Blog Action Day 2008 – Poverty
October 15, 2008 is the next “Blog Action Day“. The topic of this Blog Action Day will be poverty. Thousands of people from around the world will be writing about poverty on that day. I plan to take part. I hope that many, many Christians decide to take part as well. Perhaps you can take part?
(HT: Brother Maynard)
Will you pray for me?
A few days, on my way home, I called a friend (I’ll call her T.) that we have been getting to know on Saturday mornings (see “Opportunities to Serve“). T. is a sister in Christ who has been struggling recently with several different problems. On Saturday mornings we have had the opportunity to talk with her, pray with her, listen to her, and even provide the Bible on CD and other helps for her.
When we go to her home, T. often thanks us for spending time with her, and we remind her that we need her as much as she needs us. Until recently, I don’t think she believed that last part. I do think she’s beginning to believe that we love her and care for her, but I don’t think she believed that we needed her as much as she needed us. (And, in a way, I’m still learning this as well.)
So, I called T. to check on her. The last few weeks have been especially rough as she has dealt with some family issues on top of other things. I asked how she was doing, and she told me about her week. I encouraged her and told her that I was proud of some of the decisions she had made.
As I was beginning to end the phone conversation, T. asked if I would pray for her. I told her that I pray for her often, and that I would continue to pray for her. She said, “Will you pray for me now over the phone?” (Yes, I was dense and didn’t realize this was what she was asking.)
I agreed and prayed for her right then over the phone. When I finished praying, she thanked me. This was when God taught me something. I remembered the last time I had talked with T. – how I had told her that I needed her as much as she needed me. So, I asked her to pray for me. She also said that she prays for me often. And I said, “Will you pray for me now over the phone?”
At first she stopped… like I said, I think she still thought of me as the “minister” and her as the one being ministered to. But, then she prayed for me. And, in the middle of her prayer, as she was thanking God for me and my family, T. said, “And, God, I really think they needed to meet me as much as I needed to meet them!” And she said it with much more enthusiasm than my one exclamation point.
So, it seems that God is teaching both of us. We need one another. Yes, there are ways that I can help T. deal with some issues in her life. But, at the same time, I can learn from and be encouraged by T. as well.
Why? Because God works through his children to the benefit of his other children – whether they are young or old, rich or poor, male or female, novice or mature. We need one another.
Interrelational Discussion Group – Poverty
This Saturday evening, August 23, at 7:00 pm, I am helping to lead a discussion group on serving the poor. If you want to know more about this “Interrelational Discussion Group”, I mentioned it several weeks ago in a post called “Interrelational Discussion Group – Scripture“. So far, I have been able to take part in discussions on the ecology, Scripture, and the church. I was not able to attend the night that the group discussed torture. The purpose of this group is to invite Christians to discuss practical issues related to the gospel.
God has moved my family to a point where we are regularly interacting with and serving the poor. If you are interested in my thoughts on serving the poor, here are a few posts that I’ve written recently: “Boasting in humiliation“, my ongoing series on John Perkins’ book Beyond Charity (“Introduction“, “Our Vision“, “Our Gospel“, “Lollipop Love“), “Mercy not Sacrifice“, “God works through my wife too“, “Opportunities to Serve“, “Small steps toward ‘out there’“, “Living ‘out there’“, “God loves the homeless“.
If you are interested in taking part in this discussion group – or any other discussion group (every two weeks) – and if you will be in the Wake Forest, NC area on Saturday, August 23, then get in touch with me for more information. You can leave a comment here, or send me an email (my email address is at the top right of this blog).
And he gave… (Ephesians 4:11)
From talking with several people, reading many books on the subject, and perusing blog posts about leadership, I think I have a view of Ephesians 4:11 that is a minority view. As a reminder, Ephesians 4:11 says:
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers… (Ephesians 4:11 ESV)
I’ve written about this passage previously in several blog posts, including “Ephesians 4:11 and the Five-Fold Ministry” (and the associate series on Ephesians 4:7-16, which continues to be one of my most read series) and “Spiritual Gifts – Ephesians 4:11” (and the associated series on spiritual gifts).
As we begin to think about this verse again, we should start by reading it in its context:
But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:7-16 ESV)
In this passage, verses 7-10 point out that Jesus has gifted all of his followers according to his grace. Similarly, verses 13-16 point out that all of Jesus’ followers have the same goal – maturity in Christ – and all must exercise their gifts in order for the body to build itself up in love. Thus, except for verses 11-12, it appears that this passage is about the gifted of the entire body of Christ.
However, verses 11-12 – and especially verse 11 – is usually interpreted to mean that only certain gifted individuals are given for the equipping of the body for works of service. That is, Jesus specifically gives apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors and teachers to do a work that none others within the body can and a work that none other are supposed to do – equipping. This view leads to seeing these four (or five, depending on interpretation) types of gifted individuals as being “specially” gifted within the body. Sometimes, these four (or five) are even called “offices” in the church.
In this post, I’m going to suggest an alternate view – a view that I think better aligns with the context of this passage and with other teachings in Scripture about spiritual gifts and gifted individuals.
Instead of reading the four (or five) gifted individuals as a special type of gifting and the only ones who are called to “equip” the church, I read this list as a sample of listed individuals. Paul could have used any gifted individual in his list in Ephesians 4:11, because all gifted followers of Jesus are necessary for equipping and edifying the body of Christ. Thus, the following phrase would have been just as correct:
And he gave the servants, the healers, the givers, the tongues speakers and interpreters, to equip the saints for the work of ministry…
While this sounds strange to our ears – being accustomed to hearing the other gifts as special offices in the church – it seems completely in line with scriptural teaching about spiritual gifts.
For example, notice 1 Corinthians 12:28:
And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. (1 Corinthians 12:28 ESV)
First, Paul easily shifts from gifted individuals (apostles, prophets, teachers) to the gifts themselves (miracles, healing, helping, administrating, tongues). Paul easily makes this same shift in Romans 12:6-8, listing both gifts (prophecy, service) and gifted individuals (the one who teaches, the one who exhorts, the one who gives, the one who leads, the one who does acts of mercy).
Second, notice that Paul’s ordered list in 1 Corinthians 12:28 (above) does not include the same “necessary offices” as the list in Ephesians 4:11. Specifically, Paul does not mention evangelists (or the gift of evangelism) or pastors (or the gifts of shepherding) to the Corinthians at all. This seems strange if Paul thought these were two of the necessary spiritual gifts for the church to be equipped for service.
Also, consider the follow passage from 1 Corinthians 12:22-25:
On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. (1 Corinthians 12:22-25 ESV)
Here, instead of arguing that some “gifted officer” are necessary to equip the body, Paul does just the opposite. He says that those members of the body that seem weaker (less gifted?) are actually indispensable. Again, as in Ephesians 4:7-10 and 13-16, Paul emphasizes the importance for the entire body of Christ to work together to build itself up. Even more interesting, Paul says that God himself has given greater honor to those members of the body that seem to lack it. Could it be that in interpreting Ephesians 4:11 as a list of “offices” that we are honoring the wrong people – at least, not the ones that God honors?
Taking all of this evidence together, I believe that Ephesians 4:11 was not intended as a list of specially gifted individuals who alone can equip the church for service. Instead, I believe that Ephesians 4:11 represents a sample of gifted individuals, much like we see in Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, and 1 Corinthians 12:28-30, none of which include all of the gifts because they are all meant as samples of spiritual gifts.
Just as Jesus gives apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors and teachers to the church to equip us for works of service, he also gives servants, helpers, givers, exhorters, healers, tongues speakers, and tongues interpreters (and ALL believers) to the church to equip us for works of service. The church is equipped for works of service and the church is built up toward maturity in Christ when every member of the church exercises the gifts given by Jesus through the Holy Spirit for the benefit of all.
Not what NT words mean for us
Yesterday, in our first Hermeneutics seminar, Dr. Köstenberger read the following passage from Adolf Schlatter’s The History of the Christ:
It is the historical objective that should govern our conceptual work exclusively and completely, stretching our perceptive faculties to the limit. We turn away decisively from ourselves and our time to what was found in the men through whom the church came into being. Our main interest should be the thought as it was conceived by them and the truth that was valid for them. We want to see and obtain a thorough grasp of what happened historically and existed in another time. This is the internal disposition upon which the success of the work depends, the commitment which must consistently be renewed as the work proceeds. (Note that at this point we are not studying what the New Testament words mean for us, how they influence our own thoughts and actions, and whether or not and why they achieve over us the compelling authority of truth. At the proper time, however, this question will be very important.) (pg. 18)
Schlatter wrote this in 1909. He says that before we begin to interpret Scripture for ourselves, we must attempt to understand what it meant for the ones who wrote Scripture. We should not begin by asking what these words mean for us, but what they meant for them.
What words? Well, what about words like church, elder, worship, ministry, deacon, fellowship. There are many, many books that tell us how to define these words today – how to be an effective church today – how to be a good elder today – how to worship today – what ministry looks like today – what a deacon does today – how to have fellowship today – but, what about then? Can we really live as the church that Scripture describes without understanding what these terms – and many others – meant then?
Doctrine is not doctrine anymore
In Acts 2:42, Luke begins to describe the response of those first Christians after receiving the promised Holy Spirit:
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. (Acts 2:42 ESV)
What does it mean that these early followers of Jesus “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching”? As long as I can remember, I’ve been taught that this means that they listened to sermons by the apostles, or at least by those who had heard sermons by the apostles. So, they “devoted themselves” or they “continued in” or they “persevered in” listening to someone teach them.
This sounds good. We all know that “teaching” or “doctrine” is a set of biblical fact, so it makes sense that those early believers would spend time listening to what the apostles had to say. They studied “doctrine” so that they would know what they needed to know.
But, there’s a problem with this picture. “Teaching” or “doctrine” or “instruction” (they are translations of the same word – no difference) in Scripture does not point to something that is simply known. Instead, “teaching” points to something that is demonstrated in both word and deed. Words alone would not be considered a “teaching”; but words combined with a living example would be considered a “teaching”.
Don’t misunderstand me… When I say “words combined with a living example”, I’m not talking about a sermon with application points. “Applications points” are still words. Instead, I’m saying that someone who brings a “teaching” or “doctrine” only does so when the life of the “teacher” matches the words and is demonstrated before the ones who are learning. In other words, a “teaching” combines both words and a way of living that is witnessed and imitated by those who are learning.
Consider Paul’s words to the church in Phillipi:
What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me – practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:9 ESV)
Consider his reminder to the Thessalonians:
For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed – God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. (1 Thessalonians 2:5-10 ESV)
Finally, in his letter to Titus, Paul specifically connects “doctrine” and “teaching” to more than words, as he parallels “teach what accords with sound doctrine” with “show yourself”:
But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. Slaves are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. (Titus 2:1-10 ESV)
Titus was to teach with his words, but just as importantly, he was to teach with his life. For Paul, teaching with words could not be separated from teaching with lifestyle. Of course, this means that Titus would have to live his life among those he was teaching. It was not enough to simply see them occasionally. In order to Titus to teach “sound doctrine” he would have to live “sound doctrine” with the people.
So, those early believers that Luke described in Acts 2 were devoting themselves to the words and lifestyle of the apostles. They heard what the apostles said, and they saw how the apostles lived. In response to this and to the Spirit’s work in their lives, they spoke and lived in the same way. They did not simply listen to sermons about what to belief. They heard, watched, and lived with the apostles and other believers, and learned from their “living doctrine”.
What does this mean for us? It means that when we make a list of “beliefs” and call it “doctrine”, we are not using the word “doctrine” in a scriptural sense. It means that when we stand before a group of strangers and give them good, biblical information, we are not bringing a “teaching” in the way that the word is used in Scripture.
Primarily, for those of us who desire to make disciples of Jesus Christ, it means that our lives must demonstrate what our mouth is saying. We must live among and with people who are learning from us. Teaching cannot be done at a distance to an audience of strangers. Teaching (in the scriptural sense) occurs when people share their lives together, not when the teacher stands behind a podium.
Boasting in humiliation
This post is part of a monthly synchroblog. This topic of this month’s synchroblog is “Poverty”.
Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. (James 1:9-10 ESV)
If I had written about poverty a year ago (and I probably did), I would have written from a theoretical position. While my family has never been “rich”, we were also never poor. Similarly, I had never spent time around people who generally would be considered poor, except for a short time in Nicaragua.
In fact, as I think back, my life generally resembled the lives of the children of Israel. God consistently admonished them through the prophets because they did not care for the fatherless, the widows, the foreigners, the oppressed, and the poor:
They do not bring justice to the fatherless, and the widow’s cause does not come to them. (Isaiah 1:23 ESV)
They know no bounds in deeds of evil; they judge not with justice the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper, and they do not defend the rights of the needy. (Jeremiah 5:28 ESV)
Father and mother are treated with contempt in you; the sojourner suffers extortion in your midst; the fatherless and the widow are wronged in you. (Ezekiel 22:7 ESV)
Thus says the LORD of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.” But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear. (Zechariah 7:9-11 ESV)
Thus says the LORD: “For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals – those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted; a man and his father go in to the same girl, so that my holy name is profaned… (Amos 2:6-7 ESV)
While the children of Israel kept the feasts and Sabbaths and offerings and sacrifices, they did not show mercy to those in need.
This is a good picture of my life until a few months ago. I met with the church. I gave money. I sang songs and prayed. But, what about those in need? I “cared” for the poor, but I didn’t care for the poor. I “loved” the needy, but I didn’t love the needy. There was a huge disconnect between what I said or through about myself, and what my life demonstrated.
Then, God began to transform me. It all started when I began to view the church as people instead of structure, organization, or leadership. As God began to turn my heart toward people, he also began to turn my heart toward “the least”. And, for the last several months, God has given me opportunities to truly demonstrate his love toward the fatherless, the widows, the foreigners, the poor, and the needy.
Something interesting happened as my family began to truly serve the needy. As we sought to bless others, we found that God blessed us through them. You see, these poor and needy people are often more rich than we are in some areas. And, we have found that we need them in our lives more than they need us. In fact, for our family, there is no “us” and “them” anymore. They are part of our family.
So, I’ve learned from friends who have less financial resources than myself. I’ve grown by listening to people who have no family members to care for them. I’ve been helped by single parents struggling to provide for their children. I’ve been taught by people who are struggling physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
I believe that God has much in store for his children – those who are poor and those who are rich. For those of us who are rich (in finances, in possessions, in education, in health, in relationships, etc.) to learn from those who are poor, it takes much humility.
When God commands his children to care for “the least”, he does not command this simply for the benefit of “the least”. Instead, he understands what his children need. I’ve missed out on so much of what God is doing for so long. God is with “the least”; and when we serve them, we are serving him. In fact, we serve him through the poor, the needy, the oppressed, the fatherless, the widows, and the foreigners much more than we do through singing and listening to preaching. Don’t believe me? Then learn what this means: “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice” (Matthew 9:13; Hosea 6:6).
—————————————————————–
Here is a list of bloggers who are participating in this synchroblog on poverty:
Sonja Andrews: Fully Known and Fully Loved
Phil Wyman at Phil Wyman’s Square No More
Adam Gonnerman: Echoes of Judas
Cobus van Wyngaard: Luke: The Gospel for the Rich
Lainie Petersen at Headspace
Steve Hayes: Holy Poverty
Jonathan Brink: Spiritual Poverty
Dan Stone at The Tense Before
Jeremiah: Blessed are the poor… churches…
Alan Knox: Boasting in Humiliation
Miss Eagle: Poverty and the Hospitable Heart
Jimmie: Feeding the Poor
Lollipop Love?
I haven’t written a summary of the last section of John M. Perkins’ book Beyond Charity: The Call to Christian Community Development yet. However, I wanted to share this paragraph from chapter 12, “Discerning the Call”, because it speaks very clearly about what God is currently teaching me:
So the biblical evidence overwhelmingly states that the will of God is to love him in a way that leaves no room for idols, and to love our neighbors in a way that liberates them from poverty and oppression, either spiritual or physical. Most of us don’t see the commandment to love our neighbor as having anything to do with dealing with physical needs. But this is primarily because we have allowed the culture in which we live to redefine the word love for us. The love that we talk about now is a lollipop; it’s a smile and a “God bless you!” The love of Jesus, the love he intends for us to show to our neighbors, is much tougher than this. In his first epistle, the apostle John say that our love should be of the same quality as Jesus’ love for us, that we get our definition of love not from our feelings or our culture but from the cross. “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16 NASB).
Thank you, Mr. Perkins. John wrote something else in that same epistle that goes along with this (the very next verse, as a matter of fact):
But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? (1 John 3:17 ESV)
And, of course, this convicting verse:
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1 John 4:8 ESV)
hmmmm… We cannot know if God’s love is in us by what we say (regardless of how eloquent our speech or how often we preach) nor by what we write (regardless of how many readers we have or how many times we’ve been published).
We can know if God’s love is in us by noticing whether or not we sacrificially (laying down our lives) love others. That’s a difficult (but biblical) test.
Mercy not Sacrifice
Next Sunday, we’ll be studying Matthew 9:9-13. I’m not scheduled to teach, but I’m continuing to study along in case God teaches me something that would transform my own life and perhaps that he would want me to share with others in order to build them up toward maturity in Christ. Here is the passage:
As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:9-13 ESV)
The quotation, “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice”, is from Hosea 6:
What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away. Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light. For I desire steadfast love [mercy] and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. But like Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me. (Hosea 6:4-7 ESV)
For the children of Israel during Hosea’s time and for the Pharisees of Jesus’ time, following God meant offering sacrifices and attending religious festivals as well as living according to the law. But for all their sacrifices and attendance and law keeping, Jesus (and God through the prophet Hosea) says that they were actually “transgressing the covenant”. They had forgotten about mercy.
In Matthew 9:9-13, Jesus is eating with Matthew and some of his tax collecting friends. The Pharisees were appalled that Jesus would eat with that kind of low life scum. Everyone knew that tax collectors were cheaters and traitors – sinners. That is why the Pharisees would have nothing to do with them.
Jesus knew the deplorable nature of the tax collectors also. That is why Jesus spent time with them. Thus, Jesus turns the world upside down. The righteous one spends his time with the unrighteous, because it is more important for God’s people to offer mercy to others than to offer sacrifices to God (without mercy). The sacrifices and offerings and feasts and rituals meant nothing to God if the people were not also dealing mercifully with others.
The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were always getting mad at Jesus for hanging out with people like tax collectors and prostitutes and drunkards and lepers and others of an unsavory sort. He spent so much time with them, that the religious leaders started saying the Jesus was a glutton and a drunkard. But, Jesus knew that these were the people who most needed the love and mercy of God. These were the people who needed a true demonstration of God’s grace.
Today, there are many, many people who need a true demonstrate of God’s grace. They need to know the love and mercy of God. And, God’s children are the only ones who can demonstrate God’s grace, mercy, and love to them.
God desires for us to demonstrate his mercy more than we care about our religious gatherings and exercises. Which do we care more about?
More living faith
Lately, I’ve been sharing about ways that God has been using me, my family, and my friends to demonstrate the good news and his love to our brothers and sisters and to the world. I started doing this because someone challenged (in a positive way) me to offer positive and real examples of the theoretical stuff that I write about. When I see more examples of “living faith”, I want to share those with my readers as well.
Joe (J.R.) at “More than Cake” wrote about a recent example in a post called “Faith With Works is Alive!” Joe writes about one of his brothers providing a car to a single mother. You read that correctly: a car! Go to Joe’s blog and read his post.
This is how Joe ends his post:
In the end, no single person can take the credit for helping Erin because none of us had the ability or resources to make it happen on our own. It is our prayer that this tangible demonstration of love will serve as an example to our friends, neighbors and other churches of how God makes provision through the working of his Spirit in the power of His church. All who read, be encouraged and find a way; this very day, to be the hands and feet of Jesus!
Amen! Let it be in me and in all of those who are “stirred up to love and good works” by this example of faith that works!