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The three-year Lectionary that many Catholics and Protestants hear in public worship gives us a great variety of Holy Scripture.
Yet, it doesn’t tell the whole story.
My series Forbidden Bible Verses — ones the Lectionary editors and their clergy omit — examines the passages we do not hear in church. These missing verses are also Essential Bible Verses, ones we should study with care and attention. Often, we find that they carry difficult messages and warnings.
Today’s reading is from the English Standard Version Anglicised (ESVUK) with commentary by Matthew Henry and John MacArthur.
13 As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good. 14 If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed. 15 Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.
Benediction
16 Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.
17 I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. This is the sign of genuineness in every letter of mine; it is the way I write. 18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
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Last week’s post discussed Paul’s prayer request for his ministry, the threat of evil men with no faith, the constancy of the Lord in protecting His faithful from Satan and the Apostle’s statement of confidence in the Thessalonians’ Christian journey.
As he closes his second of two letters to the congregation, he gives general reminders, particularly about the importance of work (emphases mine):
Warning Against Idleness
6 Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us. 7 For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, 8 nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with toil and labour we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you. 9 It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate. 10 For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. 11 For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. 12 Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.[d]
Paul has a message for those in Thessalonica who are hard working and supporting the church: do not weary in doing good (verse 13).
John MacArthur says:
When I first read it, I thought, “Well, what does this have to do with anything?” and then as I thought, I saw it. “But as for you, brethren” – that’s the rest, those of you that are working, those of you that are having to pay for these people, having to pass out your money and give them food – “the rest of you, brethren, do not grow weary of doing good.” You see, the potential was they would become so tired of these deadbeats, they’d become so fed up with giving this money and this charity to these lazy people, that they would become very weary of the whole process, and then when somebody came with a real need, they would be indifferent to it. So he’s saying, “Look, don’t you grow weary of doing what is really good.” The assumption is they were weary of taking care of these people who should have been taking care of themselves, and he says don’t let your weariness translate over to weariness in doing what you really should do, doing what is good. Kalos is the term that’s attached to the verb there. It means what is perceived by others to be noble, so says Milligan in his lexicon. What is perceived to be noble. Do what is noble.
You go back to the Psalms and you’re going to find out over and over again that we’re to take care of the poor and that when you take care of the poor, God will bless you. Go back to Proverbs, you’re going to find the same thing. Go back to Isaiah, go to Luke chapter 14 verses 12 to 14, and what does Jesus say? When you have a dinner, when you have a reception, don’t invite the wealthy people who are going to reciprocate, invite the blind and the lame and the halt and the maimed and the poor who can never pay you back, and God will pay you back in eternity in the resurrection. Take care of the poor.
Matthew Henry’s commentary has a more uplifting message about the verse:
He exhorts those that did well not to be weary in well-doing (v. 13); as if he had said, “Go on and prosper. The Lord is with you while you are with him. See that whatever you do, that is good, you persevere therein. Hold on your way, and hold out to the end. You must never give over, nor tire in your work. It will be time enough to rest when you come to heaven, that everlasting rest which remains for the people of God.“
Paul has strong words about those who refuse to obey the content of his letter: the congregation should take note of that person and, effectively, shun them so as to shame him into obedience (verse 14).
Paul really wanted everyone in the congregation to earn their own way. There were cultural reasons why people didn’t work. The Greeks considered work a punishment from the gods. Even though the people Paul wrote about were Christians, old habits die hard. There was also another group who thought that the Second Coming was imminent; therefore, they questioned the need to work when Jesus could be returning at any moment.
MacArthur says that:
they perhaps have been influenced by some of the Jewish background of the scribes who thought that anything other than studying the law was an unworthy way to spend your life. They surely were affected by the general Greek attitude that work was demeaning and sordid and base and low and belonged only to slaves and not to freemen.
And they probably had had those predispositions somewhat exaggerated by virtue of the fact that someone had come along and told them that they were already in the day of the Lord and the return of Christ was imminent and there probably wasn’t much use in doing anything other than evangelizing and studying the Word of God. And so they had given themselves to that happily because of their disdain for work anyway. Problem was, at least long term, if you can call several months long term for the Thessalonians in that Paul had dealt with it when he was there. Several months later, when he wrote them the first letter, he dealt with it, and here he is writing a second letter and dealing with it a third time. They didn’t want to work. It was beneath them.
MacArthur explains Paul’s reasoning:
Not only does disfellowship, example, survival, and harmony constitute a motive for going to work, but shame. Look at verse 14. “If anyone doesn’t obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that man and do not associate with him so that he may be put to shame.” If anybody doesn’t obey the instruction in this letter, I’m telling you, they are really obstinate. He said it over and over again when he was there. He wrote it a couple of times in the first letter. He’s now saying it again, and if these people don’t obey this instruction, you take special note of that man. Mark him out. Give him serious attention. Keep on noticing that person. Keep your eye on that person for the purpose of not associating with him. Watch him so that you can avoid him. Stay away from him.
Withdraw your fellowship, a double compound verb meaning do not get mixed up with. Put the pressure of isolation. Only this time, you’re pushing him further. This continues to be that third step of discipline where you’re isolating him but your isolation is keeping him at a distance. You take note, you watch the pattern, and you avoid the man in order that he may be put to shame. Now you’ve gone beyond just his isolation, you’re trying to make him feel shame. That’s a distasteful word. Literally in the Greek it means to turn on yourself, to feel what you really are. Let him see what he really is, a wicked, disobedient, recalcitrant sinner. Shame him because he won’t work.
Can you imagine someone saying that today, especially on social media? The Conservative MP Lee Anderson ventured partially into that territory on food banks last year and got hammered for it. He also said that those visiting his local food bank in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, had to sign up for courses on budgeting and cooking in order to continue to use it. He’s been there and done it as a single father, so he knows whereof he speaks, but that didn’t matter. St Paul would have backed him up, that’s for sure.
Henry is gentler, yet no less firm on the censure:
The directions of the apostle are carefully to be observed in our conduct towards disorderly persons. We must be very cautious in church-censures and church-discipline. We must, First, Note that man who is suspected or charged with not obeying the word of God, or walking contrary thereto, that is, we must have sufficient proof of his fault before we proceed further. We must, Secondly, Admonish him in a friendly manner; we must put him in mind of his sin, and of his duty; and this should be done privately (Matt 18 15); then, if he will not hear, we must, Thirdly, Withdraw from him, and not keep company with him, that is, we must avoid familiar converse and society with such, for two reasons, namely, that we may not learn his evil ways; for he who follows vain and idle persons, and keeps company with such, is in danger of becoming like them. Another reason is for the shaming, and so the reforming, of those that offend, that when idle and disorderly persons see how their loose practices are disliked by all wise and good people they may be ashamed of them, and walk more orderly.
Paul says that the shunned person should not be considered an enemy but rather as a brother in need of correction (verse 15).
Henry says there is always hope that such a person can mend his errant ways:
if they be reclaimed and reformed by these censures, they will recover their credit and comfort, and right to church-privileges as brethren.
MacArthur goes further, citing Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians:
No matter what the sin is, it’s the same things that should motivate. The threat of losing the fellowship with other believers, the fact that you have not followed the holy example of those who have walked before you, even the issue of survival – because you can die from continued sin, some Corinthians did – and certainly the idea of harmony, you’re disrupting and ripping and tearing the unity of the church, and certainly shame, you should feel guilt and shame, and certainly love should call you back as those who are in the body of Christ and are your brothers and sisters woo you. And so this is how we deal with any believer in any pattern of sin.
And if they resist this, then you can treat them like an enemy. Then you can turn them over to Satan. Then Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5, “I don’t want you to have any fellowship with them, I don’t even want you to eat with them.” I want you to turn them out totally. But here, Paul, one more time, for the third time in three steps, is pleading with the church to call them back.
Paul concludes with his benediction, his prayer of blessing, to the Thessalonians.
He prays that the Lord of peace himself gives the Thessalonians peace at all times, in every way and that the Lord be with them all (verse 16).
MacArthur explains that Paul wants to ensure they know they have to rely on the Triune God, not themselves:
This is the fourth time he has had, what we would call, a prayer wish, a benediction, in which he expresses the desire of his heart. It’s almost as if he can only go so far and he’s got this uncapped desire to ask God to enable them to do what he says. And every so often the praying just bursts forth. He goes a little while in chapter 1 and then prays for God’s enabling, a little while in chapter 2 and prays for God’s enabling, and twice he does it in chapter 3. You see, he understands that no matter what you know as a Christian, you don’t pull it off on your own. You must be aided by the Lord, you must lean on His resources. And so in this last simple little closing section Paul calls on divine resources. He calls on personal blessings from the Lord to enable the Thessalonians, and all the rest of us, to respond to what he has taught. And he really is speaking about four things that we need. We need the Lord’s peace. We need the Lord’s strength. We need the Lord’s truth. And we need the Lord’s grace. And all four of them are in those three little verses; the Lord’s peace, strength, truth and grace …
First of all then he prays or wishes for their experience of God’s peace, verse 16, “Now may the Lord of peace Himself continually grant you peace.” The first two words, “now may” mark a transition. The word “now” is transitional. He’s moving from command and exhortation to petition and to prayer. He is now turning to the Lord. He is expressing not the prayer itself but the wish in his heart that shows up when he prays. And his wish is for them to experience peace, peace. He’s asking for what God has already promised, for God has promised His own peace and strength and truth and grace. It isn’t that he is asking something that God gives reluctantly or not at all. In fact, prayer really is asking God for what it is His will to give. Prayer really is lining up with what God has promised to do. He recognizes that God has promised His people peace and strength and truth and grace. And he pleads for God to fulfill His promise. He lines himself up with what God has expressed as His own intention and purpose. His first request is for that lovely, that most sought after, that most evasive and that most elusive reality called peace.
We hear and read the word ‘peace’ all the time, so much so that it has lost its meaning.
Here Paul writes of an inner peace that only God can give each one of us. He can only give us that peace when we are reconciled to Him as believers through Jesus Christ.
MacArthur says:
We’re talking about a spiritual peace. And spiritual peace — the true, deep-down peace — is the attitude of the heart and mind that calmly, confidently believes and thus knows that all is well between the soul and God. That’s the peace we’re talking about. It’s that confidence that everything is right between myself and God and He is lovingly in control of my life in time and eternity. It is the presence of a calm assurance built on the knowledge that my sins are forgiven, God is concerned with my well-being and heaven is ahead. It’s a deep-down peace. It has nothing to do with what anybody says to you, it has nothing to do with what anybody does to you, or doesn’t do to you, it has nothing to do with any circumstance in life whatsoever. It is the peace that God gives to His beloved children. It is their possession and their privilege by right.
This peace is defined for us in several ways in verse 16. First of all, it is divine. “Now may the Lord of peace Himself grant you peace.” The Lord of peace is the one who gives it. He is the one who grants it. “Himself,” by the way, that pronoun is emphatic in the sentence and it’s emphasizing His personal involvement in this. “Himself, the Lord of peace, may He give you peace.” May God, the Lord, personally give it to you because it comes personally from Him. It is the very essence of His nature.
To say it simply, peace is an attribute of God. I don’t know if you think of it that way, you think of God being characterized by attributes of grace, and mercy and justice and righteousness and wisdom and truth and omnipotence and immutability and eternality and whatever. But do you ever think of God as being characteristically peace? He is peace. Whatever it is that He gives us He has and He is. God is love, we don’t argue about that. And God is also peace. He has no lack of perfect peace in His being. God is at all times at perfect peace. There’s no stress. God is never stressed. God is never in anxiety. God never worries, God never doubts, and God never fears. God is never at discord with Himself. He is never at cross purposes, it’s never so that He can’t make up His mind. He is never troubled. He is never indecisive. He is never unclear. He is never unsure. He is never threatened.
God lives in perfect calm, God lives in perfect tranquility, God lives in perfect contentment. Why? Because He’s in charge of everything and He can operate everything perfectly according to His own will exactly the way He wants it all the time. There is nothing in the entire universe that goes on that He doesn’t know about and there is nothing in the entire universe that can withstand His purposes. He knows there are no surprises for His omniscience. There are no unknowns to His omnipresence. There are no changes, no doubts, no fears. Even His wrath is clear, controlled, calm, and confident. There are no threats to His omnipotence. There is no possible sin that can stain His holiness. There is no sinner who can appear before Him who is beyond His grace. There is no threat to His immutable plan. There is no guilt in His mind. There is no shame in His mind. There is no regret in His mind for He has never done anything, said anything, or thought anything that He would in any way change.
He enjoys perfect and eternal harmony within Himself. He therefore is peace. And here He is called “the Lord of peace,” the Lord of the peace, literally, the definite article is there. The peace, not the kind the world has, but the real peace, the divine kind. He is peace, He is the source of peace. And what Paul wants is that the Lord of peace would give His kind of peace. If you look at the Trinity you find that it’s clear in Scripture that every member of the Trinity is peace and gives peace. First Thessalonians 5:23 says, “The God of peace,” so does Romans 15:33, Romans 16:20, 2 Corinthians 13:11, Philippians 4:9, and Hebrews 13:20, a common name for God, the God of peace. He is the author of peace. First Corinthians 14:33 says, “He is not the author of confusion but of peace.” He is peace, the originator, the source and the author of it.
The second member of the Trinity, the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ is here called “the Lord of peace.” Interestingly enough at the end of 1 Thessalonians Paul refers to the God of peace, here to the Lord of peace, both the first and second member of the trinity equally being God, equally being Lord, equally being the source of peace. Ephesians 2:14 says, “Christ who is our peace.” He is called in Scripture “the prince of peace.” He is peace. He is the source of peace. Colossians 1:20, He has made peace.
Also the Holy Spirit is the source of peace. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. Romans 14:17 says the kingdom is peace in the Holy Spirit.
So, God is peace. It is that divine peace possessed by the Trinity — Father, Son and Holy Spirit — that Paul wants us to have, that well-being that is deep-down settled and confident that all is well with God.
Divine peace is a free gift from God, one that He bestows on the truly faithful:
… we learn that it’s not only divine but it is a gift. “Now may the Lord of peace Himself grant you peace.” The word “grant” is the verb to give. It speaks of a gift. It is a sovereign gracious gift from the Trinity, bestowed on those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a gift from God.
In Psalm 85, a wonderful verse, verse 8, you might not read this verse and think about it, but in Psalm 85:8 I read it to you because it ought to be kept in mind. “I will hear what God the Lord will say, for He will speak peace to His people, to His godly ones.” God grants peace to those who belong to Him.
This is so much a part of the New Testament. Start at Romans some time and read it in the first chapter of each of the letters: Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, Titus, Philemon, go into 2 John, and as you read you’ll find in all of those epistles peace, peace, peace given to God’s people. Sometimes it says grace and peace. Peace is a gift from the Lord. It is given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ and an example of that, you remember, in John 20 as he walked in the upper room to meet His disciples He said, “Peace be unto you,” in verse 19. In verse 21 He said, “Peace be unto you,” and again in verse 26, “Peace be unto you.” He was the giver of peace. It’s as if the Father authored peace, the Son purchased peace, and then gives it to us now in this age through His Holy Spirit …
There’s a third element in what he says and that is that this peace is not only divine and a gift but it is always available. “May the Lord of peace Himself continually give you peace.” By throwing the word “continually” in there, he is affirming that it is constantly available. This is not presumptuous as if God can only give it intermittently. He knows it’s always available. And he says, “I want God to give it to you all the time.”
Henry addresses the second half of verse 16, about the Lord’s presence:
That the presence of God might be with them: The Lord be with you all. We need nothing more to make us safe and happy, nor can we desire any thing better for ourselves and our friends, than to have God’s gracious presence with us and them. This will be a guide and guard in every way that we may go, and our comfort in every condition we may be in. It is the presence of God that makes heaven to be heaven, and this will make this earth to be like heaven. No matter where we are if God be with us, nor who is absent if God be with us, nor who is absent if God be present with us.
So that the Thessalonians know the letter is authentic, Paul writes his greeting in his own handwriting (verse 17). He would have dictated the rest of his letter to someone else to write.
MacArthur explains that false teachers sometimes sent not only the Thessalonians but also other of Paul’s congregations counterfeit letters:
Back in chapter 2, look at verse 2 for a moment. Somebody had come along and told them some lies ... And they lied to them about the Day of the Lord. This was a false teacher. But in order to make his lies believable, the middle of verse 2 says, he had “a letter as if from us,” to the effect that the Day of the Lord has come. In other words, to be believable, the false teacher said, “I’ve got a letter from Paul,” and he was waving around this thing, “this is my letter from Paul.” And Paul realized he had to deal with this. And I guess he hadn’t really faced this before. But when he wrote the first epistle it probably came to his attention that people were, one, not accepting it as from him. That became a reality soon and is still a reality today. You still have people today who want to deny that Paul wrote his letters. But there were…there are those people who would say, “Nah, nah, that’s not from Paul, we don’t accept that as authoritative.” If they didn’t like what it said they wouldn’t accept it as authoritative.
Well, Paul hadn’t…hadn’t really faced that until he wrote a letter. So he wrote 1 Thessalonians and now he becomes very much aware that people are going to deny his authorship. Secondly, they’re going to forge letters that aren’t written by him as if they were and therefore they’re going to take truth away from the church and they’re going to add lies to the church and confuse the church. Well he’s so burdened that they get the truth that what he says to them at the end of this letter is to seal the fact that this is indeed his own letter, he has written it. He says, “I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand.” He’s dictated the letter, as was his custom. And he comes to the very end and he takes the pen away from his amanuensis or his secretary and with his own hands he says, “I am writing this greeting with my own hand and this is a distinguishing mark in every letter.” From now on, every single letter that comes from me is going to have something I have personally written with my own hand at the end, and then he adds, “This is the way I write.” You can tell whether it’s authentic because it’s going to have my writing, which is inimitable. We still do that. We authenticate documents today by a signature.
And what is he saying? He’s saying I am very concerned that you have the truth of God. There’s a lot more to come. I mean, you’ve got two letters. You’re going to be exposed before this deal is over to more of them from me, to some from John, to some from Peter, to some from Jude, to one from James. And you need to know all of that is the truth of God. I don’t want any doubt about mine and so I’m going to sign off every time like this. The only time he deviates from that in the future is in the book of Philemon which apparently, according to Philemon 19, he wrote all in his own handwriting and didn’t dictate it in any part. And perhaps Galatians, according to chapter 6 verse 11, he may have written the whole of the letter to the Galatians as well. But always his own inimitable handwriting was there because he was so consumed with the fact that God’s people needed to have the revealed truth and not be confused about what was authentic. He was the inspired instrument of truth and God wanted His people to have truth. And Paul could say with John, he had no greater joy than to see his children walk in the truth. He wanted them to have the truth. He knew they needed it. And so he throws in this which also expresses his wish for them to have the truth and to know it is the truth.
He was very concerned about that. In Romans chapter 9 and verse 1, “I am telling the truth,” he says. In 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 7, “And for this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle, I am telling the truth, I am not lying.” And why does he say that? Well, because there were people who were denying him. In chapter 11 of 2 Corinthians verse 10, “As the truth of Christ is in me,” and he goes on. He was concerned about people knowing he spoke the truth. God is a God of truth, He is the only true God, He is the God who cannot lie. And Christ is His incarnate truth. And the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. And the Word is the body of truth. Thy Word is truth, John 17:17. God wants us to have His truth. He’s given us the indwelling Spirit of truth who is the anointing, who leads us into all truth so that we need not be taught by any human source. So Paul says, I wish you truth, and I don’t want you to be confused about it.
Paul ends by praying that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with them all (verse 18).
MacArthur discusses grace:
What is grace? God’s goodness, God’s benevolence given to those who don’t deserve it. God’s goodness, God’s benevolence given to those who don’t deserve it. It is grace decreed by God given to us through Christ. Grace and truth, it says, came through Jesus Christ. The grace of God has appeared, Paul said to Titus. It has appeared through the work of Christ. It comes to us as the Spirit of God brings saving grace. And once we become a Christian then there is enabling grace. And that’s what he’s praying about, the enabling grace, grace for endurance, grace that is sufficient, as 2 Corinthians 12:9 says, for every serious trial. Grace for service, the kind Paul talked about in 1 Timothy 1, when he says as explicitly as it could be said, “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me because He considered me faithful, putting me into the service, (or into the ministry) even though I was a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor and it was the grace of our Lord that did it.”
Grace for service, grace for endurance, grace for growth spiritually, grow in grace, 2 Peter 3:18. Grace for love and grace for humility and grace for sacrifice and grace for generosity. All of those things typified by the Macedonians in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. In fact, they summed it up. They summed it up. They were examples, Paul said, of the surpassing grace of God which is in you. He wants God’s grace. There…God’s enabling grace to take them through their trials, to make them effective in ministry, to cause them to grow, to strengthen their love and their humility and their sacrifice and their generosity that they would be overwhelmed with this grace.
It’s available. There’s no limit to it. And again, the conditions to receive it are: trusting God, obeying His Word, enduring His refining process, doing good, walking in the Spirit, living your Christianity from the heart, living by the Word of God and praying. As we are what we ought to be, God infuses us with His peace and His strength and His truth and His grace.
Anyone who wants to know how to live in a godly manner can read the reflections from MacArthur and Henry in my exegesis on the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12), a long read, granted, but one that explains those eight tenets thoroughly. Jesus gave us the blueprint. It is up to us to live by it, with the help of divine grace.
Henry has a beautiful prayer at the end of his commentary on 2 Thessalonians 3:
Let us be thankful that we have the canon of scripture complete, and by the wonderful and special care of divine Providence preserved pure and uncorrupt through so many successive ages, and not dare to add to it, nor diminish from it. Let us believe the divine original of the sacred scriptures, and conform our faith and practice to this our sufficient and only rule, which is able to make us wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Amen.
This concludes my study of 2 Thessalonians.
Next week, I will begin a study of 1 Timothy, along with an introduction to its content and purpose.
Next time — 1 Timothy 1:1-2
The Fourth Sunday after Epiphany is January 29, 2023.
Readings for Year A can be found here.
The Gospel is as follows (emphases mine):
Matthew 5:1-12
5:1 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.
5:2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
5:4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5:5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
5:7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
5:8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
5:10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
5:11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
5:12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Commentary comes from Matthew Henry and John MacArthur (as specified below).
This is another long post. John MacArthur preached ten sermons on these verses in 1979, one verse a week for the most part.
Jesus gave this sermon in Galilee. When He saw the crowds, He went up a mountain, and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him (verse 1).
Then, He began to speak and taught them (verse 2).
Recall that last week’s reading for the Third Sunday after Epiphany, Matthew 4:12-23, ended as follows:
4:23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.
Keep that in mind while reading the rest of this post, which is the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), with the eight Beatitudes.
Matthew Henry’s commentary sets the scene beautifully:
The many miraculous cures wrought by Christ in Galilee, which we read of in the close of the foregoing chapter, were intended to make way for this sermon, and to dispose people to receive instructions from one in whom there appeared so much of a divine power and goodness; and, probably, this sermon was the summary, or rehearsal, of what he had preached up and down in the synagogues of Galilee. His text was, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. This is a sermon on the former part of that text, showing what it is to repent; it is to reform, both in judgment and practice; and here he tells us wherein, in answer to that question (Mal 3 7), Wherein shall we return?
Henry elaborates on these verses, using contrasts from the Old Testament to illustrate what a welcome occasion this is. Note that Zebulun was mentioned in last week’s first reading, Isaiah 9:1-4:
II. The place was a mountain in Galilee. As in other things, so in this, our Lord Jesus was but ill accommodated; he had no convenient place to preach in, any more than to lay his head on. While the scribes and Pharisees had Moses’ chair to sit in, with all possible ease, honour, and state, and there corrupted the law; our Lord Jesus, the great Teacher of truth, is driven out to the desert, and finds no better a pulpit than a mountain can afford; and not one of the holy mountains neither, not one of the mountains of Zion, but a common mountain; by which Christ would intimate that there is no such distinguishing holiness of places now, under the gospel, as there was under the law; but that it is the will of God that men should pray and preach every where, any where, provided it be decent and convenient. Christ preached this sermon, which was an exposition of the law, upon a mountain, because upon a mountain the law was given; and this was also a solemn promulgation of the Christian law. But observe the difference: when the law was given, the Lord came down upon the mountain; now the Lord went up: then, he spoke in thunder and lightning; now, in a still small voice: then the people were ordered to keep their distance; now they are invited to draw near: a blessed change! If God’s grace and goodness are (as they certainly are) his glory, then the glory of the gospel is the glory that excels, for grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, 2 Cor 3 7; Heb 12 18, etc. It was foretold of Zebulun and Issachar, two of the tribes of Galilee (Deut 33 19), that they shall call the people to the mountain; to this mountain we are called, to learn to offer the sacrifices of righteousness. Now was this the mountain of the Lord, where he taught us his ways, Isa 2 2, 3; Mic 4 1, 2.
III. The auditors were his disciples, who came unto him; came at his call, as appears by comparing Mark 3 13, Luke 6 13. To them he directed his speech, because they followed him for love and learning, while others attended him only for cures. He taught them, because they were willing to be taught (the meek will he teach his way); because they would understand what he taught, which to others was foolishness; and because they were to teach others; and it was therefore requisite that they should have a clear and distinct knowledge of these things themselves. The duties prescribed in this sermon were to be conscientiously performed by all those that would enter into that kingdom of heaven which they were sent to set up, with hope to have the benefit of it. But though this discourse was directed to the disciples, it was in the hearing of the multitude; for it is said (ch. 7 28), The people were astonished. No bounds were set about this mountain, to keep the people off, as were about mount Sinai (Exod 19 12); for, through Christ, we have access to God, not only to speak to him, but to hear from him. Nay, he had an eye to the multitude, in preaching this sermon. When the fame of his miracles had brought a vast crowd together, he took the opportunity of so great a confluence of people, to instruct them. Note, It is an encouragement to a faithful minister to cast the net of the gospel where there are a great many fishes, in hope that some will be caught. The sight of a multitude puts life into a preacher, which yet must arise from a desire of their profit, not his own praise.
IV. The solemnity of his sermon is intimated in that word, when he was set. Christ preached many times occasionally, and by interlocutory discourses; but this was a set sermon, kathisantos autou, when he had placed himself so as to be best heard. He sat down as a Judge or Lawgiver. It intimates with what sedateness and composure of mind the things of God should be spoken and heard. He sat, that the scriptures might be fulfilled (Mal 3 3), He shall sit as a refiner, to purge away the dross, the corrupt doctrines of the sons of Levi. He sat as in the throne, judging right (Ps 9 4); for the word he spoke shall judge us. That phrase, He opened his mouth, is only a Hebrew periphrasis of speaking, as Job 3 1. Yet some think it intimates the solemnity of this discourse; the congregation being large, he raised his voice, and spoke louder than usual. He had spoken long by his servants the prophets, and opened their mouths (Ezek 3 27; 24 27; 33 22); but now he opened his own, and spoke with freedom, as one having authority. One of the ancients has this remark upon it; Christ taught much without opening his mouth. that is, by his holy and exemplary life; nay, he taught, when, being led as a lamb to the slaughter, he opened not his mouth, but now he opened his mouth, and taught, that the scriptures might be fulfilled, Prov 8 1, 2, 6. Doth not wisdom cry—cry on the top of high places? And the opening of her lips shall be right things. He taught them, according to the promise (Isa 54 13), All thy children shall be taught of the Lord; for this purpose he had the tongue of the learned (Isa 50 4), and the Spirit of the Lord, Isa 61 1. He taught them, what was the evil they should abhor, and what was the good they should abide and abound in; for Christianity is not a matter of speculation, but is designed to regulate the temper of our minds and the tenour of our conversations; gospel-time is a time of reformation (Heb 9 10); and by the gospel we must be reformed, must be made good, must be made better. The truth, as it is in Jesus, is the truth which is according to godliness, Tit 1 1.
We all know the eight Beatitudes, however, as we go through them, we will see that one builds on the other. Jesus did not randomly arrange these. Nor did He intend them to be socio-political platitudes. He never preached about politics or social conditions.
John MacArthur points out:
There’s no politics in the Sermon on the Mount. None. There is not one reference to the social, political aspect of the kingdom made here, not one. The Jews were so concerned about the politics and the social life. Jesus makes no reference to that at all. The stress – I want you to get this – the stress is on being. That’s the word you’re going to have to see. The stress is on being. It’s not on ruling or possessing it is on being …
This is a different kind of a kingdom. It even advocates persecution without retaliation and blesses those who live that way. It’s a spiritual kingdom. So the political aspect of this message was devastating. It was absolutely everything was the opposite of what they expected a Messiah to say …
What he was saying is this, “My kingdom is inside.” Do you see? It’s inside. That’s the whole point. That’s the whole message of Jesus to the world. That’s the whole basis of the Sermon on the Mount. It’s inside, not outside. Not outside rituals, not outside philosophy, not outside location or monasteries or any of that stuff, not outside activism, it’s inside.
Jesus said that blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (verse 3).
MacArthur gives us the meaning of ‘blessed’, which runs through the Bible and our prayers:
In Matthew chapter 5 through 7, our Lord is establishing and counter standard of living, counter to everything the world knows and practices, a new approach to living that results in blessedness, makarios. And we saw that this makarios is deep inner happiness, a deep and genuine sense of blessedness, a bliss that the world cannot offer, not produced by the world, not produced by circumstances, and not subject to change by the world or circumstances. It is not produced externally. It cannot be touched externally.
The promise of Christ, then, in the Sermon on the Mount is at the very beginning. He is saying if you live by these standards you will know blessedness. And so in verse 3, it’s blessed, in verse 4, it’s blessed. In verse 5, blessed. Verse 6, verse 7, verse 8, verse 9, 10, 11, and finally, as a result of all this blessedness, verse 12, rejoice and be exceeding glad.
The whole Sermon on the Mount introduces itself with a promise of blessedness, happiness, deep, inner satisfaction. Now we said also last time that this blessedness, this well being, this bliss, this happiness, in which believers live and which they enjoy, is really a gift of God. For makarios or blessedness is characteristic of God.
The greatest possible understanding of the term “blessed” comes when you understand that God is blessed. So happy is the people whose God is the Lord. Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord, for he, above all, is blessed. “Blessed be God,” says the Bible. “Blessed be the Lord Jesus Christ.” And if they are blessed, if they have this deep inner bliss, this deep sense of contentment and blessedness because of the virtue of divine nature, then only those who partake in that divine nature can know that same blessedness.
MacArthur points out — as does Henry’s commentary — that each beatitude is a spiritual paradox. In other words, how can we be without and yet have so much?
MacArthur says:
Now as you look at the Beatitudes, you’ll see that they’re like sacred paradoxes. They’re almost given in absolute contrast to everything the world knows. And let me just say a word that I want as a little footnote here. You see the word “blessing.” The word “blessing” or “blessed” has an opposite word in the Bible. The opposite of makarios is ouai and we translate it “woe.” The opposite of blessing is cursing. The opposite of blessed, Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount “blessed” and he turned around to the Pharisees later and said, “Woe unto you.” Those are opposites.
And let me hasten to say this. The word “blessed” and the word “woe,” neither one of them are really a wish. They are a judgmental pronunciation. Jesus is saying, “I” – he’s not saying, “I wish you blessedness.” He is saying, “Blessed is the man who goes this way, does this, thinks this way.” And other places, “Woe to the man who does this.” They are judicial pronunciations. They are not simply wishes.
MacArthur gives us a sense of progression in the ordering of the Beatitudes:
We see a sequence. Look with me quickly at verse 3. First we see the poor in spirit. “Poor in spirit” is the right attitude towards sin, which leads to mourning, in verse 4, which leads after you’ve seen your sinfulness and you’ve mourned, to a meekness, a sense of humility, then to a seeking and hunger and thirst for righteousness. You can see the progression.
It is important to remember that the verse says ‘poor in spirit’, not simply ‘poor’:
When you have two records in the Bible in the Gospels, you compare them. “Blessed are the poor.” What poor? There are all kinds of poverty, right? You could be poor in terms of money. You could be poor in terms of your education. You could be poor in terms of friends. You could be poor in terms of a lot of things. So when you read Luke say, “Blessed are the poor,” and you find Matthew, “Blessed are are the poor in spirit,” you make the conclusion simply that Matthew tells us what kind of poverty Luke was referring to. That’s all. It’s no big problem. We just put the two together, comparing scripture with scripture.
‘Poor in spirit’ implies humility, the sort of humility that depends on God’s grace, says MacArthur:
Nobody yet ever entered God’s kingdom on the basis of pride. Poverty of spirit is the only way in. The door to the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ is very low and the only people who come in crawl.
Jesus begins by saying, “There’s a mountain you have to scale. There are heights you have to climb. There is a standard you must attain, but you are incapable of doing it, and the sooner you realize it the sooner you’ll be on your way to finding it.” In other words, he’s saying you can’t be filled until you’re empty. You can’t be worthwhile until you’re worthless.
You know, it amazes me that in modern Christianity today there is so little of the self emptying concept. I see a lot of books on how to be filled with joy and how to be filled and how to be filled with this and how to be filled with the spirit and so forth. There’s lots of books on how to be filled, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a book on how to empty yourself of yourself …
You know, if you don’t have poverty of spirit, beloved, you might as well expect fruit to grow without a tree as the graces of the Christian life to grow without humility. They can’t. As long as we’re not poor in spirit, we can’t receive grace. Now even at the beginning, you can’t even become a Christian unless you’re poor in spirit.
And as you live your Christian life you’ll never know the other graces of the Christian life as long as you violate poverty of spirit. And this is tough. Jesus is saying, “Start here. Happiness is for the humble.” Happiness is for the humble. Until we are poor in spirit, Christ is never precious to us. Because we can’t see him for the looking at ourselves. Before we see our own wants and our own needs and our own desperation, we never see the matchless worth of Christ. Until we know how really damned we are, we can’t appreciate how really glorious he is. Until we comprehend how doomed we are, we can’t understand how wondrous is his love to redeem us. Until we see our poverty, we cannot understand his riches.
And so out of the carcass comes the honey. It is in our deadness that we come alive. And no man ever comes to Jesus Christ, no man ever enters the kingdom who doesn’t crawl with a terrible sense of sinfulness, repentance.
MacArthur examines the meaning of ‘poor’ in the Greek:
Now let’s take that term. The word “poor,” ptchos, interesting word. From a verb – now watch this one – the verb in the Greek means “a shrinking from something or someone to cower and cringe like a beggar.” That’s what it means. Like you just kind of cringe and cower like a beggar does.
Classical Greek uses this word to refer to one who is reduced to beggary, who crouches in a corner of the dark wall to beg for alms. And the reason he crouches and cowers is because he doesn’t want to be seen. He is so desperately ashamed to even allow his identity to be known. Beggars have all that stuff piled on, all those things pulled over their face, and they reach like this, lest they should be known.
By the way, the word “poor” here, the very word, is the word used in Luke 16 when it says, “Lazarus the beggar.” That is what the word means. It is not just poor, it is begging poor. And by the way, there is another word in the Bible for normal poverty, pens. Pens means you’re – generally and sometimes there’s an overlap – but generally pens means you’re so poor you have to work just to maintain your living.
Ptchos means you’re so poor you have to beg. You’re reduced to a cringing, cowering beggar. Pens you can earn your own living. You can earn your own sustenance. Ptchos, you are totally dependent on the gift of somebody else. All you’ve got going for you, no skill, no nothing. In many cases, you’re crippled, you’re blind. You’re deaf. You’re dumb. You can’t function in society and you sit in the corner with your shamed arm in the air, pleading for grace and mercy from somebody else. You have no resource in yourself to even live. Total dependence on somebody else.
MacArthur moves on to ‘in spirit’:
Well, what does it mean in spirit? Let me talk about that for a minute. It means with reference to the spirit, which is the inner part of man, not the body, which is the outer part. That’s all. He’s begging on the inside, not necessarily on the outside.
Isaiah put it this way. Isaiah 66:2. “But to this man will I look.” Here’s God talking. Now listen. “To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word.” It’s the man who shakes on the inside because of his destitution. Psalm 34:18 put it this way. “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.” Psalm 51:17. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, Oh God, thou wilt not despise.”
… It’s the broken and the contrite. “Blessed are the beggars,” says Jesus. Blessed are those whose spirit is destitute. Blessed are the spiritual paupers, the spiritually empty, the spiritually bankrupt who cringe in a corner and cry out to God for mercy. They are the happy ones. Why? Because they’re the only ones who tapped the real resource for happiness. They’re the only ones who ever know God. They’re the only ones who ever know God’s blessedness. And theirs is the kingdom.
James put it this way. It’s not just the Sermon on the Mount, James said it. He said in James 4:10, “Humble yourselves in the sight of God and he will – ” what? “ – lift you up.” The poverty here is not a poverty against which the will rebels, but it’s a poverty under which the will bows in deep dependence and submission. I’m afraid this is a rather unpopular doctrine in the church today. We emphasize celebrities and experts and superstars and rich, famous Christians. But happiness is for the humble …
The sum of the great truth is simply stated. The first principle of the Sermon on the Mount is that you can’t do it by yourself. There’s a new lifestyle to live and that new lifestyle promises eternal happiness for you, but you can’t do it by yourself, so that the only standard for living is for those who know they can’t do it …
We have the grace now, the grace of the kingdom. We have the glory later. The kingdom as I see it is grace and glory. Grace now, glory later. What a tremendous thing. Do you know what it is, people to possess the kingdom? That’s what the word means, to possess. You possess the kingdom. It is yours. The rule of Christ, the reign of Christ, you know what that means? You’re his subject, he takes care of you …
And by the way, you can’t do it by looking at yourself. Also, you can’t do it by looking at other people. Don’t try to find somebody else who will set the standard for you. There’s only one place to look if you want to become poor in spirit, that’s to concentrate on God. That’s the first thing. Look at God. Read his Word. Face his person in its pages. Look at Christ. Look at Christ constantly. As you gaze at Jesus Christ, you lose yourself. You lose yourself.
Secondly, not only look at God. I’ll give you three little principles. If you’re going to know what it is to be poor in spirit, look at God, not at you, not at anybody else. Look at God. Two, starve the flesh. Starve the flesh. You know, even the ministries, even the ministries of this generation feed on pride in so many cases. We have to seek the things that strip the flesh naked …
I’d say a third thing. These are the things I see in my own life. I’ve got to look at God all the time. Secondly, I got to starve my flesh. I don’t want to run to the thing that compliments. But there’s a third thing and I think it’s simple. Ask. You want to be poor in spirit? Ask. There’s one thing about a beggar. He’s always what? Asking. You ever notice that. Always. Ask. “Lord,” said the sinner, “be merciful to me, a sinner.” Jesus said, “That man went home justified.” Happy is the beggar in his spirit. He’s the one who possesses the kingdom. Why did Jesus begin with this? Because it’s the bottom line.
What does it mean? It means to be spiritually bankrupt and know it. What is the result? You become a possessor of the kingdom here and now and forever. How do you become poor in spirit? Look at God. Starve your flesh. And ask, beg. He doesn’t mind a bit …
How do you know if you’re poor in spirit? You’ll be weaned from yourself, lost in the wonder of Christ, and you’ll never complain about your situation because the deeper you get the sweeter the grace.
Fourth. You will see only the excellencies of others and only your own weakness. You will see only the excellencies of others and only your own weakness. Poor in spirit, the truly humble, is the only one who has to look up to everybody else.
Fifth. You will spend much time in prayer. Why? Because a beggar is always begging. He knocks very often at heaven’s gate and he doesn’t let go until he’s blessed. You want to know if you’re poor in spirit? Are you weaned from yourself? Are you lost in the wonder of Christ? Are you never complaining no matter what the situation? Do you see only the excellencies of others and only your own weakness? Do you spend much time begging for grace?
Six. If you’re poor in spirit, you’ll take Christ on his terms, not yours. You will take Christ on his terms, not yours. The proud sinner will have Christ at his pleasure, Christ and his covetousness, Christ and his immorality. The poor in spirit is so desperate he will give up anything just to get Christ, see.
Then Jesus said that blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted (verse 4).
The interpretation which is often heard is that when we mourn the death of our loved ones or another type of loss, God will comfort us. That is true.
However, Jesus intended a spiritual mourning for the state of our souls.
MacArthur says that this has to do with repentance:
Listen, you can cry your eyes out about your problems and you can weep all you want about loneliness, and about discouragement, and about disappointment, and out of earnest love, and you can weep all you want about all those things, and you can cry your head off about your unfulfilled lusts, and when you’re said and done, every bit of that worldly sorrow will not bring you life.
There’s only one kind of sorrow that brings life, and that is godly sorrow, which leads you to – what? – repentance. Therefore, we conclude that it is sorrow over – what? – sin that is the issue. That’s the issue. It is godly sorrow, sorrow over sin. The sorrow of the world is useless. It works death where godly sorrow works repentance, which brings salvation, which brings comfort. That’s the whole idea. That’s the key. Godly sorrow is linked to repentance, and repentance is linked to sin …
You’re not mourning here over circumstances, human circumstances. Over sin is what you’re mourning about. Remember verse three, where the beatitudes all began? “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” What does it mean to be poor in spirit? I told you. It’s a sense of being spiritually bankrupt. It is the thing that says “in my flesh there dwelleth – ” what? “ – no good thing.” That’s what it is.
And that’s the intellectual part, and verse 4 is the emotional part. Because your mind is convinced that you are spiritually bankrupt, your emotion takes over and you mourn that bankruptcy. Such are kingdom people.
David’s Psalm 51 is one of many illustrations of mourning the state of one’s soul:
In Psalm 51, reflecting on the same sin with Bathsheba he said, “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity; cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.” I can’t get it out of my vision. I can’t get it out of my mind.
Verse 10, “Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.” Listen. When he mourned his sin and he confessed his sin, he was cleaned out. It was a whole different attitude.
Verse 32 illustrates the comfort that God’s forgiveness of sin brings:
And you know what he said in Psalm 32 when he got it all out? He said, “Blessed, happy. Happy is the man who mourns, because happy is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Happy is the man unto whom the Lord does not impute iniquity.” You know why mourners are happy? Because mourners over sin who are the only ones who are – what? – forgiven. The rest of the world has to live with that guilt endlessly with no relief.
Beloved, let me say this. The happiness doesn’t come in the mourning. It comes in what God does in response to it. You just try as a Christian to keep sin in your life and bottle it up and you just see how ruinous it becomes. You confess it and see the freedom and the joy that comes in forgiveness …
Listen. Nobody ever came into the kingdom of God who didn’t mourn over his own sinfulness. And you can’t verify to me that you’re a true Christians or to anyone else unless throughout your life there is the same sense of grief over the sin in your own life.
Now I don’t mind being happy because I’m forgiven, but I can’t enjoy that happiness until I have dealt with sin. A child of God is one constantly broken over sinfulness. You know it’s hard for me to be happy much any more. It really is. I used to be a lot happier than I am now. I know too much to be happy.
MacArthur means this:
… going back to Matthew chapter 5, the verb here is a present tense, penthountes, continuous action, “the ones who are continually mourning are the ones continually being comforted.” Luther in his 95 Theses said that our entire life is a continuous act of repentance and contrition. David cried it out, Psalm 38, “For my iniquities are gone over my head. Like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.” It was a way of life. He just faced his sin as a reality all through his life.
You know something? In all of the New Testament we find so much about Jesus, but one thing we never see Jesus do in the whole New Testament account is laugh. He never laughed. Oh, I don’t know if he did laugh or not, but it isn’t recorded. Hard for me to imagine that he had much to laugh about. He was hungry. He was angry. He was thirsty, but it never says he laughed, and that’s such a part of human emotion. But it does say he wept. He was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief.
I think we’ve left that. We have been sucked into an entertainment, thrill seeking, pleasure mad, silly world of fools and jesters and comedians, some of them even trying to ply their trade in the church. Do you know that it was man introduced the other night on Christian television program as the leading Christian comedian? Who needs that? That’s what it means. You understand now don’t you what it means to mourn over your sin?
What’s the result of it? Second question. These will be shorter. And I didn’t say all I wanted to say, either, about that. You realize that you just get the tip of the iceberg week after week. Living with that frustration is very difficult. What is the result of mourning? You say, “So what’s it going to get me? I mourn around, mope around, sorry for my sin, what do I get?” Comfort, comfort. By the way, as I said before, mourners are not blessed because they mourn, mourners are blessed because they comfort. You don’t mourn, you don’t get comforted. You just try to hide your guilt and it eats away. There’s no happiness in the sorrow of the world because it can’t be comforted.
And by the way, they use the emphatic pronoun autoi here, which means “blessed are they who continue to mourn for they alone shall be comforted.” It is only the mourners who know the comfort of God. It is only those who mourn for sin who know what it is to have their tears dried by the loving hand of Jesus Christ. They shall be comforted, parakale from which we get paraclte, the one called alongside to help, the one that Jesus referred to, the comforter.
By the way, the Bible tells us God is a comforter, Psalm 30:5, Psalm 50:15, Isaiah 55:6-7, Micah 7:18-20, and on and on and on talks about the comfort that God gives us. He helps us, he succors us, he hears our cry, he meets our need, he’s always there beseeching, and admonishing, and consoling, and sympathizing, and encouraging, and strengthening, and forgiving, and restoring, and that adds up to comfort.
As our mourning rises to the throne of God, His unsurpassed and matchless comfort descends from Him by Christ to us. “God is a God of all comfort,” the Bible says. And did you know who the comforter was? … Jesus … said, “When I go away, I’ll send another – ” what? “ – comforter.” … God, the God of all comfort, Christ, the first Paraclete, called alongside to help, and the Holy Spirit followed up on the work. God is a God of comfort. Christ is a Christ of comfort. The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of comfort.
Jesus said that blessed are the meek, because they will inherit the earth (verse 5).
Meekness is similar to yet different from humility.
MacArthur explains the progression, which related to the urge for political domination, something the Jews wanted over the Romans. Yet, Jesus addressed the spiritual side and proclaimed meekness, recognising God’s holiness and pursuing godliness:
Meek. It’s different from broken in spirit. Let me show you how. The root word is the same idea – different word, same idea. But let me show you. In fact, some places in the Bible these two words could be used interchangeably, but there’s a beautiful distinction made here. Now watch. “Broken in spirit” centers on my sinfulness, okay? Verse 3, “Broken in spirit” centers on my sinfulness. “Meekness” centers on God’s holiness. Two sides of the same thing. Broken in spirit because I’m a sinner and meek because God is so holy by comparison. Two sides of the same thing.
Look at it another way. Broken in spirit is negative and it results in mourning. Meekness is positive and it results in seeking righteousness. See? It’s just the other side of this thing. That’s the beauty of the sequence. There’s a progression here. First of all, there is this brokenness, this tremendous sense of sinfulness and it’s negative and it results in mourning. And then, all of a sudden, you begin to see the other side of it. You begin to see a holy God, and that’s meekness. And then you begin to hunger after his holiness. You see the sequence, the flow?
“Happiness,” Jesus says, “Happiness, blessedness. Oh, that’s for people like this, people who are – watch – realistic about their sin, who are repentant about their sin, who are responsive to God.” And the unblessed and the unhappy and those shut out of the kingdom are the arrogant, self-sufficient, self-righteous, unrepentant, stiff-necked, proud people. Man this was devastating. Ooh.
You see, the Zealots were saying, “We want a military Messiah. We want a military kingdom.” The Pharisees were saying, “We want a miraculous Messiah. We want a miraculous kingdom.” By the way, the Sadducees were saying, “We want a materialistic one.” They were the materialists. I suppose the Essenes were over in the corner saying, “We want a monastic one.” But Jesus said, “I’ll give you a meek one.” The kingdom is not going to be materialism. It’s not going to be monasticism. It’s not going to be militarism, and it’s not going to be just flashy miracles. It’s going to be for the meek.
And, you know, our world will still have trouble with that. Our world is, associates happiness and success with strength, and confidence, and self assurance, and survival of the fittest, and conquest, and power. That wasn’t Jesus’ way. His kingdom is for people who are meek.
MacArthur says that meekness also ran throughout the Old Testament and cites several passages.
He then gives us the biblical definition, which does not mean being a doormat, by the way. It means to be submissive towards God:
Look further. “The meek” comes from a Greek word. The root is praus. And it means basically, here’s the root, “mild, gentle, and soft.” Mild, gentle, and soft. So the idea is a person who is gentle, mild, tenderhearted. Somebody who’s patient. Somebody who’s just submissive, and so forth. Now that’s the root concept: Mild, gentle, soft, patient, kind, quiet, willing, submissive …
It is a byproduct of self emptying, of self humiliation. It is a brokenness before God.
Meekness also means exercising self-control over one’s own power:
When Jesus came into the city, you see, he didn’t come on a white charger conquering and to conquer. He came riding in on the colt, the foal of a jackass. I mean, that was really low-class transportation. He was meek. Further, let me say something to you about it. It is a gentleness, and a mildness, and a subdued character – watch this – it is not weakness. It is power under control. Get that definition …
It’s Ephesians 4:26. It’s okay to be angry, but don’t sin. In other words, let it be a righteous anger, a controlled anger for God’s purposes. Don’t be angry because you’ve been offended, be angry because God has, see? It’s anger for the right reason at the right time.
Meekness doesn’t mean impotence. It is power under control. And if you examine Proverbs 25:28 it says, “He that hath no rule over his spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls.” That’s power out of control. You’ve got power, but there’s nothing to contain it, and it’s like a destroyed city. On the other hand, Proverbs 16:32 says, “He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.” In other words, to rule the spirit is meekness. To be out of control is the lack of meekness. It is power under control …
Power under control. They trust in God. They delight in him. And God promises to give them the earth. It isn’t cowardice. It isn’t flabbiness. It isn’t a wishy-washy lack of conviction. It isn’t just human niceness. Meekness says, “In myself, nothing is possible. But in God, everything is possible.” Meekness says, “For me, I offer no defense. For God, I’ll give my life. For God I’ll die.” It’s not a passive acceptance of sin, but it’s an anger under control. It’s holy indignation.
Illustration. “For even hereunto were you called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps.” Now here’s real meekness. He did no sin. Neither was guile found in his mouth. Now start right there. He never did anything wrong. So, whatever anybody accused him of was false accusation. So whatever anybody punished him for was wrong. Whenever they abused him, they were out of line. Whenever they slandered him, they were wrong. Whenever they mocked him, it was a lie, because he never did anything wrong. He never sinned. He never deceived. He never did anything wrong.
And even though he never deserved any criticism, when it came – in verse 23 – and when he was reviled, he didn’t revile again. And when he suffered, he didn’t threaten. He just committed Himself to him that judges righteously.
Stop right there. That’s meekness. Jesus never defended himself, never. But when they desecrated his Father’s temple, he made a whip and started beating them, didn’t he? Meekness says, “I’ll never defend myself, but I’ll die defending God.” That’s meekness. “I’ll never defend myself. I’ll die defending God.”
As for inheriting the earth, MacArthur says:
The people in the kingdom shall inherit the earth and the only ones who enter my kingdom are the meek, not the proud. The ones that are broken over their sin, not the ones who think they have no sin. The ones who are mourning over the fact that they’re lost, not the ones who are laughing about the fact that they’re supposedly all right.
Jesus said that blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteouness, for they will be filled (verse 6). This is another verse that is often misinterpreted in a socio-political context, yet it builds on the preceding Beatitudes and has spiritual, not temporal, significance.
MacArthur explains:
… in your meekness before God, you realize that the only hope you have of ever knowing righteousness is to seek it at His hand, and so you come to the fourth Beatitude and you hunger and thirst after what you know is not yours on your own.
So the progression is simple. Martyn Lloyd-Jones writes: “This Beatitude follows logically from the previous ones. It is a statement to which all the others lead. It is the logical conclusion to which they come. It is something for which we should all be profoundly thankful and grateful to God. I do not know of a better test that anyone can apply to himself or herself in this whole matter of the Christian profession than a verse like this. If this verse is to you one of the most blessed statements of the whole of Scripture, you can be quite certain you’re a Christian. If it is not, you had better examine your foundations again.”
Because if you have been broken in your spirit and are overwhelmed with your sinfulness and you mourn over your sinfulness and then you look up to recognize the holiness of God, the response should be that you hunger and thirst for what He has that you need. And if you do not hunger and thirst after righteousness, you are not a citizen of God’s kingdom. Our society chases all the wrong things, you see. They chase money, materialism, fame, popularity, pleasure, usually all because of greed, not need, but it’s all the wrong stuff. And you know the sad part of it is, even though the United States grants us the pursuit of happiness, people don’t find it because they define happiness in a wrong way. Happiness is money. Happiness is pleasure. Happiness is having material things. Here it says happiness is brokenness, happiness is mourning, happiness is meekness, happiness is hungering and thirsting after righteousness.
This is spiritual thirst, spiritual hunger, neither of which abates in the true believer:
The Greek verbs are just very powerful. Peinntes means to be needy, to suffer hunger. It has the idea of a deep hunger, not just superficiality. The word dipsa, to suffer thirst. Again, it carries the idea of a genuine thirst. And here they are, the strongest impulses in the natural realm. And by the way, they are in a continuous present participle. The ones who are hungering. The ones who are thirsting. It is a continuous thing. And so I say to you, beloved, this is not only the one – the condition of the one coming in, but this is the condition of the one in the kingdom.
You know – I’ll put it this way: When I came to Jesus Christ, I hungered and thirsted for His righteousness, and now that I know Him, I hunger and thirst for more of it, right? That’s what He’s saying. In fact, Lenski, the great commentator, says: “This hunger and this thirst increases in the very act of being satisfied.” Luke adds a note to this. Luke has a parallel passage and he adds the word “now.” “Blessed are they who are hungering now.” It is a present, it is a continuous thing. It is a moment-by-moment way of life. When you become a Christian, you don’t stop …
This is because sanctification is involved. Paul urged the Thessalonians, even in their abundant faith and love, to improve on that. It is part of the Christian journey:
Happiness is a byproduct. Happy are those who hunger and thirst after what? Righteousness. You want to be happy, it comes as a byproduct of righteousness. It’s not any holy high you get with some zap. It’s not some experience you find. That isn’t what it is. Dikaiosun, righteousness, justification to be made right with God. And what am I saying? Listen, simple, the only real happiness in life is to be right with God. That’s it. The only real happiness in life is to be right with God. And I believe this points to two things. First of all, salvation and second of all, sanctification. First of all, salvation and second, sanctification …
Now let me say it in simplicity: Happiness belongs to the holy. That’s what he’s saying. If you’re unhappy in your life, somewhere along the line, you’re unholy. Jesus was talking to Jews who thought they were righteous. To them holiness was a conformity to rules, it was an external thing. But it wasn’t enough. That’s why Jesus said, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you’ll never enter the kingdom.” Their righteousness doesn’t cut it. The Beatitudes took the external, stripped it away and forced us to look at the inside. And when you hunger and thirst for salvation, then you’ll be filled.
But there’s a second element. I think it also implies sanctification. I don’t think once you get saved you stop hungering and thirsting, as I said. Then you hunger and thirst for sanctification, for an increasing holiness. Beloved, I don’t know how to express this as strongly as I feel it. I hope in your life there is this hunger, hunger that never stops, the desires to be more and more like Christ. This is a mark of a Christian. You keep on hungering, you keep on thirsting to desire more virtue, a greater purity, more Christlikeness. You never get to the place where you’ve arrived.
Jesus said that blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy (verse 7).
MacArthur says that the first four Beatitudes point to the inner life. The one about those who are merciful points towards outward actions:
These first four Beatitudes were entirely inner principles. They dealt entirely with an inner attitude. They dealt entirely with what you see of yourself before God. But now, as He comes to the fifth Beatitude, this, while being also an inner attitude, begins to reach out and touch others. There is a manifestation in this that is the fruit of the other four …
So we’ve made a transition now. Now we’re going to talk about the character that is manifest when that inward attitude is there in the first four Beatitudes. When you have those first four, there are going to be four characteristics of your character that will be made manifest, and we’ll see them as we study these last four areas in this wonderful introduction.
Now, you know, there are a lot of people who’ve tried to use this Beatitude in kind of a humanistic way …
It isn’t simply the idea that if you’re merciful to everybody, then everybody’s going to be merciful to you. That’s wishful thinking in a Roman society, and I’ll tell you something else: It’s wishful thinking in our selfish, grasping, competitive society. You know, in our society we could say, “You be merciful to somebody else and he’ll step on your neck.” That doesn’t always work. But the best illustration of the fact that it’s not just a human platitude is our Lord, Jesus Christ. He proves once and for all that it isn’t a human platitude.
MacArthur gives us examples of our Lord’s mercy:
Jesus Christ came into the world and was the most merciful human being that ever lived. Jesus Christ came into the world and never did anything to harm anybody. Never. Jesus Christ came into the world, He reached out to the sick and He healed them. And He reached out to the crippled and He gave them legs to walk. And He reached to the eyes of the blind and they saw and to the ears of the deaf and they heard and to the mouths of the dumb and they spoke. And He found the prostitutes and the tax collectors and those that were debauched and He drew them into the circle of His love and He redeemed them and He set them on their feet. He picked up the sorrowing, He wept with them, and He took the lonely and He made them feel like they were loved. And He took little children and He gathered them into His arms and He loved them. Never was there a human being who ever lived in the face of the earth with the mercy of this one.
Once He was going along the streets and a funeral procession came by, and He saw a mother weeping because her son was dead and who would care? No son, no husband. And Jesus reached out in the midst of the funeral procession, stopped the casket, put His hand on it, and raised the child from the dead and gave him back to his mother. In John chapter 8, some men had caught a woman in adultery and they dragged that woman into the presence of Jesus, and He looked at that woman after He had talked with her and after He’d confronted her accusers and He forgave her and He said, “Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more.” What mercy.
He ate with tax collectors, He ate with sinners, and when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eat with the tax collectors and the sinners in Mark chapter 2, verse 16, they said to His disciples, “How is it that He eats and drinks with publicans and sinners? He runs around with the riffraff.” From start to finish, the life of the blessed Lord Jesus was one of constant mercy. He was merciful to everyone. Listen, I’m telling you something, people: Mercy given doesn’t mean mercy returned. You can’t work that human platitude in Jesus’ case. You know what? He was the most merciful human being that ever lived and they screamed for His blood and they slammed Him to a cross and they nailed Him there. That’s not a human platitude. Doesn’t make it. That’s not what it’s talking about. If mercy carried its own reward, they wouldn’t have nailed the most merciful being that ever lived to a cross and spit in His face and cursed Him. The most merciful one who ever lived received from the people to whom He gave mercy no mercy at all.
MacArthur explores the Greek and the Hebrew words for mercy:
Let’s look at the word “merciful.” Elemnes. The word is only used twice in the entire New Testament. Once it is used here and once it is used in Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 17, and there it says, “Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like his brother and that he might be a merciful and faithful” – what? – “high priest.” Christ is the great illustration of mercy. He is our high priest who intercedes for us, and it is from Him that mercy comes. The verb form, however, is used many, many times in the Bible. It is very, very common. It is common in the Old Testament, Septuagint, the Greek edition. The Hebrew synonym would be chesed and it is also very common. The word simply means to have mercy on – now listen – to succor the afflicted, to give help to the wretched, and to rescue the miserable. It’s a very broad idea.
Anything you do that is of benefit to someone in need, that’s mercy. Very broad idea, we think of mercy so much in terms of its aspect of forgiveness in salvation, but it’s a very broad term. It means compassion in action. It goes beyond compassion. It goes beyond sympathy. It means compassion in action, sympathy in action toward anyone who has any need. And when our Lord talks about it here, the real elemnes, the real stuff, is not a weak sympathy which carnal selfishness feels but never does anything to help. It is not that false mercy which really indulges its own flesh in salving of conscience by giving tokenism. It is not the silent, passive pity which could be genuine but never seems to be able to help in a tangible way. It’s not any of those superficial things. It is genuine compassion with a pure, unselfish motive that reaches out to help somebody in need. That’s what it is.
In other words, Jesus was saying to them, “The people in my kingdom aren’t takers, they’re givers. The people in my kingdom aren’t condemners, they’re mercy givers. The people in my kingdom aren’t the ones who set themselves above everybody, they’re the people who stoop to help everybody.”
Forgiveness and love are also connected to mercy:
We cannot think of mercy without its expression in forgiveness. We cannot think of forgiveness without its source: mercy. But listen, people, forgiveness is not the only expression of mercy …
Forgiveness flows out of mercy, mercy flows out of what? Love. Why has God been merciful? It is based on love. But God, who is rich in mercy – why? For His great love wherewith He loved us. You see the sequence? God loves and love is merciful and mercy is forgiving, among many other things. And so love is behind mercy, but love is bigger than mercy, if you can imagine this.
You say, “Now wait a minute. You said mercy was bigger than forgiveness.” That’s right. Mercy is bigger than forgiveness and love is bigger than mercy. Because love can do a lot of things, a lot more than just show mercy. Because mercy presupposes a problem and love can act when there isn’t a problem, right? The Father loves the Son, the Son doesn’t need mercy. The Son loves the Father and the Father doesn’t need mercy. The Father loves the angels and the angels love the Father and neither one of them need mercy. Love is bigger than mercy. Mercy is the physician. Love is the friend. Love acts out of affection, mercy acts out of need. Love is constant, mercy is reserved for times of trouble. But there’s no mercy without love. But love is bigger than mercy.
Then there is grace:
What about mercy and grace? People say, “Well, is mercy like grace?” and “Is grace like mercy?” Well, yes and no. Now listen, you’re going to really get a theological exercise, so hang on. The term “mercy” and all of its derivatives – listen – always deal with elements of pain and misery and distress. Always the result of sin, whether it’s individual sin or just the sin of the world, just the problem of being in a sinful world. You see, mercy always presupposes problems. It deals with the pain and the misery and the distress. But grace deals with the sin itself. Mercy deals with the symptoms, grace deals with the problem.
You see, mercy offers relief from punishment. Grace offers pardon for the crime. You understand? First comes grace and grace removes the sin and then mercy eliminates the punishment. They’re different. You know, in three of his letters – and he never does it in a letter to a church, he only does it in letters to individuals, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus, Paul says “mercy and grace and peace.” Mercy and grace are different. Mercy eliminates the pain and grace grants a better condition. Let me give you an illustration. The Good Samaritan, right? He’s lying – the man’s lying on the side of the road, he’s been beaten to the point of dying, he’s been robbed, and the priest goes by and walks along and doesn’t want to get involved. And the Levite goes by, doesn’t want to get involved. All the sudden, a half-breed Samaritan comes by and he sees this poor Jew all beaten and maimed and so forth, and he goes over and he cares for him. You know what mercy does? Mercy relieves his pain. Mercy pours oil in his wombs and mercy binds up his wounds. And mercy relieves the suffering. And you know what grace does? Grace goes over and rents him a room so he can live in an inn.
You see, mercy deals with the negative and grace puts it in the positive. Mercy takes away the pain and grace gives a better condition. Mercy says no hell, grace says heaven. Mercy says I pity you, grace says I pardon you. So mercy and grace are two sides of the same marvelous thing. And God offers mercy and grace.
However, we cannot forget justice:
People say, “Well, if God is a God of justice, how can He be merciful?” If you look at it that way, if God’s a just, holy, righteous God, can He just negate justice? Can He say, “Well, I know you’re a sinner and I know you’ve done awful things, but oh, I love you so much and I have so much mercy, I’m just going to forgive you”? Can He do that? Yeah, He can. You know why? Because He came into the world in human form and died upon a cross, and at the cross when Jesus died – don’t ever forget it – justice was satisfied.
Did you get that? God said there would be no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood and God said there had to be a perfect sacrifice to bear the sins of the world, and Jesus was that and justice was satisfied. And now mercy does no violation to justice. I’m not – when I talk about the mercy of God, it’s not some foolish sentimentality that excuses sin. Listen, we got too much of that going on, even in the church. The only time God ever extended mercy to anybody was when somebody paid the price for the sin involved.
And God will never violate the truth of His justice and His holiness to be merciful. He will be merciful, but only when truth has been dealt with …
We’re not talking about sentimentality. I’m not telling you that if you sin your life away and never acknowledge Jesus Christ, God’s going to be merciful and accept you. That’s not true. You will have judgment without mercy. And I believe that the only time God can really give mercy is when the truth has been accepted. Only when we accept the sacrifice of Christ or as Christians who’ve done that, if God is to be merciful to us, then we must confess sin as sin and repent and turn from it, and then we’ll know His mercy.
So, mercy is special. It is more than forgiveness. It is less than love. It is different than grace. And it is one with justice. It is more than forgiveness, less than love, different than grace, and one with justice. To sum up the significance of being a merciful person, listen to this: The merciful not only hears the insults of evil men, but his heart reaches out to the very same evil men in compassion. The merciful one is sympathetic. He is forgiving. He is gracious. He is loving. He’s not so sentimental that He will excuse evil. He’s not so sentimental that He will allow for sin to go unpunished or unconfronted just because somebody is kind of sad or tragic. No, mercy means you reach out in sympathy and total forgiveness and love and grace when truth is accepted. Psalm 37:21 says this: “The wicked borrows and pays not back, but the righteous shows mercy.” We’re going to be merciful to those who accept the truth.
Jesus said that blessed are the pure in heart — the holy — for they will see God (verse 8).
Matthew Henry tells us:
This is the most comprehensive of all the beatitudes; here holiness and happiness are fully described and put together.
1. Here is the most comprehensive character of the blessed: they are pure in heart. Note, True religion consists in heart-purity. Those who are inwardly pure, show themselves to be under the power of pure and undefiled religion. True Christianity lies in the heart, in the purity of heart; the washing of that from wickedness, Jer 4 14. We must lift up to God, not only clean hands, but a pure heart, Ps 24 4, 5; 1 Tim 1 5. The heart must be pure, in opposition to mixture—an honest heart that aims well; and pure, in opposition to pollution and defilement; as wine unmixed, as water unmuddied. The heart must be kept pure from fleshly lusts, all unchaste thoughts and desires; and from worldly lusts; covetousness is called filthy lucre; from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, all that which come out of the heart, and defiles the man. The heart must be purified by faith, and entire for God; must be presented and preserved a chaste virgin to Christ. Create in me such a clean heart, O God!
2. Here is the most comprehensive comfort of the blessed; They shall see God. Note, (1.) It is the perfection of the soul’s happiness to see God; seeing him, as we may by faith in our present state, is a heaven upon earth; and seeing him as we shall in the future state, in the heaven of heaven. To see him as he is, face to face, and no longer through a glass darkly; to see him as ours, and to see him and enjoy him; to see him and be like him, and be satisfied with that likeness (Ps 17 15); and to see him for ever, and never lose the sight of him; this is heaven’s happiness. (2.) The happiness of seeing God is promised to those, and those only, who are pure in heart. None but the pure are capable of seeing God, nor would it be a felicity to the impure. What pleasure could an unsanctified soul take in the vision of a holy God? As he cannot endure to look upon their iniquity, so they cannot endure to look upon his purity; nor shall any unclean thing enter into the new Jerusalem; but all that are pure in heart, all that are truly sanctified, have desires wrought in them, which nothing but the sight of God will sanctify; and divine grace will not leave those desires unsatisfied.
MacArthur lays out the progression of the Beatitudes thus far and prepares us for the next, that of the peacemakers:
… you begin with the reality of being poor in spirit. And when you see yourself as a cowering beggar in a corner, reaching out a hand that can only be given a gift, you have no power to earn anything. And as a cowering beggar, ashamed to show your face, you reach out in tremendous sense of inadequacy. You reach out to God. That’s where it begins, and then in your reaching out as a beggar, your next response is to mourn over the sin that has put you in that position. And out of your total sense of sinfulness, you fall meek before an absolutely holy God. You couldn’t be anything else but humble. And in your humility, all you can do is cry out and hunger and thirst for a righteousness which you can’t attain and yet you’ve got to have. And you cry that God would give it. And then what happens? He gives you mercy and that’s the next Beatitude and you become one of those who are merciful. And once you have been granted mercy and once God by His mercy has cleansed your heart because you hungered for His righteousness, then and then alone do you become pure in heart, and only when you are pure in heart could you ever be a peacemaker.
Jesus said that the peacemakers are blessed, for they will be called children of God (verse 9).
MacArthur says that the peacemakers are not politicians, statesmen or diplomats:
God’s peacemakers are vastly different, which is good because the world’s peacemakers have a terrible failure record …
I’ll never forget reading a statistic. The question was: How many peace treaties have been broken? The answer: All of them. You see, peace is that glorious brief moment in history when everybody stops to reload. The United Nations was concerned in the aftermath of World War II with developing an agency for world peace, and so in 1945, the United Nations brought itself into existence, and since that time there has not been one single day of peace on the earth — not one. The world is filled with never-ending upheavals. The motto of the United Nations was set in 1945: “To have succeeding generations free from the scourge of war.” So far they haven’t done it for one day. It’s a pipe dream.
He defines peace through the Jewish greeting, ‘Shalom’:
Peace is not just stopping the war; peace is creating the righteousness that brings the two parties together in love. When a Jew says to another Jew, “Shalom,” which is the word for peace, he doesn’t mean “May you have no wars, may you have no conflict,” he means “I desire for you all the righteousness that God can give, all the goodness that God can give.” Shalom means “God’s highest good for you.” It’s a creative force for goodness. So if we are to be peacemakers, we do not only stop the war, we replace it with the righteousness of God. We replace it with all the goodness of God. Peacemakers are those who not only call a truce but a real peace where all is forgotten, and they embrace one another. It is an aggressive good. What I’m trying to say is that peace is not creating a vacuum. Peace is not creating the absence of something, but the presence of something …
The peace of the Bible does not evade issues. It never evades issues. The peace of the Bible is not peace at any price. It isn’t a gloss. The peace of the Bible conquers the problem. You see the difference? It conquers that problem in the middle ground so that the two can come together. It builds a bridge to two sides. Sometimes it means struggle. Sometimes it means pain. Sometimes it means anguish. Sometimes it means a little more strife but in the end, real peace can come.
Peace is linked to holiness — purity of heart:
The wisdom that is from God finds its way to peace through what? Purity. First pure, then peaceable. Peace is never sought at the expense of righteousness. You have not made peace between two people unless they have seen the sin and the error and the wrongness of the bitterness and the hatred and they have resolved to bring it before God and make it right, then through purity comes peace. Peace that ignores purity is not the peace that God talks about. In Hebrews 12:14, it says this, and another word that you must remember: “Follow peace with all men and holiness.” In other words, you cannot divorce peace from holiness. You cannot divorce peace from purity. You cannot divorce peace from righteousness. Psalm 85:10 says, “Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” Where there is real peace, there is righteousness. Where there is real peace, there is holiness. Where there is real peace, there is purity, because that resolves the issue.
Paradoxically, biblical peace is not without conflict:
When Jesus says, “Be a peacemaker in the world,” that doesn’t mean you don’t ever bring up anything that is true if it offends somebody. On the contrary, you better bring it up if it’s true and it better offend them so they can get past that to the real peace. Biblical peace is real peace. We are not peacemakers in the world in the sense that we never make strife. We make strife all the time. But we are peacemakers in the world in this sense, that when the strife is over the real peace is there. Biblical peace is that kind of peace. Now, we are not agreeing to just settle things without dealing with truth. We will deal with truth. And if you’re going to deal with truth, beloved, you’re going to be a divider. You’re going to be a disturber, you’re going to be a disrupter. There’s no way to get around it.
And you know, you see that, don’t you? You go to work and you start to live for Christ and you start to give your testimony and all of a sudden, here you are trying to be a peacemaker and help people to make peace with God and help them make peace with each other and help them make peace in their own hearts, but you’re doing your best to get them to make peace and all they can do is get mad at you. Because the whole premise of your message is that they have to deal with sin, and people don’t like to hear that so they get very upset. Our Lord said in Luke 12:51, “Do you suppose that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you nay, but rather division. From henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, the son against the father, the mother against the daughter, the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against the daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against the mother-in-law.” In other words, Jesus said it’s very obvious at the beginning that when people come to Jesus Christ there will be conflict. And He knows that true peace can only come when truth reigns and it’s more than a truce. It’s a real peace.
MacArthur gives us a practical application for us to discern if we are peacemakers. This follows on from the previous Beatitudes:
You have righteousness in your life, you have purity in your life, you have holiness in your life and you’ll have peace in your life. And if you’ve got problems in your marriage and there’s conflict in your marriage and conflict in your family or in your home, I’ll tell you one thing: You have righteousness, holiness, and purity in your marriage and your home and you’ll have peace in your home. Because that’s always the way. Once you have righteousness, you’re at peace with God, peace with man, peace with self.
And so to be a peacemaker, you’ve got to go through all the Beatitudes. You’ve got to come to the place where you see your own sinfulness, you see yourself as a wretched soul, miserable, deserving nothing with no rights or privileges, hating your natural self, crying out to a holy God to give you a righteousness you could never get but must have. And God, in His great, great love, gives you mercy, purifies your heart, and then and only then will you ever be a peacemaker …
Peace belongs to God. It doesn’t belong to man at all. In fact, you want to hear something? Since the fall of man, in Genesis 3, man has never known peace unless he took it as a gift from God, because man doesn’t have it. God is perfect peace. In fact, God is at perfect peace with Himself. God is characterized by perfect oneness. The Trinity has perfect oneness. It is absolutely tranquil. It is in absolute harmony. It is perfectly united. In the Trinity, there is no conflict. There is only peace and that radiates from God. The only way we’ll ever know peace is if God comes to us. And I love the statement of Ephesians 2:14 that tells us that’s exactly what He did. It says, “For He” – that is Christ – “is our peace.” When Christ came into the world, He was the peace of God coming to take the hand of God and the hand of man and by His own sacrifice make man righteous and join his hand to God.
MacArthur says that true peacemakers help people make peace with God:
There’s a second thing: A peacemaker is one who has peace himself with God and, secondly, one who helps others make peace with God. One who helps others make peace with God. I think Jesus had in mind here evangelism. I think that’s the greatest thing about peacemaking. You can go to somebody who’s at war with God and make peace between that person and God, right? And I’ll tell you something else. Anybody who is unsaved is at odds with you, too, because they’re out of the family. They’re cursed by God. They’re set apart from the kingdom. And the minute they come to Jesus Christ, they make peace with God and peace with you, they become God’s child and your brother, right? Evangelism is peacemaking. What a fabulous thought. The best way to be a peacemaker is to preach the gospel of peace. To impart to men the gospel so that their alienation from God can be ended. So that their alienation from the church, the body of Christ, from your fellowship, can be ended. And they can be at peace. No wonder it says in Romans 10:15, “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of” – what? – “peace.”
You see, it’s a beautiful thing to bring people to a peaceful relationship with God. You want to really be a peacemaker? Just tell somebody about Jesus Christ. That’s infinitely beyond what any mortal politician or statesman has ever accomplished in a political sense. That’s ultimate, eternal, real peace.
Jesus discusses the final beatitude — the blessed state of those who are persecuted for righeteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven — in verses 10 and 11.
MacArthur explains why:
Now, I really believe that this is one Beatitude. The reason I believe it’s the same one is because the term “persecute” is used in verse 10, and the term “persecute” is used again in verse 11. It’s really the same thing, it’s just expanded in verse 11. Another reason I believe it’s really only one Beatitude is that there’s only one result given. You take verse 10 and 11, and the only result is at the end of verse 10: “For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Now, all of the Beatitudes have a promise with the character, and there’s only one promise in verses 10 and 11, and that’s at the end of verse 10. You say, “Well, if it’s only one promise, then why does it have two ‘blesseds’?” I believe that God double-blesses those who suffer. I believe God double-blesses those who are persecuted. It’s almost as if we need it in this particular case. Double-blessed are those who are persecuted.
This beatitude carries on nicely from being a peacemaker:
There was never anyone more loving than Jesus Christ. There was never a greater peacemaker than Jesus Christ. And for some people, they responded to that love, and for some people, they entered into that peace. But even though Jesus was the most loving, magnanimous, gracious, kind, peaceful person who ever lived, everywhere He went, He created antagonism. Why? Because He was confrontive about the issues. And it is so with all the righteous. You chart the course of the righteous throughout history, and they have always suffered for their godliness. Always. It began in the very beginning, in the book of Genesis, when a godly, righteous man named Abel was murdered by an ungodly, unrighteous brother who simply could not tolerate his righteousness, and it’s been so ever since. Moses had to choose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than compromise himself in the pleasures of Egyptian society, Hebrews 11 tells us. There was always a price to pay.
MacArthur says that not all of us will be persecuted. Nonetheless, we need to be prepared for that possibility:
It doesn’t mean that every single one of us is going to know constant persecution all our lives to an intense degree, he is simply saying the world will pick some of us out. And I believe anyway that all of us who live righteously in the world, at some time or another, are going to know the rebuke of the cross …
Maybe it’s going to affect how they get their living. Maybe they’re going to have to believe God to supply the thing that they don’t know the source for if they turn their back on what they’ve known in the past. And so it could affect their secular job and it still can today.
We return to an internal Beatitude here:
This is an attitude. It is an attitude of a willingness to be persecuted. That’s what He’s saying. It is that lack of fear, that lack of shame, that presence of boldness that says, “I will be in this world what Christ would have me be. I will say in this world what Christ will have me say. And if persecution results, let it be.” It’s that attitude. It is a passive participle in the Greek and it indicates a permissiveness. Those who allow themselves to be persecuted. Blessed are they who allow themselves to be persecuted.
There is the matter of being reviled as well as being slandered or libelled (verse 11):
There’s a second element. He says in verse 11 they’ll revile you. Oneidiz. It literally means to cast in one’s teeth. To cast in one’s teeth. It’s used in the crucifixion of Christ in Matthew 27:44. They cast in His teeth. They mocked Him. They made fun of Him. They reviled Him. They scorned Him. It’s to throw something in your face, is what it is. It’s to abuse somebody with vile, vicious, mocking words. That’s essentially what it means. So we not only are going to be chased out of the groups we used to be in, we’ll be ostracized from the activities that we used to be a part of. Not only that, there are going to be people who are going to speak evil of us, they’re going to say things about us, they’re going to use unkind words when our name comes up. They did it with Jesus. They said, “Ah, he hangs around with prostitutes and winebibbers,” and so forth. So if you’re going to live the Beatitude life, you’ve got to be willing to be persecuted and reviled, and there are going to be some people who are going to say unkind things about you. Some people maybe you may care about, too.
There’s a third thing, and this is really a hard one to take. You know, I’ve always found that I could take the chasing me away. Nobody wants me around much after they find I’m a minister. It’s amazing how fast people want to get out of my presence. After they find out I’m not like a minister like other ministers they’ve known, that I’m a little more confrontive. And so they’ll find that out as I begin to maybe confront them a little with the things of Christ, and then they’re really itchy to get out of there. I’m rarely invited to the activities that they engage in. I can handle that and I can even handle people saying unkind and vile and vicious things about me and I get some of that …
And I know what it is to be arrested from preaching. I preached a sermon in a certain place in the South and I didn’t go very far from there until a police car caught up with me and arrested me and threw me in jail and threatened to strip my clothes off and beat me with a whip and so forth and so on if I continued to do what I was doing. That’s in the United States of America. I guess those things, can tolerate, but then there’s that third thing where he says here that they’ll “say all manner of evil against you falsely.” And you know, sometimes that’s so hard to take. I don’t mind if they don’t like what I do say, but when they make me say things that I don’t say, that’s hard to take. And then you got to try to defend yourself for something you never even said.
“They say slanderous and evil things against you.” They tried to say about Jesus that he was the illegitimate son of a Roman soldier. That wasn’t true. They’ve tried to say things about God’s people throughout all of history. Arthur Pink well says that “it is a strong proof of human depravity that men’s curses and Christ’s blessings should meet on the same person.” Isn’t that interesting? What a picture of depravity. Christ’s blessings and men’s curses meet on the same person. It’s the people He blesses that the world curses. That shows you how far they are from God. Such a life provokes the ungodliness of men to be resentful. It is the enmity of the serpent against the holy seed.
MacArthur discusses the Greek word for ‘persecution’:
“Persecution” is from a Greek word that means “to harass, to treat evilly.” Literally, in its root, it means “to pursue.” You’re going to come after us.
Even in 1979, he could feel the winds of change. And lo, it has come to pass:
I really feel in America, we’re on the threshold of some days that are going to be real different than what we’ve known in the past. I think that we’ve been sort of lollygagging around in the post-American Awakening era. You know, we’ve been living off the revivalists of the past and the benefits that America had from its heritage of those days. That is fast coming to an end. Not only is government acting against religion, and religion is acting against itself by proliferating all of the cults and -isms and schisms and spasms and everything else.
And we’re seeing the government crack down on religious groups. We’re seeing changes in attitudes. We’re seeing the IRS and other agencies begin to make laws that are going to directly impact those of us who are in the church of Jesus Christ. We’re seeing reactions to things that once were held to be sacred, the whole idea of church and all of those kinds of things, you know, it’s all gone with mom and apple pie. That’s gone too, and so, “They’re going to come after us,” He says.
How? Verse 11. Remember what we told you? “Revile.” That’s abuse to the face. “…say all manner of evil against you falsely…,” that’s slander behind the back. They’re going to come at those who are God’s people right on the nose and around the back. They’re going to talk about us when we’re gone, and they’re going to react to us when we’re there. There will be open confrontations, and there will be that private slander.
This is why:
It isn’t you. It’s that they don’t know God. And because they don’t know God, they don’t know Christ. And because they don’t know Christ, they don’t understand righteousness. And because they aren’t willing to accept righteousness, they want their sin and will not tolerate a confrontation at that point.
Jesus ends the Beatitude section by saying that the persecuted and reviled should be glad, for their reward will be great in heaven, because, in the same way, were the prophets who went before were subject to the same treatment (verse 12).
MacArthur says persecution probably won’t be a constant event, but God will watch over us:
It is not the idea that we are going to be incessantly, unmitigatedly persecuted, an unceasing stream of persecution. That wasn’t true in Paul’s time. That wasn’t true in Christ’s time. There were times when Christ enjoyed the respite of a family time with Mary and Martha and Lazarus. There were times when Jesus retreated to the Mount of Olives. There were wonderful times with the Twelve in Galilee.
No, it isn’t going to be incessant, unending, unceasing. But whenever – hotan – whenever it happens, then God will be there to bring His blessedness to bear upon that willing soul. He always makes it bearable, doesn’t He? “There’s no trial taken you but such as is common to man, but God is faithful who will never allow you to be tried above that you are able, but will, in that trial, make a way of – “ what? “ – escape…” …
Whatever loss here could never be compared with what gain in God’s Kingdom. “Blessed,” he says. Twice he says it, emphatically repeating, “Blessed. Blessed again,” because those who would willingly stand up for Jesus Christ will know the bliss of obedience and the blessedness of being a part of God’s eternal kingdom …
MacArthur points out the circularity of the first and the eighth Beatitude:
Listen. The kingdom is the gift of the Beatitudes. Did you note the first Beatitude began with the promise, “Theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” and the last Beatitude ends with the promise, “Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven”? And what it’s really saying to us is that the major promise of the Beatitudes is you become a kingdom citizen now and forever, and the ones in between are just elements of kingdom life.
What we can conclude is that, if we want to be a part of God’s eternal kingdom, we would do well to heed the Beatitudes, live by them, pray that we can further fulfil them by studying the Word of God regularly. The more we read of the Bible, the better we understand God’s purpose for us.
May all reading this enjoy a blessed Sunday.
The three-year Lectionary that many Catholics and Protestants hear in public worship gives us a great variety of Holy Scripture.
Yet, it doesn’t tell the whole story.
My series Forbidden Bible Verses — ones the Lectionary editors and their clergy omit — examines the passages we do not hear in church. These missing verses are also Essential Bible Verses, ones we should study with care and attention. Often, we find that they carry difficult messages and warnings.
Today’s reading is from the English Standard Version Anglicised (ESVUK) with commentary by Matthew Henry and John MacArthur.
9 Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, 10 for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, 11 and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, 12 so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.
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Last week’s post discussed Paul’s exhortations to be morally and sexually pure as part of sanctification.
Nearly every New Testament letter has such exhortations against sexual sin, as does the Old Testament, therefore, these must be serious sins that God finds particularly abhorrent. Note that there are diseases specifically connected with these types of sin, which one could read as a divine judgement of sorts. If we consider sin to have a stench about it, these must be among the most malodorous!
In today’s verses, Paul moves on to discuss brotherly love and everyday behaviour in general terms.
We know that the Thessalonians were the most loving and doctrinally pure of the churches that Paul founded. Paul and the other Apostles cautioned in their letters to be ready for Christ’s Second Coming. The message is that a believer should always be ready for that day. A more practical application in our times, it would seem, is that we should treat every day as if it were our last. We should be prepared and ready to depart this mortal coil. That entails, in today’s parlance, ‘getting right with God’.
It seems as if some Thessalonians were overly preoccupied with our Lord’s return. As such, they eschewed their daily responsibilities and made a nuisance of themselves.
This reading also pertains to sanctification, a lifelong process — the Christian journey to become better and better in all ways of life.
To tie last week’s and this week’s verses together, John MacArthur explains (emphases mine):
To remind ourselves what we’re supposed to be all about until Jesus gets here, number one, love each other more. Love each other more. It would be safe to say, I think, that this exhortation to love, it’s in verses 9 and 10 by the way, it would be safe to say that this exhortation to love is beautifully connected with what Paul had just written because he’s just written about lust, even used the word in verse 5. And he said lust is forbidden but love is required, very much like Ephesians 5:1 and 2, where it says we’re to love in verse 2 and then immediately in verse 3 it says but we’re not to lust. Some people get those confused, lust and love.
So, Paul says the first principle of sanctification, don’t lust. The second one, do love, love. And if anything is to characterize the church it is purity on the one hand and love on the other hand. Pure moral conduct and love go together.
Paul tells the Thessalonians that, as far as brotherly love is concerned, they need no advice because they have been taught by God to love one another (verse 9).
In the Greek, the word is philadelphia. We know the great, historic city in the state of Pennsylvania is called ‘the city of brotherly love’, and ‘brotherly love’ is the literal translation of the word. Philos means love, and adelphos means brother.
MacArthur says that the original meaning of philadelphia implied a familial relationship, as it:
originally meant affection for someone from the same womb.
God’s grace and the Holy Spirit were working through the Thessalonians to the extent that they positively exuded brotherly love for each other.
MacArthur analyses Paul’s great compliment to them:
He says, “You have no need for anyone to write to you.” That’s interesting. He says it would be superfluous, unnecessary for me to write to you. He says that same thing, by the way, in chapter 5 verse 1. He says my purpose is not to write to you to tell you to love each other. That’s superfluous. Why? “For you yourselves,” that means without me, emphatic, “you yourselves apart from me,” I love this, “are God-taught.” That’s one word in the Greek, theodidaktos. You are God-taught to love one another. Boy, what a statement! What a statement that is!
He says, “Look, I don’t need to write you and tell you to love one another, you’re God-taught.” By the way, that’s the only time in the New Testament that word is ever used. A similar phrase to that is used in John 6:45. But only here is that word used. He’s saying you don’t need external instruction, you don’t need external motivation, external exhortation, you have an internal teaching, you’re God-taught.
You say, “You mean if I’m a Christian nobody needs to teach me to love my brother because God will do that?” Yes. “How?” I’ll show you how, Romans 5:5, it tells you exactly how God does that. Romans 5:5 says: “The love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Did you hear that? The love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. So how are we God-taught? By the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit comes to live in us when we’re saved and He teaches us to love.
Paul goes on to say that the Thessalonians were known throughout Macedonia for their brotherly love, and he encourages them to display more and more of that love (verse 10) as part of sanctification.
MacArthur explains:
There’s no question about it. It’s fact. It’s reality. You’re saved, you love. “You practice it and you practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia.” It isn’t just for people in your town. It isn’t…it isn’t just some local affection. You practice it toward all of the believers. Thessalonica was the capital city of Macedonia. And there were, remember this, other churches being founded in Macedonia. Paul, according to Acts 16:9 to 12, was in other parts of Macedonia. Silas and Timothy, who had been in Thessalonica, were in other parts of Macedonia. Other churches were being founded and Christians were coming to the trade center which was Thessalonica meeting the Thessalonian church and finding them full of love and taking the message back. And everybody in Macedonia knew the Thessalonians loved. Everybody knows that and it’s not even selective. You’re just loving all the Christians.
Matthew Henry says that it is important for believers to keep striving in love and other virtues. Sanctification drives us towards perfection:
There are none on this side heaven who love in perfection. Those who are eminent in this or any other grace have need of increase therein as well as of perseverance unto the end.
The next two verses stand out because they are antithetical to our modern life. They were probably antithetical back in Greco-Roman times, too.
Paul exhorts — encourages — the Thessalonians to aspire to a quiet life, minding their own business and working with their hands as he — ‘we’ — instructed them (verse 11). Work keeps us out of trouble.
How many people, particularly online, spend time picking meddlesome and potentially dangerous verbal conflicts out of self-righteousness? Such conflicts are an everyday occurrence on social media.
Henry’s commentary says that these disputes are the work of Satan, who likes nothing better than a disquieted mind:
It is the most desirable thing to have a calm and quiet temper, and to be of a peaceable and quiet behaviour. This tends much to our own and others’ happiness; and Christians should study how to be quiet. We should be ambitious and industrious how to be calm and quiet in our minds, in patience to possess our own souls, and to be quiet towards others; or of a meek and mild, a gentle and peaceable disposition, not given to strife, contention, or division. Satan is very busy to disquiet us; and we have that in our own hearts that disposes us to be disquiet; therefore let us study to be quiet. It follows, Do your own business. When we go beyond this, we expose ourselves to a great deal of inquietude. Those who are busy-bodies, meddling in other men’s matters, generally have but little quiet in their own minds and cause great disturbances among their neighbours; at least they seldom mind the other exhortation, to be diligent in their own calling, to work with their own hands; and yet this was what the apostle commanded them, and what is required of us also. Christianity does not discharge us from the work and duty of our particular callings, but teaches us to be diligent therein.
MacArthur puts this verse in the context of the Thessalonians awaiting the Second Coming. No doubt this caused some of them to poke their noses in others’ business and contend with each other on that issue:
Don’t ignore this world because Jesus is coming, take a greater look at the people around you and love them more.
Hmm, love them more? I mean, why don’t we just ignore this world and wait to go to glory? No, he says, love them more.
Second injunction, lead a quiet life. Lead a quiet life. You say, “Now wait a minute, Jesus is coming, shouldn’t we lead a loud life? Shouldn’t we be all over the place screaming and yelling and hollering and marching and protesting and doing whatever we need to do to wake up the whole world?”
No, just lead a quiet life. This is a very interesting statement because it says in verse 11, “And to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life.” Those two verb forms are tied in to “excel still more.” How? By making it your ambition to lead a quiet life. That is a… That is an almost contradictory usage of two verbs. The first one means to be zealous and to strive eagerly. Be zealous and strive eagerly to be quiet. A little bit difficult. Make a major effort to do nothing. Make a major effort to rest, relax, remain silent.
That word there is used in the New Testament of a number of things: Keeping your mouth closed and not saying anything; quieting down when you’ve been speaking. It’s used of resting. But it has the idea in all those usages of a tranquility, calm tranquil, peaceful. The root has that idea, quiet, peaceable. One noun form literally means to keep your seat, sit down, relax. Christians are to live quiet, relaxed, restful, peaceful lives in face of persecution, in face of anticipation of the Lord’s return.
… We don’t know what these Christians were doing they shouldn’t have been doing. We don’t know where they were going and what they were involved in. We don’t know how they were manifesting this lack of composure and upheaval. But he says back off, sit down, relax, settle down, calm down, be quiet, be tranquil, be peaceful. Very much like Paul’s instruction to Timothy to give the church at Ephesus, tell them to lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. Don’t make trouble for the king, don’t make trouble for the governors, don’t up…overturn the culture. Hmm. Interesting commands, aren’t they?
First one, even though Jesus is coming very soon, make sure that you do loving things to meet the needs of other people, physical needs, earthly needs. Second one, lead a very quiet life, stay out of the public eye, get back, settle down, be quiet.
There’s a third one, mind your own business. That communicates, doesn’t it? Mind your own business. That’s been quoted a lot by folks, “Attend to your own business.” But this is the only time this word is used in the Greek in the New Testament. It’s common in secular Greek, but it’s only used here. We don’t really know what he was speaking to because we don’t know what the issues were if there were any. It may have been a general exhortation. He is saying don’t get into somebody else’s affairs, either the affairs of other Christians, the church leaders, your society, whatever. Stay out of that stuff. Just take care of your own business. Concentrate on your own life. Concentrate on how you live. Stay out of other people’s matters, stay out of other issues.
Over in 2 Thessalonians 3:10 he said, “Don’t be a busybody.” What’s a busybody? Well that’s exactly what it says, a body that’s busy, somebody who is peripatetic, from the Greek verb [???] peripateo, to walk around, who is all over the place all the time. Don’t do that. People who are undisciplined, who don’t work, but who act like busybodies, just running around sticking their nose into everybody’s affairs. Keep doing what’s necessary for your livelihood. Don’t be running off trying to solve everybody’s problems in the world and straighten out everybody’s issues. Mind your own business, no place for gossip. Take care of you and just keep doing what you’ve always done.
Work, he says in Colossians 3:22 to 24, to please your master whether he’s good or not. Do whatever you do for your master, the guy who has employed you, heartily as unto the Lord. Just keep doing what is necessary to your life and stay out of other people’s affairs. Keep to yourself. Keep to your own life, your own business, the matters that concern you. Lead a quiet, unobtrusive, gentle, peaceful life and make sure you give yourself in sacrificial love to one another in the matter of meeting worldly needs.
Paul ends this section of verses saying that living quietly, minding one’s own business and working with one’s hands will enable us to walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one (verse 12).
Think about that in line with today’s welfare state. So many on welfare, often multi-generational, profess a belief in God. Yet, they shirk work and ask for more from the state, meaning taxpayers.
Henry points out:
People often by their slothfulness bring themselves into narrow circumstances, and reduce themselves to great straits, and are liable to many wants, when such as are diligent in their own business live comfortably and have lack of nothing. They are not burdensome to their friends, nor scandalous to strangers. They earn their own bread, and have the greatest pleasure in so doing.
MacArthur puts verse 12 into context for us and gives us another verse from 2 Thessalonians on the same subject. There was no welfare state then, but some in the congregation were probably taking a bit too much in church charity rather than contributing to it:
By the way, would you turn to 2 Thessalonians 3 for a moment, I’ll show you something interesting. A little while later he wrote them another letter, 2 Thessalonians. Guess what he says to them in this letter, very interesting. Go down to verse 10. “For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order, if anyone will not work, neither let him (what?) eat. For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all but acting like busybodies. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to work in quiet fashion and eat their own bread.“ That’s pretty straightforward. That’s basically what he said in our text. And here he even says, “I used to tell you this.” I wrote you this. And now I hear word that I have to write you again about this. You’re lazy, you’re not working, you’re busybodies, you’re not quiet, you’re eating someone else’s bread.
MacArthur explains why some Thessalonians thought they no longer needed to work:
The free Greeks believed that manual labor belonged only to slaves. So they had the slaves do all of it. Free men should never stoop to do manual labor. It was degrading, said the free Greeks. And consequently it led them to idleness, indulgence. But the Christian community dignified work as an honorable effort and no doubt most of the Christians were workers. In fact, most of the Christians were slaves, probably. So they’re exhorted to keep at it.
And you say, “Well what may have happened?” Well something like this, these slaves, or these employed people would say, “Now we’ve come to know Jesus Christ, we’re free in Christ. That catapults us over our masters. We don’t need to work, especially in the coming of Jesus Christ. We’re not going to do their work anymore, we’re not going to ply their trade while they rake in all the profit, we’re just going to back out and wait for Jesus to come.”
And that’s exactly what he wrote in 2 Thessalonians. “I heard some of you were living undisciplined lives instead of quiet, peaceable lives where you mind your own business. And some of you are working not at all.” And he says in 2 Thessalonians, “And if you don’t work you shouldn’t (what?) …because what had happened was Christians waiting for the Second Coming were unconcerned about the needs of the people around them, first of all. They were troublesome busybodies who were not leading quiet and peaceful lives and they had become deadbeats. And they were depending on Christians with resources to sustain them instead of working with their own hands. So anxious for the Second Coming they couldn’t be bothered to take care of this life.
MacArthur reminds us that Paul and Jesus were both manual workers:
Paul made his living by making tents with his hands. Jesus made His living by making things out of wood with His hands, and probably laying bricks. Christianity has always dignified labor. Since most of them were workers who worked with their hands, he says work with your hands, don’t flip out into some spiritual dimension where all you want to do is sit and discuss theology. Work.
MacArthur explores the second half of verse 12 about walking properly and not being dependent on anyone. This ties in with proper evangelism:
Work with your hands.
You say, “But, John, that seems so mundane when the work is so vital, the work of evangelism and if you believe that Jesus is coming soon.” That’s just his point. Go to verse 12. “So that…” Here’s the purpose: “So that you may behave properly toward outsiders.” Stop there.
Now wait a minute, he’s talking about evangelism here. The key to evangelism is not a…is not a strategy that folds…that unfolds in a pamphlet, or a tract, or an evangelistic technique or a programmed service. The key to evangelism is the integrity of the lives of Christians who manifest to a troubled, agitated, messed-up world a behavior that is filled with love and peace and tranquility and privacy and diligent work. And when Christians live that kind of a life in the world, people say you’re different. Everything is stirred up and troubled and agitated and you’re perfectly calm. There’s anger and hostility and bitterness and hatred and you just love all these people. You’re generous. While everybody is running around trying to get the scoop on everybody else. And if you don’t believe that, just read the newspapers and the tabloids and all of that. Some people in our culture just literally thrive in feeding themselves on somebody else’s affairs. And all you people want to do is take care of your own business. My, everybody else is looking for the quickest way out and you want to work hard. What makes you tick?
See that’s the platform of integrity that makes the message believable. And so if we’re going to behave properly — “behave” means walk, daily conduct, “properly: means in good form toward outsiders, not Christians — this is the way to live. He doesn’t say shirk your job, shirk your responsibility, get noisy, go out and do this. No, just keep living your life and unbelievers will see it. It’s how you live, shoe-leather faith toward outsiders.
And then he adds this in verse 12. “And not be in any need.” And furthermore, he says, I want you to behave that way toward outsiders and I want you to behave that way toward insiders, so they’re not always having to meet your need. Non-Christians, first of all, should have no basis for thinking Christians are unloving, troublesome, nosy deadbeats. But I’m not sure that’s always the case. I think there are a lot of apparently unloving troublesome, nosy, deadbeat Christians around. But we will com…commend Christianity to the outsiders by the diligence and the beauty of our lifestyle. And then he says, “And you’ll not be in need,” which means you’ll also conduct yourselves properly toward those on the inside. You make your living, you work with your hands, you live your life. You don’t shirk responsibility so that you have to depend on some more industrious Christian to provide your livelihood.
Anticipation of the Lord’s return, beloved, was no excuse for irresponsible living.
MacArthur says that our lifestyle is an important part of evangelism:
All the future analysts say the church is in trouble … because it isn’t relevant. It’s got to be relevant.
How does the church get relevant? By using contemporary music? By using contemporary theater, drama, whatever? By using contemporary Madison Avenue marketing technique? How does the church get relevant? By giving people what they want?
No. The most relevant thing the church can do is live the life of a Christian in every dimension of daily life, right? So that we close any existing gap between our faith and our feet, right? That’s what will make us relevant.
In the closing verses of 1 Thessalonians 4, which are in the Lectionary, Paul describes the Second Coming. Those who are already dead will rise first. Those who rise after them are believers who are still alive at the time. These are particularly relevant to Evangelical churches which believe in the Rapture:
The Coming of the Lord
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord,[d] that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
The theme continues in the first part of 1 Thessalonians 5:
The Day of the Lord
5 Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers,[a] you have no need to have anything written to you. 2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “There is peace and security”, then sudden destruction will come upon them as labour pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. 4 But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. 5 For you are all children[b] of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. 6 So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. 9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
Paul then gives general words of advice to the Thessalonians. More on that next week.
Next time — 1 Thessalonians 5:12-15
The Ninth Sunday after Trinity is on August 14, 2022.
Readings for Year C can be found here.
The Gospel reading is as follows (emphases mine):
Luke 12:49-56
12:49 “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!
12:50 I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!
12:51 Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!
12:52 From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three;
12:53 they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
12:54 He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain’; and so it happens.
12:55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat’; and it happens.
12:56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?
Commentary comes from Matthew Henry and John MacArthur.
Luke 9 through Luke 19 are our Lord’s principal teaching chapters in his Gospel.
Luke 12 has hard-hitting lessons. On the Seventh Sunday after Trinity this year, we had the Parable of the Rich Fool. Last Sunday, we had our Lord’s warning that we know not the day nor the time of His Second Coming.
Today, we read of His telling us to reconcile with God through faith in His Son.
These are the intervening verses between last week’s Gospel reading and this week’s:
41 Peter asked, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?”
42 The Lord answered, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? 43 It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. 44 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 45 But suppose the servant says to himself, ‘My master is taking a long time in coming,’ and he then begins to beat the other servants, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk. 46 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.
47 “The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. 48 But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.
Many Christians today interpret the last part of verse 48 as one of giving money to the Church. It is often used during stewardship season when congregations are asked to pledge money for the following year.
However, Jesus meant it as saying that we will be punished in eternity depending on how much we turned away from Him and, by extension, from God.
Believers who have a good knowledge of Christianity then fall away from the faith will have the harshest punishment; they are the servants who know the Master’s will and do not obey it. Those who have little to no knowledge of Christ will receive a lighter punishment; they are the ignorant servants.
Matthew Henry’s commentary says:
The knowledge of our duty is an aggravation of our sin: That servant that knew his lord’s will, and yet did his own will, shall be beaten with many stripes. God will justly inflict more upon him for abusing the means of knowledge he afforded him, which others would have made a better use of, because it argues a great degree of wilfulness and contempt to sin against knowledge; of how much sorer punishment then shall they be thought worthy, besides the many stripes that their own consciences will give them! Son, remember. Here is a good reason for this added: To whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required, especially when it is committed as a trust he is to account for. Those have greater capacities of mind than others, more knowledge and learning, more acquaintance and converse with the scriptures, to them much is given, and their account will be accordingly.
Jesus then said that He came to bring fire to the earth and how He wished it were already kindled (verse 49).
Some commentators say He spoke of the Holy Spirit, but, as Henry explains, it is more likely He spoke of a fire of judgement for some and a refining fire of persecution for others:
By this some understand the preaching of the gospel, and the pouring out of the Spirit, holy fire; this Christ came to send with a commission to refine the world, to purge away its dross, to burn up its chaff, and it was already kindled. The gospel was begun to be preached; some prefaces there were to the pouring out of the Spirit. Christ baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire; this Spirit descended in fiery tongues. But, by what follows, it seems rather to be understood of the fire of persecution. Christ is not the Author of it, as it is the sin of the incendiaries, the persecutors; but he permits it, nay, he commissions it, as a refining fire for the trial of the persecuted. This fire was already kindled in the enmity of the carnal Jews to Christ and his followers. “What will I that it may presently be kindled? What thou doest, do quickly. If it be already kindled, what will I? Shall I wait the quenching of it? No, for it must fasten upon myself, and upon all, and glory will redound to God from it.”
John MacArthur has more. A fire of judgement is referred to often in the Old Testament:
Fire is a picture of judgment. I mean it is pretty obviously that. You have that in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. We’re familiar with statements like that. “I am come,” He says, “from the Father. I have come into the world to save but I’ve also come to judge.” Fire is emphatic in the Greek. The Greek reads this way, “For fire, I have come upon the earth.” Fire is the first thing and this is prophesied in the Old Testament. You know, there were statements about the Messiah’s coming that talked about fire and the Jews knew that. Isaiah 66:15, Joel chapter 2, verse 30; there are number of places that promise fire and they all knew what that meant. Amos is one that I might just remind you. Amos 1, “So I sent fire on the wall of Gaza. It’ll consume her citadels.” And then it goes on to talk about the fire of God’s judgment all the way down to verse 14. Chapter 2 of Amos further discusses this fire. “I will send fire on Moab. I’ll send fire on Judah.” Malachi chapter 3, as the Old Testament closes, talks about God coming in fiery judgment, but the Jews believed that the fire would fall on the Gentiles and that the peace would come to them. They never expected that the Messiah would come and the fire of judgment would fall on them and it is the fire of judgment.
Listen to John 9:39, “For judgment I came into this world that those who do not see may see and that those who see may become blind.” That’s a very important verse. “For judgment, I came into this world that those who do not see may see and that those who see may become blind.” His judgment is two-way. It is a judgment that saves and it is a judgment that condemns. It’s two-sided. If you go back to Luke chapter 3 for a moment, verse 9, we’ll look at a couple of verses there. Luke 9…Luke 3:9, he says for those who don’t believe, of course, in Israel, “the ax is laid at the root of the tree. Every tree that doesn’t bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Verse 16, John the Baptist says, “The One who is coming is mightier than I. I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire and He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” So there’s the fire of judgment, the fire of destruction that is unleashed.
But it’s not only a fire of judgment; it’s also a fire of purging. You see, the gospel is that fire that either purifies or punishes and Paul said it’s life to life or death to death. In John 3, Jesus said, “If you believe, you have eternal life. If you don’t believe, your unbelief puts you under judgment.” Fire consumes what is combustible and does not consume what is noncombustible. It purifies the noncombustible and it destroys the combustible and so the coming of Jesus is a fire. It’s a fire cast to the earth. To those who believe, it purifies. To those who reject, it consumes. And so Jesus is saying, “Look, I’ve come as fire,” and then He adds this most interesting statement, “and how I wish it were already kindled.” He came for fire but the fire’s not started yet. The fire hasn’t been kindled yet. What does He mean by that? Well, He’s talking about starting the fire. Kindling is used to start the fire and that’s the intent of the language. What is He saying? “It has not been kindled.” What’s the kindling? What’s going to kindle the fire? This is an amazing statement. “I wish it were already kindled.” What’s He looking at? He’s looking at His death, because in the next verse, He calls it a baptism that He has to undergo. The kindling that started the fire, the gospel fire that both purifies and punishes — the kindling was Jesus. He was judged by God. Before He judges, He must Himself be judged. He’s looking at His cross. It’s an amazing statement. The kindling of the fire of judgment is the cross, His death, which is a fire of judgment that God puts on Him. God literally consumes Him in wrath, the just for the unjust, and He’s punished for our sins and He says here, look at this, “How I wish it were already kindled.” He wishes it were over.
He spoke of His impending death as a baptism and the stress He was under knowing it was coming (verse 50).
Baptism in the Greek sense meant full immersion into something.
Henry tells us that Jesus said that to emphasise how much He wanted to bring us the salvific benefits of His death on the Cross:
See here, (1.) Christ’s foresight of his sufferings; he knew what he was to undergo, and the necessity of undergoing it: I am to be baptized with a baptism. He calls his sufferings by a name that mitigates them; it is a baptism, not a deluge; I must be dipped in them, not drowned in them; and by a name that sanctifies them, for baptism is a name that sanctifies them, for baptism is a sacred rite. Christ in his sufferings devoted himself to his Father’s honour, and consecrated himself a priest for evermore, Heb 7 27, 28. (2.) Christ’s forwardness to his sufferings: How am I straitened till it be accomplished! He longed for the time when he should suffer and die, having an eye to the glorious issue of his sufferings. It is an allusion to a woman in travail, that is pained to be delivered, and welcomes her pains, because they hasten the birth of the child, and wishes them sharp and strong, that the work may be cut short. Christ’s sufferings were the travail of his soul, which he cheerfully underwent, in hope that he should by them see his seed, Isa 53 10, 11. So much was his heart set upon the redemption and salvation of man.
MacArthur says:
… “I have a baptism to undergo,” and again He says, “How distressed I am until it’s accomplished.” A “baptism” was a word the Greeks liked to use to speak about being immersed in something and we use it that way. It is used in Greek literature to refer to death but Jesus used it as being immersed in pain, immersed in suffering, immersed in judgment, divine wrath, immersed in death. He knows that’s a baptism that He must undergo. He understands that this is necessary because He must bear the judgment for all who will believe.
He refers to it the same way in the 38th verse of Mark 10 where He says to the sons of Zebedee, “Can you be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” You want prominence in the kingdom. Can you suffer what I’m going to suffer? I have a baptism to undergo. I have an immersion into divine wrath and how distressed I am until it’s accomplished. The word “distressed,” synechomai. The verb simply means to seize. I’m seized. It’s used for being gripped with fear. It’s used for being pressed. It’s used…Paul…Philippians 1:23, I think it is, being hard-pressed from two directions. It was a…It was an incessant squeezing, just a relentless pressure, until it was finally accomplished. And He uses the word teleō, tetelestai, “until it’s finished,” and, of course, at the end of the cross, He said, “Tetelestai,” same verb, different form, “It is finished,” John 19:30.
So here He’s saying, “I…I wish it was over.” Our Lord here is anticipating the dividing event. He is pressed between the suffering and the purpose, between the anticipation of the pain and the plan, between His own will and the Father’s will, but He never wavered when He said in the garden, “Father, if it’s your will, let this cup pass from Me.” He immediately responded by saying, “Nevertheless, not My will but yours be done.” “I’ve come to cast fire,” He said, “and it’s going to be kindled by the cross and that’s going to set the fire of judgment.” That will be the dividing point. That is where all men are divided. All men are divided at the cross, both in eternity and in time.
Then He asked the crowd if He was going to bring peace to the earth and said that He was going to bring division (verse 51).
MacArthur puts these verses into context for us:
Now let me just give you a little bit of background in the chapter that we’re in. If you go back to chapter 12, verse 1, it tells us that Jesus was speaking to many thousands of people, probably tens of thousands of people. So many people were gathered together they were stepping on each other. The mass of these people, by the way, already had made up their mind to reject Jesus but He was still the greatest curiosity in existence and the most profound teacher who ever lived and attracted massive crowds, but most of them stood with their leaders. They had imbibed what their leaders had been giving them to drink in terms of Jesus being satanic, but there were still some who could be classified as disciples. The word is mathētēs and learners. It simply means that they were still open to what He was saying. Some of them were apostles. They had come all the way to faith and been called to ministry. Some of them were the seventy who also had been sent out to minister for Him because they were true believers. Some of them had become believers and there were some who were just still open and the end of verse 1 says He was really talking to them.
And the nature of this message is that it’s a call to salvation. It’s a call to come to Him, to come into the kingdom of salvation, to receive the forgiveness and redemption that He brings. This is an evangelistic invitation. It starts in verse 1 and it runs all the way to verse 9 in chapter 13. There are a couple of interruptions for questions but, in the main, it’s one long discourse. It is an invitation. It is a call by our Lord to the crowd and those in the crowd who were still open and still learning and still listening to receive His claims, embrace Him as Messiah, and come into the kingdom of salvation and receive forgiveness of sin and eternal life; and then He delineates what they must do.
MacArthur tells us what Jesus meant about bringing division rather than peace in verse 51:
That’s a mashal. That’s a paradoxical statement. “Do you suppose?” is a verb that could be translated “Do you presume?” or “Does it seem right to say?” That’s the implication of that verb. It’s sensible for you to assume that I’m bringing peace, right? Of course, absolutely, based upon all of those Old Testament promises, and His response in the Greek starts with the word “no”, ouchhi, an emphatic “No, I tell you, but rather division,” pretty devastating statement. The promised peace was taken away. They had rejected the Prince of Peace. They had therefore forfeited the kingdom of peace. It could only come through individuals putting faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as Messiah Savior and if there was no peace between the sinner and God, there would be no peace among the people. There would be no kingdom of peace. There will be no kingdom of peace until salvation comes to the heart, so in place of peace comes division. In Matthew chapter 10 verses 34-36 you have a comparative passage to this where Jesus said the same thing. Only on that occasion, He said He came not to bring peace but a sword. Jesus, who came as the Prince of Peace, becomes the great divider, becomes the source of disunity and separation.
Nearer to the time of His death, Jesus referred to the destruction of the temple as He wept over Jerusalem:
… as Jesus approaches Jerusalem headed for the cross, He saw the city and He wept over it saying, and here’s the key, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace.” You missed it! “But now they’ve been hidden from your eyes.” Boy! That is one serious condition. When peace is offered and you reject it and then it’s not offered.
… what He’s talking about there is the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were massacred. Eventually, nearly 1,000 towns in Israel were sacked by the Romans. The temple was destroyed. It was the end of Judaism. There’s never been a sacrifice offered since then. They thought He was bringing peace. No, as it turned out, because they rejected Him as the Prince of Peace, He brought destruction … I brought you peace and you didn’t want it on My terms. So the warnings escalate and they escalate until finally, it’s now hidden. There is a time. There is an opportunity, but God has the right to shut it down whenever He wants, as He did in history, as He does in the life of every individual who rejects that warning.
Jesus emphasised how strong the division would be with regard to faith. He used the example of a family setting rather than, say, a village. He made His message hit home, as it were.
He said that, from now on, a household of five would be divided: three against two and two against three (verse 52), elaborating on the division among family members, especially the women (verse 53).
MacArthur analyses the verses for us, pointing out how relevant they still are today:
Verse 52, “For from now on…” I want to stop you right there. That’s another little sort of phrase that Jesus liked to use. He used it back in chapter 5 verse 10 when He said to James, John and Andrew or James, John and Peter. He said, “From now on, you will be fishers of men.” “From now on” sort of signifies the way it’s going to be in the future, from now on. Luke 22:69, Jesus, anticipating His ascension, said, “From now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of God in heaven.” From now on. “From now on,” He says, “this is how it’s going to be.” Throughout life here, five members in one household will be divided, three against two, two against three. They will be divided father against son, son against father, mother against daughter, daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law. We know… We know that the gospel divides, don’t we? We just saw that. At the cross, it divides. It divides in eternity but I’ll tell you also that backs into time and the gospel of Jesus Christ is very divisive even here and now.
John 7 says, “And there arose a division in the crowd because of Him.” John 9 verse 16, “There was a division among them.” John 10, “There arose a division again among the Jews.” He divided everywhere He went. Not just in eternity are these people divided, but in time they are divided. The gospel is a serious problem to people who reject it and those who believe it are outcasts. In the time of Jesus, they were un-synagogued. They were thrown out of the synagogue, social outcasts, and it goes all the way down to the most intimate point of human unity, the family. Jesus could have illustrated it by talking about a town or a community or a neighborhood, but He takes it all the way down to the place where the most natural kind of unity exists and says, “This thing is going to be so divisive it’s going to turn a family against itself, three against two or two against three,” depending on how many Christians in the family and that’s hypothetical. It might be one against four or four against one. The gospel is divisive.
The family division is a chilling one, especially because many families lived together in that era but also because there was a similar filial division in the Old Testament. Jesus was citing Micah:
Now you notice in verse 52 there are five members in a household and then they are sorted out in 53: a father, a son, mother, daughter, mother-in-law, daughter-in-law. You say, “Wait a minute. That’s six.” You’re right. That’s six. But remember, the mother-in-law is also the mother of the son who has the wife, not that that’s a big issue but the Bible is very precise. The point is that there is going to be division in the family and sometimes that division can be so severe that it can end up even in death. Listen to the words of our Lord. These are somewhat frightening words when you think about it. Matthew chapter 10 verse 21, “Brother will deliver up brother to death, a father his child, children rise up against parents, cause them to be put to death. You will be hated by all on account of My name. Whenever they persecute you in this city, flee to the next,” pretty serious stuff. It goes on in the world; always has gone on. If you’ve been spared that, that’s a blessing, but Jesus said, “I came to bring a sword and that sword not only cuts into eternity but it comes into time.” I understand that.
I understand that the gospel that we believe, the gospel that I preach, cuts me off from people. I understand that it indicts them, that it condemns them by virtue of its message. It is divisive, really nothing new, by the way. The words of Jesus in verse 53, you might not have ever read this, but He borrowed from the prophet Micah because Micah said this very same thing in the 7th chapter and 6th verse, “For son treats father contemptuously. Daughter rises up against her mother, daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man’s enemies are the men of his own household.” So they would know that Jesus was speaking of something that was biblical. It was from the Old Testament.
Jesus then rebuked the crowd, telling them they were good at predicting the weather by looking at rain clouds (verse 54) and judging temperature by the way the wind blew (verse 55).
He called them hypocrites, saying they could interpret the appearance of the wind and the sky yet do not know how to interpret the present time (verse 56), by which He meant the purpose of His ministry among them.
MacArthur tells us that Jesus played on the fact that the Jews took pride in their powers of discernment, especially spiritual discernment:
This, of course, is down in…in Judea. These are warning words and warning sort of becomes the tone of Jesus’ ministry from now on in these remaining months before His death, but not just warning. It’s sort of an indicting warning. It’s a warning that the die is cast and it gets stronger and stronger as the months go on. The nation has made itself the all-time illustration of wasted opportunity and it’s not just Judas. It’s a whole nation of Judases and the consequences are monumental and forever. Here in these two illustrations, our Lord says, “You failed to discern two things, the time and the threat, the time and the threat.” And, of course, the Jews prided themselves on their discernment. They prided themselves on their spiritual insight but they failed with damning, deadly and eternal results to discern the time and the threat …
Jesus warned that the invitation to salvation through Him as their Messiah would soon be withdrawn:
… here in verse 54, He opens it up to the crowd and it stops being an invitation because they’ve already made up their mind and it becomes an indictment. It becomes a warning directed at them in their unbelief and from here on to the end of this discourse, chapter 13, verse 9; all of it has that same tone of indictment and judgment to fall. Essentially, up to verse 54, He is inviting Jews to believe. Here, He begins condemning unbelieving Jews and we can extend it beyond that because the Bible is intended for all generations. Up to this point, He has been inviting people to believe and now He condemns those who do not. And first of all, let’s look at illustration No. 1, which shows that they failed to discern the time. Verse 54, “When you see a cloud rising in the West, immediately you say a shower is coming and so it turns out.” Now that’s just a simple, unsophisticated way to tell the weather and, as I said, very much like an illustration Jesus used in Matthew 16 verses 1-4 …
… verse 56. Listen to this, “You hypocrites!” Now let me stop you there. You say, “What’s the connection? What does telling the weather have to do with hypocrisy?” Well, first of all, let me say that this was our Lord’s favorite term to describe the people of Israel. He called them hypocrites more than He called them anything else and not only the leaders but the people as well. If you just take your little concordance and bounce through, for example, the gospel of Matthew and see how many times He calls them hypocrites, you would be surprised. Well, you say, “I know they were hypocrites. Sure, because of their false religion.” That’s true. To be a hypocrite means to lie about what you really are, right? It means to deceive somebody about the truth and they were hypocrites because their piety was phony. Their spirituality was false. Their allegiance to God was a sham. Their…Their holiness was superficial. Their religion was external and their hearts were wicked and evil. Their whole religion was an hypocrisy. It was all phony, as all false religion is, all of it, because false religion can’t change the heart. Is that what Jesus meant? Well, that would be a little oblique, wouldn’t it? Why after telling two weather stories would you just make a blanket statement like, “You’re all a bunch of hypocrites” unless you had something more specific in mind.
Well, He does and He says what it is. Verse 56: “Here’s your hypocrisy. You know how to analyze the appearance of the earth and the sky. Why do you not analyze this present time?” What was their hypocrisy? Their hypocrisy was simply this: You see a cloud and you conclude rain. You feel a wind and you conclude heat. Minimal evidence and you draw a confident and accurate conclusion; and with all the evidence that I have shown you that I am God the Redeemer, the Messiah, the Savior, you reject Me. You hypocrites! You have more than enough. Their hypocrisy was in pretending not to have enough evidence and so they forever said to Jesus, “Show us a sign.” He says, “I’m not giving you any more signs except the sign of Jonah,” resurrection. You phonies!
At this point in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus had only six months more of ministry before He was crucified. The people and their leaders had ample evidence that He was their Messiah, yet they wanted more.
MacArthur describes the culmination in Luke 19, when Jesus wept over Jerusalem.
I posted about the destruction of Jerusalem above, but it bears repeating. Jesus tells us what true peace really is — reconciliation to God through faith in Him:
Look at Luke 19. This is where it all gets kind of summed up. Luke 19:41, He approached the city, saw it and wept. And this is what He said, verse 42. Listen to this statement. “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace.” If you had only known that I was offering you peace, if you had only known, but you refused. “Now they have been hidden from your eyes.” This is a judicial act on God’s part. I gave you time. I gave you opportunity. It’s gone. For the most part, for that nation, by now it was over. And He pronounces the judgment, verse 43, “For the day shall come upon you when your enemies will throw up a bank before you, surround you, hem you in on every side, level you to the ground, and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another.” That’s the destruction of Jerusalem, began in 66 A.D., finished up in 70 A.D. when the Romans besieged and finally sacked the city of Jerusalem, the horrific event that caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of the Jews, many who of course were hearing Jesus even then who were very young, still thirty years away from this occasion. But He says, “If you had only known…if you had only known.” End of verse 44, “…but because you didn’t recognize the time of your visitation, now it’s hidden from your eyes.” If only you had known.
Of course, tens of thousands of Jews converted to Christianity after the first Pentecost, but many more did not believe.
On a broader note, how can we evangelise unbelievers?
MacArthur recommends suggesting John’s Gospel as a starting point:
When somebody comes to me and says, “I don’t know if Jesus is really God,” do you know what I tell them to do? Read the gospels. Start with the Gospel of John because it’s written that you might know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that you might believe, and believing, have life. That’s why it was written. That’s the record.
As for finding true peace, he says:
… at the Great White Throne Judgment of God, there are only unbelievers. No believers will ever be there because we’re not under any condemnation. Why? Because we put our trust in Christ. That’s how you settle with God. You put your trust in Christ, the one who bore the penalty for your sin and the justice of the court and the judge is satisfied. God is willing to reconcile. God is willing to reconcile. He’s a reconciling God.
May all reading this have a blessed Sunday.
The three-year Lectionary that many Catholics and Protestants hear in public worship gives us a great variety of Holy Scripture.
Yet, it doesn’t tell the whole story.
My series Forbidden Bible Verses — ones the Lectionary editors and their clergy omit — examines the passages we do not hear in church. These missing verses are also Essential Bible Verses, ones we should study with care and attention. Often, we find that they carry difficult messages and warnings.
Today’s reading is from the English Standard Version with commentary by Matthew Henry and John MacArthur.
Greeting
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful[a] in Christ Jesus:
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Today’s post begins a brief exploration of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.
It will be brief, because most of its six chapters are in the Lectionary. As such, I will include the content of the chapters in each post, because it is such a beautiful letter about the Church.
Both Matthew Henry and John MacArthur say that this letter is a handbook for the Church. Also, Paul was divinely inspired to reveal certain mysteries about the Gospel and God’s plan for the Church.
Furthermore, both commentators say that whether Paul actually addressed the book specifically to the Ephesians is in question. Some early commentaries omitted mentioning the church in Ephesus and had a blank space instead, suggesting it could have also been sent elsewhere. It could be argued that this letter was intended to apply to all the churches in Asia Minor.
Henry‘s commentary tells us how it was seen to be attached to Ephesus (emphases mine):
SOME think that this epistle to the Ephesians was a circular letter sent to several churches, and that the copy directed to the Ephesians happened to be taken into the canon, and so it came to bear that particular inscription. And they have been induced the rather to think this because it is the only one of all Paul’s epistles that has nothing in it peculiarly adapted to the state or case of that particular church; but it has much of common concernment to all Christians, and especially to all who, having been Gentiles in times past, were converted to Christianity. But then it may be observed, on the other hand, that the epistle is expressly inscribed (Ephesians 1:1) to the saints which are at Ephesus; and in the close of it he tells them that he had sent Tychicus unto them, whom, in 2 Timothy 4:12, he says he had sent to Ephesus.
Paul wrote Ephesians from prison:
It is an epistle that bears date out of a prison: and some have observed that what this apostle wrote when he was a prisoner had the greatest relish and savour in it of the things of God. When his tribulations did abound, his consolations and experiences did much more abound, whence we may observe that the afflictive exercises of God’s people, and particularly of his ministers, often tend to the advantage of others as well as to their own.
In addition to revealing mysteries of the Gospel and laying out a pattern for the Church, it is also theologically rich:
The apostle’s design is to settle and establish the Ephesians in the truth, and further to acquaint them with the mystery of the gospel, in order to it. In the former part he represents the great privilege of the Ephesians, who, having been in time past idolatrous heathens, were now converted to Christianity and received into covenant with God, which he illustrates from a view of their deplorable state before their conversion, Ephesians 1:1-3; Ephesians 1:1-3. In the latter part (which we have in the Ephesians 4:1-6) he instructs them in the principal duties of religion, both personal and relative, and exhorts and quickens them to the faithful discharge of them. Zanchy [Italian Reformer Girolamo Zanchi, 1516-1590] observes that we have here an epitome of the whole Christian doctrine, and of almost all the chief heads of divinity.
In 1978, John MacArthur said that he used Ephesians as a guide to modelling the principles of his own Grace Community Church, founded in 1969:
All that I had ever dreamed a church could be came to crystallization in my mind as I studied Ephesians. It formed, for me, the whole pattern of the church: what it is, how it operates, everything just came together in the study of Ephesians.
The result of that study was I wrote a book entitled The Church, the Body of Christ. Those months that we spent studying Ephesians eight years ago – seven or eight years ago – were the months that formed the character of Grace Church in terms of its present dimensions of ministry.
Grace Community Church is a church built on the principles of the book of Ephesians. In those days, I suppose we maybe had 400 or 500 people who studied with us all the way through the book. And now, at this point, we’ve got 5,000 people, and so the elders felt there were a whole lot of folks who ought to know what Grace Church is built on. And so, we’re going to study the book of Ephesians together.
I’m so excited about this because it’s a book that I absolutely love. I’ve taught it many, many times in other situations, and the riches of this book are unlimited. Really, more than any other book in the Bible, I feel this book was the catalyst that launched Grace Church. And, people, if you’re a part of Grace Church, you are a part of something that is indeed unusual, a church that has gone from 500 to 5,000 people in 9 years, a church where so many ministries have developed. It’s just really an incredible thing, and it isn’t due to one individual; it’s due to the will of God, but it’s due also to an understanding of the principles of the book of Ephesians, a very vital book.
When I think about how God has expanded this ministry, it just boggles my mind. We were talking the other day that the receipts, over the last two weeks, that have been given to Grace Church by you, God’s people, for the ministry here are more than the entire year’s giving of 1969. It’s incredible what God has done.
He describes the book in more detail:
If you get a handle on the book of Ephesians, you – some people have called it the bank of the believer. This is your spiritual checkbook, and every time you write a check out of this bank, your funds are non-diminished. In other words, you can write checks on all the riches of God as often as you want, for as much as you want and never diminish the account. Isn’t that nice? That’s the book of Ephesians. It’s a book about riches. It’s a book about fullnesses. It’s a book about being filled with things. It’s a book about inheritance. It’s a book that just tells us what we own in Christ. Some have called it the treasure house of the Bible …
You can draw out all you want, all the time, and never diminish your account. But you don’t know that unless you understand the principles in the book of Ephesians.
So, you want to get the book of Ephesians and get it down good. It’ll absolutely revolutionize your life … It will teach you who you are, how rich you are, and how you are to use those riches for God’s glory …
God is unloading all of His riches in the book of Ephesians. The word “grace” is used 12 times, and the word “grace” means God’s unmerited, undeserved kindness and favor. Grace is behind all of this lavishness that God pours out. So, the word “grace” is used 12 times. The word “glory” is used eight times. The word “inheritance” is used four times. The word “riches” is used five times. The words “fullness” and “filled” are used seven times. And the key to everything is because we are in Christ that all the fullness of the riches of the inheritance of the glory of His grace is ours. Do you see?
Because we are one with Christ in His Church, because we are redeemed, this incredible fullness is ours. Maybe the sum of it all is in chapter 3, “That you might be filled with all the fullness of God.” It’s just an incredible thought. That literally the believer can be filled with all the fullness of God Himself; that we would know the unsearchable riches of Christ; that we would be able to do exceeding abundantly above all we could ask or think according to the power that works in us.
You see, it’s all such magnanimous, grandiose concepts: fullness, riches, inheritance, wealth, resources – all in the book of Ephesians. There are enough resources in heaven to cover all past debts, present liabilities, and future needs and still not diminish your account. That’s God’s plan …
So, the guarantee for the believer in all of this is where it says it’s in Christ. And as secure as Christ is in the plan of God and in the love of the father, and as available as the resources of God are to Christ, so available are they to you. See? Because in our union with Christ, we become, according to Romans 8, joint – what? – heirs. And as Hebrews says, “He is not ashamed to call us brother.” And, “He that is joined to the spirit” – 1 Corinthians 6:17 – or “joined to the Lord,” rather – “is one spirit,” so that we have what He has. We possess what He possesses; all His riches are at our disposal.
Peter calls it an inheritance that’s laid away incorruptible and undefiled, reserved in heaven for us. That’s Ephesians. Now, it’s all in Christ. It’s all because we’re in Christ. And if you’re not in Christ, you’re poor; you’re destitute; you’re a pauper; you’re a beggar. If you’re in Christ, you’re rich beyond all wild imagination. It’s all based on Him. It’s not anything we did; it’s not anything we earned. It’s all His.
So, this is your bankbook. This is the treasure house. This is where you check out your resources. And in the first – now watch it – in the first three chapters, he tells you what they are, and in the last three, he tells you how to use them. You’ve got to get it all. You’ve got to stay with us for the whole thing. You can’t spend them if you don’t know what they are; and if you know what they are, you got to know how to spend them.
So, the first three chapters, the theology of the rich believer; the practice in chapters 4 to 6. And there are other things that are involved, but that’s just the main thing. Now, let me go a step further and turn the corner a little bit in your thinking. Just kind of file that category of riches related to Ephesians, and I want to talk about another dimension. It not only talks about our riches, but it talks about the whole idea that all this is ours because we’re in the Church. Okay? It’s all ours because we’re in the Church …
Now, the book, then, discusses the Church. It discusses what the Church is, how the Church functions, how we function in the Church, and it discusses the riches of the Church …
The book of Ephesians presents the mystery of the Church. The mystery of the Church … it’s been revealed to Paul.
… And what was it? That the Gentiles are fellow heirs of the same body, partakers of the promise in Christ by the Gospel. In other words, the hidden secret of the past was revealed to Paul. And what was it? It was that the Gentile and the Jew would be in one body in the Church. Now, stay with that; we’re going to expand it a little bit.
Let’s talk about how God reveals things. This will help you to understand this. There are three ways, basically, that I want to mention to you. Number one, there are some things God never tells anybody. Okay? God has some secrets that He never reveals to anybody any time. These are secrets. You just don’t know them; I don’t know them; nobody knows them. God doesn’t reveal them. Deuteronomy 29:29 tells about these things. It says this, “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but the things which are revealed belong unto us and our children forever” …
Second category. God has some secrets that He reveals to special people all through history …
In Psalm 25:14, it says this, “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him; and He will show them His covenant.” Proverbs 3:32 says, “His secret is with the righteous.” Amos 3:7, “He reveals His secrets unto His servants.” So, the righteous, the servants, the people of God, those that fear Him, they know His truth. Now, who are they? Believers. You and me. The fact of the matter is there are some things that nobody knows. The second part is there are some things that only believers know. We know things the unsaved don’t know. Right? …
There’s a third category I want you to get. There are some things which God keeps secret from everybody, for a period of time, and finally reveals to His special people in the New Testament. All right? Now don’t get lost. Point one, God keeps some secrets permanently. Point two, He reveals some things to all His people through all history. Point three, He keeps some secrets through history until the New Testament and reveals them only to the New Testament people.
Do you know we know things that the Old Testament saints didn’t know? That’s right. The New Testament wasn’t written yet. The New Testament is new truth for a new age, sacred secrets revealed by God. In fact, the Old Testament saints used to look to try to see what things meant. Read it in Peter’s epistle. He says they were searching what this thing was they were writing. Do you know that the angels long to understand some of the things that we know such as the meaning of salvation? There are some things that God has kept secret through all history and finally just revealed in the New Testament. Now, these are the mysteries. These are the mustērion, the Greek word …
Now, by the way, the man who was given, for the most part, the job of revealing the mysteries was Paul the apostle. He was the mystery man. He was the one to whom God revealed the sacred secrets that had been hidden from the Old Testament saints.
So, these are the mysteries. So, when you see the word “mystery” in chapter 3, verse 3, it simply means a spiritual truth never before revealed but now revealed in the New Testament. New truth for a new age …
So, when Jesus talked, He talked in a way, when He was on earth, that His people would understand it, and the unbelieving would not, and He talked in parables. Right? So, they said to Him … “Why do you speak in parables?” And He said, “Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.” Again, the mysteries are something hidden that God reveals to His special people in the New Testament age …
Where does He reign now? In the heart of the believer. He is enthroned. In the kingdom, will there be peace? Yes. In the heart of the believer, is there peace that passes understanding? Yes. In the kingdom, Christ will dispense salvation. He has dispensed it in our lives now. In the kingdom there will be joy and happiness and blessing, and things will flourish, and so do they in the life of an obedient believer now. You see?
At this point, it is worth noting that yesterday’s Gospel reading — for the Sixth Sunday of Easter (Year C) — pertains to this, particularly these verses from John 14, when Jesus was giving His final discourse to the Apostles after the Last Supper:
14:23 Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.
14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.
Let us now move on to Ephesians 1, keeping those verses in mind. This is serendipitous.
Paul calls himself an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and greets the congregation as saints who are faithful in Him (verse 1).
Henry has a splendid analysis of the verse:
Here is, 1. The title St. Paul takes to himself, as belonging to him–Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, c. He reckoned it a great honour to be employed by Christ, as one of his messengers to the sons of men. The apostles were prime officers in the Christian church, being extraordinary ministers appointed for a time only. They were furnished by their great Lord with extraordinary gifts and the immediate assistance of the Spirit, that they might be fitted for publishing and spreading the gospel and for governing the church in its infant state. Such a one Paul was, and that not by the will of man conferring that office upon him, nor by his own intrusion into it but by the will of God, very expressly and plainly intimated to him, he being immediately called (as the other apostles were) by Christ himself to the work. Every faithful minister of Christ (though his call and office are not of so extraordinary a nature) may, with our apostle, reflect on it as an honour and comfort to himself that he is what he is by the will of God. 2. The persons to whom this epistle is sent: To the saints who are at Ephesus, that is, to the Christians who were members of the church at Ephesus, the metropolis of Asia. He calls them saints, for such they were in profession, such they were bound to be in truth and reality, and many of them were such. All Christians must be saints; and, if they come not under that character on earth, they will never be saints in glory. He calls them the faithful in Christ Jesus, believers in him, and firm and constant in their adherence to him and to his truths and ways.
As ever, Paul stamps his apostolic authority on his work. MacArthur explains why he did so:
… this is the single credential that he lays out: “an apostle of Christ Jesus.” Even though he stood outside the twelve—he was maybe overshadowed by them in some sense—he wants us to understand that he is a legitimate apostle. He does this with no vanity, no self-glory. In fact, he says, “I am what I am by the grace of God.” He says, “We have received grace and apostleship,” Romans 1:5.
But what do we know about his apostolic calling? When he called himself an apostle, four things were in view; let’s look at them just briefly. First, his apostolic call. That is to say, it had to be directly from the Lord. An apostle was one called directly by the Lord Himself—as he was, on the Damascus Road. Only fourteen men were ever given this call: the twelve; Judas is out, Mathias is in, that makes the thirteenth; and Paul is the fourteenth. He had a divine calling. His life was interrupted on the Damascus Road; certainly the most dramatic calling of any apostle by Christ Himself—even the risen, exalted, ascended Christ.
The second thing that characterizes an apostle is that the notion of his identity is wrapped up in the One he represents. He belonged to Christ. He frequently refers to himself as a slave of Christ. This life was not his own; he was the possession of Christ, bought and paid for on the cross, so that he would say, “For me, to live is Christ.”
Now apostle means “sent one.” So here is one who has received a unique call personally from Christ, who belongs to Christ as a slave, for the sole purpose of fulfilling, thirdly, a commission. Apostolos means a sent one. His commission, in particular, was to the Gentiles.
The fourth element of it simply is to understand that he had power. An apostle is given delegated authority; he can speak for the one he represents. Even in the Jewish setting, the Sanhedrin was a supreme court of the Jews; and in matters of religion, they had authority over every Jew in the world. And when the Sanhedrin came to a decision about anything, and that decision as given then to the public, it was carried out by a messenger called an apostolos and taken to those who needed to hear it. When such an apostle of the Sanhedrin went out, he didn’t go with his own message or his own authority—behind him was the authority of the supreme court of Israel.
So it was with Paul. He had authority granted to him by Christ. That authority was validated by signs and wonders and miraculous things, as God validated him as a true apostle by supernatural signs. Not only is he an apostle, but he is “an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.” This is double authority, from the Father and the Son. God sovereignly directed the work, specially equipped the apostle called the apostle, as did Christ Himself.
Again, although many translations mention the congregation at Ephesus, that was not the case in the earliest manuscripts:
“At Ephesus”—though this letter is directed to the Ephesians, and I think that’s legitimately to whom Paul wrote it, there are no personal aspects in this letter. There are no references to local people or local events or local issues in this church. And in some ancient manuscripts there’s a blank where it says, “who are at Ephesus”—“who are at blank.” Where did such manuscripts come from, and why did that occur? We can’t be certain, but many scholars believe that this was such a general letter that it was circulated to all the churches, not only in Ephesus and close by, but all through Asia Minor—the seven churches that are listed in the book of Revelation chapters 2 and 3. In Colossians, in fact, Paul refers to a letter from Laodicea. Some feel this might be that letter; we can’t know that. But nonetheless, in some ancient manuscripts there’s a blank there so that any church could fill its own name in, and it would be appropriate to them.
MacArthur gives us more information about Paul’s imprisonment, which Henry dates as AD 61, and the other letters that he wrote during that time:
It’s written from Rome. Paul is a prisoner during his third missionary tour. It’s carried by Tychicus and Onesimus, along with Colossians and Philemon, to the churches and to Philemon.
MacArthur says that calling the congregation saints refers not only to their justification by faith through grace but also sanctification on their Christian journey:
… to show you that, 1 Corinthians chapter 1. And you might say of all the people who didn’t act saintly, the Corinthians probably headed the list. But listen to how he begins 1 Corinthians: “Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, to the church of God which is at Corinth”—that’s the whole church at Corinth—“to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling.” If you’re a saint, you’re not only justified, you’re in the process of being sanctified. And the Corinthians seem like some of the least sanctified saints—and yet that is how Paul describes them …
There are plenty of scriptures that indicate there’s no such thing as justification without sanctification. One more comes to mind. Acts 26:18, Paul says his commission is to the Gentiles, to whom the Lord is sending him—verse 18, “to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God”—that’s conversion, and—“ that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.” When you put your faith in Christ, you’re not only justified, you’re sanctified; not perfectly sanctified, but you’re on the path of sanctification.
So that, if you are a saint, you also can be designated faithful. That’s why those go together: “to the saints who are faithful.” What does that mean? Pistos, who are believers, who believe in Christ Jesus.
There [was] a movement years ago that I basically took on in The Gospel According to Jesus that said you could be a Christian and completely lose your faith, be an unbelieving believer. Not possible. True believers are justified and sanctified. They are saints who are faithful in Christ Jesus.
So Paul is writing this letter to those saints and faithful believers.
Paul wishes the Ephesians grace and peace from God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ (verse 2).
Henry explains:
The apostolical benediction: Grace be to you, c. This is the token in every epistle and it expresses the apostle’s good-will to his friends, and a real desire of their welfare. By grace we are to understand the free and undeserved love and favour of God, and those graces of the Spirit which proceed from it; by peace all other blessings, spiritual and temporal, the fruits and product of the former. No peace without grace. No peace, nor grace, but from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. These peculiar blessings proceed from God, not as a Creator, but as a Father by special relation: and they come from our Lord Jesus Christ, who, having purchased them for his people, has a right to bestow them upon them. Indeed the saints, and the faithful in Christ Jesus, had already received grace and peace; but the increase of these is very desirable, and the best saints stand in need of fresh supplies of the graces of the Spirit, and cannot but desire to improve and grow: and therefore they should pray, each one for himself and all for one another, that such blessings may still abound unto them.
MacArthur focuses on divine grace and divine peace:
First, grace—charis, the kindness of God toward undeserving sinners. Peace, eirēnē. Peace means peace with God, the peace of God, peace with each other. Those are the first blessings: grace and peace. Grace is the fountain; peace is the stream that flows from that fountain.
MacArthur summarises the next set of verses:
In verses 3 through 14, Paul gives one long sentence listing all the spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ: election, sanctification, foreordination, adoption, acceptance, redemption, forgiveness, enrichment, enlightenment, inheritance, sealing, promise, on and on and on. Everything that is ours is laid out in that opening chapter. And, of course, from there you go through the whole treasure house of God’s provision for His people: the treasures of grace, the treasures of glory, the treasures of Christ. In this chapter, running down through verse 14, you will see the work of the Father, you will see the work of the Son, and you’ll see the work of the Spirit. And all of it has one purpose: verse 6, “to the praise of the glory of His grace”; verse 12, “to the praise of His glory”; verse 14, “to the praise of His glory.”
Everything that happens in the life of the church is to the praise of His glory. It is all for His glory—and particularly, the praise of the glory of His grace, praise of the glory of His grace, as we saw in verse 6.
Henry tells us to look at the rest of the chapter as a combination of praises and prayers:
… though it may seem somewhat peculiar in a letter, yet the Spirit of God saw fit that his discourse of divine things in this chapter should be cast into prayers and praises, which, as they are solemn addresses to God, so they convey weighty instructions to others. Prayer may preach; and praise may do so too.
Here is the rest of the chapter:
Spiritual Blessings in Christ
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us[b] for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known[c] to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee[d] of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it,[e] to the praise of his glory.
Thanksgiving and Prayer
15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love[f] toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
Next week, I will look at Ephesians 2 and the first part of Ephesians 3.
Next time — Ephesians 3:13
The three-year Lectionary that many Catholics and Protestants hear in public worship gives us a great variety of Holy Scripture.
Yet, it doesn’t tell the whole story.
My series Forbidden Bible Verses — ones the Lectionary editors and their clergy omit — examines the passages we do not hear in church. These missing verses are also Essential Bible Verses, ones we should study with care and attention. Often, we find that they carry difficult messages and warnings.
Today’s reading is from the English Standard Version with commentary by Matthew Henry and John MacArthur.
30 I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, 31 that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, 32 so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company. 33 May the God of peace be with you all. Amen.
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Last week’s post discussed Paul’s magnificent ministry, to which he referred in Romans 15:22-29.
These verses conclude Romans 15 and the theology of the letter. Romans 16 details the teachers among the people he has converted in his wide-ranging trips from Asia Minor to Macedonia and Greece.
Paul was a big believer in the power of prayer. He prayed continually. He prayed fervently. He prayed for himself as well as for new Christians.
Here he asks that the Roman Christians ‘strive together’ in their prayers for him (verse 30).
John MacArthur discusses those words:
Notice verse 30, “I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake” as we saw “and the love of the Spirit,” then this word on prayer, “that you sunagōnizomai.” Agōnizomai would be enough. That means to agonize together in a struggle. To add sun to the front of it intensifies it. “That you intensely struggle together with me in your prayers to God for me.”
Now he realizes that ministry in the will of God is dependent on prayer. That is an essential element. The word agōnizomai or sunagōnizomai is a word taken from gymnastics. It’s taken from athletics. It is a gymnastic term meaning “to agonize.” It could be translated “to fight.” It takes tremendous exertion and energy and maximum effort to fulfill the significance of this word, a very strong term. In fact it’s translated in John 18:36 “fight.” Jesus said, “My servants would fight if My kingdom was of this world.” It is a word of great intensity.
Prayer, beloved, is a battle. And I say this from time to time as we come to passages like this but I want to remind you of it. Prayer is a battle. I think sometimes we don’t understand that because the battle isn’t where we can see it. We’ve been talking, haven’t we, in 1 Timothy, about the spiritual battle. And I hope we’ve learned some things. Prayer is a war waged against the forces of evil. In fact, Isaiah 64:7 speaks of, quote: “Arousing oneself to take hold of God in prayer.” That’s the idea of the Hebrew terminology in Isaiah 64:7, arousing one’s self to take hold of God. And you remember, no doubt, reading Genesis 32:24 to 30 where it says that Jacob wrestled with the Lord and he wouldn’t let go of the Lord until he was what? He was blessed. In Colossians 2:1 Paul calls prayer great conflict. He sees it as great conflict. It is not an easy thing, it is a conflict. He says, “I would that you knew what great conflict I have for you.” What is he talking about in writing to the Colossians? I’m engaged in a battle, a prayer battle over your spiritual situation. And in 4:12 of Colossians, as I mentioned earlier, Epaphras, that wonderful man of prayer, is said to be always laboring fervently for you in prayer that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. Prayer is a battle, an agonizing experience.
Now I realize there is a certain paradox between the sovereignty of God and fervent prayer, but the Bible teaches us to pray fervently. We go back to Luke 11 and remember the story of the man for his much knocking who was heard, because he gave much effort he finally received what he sought, and it’s an illustration of what we call importunity, or intensity in prayer. We remember James who said in 5:16 of his epistle, “The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” Even our Lord fasted and prayed for 40 days. It wasn’t easy for Him.
Matthew Henry’s commentary says that as Paul prayed for them, he desires their prayers for himself. This was not out of selfishness but as a sign of mutual love (emphases mine below):
He had prayed much for them, and this he desires as the return of his kindness. Interchanging prayers is an excellent token of the interchanging of loves. Paul speaks like one that knew himself, and would hereby teach us how to value the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous.
He asked for the Romans’ prayers for his deliverance from the unbelievers in Judea and for the success of his ministry in Jerusalem, his next destination (verse 31).
MacArthur elaborates on the Greek word for ‘deliverance’:
The word “delivered” is a very interesting word. Rhuomai means to be rescued, to be rescued out of a dangerous life-threatening situation. I want you to pray for my rescue. I want you to pray that I will be delivered from a very dangerous situation.
It was not uncommon for Paul to face danger. In fact, it was a way of life. He was in danger most of the time. He continually asked for prayer because of that …
So what he is saying in verse 31 indicates to us that it marks a person in the will of God really moving ahead for the glory of God that they’re going to be persecuted because they’re invading the kingdom of the enemy. Now he had no idea at the time of the writing of Romans what was to come from those who do not believe in Judea, Jews who resented him, he had no idea at this particular time what they would do to him. But it was very predictable that they would be hostile toward his message.
Henry says:
The unbelieving Jews were the most violent enemies Paul had and most enraged against him, and some prospect he had of trouble from them in this journey; and therefore they must pray that God would deliver him. We may, and must, pray against persecution. This prayer was answered in several remarkable deliverances of Paul, recorded Acts 21:1-24:27.
I wrote about Acts at length in 2018 and 2019. The passages from the chapters of Acts that Henry mentions are posted below. This was a highly charged and dramatic time in Paul’s ministry over the course of two years:
Acts 21:1-6 – Paul, Luke, Cos, Rhodes, Patara, Tyre, kneeling in prayer
Acts 21:7-14 – Paul, Luke, Caesarea, Philip the Evangelist, Philip the Evangelist’s daughters, Agabus
Acts 21:15-16 -Paul, Luke, Caesarea, disciples of Caesarea, Jerusalem, Mnason of Cyprus
Acts 21:17-18 – Paul, Luke, James, elders, Jerusalem
Acts 21:19-26 – leaders of the church in Jerusalem, Paul, Judaisers, Nazirite vow
Acts 21:27-36 – Paul, completion of Nazirite vow, riot, Ephesian Jews, Asia Minor Jews, Trophimus the Ephesian
Acts 21:37-40 and 22:1 – Paul, Roman tribune, Jerusalem
Acts 22:2-21 – Paul, Jerusalem mob, conversion story
Acts 22:22-30 — Paul, Jerusalem, Roman justice, Roman citizenship, Roman tribune (Claudius Lysias)
Acts 23:1-5 – Paul, Jerusalem, the Sanhedrin, Ananias the high priest
Acts 23:6-11 – Paul, Sanhedrin, Pharisees, scribes, Sadducees, Jerusalem, Roman tribune (Claudius Lysias), Jesus Christ, ‘take courage’
Acts 23:12-15 – Paul, Sanhedrin, oath, murder plot, Jerusalem
Acts 23:16-22 – Paul’s nephew, Paul, centurion, Roman tribune, Claudius Lysias, Jerusalem, murder plot
Acts 23:23-30 – Paul, divine intervention, Claudius Lysias, two centurions, 200 troops, Caesarea
Acts 23:31-35 — Paul, military escort, Antipatris, Caesarea, Felix
Acts 24:1-9 — Tertullus, the Sanhedrin, Felix, Paul, Caesarea, Claudius Lysias
Acts 24:10-21 — Paul, Felix, Sadducees, Caesarea
Acts 24:22-27 – Paul, Felix, Drusilla, Caesarea, Porcius Festus
As our commentators have said, Paul had no idea about any of those events, although he certainly would have anticipated danger. At that point, he expressed his longing to finally meet the Romans, if it be God’s will, and be ‘refreshed’ in their company (verse 32).
For good or bad, the Lord and the Holy Spirit guided Paul’s ministry from the beginning, as evidenced by the accounts in Acts. Therefore, Paul was a great believer in the will of God.
MacArthur summarises a few instances from Acts and Galatians for us:
The reason I believe Paul is obedient is multiple. One, he lived in sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. And I believe since he was committed to doing the will of God and obeying the will of the Spirit, he would have not flagrantly denied the Spirit’s will in this case. When in chapter 16 he started to go into one area, Bithynia, the Spirit stopped him, he turned around. When he started to go into another area, the Spirit stopped him; he went the other way and finally went in to the Macedonian region because the Spirit stopped him in all the other areas. I believe he lived in sensitivity to the Spirit. And I believe also in chapter 20 when he says, “I am bound in the Spirit to go to Jerusalem,” he is saying, “I have a strong leading from the Spirit of God within me.” Furthermore, he had the right reasons for going. His reasons for going were to accomplish the ministry of collecting this offering which he knew was from the Lord. From the very beginning of his commission as recorded in Galatians 2:7 to 10 he was told to remember the poor, he was doing what he was told, he was doing what the Spirit of God had put in his heart to do. And I believe the Spirit actually sent him. I believe he was dispatched by the Spirit of God to carry out this ministry.
And, after two years of imprisonment in Judea, the authorities sent Paul to Rome:
The Romans themselves sent him there so that he could have a trial before Caesar. After two years of being kept a prisoner for his own sake in Caesarea, they then sent him to Rome and even on the way to Rome I believe the devil tried to drown him. There was a terrible shipwreck. But not only did Paul escape but so did everybody else on board, Acts 27. He made it to Rome. Well that’s the testimony to the power of prayer.
In Rome, Paul was martyred for his faith, but not before he was able to meet the Roman Christians and convert more to the faith over a period of two years:
Acts 28:30-31 – Paul, Rome, ministry
The final verse (33) of Romans 15 is the benediction, the blessing Paul sends to the Romans, asking that ‘the God of peace’ be with them all.
Henry gives us the scriptural history of the benediction and the application for us today:
The Lord of hosts, the God of battle, is the God of peace, the author and lover of peace. He describes God under this title here, because of the divisions among them, to recommend peace to them; if God be the God of peace, let us be men of peace. The Old-Testament blessing was, Peace be with you; now, The god of peace be with you. Those who have the fountain cannot want any of the streams. With you all; both weak and strong. To dispose them to a nearer union, he puts them altogether in this prayer. Those who are united in the blessing of God should be united in affection one to another.
MacArthur has this:
The God of peace, what does that mean? That’s a common term for God, the God of peace. It is to say that God is the source of peace. What do you mean by that? He is the source of peace in two ways. He provides peace with Him. Before you came to Christ you were at war with God. In Christ you are saved, you make peace with God. We call that peace with God. He also provides the peace of God which is the settled heart confidence that all is well that removes anxiety and brings tranquility to the soul. He is the God of peace, that is to say He reconciles men to Himself. He is the God of peace, that is to say He brings tranquility to the reconciled soul, the God of peace.
Our God is identified in this chapter in verse 5 as the God of patience and the God of comfort. In verse 13 He is the God of hope. And here He is the God of peace; the God of patience, the God of comfort, the God of hope, the God of peace.
Those of us who attend churches with established liturgies hear and/or say ‘Peace be with you’ in every service, often more than once. Sometimes I think we hear it so often that we forget or take for granted what it means. I do.
I will be reflecting silently on this in the week ahead.
Next time — Romans 16:1-2
On June 24, 2020, John MacArthur posted a sermon, ‘Act Like Men’, with the key phrase from the Bible, ‘be strong and courageous’:
It is one hour and six minutes long and, as you would expect, every minute is well spent watching and listening.
Without saying it explicitly, MacArthur disparages the welfare state which has caused millions of men to relinquish their family responsibilities.
Those of us who have had responsible fathers will greatly appreciate what the founder of Grace To You and Master’s Seminary has to say to men in the modern world.
In order to place this into context, you might wish to read my post from June 29, ‘John MacArthur videos about the protests’, which offers excellent advice about what to do in our journey as Christians.
Excerpts from the ‘Act Like Men’ transcript follow, emphases mine.
MacArthur begins by saying that, in the wake of the protests across the United States and the rest of Western world, he called a meeting of men from his congregation and Master’s Seminary — particularly men of colour — to enlighten him further. He asked them to give him five working points for a Christian agenda moving forward:
These are young Black men that gave up a chunk of their time to sit with me and talk through some of these issues. Thanks to Carl Hargrove for kind of leading that discussion which was powerfully fruitful for me …
So I said to these men after about two hours plus of talking together, and it was a very gracious and loving communication. I said, “So give me five things that we need to do as believers in Jesus Christ to reach across racial lines and bring the gospel to these people and have it received.” So I said, “You get five shots, and I’ll have this as the introduction to my sermon.” So here we go. This is what they said to me.
Number One: “Tell people that racism is a sin.” Racism is a sin, isn’t it. Any kind of hate is a sin, and racism is an utterly irrational hate. Racism is what causes genocide, what caused the Holocaust, what causes ethnic battles all across the planet as long as there’s been human history. But then men in their natural state hate God, and the Bible says they hate each other. The first crime was a murder based upon anger, based upon hate, when Cain killed his brother.
Any kind of hate is a sin. Any kind of racial hate is an irrational expanded form of hate coming from any human heart; it is reflective of the fallenness of that heart. And we also know in our society that there are some people who have received more of that than others. We need to make it very clear that to hate anyone on any basis or any group of people is a sin against God of monumental proportions.
Secondly: “We need to show compassion, compassion to those who’ve experienced this.” And lots of people have. We need to open our hearts and weep with those who weep and mourn with those who mourn. Jesus looked at the multitudes and had compassion. Even when He went to the grave of Lazarus, He wept; and He knew He was going to raise him from the dead, and He still wept. That’s the heart of Jesus.
Life is hard, and it has been especially hard for some groups of people; and that certainly speaks to the issue of the history of Black people in America. For those of us who know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, they don’t want to hear the statistics, but they would love to know you have compassion for them.
Thirdly, we talked about the fact that, “We need to listen.” And that’s pretty much a basic principle, isn’t it: slow to speak and quick to hear. We may have all the theological answers, we may have all the statistical answers, but can we keep our mouths closed long enough to hear the heart of someone else? Engaging someone with the gospel is so much more effective if that comes in the context of having heard their heart.
Number Four they said: “Use these days as an opportunity to show the love of Christ.” This was really rich advice for me. Say racism is a sin, and it is. Any kind of hate coming from anybody in any direction and you can see that it is tearing this culture to shreds.
Show compassion, listen, and use these opportunities as an occasion to show love. That’s four; got one more. And the final one was this: “The only thing that’s going to break the cycle of our problems in this country is godly fathers. Help us develop godly fathers.” Now you might say that was a providence of God that it happened the week of Father’s Day. Sure set me up for this morning because I want to talk about fathers.
Here are the current American statistics on fatherhood. These involve the main demographics, by the way. The statistics are probably similar, proportionally, throughout the Western world. Please read these and note them well:
Here’s the current reality. Twenty-five million children in our country live without a biological father – one out of three. Grades 1 to 12, forty percent of children live without a biological father in the home. Over fifty percent currently of children are born outside marriage. Eighty-five percent of prisoners grew up in a fatherless home. Eighty-five percent of children with behavioral disorders came from fatherless homes. Ninety percent of youth who run away and become homeless come from fatherless homes. Children from fatherless homes are three hundred percent more likely to deal drugs and carry weapons.
This is a holocaust. And it’s not limited to any group of ethnic people, it is a national holocaust. The statistics I gave you are across the board for our country. Just that one statistic, eighty-five percent of prisoners grew up in a fatherless home, is a terrifying reality.
I used to hear when I was a kid that if you had a good mother you could have any ol’ schtick for a dad. That’s not true. I used to hear when I was a kid preachers say, “You men, it’s important how you live, you Christian men, because your children will get their view of God from you.” That’s ridiculous. They don’t get their view of God from me, they get their view of God from the Bible. That’s an insult to God. What they do get from me is their view of a man. Children will get their view of a man and what a man is from the father.
There, I must disagree, at least in part. I have posted a few entries on fathers and clergy who have not fulfilled their respective responsibilities, either in the family or in the Church:
Here’s what happens when Dad doesn’t attend church
Consistent churchgoing habits important for children
The Methodist Church advocates man-centredness — survey (2010)
Which is more deplorable, the gun culture or the fatherless culture?
What kind of father doesn’t protect his family? (concerns bishops)
But I digress.
Back to John MacArthur:
Sexual immorality, relentless assault of feminism, overexposure to perversion, complete collapse of homes has just produced generations of bad fathers. And the reality is nothing is more devastating to a society than that, nothing. And on the other hand, the only hope for stability and the only hope for sanity, the only hope for peace in a society is masculine, virtuous men.
Some will find that hard to absorb. However, think of the rise of the welfare state over the past half-century. That might begin to put this into context. A virtuous life is not about absentee fathers or Big Government acting as a husband or father. If you sire a child, you need to be there as part of a family unit.
Even if one disagrees with that, it is hard to disagree that, during the past 50 years or so, the further we slip into moral laxity, the more we see evil. In fact, we’re seeing unimaginable evil. We thought we would be nice and allow people to do what they please. Now we see the results of that ill-advised experiment:
Evil abounds absolutely everywhere. How men respond to its presence determines the survival and well-being of a society. Let me say that again: “Evil abounds everywhere. How men respond to its presence determines the survival and well-being of that society.” One psychologist said, “Masculinity is taking responsibility to reduce evil and produce good.”
No culture will ever rise above the character of its men: fathers. The feminist lie has been that patriarchy is bad. It is tyrannical. It is toxic. It needs to be destroyed. And they’ve been doing it for decades. To destroy masculinity, to destroy strong male leadership and character leads to the current disaster: irresponsible men running loose in the streets terrorizing a society. Weak men have given us this legacy. Weak men produce the death of society. And men are in a crisis today, they are being continually told to try to get in touch with their feminine side, so they have become defensive about their masculinity.
Women rise higher and higher and higher and more frequently into positions of leadership, as men feel overwhelmed and overpowered and unable to fight against the trend. Oh, there are lots of men at the gym, pretty buff, have some muscles, but they’re doing virtually nothing to stop the tide of evil in the world. And by the way, in case women haven’t begun to realize it: weak, immoral men abuse women, and they produce more weak, immoral sons. No, children don’t get their view of God from their father, but they do get their view of what a man is. And we are in some serious trouble because the current crop of men are infecting the children.
There are two views in the Bible on generational sin. If one repents of a generational sin, one has wiped his slate clean. See Ezekiel 18:19-20:
19 “Yet you ask, ‘Why does the son not share the guilt of his father?’ Since the son has done what is just and right and has been careful to keep all my decrees, he will surely live. 20 The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him.
Yet, where there is no repentance from generation to generation, the sin endures as a punishable act:
Listen to the Word of God, Exodus chapter 20 and verse 5: I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me.” Listen to Exodus 34:7, “God will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.” God says it again in Deuteronomy 5:9 and 10, “I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
Repeatedly, God says corrupt fathers create in society a legacy of corruption that is generational. He’s not saying that a son would be punished for a father’s sin; clearly that is not the case. Deuteronomy 24:16 says, “Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death for their fathers; everyone will be put to death for his own sin.” We’re not talking about an individual suffering punishment for another person’s sin. What we are saying is fathers – plural – who are corrupt leave a legacy that will not be overturned in three or four generations. And if the next generation is corrupt, it pushes that out another three or four, and the next generation another three or four, and it becomes an impossible cycle.
In the words of the prophet Zechariah as he begins his prophecy, “In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah the prophet, son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo saying, ‘The Lord was very angry with your fathers. Therefore say to them, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Return to Me,’ declares the Lord of hosts, ‘that I may return to you,’ says the Lord of hosts. “Do not be like your fathers.”’” Something has to break the cycle.
This is what happens without repentance:
Clearly, a generation dominated by sinful fathers will bear the crushing consequence of their sinful progenitors. Their children will suffer. Their grandchildren will suffer. Their great-grandchildren will suffer. No generation exists in isolation or as an island. A wicked society defined as wicked by the behavior of the men won’t be rooted out for multiple generations. So it isn’t that people get their view of God from a father, but they do get their view of what a father is, and if it’s the wrong view, it’s just purposely repeated again and again and again.
So, as Christians, what do we do? First, we need to acknowledge that we are all prone to sin. When we give in to sin, we give in to all sorts of carnality. On the other hand, when we are alive in Christ, God’s infinite grace enables us to resist temptation through faith and the gifts of the Holy Spirit:
The default position of every man is corruption, right? It’s the most natural thing they do is sin. The most accessible affect of that sin is on the women in their lives, and then on the children in their lives, and then it extends to everybody else.
The problem is, “There’s none righteous, no, not one. They’re all evil,” as we read in Romans 3. They don’t seek after God. They hate God, they hate others, and they’re influencing their children while they’re harming their wives. I understand why there’s a women’s movement. And even though it’s wrong and totally devastates a society, pushes women into places they were never intended to be and men out of the places they were intended to be, I understand it because of the corruption of men.
So where do we begin? We have to begin as believers who have new natures, right? We are new creations in Christ, we have the Holy Spirit, and we start by breaking the cycle. It’s not going to be broken, it’s still around, right? What you’re seeing today in the chaos of this culture, what you see in the weakness and foolishness of people in high places, what you see is just the reality that corrupt fathers destroy society.
MacArthur then begins discussing one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit: fortitude. As we are in the season of Pentecost — please do ignore the term ‘Ordinary Time’ — it is important that we take some lessons from the weeks from Pentecost until the end of the Church year, just before December.
Fortitude is no casual word. It is not restricted to men alone, however, it is in scarce supply these days among some of today’s men, enough to make a difference in Western society:
Fortitude. What is fortitude? It’s a great word. Firmness, strength of soul that faces danger with courage and bears loss and pain without complaint. Fortitude: “Firmness and strength of soul that faces danger with courage and bears loss and pain without complaint.” That’s not a theological definition, that’s just a definition of the word.
When you say a man has fortitude, you’re talking about someone who doesn’t compromise even when there’s danger, even when that danger escalates to fear and pain. Fortitude is a combination of conviction, courage, and endurance – conviction, courage, and endurance. It is the willingness – it is not just the willingness, I would say it’s even the desire to risk, to literally create challenges if they’re not already there, to attack difficulty, to challenge difficulty head on, to bear suffering with courage. This is what makes a man a man, and this is the kind of man in whom a woman finds her security, finds her protection; and in that kind of relationship, the woman’s femininity flourishes.
Men are those who should be the protectors, the purifiers, who secure their wives, who secure their children, who accomplish all that needs to be done to reduce evil in a society and produce good; and yet this society for years and decades has had men busy producing evil, and diminishing good. True manliness is bound up in the word “courage.” That is the virtue that marks a real man. Truth, conviction, courage.
Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 16, 1 Corinthians chapter 16. At the end of this wonderful letter, near the end, is tucked a very important verse, actually two verses: verses 13 and 14. Listen to what the apostle Paul says: “Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.” “Be on the alert,” – danger is everywhere – “stand firm in the faith,” – don’t waiver in your belief and convictions – “act like men,” – What does that mean? Fortitude, uncompromising courage – “be strong.” The New King James actually says, “Be brave, be strong.” “Act like men” essentially means to conduct one’s self in a courageous way, to conduct one’s self in a courageous way.
Courage is the stock-in-trade of a man: courage in the face of danger, courage in the face of temptation, courage in the face of loss, courage in the face of suffering. This strength of verse 13, essentially four statements saying, one way or another, “Be strong.” Is then balanced in verse 14 by, “Let all that you do be done in love.” And how important is it to add that. There’s nothing more manly than a man with consummate conviction, courage, and endurance, who is marked by love. That’s a man – not weak, not vacillating, not fearful; and loving.
Real men face life with this kind of fortitude. They’re watchful of the dangers around them. They’re alert. They’re protectors of their wives and children, and of their friends and all the people over whom they have influence. They have convictions about what is true. They have courage to live out those convictions and the strength to be unwavering when those convictions will cost them everything. Your convictions, they’re only real convictions if they hold up under the most intense pressure.
MacArthur then goes into the many Bible verses with the words ‘be strong and courageous’:
In Deuteronomy 31, Moses is passing the mantle on to Joshua, and in verse 6, Deuteronomy 31, he says this: “Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them,” – meaning your enemies – “for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.” “Then Moses called to Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, ‘Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall give it to them as an inheritance. The Lord is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” That’s the greatest transitional leadership speech ever.
Look at … 2 Samuel chapter 10 and verse 12. This is Joab to the Israelites who were facing opposition, strong opposition, tremendously strong opposition. Back in verse 6, it lays out the forces that were coming against them. But in verse 12, Joab says to the Israelites, “Be strong, and let us show ourselves courageous for the sake of our people and for the cities of our God; and may the Lord do what is good in His sight.”
First Kings chapter 2. In 1 Kings chapter 2, David addresses Solomon his son. “David’s time to die drew near. He charged Solomon his son, saying, ‘I’m going the way of all the earth. Be strong, therefore, show yourself a man. Keep the charge of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, His ordinances, and His testimonies, according to what is written in the Law of Moses, that you may succeed in all that you do and wherever you turn, so that the Lord may carry out His promise which He spoke.’” Moses to Joshua, Joab to the Israelites, David to Solomon.
For another view of David’s speech to his son Solomon, look at 1 Chronicles chapter 22. I’m showing you these because I want you to see how common this is. First Chronicles 22, David calls for his son to build the house of God, and we can pick it up in verse 11: “Now, my son, the Lord be with you that you may be successful, and build the house of the Lord your God just as He has spoken concerning you. Only the Lord give you discretion and understanding, and give you charge over Israel, so that you may keep the law of the Lord your God. Then you will prosper, if you’re careful to observe the statues and ordinances which the Lord commanded Moses concerning Israel. Be strong and courageous, do not fear nor be dismayed.” All of these declarations assume that your devotion to God is going to be tested, and you’re going to have to be strong. It’s going to be tested, no way around it.
David says again, 1 Chronicles 28:20, to his son Solomon, he gives this speech another time: “Be strong and courageous, and act; do not fear nor be dismayed, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you until all the work for the service of the house of the Lord is finished.” Just a couple more.
Toward the end of 2 Chronicles, Hezekiah is speaking to men in positions of leadership. Hezekiah, chapter 32 of 2 Chronicles, the first verse: “After these acts of faithfulness Sennacherib king of Assyria came, invaded Judah, besieged the fortified cities, and thought to break into them for himself. Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come invading Judah and he intended to make war on Jerusalem; he decided with his officers and warriors to cut off the supply of water from the springs” – this was a siege – “which were outside the city, and they helped him. So many people assembled and stopped up all the springs and streams which flowed through the region, saying, ‘Why should the kings of Assyria come and find abundant water?’ And he took courage and rebuilt all the wall that had been broken down and erected towers on it, built another outside wall, strengthened the Millo in the city of David, made weapons and shields in great number, appointed military officers over the people and gathered them in the square of the city gate, and spoke encouragingly to them, and this is what he said: ‘Be strong and courageous, do not fear or be dismayed because the king of Assyria nor because of all the horde that is with him; for the one with us is greater than the one with him. With him is only an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles.’” That’s a great pep talk, isn’t it, for an army. Psalm 27:14 says, “Be strong and let your heart take courage.”
Men don’t give in to fear. Men don’t give in to pressure. Men don’t give in to intimidation, and they don’t give in to temptation. They don’t seek the easy way. They will take the pain, they will invite the risk, they will confront the challenge, and they will not bow to the pressure to compromise the commandments of God. Strength of a man is that he lives on principle, that he lives on conviction, that he has the courage of those convictions, stands strong against everything that comes at those convictions, bravely faces the challenges in a fortified way. Manly fortitude means contending with difficulty, facing every enemy, meeting the enemy head on, bearing the pain, maintaining self-discipline, upholding truth, pressing on to the goal. That’s what defines a man.
MacArthur cites more examples. God spoke the same words to Joshua in the presence of Moses:
I want to show you another passage back in Joshua, right at the beginning of Joshua. Moses gives this speech again as he passes the baton, as it were, to Joshua. He says to him in chapter 1 of Joshua, verse 5, “No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you.” This is God now speaking, God is the one speaking. “Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you.”
So here it comes not from Moses to Joshua, but from God to Joshua in the presence of Moses. And here’s what God says to Joshua, verse 6: “Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go.”
And here comes the key to that. How do you live like that? How do you live with that strength and courage? How do you live without ever compromising? Verse 8: “This book of the law” – the Word of God – “shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” It’s an incredible speech from God.
“Be strong” – verse 5 – “because God will be with you,” – “because you’re fulfilling a divine cause, a promise from God.” Verses 7 and 8, “The only way you can do this is to submit to the Word of God so that it constantly is in your mind and you live out its truths.” You will be able to be obedient if you’re saturated by the Word of God empowered by the Spirit of God.
Can you see why this speech is repeated so many, many times? This is the mark of a man. It takes a father like that to raise a son like that. Spiritual men are courageous, strong, principled, uncompromising, and bold. This is God’s role for men to play in a society, but it is also God’s role for the men to play who are the leaders of His people Israel. And this is God’s standard for the men who lead His church.
This is what we should expect from our clergy:
When we come into the New Testament and we are introduced to the kind of men that the Lord commands to lead His church. This is how He describes them in 1 Timothy 3: “This man must be above reproach, a one-woman man, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money. He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity (if a man doesn’t know how to manage his own children, how will he take care of the church of God?), and not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.” High standards for a pastor, an elder.
To Titus, Paul says similarly, “Appoint elders. If a man is above reproach, one-woman man, having children who believe, not accused of dissipation or rebellion; for the overseer” – or the shepherd, pastor, bishop – “must be above reproach as God’s steward, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not addicted to wine, not pugnacious, not fond of sordid gain, but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just, devout, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he’ll be able to exhort in sound doctrine and refute those who contradict.” This is the kind of men who lead the church.
Why is the standard so high for the leaders of the church? Because the leaders of the church have the responsibility to set the pattern for what manliness looks like in a godly environment. It’s not that they alone should be like this, it is that they should be like this so the others can see what a man should be. It isn’t that the Lord wants to pick up all the pastors and elders and take them to another level of spirituality which no one could attain, it is rather that this is what God expects from every man. But it’s got to be modeled. Men like that and men, as Ephesians 5 said, who love their wives like Christ loved the church, and who are protectors of their wives and who literally are the saviors of their wives, are the kind of men who become a haven for the wife, who make her feel secure and protected, nourished, cherished. And when children grow up in a home where the man secures the woman and the children, there’s peace.
So, how have we gone so far astray?
This culture has turned on God, eliminated His Word. The bible and the gospel is an enemy.
One wonders what John MacArthur thinks of President Trump. To my knowledge, he has not been invited to the White House. I wish that President Trump would invite him. That would make for an interesting transcript.
But I digress. MacArthur says:
The leaders of this nation have no interest in God or in His Word, and they are basically running this country right into hell as fast as they can. The only thing that’s going to stop this is not a group of feminized men who thinks God just wants to give them what they want so they can be happy. What this world needs is not sensitive men, it needs strong men. We live in a world of compromise, more than compromise. You could barely call it compromise because there’s nothing left of that which is good, so what are they compromising with.
That said, it is clear that MacArthur, a Californian, disapproves of California Governor Gavin Newsom’s views. Newsom is a self-proclaimed Catholic. Here’s a 2008 video of the two of them on the old Larry King Show on CNN when Newsom was the mayor of San Francisco and married to his second wife at the time:
Now on to the word ‘integrity’:
To add another word to your thoughts about this, I would say that people who have no price have integrity, integrity. So we talk about fortitude, let me talk about integrity. “People who have no price have integrity.”
What is integrity? It is essentially unbreakable fortitude. Integrity is defined as steadfast adherence to a moral code. It comes from “integer,” which means “whole” or “complete.” Its synonyms are “honesty,” “sincerity,” “simplicity,” “incorruptibility.” It’s antonym is “duplicity” or “hypocrisy.” A person who lacks integrity is a hypocrite. Integrity means that you live by your convictions: you say what you believe, you hold to what you believe, you’re immoveable. That’s wholeness. That’s integrity: you are one. It was said long ago of a preacher that he preached very well, but he lived better. The world is a seducer, and Satan is a seducing deceiver, pushing us into compromise, and therefore into hypocrisy.
When our Lord indicted the scribes and Pharisees who were the frequent objects of His blistering attacks. Inevitably it was on their integrity that He assaulted them. For example, in Matthew 23:3, He said, “They say things and do not do them.”
MacArthur, who is truly blessed, has a number of additional observations. As such, I would invite you to read or watch his sermon in full.
In short, manliness does not involve belonging to a street gang.
Each man, at some point, will have to rely upon his own wits, determination and fortitude to resolve his own trials, whether they be his own or those of his family.
We need to recover the biblical ideal of manliness, which has kept Western society protected for centuries. It hasn’t always succeeded, but we are fallen people, susceptible to temptation and sin.
Men have been beaten into the ground for decades. This must be remedied:
We need a generation of men who are alert to danger, who stand firm in the faith, who are courageous with the Word of God, uncompromising and strong.
And, listen, everything about this that I’ve said indicates they will be tested. Manliness will be tested. Conviction will be tested. Courage will be tested. Strength will be tested. The pressure will come, it’ll come in unexpected ways, but it’ll come. You may get away with your statement of conviction for years, but there will come a test, and many men will shock the people who knew them by selling out, compromising, abandoning their integrity, playing the hypocrite out of cowardice. This falls into a translation of Romans 12:2. Don’t let the world squeeze you into its mold.
Stay strong. Stand firm in the faith, as Saint Paul did.
The world needs real men now more than ever, especially to stand by principled women.
Churchmouse Campanologist 