrations of faith are unnecessary. They have bought a commercial Christianity.

Then there is the commercialization through Christian radio, Chrisitan publishing, countless para-church ministries all of which exist by selling their version of a religious commodity. None of these are bad in themselves; they each serve a need in the Christian community. However, true, biblical religion is often supplanted by a commercial version that is false on its face. True religion, Jesus says, is worshipping in spirit and in truth. True religion, James says, is helping widows and orphans. True religion, Paul says, is finding your place in the Body of Christ. The commercialization of the church in America does little to promote those things.

Another reason the faithful have vanished is because many of them are hiding their light under a basket as Jesus said. Whether because of fear of recrimination or outright persecution, too few sincere believers are standing up against the overwhelming tide of secularism that is drowning our society. It is a sad irony that in countries where Christians are being physically persecuted, often martyred, the church is growing while in comfortable America it is shrinking. Too many American faithful have bought the secular humanist’s lie that the founders’ principle of freedom of religion actually means freedom from religion. Nothing could be farther from the minds of the Founding Fathers. They knew that without religious faith as a grounding element, the experiment they proposed would never succeed.

Unfortunately, those who are most likely to be the missing faithful David mourned are leaving the church and parking their faith on the steps on their way out. Someone recently categorized people who don’t attend church as “Nones” or “Dones.” The Nones never had a religious faith; the Dones once did but now are saying been there, done that, not interested anymore. The blame for the Dones’ exodus might be placed at the door of the church. Many Dones tell pollsters that the church is no longer relevant in their lives. This attitude may betray a selfishness that requires the church to meet their felt needs while ignoring the fact that the church, the body of Christ, needs them as much as they need it.

It may also be true that many churches have forgotten why they exist, and because of that, they are no longer places where body life is practiced and promoted. The New Testament gives no support for the idea of lone ranger Christians. Paul stresses the analogy of the body over and over in his epistles. Peter talks about the church being a building of living stones, not single rocks lying around in a secular desert. The Nones can be excused for not realizing this; the Dones have no excuse unless it is the failure of their pre-Done church. When the Hebrew author warned believers not to forsake gathering together, it was in the context of maintaining ones’ faith. The remainder of the tenth chapter of Hebrews has some dire warnings for those who despise the work of Christ which established His body, the church. The faithful would do well to heed that warning and stop the vanishing act.

Related posts: What is the Church; Be Content on Sunday

Suffering for Righteousness’ Sake

As I am finishing Job in my through-the-Bible reading this year, I have come to the place where God answers Job in the last two chapters. He does not pull any punches in declaring that He is sovereign over all His creation. Something God does not do is tell Job he was wrong about being righteous. After establishing His credentials as Creator, God simply leaves Job to conclude that God can do whatever He wants with His creation. In other words, God may allow suffering in the life of a “righteous” person.

I put righteous in quotes because as Paul says, “There is no one righteous.” One could argue that Job lived under a different set of rules than those of Paul’s day, but that won’t wash. The very argument Paul uses in his Roman discourse is that righteousness has always been a matter of faith not works. Using an example from before the Cross, Abraham, Paul belabors the point that it was Abraham’s willingness to trust God that led to his being declared righteous. Depending on your definition of suffering, it might also be said that Abraham’s faith did not excuse him from suffering any more than Job’s did.

The trials of the righteous are something I have written about several times. (See related posts below for examples.) I disagree with preachers like Rob Bell who deny that hell exists. (See Hell? Yes!) I have also taken issue with Randy Alcorn’s position that Christians are supposed to be happy all the time. These men, along with the purveyors of the prosperity gospel, misinterpret Scripture in such a way that sincere believers who experience trials and troubles think they have fallen out of favor with God. (See Abraham’s Promises.) Nothing could be farther from the truth. Hear the Apostle Peter: “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, when it^[a] takes place to test you,” Or Paul’s word to Timothy: “All those who want to live in a godly manner in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” Jesus Himself said that tribulation was inevitable.

The problem with many Christians today is their warped concept of God. Sadly, the misperception of who God really is often comes from the pulpit. In ages past, the idea of a strong sovereign who worked his will unilaterally was common. Nobles and kings lorded it over their subjects often with no mercy. It was certainly true during the times when the Bible was being written. It remained the normal way of things up until about the twelfth century when the idea of individual human rights began to be explored.

In the eighteenth century a young upstart colony of England proposed the concept of “certain unalienable rights” granted by the Creator. While I heartily support that idea as it was enshrined in our founding documents, I regret to say that it has worked its way into religious thinking among many people. I regret this because it has caused people to think of God in the same way as the King of England, for example. Mistaken people think their rights extend to the right to invent their own image of God. (See That’s Not God.) When that sort of idea invaded our seminaries, a flood of bad theology washed through the church.

It would be helpful, corrective, if we all remember what the original sin was: independence. Adam and Eve chose to be independent of God, making their own truth, and look where that has led us. Thinking back to Abraham again, notice that Paul’s main point to the Romans was that Abraham “trusted” God. In other words, his ideas of how things should work (ie: Ishmael) had to be abandoned. God went so far as to ask Abraham to sacrifice the son He had finally granted (Isaac) as an act of obedience or trust. The story has a happy ending because God didn’t make Abraham go through with the slaughter. But he proved he was willing. The writer of Hebrews says that Abraham believed God would bring his son back from the dead if he killed him as ordered.

Abraham and the rest of the catalogue of faithful ones in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews trusted God even though most never saw the ultimate vindication of their faith. The writer says they were looking for a different city, “one whose architect and builder is God.” They were willing to let God draw up the plans and then live them out no matter the consequences. When Paul told the Romans that things would work out for good, he meant that God’s good plan would be worked out through the lives of His children. (See Working All Things for Good.)

The best life we can hope for in this world is the one God has planned for us. I have tried doing things my way a few times, and things didn’t always work out for good – mine or those around me. I am late to the party, but I can say for the most part that I am willing to let go and let God as they say. This is hard for me because I think I am the smartest guy in the room. The problem is that if I believe the Bible, God is always in the room too. That leaves me (or should leave me) somewhere way less that the smartest guy. On the other hand, recognizing who God is and deferring to His wisdom in my life is the smartest thing I can do – it’s the righteous thing to do. If I suffer, I suffer. I am also looking for that other city.

Related posts: Don’t Ask Why; Ask the Right Question; The Goodness of God in the Bad Times; Is it the Devil or is it God?; Can You Praise God?

Confidence or Craziness

The book of Job is a puzzling one for most people. It begins with a conference in God’s presence including some vaguely identified beings, one of whom is “the satan.” As I explained in “Understanding the Book of Job: the Heiser Effect,” the Hebrew word from which we get the name, Satan, means accuser and was linked to the serpent in Genesis which was probably not a serpent at all, but a “watcher.” This fits the context of Job because when God asks the character what he has been up to, he admits to watching what is happening on earth. This is what brings up his accusation of Job: he only trusts you, God, because you have him hedged in with divine protection.

This is where the trouble begins for most of us when we see what God does. He basically turns Satan loose to afflict Job, though within certain limits. We have to ask ourselves why God would do that. We know the end of the story, so we can at least see that if God was testing Job’s faith, he passed and was blessed abundantly in response. But for Job, the end was not at all clear. Job’s suffering was both physical and mental. His body was afflicted with painful lesions, and his soul was wounded because he knew he had been righteous in his behavior before God.

I am not alone in thinking that God does test His people. John MacArthur says, “When God wants to prove the quality of one’s commitment, He tests it. The test may come directly from Him, as with Abraham when God asked him to sacrifice his son Isaac (Gen. 22:1–2), or it may come through difficult circumstances, as with the Israelites during their wilderness wanderings (Deut. 8:16), or it may even come from Satan himself, as God permitted with Job (Job 1:12; 2:6).”

As we know from Job’s speeches, there was little comfort in knowing that God’s hand was on him. And yet, Job displays his true faith when he says, “But I myself know that my redeemer is alive, and at the last he will stand up upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, but from my flesh I will see God, whom I will see for myself, and whom my eyes will see and not a stranger.” This is an amazing statement of faith when we realize that Job lived long before the Cross on which his Redeemer died and even long before the God he worshipped revealed Himself to Moses.

When God did speak to Moses centuries later, He gave a provision in His law to correct a potential injustice. The concept of a redeemer, a go-el (גְּאוּלִים), was part of Jewish law. We see it in the story of Ruth when Boaz redeems Naomi’s inheritance on Ruth’s behalf. Of course, the ultimate demonstration is God’s provision of His Son as our Redeemer. We are redeemed, bought out of slavery to sin by the payment Jesus made on the Cross.

What is amazing about Job is that he had the confidence that God would provide a redeemer for him even though there was no written promise to do so. Job’s friends thought he was crazy. Even his wife told him to curse God and die. Job’s answer to his wife is another expression of his deep faith: “You speak like one of the foolish women speaks. Indeed, should we receive the good from God, but not receive the [adversity]?” He told his friends that even if God should take his very life, he would still put his trust in God. That’s crazy, or else it is the ultimate statement of confidence.

Here is MacArthur again: “When you are tested, remember that God is working on your spiritual maturity and that He will never test you beyond what you are able to endure and will always provide a means of victory” When we face trials, we must be sure we are like Job: righteous in our behavior. God does chastise His children when they stray, but we cannot be like Job’s friends and assume that a trial necessarily means we have sinned. (Although, if we have transgressed, God’s discipline brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness into our lives.)  James confirms what MacArthur says: trials work for our maturity. You can be confident of that. That is not craziness.

Related posts: Understanding the Book of Job, Finally; The Goodness of God in the Bad Times; The Winnowing Fork of God;

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John MacArthur, Strength for Today (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1997).

Better Living Through Right Thinking

Over the years the promise of better living has been suggested through many means. A quick Google search reveals the possibility of better living through chemistry, alchemy, design, birding, dentistry, pharmaceuticals, TV, coffee, technology, bitter melon (?), and the list goes on. The desire to improve ones’ life is probably universal. It is true that one advertisement from a few years back suggested that “It don’t get no better than this,” referring to a life bathed in a particular brand of beer, but I suspect that would only be true for a narrow slice of the population – though probably a larger slice than better living through birding.

There is a promise of better living that applies to all people at all times. The path to a better life is found in the Apostle Paul’s advice to the Philippians: “Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are right, whatever things are pure, whatever things are pleasing, whatever things are commendable, if there is any excellence of character and if anything praiseworthy, think about these things.” Here is a universal formula for better living.

I make that claim because of the verb Paul used in his advice: think on (λογίζομαι) these things. The Greek dictionary offers these synonyms for “think on”: calculate, compute, count, and reckon. I reckon that if I think on those things listed by Paul, if I count the ways, compute the results, and calculate how my life might improve, it will lead to better living. A look into each of the suggested things to think on will provide the necessary proof.

First, think on whatever things are true. I have written previously about the proper meaning of truth. I have also suggested that we are in danger of falling into what I called a state of “Truth Dysphoria.” Too many people don’t believe there is such a thing as truth. They would have us believe that truth is a personal possession; whatever they think is true is true – for them. Their idea may not be true for you, but it is true for them, or so they think. That attitude strikes a critical blow to the meaning of the word. Britannica says truth is, “the property of sentences, assertions, beliefs, thoughts, or propositions that are said, in ordinary discourse, to agree with the facts or to state what is the case.” In other words, truth is what is, or said another way truth is that which comports with reality.

The reality is that God’s Word is truth. Jesus proclaimed the He was the Truth. These are not arguable assertions; they are true whether anyone believes them or not. Calculate how much better life would be if everyone spoke and lived according to biblical truth. People who are living in an alternate “truth” should find themselves on the wrong side of the law or on a psychiatrist’s couch. That is not true in our society anymore, sadly. When liars get reelected, when abortions are not murder, when men can be women, when truth is anyone’s opinion civil society becomes a sham. How much better living would be in a society where truth was computed correctly.

Second, think on whatever things are honorable (σεμνός). The word Paul used can mean venerable or reverend. The idea is that these things have been tested by time and are respected for their reliability and truthfulness (there’s the truth again.) There seems to be a trend away from things that are venerable (old) and revered (well-respected) in today’s society. I wonder if our penchant for retro-this and retro-that betrays a deep-seated desire for things that are venerable. In a way these modern remakes do honor something from the past, yet they seldom elicit the reverence that Paul was suggesting. Not all old things deserve honor, but a nod toward tradition (venerable things) in some things would make for better living: respecting the place of law and order, upholding the sanctity of life, maintaining traditional family values, defending the principles enshrined in the Constitution. Most important of all is the reverence and application of biblical truth (again) in all of life. That would make for better living; count on it.

Next is whatever things are right. (δίκαιος.) In English, we would naturally think of this as the opposite of wrong, which is not incorrect. However, in the context of the Bible and Paul’s list of things to think on, the better opposite is sin. This Greek word is often translated righteous. Because God is infinitely righteous, His ways are always right. Anything that does not line up with God’s right ways is sin. James says that the path to sinning begins with a thought – a sinful thought. So, thinking of right things instead of sinful things would naturally lead to better living. You reckon?

Paul next calls us to think on things that are pure (ἁγνός.) My first thought was Michael W. Smith’s “Agnus Dei” which has a special place in my heart, but for y’all it means “holy God.” Think of the saying that cleanliness is next to godliness. Some good synonyms are sacred, chaste, and modest. If chaste and modest make you think of sexual purity, you are on the right track since the biblical opposite of purity is often presented as sexual perversion of some kind. Just as believers are to remain chaste and modest in human relationships, as the Bride of Christ we must maintain spiritual purity as well. As I wrote at length in “Women’s Attire,” practicing biblical modesty presents an appearance that promotes order as opposed to one that creates chaos. Monetary gain or social advantage are also subject to discernment as to purity. Avoiding lustful thoughts, whether for love or money, and keeping the mind on that which is pure is calculated to lead to better living in every circumstance.

Paul then suggests believers think on things that are pleasing. Now, there are many things that would please me to think about, but I doubt Paul would approve. Pleasing (προσφιλήςhi) does not mean what you or I think it means. “Lovely or acceptable” are synonyms suggested by the Greek dictionary. I am going to defer to one of my favorite Christian philosophers of the twentieth century, Francis Schaeffer. He tells believers that loveliness or beauty is only found in that which aligns with God’s truth (there’s that concept again.) Real beauty, according to Schaeffer is anything that aligns with the truth of God’s revealed character in His Word. Better living is found in the beauty of God’s Word. There is nothing better.

The next recommended thought is more complex. Paul says to think of things that are commendable (εὔφημος.) Synonyms are conducive to success or favorable. A transliteration of this word is euphemism. A euphemism is a way to make something sound better than it does in the original. We speak of “passing away” instead of “dying.” We have dozens of euphemisms for sexual intercourse that shade the truth of what is actually occurring in a biblical sense. I don’t think Paul meant that we should shade the truth of what we are thinking on. He meant we should think on things that will favor our success.  I reckon that would lead to better living.

When Paul next suggests we think on things that are commendable, he uses a word that can be translated virtuous (ἀρετή.) Virtue is not something we spend much time on these days. Perhaps that is because virtue has become a rare commodity. We have been inundated with the idea that we must accept everyone no matter how flawed they may be. Acceptance and inclusivity are the only “virtues” society admires these days. Pointing out what the Bible calls sin in another person is now called hate speech. A person who demonstrates what the Scripture calls virtue is usually mocked as backward or old fashioned. The traditional virtues of chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, kindness, patience, and humility are often met with scorn. Yet if we think on these things and seek out people who embody these virtues, I calculate that our life will be better.

Paul’s final recommendation ties directly into the idea of virtue. Praiseworthy (ἔπαινος) suggests we should think on things to which we would give honor. Who deserves that more than God? If we follow Paul’s advice to the Colossians and “set [our] mind on the things above,” we will have a heavenly perspective on all of life’s issues. I remember being told that if I focus on my problems, they just loom larger; if I focus on God my problems disappear. If I honor God in my thinking, if I make Him my first thought instead of my last hope, I will experience the best living I can ever imagine. That doesn’t mean there will be no rough patches in life; it means that I will sail through the hard times secure in the knowledge that I am always in God’s hands. Through the waters and through the flames He is with me. Compute that: there you will find better living than any alternative I can think of.

Related posts: Where Do You Find Truth; Truth Dysphoria; Debating ‘Christian Cleavage’; Women’s Attire; Think About It