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Saturday, September 6, 2014

Pastoral Ponderings ~ Strong and Weak at Rest for God’s Glory

          With the theme of uniting by faith with those who listen and obey God’s word,[1]      here are some thoughts about how this unity requires both the strong and the weak to come to Jesus together. As Joshua and Caleb did not experience the promised rest of the Promised Land until the next generation was ready to go in, there are things about coming to Jesus for soul-rest that require the corporate experience of the body of Christ.
          In the next verse of Hebrews 4, the writer states, “For we who have believed enter that rest.”[2] While we may instinctively see this as many people believing in Jesus on an individual basis, there is too much evidence in the New Testament directing us to think of this as the “we” of the united body of Christ.
          When Paul tells us that we must “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,”[3] he immediately describes this walking worthy in relational terms. In order to walk worthy of being this one new man that is created in Christ Jesus out of both Jews and Gentiles,[4] we must relate to one another, “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love.”[5]
          If that is not clear enough that living worthy of the gospel, living worthy of the experience of finding our rest in our Lord Jesus, must be viewed in corporate terms, Paul continues with the admonition, “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”[6] When all of us are eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace that is ours in the cross of Jesus Christ, we all find rest in God together.
          If it is not yet clear that our rest is a corporate rest, that it is “WE who have believed” who “enter that rest,” Paul makes it even clearer when he reminds the church, “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”[7] We come to Jesus for our rest, but that brings us into his one body, by his one Spirit, called into one hope, trusting in one Lord, taking the yoke of Christ on ourselves through the one baptism, approaching the one God and Father of all through faith in his Son.
          This united approach to God is made clear when Paul calls the church to unity in prayer. He writes,
…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.[8]
          When the church comes together as that one new man, the one body of Christ, and unites with a common resolve that we will not be anxious about anything, we become a corporate strength to those who are weakest about anxiety, worry, and fear. When we take anything that could discourage the church if we gave free-reign to anxiety, and we join together to make our requests known to God through prayer, supplication, and thanksgiving, we come into this corporate experience of “the peace of God.”
          As soon as we realize that the “will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus,” speaks of a corporate experience where everyone’s hearts and minds are guarded by God’s peace, we can then turn from our private experiences, highly valued as they are, and also seek to encourage church life that pursues God in prayer, rejecting all temptation to spend our time expressing anxiety, and entering into the body-life of peace with God. Or, as Jesus said it, entering into that corporate experience of coming to him, yoking ourselves to him through his Spirit, experiencing one heart and mind as the body of Christ, and so finding rest together.[9]
          This corporate experience of coming to Jesus Christ for rest is a wonderful gift that the mature give to the weak. As Paul wrote, “We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak.”[10] In the context of the church gathering together, the weak would easily fall into expressing anxiety. If we left them alone, they would not have the strength to climb out of their downward spirals of discouragement.
          Therefore, God prescribes that we are to come together, and the strong are to bear with the failings of the weak, leading the way in prayer, supplication, and thanksgiving, presenting all manner of requests to God, so that everyone, including the weak, can feel the peaceful rest that comes to the body of Christ through the Holy Spirit.
          I love the beautiful way Paul expresses this after calling the strong to bear with the failings of the weak. He says, “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”[11]
          This says that God is the source of endurance and encouragement. Instead of the strong only seeking God for endurance and encouragement in their alone times with him, we come to God together, asking God to grant us “to live in such harmony with one another,” that the weak benefit from the faith of the strong. It is the strong who seek the harmony that would build up the weak. It is the strong who lead the way in raising our voices to God in prayer, not as a distinct, elite group of prayer warriors, but as the strong giving the voice that the weak can sing along to.
          I have seen this in practical terms when I have been in a large group of people made up of strong and weak singers. When the strong singers focus on singing their hearts out, and raising their voices in jubilant praise to God, the weak singers hear such a strength of words and music that they know they can sing along without pulling anyone else down. The weak singers get to enjoy a wonderful time of worship and praise because the strong singers surround them with the beauty of song that the weak could never produce on their own.
          In the same way, when the strong come together with the weak, bearing with the failings of the weak, setting an example for the weak to follow, the church comes together in prayer the weak would never have imagined praying. The church puts aside anxiety in ways the weak would never be able to do on their own. The church raises supplications, and petitions, and requests of all kinds, things the weak would never have thought of presenting to God in prayer. The corporate body becomes drawn into thanksgiving that the weak never felt when they came to the gathering, but now feel as everyone joins in harmonious thanksgiving to God.
          With this hope of the church unifying with “one voice” to “glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” the strong can take heed of Paul’s concluding exhortation, “Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.”[12] How did Christ welcome us? In the supreme example of a strong person bearing with the failings of the weak. Now the strong are to welcome “one another” in the church, including all who are weak, all who come into the church still feeling the weariness that was theirs outside of Christ.
          As the strong lead the way in welcoming one another, following the example of Christ welcoming us, our likeness to Jesus Christ our Savior gives glory to God, the very thing we unite to express in harmonious worship and fellowship. As we settle into the fellowship of prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, the anxieties of the weak are lost in the faith of the strong. At the same time, the peace of God wonderfully guards everyone’s hearts and minds, just as Jesus promised when he declared that, in coming to him, we would find rest for our souls.

© 2014 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)







[1] Hebrews 4:2
[2] Hebrews 4:3
[3] Ephesians 4:1
[4] Ephesians 2:14-16 (whole chapter for context)
[5] Ephesians 4:2
[6] Ephesians 4:3
[7] Ephesians 4:4-6
[8] Philippians 4:6-7
[9] The body-life view of Matthew 11:28-30
[10] Romans 15:1
[11] Romans 15:5-6
[12] Romans 15:7

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