No Longer Servants

“But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.” (Ro 6:17 AV)

Note the tense of Paul’s words.  The past tense implies a present tense.  We were the servants of sin.  However, we have obeyed the doctrine of salvation from the heart and are no longer servants of sin.  Period.  Not that we are perfect servants of righteousness.  But we are definitely not the servants of sin. We don’t always feel this way.  We have bad days, bad weeks, bad months, or even bad years.  We often feel far more of a failure than we are a success.  Yet Paul states we are no longer servants to sin.  Mic drop.  There is no debate here.  If we cannot get over our sin, it isn’t because we are enslaved.  Some feel trapped not realizing they have been freed.  What wonderful news to know we are no longer a slave to that which destroys the soul.  Whether we feel it or not, we have been liberated.

We have a dog.  This dog is awesome.  The best breed ever!  We put a fence up between the living room and the upstairs.  There is carpet there, and we didn’t want him to piddle on the carpet.  Once that gets into the carpet, it is hard to get out.  It has been up for eight years.  It is retractable, so we can come and go.  But Toby stays put.  Lately, the screen has become a bit tattered.  It seems like it has met its end of life.  The thing is, I still don’t want Toby on my carpet.  It might remind him far too much of the grass outside.  The funny thing is, habit has become the way of life.  With or without the fence up, Toby will go no further until he is called.  Whether the barrier is there or not, he stays.  He doesn’t realize there is an entire upstairs he could explore.  He has to be given permission, and the new reality of liberty has to be trusted.  Then Toby can live a life he never lived before.

Not that we are dogs, but we have learned behavior as well.  We have lived so long in sin that it is hard to remember we are no longer servants to it.  Like a dog chained to a tree his whole life, if the chain is not there, he lives as though it were.  The saints often live the same way.  We live in sin because we have not learned as yet just how free from it we truly are.  The fence has been retracted.  The chain of restraint has been snapped.  We are free to live a life of righteousness.  We are no longer entrapped.  We are free!  The challenge is to accept that truth by faith.  Part of being entrapped is a lack of faith in the liberty to which Christ has called us.  We had become comfortable in the box called wickedness.  We have become familiar with the dark side.  Now the door of God’s righteousness has been thrown open, and the light of God’s holiness beckons us.  Yet we are a bit apprehensive.  What lies ahead?  What kind of life would God grant?  What if I leave that to which I have grown accustomed and trust the righteousness that comes by God’s grace?  Living holy is a step of faith.  The first step is to accept we are free from sin!  Period!  It is finished.

Fear In The Balance

“By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD [men] depart from evil.” (Pr 16:6 AV)

This is one of my favorite verses.  Partly because it is so poetic and succinct.  But what really speaks to me is the beautiful simplicity coupled with the hope it brings.  It is right and common to read the verse as a rebuke or challenge.  But being a simple statement of fact with little to no emotion contained therein, the truth above can be taken in several ways.  One of them is hope.  There are two ingredients to holy living and the definition of those two combined into one.  There is mercy and truth.  Combined they become the fear of the LORD.  Working backwards, the fear of the LORD is not mere terror at His greatness and our vileness.  Rather, to fear the LORD here means to understand Him in such a deep and profound way that we become undone, yet full of faith all at the same time.  To have the fear of the LORD as stated above, one must hold mercy and truth as equal in quantity and application.  In other words, if iniquity is to be purges and evil to be departed from, then the saint must understand God as a God of both mercy and truth.  He must understand it far more than academically.  He must understand it practically and in its fullest.

Mercy and truth, while at first seem opposed, cannot exist without each other.  Truth may seem like an independent construct with no need for mercy.  It is plain to see that mercy cannot exist without truth.  If there was no truth, then there wouldn’t be a violation of that truth.  If there is no violation of truth, then mercy need not exist.  Herein we see the dependent relationship between the two.  When God alone existed without any created universe or beings in that universe, truth was inactive.  God is truth.  Truth is God.  God and truth remained possessed within the Godhead, yet not reaching the fullest potential of truth.  For truth to reach its fullest potential, there must be objects upon which to apply truth.  The concept of gravity exists with or without celestial bodies.  But it took God to create the universe for gravity to be active.  This is true of all truth.  Truth needs application.  If truth is applied to creation, then there must of necessity be mercy.  Truth is not always followed by virtue of self-determinate beings dwelling in God’s creation.  Therefore, truth and mercy are dependent upon one another for their application.

Now that we got our theology in order, let us consider the real-time application to the saint.  Both mercy and truth must be seen as equally important.  We often err toward one and away from the other.  Balance is the key.  It is hard for some to accept God’s mercy and live in the reality of truth.  We are overly condemned and do not give God the fear that comes from exercised humility and mercy.  We live in the truth and, at times, being condemned through it.  Because we are constantly condemned, we have no motive to purge iniquity.  However, if we are the saint who abuses God’s mercy, then we see no reason to change.  After all, God forgives and forgets everything, right?  Keeping these two in balance is what is needed.  God possesses all of His attributes equally and infinitely.  Because He does, truth cannot be seen as more important that mercy, nor mercy more valuable than truth.  But are equally indispensable.  As we strive toward Christlikeness, the fear of the LORD (holding truth and mercy equally) is the only way to attain it.

No Shows Show No Harm

“And they said unto him, We neither received letters out of Judaea concerning thee, neither any of the brethren that came shewed or spake any harm of thee.” (Ac 28:21 AV)

Paul came hot and ready to defend himself in the courts of Rome.  However, when he finally arrived, the Jews which resided there told Paul there was neither letter nor individual from Israel ready to prosecute him.  Lysias, Felix, nor Agrippa sent letters to Caesar’s court to accuse Paul of insurrection or any other crime.  The simple reason would be there was no crime committed.  If any of the three sent baseless accusations against Paul, they would be guilty of wasting the time of the royal court.  It would have been better for them to merely send Paul along with no record and let Rome sort it all out.  What is surprising to me is that no one else made the trip to Rome to stir up the Jews who resided there.  No one came and made Paul the lightning rod for Rome to kill the Christians.  Perhaps that was the design.  If they limited the problem of Christianity to one man’s ministry, it would continue even if that one man were dead.  By letting Rome deal with it, they made Christianity the problem and not Paul.  Either way, we can take comfort in that perhaps the threatenings of the enemies of God are not as dramatic as they might seem.

There is a subtle pattern throughout the book of Acts.  It is founded upon the declared mission of the church.  Jesus tells His saints that they ‘shall be’ witnesses throughout the world.  He does not tell them they might be if they want to be.  Rather, the statement is a statement of fact.  Not a statement of probability.  So, there must be divinely sent circumstances that bring this statement of fact to pass.  Therefore, there are many times we see the saints fleeing from one threatening situation to the next.  In the interim, the LORD uses them to build ministry.  In fact, if we were to read a bit further in our passage, Paul’s ministry in Rome was successful because he fled to Rome.  Since there were no official charges regarding his behavior in Jerusalem, many Jews came to him to hear of the good news regarding their Messiah.  What seemed like a huge problem and one to fear turned out to be an opportunity for Paul.  It is typical of the enemies of God.  The react far more then they need to in order to accomplish what they think was a desired end only to help the saint along the way.

This reminds me of a situation my partner and I faced while knocking on doors.  In fact, this happens quite a bit.  One evening, we knocked on a door, and a drunken man answered.  He was madder than a wet hen.  He went off on us with a profanity-laced tirade and threatened physical harm.  It was very violent language.  We did what we were told to do and brushed the dust from our feet.  We went to the next house.  The next house has a group of about six or seven people enjoying the outdoors.  They were drinking, but they were not drunk.  They saw and heard the whole thing.  Rather than jump on board, they apologized and allowed my partner and me to give them the gospel.  Down the street, a young man was walking.  He saw the whole thing too.  He was headed for the home of the drunken Nabal.  He saw what happened and stated he was not about to go into that house and continued to walk.  I don’t know why he was going there, but it appeared the LORD used the whole incident to open the door for the gospel to others and save a young man from great harm.  The point is simple.  Sometimes the enemies of the cross don’t want to destroy you.  They just want you gone!  Look for opportunities.  They will come.

All of It

“But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets:” (Ac 24:14 AV)

This is Paul’s confession before Felix.  He has been brought from Jerusalem to Caesarea to stand trial before Felix the governor.  Having been accused of insurrection, which is interesting in and of itself, he is harbored to Felix because Felix is the next in line of authority.  The accusers also threatened to have Paul killed on his way to Lysias, chief captain of Jerusalem.  They were feigning a false trial and then planned to have him killed as he was being brought to Lysias.  Knowing this, Lysias arranges a force of 480 men to escort Paul to Felix.  It is the details of Paul’s remarks that stand out this morning.  Note here the definition of heresy.  Paul states that any deviation from the entire word of God that causes division among God’s people is considered heresy.  Now the definition of heresy does not necessarily make a belief heresy.  Paul believed the truth.  Those accusing him of heresy did not.  Because they made the accusations, then they define what is and is not heresy according to their system of belief.  Being labeled a heretic is only bad when considering who it is that is labeling you!  Second, note exactly what it is that Paul is accused of.  He believes everything written in the law.  And there is the rub.  Any time a saint strives to believe it all, there are those even of their own stripe who will not agree.  To be clear of conscience before God, this cannot matter.

It amazes me how those who choose to believe God in all things are ridiculed by those who do not.  And I am not writing about the lost versus the saved.  The word of God is relevant from the first word to the last.  The word of God is perfect.  It was inspired perfectly and without error.  It was and is preserved perfect and without error.  And since we have many instances of active translation occurring within the pages of scripture itself, we can say with certainty that God can and does provide His word perfect and without error even in the process of translation.  Yet the scholars will ridicule those who hold to these scriptural and self-evident truths.  The same is also true of other tenants of the faith.  Separation is perhaps one of the major stumbling blocks for the uncommitted saint.  Scripture itself teaches separation from day one!  Adam and Eve were told to separate from the one tree they were forbidden to eat.  They failed, and all of mankind fell with them.  The dietary laws of the Old Testament speak loudly of separation.  The production of clothing, the sowing of fields, and the alignment of the twelve tribes of Israel all show a separation and distinction between things.  Yet if today’s believer chooses to teach and live according to these standards of separation, he or she will be labeled with unkind titles.

Paul chooses to believe all the Bible.  Not just those parts important to his accusers.  All of it.  Like us, he did not always live it.  He made one of the biggest blunders of his life toward the end of it.  But success in living according to the Bible is related, but not fatally so.  One can believe all the Bible and still fail to live it from time to time.  However, if we do not believe it, then we definitely will not live it.  I admire old Paul.  He has a lot of courage.  He had nothing to lose.  He was willing to stick his neck out for those truths of the Bible that his colleagues refused to embrace.  If you’re going to believe the Bible, you may as well believe it all!

The Unseen Hand

“Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.” (Ac 18:9-10 AV)

It is important to believe in the unseen help which the LORD has already provided.  The phrase “the unseen hand” has uncertain origins and has a wildly different application.  The phrase was popularized in a speech during WWI to describe a hypothetical German force undermining British stability.  The phrase is altered a bit when referring to other unseen forces influencing outcomes.  The unseen hand of God is a theological term used to describe the workings of God that are noticed on their face, yet the details of how it came to pass are unseen.  Because God is infinite and His works follow, by definition most of what God does is unseen.  It is faith in the unseen which gives strength to endure.  We place much value on what can be seen, and we limit the possibility of what cannot be seen.  The opposite should be true.  There should be more faith and value in what cannot be seen than what can be seen.

If you’ve ever had surgery, you know the support staff that tends to your needs is represented by a fraction of those who are in the ER.  I have had a few and I can tell you, the hospital provides many people who are advocating for your health and safety beyond what can be observed.  In the ER you have the doctor and the anesthesiologist.  There is the surgical tech and perhaps a nurse.  Maybe there is one other person.  The most I have had at any one surgery is five medical workers.  Behind them and not directly involved in every detail is the recovery team.  There is the recovery doctor who monitors you as you come out of anesthesia.  There are the nurses who monitor your vital signs and make you comfortable.  Then there are the pharmacists who cross-check all your medications.  These people assure you that no matter the prescription, side effects will be held to a minimum. There are the kitchen staff that prepare your meals, the vendors who provide all the material support needed for your care, and there are the administrators who pay for it all.  There are maintenance people who keep everything running as it should.  There is janitorial staff that provides germ-free environment for your surgery.  In other words, a simple tonsillectomy involves hundreds of people who assure your surgery is successful and safe.

Why is it when it comes to the LORD, we limit what He can do?  We limit him to things that are seen and forget the vast amount that in not seen.  The unseen hand of God bears us far more than we want to credit Him for.  Paul’s life was threatened if he refused to stop preaching about Jesus.  This tempted him to refrain from preaching.  It was the assurance of the unseen hand of God that gave him the courage to preach.  This preaching changed a city.  Paul was bold enough to take for granted God had his back.  God always has our backs.  Regardless of what can or cannot be seen, the LORD is always there.  He is always working.  He is always active even when we cannot see that activity.  Paul was unaware of the help that was waiting for him.  The LORD did not name names.  He did not tell Paul the specifics of who these people were.  The only assurance God gave Paul was that the help existed.  Paul was required to take that by faith and serve Him with courage.  The LORD may never tell us the details of our pending help.  But it is real nonetheless.  Let us presume upon the grace and help of God, going on to victory rather than cower in defeat.

It'll Do The Soul Some Good

“The merciful man doeth good to his own soul: but [he that is] cruel troubleth his own flesh.” (Pr 11:17 AV)

I like how Adam Clarke defines merciful.  He defines it as a gracious disposition.  Somehow, we think that having a critical mind and a gracious spirit are not possible.  We think they are diametrically opposed.  They can be if we allow our critical mind to affect our spirit.  It is right and proper to ask questions and discover the truth.  It is ok to question much in search of truth.  However, if we are not careful, the mind that is critical can also produce a spirit that is soured.  When it comes to people, this is especially important.  The implication of the king is that if we are merciful to others, it does wonders for the soul and spirit.  It is one thing to discern the actions and character of others.  It is entirely something different to allow opinions of facts to change our love for them.  They are people, just like us.  They have hurts and concerns much like we do.  We have character flaws, sins, and downright objectionable personalities just like everyone else.  We are no different.  Having eyes and a heart of mercy not only helps those upon whom we show mercy, but it also helps us deep down inside.

In a few short weeks, many will be watching holiday movies.  One of the favorites of the current generation is The Grinch.  It follows a being who was once soured by the cruel actions of his middle school fellow students.  They mocked him tirelessly for being different.  This led to his escape into a mountain cave and the life of a recluse.  Many years later, a young girl invited him to a town-wide annual Christmas celebration.  It went as expected.  They mocked, as they did many years ago.  He went on a tirade and stole their Christmas.  Everything was gone.  What changed this creature's heart was the cry of the little girl who invited him in the first place.  The lines the Grinch speaks when he hears the cries for help of his little friend are classic.  One of them is “I feel all warm and toasty inside”.  All those years he held on to bitterness and envy.  All those years kept him closed up in a cave.  All those years brought misery and loneliness.  But he never knew how hardened he truly was.  Not unto the felt and exercised mercy did he begin to live again.  Mercy did much good to his soul.

Mercy is not an easy exercise.  At least at first.  What I have noticed is that those who are merciful are merciful as a pattern of life.  They were not born that way.  They chose to live that way.  It took time.  It took a discipline of the mind and heart.  Once it became a pattern, it became instinctual.  What I have also noticed it the more merciful, compassionate, and understanding a person is, the happier they tend to be.  This is to what Solomon is referring.  He is trying to tell us that living a life of mercy toward others will not only benefit others, it will also benefit our own souls.  The kinder we are to all around us, the greater the glow and warmth in our own hearts.  Mercy takes a commitment.  Mercy takes an investment.  Mercy means the welfare of others is more important than our own.  Mercy is a well of life to those who live by it.  Solomon knew of what he spoke.  Now, he is trying to teach his children that kindness and mercy do the soul some good.

But Prayer Was Made

“Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.” (Ac 12:5 AV)

But prayer was made!  It has become cliché, but it is no less true. Prayer changes things.  Even if Peter was not miraculously freed from an unjust prison, prayer was still the most important thing to do.  Prayer has become ineffective because it is treated as a religious exercise rather than that which it truly is.  Prayer is a conversation with God.  Although prayer is effective in a prayer closet, it is just as effective outside of one, too.  Prayer is having a conversation with our Creator regarding things that concern us or others.  It is one of the means by which we grow more intimate with our Creator.  Relationships require communication.  The more communication, the more intimate the relationship.  Those four words speak volumes!  Just because it seems as though a certain event is set in stone and nothing can be done, prayer is the sledgehammer that breaks open the prison bars.  The young church’s instinct was to go to prayer.  They didn’t stand around and wonder what would happen.  They didn’t console one another with tears flowing down the cheeks.  They went to prayer.  The single word ‘but’ tells us that if prayer is involved, a situation is not certain.  Prayer is more powerful than the circumstances of life.  That is the lesson here.

Those four words are not only words of hope.  They are words of action.  There is little to nothing they could have done to help their leader.  He was a pawn in the game of Herod the king.  Seeing that the death of James, brother of John, brought much joy to his subjects, he determined to continue the slaughter by taking Peter, next.  The way he figured it, if he could rule Israel with peace and happiness from his subjects, that would only help him politically.  There was nothing personal here.  Peter was the next one in line to help Herod ascend the ladder of leadership.  There was no trial planned.  There was no due process offered.  As far as Herod was concerned, the only thing that stood in the way of Peter’s death was the planning a public execution would take.  In a matter of hours to days, Peter would have been the next martyr for Jesus Christ.  The prison in which he was held was impenetrable.  The guards stood fast.  The disciples ran a great risk by trying to intervene.  If they did try, they would end up in prison along with Peter.  There was nothing they could physically do.  But prayer was offered, and God intervened.

By going to prayer, the church was not giving up.  They were going up.  They were not hopelessly addressing the throne of God because they felt they would see a funeral within the next few days.  Rather, they went to prayer because they were hopeful.  The word ‘but’ means that prayer was offered because God was greater than the prison house.  God was greater than Herod.  To God, Peter’s situation was nothing.  That is why they went to prayer.  They went to prayer not because they lacked faith.  They went to prayer because they had faith.  Even Rhoda and the rest of the prayer group believed it was Peter’s ghost and not Peter himself standing at the gate only meant that they prayed in faith.  Whether Peter was delivered by life or by death, of that they had no doubt.  They went to prayer because they believed God to be greater than all things.  Therefore, rather than sit and wait for the outcome, they went to prayer until God answered!