GREATER RICHES

Meekness is a term and a moral quality that is not well understood in the world around us. A quick search online or in a dictionary will give you negative or undesirable meanings alongside definitions that are more in keeping with the Spirit’s usage in the Bible. Merriam-Webster includes definitions such as “deficient in spirit and courage” and “not strong”, but I hope to show from the scriptures that those characterizations of our English word “meekness” do not belong in a biblical lexicon of meanings associated with that word.

In fact, Mr. W. E. Vine in his Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, writes this, quoting an earlier work by himself and another¹: “The meaning of prautes (the Greek word translated into English as ‘meekness’) is not readily expressed in English, for the terms meekness, mildness, commonly used, suggest weakness and pusillanimity to a greater or less extent, whereas prautes does nothing of the kind . . .  It must be clearly understood, therefore, that the meekness manifested by the Lord and commended to the believer is the fruit of power.”

The Lord Jesus is preeminent among the exemplars given in the scriptures for this godly characteristic, this “inwrought grace of the soul” (W. E. Vine). He is of course that blessed paragon of meekness and of every other moral virtue (Matthew 11:29; II Corinthians 10:1). In the Bible we also find the man Moses, who excelled in meekness relative to all of his contemporaries (Number 12:3).  We see this grace of meekness taught repeatedly by Paul the Apostle, and he exhorts his son in the faith Timothy more than once of the need for meekness in his dealings with those in his sphere of influence (I Timothy 6:11; II Timothy 2:25).

Mr. Vine continues with further help as to meekness: “The common assumption is that when a man is meek it is because he cannot help himself; but the Lord was ‘meek’ because He had the infinite resources of God at His command. Described negatively, meekness is the opposite to self-assertiveness and self-interest; it is equanimity of spirit that is neither elated nor cast down, simply because it is not occupied with self at all.”

The Lord Jesus was as meek as He ever was when rebuking His disciples for their lack of faith,² when He looked upon the hypocrites around Him in anger³ and upbraided them in faithfulness to His God, or when He made a whip and overturned the tables of the money changers in the temple.⁴ It was His Father’s will that He was occupied with. The zeal for God’s house was Jesus’ motive. The testimony of Jehovah must be given in faithfulness, and His perfection of meekness meant that His actions were without self-interest or a thought of vindicating Himself. The meek and lowly One defended the holy character of His relationship with His Father when He was accused of having a demon, but He allowed to pass without self-defense the intended slight of the Jews in deeming Him a Samaritan.⁵

Moses surely failed in meekness when he smote the rock twice in impatience and anger against the murmuring rebels (Numbers 20). But he was steadfast and faithful in that quality when he cast down and broke the tables of testimony on his descent from Mount Horeb (Exodus 32), when he made the Israelites to drink of the pulverized golden calf, and when he rallied the children of Levi to Jehovah’s side in the execution of judgment upon their wicked brethren. Perhaps we could say that glory crowned his meekness when he then stood in the gap to intercede with Jehovah for those who deserved to be blotted out of the book of the living. Moses offered himself, his own life, in the stead of his brethren, whom he had only recently, in the moral power of meekness, chastened and judged in faithfulness. Meekness is not weakness. Weak persons, weak leaders among the people of God, are not meek, and truly meek saints are not weak ones, but are endowed with moral and spiritual power by the Spirit of God.

We must look yet at Timothy, whose natural demeanor was that of timidity, which could be considered to be a form of cowardice. We shrink from using the terminology of cowardice, but Mr. J. N. Darby and some others have rendered the phrase “the spirit of fear” in II Timothy 1:7 as “a spirit of cowardice”. Meekness is manifestly not cowardice, and has no connection to it. Cowards are not meek, and neither are the meek cowards. A meek soul overcomes the fear of the shame of association with the testimony of the Lord (II Timothy 1:8), and this is the exercise about which Paul exhorted Timothy to be strong and faithful. We might even conceptualize meekness as being the outcome of having a spirit of “power, and of love, and of wise discretion” (J.N.D.). If spiritual power bears the fruit of meekness, then love and wisdom, or wise discretion, channel it for greatest moral effect in the godly.

Much more could be written on this subject, but I end with these comments. Humility alone is not meekness, nor is submissiveness, though the meek one will be humble and in proper subjection as called for by the relationships he is in. Meekness entails an active, overcoming power in the face of moral and spiritual obstacles, overcoming as well in the atmosphere of the power of darkness in the world. 

The Spirit of God works to develop His fruit, including meekness, in the lives of all of those He dwells in.⁶ As meekness characterized the Lord Jesus, so the Spirit desires that it should increasingly characterize His own. And so it will be, that by the godly power of meekness, the meek⁷ shall at last inherit the earth.

¹ “Vine’s Expository Commentary on Galatians” ² Mark 4:40 ³ Mark 3:5 ⁴ John 2:13-17 ⁵ John 8:48-50 ⁶ Galatians 5:22-23 ⁷ Matthew 5:5

The touching account of Mephibosheth, King Saul’s crippled grandson who is first seen in II Samuel 4:4 and then more fully introduced in chapter 9, has been enjoyed down through the centuries by believers and used effectively in the preaching of the gospel of the grace of God to sinners. What worshiping soul who has an appreciation of the grace of God toward helpless sinners can fail to see himself or herself through the eyes of this pathetic character, raised up from a seemingly hopeless existence to such great enjoyment and blessing!

King David was not constrained to act upon a merely humane or utilitarian motive in his own mind, nor was he persuaded by human influence, when he invited Mephibosheth into his own house and to his table, where there would be both abundance and fellowship to enjoy together. David was a man after God’s own heart, and because of that, he enjoyed the grace of God in his own soul more than most of his contemporaries did. It was out of that wellspring of enjoyment that David reached out – reached down – to the house of Saul in order to show “the kindness of God” to a self-described “dead dog” and descendant of his envious and hateful predecessor. By that act of mercy crowned with grace, David brought Mephibosheth into the circle of undeserved favor that he himself knew in the presence of Jehovah, and that the lame man came to enjoy for himself.

How can we tell the extent to which Mephibosheth appreciated the position of grace into which he was brought at the king’s table? We perceive it by his earnest response to David in II Samuel 19, when he is finally able to come out to meet the king upon his return from exile. It is clear that Mephibosheth deeply felt and mourned David’s absence, having neglected his personal care and grooming during the time he was deprived of fellowship. No doubt his sustenance had been provided while the king was gone, but it was the lack of communion with his “lord the king” that broke his heart and depressed his spirit.

Adding to his grief over David’s exile was the opportunistic treachery of Ziba, notable servant of the house of Saul, who apparently lied to the king about Mephibosheth’s motives. Ziba did in fact profit from the slight and dishonor he did to his crippled master, and we may wonder at the haste of David in assigning to Ziba all that belonged to Mephibosheth. If David is a type of Christ in the matter of showing such undeserved favor at an earlier time, how then could David fail in his discernment of Ziba’s accusations against his master’s son?¹ And why does David not fully rectify the matter and restore Mephibosheth’s possessions in full when he finally appears and provides a legitimate answer to his inquiry: “Why didst thou not go with me, Mephibosheth?”

There may come a time in our lives when we believe we have been treated unjustly or dishonored in some way by others, whether we have a close relationship with them or a merely casual one. We may be found complaining to the Lord in our hearts about the slander or slight, and we may think we deserve vindication, but this will only serve to hinder our communion with Him who orders all things for our good and blessing. We can learn from Mephibosheth in such situations. Perhaps he was much grieved by the wrong done to himself, while he was missing the fellowship of the king, but when once he was restored to the enjoyment of the presence of that one who had lavished such grace upon him and set him at his table, peripheral things just faded away as unimportant.

We may not understand the ways of God in withholding benefits from us that we hoped to enjoy, or when He removes in part some of those objects with natural appeal that we once valued, while allowing others to possess them. We may also spend much time wishing for vindication and restored honor among peers, along with other natural advantages that may be coveted and partaken of apart from communion with Christ. But may it rather be that we learn the lesson that the story of Mephibosheth would teach our hearts by the Spirit, which I suggest to be this: an appreciation of the grace shown us by God our Savior, in daily communion with the Lord Jesus and with a desire for His honor, will cause the appeal of peripheral things and interests to dim to the point that we are content with the way He administers matters among His servants. This surely is the path to fullness of joy and blessing.

“. . . My lord the king is as an angel of God;² do therefore what is good in thy sight. For all my father’s house were but dead men before my lord the king; and thou didst set thy servant among them that eat at thine own table. What further right therefore have I? and for what should I cry any more to the king?” And the king said to him, “Why speakest thou any more of thy matters? I have said [or: decided], Thou and Ziba divide the land.” And Mephibosheth said to the king, “Let him even take all, since my lord the king is come again in peace to his own house.”

¹ II Samuel 16:4 ² II Samuel 19:24-30

Theologians and philosophers have for many centuries pondered the question of the existence of evil in the universe. For monotheistic thinkers who believe that the one true God could have created the universe in any way that He pleased, and that He could have maintained it in a sinless state, this matter of God’s allowance of evil is of great theological import. Gottfried Leibniz, an 18th-century German philosopher, coined the term “theodicy”¹ in addressing the question.

A student of the scriptures with spiritual motives need not spend much time and effort with philosophical argumentation, but may rather find his answers in meditation on the word of God. Now, it is not possible to address the subject of theodicy comprehensively in a brief article, nor can the writer claim to have the depth of knowledge that many other godly Bible students have had. But it is a desire of mine to present a few thoughts that may give others a greater appreciation of that transcendent theme of the glory of God, which He wills to display both through and to the whole created universe.

The overarching principle and the presupposition that one must begin with is that it is God’s necessary prerogative to glorify Himself as the creator and sustainer of all things. To begin from the creature’s perspective or experience would be the first false step on the path of departure from truth, and it will end in humanistic error of one sort or another. The gravity of this principle will be seen in a few texts I quote here, but there are many suchlike in the word of God.

• As surely as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah! (Numbers 14:21)
• For Mine own sake, for Mine own sake, will I do it; for how should My name be profaned? and I will not give My glory unto another. (Isaiah 48:11)
• And I will set My glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see My judgment which I have executed, and My hand which I have laid upon them. (Ezekiel 39:21)
• Father, glorify Thy name. There came therefore a voice out of heaven, I both have glorified and will glorify it again. (John 12:28)

Having approved the truth in our minds and consciences that God must be free to glorify Himself in anything He purposed to create and decreed to come to pass, we might stop to muse for a time how God might glorify Himself to the fullest extent in the universe He created. We believe that God created orders of intelligent spiritual beings we know as angels, in ranks of principality, authority, power, and dominion;² then at the end of all His creatorial work, and to crown it, He created man, a tripartite being after His own image and likeness. All these created intelligent beings had moral agency, that is, they were responsible to obey God and to not act according to their own wills and interests. In the case of the first man and his wife, there was one command to obey, a prohibition against eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

It is perhaps not very difficult to conceive of the possibility that God could have kept all the intelligent moral agents He created in a sinless state in perpetuity. We are given enough information about angels to know that those angels who did not fall nor leave their original state³ are called “elect angels” and “holy angels”,⁴ indicating to us that God sovereignly chose them to subsist in holiness. As to man, the tree of life in Eden might have guaranteed to him the same perpetual sinlessness had he availed himself of it. We know, of course, that man was barred from that tree of life upon transgressing, but the redeemed will finally have a part in the “tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God”,⁵ and will be kept forever free from defilement by evil.

But now our thoughts might come to focus on the question: In a universe kept forever from corruption, in which untold millions of intelligent beings are maintained in perfection admiring and serving their Creator, how would the magnificence of God’s glory or the full range of His attributes be known and appreciated?

We enjoy reading that “God is light” and that “God is love” in John’s first epistle. Had evil never been allowed into a perfect creation, how little had those definitional attributes of God been understood! God’s essential nature would be the same in any case, but an untainted creature might well be ignorant of and unmoved by the value of Light, did it not shine in the darkness for the dispelling of that moral gloom.⁶ Love might be enjoyed on a level of contentedness and satisfaction in a perpetually innocent soul in relationship with God, but it could never be perceived and known in all its depth and intensity apart from the Father giving His Son for the life of the world and for souls dead in trespasses and sins.⁷

There is a passage of scripture that helps us to understand a little better the holy motives of God in tolerating for a time the evil He allowed entry into His creation. In Romans 9:22-23, as part of a dissertation on the mercy and justice of God in electing souls according to His sovereign will, Paul wraps up his inspired argument in this way: “What if God, desiring to show His wrath and to make known His power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory?”⁸ Here we are given a glimpse into the mind of God in His toleration of evil until such a time as He reconciles all things unto Himself, judging and banishing that evil.

Evil did not enter the universe because God could not keep it from defilement. He had a definite purpose in allowing for the intelligent moral beings He created, both angels and men, to fail the test of allegiance and dependence as a result of placing self-interest over against the Creator’s interests and claims. In permitting the entrance of evil, God was able to make known to the whole of creation the full range of His attributes. These would include not only His omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence, but now also His justice, holiness, wrath, immutability, mercy, goodness, and redeeming love, so that all the wonder of His activity in space and time might redound to His eternal glory!

The infinite work of the Son of God on a Roman cross outside Jerusalem is at the center of all of God’s counsels, for there God glorified Himself fully with respect to evil in the heavens and the earth. We who believe on Jesus are eternally blessed through that work, all praise be to Him; but the divine scheme of redemption, and the temporal evil and failure that was necessary for its full development and revelation, find their purpose and vindication in the desire and prerogative of God to glorify Himself through His manifold attributes and excellencies.

“For of Him, and through Him, and for Him are all things: to Him be glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:36)

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¹ Theodicy means “vindication of divine justice”; it is a defense of God’s attributes, including His goodness and omnipotence, in view of the existence of evil in creation. ² Ephesians 1:21 ³ Jude 6 ⁴ I Timothy 5:21; Revelation 14:10 ⁵ Revelation 2:7 ⁶ John 1:4-5 ⁷ John 6:51; Ephesians 2:1; I John 3:16 ⁸ Romans 9:22-23 ESV

Most scripture quotations are from J. N. Darby’s New Translation.

(Header photo: A dark orb – the moon – temporarily eclipses the glory of the sun. Taken in Hermann, Missouri, on August 21, 2017.)

In every age, according to the wisdom of God the Father of us all,¹ fatherhood in the family has been highly important in the development of children into responsible adulthood. God Himself instituted that role, and for believers, that role of fatherhood is of great importance in the moral and spiritual realms, as well as for the physical and economic well-being of the children that fathers either bring into the world or adopt as their own. But spiritual fatherhood to those outside of the family circle has great value as well, particularly in the context of the church of God.

Paul the apostle reminded the Corinthian saints of their relationship to himself as sons of a spiritual father, for he had in Christ Jesus begotten them through the gospel. They were much in need of admonition, and in his warnings to them in I Corinthians 4:15, Paul provides them and us with an insight into how much God values fatherhood in this moral or spiritual sense by presenting to them this contrast: “For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers”. Christian teachers are needful for learning the wonderful truths of Christianity, but those who act for God the Father in the role of a spiritual father to younger believers have a special part to play in the spiritual development of souls in local Christian gatherings.

I have been impressed recently by five scenes in the Bible that bring out different aspects of this kind of fatherhood, in which we can clearly see the benefit and value of this relationship between older and younger saints. For the sake of brevity, we cannot take more than a quick look at each of these, though further meditation on each of these accounts by the reader is recommended.

David experienced failure as a father, and later lamented it. It was no doubt the Lord who put it on his heart to “show the kindness of God” to a much younger man very much outside of David’s family, a lame man of the house of Saul named Mephibosheth. You may read the lovely account in II Samuel 9, which is very often used effectively in the preaching of the gospel. Permit me, however, to make this observation and application, that David was led to reach outside of his family circle to show God’s kindness and a generous hospitality to poor Mephibosheth. We who are older can find here an example to practice in our own settings, that is, to show intentional kindness to our younger brothers and sisters in Christ.

Elisha the man of God had what might be called an “elder brother” relationship with the sons of the prophets in his day, but it seems he had a more tender and fatherly relationship with the young man who served him. In II Kings 6, we find the prophet and his servant surrounded by the hosts of Israel’s enemy, the Syrians. Elisha sees by faith Jehovah’s angelic hosts as horses and chariots of fire covering the mountain, and seeks to comfort the soul of the young man with these words: “Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.” This young man needed more than just assurance from Elisha that all would be well, appropriate as this encouragement was at that juncture. What he needed was the spiritual eyesight that his master possessed, so as to be able to see for himself that Jehovah had full control of their difficult situation, and immediately that ability to see the hosts of heaven came through Elisha’s prayer. “Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see”, was the simple prayer God used to bestow spiritual eyesight and strengthen a timorous young man’s faith. Spiritual fathers pray, and pray often, for the younger ones under their care, that they might see and enjoy spiritual realities.

Paul had a stated relationship as spiritual father to both Timothy and Titus, though we get the impression that the character of their individual relationships with Paul differed as to level of intimacy, for their personalities and the situations of their ministry differed. Both faced difficulties (all of the younger men in these examples faced difficulties), but Timothy’s timidity in the face of declining faithfulness in the church brought him often to tears. The apostle tenderly sympathizes with him, as one who had shed many tears himself, then exhorts Timothy to have the courage to be unashamed of the testimony of the Lord and of Paul’s situation as a prisoner, and then to be strong in the grace available to him in Christ Jesus.² A spiritual father enters into the sorrow and difficulties of his progeny, and on that basis is able to foster courage and moral strength.

In Titus, another of Paul’s sons in the faith, there seems to have been more fortitude and even maturity, perhaps both naturally and spiritually. In Paul’s letter to him, fatherly care and responsibility took more of the form of instruction and wise guidance in the face of the opportunistic false teachers and divisive persons found there on the island of Crete.³ These were the difficult situations Titus faced, and sound teaching would be the remedy for the danger these faithless ones represented to the assembly. A spiritual father of any age ought to provide the appropriate godly instruction to those under his care.

The case of the apostle John and Gaius, one of his spiritual children (for John usually writes of children rather than sons), is wrenching to our spiritual sensitivities. We find this account in the very short epistle of III John. Diotrephes held sway over the assembly where Gaius and Demetrius apparently served the Lord Jesus and ministered to others, and John speaks of his religious tyranny in a way that makes clear he believes it to be an evil element among them. That evil called for John’s rebuke and correction after a godly sort. But he commends Gaius for his faithful service to the brethren and to strangers, and recognizes the prosperity or growth in his soul, perhaps facilitated in part by the difficult circumstances God had asked him to minister in. Finally, John encourages Gaius to not imitate the evil he saw around him and in the church, but to imitate what is good, of which John himself was a worthy pattern. Appropriate commendation for faithfulness along with encouragement to positive goodness is another way a spiritual father may foster growth in the souls of his spiritual children.

May this word to the hearts of all of us who are mature Christians be used of our heavenly Father to the end that all of His children, His “sons and daughters bought with blood”,⁴ be brought along by grace and grow to maturity in their souls by faith.

¹ There is an aspect of the fatherhood of God that is universal: Acts 17:29; Eph. 4:6

² II Timothy 1:3-12; 2:1-3

³ Titus 1:9-14; 3:10

⁴ Hymn #3 in Hymns for the Little Flock

I suppose very few believers on the Lord Jesus Christ would deny in principle that their Savior has rights to them, or has a claim on their lives, by virtue of the amazing love that brought Him down so low as to die on the cross for their sins. But how we answer to the Lord’s claim on us in our daily lives is too often with a lack of devotion and in regrettable failure.

Simon Peter lived, ministered, and then died as a martyr in devotion to the Lord Jesus, and it was the love of his Master that constrained him¹ throughout his course as a servant and an apostle of Christ. Let’s consider in a brief meditation a particular incident in Peter’s life that no doubt had a lasting impact on his thought and his activity in the service of his Savior.

In the last chapter of the gospel of John, Jesus appears to some of His disciples after they had gone fishing at Peter’s suggestion. This chapter of the Bible seems to have as a primary purpose a lesson in the ways of the Lord in restoring His own after failure. In this case, Peter was in need of restoration in the presence of his brethren after so publicly failing the Lord by denying Him in the courtyard of the high priest while Jesus was on trial there.² The Lord had appeared to Simon after His resurrection, no doubt to assure him of His own unwavering love for the faltering disciple and to restore his soul privately.³ But Peter needed more to prepare him for his path of service.

I hardly need to mention the way the Lord Jesus showed His love to Peter throughout His ministry here, by claiming him in naming him “Cephas” in John 1, by healing his mother-in-law in Matthew 8, by saving him from the waves in Matthew 14, by entrusting him with the keys of the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 16, and by giving him a glimpse of kingdom glory with a few others at His glorious transfiguration in Matthew 17. Other examples could be cited. Notice the touching manner in which Jesus looked on Peter after his denials; someone has described it as a “look of wounded love”, moving Peter to repentance, the requisite first step in the restoration of the soul. But Peter needed yet one more session with his Master to cement in his conscious mind how real was the Lord’s love for him, and therefore how real Christ’s claim on his devotion.

Jesus in His restoring grace probes Peter’s heart three times, with three different emphases, in John 21:15-23. The perfection of the Lord’s dealings with His own, as evidenced here, warrants much more attention than a brief essay, but we believe that Peter’s heart was not only touched but fully sounded in the matter of his failure. Little doubt remained that the Lord Jesus had already planned out Peter’s future, both concerning his ministry of feeding Christ’s sheep and lambs, and concerning Peter’s eventual involuntary departure via the article of death.

But Peter’s mind needed a final word from the Lord on that occasion, so as to focus his thoughts on what the Lord Jesus could rightfully claim from him going forward into a future where temporal danger lay for all of the disciples. John clearly enjoyed the special love of the Lord Jesus, and we can perceive that because John refers to himself multiple times, including at this juncture, as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”. Now Peter is a little too interested in what would become of John, asking: “Lord, what about this man?” And the answer of the Lord Jesus is exquisite in its tone of tender correction, as well as in its suitability to the hearts of each of His disciples ever since: “If I will that he abide until I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou Me.”

Only true, unselfish love can make such a demand or claim upon the soul. The Lord Jesus Christ is eminently worthy to be followed, worthy of the devotion of all those whom He has redeemed with His precious blood, and whom He loves to the end,⁴ to the uttermost. Peter received and understood that gracious message of the deeply personal love of his Savior for him, and we can by faith enjoy it and apply it in each of our redeemed souls. May Peter’s courage and devotion to His Lord and Master inspire each of us to the same.

¹ II Corinthians 5:14 ² Luke 22:54-62 ³ Luke 24:34 ⁴ John 13:1

“Nothing can, nor ever will, take the place of earnestness in prayer: if we are to have God with us, we must pray. It is marked by perfect calmness . . . For our own souls it is so helpful, because prayer is the expression of entire dependence, but at the same time, confidence in God . . . Constant dependence is the constant expression of faith in God; the soul goes to God with God’s affairs; we realize how much they are our own. The blessed Lord has gone down into the dust of death. Satan’s power was exercised to the fullest, but it was all broken. He comes up again and sits at the right hand of God, takes His people, whom He has completely delivered from the hand of Satan, and uses them for conflict against him — the instruments of His service in the world. A wondrously blessed place if we only knew how to hold it — blessed to be made the Lord’s host against Satan. The more you are in the forefront of the battle, the more you will be exposed to the fiery darts. The more you bear testimony to God’s thoughts, God’s mind, the place the saints have in God’s mind, the more you will be the object of Satan’s attacks. You will necessarily be exposed to more snares and dangers than those who lag behind, and there is no place where dependence is more needed and felt.”

The excerpt above on the necessity and benefit of prayer is from a lecture by J N Darby on Ephesians 6:10-20, entitled “Canaan and the Armour of God”. I have attempted a narration of this encouraging address (below), as it has been both a challenge and a blessing to my soul.

The text of Darby’s lecture may be found at this link: https://www.stempublishing.com/authors/darby/miscbtpb/35011E.html

The apostle Paul’s exhortation to his beloved Philippian brethren to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling¹ is sometimes misunderstood. It seems prudent to clarify here at the beginning of this post that the salvation referenced here is not a salvation of the soul, and that it does not teach what might be called a “lordship salvation”. Nor does it really refer to some sort of “outworking” in practical experience by a saved soul. In this admonition, Paul expresses his deep desire that the saints gathered in Philippi would put forth the collective effort required to save or preserve the assembly and its united testimony through, or perhaps above, the difficulties by which their adversaries were working in order to trouble them. Meanwhile, God was working in them the desire and the ability equal to this work of corporate self-preservation, if we may call it that.

In chapter 1 of this epistle, verses 27 and 28, we read the expressed desire of the apostle that there would be oneness in spirit and in soul, and as to physical laboring also, with respect to the high claim of the propagation of the gospel of Christ. He wanted to see with his own eyes, or at least hear about, their collective continuance in unity in the carrying out of the work of the gospel. But there were adversaries, those who opposed that work, as there will always be when Christians seek to honor God and to carry on in testimony for the Lord Jesus. I suggest that these adversaries may have been spiritual beings just as well as human beings. We know that our proper warfare as believers in Christ is against “principalities, against authorities, against the universal lords of this darkness, against spiritual power of wickedness in the heavenlies”² — in other words, again demonic forces in the spiritual realm.

Regardless of the nature of the opposition, Paul encouraged the saints to be “not frightened in anything by the opposers, which is to them a demonstration of destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God”. Courage in the face of human or spiritual opposition leaves a testimony to those adversaries that their end is certain destruction. At the same time, the courage of faith exercised by the godly gives testimony in the church itself that God is going to bring about a salvation or preservation for His own in spite of the difficulties they face.

The church of God is experiencing more difficulties in the Western world than it has for centuries. Some of those difficulties are brought on by secularism’s increasing hostility to the moral principles of the word of God. In addition to this gradual increase of intolerance toward Christianity, there is the unexpected new reality that civil authorities are imposing a patchwork of changing regulations for meeting together, in response to this year’s coronavirus epidemic that has affected much of the world. As a result of these abnormal impositions, difficulties have arisen among Christians of different backgrounds, personalities, and latent inclinations, and our adversary the devil is using these differences to foment disunity wherever he is given that opportunity.

In the second chapter of this epistle, we find Paul using the perfect example of the Lord Jesus, who humbled Himself, going down, down, down, and becoming obedient to the death of the cross. This mind ought to be in us as His followers, and were it indeed so, much distress among Christians would fade away. But the Spirit of God goes further than simply recounting the perfect earthly pathway of the Lord Jesus for our observation and imitation. We find here also one of the most majestic portions in all of the word of God — a brief but brilliant accounting of the glorious result of Christ’s humiliation and obedience, that is, His exaltation by God. Christ Jesus received from Him “a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

An appreciation of Jesus’ exaltation after His voluntary humiliation ought to provide members of His body with the inclination and the motivation to make every effort to effect their own preservation through difficult situations. He is worthy of it! And then we find, immediately after the exhortation to work out a salvation together, that God even provides the desire and the ability to please Him through our work. “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” How could it be otherwise?

God sets before our eyes “the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow”³ as an encouragement to our hearts to not give up, nor to throw up our hands and say “it’s no use”. The preservation of the testimony of the Lord in the assembly of God is an effort worthy of our desire and diligence as those redeemed to God by Christ and baptized by the Spirit into one body. Our Lord Jesus Christ will make it all worthwhile for us in the end, at His judgment seat, and then at His side during His glorious reign, because our imperfect endeavors at keeping the unity of the Spirit⁴ and pleasing God will finally and fully redound to the glory of God.

¹ Philippians 2:12-13

² Ephesians 6:12, Darby translation

³ I Peter 1:11

⁴ Ephesians 4:3

One chapter of the Bible that had real meaning for me as a teenager was the 91st Psalm. Other passages that were more doctrinal in nature took hold of my soul and directed my steps in a more definite manner a few years later, but this wonderful Psalm helped lay a foundation for a young person’s confidence in God and His sovereign goodness and faithfulness. I’m certain it has done so for countless others.

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee . . . Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways . . . Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him . . .

Now it is true that Psalm 91 applies most directly to the Messiah as the perfect, dependent Man. But we who know God in this age can learn from this portion what true confidence is, by faith in Him who has fully revealed His name to us as Father, by His Son Jesus, our Savior and Deliverer. J. N. Darby gave these insightful comments on it: “Faith thus, in its confession of His name, makes [that name] its refuge and strong tower, and moreover trusts in it: a great thing, for no power of evil, no cause of distress can be anything to upset the mind, if the Lord be looked to and trusted in. [Faith] has here the promise of ever watchful and protecting care. This is true whatever outward evil may come. As we see in Luke 21:16-18, the Lord says some of them should be put to death, but not a hair of their head should perish — they were all counted. Providential power is all at God’s disposal.”

It is likely that the three Hebrew children who stood before King Nebuchadnezzar had in their souls the enjoyment of this psalm. What was their answer to the king of Babylon when given the ultimatum of bowing to the golden image or else suffering the furnace of fire? “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thy hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image that thou hast set up” (Daniel 3:16-18). Their confidence in Jehovah’s ability to preserve and deliver them had not wavered once on those occasions where we see them in connection with Daniel, nor did they falter here when he was absent. Whether or not they would avoid or survive the fire, the confidence of these outstanding young men was in the One who would most certainly bring them through to a “better resurrection”. That final outcome is what so many others have looked forward to by faith, some of whom are referenced in that magnificent eleventh chapter of Hebrews, where we have recorded for the encouragement of our faith the triumphs and rewards of full confidence in God.

The disciples of the Lord Jesus (in contrast to those faithful ones “of whom the world was not worthy”) occupied a place at a point in time that could only be considered as privileged far above anything experienced by men up until that time in history. Even Adam in the garden did not have the Son of God walking with him in bodily form, communing with him, and personally seeing to his every need, like the twelve friends of Jesus had.¹ But on more than one occasion, the disciples forgot just who was with them in the boat when the storm arose and the sea threatened. In Mark 4:37-41, their trust in their Master reached such a low ebb that they began to doubt His care of them. “Carest Thou not that we perish?” was their cry to Jesus who, taking his rest on a pillow, had always perfect confidence in the One who had already answered that confidence in the psalm referenced above: “Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him.” They feared and doubted; He trusted God absolutely.

How did the Lord Jesus answer His worried disciples? He who always met every occasion and every difficulty with perfect evenness in Himself and wisdom toward others responded to them in a manner that may sound almost harsh to our ears, for we are prone to make allowances for fear and doubt in our own minds. “Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?” To their credit, if we may say so, the disciples did not resort to defensiveness, nor even to embarrassment or shame. Rather, their doubtful fear of perishing was quickly replaced with a godly fear of wonder and admiration at the almighty power and faithful care of this One whom even the winds and seas obeyed.²

How forgetful at times are those with the highest privileges and the closest ties to the Lord Jesus! As Christians who live now while He is in the glory, we have benefits and blessings that the disciples did not, including “another Comforter” (the Holy Spirit) to assume the place for us that Jesus had among the twelve. We have life and incorruptibility brought to light by the gospel, and we are saved in hope of eternal life, “which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.”³ In light of all this and more, we ought to view each trial and every danger we face as an opportunity to reflect upon our Lord’s abiding care and love for us, and to place our entire confidence in God our Savior and in Christ Jesus, our hope.

His love, in time past, forbids me to think
He’ll leave me at last in trouble to sink:
Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review
Confirms His good pleasure to help me quite through.

John Newton, 1779

¹ Luke 22:35; Mark 8:14-21

² Compare Matthew 8:27, Mark 4:41, and Luke 8:25.

³ II Timothy 1:10; Romans 8:24; Titus 1:2; I Timothy 1:1

You might ask why a “new heart” would be worth getting, or what is even meant by such an unusual expression. Heart transplants are not uncommon in this era of advanced medical procedures, but I suppose you understand that what I mean in raising the subject of getting a new heart has nothing to do with our physical selves. Rather, it is a moral or spiritual change that is in view here.

Men have always been responsible to their Creator God, responsible to obey Him without question or reservation for self. But from the very first temptation of the woman in the Garden of Eden, because of which both the woman and the man transgressed, all mankind has been shown to incline toward self-interest and away from their entirely good, faithful, and wise God. Adam and Eve distrusted God, and turned away after what tasted good as food, looked good to the eyes, and promised to be good for the mind. So began the long slide of the human race into departure from and rebellion against the God and Father of all.¹

Jehovah gave Israel the Law by Moses in order to test what was in man’s heart, what were his affections and desires, and they who were placed (willingly) under the Law promptly broke it, and continued to do so. When God sent prophets to bring them back to Himself by means of warnings and pleadings, it mostly fell on deaf ears, and on hearts that were hard as stone. We might observe that Ezekiel in particular gets to the very heart of the matter of Israel’s departure and rebellion at the very end of Judah’s history under the kings. He puts on them, by the word of the Lord, the responsibility for making themselves “a new heart and a new spirit”, while casting away their transgressions, so that they would be kept from a moral death under His righteous judgment (Ezekiel 18:30-32).

Did the house of Israel (Judah in particular) heed Jehovah’s pleadings at that late hour? No, they did not, and so they were destroyed as a nation, who once were meant to be head of the nations, and punished for many years before God in mercy brought a small remnant back to Immanuel’s land.² Then, when Immanuel (Jesus the Christ) arrived there centuries later, He was rejected by those who occupied that place, the Jewish people and their leaders.

“He came unto His own, and His own received Him not”, is the testimony of St. John at the very beginning of his gospel (John 1:11). When given every advantage, to the point even of having their Messiah among them in the character of “God with us”, they failed to hear Jehovah’s long-standing appeal to make themselves a new heart. Such a new heart would have received His Servant Jesus from the beginning of His manifestation to Israel by John the Baptist (John 1:31). Therefore, all was lost to them on the ground of their responsibility, and their hearts remained “deceitful above all things, and incurable.”³

We have established, I trust, that all men under responsibility to God have not only sinned against, departed from, and rebelled against their Maker, but they have also rejected or despised the One whom He sent to be their Savior. That One, Jesus, after it is testified that He knew what was in the heart of man, plainly tells Nicodemus that a radical change had to occur in the hearts of His people before they could enter, or even see by faith, the kingdom of God that He represented.⁴ No doubt Nicodemus should have understood the Lord’s reference (by allusion) to the prophet Ezekiel’s figure of the stony heart⁵ and its incurable character, which must be replaced by a living and reponsive heart of flesh that is completely new! But Nicodemus and others who were teachers in Israel had apparently lost this understanding long ago. Meanwhile, their hard and unbelieving hearts looked for signs, but refused in any case to believe, when miracles were so plentiful and obvious during Jesus’ ministry of mercy and grace.

Notice that Jesus does not tell Nicodemus nor the Jews to cause themselves to be born again, nor to make themselves a new heart. He does not put on them that responsibility, for by then it had become manifest that this would just not happen on that ground, on the principle of responsibility. A teacher in Israel should have understood by Ezekiel’s prophetic writings (in chapters 11 and 36), that Jehovah would replace their stony hearts with a new heart of flesh, wholly by means of and on the principle of sovereign grace. God will surely fulfill His promise and bring about this change unilaterally in a coming day when He gathers His earthly people out of all countries, and brings them into their own land. Jesus in John 3:1-15 simply laid out the necessary condition upon which any soul, at any time in history, would be able to look by faith upon Him lifted up on the cross, receiving the testimony of God; He does not address the responsibility nor the initiative for the change of heart that results in such a faith.

All must be on the ground of pure grace, for man under responsibility has so utterly failed. God can only work with and in a new heart, a heart that is alive and responsive, to bring about conformity to His Son. “Another heart”, like the one King Saul acquired,⁶ is a temporary change, and of a different order entirely than the heart-change to which Ezekiel testifies. Saul perished an ungodly man on the mountains of Gilboa, though early in his life he seemed to exhibit the very best of man put under responsibility. But it was not enough, could never be enough, to reach the standard of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

It is that glory — Christ’s glory — that will be manifested in us and to us in that coming day when He will be glorified in all them that believe.⁷ And all the glory redounding to Christ in that day will not have been because we met some standard of responsibility to do or become anything, for it can only be because of His amazing grace.

¹ Genesis 3, 4, 6, 11, & 13:13, etc.; Romans 1:18-32; Acts 17:24-31; Ephesians 4:6

² Isaiah 8:8; Matthew 1:23

³ Jeremiah 17:9 (JND New Translation)

⁴ John 2:23 – 3:15

⁵ Ezekiel 11:19 & 36:26

⁶ I Samuel 10:9

⁷ John 17:22; Romans 8:18-21; II Thessalonians 1:10; I Peter 1:6-11