Discipleship in Community: Spiritual Formation and the Church

Transcription

1 Discipleship in Community: Spiritual Formation and the Church SF501 LESSON 18 of 24 John R. Lillis, Ph.D. Experience: Dean and Executive Officer at Bethel Seminary in San Diego, CA. With this session we want to begin the final major section of the course. We have developed a biblical theology of the corporate dimensions of spirituality, placing a great deal of emphasis on the fact that the final goal, the ultimate purpose of spiritual formation is corporate in nature; that is, we are growing up together in Christ. As the model we saw in Ephesians 4:16 where Paul says, From whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. This verse indicates that the growth process, the maturity, the spiritual formation and development is indeed an interdependent process involving us together as we each individually do our part. The goal is the growth of us together and not the individual growth of each individual. Now that s not to say, as we ve indicated, that the individual growth is not important but individual growth is but a means to a higher goal and that s the growth of the body together. And as we ve looked at that we ve seen the centrality of a very important concept and that s the concept of love. You ll recall when we looked at Ephesians 3:16, Paul says, That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you being rooted and grounded in love, (remember the process starts in love), it is rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. To know that love is to have then the fullness of God, that love that surpasses knowledge. 1 of 14

2 And going on in this passage in verses 1 and 2 of chapter 4, Paul says, I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love. The life that we live together as we grow together in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as we grow towards that fullness that God would have for us that life is to be characterized by love. And then down in verse 13 Paul says, Until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. Here he is picturing the goal. And just as love has been the foundation that which starts the process, rooted and grounding in love, and just as love is the measure of the progress in the process, the measure of the degree to which we are growing and a standard by which we evaluate that growth, that which should characterize us in the process as we love one another, so love also is seen here as the end towards which we are growing as we achieve that mature man, the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ, and that fullness of Christ takes us back to chapter 3:19 where we have seen it s directly linked to knowing the love of Christ. In this final segment of the course, in these last seven lectures that we have together, we want to talk about putting it to work, making it work, making it happen in our lives, and how can we do that? What are some concrete suggestions? Some concrete direction that we can give in this corporate process, in this growing up together in the Lord that we are to accomplish? Paul again in one of his letters dealing with a church which was struggling in this area, dealing with a church which was very individualistic and which was missing the corporate point, Paul instructed them as to how they might initiate and implement and continue this corporate spiritual growth together. Of course, I m talking about the first epistle to the Corinthians, and we ve already talked about this briefly earlier on in the course as we looked at the first three verses of 1 Corinthians 13 and saw again here illustrated the centrality and the importance of love. Love being the very essence in the entire process, and as I indicated then, I will indicate again now that this chapter is found right in the heart of a larger argument that is dealing with the life of the body together, the practice of the spiritual gifts, mutual interdependent ministry one to another, defining in a very 2 of 14

3 practical and concrete way the specific nature of the interpersonal and relational matrix that makes up the context of this spiritual growth; the church at Corinth as an assembly, as a family. So in our time together we want to look now at some concrete things, and Paul provides those for us in a very vivid way in 1 Corinthians 13 in four verses beginning with verse 4 and ending in verse 7 in which he says, Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. In these four verses Paul provides for us a functional description of love, love in practice, describing for us this principle that should govern our life together, describing for us in detail the atmosphere that should prevail in our lives together as brothers and sisters in Christ. And so we want to look at these. We want to look at each of the characteristics that Paul has for us here in these four verses; each of the characteristics of the description of love. Now understand, I m not saying that this is a definition of love. It is not a definition of love. We ve attempted that functionally earlier in the course but here we have a description, an idea, if you would, of corporate disciplines together, how we are to interact together, how we can tell that indeed we are growing up together as each individual part does its work and indeed these characteristics that we re going to look at describe for us the work that each individual part is to do. So let s focus our attention on them, and obviously we re going to spend a lot of detail, a lot of time and detail on each one of these and talk about them, the characteristics, that is from the perspective of our corporate life together, that interpersonal and relational matrix that we constitute; the interdependent relationships that we have as we grow up together. We ll look in this session at the first of them: Love is patient, and then as time allows we ll begin the second. Love is patient. This is from the Greek word makrothumeό, and it means to be and is translated this way in other versions to be longsuffering, to have patience, to be forbearing, to bear with someone. As you re probably aware there are different Greek words in the New Testament that are translated patience. This word has a different implication than the others. 3 of 14

4 Makrothumeό (longsuffering) is that quality of self-restraint in the face of provocation which does not hastily retaliate or promptly punish. That is when confronted with some type of provocation the person manifesting this characteristic, manifesting this virtue, does not respond, does not retaliate, does not strike back as such it is the opposite of anger. It s often associated with mercy and very often used especially in the Old Testament to describe God. Now this is in contrast to some of the other words which are translated patience in our English versions that refer to bearing up under trial. For example, opomenu is the quality that does not surrender to circumstances or succumb under trial, that being the opposite of despondency and is associated with hope and is generally used to describe humans and is never used to describe God. The word that we have here in 1 Corinthians 13:4; however, that is translated patient is often used, as I ve indicated to describe God, and because of that we can gain a better understanding of the specific details, the concrete implications of love as it is worked out in this way for us in terms of our relationships one to another as we go back to the Old Testament and see this word used in its Old Testament context. Often New Testament writers would use a particular word, a particular Greek word in their writings not because so much of its contemporary meaning in the Greek context of their time, but often because of the rich meaning that the word had through its Old Testament usage in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. In fact the Septuagint was the Bible for much of New Testament Christianity in the Greco Roman world. This word makrothumeό, I believe, in light of Paul s usage here especially is one such word. I believe that Paul is using this word, love is patient, beginning his description of love with this word in light of its Old Testament significance, its Old Testament implications especially as it s used to describe the longsuffering, merciful, patient nature of the God of Israel. Elsewhere as you know, Paul exhorts us to love as God loves. And so it s no mistake that Paul begins the list of the characteristics that should describe our relationship in love with one another with this particular word. For indeed in the Old Testament we see this word used primarily to describe God and most often it s used to translate the phrase 4 of 14

5 that we have in our English slow to anger. This word is used 14 times in the Old Testament and ten of those times it s used to describe God. It s used often by God Himself to reveal His glory to mankind; something of His nature to those people who are His followers, to those people who are His covenant people. Now again, this is especially significant as we remember that we are to love one another as God loves. In Exodus 34:5-7, for example, in his revelation to Moses, we read, And the Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him (this is Moses) as he called upon the name of the Lord. Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations. Now recall if you would the provocations of the children of Israel during the exodus how they constantly complained and bickered, how they rebelled against God time and time again. In fact, after the Kadesh Barnea episode in which the 12 spies had gone into the land and they came back and most of them said, We can t go in there, we ll be conquered, and the people rebelled. Moses reminded God what He had said in Exodus 34 as God indicated to Moses that he might as well put these people away, do away with them, and Moses said to God in Numbers 14:18 that, You said, the Lord is slow to anger abounding in love, and forgiving sin and rebellion; reminding him of this characteristic and how indeed this characteristic of patience, of longsuffering, of being slow to anger, being slow to respond and retaliate in the face of provocation that warranted such retaliation that in the face of all that, this was the nature of God s love. He was a God such as this. In His love He bore long with them and indeed they finally arrived at the Promised Land, and they arrived at the Promised Land because this God who was a loving God is a God who is slow to anger as part of that love. Now note that that does not mean that God winks at sin or that punishment is ignored or His wrath is simply done away with. Verse seven makes that very clear, Yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of the father on the children on the grandchildren to the third and 5 of 14

6 fourth generations, and we need to keep that in mind as we re talking about this particular characteristic of love, this particular characteristic that is to describe our relationship together. Well, turn with me also now to the Psalms and in particular to the 103rd Psalm where we see this word used again to describe God in His being slow to anger, being patient, and thereby being a loving God. In the eighth verse we read, The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. Note again the relationship here between the word that we re looking at slow to anger, that s the English translation of makrothumeό in the Greek Septuagint here. Note the relationship between that slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness, abounding in love. An illustration of the fact that God abounds in love, that God is a loving God, an illustration of love is the fact that He is slow to anger. The emphasis here in the 103rd Psalm is that God does not immediately deal with us as our sin deserves. God does not instantly pour out His wrath for our sin, although He would certainly be justified in doing so. That s the implication of the Psalm. It s an illustration, a demonstration of God s love, His being slow to anger. Now as we move to the New Testament, we see similar ideas concerning this concept of love and being longsuffering, being slow to anger, illustrated as well and again here we see the concept, the word being used to describe God as it was in the Old Testament and His nature with respect to His people, His covenant people. In 2 Peter 3 for example, beginning at verse 4, we read (and let s go up to verse 3 to get the context), Knowing this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts... And now verse 4, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation. For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word 6 of 14

7 of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But the present heavens and earth by His word are being reserved for fire, kept for the Day of Judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. And then verse 9, The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, that is He is not retaliating, He is not reacting, He is not responding to the provocation. not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. It s an act of love because He is not retaliating, He is not responding as the sin deserves because He wants the best for those people. He wants them to respond in repentance. He wants them to come to an understanding of the salvation that He offers through His grace by faith in Christ Jesus. And it s interesting as you look at that passage there, verses 3-9, as you think about the magnitude of God s love as demonstrated by His longsuffering in light of man s rejection. Recall the history of Israel, God s chosen covenant people, was one of continual rejection of God. They often refused to believe what He told them. They refused to do things His way. They would reject Him and go after other gods. They would refuse to trust in Him for deliverance but would trust in their own power, their own strength, or in unholy alliances with other governments and other peoples. They were stubborn in not obeying. Peter is saying the longsuffering of God towards us is incomparably great as you look at the rejection. God has withheld His wrath in order to demonstrate His love and mercy in a tremendous way. He returns to the theme a few verses later in verse 15 of this third chapter of 2 Peter, looking at verse 14 again to get the context we read, Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience (the longsuffering, slow to anger), regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you God s longsuffering means salvation, building on the Old Testament concept and, remember as we defined love earlier, love is an act that is accomplished for the benefit of someone else. Love focuses on the other and is a sacrificial act with no hope of anything in return that is done for the benefit, and so here Peter describes this patience, this longsuffering as being for our 7 of 14

8 salvation, being for our benefit, so we see him tying that idea of longsuffering, the makrothumeό, 1 Corinthians 13:3 and used here tying it into love. The New Testament continues to build upon that Old Testament concept but now also moves it from the idea of just applying to God and then focuses it on us as well. Things that we should do towards one another, a behavior that we should enact with respect to our mutual relationships to one another because this is the way God loves. For example, the parables that Jesus told in Matthew 18, beginning at verse 21, in the discussion of forgiveness, says Then Peter came and said to Him, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times? Jesus said to him, I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a certain king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. And you know there, then Jesus gave the parable of the unmerciful servant, the servant who had come to the king and owed him a vast amount of money and the king in verse 25 said, But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and in repayment to be made. And then verse 26 says, The slave therefore falling down prostrated himself before him, saying, Have patience with me. And there s our word. Have patience. Be longsuffering with me. Do not respond to me in a way that my provocation and a way that this debt certainly demands but have patience and I will repay you everything. And again at verse 27, And the lord of that slave felt compassion, he loved him and released him and forgave him the debt. Then an interesting thing happens as we read on, you remember, of course, that he then is slave, the servant, encountered a fellow servant who owed him but a pittance especially in comparison to that which he had owed the king, and so verse 29 says, So his fellow slave fell down and began to entreat him saying, Have patience with me and I will repay you, begging exactly the same thing that this other servant had just pleaded with the king. Have patience, be longsuffering, be merciful, and you know, of course, that he was unwilling to do that and had him thrown into prison. 8 of 14

9 Note if you would the difference, the distinction, the contrast between the two acts of longsuffering and forgiveness; one was asking his king to forgive him a vast unpayable actual debt whereas the other servant, his fellow servant was asking him to forgive but a pittance, and he refused to do that. He refused to love as he had been loved. He refused to manifest the patience and the longsuffering that had been demonstrated to him. The point that Jesus is making with this parable is that we are to be longsuffering with one another because God has done the same with us to an infinite degree, and it s interesting we see added here the idea of forgiveness to this concept of longsuffering. God s wrath will never come upon us that are His disciples because we have been forgiven, and this must also be another part of our relations with one another. Longsuffering does not mean that we stew under our breath, that we mumble and grumble and complain but that we forgive our brother or sister that we are dealing with, that we forgive them of the sin that they ve committed against us. That s the added idea that we see here to this concept of longsuffering. Notice that God s forgiveness means the consequences of the offense are never experienced by us. That indeed is consistent with the Old Testament concept as well as we saw in Psalm 103 when it talked about removing our sin as far as the east is from the west. Thus for us to forgive one another, for us to truly be longsuffering with one another must be to let go of the offense that our brother or sister has committed against us. It means that we must interact with them in a way in which the consequences of their sin have no meaning in our relationship. That s what it means to forgive and to forget. Not to forget the fact, that s impossible, but rather to interact with that individual, to live with them in such a way that the fact of their sin has no meaning in our relationship. In Paul s writings, we see that this longsuffering, this particular aspect, manifestation of love, is a necessary part of the Christian life. More importantly as we read through Paul, we see that this God-like character, this aspect that should be manifested in our beings, is a result of the Holy Spirit s working in our life. For example, in the book of Galatians in the fifth chapter as we re reading the fruit of the Spirit in verse 22, he says, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness Now it s interesting here by the way he uses the two words in tandem, patience and kindness, that he also uses in tandem and in the same 9 of 14

10 way in 1 Corinthians 13. If you ll recall the second characteristic of love, the second description of love is kindness, and here it s seen as the fruit of the Spirit. This is not something that we work up in our own flesh but it s a characteristic of the Christian who is walking after the Spirit and not after the flesh. And then over in Colossians 1, beginning at verse 10, it says, So that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience. There again we see this as the result of God s power in our life. There in verse 11, he said, Strengthened with all power and in verse 9 (we didn t read this) but Paul is praying, he never ceases to pray and to ask that they might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding so that they would be strengthened with power, and then God s power would result in steadfastness and patience, longsuffering in their life. And then in Ephesians, the portion that we just looked at earlier in Ephesians 4, you ll recall that in the first three verses they re talking about forbearing one another in love. He says, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience Now notice this, with patience, with longsuffering showing forbearance to one another in love, again tied intimately to love and to our relationship to one another, bearing long with one another and then being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. What a beautiful description of the life that we have together and the life which the context very clearly indicates is a life we have received from God and a life that will lead to unity, an important aspect of this corporate maturity that we are to have. We are to grow up together to become the mature man and that mature man together that we constitute is characterized by unity; and that unity will only occur as we learn to love one another and in that love, as we forbear with one another, as we are longsuffering. Well, how is that applied in our life together? Here we ve seen a biblical description. We ve built a biblical idea going to some representative passages in both the Old and the New Testament; in the New Testament the gospels as well as the epistles and 10 of 14

11 we ve seen that through these representative passages that this is a very integral part of this concept of love. How does that work itself out in our life together? Well, there are four areas, I think, as we grow up together, as we live together as the body of Christ, as we exist together in this interpersonal and relational matrix that is defined by this interdependent dynamic of love. The first area has to do in our corporate relations of ministry to those outside the church. Remember Christ in John 13 said that, We will be recognized as His disciples through our love. People will know, He said in John 17, the world will know that He has been sent, the Father has sent Him because we are united. We are manifesting love. It s part of our testimony, and in that testimony, in that witness to others, as we bear witness explicitly of the gospel, as we bear witness in a loving way of the sin of the world, of the sin of those around us who need to be redeemed from that sin. People will react to us in ways that they ll often try to humiliate us, embarrass us. They will attack our beliefs. They will act in very provocative ways towards us, provoking us, or attempting to provoke us to anger. People don t respond to our acts of love in a positive way always. They can often and will often respond negatively to our acts of love. We have a responsibility then to be longsuffering because love is longsuffering, and as His disciples, we are to be characterized by that love. There are many examples of this throughout the history of the church. I think back to the five missionaries with Jim Elliot back in the 50s, who went to the Auca Indians in South America, and the five men flew in, Nate Saint, landed on the beach and were trying to reach the Aucas and they were killed. They were murdered, brutally murdered by these tribal people, and the way that some of their wives responded (Elisabeth Elliott and others) staying on, and becoming, and being a part of the witness into that tribal group so that ultimately the Aucas came to Christ. The Aucas came to Christ in response to that love, a love that was characterized by longsuffering, a love that would not respond in anger and would not respond in kind to the provocation that it experienced, and as a result the gospel went forth and bore fruit. Well, in addition to our relation in ministry to those outside the church, we also need to exhibit this patience, this longsuffering, this slowness to anger in our relations as co-laborers together in 11 of 14

12 the church. It s interesting in this body that makes up the church and this body of believers, this group of people together, we don t always agree on the way things ought to be done. In fact, we don t always agree on what ought to be done. We re not all gifted in the same way, and as a result of that, disputes arise over relatively minor issues. A fellow worker does something that really hurts me, a brother or sister in Christ says something that pierces my soul that angers me or hurts me. People don t understand me and say things about me, and I m talking about things that happened in the context of ministry, happened in the context of those who are involved in full-time vocational ministry. I can recall when I was in seminary preparing to go to the mission field and I was taking a class in missions and the professor was saying the number one problem on the mission field for missionaries is not learning the language, it s not learning the culture, it s not learning to live in a foreign country, it s not learning to deal with people of another nationality. He said the number one problem is learning to get along with other missionaries. Well, at the time I thought he was crazy and then I spent eight years in a cross-cultural context and indeed found out that the number one problem was learning to love my fellow missionaries, learning to love and act and respond in a loving way to my colleagues in ministry. And interestingly enough, as I ve talked to other friends that I had who were involved in ministry vocations, it s not a problem that s limited just to cross-cultural situations but in staffs here in the States, whether it s church ministries or parachurch ministries, learning to get along, and that requires being longsuffering, being able to not respond when provoked. When someone doesn t agree with us on either what should be done or how it should be done, when people feel that their way of ministry is the only way of ministry, when there are disputes over minor issues, not being provoked to anger but responding in a loving way which is characterized by this slowness to anger. It s responding in longsuffering. Well, in addition to those outside the church and those with whom we labor together in ministry vocations, there s also just our everyday relations with one another as Christians. Let s be honest with one another: People do things that get on our nerves and people within the church don t appreciate what we do for them. People don t listen to what we tell them. People don t respond like we think they ought to or as quickly as we think they ought to and 12 of 14

13 so often we re tempted to be provoked. We re tempted to respond in anger. We re tempted to respond in a more intense way, if you would, and not to be slow to anger, not to be longsuffering as God is. In other words, we re tempted not to love as God has loved us. And it s a common occurrence. If you ve ever been involved in discipling someone, a new Christian, and you re trying to nurture them along and to help them along in their Christian life and they consistently fall in a particular area, and it s very tempting to just finally lose your temper and to come down on them hard. We need to respond to them in a loving way. Finally, there s our relationships with our families. How often, in this setting with a spouse, with a child, with a parent, with a brother or sister, is it so easy to say, I love you? Those three little words we say so quickly, sometimes so glibly, and yet sometimes it is so infrequent that we practice this love, that we have verbalized, that we have articulated. Our mate does or says something that really irritates us. The kids are getting on our nerves. Relatives (brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles, aunts) have 101 ways of irritating us. I think so many blow-ups; so many longterm splits could be avoided if we would practice this aspect of love, of living together in love, of being longsuffering, of being patient, slow to anger as God is slow to anger, loving as God loved. In each of these four areas, the practice of this particular characteristic of love, the fact that love is patient or longsuffering, would greatly benefit our churches and indeed, I believe, is a direct measure of the degree to which we corporately are growing up in the Lord. We corporately are growing into Him who is the head, growing into the full measure of Christ as He would have us, becoming that corporate man, that corporate mature being that God would have us to be as families of God, as churches; learning to be longsuffering with one another as we labor together in the gospel, as we labor together on a day-to-day basis, just being able to be longsuffering, to not respond in kind, to not allow ourselves to be provoked to the anger even when anger has been displayed against us. This is an extremely important aspect of the spiritual formation that together we re engaged in. It s a very important aspect of the growth process that we have become involved in together when we enter this family of God, when we are grafted in to the people of God. Learning to love means learning to be longsuffering, to be patient, to be slow to anger with respect to one another. 13 of 14

14 In our next session, we ll pick up the second characteristic, the fact that love is kind. This characteristic has been a passive characteristic. We don t retaliate. The flip side of the coin is what we do; rather than not retaliating, we should respond in kindness. Christ-Centered Learning Anytime, Anywhere 14 of 14