What have we learned about ourselves so far this month? We all are hopeless sinners. God loves us anyway and, therefore, offers us a way to heaven through faith in his son, Jesus. But even when we accept that offer, we find ourselves continuing in sin.

Sin is indeed a problem. Because we inherited a sin nature, there doesn’t seem to be much we can do to overcome it. Accepting God’s law doesn’t help—that just exposes our tendency to sin. Accepting God’s grace doesn’t help—that just reveals our powerlessness to stop sinning.

Do we have any hope? Or are we just doomed to failure in our attempts to live for God? Does God, who is so perfect that imperfection cannot enter his presence, condemn us?

Our lesson this week addresses these questions. And happily, it gives us hope.

We have the power to overcome sin

All too often, we believe saying is the same as doing. So, if we verbalize a belief, we don’t have to act on it. If we confess Jesus is Lord, we can live as we wish because we know our sins are forgiven. And if God convicts us, we can simply bow our heads, confess our shortfallings and then return to our sins.

But such behavior reveals a deeper problem. “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires … . The mind of sinful man is death … . The sinful mind is hostile to God.” (v. 5-7). When we stop striving for God’s standard in our lives, we turn our backs on him. And once we’ve done that, we no longer live for God, but for sin.

It seems clear we can’t make it to heaven by our own good behavior. That’s why we trust Jesus to make a way for us. But we fail to realize we can’t live for God on our own strength either. We must depend on the Holy Spirit for that.

Jesus begins the process of salvation by offering us a new birth, salvation. In that birth, we are given a new Spirit, the Holy Spirit. “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you” (v. 9). What we can’t do, the Spirit can do. Where the human spirit fails, God’s Spirit succeeds.

For us, the challenge is learning to lean on the Spirit and allowing him more and more control in our lives. It can seem odd to think of allowing someone else to control our lives, but in truth, we already are under the control of something else. “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?” (Romans 6:16).

We only have two choices: serve sin and allow sin to control us, or serve God and allow the Holy Spirit to control us.

Learning to live in the Spirit

Part of what makes it so difficult to live in the Spirit is that we are able to compartmentalize our lives. We can be totally submitted to God in one part of our lives and totally submitted to sin in another area. Our goal—and this is what working out our salvation means—is to weed out all the unsubmitted areas until we are in total submission to God. But how do we do that?

• Be honest with yourself and God. Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the Spirit of truth. If we are to obey him, we must be honest. Yes, you are a new creation, but you must learn to live like a new creation. Don’t be afraid to admit your weaknesses. God loves to be strong where we are weak. Confess those areas and ask for help to change them.

• Watch your attitude. Your attitude reflects your heart, and a heart submitted to God can only produce fruit of the Spirit. “The mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace” (v. 6). If you catch yourself displaying a bad attitude, you likely have found an area that isn’t submitted to God. But don’t just confess it. Turn it over to God and let him help you change.

• Be realistic. A house isn’t built in a day, and the renovation of your spirit will take some time as well. Sin is a bad habit that must be broken. If you act on instinct, you will likely sin. Instead, slow down and take your time. Think about what you say before you say it. Think about your actions before you act. Ask God for wisdom to measure your thoughts before they turn into actions.

We can be more than conquerors

In Jesus’ last teaching session with his disciples, he told them his desire for anyone who wants to follow him: “If you love me, you will obey what I command” (John 14:15). When we obey the Spirit, allowing him to transform us, we please God. We also begin to see victory in our Christian walk.

•    We will be able to put to death the “misdeeds of the body.” We can’t produce the fruit of the Spirit when we aren’t submitted to God. But if we will stop following our own desires and start listening for the promptings of the Holy Spirit, sin will lose its grip on us, and we will see more of God’s fruit in our lives. By allowing the Holy Spirit to have control, we become “conformed to the likeness of his Son” (v. 29).

•    Our prayers will become more effective. All of us have felt at one time or another that we didn’t know how to pray. Fortunately, we don’t have to. If we are submitted to the Holy Spirit, He takes the desires of our heart and presents them to God for us. “But the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will” (v. 26b-27). We only need to worry about the condition of our hearts. God takes care of the rest.

•    We will not be condemned. From man’s perspective, the greatest benefit of Christianity is the security of knowing our eternal future. It’s a hope we can rest in. So although we continue to sin, we don’t have to fear. Nor does sin have to be our master. By developing new habits, new attitudes and new thought patterns, we can overcome. “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies” (v. 33).

Our sin nature is real, and we must constantly work to overcome it. Fortunately, though, we aren’t alone in this struggle. God understands our weakness and gives us his own Spirit to help us. Let’s breathe a prayer of thanks. And let’s show our appreciation by listening to and following his promptings. “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25).

Discussion questions

•    Have you ever experienced a time when you wanted to do one thing, but you felt a prompting to do something else?

•    What does it mean to “keep in step with the Spirit”?

I recall having read at some time a devotional thought—the name of the author has left me—based on the character of Enoch, who according to Genesis 5:22-24, “walked with God.” That devotional writer explored some of the facets of that statement, and noted that walking with God means that one shares God’s company, moves at God’s pace and arrives at God’s destination.

A similar verbal template might be laid over the theme of this week’s lesson, which is “Conforming to God’s Agenda.” Conforming to God’s agenda means—among other things—that we work toward God’s goals, limit ourselves to God’s methods, and operate according to God’s timetable. All three of those components are vital to the equation; leave one out, and the whole thing falls apart. It ceases to be God’s agenda, and becomes our own.
 
It isn’t difficult to see how these three factors come into play in our focal text of 1 Samuel 24. In the events described in this chapter, we see that David was committed to God’s agenda: He had God’s goal (establishing him as the king of Israel) in mind, but also he limited himself to God’s methods and waited on God’s timing for his kingship to begin.

Let’s look at how it all happened.

Last week, we examined the friendship of Jonathan and David. We saw how Jonathan’s love for David motivated him to defend David against the violent paranoia of Jonathan’s father, Saul, who was convinced the young man posed a threat to his position as king of Israel. For a time, Jonathan was able to keep David safe, but finally the situation worsened to the point that David had to flee from Saul and go into hiding (chapter 20).

Saul was determined to find David and kill him, so David became a fugitive, constantly moving from place to place, always staying just a step or two ahead of Saul and his army. David was joined in his flight by a rag-tag band of men who followed and supported him (22:2).

On the occasion described in chapter 24, Saul’s spies had informed him David was hiding with his men in the desert of En Gedi. That region contains extensive rocky gorges pockmarked with numerous small caves and was a natural location for David to conceal himself and his men. Acting on the lead from his informant, Saul tracked David to the area known as the “Crags of the Wild Goats” (v. 2).

There is something almost comic about the scene described in verse 3: Saul went into one of the caves to answer the call of nature, not realizing David and his men were hiding in the inner recesses of that very cave. In his privacy and position of vulnerability, Saul made himself an easy target. David had the perfect opportunity to kill Saul, and some of his men encouraged David to take Saul’s life and be done with it (v. 4).
 
David might even have entertained such thoughts himself as he crept forward in the darkness, unseen, toward the unprotected and unsuspecting Saul. But rather than plunging his knife into Saul’s back, David contented himself with cutting off a piece of the corner of the king’s robe and then silently retreating back into the darkness.

Verse 5 tells us that shortly afterward, though, David’s conscience troubled him because of what he had done. Let’s put a mental bookmark for the time being at that part of the story, because we will come back to it in just a bit.

After Saul had left the cave (and, we may presume, was a safe distance away), David yelled to get the king’s attention and informed him about how close his brush with death had been (vv. 8-11). He even showed Saul the corner of the robe which he had sliced off in the cave (and we can imagine Saul then quickly grabbing the tail of his robe and examining it in horror). David reminded Saul he had done nothing to deserve being treated as an outlaw, and his refusal to harm Saul when he had the opportunity was Exhibit A of his innocence. 

Saul admitted David’s blamelessness and his own guilt in this matter (though not for the last time, as this scene will be repeated in chapter 26). The king went back home, but David prudently chose to remain in his desert stronghold (v. 22).

Let’s go back now to that spot where we placed our mental bookmark—David’s remorse over his decision to cut the corner off Saul’s robe in the cave (vv. 5-6). We might be curious about why the mere action of ruining Saul’s clothing bothered David as much as it did, especially when you consider that this appeared to be an act of mercy (cutting his robe instead of cutting Saul).

Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that what David did was—to use the vernacular of clinical psychology—a “passive-aggressive” act which did no physical harm but which still sent a hostile message. The robe Saul wore represented the authority of his kingdom, much like a policeman’s uniform and badge represent his authority to enforce the law. By cutting off a piece of Saul’s robe, David was dishonoring the Lord’s anointed by defacing the symbol of his kingship. 

David’s claiming as his own a piece of Saul’s robe might even be construed as his backhanded way of saying to the king, “I own you.” Perhaps through this act, he was sending the message to Saul that it was just a matter of time before he, David, would possess the kingdom.
 
Even if David did not realize at the time the symbolic enormity of his action, when he did consider the implications of what he had done, he was filled with regret.

David’s act, and his remorse afterward, challenge us to examine our words and actions and to consider if they contain any hostile messages, even though those words and actions might not be overtly violent. David’s prayer of Psalm 139 is appropriate for us to pray as well: “Search me, O God, and know my heart … and see if there be any hurtful way in me …” (Psalm 139:23-24).

Once again, David demonstrated the sort of qualities which led God to call him a man after his own heart. Vengeance for Saul’s crimes against David would come some day, but that was God’s business—not his—and David was content to leave his case in God’s hands (vv. 12-15). Furthermore, David knew he had been chosen by God to replace Saul on the throne of Israel, but he was willing to leave the timing of his elevation to the Lord. He would not use ungodly methods to accomplish the goal that God had revealed was to take place.

David was committed to God’s agenda, not merely in pursuing the right goals, but—just as importantly—pursuing them in the right way.
The chapter holds up a mirror to us and invites us to do some honest self-evaluation. And this is the question which David’s actions encourage us to ask: Are we on God’s agenda—or our own, cleverly disguised as God’s?

“It was a simpler day and time.” While we hear that statement often, those days really have never been.

Example: Things were simple for me when I was a child. All I had to do was play, go to school and church, and try (sometimes half-heartedly) to get along with my two brothers.

Not so for my parents. My father was in the Army, and we moved about every three years. Moving was not simple. Nor was providing for three hungry, active, “interesting” boys. Further, it was the era of the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of President Kennedy, etc.
Likewise, the era of racial segregation may be referred to by some as “the good old days.” Not so by many—nor should it be.

What is the difference? Perspective. Our station in life filters how we perceive and experience the events around us.

This is the foundation for our study this week. Paul’s letter to the Philippians is another of his “Prison Epistles.” It was written during the two years Paul spent in what was more like house arrest in Rome.

That may not sound so bad. However, it was the culmination of several years of hardship for Paul. It had started with his arrest in Jerusalem (Acts 21:27-36). Then, the Romans moved him to a prison in Caesarea, the Roman capital of Judea (Acts 23:12-35). For two years, Paul remained imprisoned in Caesarea awaiting trial. After Paul asked to be tried in Rome (his right as a Roman citizen), he was taken there. Even that journey was filled with difficulty including being adrift in a storm on the Mediterranean Sea before being shipwrecked (Acts 25-28).

Talk about ups and downs of life. Paul had just about seen—and suffered—it all. Now, his life  continues in chains as he writes this letter. The amazing thing is that Paul writes about faithfulness and joy. How can that be? Perspective.

In verses 12-14, Paul wrote that everything that had happened to him had served to “advance the gospel.” The word Paul used for “advance” was a military term and would have been familiar to the many Roman veterans who lived in Philippi. The picture Paul draws is one of an army cutting a trail through new territory.

Paul identifies two ways this was happening. First, in v. 13, Paul reports that, due to his imprisonment, the gospel had been shared within the “palace guard and to everyone else.” This may be a reference to the Praetorian Guard who served as the emperor’s personal protectors much as the Secret Service does for the U.S. President.

Notice that the witness was one of Paul’s being “in chains for Christ.” That is, those who knew about him also knew Paul was a man innocent of any real crime. There had been those who had tried to silence Paul by putting him in jail. That the tables were turned was actually both a witness to God’s work and a testimony to God’s power. It may have reminded Paul of what he had written to the Romans some time before in Romans 8:28.

Second, in verse 14, Paul describes how his imprisonment also had been a testimony and example to other Christians. Paul was aware of the importance of one Christian being an example for others, both the saved and the unsaved. Paul himself must have been influenced by the model of Stephen’s martyrdom (Acts 7:1-8:1).

Now, it was Paul’s turn, and his imprisonment remains an encouragement today as it has been to countless Christians across the many years since. Roman chains bound him to a wall or a guard, but grace and love bound him to God. From Paul’s perspective, this was a source of great joy.

Paul writes more about the reasons for his joy. In verse 19, he writes he had faith the prayers of the Philippian Christians and the work of the Holy Spirit would result—somehow—in his deliverance. This probably refers to deliverance or salvation in its most complete and ultimate sense.

Paul’s meaning becomes clearer when we read verses 20-24. Paul’s assurance was that Jesus would be glorified no matter what was about to happen—whether in his life or death. Paul’s confidence was not in his innate courage, but in the strength and endurance promised by God.

Just as importantly, Paul was convinced that dying would mean being in the direct presence of Jesus. When Paul wrote, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (v. 21), he was considering the immediate and full reality of what Jesus said to his disciples in Matthew 16:24-26. Paul knew life with Jesus is the same whether in this world or in the next. Paul would have loved the words of the hymn, “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine; oh, what a foretaste of glory divine.”

We can live like Paul—with faithfulness and joy—no matter our situation. It requires of us an eternal perspective. This calls us beyond our egocentricity and narcissism. Living from an eternal perspective means exalting and proclaiming Jesus and trusting him to care for us no matter the circumstances. In life and in death we can be—we are—witnesses.

Questions to explore

• How does your relationship to Jesus shape how you look at life and death?

•  How is your perspective on living and dying in Jesus similar to and different from Paul’s?

Before salvation, we have one mind and one spirit. That spirit is sin. By the world’s standards, we may be good people, but the guiding principle for our lives is a sinful one. We live for our own glory, according to our own wishes. As a result, we are at peace with ourselves and in enmity with God.

After salvation, a second Spirit is introduced, and we begin a state of war with ourselves. The Holy Spirit begins his work on our hearts, trying to change us into God’s image, but the sin spirit continues its reign in our hearts. It is a battle we must actively engage in.

Unfortunately, failure to engage in the battle against sin is roughly equivalent to fighting for the sin nature. God never forces himself on us, and unless we specifically invite him to change us and strive to live out those changes, we will continue to act in our sin nature.

Paul says it well in Romans 7:18-19: “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.”

The fact of sin is not license to sin

I’ve heard Christians use this passage as an excuse for their continued sin. But Paul isn’t offering us a comfy blanket to make us feel better about ourselves. Nor is he giving us license to sin. He is merely summing up the Christian experience. We are not to rest in our sin. We are to rest in the power of God to rescue us from that sin.

We like to talk about salvation as a one-time event. And yes, it is in one sense. At the moment we believe in the gift of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, we are born into God’s kingdom. But just as physical birth begins a process of growth as we develop into mature men and women, salvation begins a lifetime of spiritual growth as we develop into mature believers. As Paul says in Philippians 2:12, we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

Resisting sin requires attention

Overcoming sin demands effort, but not human effort. It’s a work of the Holy Spirit, and we’ll talk more about that next week. But it isn’t the Holy Spirit working alone. Rather, we work with him, allowing him access to our hearts and minds.

Overcoming the sin nature is by necessity a joint effort—us working with God—because sin begins its work in our mind. That’s where temptation begins. That’s where our attitudes are formed. And our mind is fed by our heart’s desires. So where does the battle against sin begin? Ultimately, it begins in the heart. Unless we have a heart for God, we are helpless against sin.

You’ve probably heard the story of the Native American who described his own inner struggles. “Inside of me there are two dogs. The black dog is mean. The white dog is good. Every day the black dog fights the white dog.” When asked which dog usually won, he answered, “The one I feed the most.”

While the sin nature reigns in our flesh, it doesn’t have to win. With the power of the Holy Spirit, we can have victory over sin. Remember the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Paul tells us, “Against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23). So while sin is exposed by the law, the fruit of the Spirit are above the law. They are more powerful than sin or the law. But to access this power, we must feed God’s Spirit in ourselves and starve the sin nature.

Feeding God’s Spirit

The only way to access God’s power is through faith. It sounds too simple to be effective, but Jesus tells us we can move a mountain if we have enough faith. Victory over sin requires self-discipline that can only be found in God through faith.

How do we develop this faith? Through knowledge. When we are secure in the knowledge that God is who he says he is, that he loves us and has our best interest at heart, we can begin to turn over control to him.

That’s why Peter says: “Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins” (2 Peter 1:5-9).

We must know God in order to strengthen our faith in him. But we aren’t looking for head knowledge. We can know about God without knowing him personally.

James 2:19 says: “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.” We must get to know God personally. That means we must spend time with him. We must read his word and pray. And we must ask him to help us know him better—not as the world knows him, but personally, as a Father to a child.

Then, with a more intimate knowledge of God, we can know how to obey him. When faced with temptation, we will know his heart. And we can ask him to give us strength to obey him even when it hurts.

That strength is ready for the asking. All we have to do is believe. “But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one … . May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance” (2 Thessalonians 3:3, 5).

Discussion questions

•    Is there an area of your life in which you can’t gain victory over sin?

•    What could you do to increase your faith in God’s ability to rescue you from that sin?

In the motion picture “As Good As It Gets,” Jack Nicholson plays a thoroughly unpleasant man who has managed to offend and alienate practically everyone he has ever crossed paths with. Nicholson’s character reaches a turning point, however, when he falls under the influence of a young single mom played by Helen Hunt. In a memorable scene from that film, Nicholson pays what he believes is the ultimate compliment to Hunt: “You make me want to be a better man.”

That single line of movie dialogue is a great illustration of one of the many blessings that come to us through our Christian friends. When we befriend others and entrust ourselves into the hands of special individuals who share our commitment to Jesus Christ, those friends encourage, ennoble, elevate and strengthen us. Through those friendships, we become better people.

1 Samuel paints one of the great biblical portraits of the meaning and implications of godly friendship. To get the big picture, you really need to read chapters 18-23 in their entirety, but the focal study passages (1 Samuel 18:1-4; 19:4-7; 20:8,12-13; 23:16-18) provide us with some beautiful snapshots from the “friendship scrapbook” of David and Jonathan.

David was the youngest son of an obscure and unremarkable family who lived in Bethlehem in southern Judah. Anointed by Samuel in secret to be the king who would replace Saul on Israel’s throne, David was catapulted into national fame when he faced down and killed the giant Goliath (chapters 16-17).

After killing Goliath, David was summoned for a private audience with king Saul. It probably was at that time that David met the king’s son Jonathan for the first time, and immediately a bond of friendship was cemented between the two young men—a friendship which would help carry David through some of the darkest and most dangerous days of his entire life.

We know that every good friendship is reciprocal—a two-way street. But Scripture really trains the spotlight on Jonathan’s part of his relationship with David. In the focal passages, we see a number of specific, concrete ways that Jonathan showed real friendship to David. The essence of those actions of Jonathan toward David might be distilled into a couple of broad observations.

First, we see that despite the vast difference in their social status, Jonathan elevated David and made him his equal.

The opening verses of chapter 18 state that Jonathan “became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself” (18:1). Drawing on that unity of heart, Jonathan made a covenant with David and sealed that covenant by giving David his robe and tunic, his belt and his weapons (18:3-4).

By the establishment of that friendship covenant and the giving of those gifts, Jonathan elevated David. It was his way of saying, “We’re not a wealthy king’s son on the one hand and a poor shepherd’s son on the other; we are friends, we are equals.”

The way Jonathan reached out to David especially is remarkable when you consider the royal court politics which were part and parcel of being the king’s son. Jonathan was the heir apparent to the throne of Israel, and ordinarily it would be just a matter of time before he would be wearing the crown himself. But when you read 20:13-15 you get the feeling that Jonathan knew it would be David, not he, who would be the next to sit on the throne. But here is the really great thing: Jonathan didn’t seem to be the least bit bothered by that thought. Their friendship was not a competition to see who could come out better in the end.

That’s how real friends treat one another—not as if one party is on one level and the other party is on another. Friends stand together on level ground, and don’t play games of one-upsmanship. To put it bluntly, a friend doesn’t feel like he has to be better than you in order to get along with you, and he is just as happy for you when great things happen in your life, as he is for himself when great things happens in his life.

Godly friends like that are a blessing from God, and God wants each of us to be that kind of blessing to others.

The second observation we make about Jonathan and David is that their friendship enabled David to be vulnerable and still be safe.

After David killed the giant Goliath, his fame spread throughout the kingdom. His name became a household word, and people were even writing songs about him—songs in which David’s prowess on the battlefield was being compared to King Saul’s, and Saul was coming off looking like a third-stringer. “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands,” they sang (18:6-7).

Saul started feeling threatened by David’s popularity, and he easily could imagine the people throwing him out of the palace and carrying David in triumph on their shoulders and setting him on the throne. The king decided to eliminate the threat he thought David posed to his rule by plotting to have David killed (18:17, 24-25; 19:1, 11). On a couple of occasions (18:10-11; 19:9-10), Saul even attempted to do the deed himself.

David became a hunted man. His life literally was in Jonathan’s hands, who in order to secure his father’s goodwill could have arranged at any time for him to be captured and killed. But Jonathan protected David and went to great lengths to make sure his friend remained safe.

1 Samuel 19:4 says Jonathan spoke well of David to his father, and that is a very significant statement because by that time Saul had determined to make himself David’s enemy. When Jonathan saw what was happening to his friend, he didn’t just sit back and let it happen. He stepped in and stood up for David to Saul.

Most folks don’t enjoy being in a position of vulnerability, where they are exposed and open to being wounded, either physically or emotionally. Many people find it difficult to trust others—even those whom they might consider to be their friends—because they might have been betrayed, perhaps many times, in the past. When you are in that position you measure your words very carefully and go to extreme measures to keep some things hidden, in order to try and prevent being hurt again.

But blessed are you if you have that sort of friend whom you can be yourself in front of, that you can tell absolutely anything to—someone who knows about you what no one else but God knows—and be assured that you will still be safe.  And blessed are others through you, if they have you for that kind of friend.

The poem by Dinah Craik says it well:
“Oh, the comfort—the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person,
“Having neither to weigh thoughts,
“Nor measure words—but pouring them
“All right out—just as they are—
“Chaff and grain together—
“Certain that a faithful hand will
“Take them and sift them—
“Keeping what is worth keeping—
“And with the breath of kindness
“Blow the rest away.”

We all need friends like that, and we all need to be a friend like that to someone else. Unless I miss my guess, every one of you who read this has someone in your life who has been that Jonathan sort of friend to you. Maybe this would be a good time for you to pick up the telephone and give that person a call, or write a note or an e-mail, and tell them what a difference their friendship has made in your life.

That’s the picture we see when we look at Jonathan and David:  Godly friends who elevate, encourage, challenge, defend, protect and sustain one another.  And when it comes to friendship, that truly is “as good as it gets.”

In the previous lesson, Paul has been describing how relationships should work within the church. We have seen the foundations of those relationships—unity through the work of Jesus. We have seen how they are intended for everyone’s benefit—and for the glory of God.

However, the matter of relationships within the church was not the only place the Ephesians needed help. That is why Paul concludes the previous section with a transition that introduces what is to follow. That is, he writes, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (5:21).

We, too, must learn that all relationships in the home are to be ordered by reverence for Jesus. This requires something of and from each of us. It calls us to follow what we read in Romans 12:10: “Honor one another above yourselves.” Reciprocal respect calls for sacrifice. That is well illustrated by Jesus’ submission to the Father’s will in the prayer in the garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:39-42 and Mark 14:35-36).

Remember that mutual submission is the general rule or principle for us to learn. The list that follows is similar to what Paul wrote in Colossians 3:18-21. It illustrates how mutual submission works from the perspectives of various relationship roles.

Remember also that these early Christians continued to struggle with what to make of their new relationship in Jesus. They may have been asking themselves how this new life and new ways of living in freedom should shape their homes, marriages and families. Their culture taught that men were to be totally dominant and women totally submissive. Women even were considered to be less than fully human beings.

In that context, any teaching about the freedom in Jesus was ripe for misunderstanding. Imagine being a woman growing up in that context. Now, being saved, she hears she is “free in Christ”, a “new creature,” etc. It is easy to understand how such a person may so revel in a new-found freedom. She could even see herself as, in Jesus, free from any marital constraint.

Likewise, a husband—as a new Christian—was challenged to look at his wife through new eyes: the eyes of God. For him, this was a radical concept. The world had taught him to expect total submission from his wife. Now, God calls him to a higher and nobler perspective of marriage: mutual submission.

Marital discord often rises from the abuse of respective roles—even in Christian marriages. The mutual submission to which Christians are called, however, is designed to prevent such conflict and to find balance within marital relationships. The ideal relationship is one in which the two marriage partners build up each other. Certainly Jesus is the glue that binds Christians together in a marriage. However, in verse 31, Paul summarizes the effect of mutual submission as the means by which the glue sets. By this the two are bound together as one.

In the opening verses of chapter 6, Paul follows with the application of modeling our relationships after God to the parent-child relationship. In verse 1, children are told to “obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.” In verse 2, he reminds them that such obedience is not only in line with God’s will, but it is among the very first directions (the Ten Commandments) that God gave his people. And its importance is stressed in that it is “the first commandment with a promise.” Clearly this is a call for the submission of children to their parents.

This, too, was open to abuse. In the Ephesian culture, fathers were given free rein to treat their children in ways that would be considered abusive by any standard today.

Paul holds Christian parents to a higher ideal. He instructs parents to their own type of submission. Paul wrote, “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord” (v. 4). Of course, this is addressed to all parents—mothers as well as fathers.

This teaching contains its own balance. Parents are cautioned against giving their children unattainable instructions or holding them to unreasonable standards. However, this does not mean parents are to give their children no direction. Rather, it calls for patience and understanding as well as correction.

Most importantly, it requires parents to live as proper examples. The best way for children to be brought up “in the training and instruction of the Lord”, is by parents who teach through discipline and instruction—both word and deed—what it means to live a Christ-like life.

This parent-child relationship echoes Paul’s instruction to “be imitators of God” (5:1). As noted earlier, Jesus, in all his life as well as when going to the cross, was obedient to his Father. Nor does God make unreasonable demands of us. As the psalmist wrote regarding God’s guidance and instruction, “your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4).

The world is tough. We need Christian families and marriages as places of comfort and refuge—and as healthy testimonies to the work of God. As God teaches us through Paul, Christian families will be complimentary relationships based on mutual respect.

Questions to explore

• How does Christian faith affect relationships in the family—or does it?

• What would a family/marriage be like if it ordered all its relationships by reverence for Jesus?

They say we have a “God-sized” hole in our hearts, and they may be right. Even those who don’t want to believe in God can’t help themselves.

Recently, British philosopher and atheist Sir Anthony Flew changed his mind, adopting a “willing suspension of disbelief.” He said, in light of modern scientific discoveries, it takes more effort to believe in the Big Bang than in a cosmic designer.

Our trouble is we want to understand something before we believe in it. We want evidence and the more the better. But that’s not the way God works. He asks us to believe, and the evidence will follow.

Maybe that’s why Jesus says only a few will find the narrow road that leads to life. Essentially, we think something as important as salvation should be hard. It ought to cost us something. Salvation, we think, is just too good to be true. But let’s examine the evidence.

God’s love is free

“There ain't no free lunches in this country,” Lee Iacocca is quoted as saying. In other words, nothing in this world is free. Yet the Bible tells us there is one thing that’s free: God’s love.

•    “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin” (Exodus 34:6).

•    “Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love” (Psalm 48:9).

•    “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love” (1 John 4:16).

More specifically, since God is love and God is omnipresent, his love is everywhere. It’s like radio waves. We can’t access them without the right equipment, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there. All we have to do is turn on our radio or television, and we’re tuned in. God’s love is all around us, but without Jesus, we can’t see it or receive it. Additionally, when we become aware of it, it doesn’t make sense.

In truth, there’s nothing we can do to make God love us. He already does. All we can do it look to Jesus and begin to grasp “how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ” (Ephesians 3:18).

Faith, not works, earns God’s blessing

Much of God’s work seems to hinge on faith. Before healing two blind men, Jesus asked, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” Then, as if to make sure they understood, he told them, “According to your faith will it be done to you” (Matthew 9:28-29). Later, when Jesus’ disciples asked him why they weren’t able to heal an epileptic boy, Jesus answered, “Because you have so little faith” (Matthew 17:20).

Salvation, the greatest of God’s miracles, is no different. Without faith, it isn’t complete. Jesus did the work of reconciliation. Romans 3:23 tells us “all have sinned.” Romans 6:23 adds, “The wages of sin is death.” Our sin has earned a death penalty, but Jesus, who was sinless, took our sins upon himself and paid the penalty for us. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

On the cross, Jesus said, “It is finished” (John 19:30). And indeed his work is finished. The rest of the “work” belongs to us. Yet our work shouldn’t be hard. All we have to do is believe. “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).

Come as you are

It is difficult for us to believe God could accept us just as we are. We tend to think we should improve ourselves or do some great work before we can enter God’s presence. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

We don’t have to “clean up” for God. That’s what Jesus did for us on the cross. Since Jesus is clean, if we accept Jesus’ gift, we too are pronounced clean. Salvation is the great eternal swap mart. Jesus trades his purity for our filth, his obedience for our rebellion, his life for our death.

All we have to do is believe. Yet believing is like moving a mountain when the gift seems so unbelievable. Salvation seems too good to be true. If a telemarketer offered it, we’d likely hang up on him. But God is no telemarketer. If his offer is too good, it’s because he is.

Believing is hard because nothing in this world prepares us for such generosity, such grace. That’s why there’s so much blessing in believing.

Jesus told Thomas, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). Salvation really is free. It is offered by a perfect God who loves us so unconditionally he would prefer to clean us up himself than spend eternity without us.
Perhaps it’s time we examine our beliefs. Perhaps we should willingly suspend our disbelief and take God at his word. Don’t try to understand. Just believe. After all, if the greatest minds on earth can’t resist God’s logic, who are we to argue?

Discussion questions

•    Do you honestly believe you don’t have to do anything to earn God’s love?

•    How does it make you feel to know God loves you so much?

We all have a tendency to be surprised when things happen in a way that is … well, that is surprising. If the sun were to rise in the west one morning, that would be surprising, as it would if roosters started laying eggs (and square ones at that), if the price of gasoline dropped to a nickel a gallon or if Elvis was discovered still living in the basement at Graceland. 

But we really have no reason to be surprised when things happen exactly according to processes or principles we have been told about beforehand. At the risk of belaboring the point, it is surprising such a thing should surprise us.

For example, consider these words from 1 Corinthians 1:26-29: “Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.”

In this passage, the Bible clearly indicates that God chooses the unlikeliest of human instruments in order to move his divine plans forward. But for some odd reason, we sometimes still get caught off guard when we observe God choosing those who might be written off as unusable by the world’s standards, to do great things in the work of his kingdom.

It is this very principle which comes to front and center in God’s choice of a new king for Israel, which is described in 1 Samuel 16.

Saul’s consistent disobedience to God rendered him incapable of effectively leading Israel. God already had chosen Saul’s successor, and the time had come to begin the process of making him king.

God instructed Samuel to go to Bethlehem to the home of a man named Jesse, and to anoint as king the one of that man’s sons whom God would indicate (16:1-3). Arriving in Bethlehem, Samuel prepared himself and Jesse’s family for this moment by offering a sacrifice and consecrating Jesse and his sons. 

The first son whom Samuel saw was Eliab, the eldest. Eliab was also possibly the largest physically, and to Samuel’s eyes was the most obvious choice. He probably thought, “This has got to be the one—he’s tall, good-looking, a natural-born leader if ever there was one.”

Samuel was absolutely certain; but he also was absolutely wrong. God informed Samuel he was making his choice on the basis of an entirely different set of qualifications than Samuel was: “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (16:7).

Samuel went on down the list of candidates as six more sons of Jesse were brought before him, and six more times the prophet received clear indication from God that none of them was the one he had chosen to be Israel’s next king (16:8-10). 

Finally, Samuel asked Jesse if those seven were all his sons. Jesse admitted there was one more, the youngest, the possibility of whose selection as king was so remote his father hadn’t even bothered to call him in from the pasture where he was tending the family’s flock of sheep.

But David was brought in from the fields, and as soon as Samuel saw him, he received assurance from God that this young man—as unlikely a candidate for king as might be found among all the residents of Bethlehem—was indeed his choice (16:12). Though small in physical stature, David was big where it counted: His heart belonged totally to God. 

As we look back over this passage, there are a number of ideas which raise their hands and clamor for our attention. Many of those thoughts grow out of some erroneous assumptions that Samuel made. 

First, Samuel was assuming God could use only the “obviously able,” who to human eyes looked the part for the assignment they were being called on to do. We ourselves might have similar thoughts: When faced with great need or great opportunity, we might think, “God can’t use me; I don’t have what it takes to do anything meaningful for God.” If God calls you to do something for him, it is a given that he will enable you to obey him.

God looks for people whose hearts are right, to whom he can entrust important things: “The eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him” (2 Chronicles 16:9).

Second, Samuel believed God evaluates people and situations in the same way we humans do. The prophet needed to learn that God judges on the basis of realities man does not see and, indeed, cannot see. Like Samuel, we also might be tempted to make evaluations on the basis of that which we can see, such as a person’s outward appearance. God, however, examines people at heart-level.

Third, Samuel expected God would work in the same way every time. Israel’s first king had been a big and presumably a physically powerful man, and so Samuel assumed Saul’s replacement must possess the same qualities. Walking into the situation, it evidently never occurred to Samuel that instead of a heroic-looking he-man, the Lord’s anointed might be a scruffy sunburned kid with peach fuzz on his lip and a pimple on his nose! God also wants to break us out of the same old ways of looking at things and be willing to follow him into unfamiliar territory.

Through this passage, we also discover that sometimes God has to lead us through a process of clearing away cobwebs of misconception and misunderstanding, in order to prepare us for the revelation of his will. Think for a moment about the process by which God revealed his choice of a king to Samuel: God told the prophet his anointed would be one of the sons of Jesse, but did not tell him at first specifically which son it would be.

That initial ambiguity of God’s instruction placed Samuel in an interesting position because perhaps for the first time in his prophetic career (and certainly the first described in Scripture), we see Samuel at a loss for clear revelation of God’s will. He would go to Bethlehem and to the home of Jesse, as instructed; but from that point, he would have to go on his own intuitions, and permit God to correct the course of his thoughts as needed. Once Samuel arrived in Bethlehem, God then told him what he needed to hear in order to re-orient his thinking along the divine lines.

This powerful prophet, advanced in years though he was, still had some things to learn about the ways of God; and through this process God was taking him to the schoolroom to teach him those lessons.

Like Samuel, we need to keep our hearts and minds open to learn new lessons from God about how he wishes to work in our lives. It is this continual process of thought-transformation that Paul wrote about in Romans 12:2: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

We all have been there. It may have been when assembling a toy or a swing set for our child. We may have been using a new computer or new computer programs. We think to ourselves, “I have done this—or something like this—before. I can do it now. Reading and following directions will slow me down. Who needs the instructions?”

The result? Well, we each have our own embarrassing story to tell.

In our passage, Paul gives us some directions to follow if we want to live differently than those who are separated from God (vv. 17-18). They also are instructions if we are to be “imitators of God” (5:1). Paul’s point to the Ephesian Christians was that their lives should look different than the lives of the lost around them. The same goes for us.

What are those directions? We might expect a checklist of things we do not do or things we do not think others should do. (The list might be somewhat like the old joke: “Baptists are people that do not drink, smoke, or dance … in front of each other.”)

The directions God, through Paul, gives us in Ephesians 4 and 5 has more to do with our speech and our attitudes. We must admit that to control what we think and say are much more difficult to control than what we do. Perhaps that is why Jesus spoke in terms of being born again (John 3). Paul puts it this way in verses 23-24: “to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

The new attitude and self to which he refers in verses 23-24 will show in the way we think about and speak to others. In verse 25, Paul tells us to speak “truthfully.” This obviously means we should tell the truth. However, it also means we should speak to others in a way that truly reveals who and whose we are. Notice that to do so is obedient to the ninth commandment (Exodus 20:16). It also is the way God speaks to us—honestly and out of God’s character and nature.

Likewise, in verses 26-27, we are told to handle our anger correctly. This does not tell us to not be angry. Anger is simply being extremely dissatisfied with a situation. There are many ways we mishandle anger: holding a grudge rather than addressing the person with whom we differ, doing harm to ourselves or to another, or just “stewing” in our feelings rather than doing something constructive to resolve the situation.

Handling our anger this way simply gives “the devil a foothold” (v. 27). James 1:14-15 clearly describes the process: “but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” For us to live and act this way is neither healthy nor reflective of a changed life.

Even God gets angry. But God deals with it and us in ways that reflect what and who he is: holy and just, but also loving and gracious. Think about it: God was/is so angry with our sin that God came as his Son, Jesus, to die for us. Now, that is anger! And grace. And love.

Verses 28-29 call us to use three very special resources—our time, energy, and speech—wisely. The temptation (especially in our anger) is to use these solely for our own good. A changed nature will result in a changed perspective on these gifts. For example, often we so focus on the work ethic called for in verse 28 that we overlook the intended purpose of our work: to “have something to share with those in need.” Likewise, in our speech, we can so stress not using vulgarity that we forget to use our speech positively and in ways that are helpful and edifying for others.

Again, compare the way we so often use our resources with how God works and acts. Yes, God holds us accountable and corrects us. However, God always does this in ways that show his love. God always acts in ways intended to ultimately help us grow.

Paul summarizes these directions in verses 30-32 and most succinctly in verse 32: “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” This is how we can “Be imitators of God” (5:1).

Long before Paul, God summarized his directions for us: “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). God has shown us directions for living through the Bible, God’s written word. God demonstrated the living of these directions through Jesus, God’s Living Word.

Saved only by God’s grace through faith, we fail to follow these directions at our peril—and that of those around us.

Questions to explore

• How does living a more Christ like way build others up rather than tear them down?

• How can you deal with your anger or others in a way that truly reflects how God deals with you?

Sin is an ugly topic. We can’t deny the reality of it, but we don’t really want to accept it either. The idea of our own imperfection is unpleasant, and we’d rather move on to happier thoughts. But today, we’re going to wallow in unpleasantness, because without a full understanding of our true condition, we can never appreciate the redemption God offers us through Jesus.

Fact: We are all sinners

Ignoring the truth will never change it. Like it or not, we are sinners. The Bible says sin entered the world when Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the garden. Their disobedience brought sin into the world, and the sin nature has been passed down by inheritance ever since. Even when we become aware of sin and try to fight it, we fight a losing battle.

“There is no one righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10).

Fact: Sin separates us from God

God, in his holiness, cannot allow sin into his presence.

“You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil; with you the wicked cannot dwell” (Psalm 5:4).

“Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you” (Isaiah 59:2).

Fact: Sin turns us against God
 
Sin starts in the heart, but then moves to our minds. It twists our thinking and destroys our attitudes. It causes us to deny God and his truth. Then, without God as our focus, we who were made to worship, turn to idols rather than the one true God.

“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles” (Romans 1:21-23).

Fact: Salvation doesn’t fix the sin nature

Even Christians are sinners. Salvation is the beginning, not the end. It simply gives us the tools to resist our sin nature. But resisting sin requires a lot of self-discipline because our nature leads us to sin.

“We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” (Romans 7:14-15).

The sin nature may not change, but the way God sees us does. Whereas before salvation, God saw only our sin, afterward he sees Jesus.

Unfortunately, because of our sin nature, we often take advantage of God’s mercy. Knowing he sees Jesus’ sacrifice rather than our sin, it becomes easy to justify sin and continue our old patterns of behavior.

Fact: God never forces himself on us

God asks us to obey him, and he makes it as easy as possible to do so. In the Old Testament, he gave the Ten Commandments. In the New Testament, Jesus distilled the 10 into two: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind’ … and … ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matthew 22:37-39).

It is our sin nature that leads us astray. It hardens our hearts, making even the simplest of God’s rules seem too difficult. It also keeps us from spending time with God so we can know him better. We don’t read his word, and we don’t do the things that are right. Instead, we do what feels right. Remember, our sin nature makes sin feel right and obedience feel wrong.

“Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done” (Romans 1:28).

Fact: We have no excuse

But not knowing God’s word is no excuse. We are all held accountable for our actions— whether they are right or wrong —because creation testifies to God’s presence, his order and his power. His word is evident in everything he made, and it is written in the Bible. It’s our choice to respond.

“For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities— his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse” (Romans 1:20).

Fact: A judgment day is coming

We all are accountable to God. We think we are getting away with sins, but God does not plan to punish sin now. Instead, he is storing up his wrath for the day of judgment.

“But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God ‘will give to each person according to what he has done’” (Romans 2:5-6).

Fact: Unless we accept our desperate condition, we can’t be saved

We are commanded to obey, yet we all fall short. We will never be good enough to earn a relationship with God.

Sound hopeless? In a way, it is. Unless we are fully conscious of our problem, there is no answer. Denying our addiction to sin only makes us greater sinners. But accepting that sin is real and realizing the terrible consequence of sin—separation from God now and forever—we make ourselves eligible for God’s back-up plan.

For the next several weeks, we will be studying our beliefs about salvation. Hard as it is, the first lesson is the most important:

•    We are all sinners, lost without God’s mercy.

•    And all sin is worthy of eternal punishment.

This week, we’re left with the burden of truth. But next week, we’ll study the love of God, which is our salvation.

Discussion questions

•    We all can feel bad about ourselves at times, but have you ever accepted the fact that without God’s help, you are a hopeless sinner?

•    How do you think God feels about that?

Toward the end of last week’s study, we reflected on Paul’s request of God in Ephesians 3:14-19. This week, we will consider a request Paul made of the Ephesian Christians—and of us today. Using his status as “a prisoner for the Lord,” Paul asks his readers “to live a life worthy” of their calling.
Of course, that calling had and has many facets. So, Paul went on in the following verses to describe the qualities of “a life worthy.”

The list is not long. However, for us today it is challenging. It includes qualities we find far too uncommon not only in our culture in general, but specifically in our churches.

In verse 2, Paul includes humility, gentleness, patience and loving forbearance. Living in humility and gentleness certainly describes well the life and example of Jesus. These qualities were grounded in Jesus’ submission to his Father’s will. Forbearance and patience are related terms that could be expressed in today’s language as “cutting a person some slack.”

Sounds a lot like grace, doesn’t it? Each of us sees and experiences that in and with Jesus every day. That these are found so seldom within Christians and churches is unfortunate. Actually, we all manifest these from time to time. Yet, God , through Paul, asks that we live these “completely” (v. 2).

Paul’s concern went beyond that of individual living, however. His deep desire was that the church in Ephesus live in unity. That is why he followed the list of personal traits with the instruction, “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (v. 3). Paul knew that if the Christians in Ephesus lived out the qualities he described, true unity would be the natural result. In verses 4-5, we see the many and varying ways in which Christians are united—in body, Spirit, hope, calling and baptism; under Jesus’ lordship and as God’s children.

Paul’s point is that, as Christians, unity already is a spiritual reality—as we see in Romans 3:23, John 3:16 and earlier in Ephesians. Now, we are to lead a life worthy of our Christian calling by growing up in Jesus—together.

That is a message we need today. Sometimes we can be so focused on our individual relationships with and growth in Jesus that we neglect God’s call to community. This is not to suggest that anyone can be saved “on the family plan.”

However, Paul does point out, in verses 7-13, that it is for the very purpose of growing together that God grants gifts to his people. Paul cites Psalm 68:18 in writing that it is out of God’s victory in Jesus that God shares gifts with his people. Of course, the greatest gift of all is the one given to all of us—grace (v. 7).

However, in verse 11, Paul goes on to list five particular and differing roles to which God calls some people: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.

There are varying ways one might understand how these roles looked in the New Testament era and how they should look today. One thing is clear, however. The gifts of God that are these people and that are in them, were—and are—given for a reason.

Paul spells that purpose out in verses 12-13: “to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

One of the purposes of our being saved is that we would live and grow in unity. That is, as Christians, we are to grow together in order to grow together. Notice, that, in verses 14-15, Paul refers to the immature (“infants”) as those who are at the mercy of passing fancies and fads. He contrasts that with a mature body growing in Jesus and “held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” The picture Paul paints contrasts a fickle child with adult steadiness and steadfastness.

There just seems to be something about our consumer-oriented culture that calls us to extreme individualism. But there is danger in this. As Christians, the point of all our life and work in Jesus is to build Jesus’ body, the church. This building up can only happen when Christians work and grow together. This unity does not mean uniformity or living in mindless lock-step. We are as diverse as our gifts and our roles.

Probably, the best way for us to begin to grow in unity is for all of us to understand and accept who is the head of the church—Jesus. We must always remember that, in Matthew 16:18, Jesus said, “I will build my church.” The church is his. Jesus died for and has redeemed his church. And Jesus will build it. How? Through us, Paul says. And as we grow together.

Questions to explore

• How can God’s grace in and through you help you grow in unity with other Christians?

• How can that unity lead to your (and their) further growth in Jesus?

There are some words which might carry either a positive or negative connotation, depending upon the context in which they are used. A great example is the word “rebel.” Many of our heroes were rebels: The men who signed the Declaration of Independence were rebels, as were Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie and William Travis (not to mention Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson). 

The corporate world values the spirit of leaders who have a rebellious streak against the “same old same old” ways of doing things and who are able to think creatively and outside the proverbial box. Innovators, by definition, are rebels.

But being a rebel can be a very bad and even dangerous thing, especially when one is rebellious simply for the sake of being rebellious—a rebel without a cause, to borrow a famous line—or who simply is incapable or unwilling to submit to authority. This especially is true when one acts in rebellion against the will and authority of God.

Very early in Saul’s reign as the first king of Israel, by his actions he defined himself as that latter sort of rebel who displayed an utter disregard for God’s will, even when he was thoroughly briefed beforehand on what that divine will was. Our study passages in 1 Samuel describe two blatant acts of disobedience toward God which doomed Saul’s ability to function effectively as Israel’s leader, almost before that reign started.

The first of those occasions is described in chapter 13. One of Saul’s first acts as Israel’s king was to assemble an army of 3,000 men, one-third of whom were placed under the command of Saul’s son, Jonathan. Jonathan took his contingent of 1,000 warriors and attacked a Philistine outpost at the town of Geba.

That assault elicited a dramatic response by the Philistines, who amassed an army of thousands of charioteers and “soldiers as numerous as the sand on the seashore” (13:2-5) to do battle against Saul. The Israelites panicked at the size of the opposing force; many of them deserted, and those who remained hid themselves and trembled in fear (13:6-7).

Samuel had instructed Saul to wait seven days once he arrived in Gilgal so that Samuel could come and offer sacrifices and burnt offerings to God on Saul’s behalf (10:8), but when Samuel had not arrived by the seventh day, Saul thought he was not coming. In order to stem the tide of desertions from his army, Saul impetuously and presumptuously took it on himself to offer the sacrifices (13:8-9).

He thought that the burnt offerings would be an encouragement to his fearful troops that would rally them and prepare them for battle, or perhaps he viewed the sacrifices as a magic talisman which would ensure Israelite victory on the battlefield. Whatever Saul’s motivations were, he disrespected the sacrifices, which were a holy act of worship; and he disrespected God by his deliberate disobedience.

We already have taken note of Saul’s spiritual ignorance in last week’s lesson, and we might be tempted to cut Saul some slack on the basis that he might not have been aware of God’s laws concerning sacrifices. However, there can be no getting around the clear instructions given in chapter 10.

The episode revealed what would be a fatal flaw in Saul’s capacity to lead Israel: He had a basic inability (or unwillingness) to follow God’s direction. God declared that he desired a man after his own heart to lead Israel, and one component of that God-desired character was a personal humility which listened for and followed God's direction—a quality woefully absent in Saul (13:13-14).

Following close on the heels of that event is a second which paints the biblical picture of Saul’s rebellious nature in even deeper colors. In chapter 15, we read that Samuel once again communicated a message from God to Saul.

In that message, Samuel commanded Saul to attack their ancient enemies the Amalekites, sparing no one, and to destroy all that belonged to them. But once more Saul substituted his own plan for God’s, and spared the life of the Amalekite king. Moreover, under Saul’s direction, the Israelites destroyed only those livestock which were weak or injured, while keeping the rest of the sheep and cattle alive (15:1-9). The king’s stated reason for doing this was so that they could be offered as a sacrifice to God (v. 15), and we must give Saul the benefit of the doubt on this point; but even so this would be a sacrifice offered upon an altar of disobedience.  

What is most astounding—and most revealing of Saul’s character—in this episode is that the king claimed to have done what God told him to do (15:13, 17-20), when it was beyond dispute he had not. Saul justified his actions on the basis that the outcome was one which he thought God would approve (sacrifices and burnt offerings), but what he actually had done was to lower the bar on what constituted obedience to God. In insolent pride, Saul thought he knew what God wanted better than God himself did, and so he arrogantly redefined obedience.
 
Samuel gave the king a much-needed lesson in the theology of worship: The sacrifice which pleases God the most is for his will to be obeyed (15:22-23).

Here is something that ought to give us pause for personal reflection, because we all encounter situations in which we are tempted to let our actions be guided what we think God wants, rather than what God plainly has revealed in the Bible that he expects of us.

As I write these lines, I am thinking about something that happened to me only yesterday. My wife and I had gone to a local fast-food restaurant for lunch following Sunday morning worship (a quick lunch means a longer Sunday afternoon nap). I was standing at the counter waiting for my order, and next to me was a man who, along with the other members of his family, all were dressed in a manner which implied they too had come directly from church.

This man was verbally blistering the teenage girl working at the counter, for mistakes in his food order. In a voice loud enough to be heard throughout the restaurant he said, “I don’t know why we keep coming here, every time we do you manage to screw up our order!” I felt my ears turning red, and I told the man he needed to be a better representative of Christ and of his own church. (I think my precise words were, “You really ought to go back to church, because it didn’t do you much good the first time.”)

He offered no apology to the poor girl he was verbally attacking, but instead attempted to justify his bullying behavior by quoting scriptural commands to be “strong and courageous.” How sad that a man could leave his place of worship of God, and then violate what Jesus called the second-greatest commandment to love one’s neighbor as oneself (I cannot imagine that man wanting to be treated in such a fashion himself)—and then basically to say, “But I was obeying God!”

In Luke 12:47-48, we read a mini-parable in which Jesus told about a man with two servants. One of those servants does not know his master’s will and thus does not do it; the second is aware of his master’s will but deliberately disobeys. Jesus stated both servants would be punished, but the one who is guilty of intentional disobedience will be punished more severely.

The hand of judgement falls heaviest on those who know what God’s expectations are, but ignore them; and it does not matter if obedience is inconvenient or difficult or doesn’t appear to make sense at the time. Nor is any allowance given for how good a person’s reasons for his disobedience might seem to himself.