The NBA’s annual slam dunk contest was epic when I was a boy. It’s hard to imagine it getting better than the immense power of Dominique Wilkins versus the insane athleticism of Michael Jordan! They were spectacular examples for me. Of course, I don’t mean I could dunk a basketball on a regulation hoop, but I could on the miniature version out in my garage with the tiny basketball that I could palm just like the pros. It’s impossible to calculate the number of hours I spent all by myself, becoming Michael Jordan (never Dominique!).
In Philippians 2, Paul is addressing a disunity problem in the church in Philippi. He says that the pathway to unity requires humility (v. 3), charity (v. 4; “look…to the interests of others), and Christology (vv. 5-11) — a deep reflection on Christ and his humble incarnation and selfless death which demonstrates the mindset that the Philippians were to have toward one another (v. 5). After charging the Philippians to pursue this way of Christ in the strength that God supplies in order to shine as lights in the dark, lost world (vv. 12-18), he tells the Philippians, “I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you” (v. 19). At first, this just sounds like logistics, and might seem to be located at the wrong place in the letter. Why not save the itinerary for the final greetings? But by placing this here about Timothy, and then by speaking immediately about Epaphroditus, Paul was saying, “Here are a couple of slam dunk champions to imitate.” In other words, Paul says to the Philippians (and us), “Here are two men who live out what I’ve been calling you to; here are two humble servants of God’s people who consider others better than themselves and who look to the interests of others.”
How did Timothy and Epaphroditus model a Christlike mindset and demeanor? First, they were active servants. Saying “active servants” is redundant because if someone is serving, he is automatically “active.” But here’s my point: we can call ourselves servants, and we might really like discussions and Bible studies on serving, but servants get going; they get moving; as one pastor says, they “do stuff.” So in Philippians 2:19-30, Paul indicates that Timothy and Epaphroditus were very engaged in the Lord’s work — traveling; serving Paul and others; exhausting themselves in kingdom matters.
You might think, “Of course these men were very engaged in this kind of Christlikeness. They had a distinct calling to serve as helpers of the Apostle Paul!” That is true in one sense, but remember that Paul writes of them as illustrations for all of the believers in Philippi to imitate (cf. 3:17). There is to be no such thing as an inactive believer. Remember Peter’s exhortation regarding spiritual gifts: “As each has received a gift, use it to serve on another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace” (1 Peter 4:10). It’s time to move beyond mere church attendance to considering how to get more engaged in serving others in the church.
Second, the mindset of Christ is seen in Timothy and Epaphroditus through their genuine concern for those they served. As Paul writes of sending Timothy to the Philippians, he says, “I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare” (2:20). Timothy had a sincere, heartfelt interest in the well-being of others. And you hear of this same kind of loving concern from what is said about Epaphroditus (who was from Philippi). Paul tells the Philippians that he “has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill” (v. 26).
These two were selfless men, not interested in self-promotion or recognition. Their lives, once again, speak to us. May God deliver us from serving others in order to impress onlookers, or in order to be seen as someone pretty great and “so critical” to the church. May God help us to serve one another in our churches with hearts that hurt for others and rejoice to seem them thrive. What a sad legacy it would be if they say of you, “He sought his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ” (v. 21).
Finally, Timothy and Epaphroditus show us the mindset and demeanor of Christ through their sacrificial service of others. Think of Timothy. He was in Rome serving Paul while he was under house arrest. And Paul was going to send Timothy on the long, sometimes treacherous trip back to Philippi. Paul even reminds the Philippians, “But you know Timothy’s proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel” (v. 22). Timothy proved himself as a hard worker and a selfless, submissive helper of Paul. I remember splitting wood with my dad when I was a boy. He did the “main” work of slicing the wood on the gas-powered splitter, but I had an important role. I sacrificed my time (not by choice!) to help push the logs on the splitter and then to stack the wood. So with Paul and Timothy, we know the Apostle did the main work, but the Philippians had seen Timothy stacking the wood — playing his role, sacrificing his time, filling in the ministry gaps.
And what about Epaphroditus? Much is said about his sacrificial spirit in these verses, but notice just verse 30, “(H)e nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me.” Both of these men are beautiful illustrations for the kind of love and self-forgetfulness and sacrificial, Christlike demeanor we should have toward one another in the church.
When believers commit to this kind of Christlike, Timothy-like, Epaphroditus-like humility and love in the body, unity is almost automatic.
King David was in trouble. For four years his own son, Absolom, had been secretly gathering a powerful following for himself among the men of Israel by turning their loyalties away from the true king and deceitfully undermining David’s authority. As the story is summarized in 2 Samuel 15:6, “So Absolom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.”
Lying to his father about his reasons for going to the city of Hebron, Absolom secretly summoned his forces to join him there. When the trumpets blew, the men of Israel shouted “Absolom is king at Hebron!” (15:10). This was the way it was often done in those days. There were no elections every four years, and heirs to the throne did not always wait until the sitting king died before asserting their own rule. Furthermore, kingdoms established in this way usually meant the removal—through murder—of the existing king and any competing heirs. Absolom likely knew that he was not the son chosen to reign anyway. The Lord had promised David, and David had sworn to Bathsheba, that Solomon would succeed him as king of Israel (cf. 1 Chr. 2:9-10; 1 Kings 1:30). The only way Absolom could have the kingdom he coveted was through treason, insurrection, and murder.
When David heard the shocking news of the events at Hebron, he knew he had been caught unprepared and would have to flee Jerusalem for his life. All who would remain loyal to him would also have to flee. Death by the swords of Absolom’s men was their only other option. So hurriedly, they fled (cf. 2 Samuel 15:13-29).
As David fled, going up the Mount of Olives, he was given another bit of bad news. “Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absolom” (2 Sam. 15:31). Ahithophel was David’s trusted counselor—so trusted that “the counsel that Ahithophel gave was as if one consulted the word of God; so was all the counsel of Ahithophel esteemed, both by David and by Absolom” (2 Sam. 16:23). Ahithophel joining with Absolom was bad news indeed! So David prayed, “O Lord, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness” (15:31). This one-sentence prayer is, I believe, what David describes in Psalm 3:4 when he writes, “I cried aloud to the Lord.” The superscript of Psalm 3 says, “A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absolom his son.”
So David prayed desperately to God, but then he took action to bring about the answer to his own prayer. While on the Mount of Olives, he met his loyal friend, Hushai the Archite. Very little is known about Hushai aside from one sentence in 1 Chronicles 27:33—“Ahithophel was the king’s counselor, and Hushai was the king’s friend.” Hushai was also weeping and mourning and wanting to flee with David. Instead, David assigned him to return, to feign loyalty to Absolom, and then to provide Absolom with bad counsel (from a military standpoint)—counsel that David hoped would “defeat for me the counsel of Ahithophel” (2 Sam. 15:34). So Hushai returned to Jerusalem and convinced Absolom that he was with him (2 Sam. 16:16-19).
Ahithophel then gave his military counsel to Absolom: Let me take 12,000 men to pursue David. We will kill only him, allowing all of his loyal followers to return and be part of the new kingdom without penalty. This advice “seemed right in the eyes of Absolom and all the elders of Israel” (2 Sam. 17:4). Remember here that “the counsel that Ahithophel gave was as if one consulted the word of God; so was all the counsel of Ahithophel esteemed, both by David and by Absolom” (2 Sam. 16:23). But amazingly, after hearing Ahithophel’s counsel, Absolom then asked for Hushai’s counsel! Hushai counseled Absolom to send all the men of Israel to pursue David’s battle-tested forces with the goal of wiping them all out. Hushai knew this was not good counsel from a military standpoint, but remember the mission David had sent him on—after praying to the Lord to “turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness.” Even more amazingly, “Absolom and all the men of Israel said, ‘The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel’” (2 Sam. 17:14a). In the ensuing battle, Absolom’s forces were wiped out, Absolom himself was killed, and David’s kingdom was saved (2 Sam. 18).
Was David wrong to ask God to save him, but then to immediately take action designed to save himself? Was this evidence of distrust on David’s part? Absolutely not. As we are told in 2 Samuel 17:14b, “the Lord had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, so that the Lord might bring harm upon Absolom.” In the Lord’s providence, David’s prayer worked hand-in-hand with David’s actions to bring about the Lord’s deliverance!
Are you sure you’re not missing out on part of the way the Lord will answer your prayers? God certainly can answer prayers while we simply wait for him to act. Sometimes that is our only option. But perhaps there are more times in your life when his answers will come through decisive actions you should be taking. If so, give God the glory, not yourself, when your actions result in answered prayer. As David said in Psalm 3:4, “I cried out to the Lord, and He answered me from his holy hill.” “Salvation belongs to the Lord” (Ps. 3:8).
There is no shame in getting old — not for you, or for churches.
It is a bad mistake to demean a person for it, when you are headed the same direction and neither of you can stop it. It’s a double shame to defame a person whose halcyon days were in the past, especially if that person is of high character and has maintained a remarkable Christ-like demeanor and interest in others. It is like laughing at your old aunt for being what you hope all old aunts would be — old and beautifully aged because of Christ, but very different than you in so many ways, and maybe even quaint.
Churches are the same.
Recently I spoke at an older church which had witnessed generations of believers before them. It met in the same church building, almost without change, for many decades. Their walls echoed, though almost undetectably now, the testimonies of many hundreds of sincere believers.
The experience brought memories of Bethany Baptist Church in Kansas City, Missouri, where I grew up as a preacher’s kid. Bethany’s strongest years were those I lived through in the 50s when 850 people crowded into the building with no air conditioning, and we raised the roof singing, and heard the “amens” as truths were asserted with passion. Stain glass and organ were there, but the hymns were those peppy gospel hall songs which everyone could sing, with parts, to the top of their lungs. Many were brought to Christ through the church’s witness, including some of my siblings and me. Now, as we look back on it with children and grandchildren having come to Christ, we don’t demean it, even though we express ourselves differently in our day to our communities than we did in those years of post war optimism, massive movement to the cities, and prevailing rural roots.
This church, with well over a hundred years of history like Bethany, had grown old like an aged oak despite limbs dropping off, in what many would call a transitioning community of older homes. Mainly older people attended, but some younger ones here and there were found. Many in the pews were widowed ladies with sweet smiles who had weathered all those decades of change since the church’s golden years when their husbands were its young leaders and their children were at their skirts.
There is a place for such churches, and a future. And there can be vibrancy, as I saw in this one, even with its small numbers and aging population. The work of God does not stop wherever true Christians gather. I felt in its people the life of Christ, and the church was meeting needs and strengthening the saints, and trying to reach out. Praise God for the steady witness of a church over its many years. It is not to be despised. A long life is a good thing and growing old gracefully displays a noble witness to God’s enduring effects, even if it is a slighter form of the former.
I was honored to be there among the saints.
Here are a few reminders to such churches:
- The people you tend to draw may provide a strategy for the future. Old people are people too. I once spoke to a church with perhaps two hundred old people attending. They were vibrant. There were almost no young people, but scores of older people, some up to a hundred, who found the joys of fellowship and likemindedness of mission. They did not say that we are not a good church because we do not draw young families. Rather, while remaining open to all ages, they pursued the friends they actually had and were not ashamed of it. Old people like to be together. These are people who are closer to their final days, have more time to serve, and can have a lot of spunk. I believe they were wise to go with what God had set before them, and let God bring whomever he will, trusting God to gradually bring in those of a younger age if he chooses. It’s no sin to do that.
- Make much of fellowship. You may not be able to offer much in some aspects, but there is no governor on love. You can be the most loving church in the world, if you will pursue it. In so many years of travel, I have noticed that it is a consistent pattern that the older people tend to be the most gracious. Capitalize on that.
- And meet needs of your people. I recently challenged a lady who was looking for a ministry, to write down the names of ten people. Then I encouraged her to carefully think through what that person’s greatest need is. “Set out to meet those needs.” There is not a title for this ministry, but it may well be the best one. Is it friendship that person needs? Then provide it. Is it financial help? Then meet it. Is it transportation? Warm up the car and go do it. Is it more Bible knowledge? Then get together to read the Bible chapter by chapter, and talk about whatever becomes important to highlight. Is it overcoming fear? Then offer a daily call. Is it healthy meals? Then pick them up and bring them home for supper; or cook extra and take it to them. You get the idea. What a powerful thing! What if five people did this in your church? What about ten? But what about just one — you?
I will not say that God cannot lead a church to incorporate with others or even change locations. You have to do God’s will. But remember, no church is dead if people made alive by Christ are there. God is not through with the old church yet.
When hard times come, what do people hear from your lips?
Those who saw Paul in Rome under house arrest awaiting trial (see the end of Acts) probably didn’t think he was doing so well. After all, he was in chains! I can imagine the guards who were chained to Paul in four hour shifts initially thought Paul would be like any other prisoner. Even the believers throughout the Roman Empire who were aware Paul was in a difficult spot might have understood if he just “laid low” for a time — a date with Caesar awaited!
However, here’s what Paul wrote to the church in Philippi:
I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. (Philippians 1:12-13)
Paul was very close to this church, having started it over a decade prior to writing Philippians. They would have been concerned for Paul. Yet, Paul wrote as if things couldn’t be going any better. You can almost hear Paul saying, “I just wish you all could come and see what the Lord has done!”
How does the gospel advance? Paul’s experience in Rome provides what might be a surprising answer: the gospel advances through faithful believers providentially placed in difficult circumstances. Paul didn’t see his suffering as a hindrance to the progress of the gospel, but as the design of God through which the gospel might spread farther than it might have otherwise traveled.
Think, for example, of “the whole imperial guard” hearing the gospel. These men were elite Roman soldiers who served directly under the emperor. There were thousands in Rome and beyond that city, and there probably wasn’t a single one who would have sought Paul out to hear what he had to say. But then one day guard duties were assigned, and the regular rotation of time with Paul began, and before long, they were not only hearing the gospel from him, but seeing it’s power in his life and the hope it gave him. I can imagine one soldier saying to another, “I’ve never met a prisoner like him. He seems to really care about me. He’s always asking about my family. He even prayed for my sick daughter the other day! I’m not sure I’m ready to believe what he’s telling me about God, but he definitely lives his life under the rule of this man he’s always telling me about — Jesus Christ. He’s even willing to die for this man he keeps telling me died for him!”
In my travels for ministry around the world, especially in less developed countries, I’ve sometimes found myself praying something like, “Oh Lord, please keep me from the kind of sickness that would put me in a hospital here!” There’s nothing wrong with that prayer. However, the Lord may have other plans. In fact, he did one time in Ethiopia. After a long day of Bible teaching followed by a meal in a dark house due to a power outage (a common occurrence), I was back in my hotel room when the itching started. I’ll spare you the details, but what looked like welts were spreading all over my legs. And it was 11:30 pm. Off to the dimly lit hospital I went with my Ethiopian brother and fellow partner in the ministry. Thirty minutes later, I found myself in a room full of sick and hurting people, including a lady who was giving birth right next to me!
At this point, you are probably thinking, “Oh, Steve’s going to tell us about how, in that experience of physical suffering, he spoke up boldly for Jesus.” No, I’m not, because it didn’t happen. In fact, I think I sat there, a little scared, and mostly stunned. However, I was not alone. My Ethiopian brother was with me, and he took advantage of this less than ideal circumstance to try to minister to people in that room, including the family of the lady who was giving birth. The next day, we ran into those family members again and heard the news: the baby was born safely, but the mother may not survive. I don’t think everyone in that room heard the gospel that night (or the next day), but I’m fairly certain at least two or three people did.
I wonder if we will enjoy eternity with some of those Roman guards because they heard the gospel from Paul and believed. And it would be just like God to have ordained my insufferable itches in order that the gospel might reach a few people in that Ethiopian emergency room. The next time you find yourself in a tough spot, look around. The Lord probably put you there to tell someone about him.
When Jesus told his parable about the weeds growing alongside the wheat, he exclaimed, “An enemy has done this!”
It was so. Good seed had been sown, but the workers found weeds growing among the grain which at the time were nearly indistinguishable to the laborers. Nearly, I say. They did report that the weeds were there. At some stage the weeds began to look like weeds. The Master told them not to gather them at that moment, but to wait until the harvest to sort them out. Then burn them, “but bring the wheat into my barn.” Jesus is saying this to angels. These angels are the ones who will bring in the harvest of souls at the end of time. (See Mt 13:24-30)
He explains further (in vv. 36-43) that “the field is the world.” “The good seed is the sons of the kingdom,” he said. “The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels . . . They will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
What should we think about this?
The Lord and Satan Sow Seed in the World
Jesus is inviting his listeners to think of the world as a huge farmer’s field. From this world there will be a harvest of people who belong to Christ and those who do not. In another place, Jesus said that the great division of mankind will include not only those who are alive but all who have died:
Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. (John 5:28-29)
The truth is, all who ever lived on this earth are either within the kingdom of God and under the loving rule of Christ or in a place of judgment forever, also under the just hand of Christ’s punishment. The world is a divided place, and this is the most profound of the divisions.
It is wise to think about this now. You are included.
Jesus also made this division clear to some religious leaders who did not believe in him or love him. In a “family” way to speak of the difference between people, Jesus described them as children of their father, the devil.
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44)
John says in 1 John 5:19 that “we know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” Note again, the great division.
The Local Churches are in the World
The local churches, the earthly outposts of Christ’s heavenly people, are subject to the enemy’s invasive sowing as well. Likely churches are the most strategic of places for the enemy to sow his own seed. Though the great harvest is for the entire world, and Jesus specifically told his harvest workers, the angels, not to separate the wheat from the weeds until that time, churches are told to remain pure.
I wrote to you . . . not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.” (1 Corinthians 5:9-12)
As far as the world as a whole is concerned, the church and the world grow together until the great harvest. But as far as the church is concerned, we must remain pure and distinctive as believers who are in, but not of, the world.
A Joyful Conclusion for the Believer
Jesus ends his explanation of the story with these exciting words: “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father!” Contrary to those who will be judged, we who are the good seed have a lot to look forward to!
Moses, the biblical author of Genesis to Deuteronomy, contemplating God’s creation of man and woman, wrote perhaps the single most important sentence about marriage found anywhere in the Bible:
Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. (Genesis 2:24)
From this single sentence, as we trace its course throughout the Bible, we learn three profound truths about marriage from three different interpreters of God’s creation narrative: Moses, Jesus, and the Apostle Paul.
From Moses we learn that marriage is Primary. By “primary” I’m differentiating it from being “secondary.” When we understand that Genesis 2 is an expanded view of what happened in between Genesis 1:27 and 1:28, we learn that marriage was not “plan B” for mankind or something God devised later in response to man’s sin. It was instituted pre-Fall, part of God’s original and perfect creative design for the world. In fact, the marriage of a man and a woman was the crowning feature of what God reviewed in Genesis 1:31 when “he saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good.”
Later, based on Genesis 2:24, Jesus teaches us that marriage is Permanent. In Mark chapter 10, Jesus was confronted by some religious leaders who were out “to test him.” Their goal was to set his teaching against something Moses wrote about divorce in Deuteronomy 24:1-4 — a statement these leaders had twisted and misused to suit their own selfish and sinful purposes.
They asked Jesus, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” Jesus, in response, acknowledged Deuteronomy 24:1-4, but then refuted their misguided application of what Moses wrote there by quoting what the same Moses wrote in Genesis 2:24:
Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. (Mark 10:2-9)
His answer to their question about divorce, in other words, amounted to an unequivocal “No, it is not lawful for a man to divorce his wife.”
Based on Jesus’ interpretation of what Moses wrote in Genesis 2:24, marriage is a permanent union created by God—a union that may not be torn apart by man for any reason.
Third, according to the Apostle Paul, Genesis 2:24 informs us that marriage is a Picture. It is God’s way of foreshadowing in creation something beyond human marriage. In Ephesians 5:25-31, after exhorting a husband to love his wife “as Christ loved the church,” to love her as he loves his own body, nourishing and cherishing her “just as Christ does the church,” Paul quotes Genesis 2:24: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” He then immediately continues in verse 32, “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.”
According to Paul, through the institution of marriage as recorded by Moses in Genesis, God was communicating to us in advance about the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. Marriage is a God-inspired glimpse into the mystery of Christ redeeming and being joined to the church — his bride — in a permanent union. It displays God’s plan to save his people through his Son — his incarnation (leaving his father in the glory of heaven), his death on the cross (the sacrificial demonstration of his love for his bride in order to redeem her from sin and win her love and faithfulness to him), and his resurrection and ascension into heaven where he now rules over all things, making ready for the final wedding ceremony and the glorious reception dinner the Bible calls “the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Rev. 19:9).
The next time you attend a wedding, the next time you contemplate the significance of your own marriage, I hope you will remember these three beautiful truths: Marriage is primary — God’s original and perfect design for mankind; marriage is permanent — God’s work of joining one man and one woman together in a lifelong union; and marriage is a picture — God’s way of proclaiming in advance his redemptive purposes for mankind through his Son, Jesus Christ.
When I was a boy, we didn’t lock our house during the day, even if we left. Those were the “good ol’ days.” I’m sure security at my parents’ house has changed. We also had an if-you-show-up-we’ll-have-some-dessert-for-you policy. I’m positive that hasn’t changed. I’m thankful to have grown up in a home where neighbors and family were always welcome. It was a hospitable atmosphere that gave me plenty of wonderful memories.
The biblical idea of hospitality goes beyond just welcoming someone into your home for a cup of coffee, a piece of pie, and a good conversation. When Peter says, “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling” (1 Peter 4:9), he had in mind activities like hosting missionaries or other believers in your home who were traveling, or sharing space in your house with believers who have been displaced by persecution, or using your residence for church meetings. Peter is talking about welcoming Christians into your home and sacrificing your resources for their benefit.
Cultures vary, so hospitality might look somewhat different from place to place. For example, the majority of churches in the U.S. meet in some kind of a facility, not a home, for their main meetings. Nevertheless, even in that context, hospitality is possible. And a large number of us do have homes that could be ground zero for strategic hospitality.
Why Practice Hospitality?
One reason to practice hospitality is to help people to keep following Jesus. My wife, in-laws, and I once decided to go to a very well-known church in Brooklyn, New York, on a Sunday evening. I’ll never forget it. The moment we walked in, we were bombarded with love and interest. In fact, the men were so engaged in my life and how they could help me to keep following Jesus, they followed me right into the men’s restroom with their questions and concern!
You may not have a home for hosting lots of guests, but you can practice hospitality with your church in this way. You’re care for a brother or sister in Christ one Sunday just might be the means God uses to keep him or her from drifting away.
If God has given you a home with more space than you need, consider the possibility that the extra square footage has been given to you by God to help some hurting, desperate, needy believers. Remember the gospel logic for doing this: God welcomed us into his “house” through the sacrifice of his Son, and so we are to love others sacrificially — and not just when it’s convenient for our schedule.
Another reason to practice hospitality is to participate in the advance of the gospel. In Third John, John rejoiced at the hospitality some itinerant Bible teachers and gospel preachers had enjoyed in Gaius’ home and said, “(W)e ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth” (v. 8). I have personally traveled for ministry all over the U.S. and a significant number of places around the world, and here is the truth: a private room, a warm shower, and a nice meal are more important than you might realize for the advance of the God’s kingdom.
One Way NOT to Practice Hospitality
Peter understands us, doesn’t he? “Practice hospitality without grumbling.” We get tired. We get lazy. Some might even take advantage of us! Still, be hospitable “without grumbling.” Once again, remembering the gospel, particularly the patience of God with us not only before we knew Christ, but even once we became believers, will be a healthy antidote to our selfishness.
One way out of a bad attitude about hospitality is to consider what is ahead — the consummated kingdom. So then, we should remember that part of God’s design for the perseverance of his children and their readiness for Christ’s return is the sacrifice of his people on behalf of each other. Thinking about the second coming of Jesus will help us when we are waiting on the suddenly overcrowded bathroom, or marveling at the inflated water bill. These people now sitting at our tables are family who need our kindness, and eggs, if they are going to be ready for his return.
“Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.” (Romans 12:13)
I love this old photo. How we need knowledge and the best wisdom of the ages! Making books available for children, for instance, is a critical work for creating an orderly and educated society. One wonders, with the advent of social media, if this is still a national priority.
The benefits of getting good books before the eyes of people are mountainous in proportion. For, as you well know, a book can change lives for good, or doom it to disappointment, evil actions, personal tragedy, and depression. An idea is a powerful thing. The nations turn on the axis of ideas, humanly speaking.
Think of The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx. I read this book myself this last year with my discerning glasses on. But many who read this in the past were not so wary. They read it predisposed to agree. This book shaped the history of the world. It convinced nations. It still has its world-bending effects.
I read a book 55 years ago that changed my life for every decade since. It was called George Müller of Bristol by A. T. Pierson. I remember where I sat when I read it—in front of the apartment at college. I remember how I felt. I remember what I said to God: “Lord, I want to be a man like this.” From that day forward, the life and teaching of this man of faith has guided me inasmuch as he followed Christ.
Burn or Warm
Certain books are like fire — they can either burn or they can warm. For this reason, Christians must be careful. And we must show extra care for our children who have little discernment about what they choose. Even to allow a child to roam a library, in our day, is quite dangerous.
Just a few weeks ago, while studying in the local library, I encountered a large display of perverse books for youth on gender transitioning. They had intriguing covers and inviting titles. They all presented as if all was positive about the matter. It was a month for lionizing such things nationwide. I was sickened.
I believe it was on the same day that I was sitting on the backside of the library when along came a young boy, perhaps ten years of age. He encountered the graphic novel section and started looking through books. You could see his eyes get wider. He left, but wandered back again. Then, he brought his brothers who looked at the same pictures. There was no hiding what was there — it surely contained something sexual. I wish I could have stopped it, for I knew what imprints were being made.
I remember a book that was read to me when I was four. The biblical concept stuck. What we read about molds our meditations and therefore our actions.
Above all of this about good books, think of what the best book, the Bible, will do. Read the stories of the Bible to your children and let them see you reading and thinking about the words of God. It makes a difference. Don’t waste your chance to feed their minds and their hearts!
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (Philippians 4:8)
THE BOOK RESIDED
Jim Elliff
The book resided on the shelf.
No, not too strong a word,
For having first been opened to the light
Forty years internal night ensued,
Though once a finger touched its spine and paused.
The youth, enticed by title, size, its look,
Somewhat inclined to press its words upon his mind,
To lean his mind upon its words,
To intertwine,
Yet passed his finger down the row to an inferior kind,
Which teased his eyes, but raped his mind.
So close his finger to those truths,
So bound his finger to his mind,
So near he came to wed the two,
So distant now the truth declined.
Copyright © 2001 Jim Ellliff
Thus also the Lord is pleased to communicate unto me that which, either very soon after or at a later time, I have found to become food for other believers, though it was not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word that I gave myself to meditation, but for the profit of my own inner man.
With this mode I have likewise combined being out in the open air for an hour, an hour and a half, or two hours, before breakfast, walking about in the fields, and in the summer sitting for a little on the stiles, if I find it too much to walk all the time. I find it very beneficial to my health to walk thus for meditation before breakfast, and am now so in the habit of using the time for that purpose, that when I get into the open air I generally take out a New Testament of good-sized type, which I carry with me for that purpose, besides my Bible; and I find that I can profitably spend my time in the open air, which formerly was not the case for want of habit. I used to consider the time spent in walking a loss, but now I find it very profitable, not only to my body but also to my soul. The walking out before breakfast is, of course, not necessarily connected with this matter, and everyone has to judge according to his strength and other circumstances.
The difference, then, between my former practice and my present one is this: formerly when I rose, I began to pray as soon as possible, and generally spent all my time till breakfast in prayer, or almost all the time. At all events I almost invariably began with prayer, except when I felt my soul to be more than usually barren, in which case I read the Word of God for food, or for refreshment, or for a revival and renewal of my inner man, before I gave myself to prayer. But what was the result? I often spent a quarter of an hour, or half an hour, or even an hour on my knees before being conscious to myself of having derived comfort, encouragement, humbling of soul, etc.; and often, after having suffered much from wandering of mind for the first ten minutes, or quarter of an hour, or even half an hour, I only then really began to pray.
I scarcely ever suffer now in this way. For my heart being nourished by the truth, being brought into experimental fellowship with God, I speak to my Father and to my Friend (vile though I am, and unworthy of it) about the things that He has brought before me in His precious Word. It often now astonishes me that I did not sooner see this point. In no book did I ever read about it. No public ministry ever brought the matter before me. No private conversation with a brother stirred me up to this matter. And yet now, since God has taught me this point, it is as plain to me as anything that the first thing the child of God has to do morning-by-morning is to obtain food for his inner man. As the outward man is not fit for work for any length of time except we take food, and as this is one of the first things we do in the morning, so it should be with the inner man. We should take food for that, as everyone must allow.
Now what is the food for the inner man? Not prayer, but the Word of God; and here again, not the simple reading of the Word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water passes through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it and applying it to our hearts.
When we pray we speak to God. Now prayer, in order to be continued for any length of time in any other than a formal manner, requires, generally speaking, a measure of strength or godly desire, and the season therefore when this exercise of the soul can be most effectually performed is after the inner man has been nourished by meditation on the Word of God, where we find our Father speaking to us, to encourage us, to comfort us, to instruct us, to humble us, to reprove us. We may therefore profitably meditate with God’s blessing though we are ever so weak spiritually; nay, the weaker we are, the more we need meditation for the strengthening of our inner man. Thus there is far less to be feared from wandering of mind than if we give ourselves to prayer without having had time previously for meditation.
I once met a man who had suffered a near fatal gunshot wound in the crossfire of others in downtown Chicago. He was paralyzed for the remainder of his life. His wife had to care for him every day and in every way. Yet, in the difficult process of his early days as an invalid, he was converted to Christ. He was so thankful God had saved him. In fact, he attributes much of that to what he believed was the gracious providence of being shot. This was a critical “on-the-ground” instrument of God to point him to Christ. But why not go on to heaven now? Why must his wife and family suffer because of him?
My wife and I have the privilege of taking care of her mother who is unable to do much at all. She is not that far off from being 100 years of age! She is pleasant and Christlike, but what goes on in her mind as she thinks of her condition? She wonders, “Why must I put my family out to care for me? Wouldn’t it be better if I went on to Christ now?”
I don’t think such thoughts are foreign to every older person at some point.
Our first approach to mold our thinking should be that God has ordained old age for some. This is so helpful to think on. In fact, he has ordained the exact number of days we will live. It is no surprise to him if you get old or even become an invalid. In fact, the Bible teaches that all things are ordained by him.
Your eyes have seen my unshaped substance;
And in Your book all of them were written
The days that were formed for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.
(Psalms 139:16 LSB)
This knowledge of God’s sovereign control over his world is our friend, for God’s purposes for the believer are for his or her own good and God’s glory (Romans 8:28-30). Poet William Cowper (1731-1800), though suffering from depression at critical times in his life, wrote of this providential oversight of God. Ponder the words of “God Moves in a Mysterious Way.”
God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill;
He treasures up his bright designs,
And works His sovereign will.
Ye fearful saints fresh courage take,
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust him for his grace;
Behind a frowning providence,
He hides a smiling face.
His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding ev’ry hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flow’r.
Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan his work in vain;
God is his own interpreter,
And he will make it plain.
Concerning this sovereign will of God, there is one more matter to consider: God has ordained that all of us become a burden to others in the Body of Christ. Think over these meaningful words of British theologian John Stott (1921-2011). He wrote this at 88 years of age in The Radical Disciple. I will end with them.
I sometimes hear old people, including Christian people who should know better say, ‘I don’t want to be a burden to anyone else. I’m happy to carry on living so long as I can look after myself, but as soon as I become a burden I would rather die.’ But this is wrong. We are all designed to be a burden to others. You are designed to be a burden to me, and I am designed to be a burden to you. And the life of the family, including the life of the local church family, should be one of ‘mutual burdensomeness.’ ‘Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ’ (Galatians 6:2).