Friday, October 28, 2022

Christ at the Center: A Reformation Day Meditation on John 8


Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him,

If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

They answered him, We be Abraham's seed,

and were never in bondage to any man:

how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?

Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you,

Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.

And the servant abideth not in the house for ever:

but the Son abideth ever.

If the Son therefore shall make you free,

ye shall be free indeed.

 

There were many influences on the 16th century Reformation, just as there were many characters and players involved in it.  The backdrop was a semi-united western Holy Roman Empire, though factions of political and religious leaders vied for control of the levers of power all across Europe, the Middle East, and the broader Mediterranean region… even as Islamic armies attacked the eastern boundaries of Europe, with much of Eastern Christianity under the boot of Islamic potentates.  There was a rising tide of nationalism, particularly in England and across the continent, where local leaders began questioning their political subservience to the Bishop of Rome.  There was also a Renaissance budding in academia where Enlightenment Rationalism was applied to the sciences, arts, law, and humanities, with calls to re-discover and expand upon the ancient sources of history, philosophy, and social dynamics bequeathed to the West through Greek and Roman classics.  It was an age of exploration and colonialism, with different nations seeking to rule the seas and bolster their royal treasuries, while also seeking dominance over each other.  Yet at the cradle of the Reformation, in the midst of this terrific societal maelstrom, one German Augustinian monk, an ordained Roman Catholic priest in practical ministry, and a Doctor of Holy Scripture at the University of Wittenberg, ignited a firestorm by proposing that Jesus and His Word should be at the center of Christian life.

 

When Luther read the Scriptures, like many of the Church Fathers who came before him (including St. Augustine, who’s religious order Luther was educated in) he saw that Jesus put Himself at the center of the Scriptures, because Jesus alone was the Incarnate Word of God.  To abide in Jesus was to abide in His Word, which meant everyone needed to hear that Word clearly and consistently.  Of course, this ancient approach to the Scriptures earned Luther both friends and enemies; friends in those who celebrated a return to the Word of God for not just clergy but also the whole Christian people, and enemies of those who wanted something other than Jesus at the center of everyone’s life.  Whether they were politicians, or popes, or bishops, or scientists, or philosophers, or hedonists of various shades and foci, those who were content with Jesus as an affectation to their ambitions but not at the center of life, were vehemently opposed to Luther and the Reformation he ignited by pointing people back to Jesus and His Word.  At the root of Luther’s appeal was a conviction that Jesus really is who He said He was, really did what the Old Testament Prophets predicted He would do and the New Testament Apostles declared He had accomplished, and that eternal life depended on whether one would meet Jesus as Savior or Judge.  To Luther, every other matter of politics or philosophy or human ambition fell short of this most foundational question, and he devoted his life—writings, ministry, teaching, and livelihood—to it, no matter the personal cost.

 

This brought Luther to the foot of the Cross.  He did not deny or diminish all the other teachings of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation, but He did declare that we find the fulfillment and clarity of the whole Scriptures in the Cross of Jesus Christ.  The Word which first formed the cosmos out of nothing, which thundered from Mt. Sinai to Moses, which whispered to Elijah in the desert, which produced all the prophecy and psalms and wisdom of the Hebrew Bible, showed up in Roman-occupied Israel to suffer and die for the sins of the whole world.  That same Word, forever incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ as the only begotten Son of the Father, descended into death and rose victorious over it on the first Easter morning, giving the gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation to everyone who would repent and believe in Him.  Thus the Cross of Jesus formed the primary lens through which to see all the writings of the Prophets and the Apostles, as well as the whole history of the Christian church, and the life of every individual Christian in every age.  The Cross is where the Word of God stood in humanity’s stead, that He might make the Vicarious Atonement which placed our sins upon Him, and His grace upon us.  To Luther the Cross was everything, because there Jesus did the work that saves the world, and showed forth the immeasurable love of God for His people by overcoming the curse we had earned under the Law.  The Cross of Jesus was to Luther the Everlasting Gospel of salvation, written and proclaimed in the shed Blood of the Son of God.

 

There were other paths taken by other Reformers, with some who emphasized the majesty or glory of God over all others, and some who focused on inner experiences of God’s presence, and some who focused on intellectual or political independence from foreign ecclesiastical interference.  Some focused on trying to build a utopia on earth, some focused on the terrors of the End Times; others focused on intellectualizing the faith by marriage with Reason, while still others elevated emotion and Mysticism.  Yet the beginning of the Reformation was far simpler and deeper than the many movements which sprang from it, because it beckoned people back to the old idea of Jesus and His Word at the center of everything.  Regardless of theological emphases or eccentricities that have emerged across the centuries, Jesus and His Word have remained the same.  Jesus is still the only Son of God, the only Name given under heaven whereby people may be saved from the calamity of their own sins.  Jesus is still the only One who died for the sins of the world, and rose victoriously over sin, death, hell, and the devil, so that He could speak peace and forgiveness to all who would receive Him by faith.  Only Jesus is the Living and Eternal Word of the Father to whom the Holy Spirit testifies, in perfect harmony with the written Word of Scripture which He breathed out by the power of the same Holy Spirit.  Only Jesus is the Savior of the world, so that only by His grace could anyone be set free and abide in the house of the Lord forever.  And grace, to remain authentically grace, can only be a gift received in living faith, and never be the reward or wages of inferior human works.

 

This is how the Reformation of the 16th century started, and how it continues.  It is the declaration that our life in this world and the next are found in Christ alone, by His grace alone, received by faith alone, declared reliably and infallibly by the Word of God alone.  It is not a political movement, though it has affected politics; it is not a philosophical movement, though it has informed better philosophical systems; it is not a program of personal piety, though it has informed many pious practices; it is not a systematic theology, though it has helped build better ones; rather, this is the path of life, and light, and truth which comes to enlighten and enliven all people.  The Reformation was not begun as a means to define new teams and clubs and societies and denominations all pitted against each other, but to point the world—and every individual soul—to the salvation which only Jesus and His Word can give.  As we give thanks to God on this festival of the Reformation, we do not give thanks that we bear the name of Luther regardless of the blessings God brought forth through him in his time and place.  Rather, we give thanks to God for Jesus and His Word, by which we are reconciled to the Father, set free from evil and condemnation, and made alive in Him forevermore.  Or as the angels sang at Jesus’ birth looking forward to the salvation He would accomplish upon Calvary, Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men!  Amen.

 

 

Friday, October 21, 2022

Pride and Humility: A Meditation on Luke 18 for the 20th Sunday after Pentecost


And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted

in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:

 

Two men went up into the temple to pray;

the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.

The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself,

God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are,

extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.

I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.

And the publican, standing afar off,

would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven,

but smote upon his breast, saying,

God be merciful to me a sinner.

 

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other:

for everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased;

and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

 

The tension between human pride and humility is etched across the Scriptures, and the stories of those who mark their lives with either trait are described with their consequences.  The pride of Adam and Eve to accept the devil’s lie about becoming like God through rebellion against His Law, brought sin and death into the whole human race, including their children Cain and Abel.  Pride went before the fall of King Saul, and humility before the rise of King David.  Likewise, as the nation of Israel humbled itself before God and His Word, they found themselves exalted by God into times of peace and prosperity; conversely, when they resisted God in their own pride, they often found themselves abased in God’s judgment, conquered or enslaved by their enemies.  The truth that Jesus pointed out in His parable about the Pharisee and the Publican matched this Old Testament narrative and brought it into the contemporary experience of those who heard Him teaching.  No matter how pious or righteous a person thinks himself to be, his pride is an offense against his Creator because no man is holy or justified in his own fallen condition.  Likewise, no person is so fallen and corrupt that their humility in faith and repentance will not be accepted by their compassionate God.  It is God alone who is holy and righteous and true, and those who will be accepted by Him must confess their sinfulness in faith, to receive His justifying forgiveness by grace.

 

This truth which Jesus brings forth also helps us in our own time and place, with the contextual challenges of our own contemporary culture.  The fallacy of pride is that no person is worthy on their own merit—no matter how many degrees, trophies, or accomplishments they may have on their resumes—to stand before God and demand anything.  Even if man’s heart and mind were not corrupted by our collective Fall into sin and death, a perfect man could only stand before God in the humility of his own created powers, giving praise and worship rightly to his one and only Creator, since everything he did rightly (and everything he abstained from rightly) would have been merely his duty to perform.  And of course, no man can claim to stand before God on these terms, since no man has lived a perfect life; no one has maintained a perfect mind in purity of purpose and intention; no man has maintained a perfect heart, with emotions always under proper control and a holy orientation; no man has kept his tongue from every evil and empty word, speaking instead the fulness of truth in the totality of love; no man has worked every hour of every day as thoroughly and efficiently as they should have, and abstained from wasting their physical powers on worthless pursuits.  No man is holy and justified before God, because we are a fallen race whose powers of mind and body are inclined to the evil which our God abhors… and even if we weren’t so corrupted, our status as creatures before our Creator would always require of us humility rather than pride.

 

Pride, however, is not a uniquely human failing.  It’s actually an idea our first parents learned from Lucifer, and passed along to all of us ever since.  Lucifer was, as Scripture and early Church tradition describes, one of the greatest created angels (his name actually reflects the idea of brilliant light.)  For some reason unknown to us, Lucifer desired to be like the Most High God and take worship to himself, though he was only a creature before his Creator.  Also for reasons unknown to mankind, roughly one third of the heavenly host—those once created as holy angels, with various authorities, powers, and responsibilities—chose to follow Lucifer in his prideful rebellion against their Creator.  For this crime against God, against nature, and against reason, Lucifer and his following of pride-corrupted angels were cast out of heaven and condemned to an eternity in the fiery prison of hell.  Yet this final condemnation will not fully be realized until the Final Judgment of the world, and so Lucifer and his minions continue to wreak havoc in the world through malice and temptation and the ruin of men.  Lucifer then took other names, such as Satan (in Hebrew, a name meaning adversary or accuser) and the Devil (a Greek derived name meaning accuser or slanderer) and a slew of other descriptive titles that reflected his now distorted and evil nature.  It was pride which transformed one of the most magnificent angels of light into the most wicked and horrifying personification of evil, and pride which transformed his followers from holy angels to diabolical demons.

 

It is important that we remember whose lounge in which we sit when we dabble in personal pride.  Pride is the original sin of the hell-bound horde of spiritual entities that are committed enemies of all that is holy, good, beautiful, and true.  Pride is what once turned creatures far more powerful than men into irredeemable and hopelessly twisted beings whose primary language is deception, and whose sole aim is destruction.  It is pride that the devil used to deceive and corrupt our first parents, and had it not been for the providential intercession and sacrifice of the Only Begotten Son of God, all men would become what the demons already were:  hopeless and condemned.  When we succumb to pride, we enter the sphere of irrationality and self-destruction which is home to the accuser and adversary of our race, and we find fellowship with the dark forces who could not accept the reality of their relationship as creatures before their Creator.  Pride is not just a sin of minor inconvenience or something cute to pillory in story and cinema.  Rather, pride is the root deception which gives rise to avarice, greed, lust, hatred, murder, theft, covetousness, gluttony, sexual perversion, treasonous rebellion, and every other foul activity among men.  Pride may seem innocuous to our generation since our generation is awash in it, but the insanity of a creature presuming to rule over their Creator, to deny the very ground of existence and logical premises of rational thought, can result in no other end than the unhinging of the mind, and the corruption of both body and soul.

 

It is to heal and to forgive this sin of pride that Jesus came to us in humility before God and men, taking on our human nature, living the life we should have lived, and dying the death we had rather earned.  Jesus, though in reality God Incarnate, submitted Himself to the Father’s will, and in the community of the Holy Spirit as one indivisible and eternal God, suffered and died for the sins of all men.  The lie of pride we received from the devil was overwhelmed by the truth we received from our Savior, so that we might once again stand before God redeemed by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.  Such living faith cannot stand before God as the Pharisee in our parable above, haughty and self-justifying while condemning others.  But rather, living faith stands before God with eyes cast low, confessing our sins before Him, trusting in the shed Blood of Jesus for our forgiveness, and saying like the Publican, Lord have mercy on me, a sinner.  Only humility before God can stand before Him in faith, and only faith in humility can bring forth repentance and life by His grace.  The God of all Creation has condescended to us, that He might lift up the fallen, forgive the guilty, and give life to the dead, swallowing up pride in the immeasurable riches of His love and grace.  Our saving God has shown us the power of humility and truth, that He might lift us up to the proper honor and distinction He has created us to be as His people in Jesus.

 

Hear the Word of God as it comes to you this day, stripping you of the fallacious pride which has deceived you, and giving you instead the humility and faith to receive the riches of His forgiveness, life, and salvation.  There before the Cross of Jesus Christ, let your eyes be caste low and your breast be beaten for the guilt of your own sins, your mouth give voice to the Publican’s prayer for mercy upon a poor, sinful being, that the Lord of your salvation might reach down to lift you up unto wonders and mercies never yet dreamed by the minds of fallen men.  For it is an eternal truth that everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted, that before the Creator, Savior, and Sanctifier of the World every knee should bow and tongue confess the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.

Monday, October 10, 2022

Preach and Live the Word: A Meditation on 2nd Timothy 4, for the 19th Sunday in Pentecost


I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ,

who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;

Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season;

 reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine;

but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

And they shall turn away their ears from the truth,

and shall be turned unto fables.

But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions,

do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.

 

In the immediate context of 2nd Timothy, Paul is writing his encouragement and instructions to a pastor he has trained and ordained for ministry in a particular place (likely Ephesus).  Paul is also writing in the knowledge of his own imminent martyrdom while imprisoned in Rome, and is contemplating the significance of faithful ministry before meeting his Lord face to face.  His command in chapter 4 to preach the word… reprove, rebuke, and exhort… is couched between two practical realities:  first, that he must do so as if ministering before the living Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead, and secondly that people will grow ever more resistant to such preaching as history marches on.  Timothy is charged with faithful execution of his pastoral office in Word and Sacrament while knowing that he is ultimately accountable to the Judge of all mankind for the conduct of his ministry, and that mankind in general will not appreciate faithfulness to the Word of Christ.  It is a paradox that all pastors must face, with severe consequences of forgetting either one:  to forget Christ as Judge is to invite eternal condemnation upon himself by departing from sound doctrine, and to forget the unfaithful inclination of fallen man is to invite despair when ministering to all people.  Pastors such as Timothy are not called to judge others in their faith or rejection of Christ’s Word, but rather to be faithful to that Word in their living, preaching, and teaching, which is the only hope of salvation for both them and those they minister to.

 

In a secondary sense, this injunction of Paul to Timothy applies to every Christian.  While pastors hold a peculiar commission to preach Jesus’ Word and be stewards of the mysteries of God according to their particular vocation, every Christian is called to live and witness to that Word, too.  And just like pastors, Christians all serve in their various vocations with a knowledge that Jesus is coming to judge the quick and the dead, and that the world will not often appreciate the Word they are called to live by.  Every Christian, pastors included, can be tempted to forget or reject the clear testimony of Scripture that Jesus is in fact coming back in glory—to either think Jesus isn’t really coming back, or that Jesus is just a mushy headed sentimentalist who won’t really judge the world in righteousness.  This can lead Christians to play fast and loose with the Words of Jesus, disregard His clear teachings, and excuse the rejection of His Word as insignificant in the lives of those who will not follow Him.  Likewise, Christians may deny the Scriptural witness to the depravity of fallen man, that all evil begins in the hearts and minds of those whose nature is corrupted by Original Sin.  Forgetting such truths can lead Christians to despair of the Word of Christ to transform fallen men into redeemed saints by the power of His Holy Spirit, so that they chase other means of persuasion get people into the Church.  In either case, Christians and pastors alike are tempted to leave the Word of Christ either by denying the reality of Jesus as King of the Universe, or of people as being in need of anything other than that Word which their fallen nature despises.

 

I think that forgetting these truths is partly why there are so many sects, schisms, divisions, heresies, and apostasies in orbit of the Church today, as there have been across the ages.  The Word of Jesus doesn’t change, anymore than the nature of God can change… but people vacillate between a multitude of bad ideas in every generation.  It’s no wonder, then, that mobs of people will heap to themselves teachers that tell them what they want to hear, which is usually affirmation of whatever pathology has captured the imagination of the age.  In our own current context, lifestyles centered around self-gratification and self-identity abound, as do the teachers who bend to their desire of affirmation.  God’s definition of marriage, healthy sexuality, family structure, the binary complementarity of male and female genders, and the value of every human life bearing the image of their Maker, have not changed.  Yet much of modern society has attempted to depart from these teachings at their own peril, precipitating yet another calamitous fall of a once great civilization.  Our current “cancel culture” phenomenon is little more than what Paul warned Timothy about 1900 years ago, when he said that the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine… and shall be turned unto fables—preferring lies to reality, fallen men will persecute the truth in order to suppress it, and fill their ears instead with the voices of those who affirm their self-deceptions.  And while our generation amplifies and intensifies these efforts through the modern tools of various interactive media, the impulse is not different than the Greco-Roman culture which martyred both St. Paul in Rome and St. Timothy in Ephesus.

 

And of course, since every Christian is a redeemed sinner wrestling every day against the same fallen nature, we are all tempted into traps of indifference or apostasy related to Jesus’ Word.  But it is still His Word which calls to us in our darkness, shining the light of life and hope and love into our brokenness.  That Word of Law continues to prick our conscience, teaching us what is right, and true, and holy—our just duty before God and our fellow men.  And the Word of Gospel continues to speak forgiveness and mercy and grace to all souls who will repent of their evil and trust in Jesus’ saving work for them.  The Gospel of Jesus Crucified and risen for sinners like you and me breaks every cultural paradigm and subdues every malignant spirit in any age, offering reconciliation with God and eternal life by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.  No matter the nationality, no matter the cultural deceptions, and no matter the lying tongues of heaped together teachers in all their pompous fury, it is still the Word of Jesus Christ which gives life to whoever receives it in faith.  Where is the Marxist race-baiting totalitarian, or the atheistic nihilistic hedonist, or the body mutilating gender transformationist, when the Word of Life comes to heal and restore and to give life abundantly to every person of all nations, tribes, tongues, gender, politics, or economic status?  Where is the false teacher who can resist the simple affirmation that Christ has given everything to His people by grace, earned through His own merits as the Only Begotten Son of the Living God?

 

Jesus remains the only One to whom judgement has been given by the Father over all creation, and it is by His Word alone that every creature shall be judged on the Last Day.  But it is also by His Word that everyone who trusts in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.  For there is no other Name given under heaven by which mankind must be saved, but the Name which is above all names, who alone is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of all created things.  It is His Word which has spoken life to us, forgiven our sins, and brought us a peace which passes all understanding in this day, and in every day yet to come.  It is this Word that gives us the faith to hold on to Jesus, even if hordes of people reject both Him and us in order to fill their ears with poisonous lies.  And it is this Word which sends us out in the power delegated by Jesus to His Church until the end of the age, that we may give this life-saving Word to all people just as freely as it was given to us.  Hear that Word of Law and Gospel as it speaks to you this day, and in your day according to your vocation, preach, speak, and live that Word as a redeemed child of God, until the Lord comes to gather you to Himself in the communion of countless saints forever.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.

 

 

 

Monday, October 3, 2022

Enduring Hardship as a Good Soldier: A Meditation on 2nd Timothy 2, for the 18th Sunday in Pentecost


 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

 No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life;

 that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

And if a man also strive for masteries,

yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully.

The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits.

Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.

 

Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David

was raised from the dead according to my gospel:

Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds;

but the word of God is not bound.

 Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes,

 that they may also obtain the salvation

which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

 

It is a faithful saying:

For if we be dead with him,

we shall also live with him:

 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him:

 if we deny him, he also will deny us:

If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful:

he cannot deny himself.

 

There are plenty of ways to misunderstand the militant imagery of the Old and New Testaments, but that doesn’t mean it should be discarded or avoided altogether.  Jesus is described as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah which is an image of His omnipotent strength as the defender of His people, and the Triune God is often referred to as the Lord of Hosts, reflecting His kingly command of the armies of heaven.  Yet the kind of war which Jesus wages against sin, death, hell, and the devil are accomplished not with swords and siege engines, but with His personal sacrifice on behalf of all mankind, coupled with the proclamation of His saving Gospel by Word and Spirit.  As St. Paul would write elsewhere in his letter to the church at Ephesus, the Christian struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against dark powers that manipulate the world and enslave whomever they deceive into evil and death.  Since the Gospel of Jesus Christ is one of grace, love, hope, and faith, it cannot be compelled by force of arms, but is rather a battlefield of the mind and soul.  The militancy of the New Testament is one of steadfast endurance in the Word of Christ; the preaching and living of the Gospel, even as the forces of darkness try with all their might to undermine, suppress, corrupt, or persecute those who do so.  This is the admonition of Paul to Timothy, even as Paul reflected on his own suffering for the Gospel which he called Timothy—and all successive Christians, especially pastors—to emulate.

 

While enduring as a good soldier might not seem like an intuitive concept to those who have not served in the armed forces, military veterans might connect with this idea readily.  Enduring hardship for a soldier usually begins with basic training, where for several weeks or months, the soft patterns of civilian life are harshly replaced with a more spartan and utilitarian lifestyle.  Before graduating from basic training, a soldier has learned to function under stress, in foul weather, with mediocre food and little rest, so they can perform their duties as part of a unit that will accomplish their piece of a larger strategy when called upon.  After basic training, they will continue to discipline their bodies and minds for action, with increasing levels of physical and mental ardor—specialized training, fitness standards, deployments, combat exercises, and perhaps actual combat operations.  Throughout their time as soldiers, they will suffer hardship not only so they may accomplish of their respective missions and particular duties, but also to train their bodies and minds to perform under even the worst conditions.  Since the enemy rarely attacks us at our best, every soldier must be prepared to wage war under the worst of circumstances, so they train accordingly.  Endurance of hardship is part of the training which every good soldier must suffer, so that when training transitions to war, a good soldier can do great things in defense of his nation and of his brothers in arms.  It was true of the Roman legions in Paul’s day, and it is true of American warriors today.

 

I think it is worth noting that while Jesus never commanded His disciples to draw arms against enemies of flesh and blood, He certainly didn’t commend them to sloth of body or mind.  To the contrary, Jesus called His disciples to the narrow and difficult but lifegiving path of faith and repentance which few people would find, rather than the wide and easy path of self-indulgence and pride which so many others follow to their doom.  St. Paul captured this clearly in his letters to St. Timothy, where he called for a rigorous and tough-minded approach to living the Christian life.  Paul’s own experience was instructive, having suffered in missionary journeys from robbers and assassins, apostate religious leaders and demonic devotees, from storm and tempest, shipwreck and trials under false pretenses, from heat and cold, whippings and imprisonments, and ultimately an unjust death under a Roman sword.  In all this, his duty was to preach Jesus Christ crucified and risen for the salvation of the world, and to live by grace through faith in Christ alone as his own Savior.  Paul was a good and faithful soldier of Jesus, pressed into service as a steward of the mysteries of God and teacher of His Divine Word, whether in season or out of season, in easy times and hard.  This was not a short-term hitch, or only a few years’ enlistment, either—but a life long devotion to the service of God, His Word, and His people.  This demanded everything of St. Paul, including the suffering of endurance under hardship, for the sake of the God who called, saved, and sent him.

 

We would be well reminded of this calling to Christians in our own day.  The evil one is no less ferocious, no less devious, and no less dangerous in our time and place than he was when confronting St. Paul.  Fallen human nature is no less under the sway of the evil one now, than it was in the governments, industries, academics, and ecclesiastical circles in Paul’s time.  Our enemies are the same, regardless of their contemporary or cultural trappings, and their goal is always the suppression of the Word of God and the destruction, desecration, and condemnation of human life.  Where our enemy attacks civilization and churches in vengeful hatred of God—and hatred of His image written into the very existence of man—Christians are called to endure and persevere as witnesses to Jesus and His saving Word.  To be sure, this battleground is no place for the weak of mind and the lazy of body, for those with divided loyalties and a fundamental love of only themselves, because the enemy will make short work of such poor soldiers.  Thankfully, the source of our strength to both prepare and to stand as good soldiers of Christ, is Christ Jesus Himself.  It is His Word and Spirit that train and transform us into His disciples, teaching us to love, trust, and honor Him above all things, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.  Our drill sergeant is also our Captain, our General, and our King of Glory, who calls us into His heavenly host, then shapes us for duty in the good works He has ordained for us from before the foundation of the world.  He is the one who raises up good soldiers of the Gospel by grace through faith in Him alone, and by Him alone do His armies across all times and places win eternal victory over every force of darkness.

 

Hear the Word of the Lord calling to you today, that His Holy Spirit might strengthen your weak knees, embolden your fainting heart, sharpen your divided mind, and quicken your wavering spirit.  In Christ alone is found the power to endure all hardship as a good soldier of His Kingdom, where glory and honor and might abide without measure.  There in Jesus and by His Word, you will be raised up to fight the good fight of faith, to bear witness in word and deed to the Gospel which saves you, to every soul you encounter.  And be of good cheer, for our Lord has promised that the gates of hell shall never prevail against the forward march of His Church, composed of His saints and martyrs, apostles and prophets, holy angels and sinners made holy by the Blood of the Lamb—soldiers all in the heavenly host, victorious today and unto ages of ages without end.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.