Be filled with the Spirit–a command?
February 22, 2007
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit… [Ephesians 5:18].
Paul commands believers to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Paul is not saying, “Wait for God the Spirit to do something to you.” Paul does not say to the Christian, “Be justified,” because every Christian is perfectly justified. Justification is not a process; it is a once-and-for-all action of God in which he declares the believer righteous in Christ. We cannot be more justified today than we already are, any more than an expectant mother can be more pregnant than she already is. Paul does not say, “Be adopted into the family of God,” because all who have received Christ have been given the right to be called the sons of God. We cannot become more the sons and heirs of God than a boy can become more the son of his parents. Paul does not say, “Be united with Christ; be in Christ,” because every Christian at the new birth has the privilege of union with Christ, and we spend the rest of our lives working out the great privileges of this status. Justification, adoption into the family of God and union with Christ are all perfect works of God, but being filled with the Spirit is a command we have to obey like all the commands in this section; “walk in love,” “have nothing to do with the fruitless works of darkness,” “make the most of every opportunity,” “do not get drunk with wine” – all such commandments are duties we must obey. We must see to it that we are filled with the Spirit, just as we see to it that we are not drunk.
In Acts we see occasions where people are filled with the Spirit. Sometimes it happens in times of crisis or urgent need. Peter had already been filled with the Spirit to preach the Word of God to thousands at Pentecost. Then a few days later he is again facing another crisis when the Sanhedrin seized Peter and John and put them in prison. Luke records the scene like this in Acts 4:5-8, “The next day the rulers, elders and teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and the other men of the high priest’s family. They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: ‘By what power or what name did you do this?’ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them . . .” Peter was given extraordinary courage and wisdom to confront this evil court. He was filled with the Spirit to do this.
This was the case with Paul when he was on the isle of Paphos in Acts 13. Elymas the Sorceror was trying to dissuade the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, from becoming a Christian. Then Paul was filled with the Spirit (13:9) and he confronted this sorcerer and delivered a rebuke so solemn and effective that we are told about the proconsul, “when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord.”
There are crises that come into our lives, as pastors face difficult confrontations, as a family goes through a time when a loved one has a terminal illness, when a husband loses his job, then we are under an obligation to be filled with the Spirit to face that providence. God’s answer to the suffering and the nervousness and the uncertainty and the ignorance and need is to fill us with his Spirit, who lovingly ministers to us and enables us to go on with confidence. He fills us to keep trusting, keep praying, keep counting it all as joy, and keep looking to Jesus.
Thus, the Greek present imperative verb is well-translated as Go on being filled…
Paul gives us a negative contrast to help us understand; Do not be drunk with wine, but be filled…. We speak of people being “under the influence of alcohol.” Their speech changes, their behavior changes—the shy person becomes loud and outgoing, etc.—and attitudes change. Scripture says to you, “Let your life be under the influence of the Holy Spirit, with your mind and heart and will surrendered to the Spirit, who will produce in you the desire and the power the glorify Christ.”
Some folk miss the meaning here and wrongly believe that being filled with the Spirit means being giddy, irrational, with no inhibitions or self-control. Pharmacologically speaking, alcohol is a depressant, and it hinders the faculties of self-control. That is why people do such stupid and dangerous things when they are drunk. But the person filled with the Spirit shows self-control–a sound mind, keen discernment, disciplined emotions expressed in ways that build others up rather than tear them down.
What influences your life? Are you under the influence of the Spirit, or are you drunk with the wine of this age and its goals and values?
Best place to be and worst place to be: The Church
February 19, 2007
As another application from yesterday’s sermon on Mark 6:6b-30, let me share some data passed along to me last year that tells us about some of the pressures of ministry. The statistics come from research gathered from such organizations as Barna and Focus on the Family.
Pastors
- Fifteen hundred pastors leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, spiritual burnout, or contention in their churches.
- Fifty percent of pastors’ marriages will end in divorce.
- Eighty percent of pastors and eighty-four percent of their spouses feel unqualified and discouraged in their role as pastors.
- Fifty percent of pastors are so discouraged that they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way of making a living.
- Eighty percent of seminary and Bible school graduates who enter the ministry will leave the ministry within the first five years.
- Seventy percent of pastors say they ‘constantly fight depression.’
- Almost forty percent polled said they have had an extra-marital affair since beginning their ministry.
- Seventy percent said the only time they spend studying the Word is when they are preparing their sermons.
Pastors’ Wives
- Eighty percent of pastors’ spouses feel their spouse is overworked.
- Eighty percent of pastors’ spouses wish their spouse would choose another profession.
- The majority of pastors’ wives surveyed said that the most destructive event that has occurred in their marriage and family was the day they entered the ministry.
I won’t go to the stake over the accuracy of these figures, but if they’re even close to accurate, this is pretty alarming stuff! Most every minister I know can understand those pressures. Ministers need meaningful relationships with other men and need genuine accountability regarding their life and doctrine. These statistics give you an idea about how to pray for pastors, but they make me thank God for a supportive congregation that encourages me in many ways, and is so kind to me and my family, and is a delight to serve.
Bruce M. Metzger-Ave atque vale
February 16, 2007
The Sweet Dropper notes that Bruce M. Metzger, professor emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary and an authority on Greek manuscripts of the Bible, has died at age 93. He was the George L. Collord Professor Emeritus of New Testament Language and Literature at Princeton Theological Seminary. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Lebanon Valley College in 1935, a bachelor of theology degree from Princeton Seminary in 1938 and a doctorate in classics from Princeton University in 1942. He became an ordained minister with the Presbyterian Church in 1939.
Metzger began his teaching career at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1938, where he stayed in the New Testament department for 46 years. During his time at Princeton Seminary, Metzger developed 25 courses on the English and Greek texts of books in the New Testament. He was also involved with committees in the production of the United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament (1966) and the New Revised Standard Version (1990).
Think of him if you take a Greek New Testament in your hands, and give thanks to God for learned and faithful scholars.
B.B. Warfield on activity and spiritual strength
February 15, 2007
On October 4, 1911, Dr. B.B. Warfield was called upon to address seminary students at Princeton. He challenged them to both learning and piety. He called them to faithfulness in public worship and private devotion. His conclusion is a timely reminder to twenty-first century Christians:
Activity, of course, is good: surely in the cause of the Lord we should run and not be weary. But not when it is substituted for inner religious strength. . . . In the tendencies of our modern life, which all make for ceaseless . . . activity, have a care that it does not become your case; or that your case–even now–may not have at least some resemblance to it. Do you pray? How much do you pray? How much do you love to pray? What place in your life does the ‘still hour’ alone with God take?
I am sure that if you once get a true glimpse of what the ministry of the cross is, and of what you, as men preparing for this ministry, should be, you will pray, ‘Lord who is sufficient for these things?’ Your heart will cry, ‘Lord, make me sufficient for these things.’ Old Cotton Mather wrote a great little book once to serve as a guide to students for the ministry. The not very happy title which he gave it is Manductio ad Ministerium. But by a stroke of genius he added a sub-title which is more significant: The angels preparing to sound the trumpets. That is what Cotton Mather calls you, students for the ministry: the angels preparing to sound the trumpets! Take the name to yourselves, and live up to it. Give your days and nights to living up to it! And then, perhaps, when you come to sound the trumpets the note will be pure and clear and strong, and perchance may pierce even to the grave and wake the dead.”
From “The Religious Life of Theological Students,” in The Princeton Theology: 1812-1921, edited by Mark Noll, pp. 266-267.
You got your caliph in my imam!
February 12, 2007
Or was it, You got your peanut butter in my chocolate!?
A couple of months ago I heard a U.S. Army lieutenant share some of his experiences in Iraq at a Rotary Club meeting. He was involved in ‘detainee operations’–in other words, housing prisoners, and in the Army’s program of paying the families of Iraqis who accidentally die at U.S. hands, whether in the prisons or on the streets. His presentation was informative and enlightening in many ways. There was, however, a most disturbing moment when he took questions from the audience. Someone asked him to explain the basic differences between Shia and Sunni Muslims. After a few seconds of foot-shuffling, he admitted that he didn’t know.
Now, I’m the last person to claim expertise in how to run a war (I would say, ‘Fix the bayonets, men, and let them feel the steel!’), but it seems to me that military personnel would at least be given a one-hour course on the basic rift that is igniting so much of the violence in Iraq. I mean, if you were a policeman in Belfast, would you not be well-served to know something about why there is Protestant/Catholic conflict in certain areas of the city? Of course, most of us here safe at home are no better educated, although the terms Sunni and Shia are in the news everyday.
National Public Radio (yes, I know, spare me the conservative crankiness) is producing a five-part series this week on its Morning Edition program called The Partisans of Ali: A History of Shia Faith and Politics. The web material is worth checking out–audio, transcripts, timelines and maps. The first part is an excellent, concise account of the historic roots of the split.
We ignore Islam at our own peril.
4 big ideas: #4-love
February 5, 2007
In preaching through Galatians last year I identified four big ideas that run through Paul’s letter. Those four big ideas should form and shape how ministry is carried out in the day-to-day life of the Church. I am trying to embody them in my own ministry and to impart them to our leaders at First, Kosciusko. Here’s the last of the four big ideas, which are truth, authority, integrity and love.
LOVE: Faith expressed in genuine, demonstrable love. In Galatians 5:6 Paul writes, For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. Also in 6:1-10 he writes about the ways that faith works through love in the mutual sharing of burdens, in honoring those who teach us, in living holy lives, in persevering in the work God has called us to do, and in continuing to do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith. The freedom Christ has gained for us is the freedom to serve one another in love (5:13-15).
But this is something we don’t do so well. Doing theology right or having well-organized programs and ministries is a lot easier to pull off. When we join the church we expect to be part of a loving, happy group of people who live in harmony with each other–and guess what, it doesn’t automatically happen! Yet the New Testament, especially 1 John, is telling us again and again that we must love the brethren, that failure to do so is an indicator of phony religion. Read Eugene Peterson’s marvelous insights on this:
Men and women are not admitted to the community by presenting credentials of love skills, nor do we maintain our place in the community by passing periodic peer reviews on love. We are here to be formed over our lifetimes into a community of the beloved, God’s beloved who are being formed into a people who love God and one another in the way and on the terms in which God loves us. It’s slow work. We are slow learners. And though God is unendingly patient with us, we are not very patient with one another. Outsiders, observing our embarrassingly slow and erratic progress in love, wonder why we bother. Well, we bother because God is love: he created us in love; he saved us in an act of love; he commanded us to love one another. Love is the ocean in which we swim. So what if many of us can only wade in the shallows, and others of us can barely dog paddle for short distances? We are learning and we see the possibility of one day taking long, relaxed, easy strokes into the deep.
Don’t become cynical about the possibility of genuine, demonstrable love in the church. I know of some sightings, sometimes as rare as panther sightings in the Mississippi woods–rarely seen, but magnificent nonetheless. I have shown it myself once or twice and have been shown it a few times more than that. Don’t settle simply for a common creed or a common cause. Love God and love the brethren.
Peace and mercy be upon all those who walk by this rule…
We’re back
February 2, 2007
Danny Temple and arrived back in Mississippi Tuesday afternoon safe and sound from our mission trip to Peru. Soon we’ll have some photos posted on fpckosciusko.org. It was an honor to preach for the General Assembly of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Peru, held last week in Lima, and to visit Trujillo on the north coast to see the church planting work going on there. There will be some things to share with you in the weeks ahead.
Joe has done well handling the trials back here. The Church, whether in Peru or in Mississippi, is always a mess, disappointing, frustrating, and inefficient–and it’s also the only place I want to be…
