Faithful Endurance

 The Apostle Paul made an interesting comment in his second letter to Timothy:

“You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me” (2 Tim. 3:10-11 ESV).

What events was he referring to in these three cities?

Antioch- “But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him…[They] stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district” (Acts 13:45, 50).

Iconium- “When an attempt was made… to mistreat them and to stone them, they learned of it and fled” (Acts 14:5-6).

Lystra- “But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead” (Acts 14:19).

Being stoned and thought dead is extreme persecution, and yet Paul’s reflection is that “from them all the Lord rescued me.” It wasn’t just that Paul survived those events, but that he knew his life was always in God’s hand. “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). As he wrote to the Romans, “I am sure that neither death nor life… will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39).

We in the western church often have a rather one-dimensional understanding of rescue. Many church prayer meetings focus almost exclusively on God’s deliverance from any kind of suffering, rather than through suffering. We assume that God will receive more glory by healing and delivering us than He would by enabling us to be faithful witnesses in sickness, persecution, and death. Paul wrote to the Corinthians:

“But as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger” (2 Cor. 6:4-5).

He says that his reputation as God’s representative is illustrated by enduring hardship, not by being protected from it. Many of our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world have a much more robust theology of suffering because they endure it every day. We’ve been pampered by our culture for a while, but that is not going to last. More Christians are going to suffer in one way or another, and we need to endure as faithful witnesses through whatever trials God allows to come our way.

Lord, keep us faithful to You as You have been faithful to us in and through every circumstance.

“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies” (2 Cor. 4:8-10).

© 2020 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Comfortable Christians?

In Sunday school we’ve been studying the Spiritual Disciplines, based on Donald Whitney’s book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. A couple other good books are Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline, and his son Nathan Foster’s The Making of an Ordinary Saint, among others. The latter book illustrates one man’s attempts to live in the disciplines, and is perhaps the most encouraging example for those of us who try and fail.

As I finished reading these books, the thing that stood out most to me was that the reason we tend to avoid many of the Spiritual Disciplines is that we don’t want to be uncomfortable. Studying and memorizing Scripture takes time, and we don’t want to give up something else in order to make time. Evangelism can lead to some pretty awkward conversations, and we don’t want to look bad. Stewardship means we have to give up some of our resources, and we don’t want to find ourselves shorthanded. Fasting means going without food for some period of time, and most of us have never really experienced true hunger. Prayer seems a little easier, provided we aren’t asked to pray out loud or for a long time. And most of us are used to attending worship services, though we may not actually worship often. Solitude may seem desirable, especially for parents of busy children, but we may be reluctant to use that time to seek God.

I think “comfortable Christians” should be an oxymoron, but it is all too common, especially in the Western world. We’ll put on the religious act so long as it doesn’t inconvenience us or make us look bad. But if it interferes with our work, entertainment, hobbies, and habits, Christianity gets put on the back burner.

Donald Whitney says this about the role of struggle in the Christian life:

“Referring to the Godliness mentioned in 1 Timothy 4:7-8, the Apostle Paul writes in verse 10, ‘And for this we labor and strive.’ The word labor and strive tell us that becoming like Christ involves a lot more than to ‘let go and let God.’ The Greek word translated ‘labor’ means to work until one is weary. We get our English word agonize from the term rendered here as strive” (242).

Does that sound like the kind of effort that most Christians put into seeking godliness? Whitney lists several other Scriptures:

• Colossians 1:29 (ESV)- “For this I toil, struggling with all His energy that He powerfully works within me.”
• John 15:18-19- “If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”
• Galatians 5:17- “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”
• Galatians 6:8- “For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”
• 1 Peter 5:8- “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
• Ephesians 6:11- “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.”

Those don’t sound like encouragement to “make yourself comfortable” while waiting for Christ’s return. No, they are commands to remind us that the battle is real and that we have an enemy who will do anything to try to pull us away from Christ and prevent us from being effective witnesses for His kingdom.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:5-6 Paul writes, “For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.” In this dark world, it’s easy to get complacent. Even though an abrupt end is coming, we lose vigilance as time goes on with no end in sight. Darkness seems so pervasive that our little lights don’t seem to make a difference. It’s easy to get distracted with the routine of living and forget that this world as it currently exists is not our eternal home.

The Spiritual Disciplines are meant to keep our focus on God and to prepare us for eternity. They remind us that some things are more important and comfort and convenience. They help us to run from sin and run to our Savior. They call us to run the race with perseverance, keeping our eyes on the true goal of life only in Christ.

“Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” -1 Timothy 4:7-8