I will confess that I am a consummate daydreamer.  My mind not only drifts off into curiosity on things tangential to what is taking place or being taught, but I am also prone to rabbit trails when I am in the role of teacher.  I never realized just how frustrating that must have been to my parents (who were trying to get me to do homework, etc…) until I became a parent and found that my son is prone to the same thing—the apple does not fall too far from the tree.  One of the phrases that my parents used to use commonly was, “Come on, Win, get with the program.”  What they meant by this was to get focused and to be a part of the task (the program) that was at hand.

Our Lord also gives a “program” to the church.  After Peter’s confession that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, Jesus utters the following words:

“And now I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

(Matthew 16:18)

This is one of those passages that contains a tremendous amount of theology, but essentially Jesus is saying that the confession of Jesus as the Christ and Son of God—the confession of the Gospel—is the rock upon which the church will be built.  So, what is the church’s “program”?  The program is to take this confession of Christ and use it to batter down the gates of hell—essentially to use the gospel of Jesus Christ as a tool by which the fortifications of the Devil that exist on this earth are destroyed.  To use military terminology, the church is being portrayed as an army on the march in enemy territory. 

Now, there are many things that the church does, we are called in the Great commission to make disciples by baptizing and teaching all that Christ has taught (Matthew 28:19-20), we are called to care for the widows and orphans and to keep ourselves unstained by the sinful things of this world (James 1:27), we are to be ready with a reasonable defense of the Truth that God has given us (1 Peter 3:15-16), and we gather to worship (Hebrews 12:28-29).  Yet, all of these things fall under the heading of engaging the enemy’s strongholds and battering in their gates (the primary place where an invading army would focus their attack).

Yet, as I look at the church today, I wonder whether we have allowed ourselves to daydream.  For some it may be about the busyness of life; for others it may be their comfort or reputation.  Some spend so much time thinking about the world to come that they are distracted from the task at hand.  Regardless of the reason, a soldier who is distracted during a time of war usually becomes a casualty (and others are often wounded or killed because of the soldier’s distraction).

The question we must ask of ourselves is whether or not we have “gotten with the program” and are a part of the task.  My concern is that there are too many confessing Christians who are watching the program as if it is on television, seeing church as entertainment or a social club, not as an army at war in enemy territory, besieging the fortifications of the Devil.  How the church needs to “get with the program” and stop trying to watch it from their easy chair.

“No one who serves as a soldier becomes entangled in the affairs of life in order that he might please the one who has enlisted them.”

(2 Timothy 2:4)

“Yet, now I am coming to you.  I speak these things in the world in order that they might have my joy in its fullness in themselves.”

(John 17:13)

Do you see what it is that Jesus is saying?  He is saying that now that he is getting ready to go to the Father, he is saying the things he has said (presumably in the prayer) so that the Apostles would have the fullness of Jesus’ joy in themselves.  Yet, what has Jesus been talking about?  He has been speaking about God’s election of his own people and his call of us (as believers) to himself.  He is also speaking of judgment upon those who disbelieve and of God’s promise to preserve his own despite the challenges of this world.

The point is this—Jesus is talking about theological matters—questions of truth.  And Jesus is saying that these kinds of discussions ought to bring us joy and make that joy complete.  How interesting it is that so many churches and even denominations stray away from speaking of theological things, but simply speak of practical matters.  How we have been depriving ourselves of joy by not thinking and speaking on these kinds of theological matters often enough.  How often we seek to find our joy in the comforts of this world rather than in the truth that can be found in God and in his Word.  Beloved, think on these things and trust God to make your joy full.

“While I am no longer in the world, they are yet in the world and I am coming to you.  Holy Father, guard them, which you have given me in your name, in order that they may be one as we are.”

(John 17:11)

Jesus makes a rather sobering statement—even though he has not yet been arrested and sent to the cross, the events at hand are such that he has begun that road in earnest.  One might say that Jesus’ entire earthly ministry and life was a pathway on the road to the cross, and indeed, that is so, but here it is as if Jesus is staring down over the great and dark abyss of death.  From events that would transpire later, it is clear that the disciples still were not fully understanding what was about to take place—what it must have been like to be in their shoes on this night.  Jesus said he was coming to the Father and that means leaving behind the disciples; one can almost feel the sinking feeling that the disciples must have had in their heart when he uttered these words.

The request that believers may be one as Christ and the Father are one is one of those prayers that pastors have lifted before God for generations.  Yet, because of our sin, Christ’s church has been fragmented and divided on numerous matters.  Sometimes those divisions have been necessary, as Christ commanded us to cut off the limb and pluck out the eye that leads to sin (Mark 9:43-47), yet often, division has been caused by our own sin and stubbornness and unwillingness to fellowship with anyone who does not hold the exact same views or practice worship in exactly the same way as we do.  I am not suggesting that it is sin to have different churches that reflect different styles of worship, but when that local or stylistic separation becomes a separation of fellowship, that does enter into the area of sin.  Remember how the Council of Jerusalem handled the matter of practice when Gentiles were streaming into what was then a largely Jewish-Christian church:

“For it seemed to the Holy Spirit and to us that we did not want to lay upon you a weighty burden except these necessary things: to avoid things offered to idols, blood, strangled food, and sexual immorality.  In guarding yourself from these things, you will do well.  Goodbye.”

(Acts 15:28-29)

There is no question that we must fight for the truth—yet the thing to remember is that sometimes we fight and divide over non-essentials to the faith and not due to essentials.

The final thing that we need to note from this passage is the reason in which we may “be one.”  And that is due to the guardianship of God.  Jesus does not say, “help them to be one,” but he says, “guard them so that they can be one.”  If we are not being guarded and protected by God then unity is impossible.  Now, you might be tempted to ask, “doesn’t God always protect his people?”  Well, the answer is two-fold.  First we must remember that just because a person is a “card-carrying” member of a church does not necessarily mean that they have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ; there will be many who will say, “Lord, Lord, did we not do these things in your name?” yet, Jesus’ response will be, “I never knew you”  (Matthew 7: 21-23).  All too often we try and be unified with those who do not know and love Jesus Christ and how often it has disastrous consequences (2 Corinthians 6:14-17).  Don’t expect God’s blessed hand of unity if there is nothing for him to unite.

The second element is that when we pursue sin, sometimes God withdraws his hand somewhat.  Now, it is true that God never lets go of those who are his elect, but sometimes he can dangle us over the fires to rebuke, discipline, and burn away our sin.  And when God is doing this, he tends to remove us from unity with believers—again as a means to bring us back into fellowship and to repentance of sin.

Loved ones, unity is one of those things that we tend to have very little of in this world, mostly due to sin.  Pray that God would give you the unity that would point a doubting and a wondering world to the reality that there is an almighty God and that he reigns in this world.  Let us mark our lives and our existence by being held by God not only safe from the fire of eternal condemnation, but held in unity as well to the praise and glory of Jesus Christ, Amen!

“The Christian faith has not been tried and found lacking; it has been found difficult and been left untried.”

-George Macdonald

I must confess up front that I am not a coffee drinker.  I neither like the taste of it nor the smell of it, nor do I have any compulsion to infuse it with a variety of sweeteners to try and mask its otherwise awful taste.  This is not a criticism of those who like coffee (my wife is one of them), it is simply a statement of fact, and to set the record strait, it is not that I do not also have a morning crutch, but for me it is tea—“Earl Grey, hot,” as Captain Picard used to say.

All of that being said, what I find interesting is the popularity of the specialized coffee drinks in our society.  People flock to one of dozens of corner coffee stores to buy the latest “Chunky-Monkey-Sola-Frappe” concoction or if they are more frugal, they will get a designer coffee machine for their home to whip up their favorite concoctions.  Now, I see nothing inherently wrong with this practice (I like stacking onions, pickles, lettuce, and ketchup on my hamburgers), what I find interesting is that by the time everything is said and done, one can barely taste the original coffee flavor—and for some, I know that is the objective.

Imagine a world, for a minute, where coffee is only ever served in this fashion (this should not be too hard as we are close to that now).  Imagine that you have never tasted “black” coffee, but that it has always been filled with the additives that we might see at a specialized coffee place.  And imagine that this is the way coffee has been served for several generations.  You may have heard stories of coffee being served black, but only in the old days when the people were so poor or backwards that they did not know any better.

Then imagine, one day, something changed in the world around you.  Imagine that you, and everyone around you, were served black coffee—no milk, no sweetener, just straight brewed coffee.  What do you imagine might be the response.  My guess is that most people would quickly spit it out in disgust.  They might curse what they were served and leave in search of “real coffee”—or at least coffee that was diluted with the sweeteners that people were used to.

I imagine, though, that there might be a few people (likely a very few), who will have something confirmed in their hearts.  Deep down, while they have been drinking all of the concoctions, they have sensed that there must be something more out there—that that there must be something stronger and more robust in this thing called coffee than what was being served.  The taste might not totally agree with them, but they know deep down that this coffee, black and strong, is what they have been looking for all along and for them to go back to anything else is something they have no desire to do.

It is imaginable, that the majority of the “coffee” drinkers would take offense to those who began serving and drinking black coffee.  They might see them as unsophisticated and seeking to undo great social advances.  It is imaginable that the majority might even legislate to try and restrict the “black coffee drinkers” from being able to proselytize and win others to drinking black coffee.  There might even be some that would go back to drinking the stylized coffees just to more comfortably fit into their communities.  There may even be some that would become secret black coffee drinkers, drinking the concoctions in social settings for the business contacts, but only drinking black coffee at home.  There would be some who would even go to the other extreme, gathering with other black coffee drinkers and living separate from non-black coffee drinkers to eliminate any outside influence upon their families.  Yet there would be some who, despite regulations and litigation against the black coffee establishments, would continue drinking their black coffee while remaining in society, being willing to have the honest discussion about coffee and to answer questions from the skeptical but curious who still are drinking the fancy mixes.

Okay, so what does this have to do with Christianity?  If you haven’t anticipated it, my suggestion is that we have a lot of “doctored up” Christianity in our culture today.  It may have at its most basic root, genuine Christian belief, but because true Christianity is vibrant, strong, and offensive to the broader culture, churches have been quick to dilute it with all kinds of sweeteners and additives to hide the taste.  C.S. Lewis called this kind of liberal Christianity as “Christianity in water”—something almost unrecognizable as Christianity because it has been so diluted.  It is no wonder, given our culture has strayed so much from “straight-black” Christianity (to keep the coffee analogy), that so many people react so violently against the preaching of the wrath to come and the need for Christians to take up their cross and die daily to this world.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ has been reduced to love and fuzzy feelings rather than about a mighty God who chose to take on flesh and live in the midst of wicked, fallen, and hateful men to redeem some of them to glory, bearing the judgment for their sins on his shoulder.  All we are, we owe to him.

Drinking this kind of “coffee” will earn you the title of being intolerant, unsophisticated, and backwards.  It requires a whole new view of the world.  But this is true Christianity.  Lewis argued that while most people would be reviled if they were confronted with real Christianity, there would be some who would find that it was what they were looking for all along and find the real stuff to be “red meat and strong beer.”  How many of our churches look more like Starbucks in their theology and social stance than like the strong, black coffee of the Scriptures.

“I have made your name known to the people whom you gave me out of this world; they were yours, even so, you gave them and they have guarded your word.”

(John 17:6)

Jesus has made the Father’s name known.  What a remarkable statement this is!  Often we find agnostics speaking of their pursuit of God; philosophers of ages past have sought to understand the nature of the invisible God behind the universe—yet these always rely on their own strength.  God even goes as far as to pronounce that he will be hidden from his enemies (Genesis 4:14; Matthew 11:25), yet revealed in the Son alone.  Thus, John earlier records:

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the Path, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through me.’”

The Apostle Paul even goes as far as to write:

“To me, the least significant of the saints, this grace was given, to proclaim the good news of the incomprehensible riches of Christ to the nations, and to illuminate that which is the plan of the mystery which has been hidden from eternity in God who created all things in order that the multi-faceted wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in heavenly places.”

(Ephesians 3:8-10)

In other words, the plan of God to reveal himself in his Son has intentionally been kept hidden from the world until God revealed his Son, Jesus Christ.  In turn, God has also given the church the task of making this great truth known to a world that has been kept in darkness, awaiting the preaching of the Gospel.  No matter how hard the philosopher or the agnostic “searches” for God, he will not find God apart from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  But for those who hear the word preached, there is eternal life.

“For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved, it is the power of God.”

(1 Corinthians 1:18)

Many are rather uncomfortable with just how “exclusive” the claims of Christ are—Jesus leaves us with no room to suggest that there is any other way to genuinely know God than through Him.  Now, it is true that God reveals enough about himself in the natural world as to leave mankind without an excuse (Romans 1:18-20).  Yet, as we have been discussing, He remains veiled apart from his Son, Jesus Christ.  It is like being caught in a maze.  The very existence of the maze points to a creator and the logic of the maze implies that there is an exit; yet the only exit door by which you may meet the Creator and enjoy life is the Creator’s Son, Jesus Christ.  Apart from him, you become more and more befuddled and feebleminded by the complexity and darkness of the maze.

Yet, loved ones, note the joy with which Paul proclaims that it has been given to him to preach the good news of the “incomprehensible riches of Christ” to the unbelieving nations.  This task, which we call the Great Commission, belongs to you and to me as well.  Let us indeed rejoice in this task, but let us also engage the world as we live out this great and wonderful responsibility, for Christ has revealed the Father to a world that is dark and filled with unbelief.  Let us reveal Christ so they might have light and hope.

This year marked the 500^th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin, the theologian of the Reformation.  While Luther’s preaching sparked the fires of reform, it was Calvin that God had raised up to articulate the theology of those who protested against the Roman Catholic Church.  To commemorate what God did through Calvin, there are conferences that have taken place all over the globe.  I was given the great privilege of speaking at the international pastors’ conference held in Moscow.  I was one of three representatives from the USA, joined by representatives from Holland, South Korea, Japan, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus, to encourage the Russian Reformed pastors.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when the Roman Catholic Church was oppressing the Reformers, Russia opened its doors to the Protestant refugees.  Since the Russian Orthodox Church had already fought their battles with the Roman Catholic Church, they took the attitude that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”  Thus, many Calvinistic Christians found their homes in Russia.  These Christians not only brought their faith with them, but also quite a lot of technology from the west.

When Peter the Great began modernizing Russia in the late seventeenth century, it was the Calvinists he turned to for support.  The Russian Orthodox Church preferred the “old ways,” but these Russian protestants proved to be very progressive and built Peter the Great’s navy, army, and artillery as well as much of the Russian infrastructure to support the modernization of the nation.  These protestants, along with Peter’s vision for a modern Russia, are responsible for making the nation a European power.

When the Bolsheviks revolted in the beginning of the 20^th century, the Calvinists in Russia supported the monarchy, thus, when the Communists took over, the Reformed Christians were systematically eliminated.  When “Perestroika” took place in the late 1980s, the Protestants rushed back into Russia to evangelize and at first were largely successful. As a result, people were leaving the Russian Orthodox Church at a rapid pace; something that the Russian Orthodox leaders did not much care for.  Thus, they began pressuring the government to restrict the ability of the Protestants to meet and organize.

A year ago, one of the Russian pastors, who was connected with a Reformed movement from South Korea, decided to separate from the liberals in his denomination and re-form a conservative and evangelical church from the “dry bones” of the older Russian Reformed church.  He was joined by three other pastors, and the four of them formed the Russian Evangelical Reformed Presbyterian Church.  One year later, they had grown to nine churches scattered around the greater Moscow area.  The primary purpose of this conference was to encourage and help equip these nine pastors to continue to build as God would allow them.  As a result of the conference, three churches in St. Petersburg, who were in a similar situation, decided to join the other nine in fellowship.  In addition, the two representatives from Holland were there to determine the possibility of fraternal relations between their denomination (a conservative sect in the Dutch Reformed Church) and this new Russian denomination—something that seemed to go very well.

The Russian churches are still in need of a lot of prayer as they face a great deal of obstacles—some that we face and others that we are not currently facing (though may in time).  It was a privilege for me to represent Westminster Presbyterian Church, Milton as well as the PCA to these pastors.  Seeds have been planted, I am excited to see what our Lord will do with them in the years to come.  Please commit Pastor Ten and this infant denomination to your prayers.

-Pastor Win

Two Group Pictures from the Convention

]]> http://preacherwin.wordpress.com/2009/09/19/an-urgency-of-the-reforms-of-church-and-society-calvin-500/feed/ 0 preacherwin 100_0414 100_0423 http://preacherwin.wordpress.com/2009/09/09/your-word-they-have-guarded/ http://preacherwin.wordpress.com/2009/09/09/your-word-they-have-guarded/#comments Wed, 09 Sep 2009 02:08:46 +0000 preacherwin http://preacherwin.wordpress.com/?p=759 ]]>

“I have made your name known to the people whom you gave me out of this world; they were yours, even so, you gave them and they have guarded your word.”

(John 17:6)

Note the emphasis that is placed here on God’s having given the disciples to Jesus.  This, of course, is nothing new to Jesus’ teaching, as he has said:

“No one has the power to come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; then I will raise him up on the last day.”

(John 6:44)

Yet, while this is not a new teaching for Jesus, in his prayer, Jesus is explicitly driving this point home.  Jesus has not made the name of the Father known to all mankind, but only to those whom the Father has drawn to the Son—and those who have been given to the Son have guarded the Word of God.  God has elected people to himself from before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:3-4) for the purpose of presenting us to the Son and then for the purpose of conforming us into the image of his Son (Romans 8:29) to be presented holy and upright as the bride of our great redeemer (Revelation 19:6-8).  From beginning to end, we are not our own, but belong to our mighty and glorious God—praise be to God Almighty, Amen!

Also, note the logical progression of this line of thought.  God gave people out of the world to Jesus—it is to them that Jesus has revealed the name of God.  Then, the ones whom the Father has given the Son have guarded, or cherished, God’s word.  There is a pretty straight forward linear progression that is being reflected in this language—those whom the Father has given have guarded the Word.  In turn, those who the Father has not given, have not done so.  There does not seem to be any gap between the giving and the guarding—all who have been given will guard—it is a mark of genuine faith that we cherish God’s word and it is a reminder that the fact that we may genuinely cherish God’s word is given to us as a sign of our assurance of salvation.

But what does it mean to cherish or to guard God’s word?  The word that Jesus uses here is thre/w(tereo), which reflects the care of one who has been charged to protect something—in our case, to protect the integrity of God’s word in our lives and in the lives of those of our family, church, community, and world.   Just like a guard charged with protecting a famous painting from a thief, it is an active job in which we must not fall asleep.  We must also protect the integrity of the whole—it does the curator of the Museum if the guard only protects part of the contents, and not the whole—“Sorry sir, they did get away with the painting, but I saved the picture frame it was in!”  Somehow, that does not cut it.

Yet, how often Christians pick and choose what they want to protect out of God’s word and what they willfully will cast aside.  Christians are often guilty of saying, I like this grace stuff, but you can have that language that calls me to put to death my pet sins.  Loved ones, if we are to guard the good deposit entrusted to us, we must guard the whole—and apply it to our lives as ones who cherish it.  We must not become lazy or fall off to sleep in our duty, but must stand upon the Word in truth and with boldness, not allowing a jot or tittle—a yod or a serif, as Jesus would have said—to fall away.  Such is what it means to guard the Word that God has delivered to us.

Yet, our failure to guard God’s word is a very old failure.  As the serpent approached Eve in the garden of God, we find that she and her husband have not been guarding the word that God has given them.  She adds to the command of God by saying that she must not touch, and she also takes away from God’s word by decreasing the intensity of the punishment—“You will surely die” (an emphatic statement) simply becomes, “You will die.”  And, given that Adam had the responsibility of teaching the command of God to his wife (she had not yet been created when God gave the command), it shows his lack of attention to the Word as well.  It is almost as if Adam said to his wife, “Oh, by the way, here is the rule, don’t break it” and then never went back to it.

We may criticize Adam for his failure to teach in this case, but is this not the same trap that we sometimes fall into as parents?  We pay lip service to the responsibility we have to teach and train up our children in the faith, yet do we actively pursue doing just that?  Our children will learn quickly those things that we are passionate about and they will typically pursue them.  They will also learn quickly what things in which you are just going through the motions and will discard them.  If statistics tell a story about how we cherish God’s word, then the story it is telling right now is that the majority of church-going Americans are simply going through the motions, and not cherishing what God has entrusted to us.

Loved ones, hear the words of Jesus.  Guard the word of God that has been given to you.  Love that word and cherish it in your life.  Keep it in tact and do not compromise it.  Then, instill it into the life of your children in such a way that they will see your own love and zeal for the word that God has sent down.  It is said that children can spot a phony a mile away, sometimes I am not so sure about that, but they will quickly realize what it is in your life that you are being phony about.  Beloved, be authentic in the guarding of the Word given to you so that your children will learn to guard it themselves and so that the world will know that Jesus Christ is alive in you and be drawn to Him because of that testimony.

“And now, glorify me, Father, with yourself, in the glory, which I had with you before the cosmos existed.”

(John 17:5)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word with God, and God was the Word. This one was in the beginning with God.

(John 1:1-2)

In these last days he spoke to us through the Son, whom he established as heir of all things, through whom he also created the ages. Who being the radiance of the glory and the exact image of his essence, also bearing all things in the word of his power; after making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

(Hebrews 1:2-3)

The one who was from the beginning, the one we have heard, the one we have seen with our eyes, the one which we have seen and touched with our hands-concerning the Word of life.

(1 John 1:1)

Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God, was with God from the beginning, came to earth to take on flesh, suffer, and die for a sinful people, and was then exalted back into glory to the praise of his glorious name, forever and ever, amen.  This is one of those passages of scripture that we need to come back to over and over again, not only for our devotional nourishment, but also to remind us and embolden us against those who reject the spiritual truth that this short verse sets before us.

There are many in this world who like to think of Jesus as a wise teacher and some form of exalted man.  The Jews claim that Jesus was a prophet, but nothing more; the Muslims claim he was a prophet who ascended into heaven.  The Mormons hold that Jesus was a divine human, one who, by a perfect life, was given the reward of being a god.  Many “New Agers” hold that Jesus was a form of mystic, a guru from which wise lessons can be learned, and atheists hold every position possible from that he was a wise teacher to that stories of him were manufactured by the church to gain power—a great conspiracy theory.  Yet, the Bible is clear that Jesus is God and he was never created, but has always existed as the second member of the Trinity.  Jesus speaks here of the glory he had with the Father (as they are one) before the cosmos began.  Oftentimes the term ko/smoß (cosmos) is translated as “world in our Bibles, and such is a legitimate translation, but in the context of this passage, the cosmos is meant to include the whole of the created order—all there is, everything that exists in the universe, the visible and the invisible which came into being through the Son (Colossians 1:16).  Here, Jesus is reminding us that when Genesis 1:1 begins with the language, “In the beginning God…” it is speaking about him.  Thus, if you deny that Jesus is God or that he was pre-existent, then you are denying the Bible itself as well as what Jesus taught about himself.  Such is true of all false religions.

Yet, what does it mean for Jesus to speak of desiring to be glorified with the glory he once had?  Is this to imply that Jesus somehow lost his glory during the time of the incarnation and had to gain it back?  Not exactly.  The Apostle Paul addresses this question to the Philippian church, describing Jesus as having veiled his glory in flesh for the purpose of coming and redeeming his people (Philippians 2:6-8).  In turn, God has publicly glorified his Son, not only exalting him above all creation, but in the last days, that exaltation will be public to all of the world and then every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:9-11)—some to glory and some to their own condemnation (John 3:18).

Beloved, how clear it will be on that day, yet, do not think that it is so unclear today.  God has given us his word and plainly taught us that no man can be saved apart from faith in Jesus Christ (John 14:6; Romans 10:9; 1 John 2:23).  And God has testified as to the truth of his word through signs and prophesies all fulfilled in history.  And to we who believe, the Spirit testifies in our hearts (1 John 5:7).  If such is true, why are Christians so often timid in sharing that which we know is true?  Some will say, I suppose, that they don’t wish to offend, yet will not be concerned about offending if a conversation about politics arises.  Others will say that they don’t feel equipped enough or knowledgeable enough to speak on these matters, yet never pursue that knowledge through a study of God’s word.  Loved ones, let us not make excuses, but prepare ourselves well to engage the culture and speak of what we know to be true.  It will only be in doing so that this culture will be turned from its wicked ways and will repent; will you not be a part of God’s great work of salvation by sharing truth with an unbelieving world, one person at a time?

I don’t want any nice Christians in our church!  In fact, I don’t want to see nice Christians anywhere in the world!  Okay, now that I have your attention, let me explain what I mean.  The English word, “nice,” comes from the Latin word “nescire.”  Nescire has as its root word, “scio,” which is the verb, “to know.”  The “ne” prefix negates the term.  Thus, the term “nescire” means “to not know” or “to be ignorant.”  When the term originally came into Middle English, it meant the equivalent of “stupid.”  Over time, the usage of the term changed from being stupid to being unthreatening (someone who knows nothing is not a threat!) to being pleasant to be around.  Slowly, the term continued to change in its usage to the way we use the term today (pleasant or agreeable).

Thus, at least in the original sense of the word, I don’t want to see nice Christians in my congregation or even in the world.  I want Christians to know what they believe and why they believe what they believe.  I want them to be strong enough in what they do know to stand against those who would challenge their beliefs.  In fact, I would argue that part of the reason the American church is in the mess that it is in is because of nice Christians—at least in the original sense of the term.

God speaks of this very thing through the prophet Hosea.  In the fourth chapter of Hosea, God begins by lamenting that there is no knowledge of God in the land (Hosea 4:1) and as a result, the people’s lives are filled by swearing, lying, adultery, and bloodshed (Hosea 4:2).  And when we get to verse six of the same chapter, God makes a devastating statement: “My people are ruined because they are without knowledge.”  In other words, the knowledge of God (understanding that true knowledge comes through a relationship with God—Proverbs 1:7) is what keeps us healthy and whole as God’s people—it prevents us from utter ruin.

But look at what else Hosea records in this verse: “Because you have rejected knowledge, so I reject you from being a priest to me; and because you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.” This is covenantal language, as when God makes his promises to his people, he consistently makes them with their posterity (Genesis 12:7; 17:19; Deuteronomy 12:28; Acts 2:39), thus the threat of discipline is not only pronounced against God’s people, but also against the generations that will follow them.  In addition, Jesus uses similar language in Matthew 10:32-33, where he says that those who confess him, he will confess before his Father and those who deny him, he too will deny—all connected to the lack of knowledge of Him.

Now, it is fair to say that as Christians, we ought to be pleasant people to be around, but pleasant should not be our goal—loving should.  So nice really should not be something that we strive for as an attribute even in the modern usage of the term.  More importantly, though, we should strive to be knowledgeable in the things of God.  To cite the old King James language, “study to show yourselves approved” (2 Timothy 2:15) because the Scriptures are profitable to prepare you for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17).  Strive never to be nice—be loving, but also be knowledgeable in the Truth so that you will always be prepared to make a reasoned defense of the hope you have within you (1 Peter 3:15).

“On behalf of the house of Yahweh, our God,

I will seek out good for you.”

(Psalm 122:9)

Do you intentionally seek out the good of those in your Christian fellowship?  This does not mean that you do them a favor now and again when they ask, but do you intentionally go out of your way to bless those around you even apart of their asking.  Such is what the psalmist is stating.  The Hebrew word that he uses in the second clause is the word vq;b” (baqash), which means to diligently search something out—to hunt it down or to demand of yourself that you find what you are looking for.

One of the things I love to do is to rummage through stacks of old books looking for those rare treasures that often get buried and forgotten.  I have been known to haunt the shelves of used book stores, happily spending hours looking for books.  It is granted that different people find their interest in different things, but I think that most people like hunting for treasure in one sense of the word or another.  Some enjoy bargain hunting at yard-sales, some online.  Some enjoy combing the beaches with a metal detector and some love reading a good mystery novel, searching the pages diligently for clues.  The recent popularity of pirate movies and stories in American culture is once again a testimony that we enjoy hunting things out.

Yet apply this to the life of the church.  What would it look like in a congregation if the members were as diligent in seeking ways to bless each other as they were in seeking bargains for themselves.  What if, instead of being students of the value of worldly goods, we became students of one another, doing so with the intention of bringing good into another’s life.  Understand, too, that the motivation for doing good is not so that others will do good to you, but simply to bless another individual and by doing so, honor God.  How different our churches might be.

Beloved, on behalf of the house of God—our God—let us diligently seek to do good to one another and to those who visit with us.  Indeed, how different our fellowships would look if our members were going out of their way to bless each other—even to the point of demanding of themselves, I will make sure that I bless this person or that person today.