Tag: Patience

Are We True Ministers?

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This is a devotion that comes from 2 Corinthians 6:3-13

The Priority – 3 We live in such a way that no one will stumble because of us, and no one will find fault with our ministry.

Evaluate your life and behavior and see if this is true for you. Do you live in such a way that people will not stumble because of what they see? While no one is perfect, we are expected to strive toward a lifestyle that is honoring to God.

The Pain –  4 In everything we do, we show that we are true ministers of God. We patiently endure troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind. 5 We have been beaten, been put in prison, faced angry mobs, worked to exhaustion, endured sleepless nights, and gone without food.

The point here is that Paul demonstrated that he was an authentic follower of Jesus, he was a true minister of God. He then gives a few examples of his behavior: enduring troubles, hardship and calamity (beatings, prison, angry mobs) and faithfully worked through all of the stresses of his radical obedience to Christ (exhaustion, insomnia, starvation).

The Patience –  6 We prove ourselves by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness, by the Holy Spirit within us, and by our sincere love. 7 We faithfully preach the truth. God’s power is working in us. We use the weapons of righteousness in the right hand for attack and the left hand for defense.

Paul again was simply a man of words, but he proved the kind of person and minister he was (purity, understanding, patience, kindness). He was not able to do it in his own strength, but by the presence of the Holy Spirit and the power of sincere love. He preached the truth in season and out of season, in good times and hard times. He was a faith soldier in God’s service: he could attack the forces of darkness on one side and defend against our common enemy on the other.

The Paradox –  8 We serve God whether people honor us or despise us, whether they slander us or praise us. We are honest, but they call us impostors. 9 We are ignored, even though we are well known. We live close to death, but we are still alive. We have been beaten, but we have not been killed. 10 Our hearts ache, but we always have joy. We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others. We own nothing, and yet we have everything.

Much of the Christian life is a paradox: to save your life, you must lose it; to be first, you must be last; to be great, you must serve others. Paul is listing several lesser known seemingly contradictory statements.

The Parent – 11 Oh, dear Corinthian friends! We have spoken honestly with you, and our hearts are open to you. 12 There is no lack of love on our part, but you have withheld your love from us. 13 I am asking you to respond as if you were my own children. Open your hearts to us!

Paul speaks to the people as a loving parent: kindness, openness, in love even when love has been denied. This passage screams the desire of a parent over a wayward child.

Here’s My Take-Away: We know that hard times will come. The light that we shine to others reveals our faith in God. Our faith can persist even in the face of hardship. It is a demonstration of faith to trust that the Lord is good. When bad things happen, the last thing we want is to be patient. We want to hurry up and move past our troubles. This is the time that God has been preparing us for, and we have the opportunity to grow closer to God. If you are in trouble or in the middle of calamity, muster your patience one day at a time. Live a life of integrity no matter what comes your way!

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Being a Man of Faith

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As men, we are called to invest into our families. Sure, it means investing a lot of money, but think more about time, resources and bringing up our kids to love God and obediently follow Jesus for a lifetime. When you think of working hard toward a future result, I tend to think of farming.

And hardworking farmers should be the first to enjoy the fruit of their labor. (2 Timothy 2:6)

Paul brings up a farmer as one of three illustrations of a faithful servant of the gospel. The other two (soldier and athlete) sound a bit more exciting. Although it’s not Paul’s intent, the truth is that a farmer leads quite an exciting life. Really, he does!

A farmer works one of the most dangerous careers a person can choose. Soldiers may face greater dangers from time to time, but a farmer lives and works between sky and earth everyday. In our day, farming always outranks any other career in producing work-related injuries and death. Farming is not for dabblers, cowards, or the lazy. Farmers can teach us a lot about faith.

In comparison with athletics and soldiering, farming helps us understand the persistent and patient parts of faith. Action and results come fairly quickly for athletes and soldiers, but not for farmers. They place a seed in the ground and later return to harvest the results, but the time between those two actions can be considerable. Successful farmers know how to wait. That is what faith is all about (Hebrews 11:1). Faith looks toward the future. Farmers may not enjoy waiting; but they learn to do it. Waiting doesn’t usually mean doing nothing, but the hardest part of waiting is the waiting.

Farming comes up various times in Scripture.

  1. Jesus used many farming situations in his parables (Matthew 13).
  2. Paul discussed the parallels between farming and the development of believers (1 Corinthians 3:1-9).

In these passages, the farmer usually represents God or an evangelist.

In 2 Timothy 2:6 we get to see ourselves as farmers, and with that privilege comes responsibility. If we’re going to “enjoy the fruit” of our labors, then we had better be “hardworking.” The farmer who is not hardworking will reap what he sows; little or nothing.

A wise farmer knows what he can’t do.

  1. He can’t put life in a seed.
  2. He can’t make it rain.
  3. He can’t force the seed to grow.

There’s much that’s out of his hands. But he does his part. He plants, he waters, he cultivates, and he waits! As believers,

  1. We plant seeds (acts of obedience to God) in one another’s lives.
  2. We deposit seeds (the gospel) in the lives of those who don’t know Christ.

The actual results of these actions are in God’s hands, but we often get to be the first to enjoy those results because we’re there. If we recognize the way we are farmers, we remember we are in the field every day. Every moment becomes a new opportunity to persistently plant, followed by patient waiting to see what God will do.

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The Dangers of Self-Deception

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This last part of James chapter one is really about the dangers of self deception; we must stop kidding ourselves (James 1:22). If a Christian is deceived by Satan it is one thing, it is something totally different when a Christian deceives himself. Sometimes people are deceived into thinking that they are saved or spiritual when they really are not. Jesus spoke about this in his sermon on the mount (Matthew 7:22, 23). The immature person claims to be rich and in need of nothing; not realizing his poverty (Revelation 3:17).

Spiritual reality results from a proper relationship to God through his revealed Word. The Bible is God’s truth (John 17:17). James states three responsibilities toward God’s Word, and if we fulfill them, we will have an honest walk with God and others:

Receive the Word (James 1:19-21): here it is the grafted Word, which mean implanted. Jesus talked about the parable of the sower (Matthew 19:1-9, 18-23) comparing God’s Word planted in the human heart.

  1. Test of the Soil: the human heart is compared to the soils; notice the same seed was soil to each piece of ground.
    1. The hard heart did not understand or receive the word and was fruitless (Mark 4:4, 15).
    2. The shallow heart was emotional with no depth and bore no fruit (Mark 4:5-6, 16-17).
    3. The crowded heart lacked repentance and permitted sin to crowd out the Word (Mark 4:7, 18-19).
    4. The fruitful heart received the Word and it took root and produced a harvest (Mark 4:8, 20).
  2. Test of Salvation: fruit, which means a changed character and conduct. Fruit can be:
    1. Winning people to Christ (Romans 1:16).
    2. Growing in holy living (Romans 6:22).
    3. Sharing material possessions (Romans 15:28).
    4. Spiritual character (Galatians 5:22-23).
    5. Good works (Colossians 1:10).
    6. Even praising the Lord (Hebrews 13:15).

Religious works can be manufactured and have no life in them, and they do not bring glory to God. Real fruit has in it the seeds to bear more fruit.

The Word cannot work in our lives unless we receive it the right way.

  1. Take heed what you hear (Mark 4:24)
  2. Take heed how you hear (Luke 8:18).

Is it the fault of the teacher if they hear yet do not understand (Mark 13:13)? Maybe, but it may be the hearer becoming dull of hearing (Hebrews 5:11).

If the Word is to be implanted, James says we must obey God’s instructions:

  1. Swift to Hear (James 1:19): If someone has ear to hear, let him hear (Mark 13:9). Faith comes by hearing (Romans 10:17). Here is a great illustration of hearing and obeying (2 Samuel 23:15).
  2. Slow to Speak (James 1:19): we have two ears and one mouth for a reason. Sometimes we argue with God’s Word; like the lawyer in Luke 10:29 by asking, “Who is my neighbor?”
  3. Slow to Anger (James 1:19): don’t get angry with God or his Word.
    1. When the prophet Nathan told King David, “You are the man,” David confessed and said that he had sinned (2 Samuel 12:7, 13).
    2. When Peter was in the garden with Jesus, he was slow to hear, swift to speak and swift to anger (John 18:10).
    3. Godly anger is not a sin (Ephesians 4:26) but man’s anger does not produce God’s righteousness (James 1:20)
  4. A Prepared Heart (James 1:21): James saw the heart as a garden; if left to itself it would develop weeds. Yet when a field is prepared, the Word is planted and takes root. If we don’t receive the Word implanted, we are deceiving ourselves. So how can you prepare for this implanting?
    1. Confess sins, and ask for forgiveness (1 John 1:9).
    2. Meditate on God’s love and grace asking him to plow up hardness in your heart (Jeremiah 4:3).
    3. Have an attitude of meekness (James 1:21), which is the opposite of wrath (James 1:19-20).

Practice the Word (James 1:22-25): it is not enough to just hear the Word, we should do it. Hearing a sermon or attending a Bible study is not enough, it is applying and doing what we learn. James give us three ministries of the Word of God as a mirror:

  1. Examination (James 1:23-25): this is the main purpose of a mirror. As we look into God’s Word, we see ourselves for who we really are. James mentions a couple mistakes we must avoid when looking into God’s mirror:
    1. They merely glance at themselves: this is not studying or examining themselves. A casual reading of God’s Word will not reveal the deepest needs in our hearts.
    2. They forget what they see: if they looked deeply into their hearts, they would not forget what they see. Isaiah had a great attitude toward being in God’s presence (Isaiah 6:5). Peter had the same reaction (Luke 5:8). Even Job (Job 42:6).
    3. They fail to obey: they think hearing is the same as doing. We are good at substituting reading for doing; talking for doing; attending for doing. Our education far exceeds our obedience. Look intently into the Word, not just a quick glance (James 1:25); and blessing comes from doing (literally “blessed in his doing”). Why is the Word called the “perfect law of liberty?
      1. Because when we obey it, God sets us free Psalm 119:45).
      2. Because when we commit sin, we are slaves to it (John 8:34).
      3. Because when we obey the Word, we know the truth and it sets us free (John 8:31-32).
  2. Restoration (Exodus 38:8): the tabernacle had something called the laver or basin (between the altar and the most holy place), where the priests would wash up before going inside.
    1. Washing with the Word is an image of its cleansing power (John 15:3).
    2. The church is sanctified through the Word (Ephesians 5:26).
    3. Christ once and for all washed us clean (Titus 3:4-6, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11).
    4. When David fess up to Nathan, he did not stop there, God forgave the sin and David would not die (2 Samuel 12:13). He was assured of forgiveness and cleansing.
  3. Transformation (2 Corinthians 3:18): let’s not confess sin, accept forgiveness and then go right back out to commit the same sins all over again. Let’s conquer sin. Second Corinthians three is a contrast of the old covenant of the law and the new covenant of grace. The law was external and written on stone; but salvation means that his Word is written on our hearts.
    1. Moses and the veil: he came down from the mountain and his face shone (Exodus 34:29-35). He did not want the people to see the glory of God fading away so he veiled his face; it was a veil to hide.
    2. Jesus and the veil: when he died, the veil in the temple was torn and nothing was between God and man. We are to have an unveiled face, no hiding. Take it off (Psalm 139:23-24).
    3. When a child of God looks into the Word (the mirror), he sees the Son of God, and is transformed by the Spirit of God. This change is metamorphosis, a change that comes from the inside out.

Share the Word (James 1:26-27): religion here means the outward practice or service of a god, used only five times in the New Testament (James 1:26-27, Acts 26:5, Colossians 2:18, where it is translated, worshiping). Pure religion practices God’s Word:

  1. Speech (James 1:26): the tongue reveals the heart (Matthew 12:34-35). A controlled tongue means a controlled body.
  2. Service (James 1:27): Isaiah saw the Lord and then he saw himself, and then he sought to go to the people (Isaiah 6:8). Words are no substitute for actions (James 2:14-18, 1 John 3:11-18). James mentions two groups needing special attention, orphans and widows. These are the most vulnerable of our society.
  3. Separation from the world (James 1:27): the world means “the society without God.” It is the domain of Satan (John 14:30).
    1. We are to be in the world but not of it (John 17:11-16).
    2. We are sent into the world (John 17:18).
    3. Be aware that friendship with the world (James 4:4) can lead to a love of the world (1 John 2:15-17).
    4. If we are not careful we can become conformed to the world (Romans 12:2) allowing it to squeeze us into its mold.
    5. The result will be our condemnation with the world (1 Corinthians 11:32).

Jesus remained spotless (1 Peter 1:19) even though he got involved with sinners and outcasts. When we go out into the world, it is important to go in pairs, like Jesus did with his missionaries (Luke 10:1). There is strength, safety and accountability is numbers.