Wouldn’t it be
wonderful if we could take any treasure in the world and simply reproduce it as
an exact copy? I don’t mean some counterfeit version, or a reasonable
facsimile, or a limited edition print. I mean, what if we could reproduce the
original so that we have another original, just like the other original? And,
what if we could do this as often as anyone desired it to happen?
This morning I
realized that this is not only possible, but it is something God expected of
me. It happened while I continued meditating on these precious words, “Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and
long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.”[1] When
older brother Paul told the church that they were his joy and crown, he was
identifying them as both his treasure and his prize.
He wrote
another church and said the same thing in these words, “For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus
at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy.”[2]As
Paul considered what it would be like for him to stand before Jesus at his
coming, he could only think of one treasure he would want to take with him, his
beloved brothers in Jesus Christ. They were his glory and his joy. There can be
no greater treasure than that.[3]
For a while, I
have been considering these precious thoughts from the viewpoint of what it is
like to be prized and treasured the way Paul describes. I believe there is
something in many of God’s brokenhearted children that longs to know what this
truly feels like. I have been encouraged to look at this, not only from the
viewpoint of left-brain doctrinal information, but also from the viewpoint of a
new self that can feel this on both sides of the brain, and in the depths of
the inner being. As someone has asked, does it feel real on the inside?
I cannot
forget Paul’s prayer, that God would grant us to be strengthened with power
through his Spirit in our inner beings, so that Christ may dwell in our hearts
through faith.[4]
This makes me want to know in my heart what it means to be prized and treasured
by Christ and his apostles. I want it to feel real where God says it should
feel real, and so I pray for this.
Paul’s prayer
continued into asking God to give us the power to comprehend, along with all
the saints, all the children of God, what are the infinite dimensions of the
love of Jesus Christ, and that we would know by experience this love that
surpasses the realm of knowledge.[5]
This tells me that it is God’s will for me to both comprehend (in a both-sides-of-the-brain
kind of way), the wonders of Jesus’ love, and also to know it, to feel it as real.
This, of
course, makes sense if we consider that the Holy Spirit is already empowering
us in our inner being, and Jesus is dwelling in our hearts through faith. How
could we not have a growing comprehension and experience of his love?
Add to this
that Paul expected our heavenly Father to answer our prayer by filling us with
all the fullness of God.[6] Jesus
said the he and the Father would make their home with us,[7]
and Paul wanted us to pray for the fullest experience of this. It matches what
he has said about us working out our salvation with fear and trembling because
God is working in us to will and to work for his good pleasure.[8]
How does this
lead to someone like me being part of reproducing the greatest treasure that
any brother of Jesus Christ could ever have? It comes down to the principle of,
“go and do likewise.”[9]
Paul has already called the church to follow his example, and to imitate others
who are doing so.[10] For
anyone called to be a pastor among God’s people, this requires imitating Paul’s
love relationship to the church as a shepherd over God’s flock.
Which means
that, when Paul relates to his beloved brothers as his joy and crown, I must do
the same. When Paul thinks of the church as his glory and joy, I am called to
develop this relationship with the church as well. When Paul tells his
brothers, “It is right for me to feel
this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart,”[11]he
sets the example that all pastors can and ought to follow.
Of course,
this is not limited to pastors alone, but there is an extra bit of
accountability on pastors to set an example for the church.[12]
Paul has set the example of prizing and treasuring the church, and pastors are
to lead the way in reproducing the same kind of relationships in every church throughout
all the rest of time.
Thinking about
participating in a prized and treasured relationship of brotherly love that
will lead the church through the end times left me feeling something of what
Paul expressed, “Who is sufficient for
these things?”[13]This
would have to be included in Paul’s later expression of, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing
power belongs to God and not to us.”[14]
When I attempt
to put this all together, I get a picture of how God is calling us to something
that originates in him. The church Paul once hated, putting Christians in
prison, and approving of their deaths, became the very people he prized and
treasured above all earthly things. God did that.
Which means, that
God can take my jar of clay, and cause that same feeling of joy-and-crown relationships
to spring forth, showing something that can only be explained as God’s
surpassing power passing on the treasure of Christ, as we love, and prize, and
treasure one another.
We even have a
prayer in God’s divinely breathed-out word, urging us to ask that he would
strengthen us with his power, through the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit,
in the realities of our innermost being, so Jesus himself, the greatest prize
and treasure of the whole brotherhood of believers, may dwell in our hearts
through faith.
As
jar-of-clayish as this may sound, God can and will do it. Feel free to check in
occasionally to see how it’s going.
© 2015 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]
Philippians 4:1
[2]
I Thessalonians 2:19-20
[3]
This is not in comparison to Christ as our treasure, but to the things that the
brotherhood of believers treasure within their relationship to Christ.
[4]
Ephesians 3:16-17
[5]
Ephesians 3:18-19
[6]
Ephesians 3:19
[7]
John 14:23
[8]
Philippians 2:12-13
[9]
Luke 10:37
[10]
Philippians 3:17
[11]
Philippians 1:7
[12]
I Timothy 4:12
[13]
II Corinthians 2:16
[14]
II Corinthians 4:7
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