Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “Confinement in Caesarea”. This entire lesson covers the hearings Paul had “before two Roman governors (Felix and Festus) and a king (Agrippa 2)” (Sabbath’s lesson). As I studied these lessons and the accompanying scriptural texts, I was impressed again with Paul’s love for Christ and how his defense of himself was also an outreach to those within hearing of his voice. Paul’s voice was not that of a fanatic, for such a defense would have been ineffectual on all counts. His was the calm voice of reason, much like his Lord’s. Our God is a God or order, of reason, of persuasion. The strident voice of condemnation, the vehement anger of the zealot, these are foreign to our God. He reasons with us. He persuades us. He woos us with love. And Paul reflected this characteristic, too. He was at peace despite the stress and anxiety that hung over him. He spoke clearly and lucidly, even persuasively. And he could do this because he had the peace of God in his heart and mind.
Whatever we do, whatever we say, we must always do so with love for the other. Paul exemplified this. His speech was always with truth… but seasoned with love for his hearers. Paul shows us here how to be respectful, truthful, and motivated by the love of God for his hearers. It’s no wonder his influence spread. “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1) he said to the Corinthian believers, and through the centuries to us all. Only someone who really knows God can say such a thing. Would you say such a thing?
The bane of Christianity is the temptation to be the decider of “faith” for others. To be the one who is so sure of themselves and their “faith” that they would be judge, jury and executioner of others… even of just one “other”. The pages of history are strewn with such un-God-like arrogance. Strewn with violence and murder in the defense of such assumed assuredness. And the worst such “popery” is found inside the individual, in the heart and mind of that individual, which mounts the seat of authority over their own heart. The manifestation in history of the atrocities performed to defend the conventional “faith” as defined by ecclesiastical pontiffs, is but the manifestation that lurks in the heart of every sinner. The medieval church was but the materialization of the sin that lies latent in every heart. Like Nimrod of old, each sinner seeks to be the determiner of their own duty… and everyone else’s… if allowed to be such.
But Paul speaks of a different “faith”. A “faith” that is akin to submission, surrender. A voluntary surrender of one’s own prerogative. A yielding of self-will to the will of our God. And if this is true, then no such one will ever assume the role of determiner for another. True Christianity does not condemn, does not judge another. We will investigate and “judge” our own hearts and motives. But never another. It is not our role to judge others, but to love them. Love others truly with a love that is from the very heart of their Father, the heart of our Father. And love them more than we love our own security. A love that would even offer-up our own place in heaven for them. “For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren” (Romans 9:3), says Paul. A motive for every true Christian.
We know not where our “faith” will lead us. Most may not stand before tribunals. But let us stand today and every day true to our high calling. God has called us to be His representatives on earth. I hope you do not have a God who is vengeful, arbitrary and severe. If you do, you will be like that. I hope you have a God who is just like His Son, for that is precisely who God is.
With brotherly love,
Jim