The Patience of Job

The patience of Job has long been proverbial — "You must have the patience of Job to cope with that situation". The saying goes back at least 500 years in our language!

Job, you may remember, is the (human) hero of the Bible book of the same name. Blighted with loss and disease as the result of a fiendish test by Satan, he refuses to curse God for his situation. After a series of frustrating conversations with well-meaning but unhelpful friends, Job has his health and wealth restored by God.

"The patience of Job." The expression comes from the King James Version translation of James 5:10 and 11 — 

"Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy."

Yet Job under testing is anything but "patient" in the way we understand it today! He bemoans the fact that he was ever born. He berates God for not letting him have his day in court so he can plead his innocence. So what kind of patience is really in view?

Recently in the Our Daily Bread notes I found an article by Joe Stowell which isn't about Job, yet perfectly illustrates the Bible concept of patience — or "endurance" as we would put it today. 

As a lad, Stowell had a punchball that sprang back upright when hit. However hard he hit it, he could not make it stay down. "The secret? There was a lead weight in the bottom that always kept it upright. Sailboats operate by the same principle. The lead weights in their keels provide the ballast to keep them balanced and upright in strong winds."

Stowell comments,

"It’s like that in the life of a believer in Christ. Our power to survive challenges resides not in us but with God, who dwells within us. We’re not exempt from the punches that life throws at us nor from the storms that inevitably threaten our stability. But with full confidence in His power to sustain us, we can say with Paul, 

'We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed (2 Corinthians 4:8-9)'."

God's sufficient grace, and His strength which is made perfect in our weakness, can be the ballast for our souls. Our plea is that the Lord Jesus Christ, who was hounded even to His death, rose again with power and now prepares a future reward and glory for all who believe in Him. That is the real story of Christian endurance and its outcome! Remember, as the article reminds us, 

"The power of God within you is greater than the pressure of troubles around you."

Indicators

It must surely come as a relief to know that you can measure "how you are doing" in the Christian life the way God sees it. Other people’s opinion is not always a good indicator. They can tell you that you are doing fine simply to please you. Or they can be brutally critical out of mere prejudice or ignorance. In any case it is not the Christian's primary job to keep other people happy - though your good and godly conduct should indeed bring joy to others.

We long for a test, an indicator, that is totally unbiased. It should act in the same way as lichens that indicate the quality of the air we breathe. A website called air-quality.org.uk recently put it this way:

"Lichens are widely used as environmental indicators or bio-indicators. If air is very badly polluted with sulphur dioxide there may be no lichens present, just green algae may be found. If the air is clean, shrubby, hairy and leafy lichens become abundant."

Take heart! There are tell-tale pointers to the state of your Christian life that are as sure and reliable as the lichen. They are found in the Bible. Particularly I have noticed them lately in the first letter of John. You may know that as well as the gospel bearing his name John wrote three letters which come near the end of the New Testament of our Bibles. He may also be responsible for the Book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible.

First John is full of helpful checklists by which you can gauge where you stand. Here are those I have picked out:

Four tests of true fellowship, 1 John 1:1 to 2:17
    • Affirming a proper view of Christ, 1:1-4
    • Affirming sin’s reality, 1:5-2:2
    • Obedience to God’s commands, 2:3-6
    • Love of the brethren, 2:7-17

Three characteristics of Antichrists, 2:19, 22-23, 26
    • they depart from the faithful, 19
    • they deny the faith, 22-23
    • they try to deceive the faithful, 26

 Two characteristics of true Christians, 2:20,21,27
    • the Holy Spirit guards them from error, 21
    • the Holy Spirit guides them into all knowledge, 20 and 27 

Five features of the believer’s hope, 2:18-3:3

• the believer abides in Christ, equivalent to finally persevering, 2:28
• the believer can’t help being righteous, 2:29
• Christians have a nature alien to the unsaved, 3:1
• God loves the believer so as to make him or her His child; we shall be like Him, 3:2
•  the Christian is purifying him- or herself, 3:3

Four reasons why true Christians cannot habitually practise sin, 1 John 3:4-10
    • Sin is incompatible with the law of God, 3:4
    • It is incompatible with the work of Christ, 3:5
    • Christ came to destroy the works of the arch-sinner, Satan, 3:8
    • It is incompatible with the ministry of the Holy Spirit, 3:9

    Three benefits of love, 3:11-24
    • Assurance of salvation, 3:14
    • Answered prayer, 3:22
    • The abiding presence and empowering of the Holy Spirit, 3:23-24   
 
Two tests of true teachers, 4:1-6 (for end of chapter 3 see next list)
    They affirm that Jesus is God incarnate come in human flesh, 4:2
    • They speak God’s word, following apostolic doctrine, 4:5-6

Five reasons why Christians love, 4:7-21
    • Because God is the essence of love, 4:7-8
    • To follow the supreme example of God’s sacrificial love in sending his Son for us, 4:9-11
    • Because love is the heart of Christian witness, 4:12
    • Because love is the Christian’s assurance, 4:13-16
    • Because love is the Christian’s confidence in judgment, 4:17-18

Five characteristics of overcomers, 5:1-5
    • Saving faith, 5:1
    • Love, 5:1
    • Obedience, 5:2-3
    • Belief in Jesus, 5:4
    • Dedication of one’s life to Him, 5:5

Five certainties, 5:13-21
    • Assurance of eternal life, 5:13
    • Answered prayer, 5:14-17
    • Victory over sin and Satan, 5:18
    • That Christians belong to God, 5:19
    • That Jesus Christ is the true God, 5:20

In the face of the unsettling influence of false teachers, John wanted his readers to be happy, holy and secure. They could only be that if three things were working together in their lives. They needed to be sound in the basics of the faith, obedient towards Jesus’ commands and loving towards God and their fellow believers.

Could this checklist help you to gauge where you stand?

Mis-speaking

Lately I have been revisiting some lovely little books penned by a wonderful, godly man I met during my ministry in Banbury (1984-1994). He was a Scripture Union children’s evangelist of long standing who retired during my time there. In Christian work, however, we never really retire, and Stephen English kept busy preaching, speaking at meetings and writing.

One such book was entitled “That’s not what I meant”. It was a humorous collection of things people said which were obviously kindly meant but framed in badly chosen words.

A fair few of these came from people who were chairing the meetings where Stephen used to speak. He tells this story about one of them. “She was in charge of the meeting so she was entitled to say whatever she wished. However, I was not ready for the words about to be spoken. To the somewhat astonished company, our host announced, ‘We will not sing extra choruses this week as we usually do, for we all know that Mr English has far too much to say.'

“Oh no! I’m not that self-opinionated, am I? That is what she implied, didn't she? 'He has far too much to say.' I hope I know what she meant.”
Stephen goes on to talk about how any preacher worth his or her salt will have an endless supply of material that they could speak about - the Christian life, its joys and peace as well as its discipline and its responsibilities to others. “We are speaking about the inexhaustible riches of Christ,” he comments. “A hymn speaks of 'A deep, unfathomable mine’ of truth about him.”

"Yes, lady,” Stephen felt like saying to the woman chairing the meeting, “I am guilty of having too much to say, because of what God has done for us. There are not words enough for that."

At the same time, Stephen admits that preachers should keep reminding themselves of the basic simplicity of the good news about Jesus. After all, Jesus did announce, “Come to me … and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28 ESV).

Stephen closes with a prayer, “In all the words I speak may the name of Jesus have the preeminence."

I hope I am tolerant of people who unintentionally “mis-speak”, as the expression is. We rarely think of the intricate physiological processes of speech, but it is hard work bringing ideas from the brain, putting them into words and stringing them together in spoken sentences. All too often I become aware that the things I mean to say don’t come out quite right. That doesn’t excuse me for causing offence to someone. It may dawn on me that what I said was hurtful and may need to apologise. I may also have to appeal to the other person to be patient while I re-phrase the words that went wrong.

A young Christian couple once memorably impressed me. The husband had fertility issues. His wife felt, naturally, very frustrated: her instinct to start a family was being baulked by her husband’s inability. Cruel words kept coming to her mind that would have put him down and made him feel useless. Yet time and again she resisted saying them. She was quite open about this, and her husband bravely understood and appreciated her kindness. I'm delighted to be able to add that they now have children of their own.

“Let your conversation be always gracious, and never insipid; study how best to talk with each person you meet,” advises the apostle Paul (Colossians 4:6 NEB). As my friend Stephen counselled, in all the words I speak may the name of Jesus - and the nature of Jesus too - have the preeminence.

Christianity as Establishment

Is it a blessing or a curse to be the accepted religion of a country?

Jesus, while on earth, claimed that His knowledge was limited. Some aspects of the future were only known to His heavenly Father. At times it looks as though He never thought the world would last long enough for the Christian religion to become the established one in any country.

It seems clear that Jesus would have sat uneasily with His followers becoming part of the establishment. He saw how some of the Jewish leaders behaved with their establishment status ... and He was not impressed. The showmanship, the hypocrisy, the politicking all galled Him. These ugly behaviours were totally alien to what He wanted to see in His disciples.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,” He announced, “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:10-12 ESV).

Since the blessed day of Christ’s walking on earth, our Father God has shown centuries-long patience with the human race. It has persisted for 2000 years. During that time Christianity has spread dramatically – and with that spreading have come problems. These would hardly have been anticipated by the first generation of Christians, small, scattered and under pressure.

Later generations have had to handle the down side of being accepted as the establishment, and have not always done so well. Even if He did not know exactly what would happen after He left this earth, Jesus spoke truly when He exclaimed, 

“Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets” (Luke 6:26).

The rot began to set in when the Emperor Constantine declared Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire in the fourth century. Christians in high places began to imitate the splendour of imperial pomp and majesty. As the Empire fell and Christianity took over as the only cohesive force in Europe, it turned into that ugly power bloc known as Christendom. From this stemmed the bloodbath of the Crusades and, at home, the domination of priestcraft over the minds of men and women.

Even the Reformation could not free Christianity from the taint of establishment. True, it rightly brought to the fore the spiritual side of faith, where the Kingdom of God grew soul by soul as the individual dedicated his or her life to Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. But it also set out the distasteful doctrine of “cuius regio, eius religio”, which meant that a person’s brand of Christianity was supposedly determined by where he or she came from. A “loyal” Englishman would belong to the Church of England, while a “loyal” Scot would be a Presbyterian. You might not actually be persecuted for having other Christian convictions, but you were viewed as somehow unpatriotic and a second-class citizen. Doors open to others might be closed to you.

Sadly, overtones of this culture still exist today. It shows up, for instance, in the chameleon-like position of the Royal Family – Anglicans while in England, Presbyterians as soon as they set foot in Scotland. What a travesty of our Saviour’s purposes for us!

As spiritual winter and long-term decline have set in to the churches of this country, most of the big old denominations, established or semi-established, have seen their position eroded. While not usually being militantly anti-religious, most people now reject what they call “organised religion”.

In a way, a loss for one church stream is a loss for all, because the enemies of Christianity seize on such things. Yet in some ways I view the new minority status of the Church without regret. Small, admittedly, is not always beautiful – but Christianity as Establishment has not been Christianity at its best.

Sovereignty and Responsibility

Right-thinking Christians hold the line between two seemingly conflicting truths: the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of human beings.

God is in charge – sovereign over all. He does not stand helplessly by while human beings do as they like. This may appear to be the case sometimes, but God has His own agenda and will not be rushed into anything. All humans must eventually bow to His will.

Logically, this could reduce human beings to being mere pawns on God’s chessboard, available to be pushed around. Yet in the Bible they are the high point of God’s creation. He means them to have dignity and to take responsibility for their actions. The likes of Judas Iscariot may be destined to betray Jesus Christ, but they are certainly not programmed to do so.

“And when it was evening, he came with the twelve. And as they were reclining at table and eating, Jesus said, ‘Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.’ They began to be sorrowful and to say to him one after another, ‘Is it I?’ He said to them, ‘It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the dish with me. For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born’” (Mark 14:17-21 ESV).

It is a blasphemous insult against God when one person robs another of his or her humanity. Some of the most appalling examples of this process occurred during the systematic extermination of Jews in the Nazi era.

Holocaust Memorial Day this year – 27 September, the 70^th anniversary of the ending of this appalling event – brought back memories of a radio broadcast from some months ago. This had opened my eyes to an unexpected side of the evil strategy of the Nazis against Jews. I used to think that the death trains were simply a means of transporting the victims from A to B. In fact the journey itself was an instrument in dehumanising these hapless people, long before their arrival at the concentration camps.

“The deportees were forced into rail cars, most of which were windowless, unheated cattle cars, and squeezed in so tightly that most were forced to stand. The doors were then sealed shut from the outside. Neither drinking water nor sanitary facilities were available. Each car held more than 120 people, and many froze or suffocated to death or succumbed to disease during the trip to the camps. The dead were not removed from the cars during the journey because the Nazi bureaucracy insisted that each body entering a car be accounted for at the destination” (http://remember.org/guide/Facts.root.final.html, accessed 28 January 2015).

Human beings who started out with dignity, identity and a sense of worth were forced to compete with each other, manoeuvring themselves so they could reach whatever air was available to gulp. By the time they reached the concentration camps, most survivors of the journey had been softened up to become passive recipients of whatever fate awaited them.

The Nazis had learned, irrationally, to hate, fear and despise certain groups of people. I know well the temptation to regard anyone who causes me great trouble as being less than human. But if I am to learn any lesson from the Holocaust, it is that I must never dehumanise anyone, because God certainly does not.

Isaac Watts captured this truth in a hymn based on Psalm 147 both the greatness and the care of God.

What is the creature’s skill or force?

The sprightly man, or warlike horse?

The piercing wit, the active limb?

All are too mean delights for Him.

But saints are lovely in His sight,

He views His children with delight;

He sees their hope, He knows their fear,

and looks, and loves His image there.

In some people the stamp of God’s image is very hard to see. But may I never behave as though it were totally gone.

Be Perfect

Russian poet and Christian intellectual Irina Ratushinskaya was something of a celebrity in the late 1980's. She was sentenced to seven years' detention in a labour camp for alleged activities against the Soviet state. Having secretly composed in prison a number of poems on nature, beauty and faith, she was dramatically released after just under four years. She went on to write a number of works, one on her prison experiences famously entitled Grey is the Colour of Hope. A day or two ago I read a meditation by her on Matthew 5:48 “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect”. Ratushinskaya reflects, “It is the most shocking demand on Man: absolute perfection. No less than that. Is this really addressed to us? To people for whom it is already quite an achievement just to realise their own sinfulness? “Some people think that the acknowledgement of sinfulness is a pretty spiritual achievement. But does it help? It is not just the diagnosis, but medical treatment that is needed for the recovery of a sick person. “We often hear people say 'I’m no saint', even with some kind of satisfaction, as if to say, 'I admit that I am no saint, so I have fulfilled my duty.' But that is only part of the duty. “Every demand made by Christ also contains a promise. He does not only command us to do things, He also offers us His help. If we would only believe it is possible! Perfection is an infinitely daring concept. It requires courage even to imagine it. Nevertheless the demand is addressed to you and to me. “How do our hearts respond to this demand … and to the promise of this miracle?” Thinking about the reference to diagnosis, I recall the sadness I feel sometimes when people are interviewed after a long run-in with the medical profession. They may well remark, “I have at last had my diagnosis”. In other words, after endless months of seeing different specialists, their mystery illness has finally been given a name! You feel that these poor people are condemned to a restricted existence with endless chips on the shoulder, grievance procedures and campaigns to have their voices heard. Needless to say, none of this takes them further forward in terms of a cure. There may only be one immediate advantage. Being able to put a name to the illness they've got may entitle them to certain state benefits that would otherwise be unavailable to them. That is surely small comfort. Spiritually, the seeker who genuinely comes to Christ has his or her eyes opened to a diagnosis of their condition. That diagnosis is a case of built-in sin. Now open to spiritual guidance, they are prepared to accept that judgment on their situation. I actually believe it is good for us to label ourselves in God's presence as “the sinner”, just as the tax-gatherer in one of Jesus' parables did. The Pharisee sounded off about how good he was – “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’” (Luke 18:13 ESV). Sinners we are and sinners we remain while earthly life lasts, but there is a difference if we come to Christ: we become sinners saved by grace. Not just a bit saved, not merely saved “just enough”, but saved, ultimately, to the uttermost extent. Without that, we would not be fit to appear in heaven. And so Jesus instructs us, “Be perfect”. “Easier said than done,” you mutter through clenched teeth. But that is the logical conclusion, if being imperfect renders us unfit for heaven. So where is the promise of help that Irina Ratushinskaya holds out before us? Undoubtedly Jesus wasn't talking about a superhuman perfection. He was talking about what is realistic for us now. He wanted His followers not to merely conform outwardly to a set of rules, but to strive for a heartfelt imitation of God's way: forgiveness, patience, tenderness, earnestness and so on. In other words they are to be patterned after God the Father's perfect love. As for the promise of help, William Hendriksen has some worthwhile words on the subject: “This kind of finite love is, nevertheless, attainable. How do we know? Because of the very fact that he is our heavenly Father, who will, for that very reason, not withhold this gift from his children.”

High and lowly

Somewhere recently I read an article about how the birth of Jesus brought together both high and lowly in society. The shepherds, probably simple folk, were keen to hurry and see the sight that a revelation of angels had told them about. The wise men, altogether different, of aristocratic line and steeped in the learning and wisdom of the East, stuck to the convictions their researches had led them to. They travelled far and displayed steely determination in reaching the new King who, they calculated, must have come to the land of Judah.

High and lowly. I sometimes worry about the likelihood that the life of any given church might appeal to one class but be off-putting to another. I think to myself, “This church is too middle class. They can never expect to appeal to the residents in that rough and ready estate across the way.” Yet we must never underestimate the power of the Gospel to jump across social boundaries.

At the moment I am excited to be reading a major biography of George Whitefield. The writer is recounting the career of this eminent 18th-century Christian preacher and evangelist, who exercised a hugely influential ministry on both sides of the Atlantic. The social divide in his day, certainly in Britain, was in many ways more acute than it is today. Yet all sides, rich and poor, clamoured for preaching visits from Whitefield.

Arnold Dallimore, Whitefield's biographer, reports this about Whitefield’s early ministry: "Charles Kinchin, Rector of Dummer in Hampshire, expecting to be at Oxford for some time, asked him to officiate in his stead, and he accepted.

“Kinchin's parishioners were poor and illiterate, and Whitefield learned a valuable lesson among them. He was becoming too fond of his University associations and admits that, at first, he was ill at ease among the Dummer people and longed for his Oxford friends. But this attitude was soon changed and he wrote, 'The profit I reaped from … conversing with the poor country people was unspeakable. I frequently learned as much by an afternoon’s visit as in a week’s study.' The experience among the Dummer villagers proved effective, for never again was there the least suggestion that he was not equally happy in ministering to the poor and illiterate as to the wealthy and learned."

Truly those were times the people of Jesus’ day would have recognised. Jesus undoubtedly appealed to the more thoughtful of the ruling classes in Israel. But as we are told in Mark 10:37 when Jesus taught in the Jerusalem Temple, “... the common people” [or, “the crowds”] “heard him gladly” (KJV).

This, I must admit, is a challenge to me when I begin to imagine that the religious “gene” in British people has somehow died out, that hardly anybody is capable any more of responding to the good news of Jesus the Saviour, and that I must content myself in the cosy company of the few that have. No, God has promised us that He has His people from “those who dwell on earth, ... every nation and tribe and language and people” (Revelation 14:6 ESV).

“He speaks, and, listening to His voice,

new life the dead receive,

the mournful, broken hearts rejoice,

the humble poor believe.”

- Charles Wesley, 1707-1788

Rich or not, influential or not, wise-man-like or shepherd-like, have you heard and thrilled to the voice which is for you this Christmas time? And have you let yourself be blessed by talking to someone from a level of society you don’t normally associate with?

Just a reminder, by the way – please view my Christmas broadcast, a new venture for this year. You can watch it by clicking on this link:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5hu43eamq9x68ak/bcast.m4v?dl=0

It’s quite safe and you don’t need to install any software.