What Kind Of Freedom?

“Calvinists believe in God’s sovereignty and Arminians believe in man’s Freedom.” This is what many Christians believe. What is also often assumed is that Arminians do not believe in God’s sovereignty and Calvinists do not believe in man’s freedom. Yet, the reality is that Arminians also believe in God’s sovereignty and Calvinists also believe in man’s freedom. The difference comes down to how sovereignty and freedom are defined for each.

Though the average Christian may not be familiar with a third group of Christians, Molinists, those who are in this camp share at least two things with Arminians:  They both define freedom the same and they both disagree with how Calvinists define freedom. As such, some may be tempted to conclude, as is done with Arminians and Calvinists, that Molinists believe in freedom and Calvinists do not. However, such is not the case. Both believe in freedom, but define it differently.

I won’t define Molinism in this post. I will leave that for another time. I introduce the difference that Molinism has with Calvinism on man’s freedom because a friend of mine, Tim Stratton, of Free Thinking Ministries and a former pastor at the Kearney Evangelical Free Church, has blogged frequently the past three-four years, advocating Molinism, and, as a committed Calvinist, I have decided to interact with him on the subject. It should be fun!

Where I have decided to jump in is on the subject of freedom.

Now, before turning to the subject at hand, I need to make an admission in the interest of full disclosure. I really like and respect Tim a great deal. And, I highly respect the Molinist view and others who advocate it and who have made wonderful contributions to the Church in so many ways—not the least of which is William Lane Craig. I do not believe that Molinists are the Visigoths threatening the gates of the kingdom.

Tim, Bill Craig, and other advocates of Molinism seek to put forth a view of God’s sovereignty and man’s freedom that does several things which I appreciate very much: They seek to be biblical, deal with the whole of Scripture, preserve a strong view of God’s sovereignty at the same time they preserve man’s freedom, and they also seek to deal with the material in a manner that is philosophically sound. So, though I disagree with their position, this is a debate between two brothers who love and respect each other (and want to represent accurately the other’s position). I would gladly lock arms with Tim on the front lines and gladly stand shoulder-to-shoulder with him to serve Christ together in almost 100% of ministry opportunities. I do believe the debate is important, but it also needs to remain a family dialogue between brothers. I believe Tim and I are positioned to do just that. So, let’s get to it.

Tim’s View Of Human Freedom

In a June 8 Free Thinking Ministries post Tim, in contending that Molinism is a biblical position, argues that “humans possess libertarian freedom” and that this is taught in Scripture. Tim not only defines libertarian freedom in explanations he offers from some key biblical texts, but he also argues these cited texts defend libertarian freedom. The key defining statements, along with  the texts that allegedly defend them, are as follows: 

1. Deuteronomy 30:14 ("But the word is very near you. It is on your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it." [emphasis added]): Tim focuses on the last six words which, in his mind, strongly suggest libertarian freedom, namely that disobeying or unbelieving people have the ability to choose otherwise than what they are currently choosing.

2. 1 Corinthians 10:13 (“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”): Tim comments, “Accordingly whenever one sins, they did not have to as there was a genuine ability to do otherwise (‘a way of escape’) available for them to choose.” (emphasis is his)

3. 2 Corinthians 10:5 (“We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ”); Colossians 2:8 (“See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit… and not according to Christ”); Ephesians 6:12 (“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places”): Tim comments on this cluster of texts: “Paul states that ‘we’—and implies that we  ought to—take our thoughts captive to obey Christ. Paul seems to teach that we are responsible free thinkers of the libertarian variety…. that our thoughts are not causally determined and forced upon us from external sources; we possess the ability to think otherwise…. that we ought to take our thoughts captive to obey Christ—to obey reality! He also teaches that we can be taken captive by incorrect thinking… [and] that humanity is engaged in a battle…. No, whether we realize it or not, each and every one of us is in a battle for our mind!” Tim then concludes: Paul urges us to take our thoughts captive before they take us captive. We are responsible for our thoughts and thus, we ought to be free thinkers! Which is not even possible on a deterministic view as many Calvinists affirm.” (emphasis added)

4. 2 Timothy 1:7 (“for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”): Tim writes: “Paul is clear that Christians are not controlled by anything external to ourselves. He makes it clear that God has given Christians an ability to be in control…. If Christians have self-control, then something other than the self is not in control.” (emphasis added)

5. Philemon 14 (“but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own [free will].”[1]): Tim, in essence, says that this text, read in light of the above texts (the larger biblical context), certainly would seem to speak of libertarian freedom.

My careful and scholarly friend defines libertarian freedom in the following ways. To begin, it is a kind of freedom that means a person can think and do otherwise than what he is currently doing and ultimately that person has the ability to choose to think or do other than what he chooses or thinks. In other words, if a genuinely free person is currently not exercising self-control when it comes to the cheese cake set before him, he can choose to have self-control and say, “No.” And, in fact, if he chooses to exercise self-control by saying, “No,” to it, being truly free in the libertarian sense, he could have also chosen to eat the cheese cake. Additionally, libertarian freedom means a person’s decision is made within himself and not decided by causes external to himself. To be force-fed or hypnotized to eat the cheese cake is not a free decision.

The Calvinist holds to what is often called compatibilistic freedom. This view that believes a decision is free if the person making it truly wants to make that decision (regardless of the level of causality or what kind of alternativity is present) is so called since it is alleged that genuine freedom is compatible with a view of God’s sovereignty that sees the latter as absolute. In other words, God’s sovereignty is not conditional upon or limited by anything outside himself, such as human decisions. If libertarian freedom is the kind of freedom humans possess, then it must be said that at least some humans’ decisions could not go a different way, even by God’s governance or his deciding to create a different world based upon his innate middle knowledge (as Molinists argue). This would mean that even though Molinists have a strong view of God’s sovereignty as exercised through his meticulous providence, it is still at least somewhat conditional upon or limited by man’s choices.

With our different views of freedom delineated, I can now go on to respond to Tim. My response is threefold:

1. As a compatibilist, I agree with most of what Tim writes about freedom.

2. However, as a compatibilist, I have a few important disagreements.

3. I believe each of the texts is better explained by compatibilistic and not libertarian freedom.

In the remainder of this post I will address the first part of the response in more detail and then address the remaining two in future posts.

My Agreement With Tim

To begin, I agree with Tim that Dt. 30:14 is saying that readers or listeners can obey God’s Word or his will. I have no problem believing that God has given people the faculties to respond to his revelation, in other words intellect, affections, and will. Man lacks nothing he needs to understand and obey.  What is more, in no way did God create human beings unable to understand and obey God’s Word, or make his revelation such that only a select few can follow him. This is one of the reasons Paul asserts that no one can stand before God someday and argue, “God, I did not have a chance.” After all, not just Special Revelation, but also General Revelation is within human grasp and ability. (Rom. 1:20).

I would say that man has the natural ability to understand, choose, and obey. Though I will address what natural ability is in greater detail in the next post, here I will simply give an example. An example of a natural ability in the physical realm is a person who has the “tools” it takes to walk up a flight of stairs—he has two legs that function. A natural inability would involve a paraplegic who is unable to walk up a flight of stairs. God created mankind with the natural ability to trust in and obey him and this is part of why man is responsible for his lack of trust and obedience.

Second, I agree with Tim that in 1 Corinthians 10:13 the Christian has the ability to say, “Yes,” to God and “No,” to sin. In fact, this reality is one of the reasons Calvinists are so adamant in defending compatibilistic human freedom and absolute sovereignty in salvation (more about this in the next post).

But, again, I want to be more specific in my answer. The person who has been regenerated by the Spirit of God not only has the natural ability to trust in and obey God (and say, “No” to temptation), he also has the moral ability to do so. This is because God has so transformed the Christian in salvation that he sees the need for trusting in God, wants to trust in the gospel, does so, and all this because he has the Spirit in him to transform his intellect, affections, and will, and so has what might be called the general desire and ability to trust in and obey God.

This general ability is similar to the person who is characterized by the ability to swim. This says nothing about whether or not she is near water right now and can actualize that ability, but she has it generally. A fellow passenger might jokingly ask her after hearing their seats can be used as flotation devices if the plan crashes, “Hey, can you swim?”  She answers, “Yes.” She means she has the general ability to swim, not that she has the particular ability to do it at that time.  After all, she is not near water.

In regard to 1 Corinthians 10:13, I would also say that for many Christians who are trusting in this promise of God and have habituated themselves to say, “Yes” to God and “No” to temptation (e.g. 1 Tim. 4:7; Heb. 5:14), or at least have not habituated themselves in the other direction toward temptation (e.g. 2 Pt. 2:14), they have the particular ability to obey God and avoid temptation in a particular situation. However, there is also the possibility that a Christian with moral and general ability to avoid sin can lack the particular ability, if their antecedent choices (including habituation) take them in a direction in which they cannot at that moment say, “Yes,” to God. Why? Because God created them this way or forced them?  No, but because their desire to make the other choice, shaped by antecedent movements in their own heart, is so strong.

An example, going back to the swimming analogy would be this. Suppose a woman who is an accomplished member of a college swim team and who enjoys swimming, has the natural, moral, and general ability to swim, yet she finds herself at a friend’s house for a party. She did not understand from the invitation how long the party would last, nor that it a pool party and so she had planned a date with her boyfriend after this party and she did not bring a swimming suit. Given these antecedent movements, which also include her desire for her hair to remain intact for her date and her distaste of using anyone else’s swimming suit, she has a strong desire not to swim. Does she have the natural, moral, and general ability to swim, to choose otherwise than saying, “No,” to swimming? Yes. But, given her strong disposition to decline, she lacks the particular ability to decide to swim.

Finally, I agree with Tim on the cluster of passages that call us to take captive our thoughts and that to do so suggests our free choices are not causally determined and forced upon us from external sources. In fact, any informed compatibilist says, “Amen!” to this. Compatibilists believe a free choice is one that a person truly wants to make and emerges from their own will. This is the essence of how a compatibilist defines a free choice. It is a common misconception that Calvinism believes God forces people against their will to make a choice. Of course, this says nothing yet about the relationship of God’s absolute sovereignty to man’s decisions. That will also await a future post.

This should show that the compatibilist or Calvinist approach is more nuanced than many suspect and it has more in common with Molinism than some would admit. However, there are important disagreements when it comes to freedom. To those disagreements I will turn next time.

Joyfully Following Our Sovereign God With You As We Love Those Who Disagree With Us,

Tom

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[1] This is an earlier ESV edition’s translation. The current ESV reads “accord” in place of “free will.”

Marriage: A School Of Discipleship

In Ephesians 5:32, after Paul has addressed how husbands and wives relate to each other, he writes: “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” Often I have said that one of Paul’s points is this statement is that marriage exemplifies how Christ and the Church relate in the different roles they have to each other. What I have not emphasized enough is that another point Paul makes here is that marriage is a school of discipleship, providing through example and experience a magnified and intensified example for how we relate to Christ, how he works in us, and how we are to relate to each other as Jesus followers. In other words, no matter what your marital status is, you can learn from marriage.

 This all sounds good and makes sense. But, is it something the Bible teaches? I believe it is for the following reasons:

 Genesis 1-3:

In Ephesians 5:31 Paul refers back to Genesis 2:24 and cues the reader into the fact that this picture of Christ and the Church goes back to the creation itself. In the Bible’s account of creation and the fall we discover that marriage teaches us:

·         We are created in the image of God as social beings who function best in community, not as isolated individuals (Gen. 1:26-28; 2:18). Marriage meets this need in part, but the need goes beyond marriage. We need other people.

 ·         Though a couple can be placed in a paradise, like Eden (cf. Gen. 2:4-24), or in a new marriage with romance, hope, the promise that life holds for them, and the close bonds that God designed in marriage, they cannot make marriage work well on their own. They need the grace of God. The same is true of all relationships, no matter how promising they seem.

 ·         Once sin enters the picture, it forms a wedge between husband and wife, as well as between all other individuals and relationships (Gen. 3:12; 4:1-16). Grace is needed if any relationship is to flourish and not to be devastated by evil.

 Marriage functions as this school of discipleship in large part because it magnifies and intensifies both the joys of relationships and the pains that emerge in them.

 Ephesians 5:

A second reason we know marriage is designed by God not just for the happiness of the couple (Gen. 2:18), for procreation, and for the welfare of children (Malachi 2:15), but also as a school of discipleship is found in Ephesians 5 itself. Paul writes in 5:1-2 that all believers (male, female, married, and not married) are to love others as Christ loved the church. Then, in 5:25 husbands specifically are given that admonition. In other words, it is not just husbands who are to love their wives like Christ. All Christians are to love each other like Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. What this most likely means is that by experience husbands are enrolled in a school of discipleship in which they learn to love their wife and, as a result, learn much about how to love other persons, no matter the relationship. What it also means is that all believers can look at marriage and learn, either by positive example or negative example, how to love others.

Revelation 19:6-10:

In the last pages of the Bible a marriage feast is used to describe the celebration of believers in heaven, once they are in the presence of their Lord. This way of describing the divine-human relationship is used elsewhere in Scripture (cf. Ezek. 16; Hosea 1-3) and suggests that one of the purposes God has in marriage is for it to be a school in which we learn about God, self, each other, and life.

1 Timothy 3:2, 4:

A final reason I will give for marriage serving as a school of discipleship is found in the qualifications for overseers (that is, elders or pastors). Paul writes they are to be one-woman men and also are to be able to manage well their households. Most likely part of the rationale behind these qualifications is that these leaders are to set an example in their lives (cf. 1 Tim. 4:12), but also because if a pastor cannot love and lead his wife and/or children reasonably well, how will he be able to love and lead others?

The So What:

To understand that marriage is a school of discipleship not only reminds husbands and wives of the importance of their marriage for their family, the church, and all society, it also lets all Christians know that teaching on marriage benefits them, no matter what their marital status is.

This point is important since we are moving into a six-week-long series on marriage tomorrow.

My prayer for this series is that it will not only grow and strengthen marriages, but all of us in our faith family.

Joyfully Learning From Marriage With You,

Tom

Recovering From Scriptural Anorexia

Over seven hundred years before the days of Jesus a prophet named Amos told the nation of Israel, already tottering on the edge of destruction from their sin and rebellion, that “the days are coming…when [God] will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD” (Amos 8:11). Like generations who had gone before them and who had the Word, but did not pay attention to it, God would make his revelation (which is “better…than thousands of gold and silver pieces,” Ps. 119:72), rare (1 Samuel 3:1), to the point of being non-existent.

This appears to be a pattern God follows when people, churches, and whole denominations have the Bible in abundance and a rich heritage of fidelity to the Word, yet fall into scriptural anorexia. They look into the mirror of God’s Revelation and rather than seeing themselves honestly and responding accordingly, as they should (James 1:22-25), they think to themselves, “Boy, I’m getting a little too fat when it comes to God. Maybe I should tune it back some.” And that some becomes more and more. “Man, I just don’t have time to read the Word, attend Church, be part of a Bible Fellowship.” They become skinnier and skinnier, more unhealthy and weaker all the time.

And here is the sad part of this all!  Often people can be in the midst of abundant biblical food and yet be starving just the same because they think they are fine without it, don’t need it. And scriptural anorexia threatens their own walk with Christ, their testimony, their family, and their marriage. And, what is worse, more times than not, this anorexia ends up being a famine of God’s Word.

We are so blessed in our faith family. From children’s church and Sunday School to AWANA, to Unashamed Youth, to our Bible Fellowships, Iron Man/Woman Teams, our Sunday morning singing and teaching, our congregation has an abundance of God’s Word, a banqueting table of Scriptural teaching.

Don’t be scripturally anorexic!  Realize the precious blessing we have, not only in the teaching, but the tools we have been given. Feast upon the Word and become a doer of it. The longer we don’t do this, the more likely we will end up practically-speaking with no Word, starving to death in the way that is worse than physical death.

This coming Sunday, September 10, we will introduce a helpful and powerful tool for taking in, living out, and giving out, the teaching of the Bible. Don’t let it pass in front of you at the table and merely respond, “No thank you.” Take and eat!

Joyfully Feasting On The Word With You,

Tom

He Had So Much Potential

Recently I read once again about the life of Samson, the last of Israel’s judges (a word that in the book of Judges speaks of a deliverer more than what today we would think of in a judge). Samson comes on the scene at the tail-end of a long sorry cycle of Israel sinning, being given over to judgment and bondage, repenting-and-crying-out-to-God, being delivered, and then starting it all over again—multiple times!

We are tempted to think that the Israelites were such losers during this period, until we realize that what we see in their behavior is too often the same as what we see when looking into the mirror. We slog along most days, weighed down by the same self-centered, God-denying sin. After chapters of this in Judges it is crystal-clear that, “In those days there was no king in Israel [and] everyone did what was right in his own eyes!” (Judges 21:25) Human deliverers were not enough. They needed a king who would save them in the ultimate way and enable them to bow the knee to God’s saving reign and blessings. They needed the Messiah, the Christ!

But, we are getting ahead of ourselves. Back to Samson…

Samson came along with so much potential. He was given as a special gift, to be a savior,  through a miraculous birth to Manoah, of the tribe of Dan, and announced by an angel to his formerly barren wife (13:2-7). Sound familiar? God, through the pen of the biblical writer is giving us a little foretaste of what was needed in the future through a greater Savior. Samson is, in many ways, a type of Jesus Christ!

So Samson had a special role to fill in Israel, was divinely commanded to live under a Nazirite vow, meaning he should not drink anything from the vine, eat no unclean thing, and his hair should not be cut (13:4-5). Not only did God give Samson great strength (14:6; 15:14, 19, et. al.), but also moved in and through him by his Spirit on many occasions (13:25; 14:6, 19; 15:14, et. al.). In spite of the fact that Samson eventually broke every part of his Nazirite vow, God graciously saved Israel from the hand of the Philistines through him (cf. 16:23-31). Through Samson’s story (and that of every other judge), God points to the gospel by illustrating that where Israel’s sin abounded, his saving grace super-abounds (see Romans 5:20)!

However, the entire story is hard to read because in the middle of it is this man, Samson, who had so much potential and could have been a great leader, but he was done in by his weakness. It was not just the disobedience involved in breaking his Nazirite vow, but over and over again, as recorded in Judges 14-16, he was done in by his sinful love of women. Rather than turning to and trusting in God and thus following his fatherly instructions to marry a fellow believing Israelite, Samson had a lust for foreign, unbelieving women. He kept giving in and eventually they were his downfall (see 16:4-22 and Delilah). He kept following them as if they were inviting him to this wonderful party, only to find they led him to a banquet in the grave (Prov. 9:13-18).

I am afraid many men in our own day and time are following the road of Samson, ending up in the grave and destruction. Only the women are not foreign unbelieving women named Delilah. They are found on the screen in pornography! I am afraid that someday it will be said of many such men, “Oh, he had such potential to be a good husband, a good father, a capable leader in the church. But, he was done in through pornography. It’s just too bad!”

What is the answer?  It is the reality to which the book of Judges and Samson point—that we need King Jesus and not merely to do life on our own. When we turn to King Jesus as Christian men we will:

·         See that what our rich good heavenly father has for us at his banqueting table is far better than eating out of the pornographic garbage bin in the back alley!

·         See that Jesus redeemed us and so we are adopted into the family of God with all the rights and privileges of his sons. We are no longer identified as “porn-again” Christians, but truly “born-again” Christians!

·         Believe we can say, “Yes,” to God, holiness, and purity, and “No” to the temptation of porn.

·         Understand we are forgiven and so we can get up, brush off, and move forward after repenting.

·         Want to do whatever we have to so we can break this habit, including having men around us who will pray for us, hold us accountable, and help us apply the gospel.

·         Cry out to God repeatedly for his help.

·         Not try to beat this on our own in private.

·         Turn to Celebrate Recovery for help.

Brothers, don’t destroy your marriage, your family, your reputation, and your life. If you are struggling, talk to another man about this, and seek help.

A Grateful Follower Of Jesus Christ, A Former Porn-Again Christian, And On The Journey With You, 

Tom

An Open Door For The Gospel

In this past Sunday’s sermon I made the comment that we need to be willing to ask God to give us opportunities to tell other people about Jesus Christ and he will do that very thing. The Apostle Paul certainly agreed with this when, in Colossians 4:3, he put out the following prayer request: “…pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ….”

Recently, I ran across the following true story in the June issue of the Voice Of The Martyrs magazine, that helps us see just how God can give such opportunities and how he can use these divine appointments to change lives through his powerful gospel. I pray that this will motivate us to repeat this prayer regularly. The article is titled, “How Could You Get Upset By Hearing Such Good News?”

      “Hey, brother, would you like a ride?” a skinny, grinning man in a rickshaw shouted at “Walid.”      The evangelist climbed into the vehicle.

The driver, “Taab,” chatted cheerfully as he wove in and out of the chaotic Pakistani traffic. Although Walid could tell the man was from a people group that many Christians in Pakistan fear, he boldly offered the man a memory card filled with Bible stories.

 Walid told Taab to watch the videos in preparation for Eid-al-Adha, or the Festival of the Sacrifice, in which Muslims sacrifice an animal in commemoration of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son in obedience to God. The feast was only a few days away, and Walid knew that a video about Jesus’ self-sacrifice was timely, though potentially inflammatory.

In recent years, even the smallest perceived offenses against Islam have resulted in huge riots, with neighborhoods destroyed and Christians imprisoned or killed. Those who openly share the gospel do so at great personal risk. VOM helps reduce that risk by providing digital Bibles to a network of church planters and evangelists who distribute them to Muslims and others who don’t know Jesus.

Walid saw Taab again a few days later. “Brother, I have watched your video,” Taab said. “Get in the rickshaw and I will tell you all about it.”

Slightly nervous about what he might do, Walid stepped into the rickshaw. Taab told him that he’d watched the videos and even called his wife and children to see it.

“But did anything in the videos offend you?” Walid asked carefully. The stories on the memory cards clearly shared the gospel, stating that Jesus is the only way to salvation.

“How could you get upset by hearing such good news?” Taab replied.

Walid lost contact with Taab, but he ran into him again about a year later on a visit to the city. After returning to the spot where they’d first met, Walid was surprised to see Taab’s rickshaw pull alongside him before he could step off the sidewalk.

“Hello, my friend, do you remember me?” Taab grinned at him. “You gave me the card last year. I have so much to tell you.

 “Oh, that wonderful card, brother. My family and I are still watching that card you gave us. Oh, it is so good. I have shown it to other people. I was wondering, do you have any more of these cards?”

Walid’s heart leaped. “Yes, I do,” he replied, pulling memory cards from his pocket. Taab and Walid then arranged to meet at the bus stop a few days later.

“If God can orchestrate a meeting after a year in a city of 20 million with a man seeking to hear Good News from the Lord, I’m sure he can allow us to meet again in a few days,” the evangelist told VOM workers.

“Don’t doubt God’s faithfulness to deliver when we pray and ask for his direction.”

Praying for open doors with you,

Tom

Good Works To God's Pleasure

In Sunday’s sermon we discovered in Philippians 2:12-13 not only that joyful followers work, but that this work is something that very much pleases God. Since Christians who are taught that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone often conclude salvation-produced, God-pleasing good works don’t matter all that much, I want us to look at more biblical evidence.

 1. Good Works In The New Testament.

To begin, let’s look at how much the New Testament emphasizes good works and what those good works are.

 ·   Genuine repentance brings about fruit, which is the same as saying good works (Mt. 3:8).

·   Those who are genuinely part of the kingdom of God and thus have eternal life are those who do the will of the Father—another way of saying they do good works (Mt. 7:21-24).

·   Good works demonstrate one has trusted Christ for salvation. This would include desiring God’s glory and honor, along with immortality (Rom. 2:6-10).  Since works either demonstrate the presence or absence of salvation, God will judge men by their works (2 Cor. 11:13; 2 Tim. 4:14).

·   Good works involve obeying governmental authorities (Rom. 13:1-4).

·         Paul clarifies that faith, hope, and love are part of the work to which God calls us (1 Thes. 1:3).  Here “work”, “labor,” and “patience” are parallel.  These also, in context, are part of the way the Thessalonians demonstrated the Spirit was working in them in response to the gospel (1 Thes. 1:4-5).

·         Paul speaks of the “work of Christ” which in context consists of ministering to the needs of the fellow believer and evangelizing in the process (Phil. 2:30).

·         The ministry of Christian leaders (1 Thes. 5:13; 1 Tim. 3:1; 5:17) is part of the work that God brings about in some saints.

·   Good works include helping those in need, especially fellow believers (2 Cor. 8-9).

·         The fruit that is produced by the Spirit (and this is opposite the works of the flesh, so fruit=good works) includes: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control (Gal. 5:19-23). 

·   Good works involve all that God calls us to do.  All these works flow from the grace-giving saving work of Christ in us and the work of the Spirit (2 Cor. 9:8; Gal. 2:20; 5:22-23; Col. 1:12-13) and bring glory to Him (Col. 1:10; 3:17).

·         God sovereignly planned and prepared ahead of time that our grace-filled, Christ-bought salvation would bring about good works (Eph. 2:8-10).  Such good works are so important to God He reveals through Paul those who are rich in this life should be rich in good works—including being generosity and sharing what one has (1 Tim. 6:18).

·   Our carrying out of Christ-bought, God-glorifying good works leads to increased knowledge of God and joy (Col. 1:10-11), which also proves to us the goodness of God’s will (Rom. 12:2).

 2. God’s Pleasure in Good Works.

Paul affirms that God is pleased in obedience to his moral will (Rom. 8:7-8). More specifically, elsewhere it is clarified that God is pleased in the good work of sexual purity (1 Thes. 4:1-3). Hebrews 11:5 also emphasizes that walking with God in faith and obedience pleases God. Finally, the New Testament affirms that God the Father is pleased in his Son because he obeyed him perfectly (Mt. 3:17; Luke 3:22; John 5:30; 2 Peter 1:7).

Conclusion.

Given this thread of New Testament teaching, we should not be surprised that Paul affirms in Philippians 2:12-13 one of the results of God’s gracious working in the Christian is that he desires to please God by doing his will—i.e. by working out his salvation.

Pleasing God With You As A Joyful Follower,

Tom

Team Work

Last Sunday I preached on living and loving like Jesus, and we delved briefly into some of the implications. As we continue through Paul’s letter to the Philippians, one essential we will repeatedly discover is that if we are to go against the flow of our own sin nature, the world system around us, and that of our ultimate enemy, Satan, we need the help that comes to us on our team in the form of mid-range groups (Bible Fellowships) and our smallest groups (Iron Man/Woman Teams). And we need this help for two main reasons.

To begin…

1. We Need Help In The Means Of Grace God Has Given Us

In other words, if we are to use the tools God has given that help us grow, keep him first, and keep us living on purpose, we need people coming along side us, praying for and with us, encouraging us, holding us accountable, and helping us to apply the gospel resources we have. Some of the tools God has provided for us and with which we need help include: Bible intake, prayer, worship, and disciplemaking.

What this means is that we must not only be in a Bible Fellowship and an Iron Man/Woman Team, but that BF and IM/WT should be largely focused on our helping each other carry out our purpose and to use the tools God has given us, those gracious means through which Christ transforms us.  

Without such a team we will most likely lose our focus.

This leads to the second main way we need the help of our team.

2. We Need Help To Say, “Yes” To The Best Things And “No” To Too Many Lesser Things

We all have only so many hours in a week. We also all have differing abilities when it comes to how much we can do in a given time.  We all will also have to say, “No” to some things for which we do not have time and “Yes” to the most important things. Some will have to say, “No,” to more than others.

One of the toughest areas where we must do this is with activities for our children in late elementary through Senior High. The demands upon them and upon us as parents who must take them and/or attend events can be very intense. And, if we are not careful, they can drown out what should be our most important priorities as Christ followers.

 The answer is not to take our children (or ourselves) out of all activities other than church. Participation in school, community, and other activities can be very important to our children’s maturity, as well as to our mission as Christians. The goal is to put Christ first (Matthew 6:33) and then fill in what holes are left in our schedule once that is done. So, ask yourself the following questions to assess how you are doing.  Are you too busy to:

a. Read, study the Bible, and pray?

b. Read, study the Bible, discuss it, and pray as a family?

c. Invest your time in discipling your children and others?

d. To gather together in corporate worship, a Bible Fellowship, and/or Iron Man/Woman Team?

If your answer is, “Yes,” then frankly you are too busy, in danger of dishonoring Christ through that busyness, and you are in danger of keeping Christ out of first place in your family, which means that whatever else you accomplish, you are about to fail your family!

“But, Tom,” you ask, “How do we deal with this busyness when our sons and daughters are in sports or other activities and frankly if they are going to succeed, it takes a lot of time?” I have the following responses to guide us in the right direction:

a. You will have to decide what is most important for your children—what they cannot really live without: Christ, or  ________?

b. You will have to decide what God does or does not say in the Bible about what makes a good parent. We often are far more in fear of what other people think about our parenting than God, and far more focused on cultural definitions of good parenting than God’s.

c. There is not one way to answer the question of, “How Much?” for all, nor is there a formula to give. Different families and individuals can handle different levels of activities, while keeping priorities intact.

d. Put Jesus and his priorities in place first and then decide what you have time left to do after this.

e. If you have to make hard decisions, such as to limit your children to the number of sports or activities in which they can participate, or you have to say, “No,” sometimes to coaches and what they are requiring by way of time commitments, this is where your team comes into play. Don’t try to do this alone. Ban together for discussion on what and how to do it, to pray together, to support one another, and to gain wisdom in how to approach this.

Paul tells us in Philippians 1:27 that we stand firm, “by contending together, side-by-side, as teammates, for the faith that emerges from the gospel.” If we do not stand together, then surely we will all fall alone.

Joyfully On The Team With You,

Tom