Chad Ellis.net

“All true blessings grow up from the pardon of sin:  “Who forgives all thine iniquities.” That is the first blessing, the top and crown of all other favors, which draws all other blessings after it, and sweetens all other blessings with it.  The principal intent of Christ was expiation of sin, redemption from iniquity; the purchase of other blessings was consequent upon it.  Pardon of sin is every blessing virtually, and in the root and spring it flows from the favor of God, and is such a gift as cannot be tainted with a curse, as outward things may.”

Quoted from The Existence and Attributes of God(Discourse XIII:  On God’s Dominion) by Stephen Charnock.

The Apostle Paul (as an older guy with a lot of spiritual responsibility) corresponded with a guy named Timothy (a younger guy with a lot of spiritual responsibility but lacking Paul’s life-experience).  We have a couple of those letters in our Bible, aptly named 1st and 2nd Timothy.  As a young(er) pastor I have found a lot of wisdom in these letters.  As a young(er) guy trying to follow Jesus I find them as relevant as when they were written (2,000 years…give or take). 

1st Timothy starts out like this: 

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of our God and Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope, To Timothy, my true child in the faith:  Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons [in the church there] not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than stewardship from God that is by faith.

So let’s recap:  At Paul’s urging, Timothy was leading the church in Ephesus.  Paul was elsewhere.  The state of the church in Ephesus was less-than-stellar.  People were introducing new doctrines into the message of Jesus, turning it into something else entirely.  Making matters worse they were spending more time in pointless religious blather instead of following Jesus.  Timothy’s assignment was one of confrontation–tell these guys to knock it off!

The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussions, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either of what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.

Paul was not giving Timothy license to be a jerk.  On the contrary, the ferocity that he wanted bad theology and soul-crushing religiosity shut-down came from a profound love of Jesus and a love of the Christians in Ephesus.   Paul describes a kind of love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith.   And this love is to be extended to all people–even people who were consciously trying to destroy what Paul and Timothy value above all else (namely the gospel of Jesus and his Church). 

Two words jumped out at me when I read this passage recently:  aim and swerve.  Those who follow Jesus should see certain attributes emerge from that journey. In this passage we see the following list:  a pure heart, good conscience, a sincere faith, and radical love for other people.  But such character doesn’t just happen–we aim for it.  In his second letter to Christians living in the city of Corinth, the Apostle Paul said, “I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air.”  Our journey with Jesus–our striving to become more like him–is on purpose.  We are not wandering aimlessly;  Jesus’ followers cannot count lessons learned as serendipity nor leave spiritual growth to chance.  We either take aim at the high calling of following Christ, or we are sure to swerve away from it.

Update:  Video from the live feed at River of Life is not archived, but audio will be available here, soon.

Our family is in Wisconsin for the weekend.  I am preaching at River of Life Church in Portage tomorrow morning.  You can watch the service live at 10:00 a.m. here.

Another blog brought to my attention that today is the anniversary of the death of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  A theologian, pastor and seminary leader, Bonhoeffer was hanged at the close of WWII for taking part in a failed conspiracy to assassinate Hitler.

Bonhoeffer’s most celebrated book, the Cost of Discipleship, was important to my spiritual formation and in over a half-century has not lost its power to challenge all  who would call themselves ”Christian” to consider the true nature of being disciples of Jesus.

Here are a few of my favorite lines from the Cost of Discipleship:

“Our easy trafficking with the word of cheap grace simply bores the world to disgust, so that in the end it turns against those who try to force on it what it does not want.” (The Disciple and the Unbeliever)

“It is to be observed that Jesus does not deprive the human heart of its instinctive needs–treasure, glory and praise. But he gives it higher objects–the glory of God, the glorying in the cross, and the treasure in heaven.” (The Simplicity of the Carefree Life)

“What use were all these orthodox preachers and expounders of the Word [referencing the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus' day], when they were not filled by boundless pity and compassion for God’s maltreated and injured people? … The harvest is great, but only Jesus in his mercy can see it.” (The Harvest)

“Christianity without the living Christ is inevitably Christianity without discipleship, and Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.” (The Call to Discipleship)

“Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. … Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. … Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.” (Costly Grace)