True wisdom

1 Solomon son of David established himself firmly over his kingdom, for the Lord his God was with him and made him exceedingly great…

⁷ That night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”

⁸ Solomon answered God, “You have shown great kindness to David my father and have made me king in his place. ⁹ Now, Lord God, let your promise to my father David be confirmed, for you have made me king over a people who are as numerous as the dust of the earth. ¹⁰ Give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may lead this people, for who is able to govern this great people of yours?”

¹¹ God said to Solomon, “Since this is your heart’s desire and you have not asked for wealth, possessions or honour, nor for the death of your enemies, and since you have not asked for a long life but for wisdom and knowledge to govern my people over whom I have made you king, ¹² therefore wisdom and knowledge will be given you. And I will also give you wealth, possessions and honour, such as no king who was before you ever had and none after you will have.” 2 Chronicles 1:1-12

God is a gracious and generous God to his faithful people… that is the essential message of this story of how Solomon, the new king of Israel, entered his reign as successor to great King David.

We read that God appeared to him at night – presumably therefore in a dream – and invited him to “ask for whatever you want me to give you”. If that’s not generous, I don’t know what is. Solomon famously asked for one basic thing: “wisdom and knowledge, that I may lead this people…” And God, true to his promise, fulfils his word.

But that’s not all: he then goes on to itemise some of the things Solomon didn’t ask for, and says, in effect, “you shall have them too”. And so he grants him the panoply of things that kings were normally expected to have: “wealth, possessions, honour (or reputation)”. No further mention here of long life or victory in battle, but such splendour and dignity as to make him virtually a wonder of the world, drawing visitors from far away to see his magnificence and to sample his fabled wisdom.

(The most famous of these visitors was the Queen of Sheba, 2 Chronicles 9 – though notice that there is no suggestion of a romance between the two of them: how history has loved to embellish the Bible!).

Well, I imagine that most of us live a long, long way from Solomon, in terms of geography and history, not to mention situation. Yet his experience paints for us a very clear picture of the kind of God God is.

Let’s take  a look…

1 He is all grace and generosity.

Like Solomon in his day we too are helplessly inadequate for the task and privilege of following Jesus; so, like him also, we depend totally on these divine qualities.

I knew someone once who held back from choosing to follow Jesus on the grounds (all credit to him for his honesty!) that “I knew I would be bound to fail”. At the time I was myself a very new Christian, and sadly I didn’t have the wisdom to tell him about God’s generous and never-ending love, and to advise him to trust to that as he embarked on the Christian life, and not to worry about his own shortcomings. I have sometimes wondered how things might have turned out differently if I had given him this reassurance.

2 He is a God who cares more about justice and truth than about the outward trappings of power.

This episode gives us a perfect illustration of these as God’s priorities, and so also of what kind of rulers he wants governing the nations.

Oh yes, the worldly trappings may have their place – a little pomp and ceremony may be appropriate - but they come well behind the “wisdom” and “knowledge” that Solomon, in his humility, put first.

Wisdom is a big theme in the Old Testament, associated especially with the books Ecclesiastes and Proverbs (great dipping in books, by the way). But it is not primarily an intellectual ability; it is more a matter of hands-on know-how, the ability to size up a situation or assess a problem and come up with practical solutions.

C S Lewis had an almost frightening intellectual power (as well as a wonderful imagination), but I can remember him declaring somewhere  that he “couldn’t succeed in managing so much as a hen-coop”. A perfect example of the difference between “wisdom” and “intellect”!

James 1:5 holds out an invitation to the humble Christian: “If anyone lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you” - not all at once, perhaps; but that promise stands firm, as King Solomon could have told us.

James 3:13-18 follows this up with a perfect little paragraph on the nature of wisdom: I encourage us to reflect on it for five minutes.

But there is something we must add…

3 Solomon lost his way.

One of the paradoxes of the Bible is the fact that Solomon – yes, humble, childlike Solomon – tragically went astray as he grew older in years and more magnificent in kingly power.

There’s no space to go into it here, but if you would like to follow it up, turn to 1 Kings 11. This long chapter begins with the ominous words “King Solomon, however…” (verse 1), and continues with “The Lord became angry with Solomon…” (verse 9) followed by the story of how “the Lord raised up against Solomon an adversary…” (verse 14). Everything falls apart, and Solomon leaves behind him the legacy of a bitterly divided kingdom. How are the mighty fallen! – and, still worse, how they drag everybody down with them.

This reminds us that we should never take anything for granted. We are called to have confidence in God, of course – but never to be complacent. Sadly, Christians can fall away – Christian, take that possibility seriously!

To finish, why not ponder for a few minutes: If God came to me and asked what I would like him to give me, what would my reply be? Honestly, now!

Father, as I seek to follow Jesus, please help me to keep my eyes fixed on him, and to keep focussed until that day when I see him face to face. Amen.

To be the best...

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8

Jesus said, I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:20

It’s many years since I last had a bath. Showers are so easy and quick,  and also (I’m told) more hygienic, that they have become the norm for me as for many others. Which suits me fine.

But there is one thing about baths that leaves me with a feeling of nostalgia – that lovely sensation of sinking luxuriously into warm, comforting water, and just enjoying a delicious soak. Ah! – so relaxing, so calming!

There are other experiences which give us that sense of wholesomeness and well-being: just looking at a beautiful view, perhaps, or closing your eyes as you Iisten to some music that moves you, or walking by the sea. Such experiences have a real effect of recharging us.

Well, the verse I have chosen for today can have that effect – if, that is, we let it. It is basically a simple list of human qualities and characteristics, and I want to suggest that we allow ourselves the luxury of a thorough mental, spiritual soak in them. Take two minutes, please, to s l o w l y read.

Paul, an old man probably close to death, is getting to the end of this short, affectionate letter to his Christian friends in Philippi (for the background history, go to Acts 16, where it’s clear that his initial visit to this historic city was anything but easy). He wants to leave them with positive, encouraging thoughts, and this is what he comes up with. He tells them – and us - to “think about such things”, by which he means to not just read them through at a gallop, but allow our minds to dwell on them, for only so can our lives be changed. Are we up for that challenge?

It's striking that the list isn’t specifically “Christian” – many unbelievers would entirely agree with what Paul says at this point. So the implication is that, living as they do in a multi-religious but basically pagan setting, the Philippian Christians should stand out as especially worthy of respect, putting even the finest of their neighbours and fellow-citizens in the shade. They are to be “honourable”, “noble”, “admirable”, examples of “excellence” and “praiseworthiness” of character. Those words may strike us as pretty old-fashioned in today’s brash and gaudy world; but who cares (as long, of course, as we don’t come across as “holier than thou”)?

I wonder how the western world as many of us experience it today might rewrite that list? “Whatever is vulgar, whatever is coarse and tawdry, whatever is self-serving, whatever may even be dishonest and underhand, whatever is shallow and cheap, whatever gives me an advantage over others, especially those at the bottom of the pile… those are the things to focus on.” We would never, of course, say such a thing, but…

Perhaps I’m being unduly cynical. But it’s hard to avoid the feeling that many of us live in an essentially consumerist, materialist society, and one where the religion of “me-first” is worshipped by so many.

A classic film called Cat on a hot tin roof, from a play by the American playwright Tennessee Williams, features a central character called Big Daddy, the rich patriarch of his family. Big Daddy isn’t, if I remember rightly, a great model of virtue himself, but he has reached the point of being disgusted with other members of his family for their shallowness and dishonesty. Eventually he bursts out in anger, “This place just reeks of mendacity!”, whereupon one of his young female relatives protests “But Big Daddy, I don’t even know what mendacity is!” And you feel like replying “Too right you don’t, you’re so wrapped up in your false, petty little world! You never spoke a truer word!” (I assume anyone reading this blog will know what mendacity is…?)

The tragedy of our fallen, sinful world is that those ugly characteristics simply seep into our bones little by little and day by day. Putting it another way, it’s as if they are in the very air we breathe. Blatant lies are put on line constantly – and we immediately accept them as true because we’re too lazy to even think about checking them.

Jimmy Carter was a peanut farmer and, in the opinion of many, a failed president of the United States. A couple of weeks ago he reached his one hundredth birthday, and it was interesting to see the expressions of respect and admiration for him from political commentators of various colours. A failure as president? Perhaps so; let God be the judge. But a humanitarian, an anti-racist, by all accounts a humble and gracious man who seems to try genuinely to live out a simple Christian faith. Far from perfect, of course, as he is the first to confess – yet I must admit that I find myself thinking of him as I read Philippians 4:8.

Perhaps there is a single catch-all word which gathers up those various qualities mentioned by Paul: I’m thinking of integrity. My dictionary defines it as “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles”. That doesn’t cover everything in Paul’s remark – but I suggest it’s not bad for a start.

Having soaked our minds in Paul’s list, let’s ask ourselves the question: Do I seek to be a person of determined, Christlike integrity?

Father in heaven, I don’t very much like the person I see when I look honestly within me – far from the best I could and should be, and far short even of many who don’t profess to follow Jesus. Please, by your Holy Spirit, put within me a holy ambition to bring you glory in all I do and say and think. Amen.

Bringing good out of bad

Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word... It was good for me to be afflicted, so that I might learn your decrees... I know, Lord, that your laws are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me. Psalm 119:67, 71, 75

It’s a long psalm, 119. I remember, in my teen-age years, how a girl in our youth group volunteered to read the Bible passage in a service. The leader said it was Psalm 119, so off she went to read it through and get ready. Five minutes later she came back with a horrified look on her face: “It’s got 176 verses!” She was relieved to learn that it was the leader’s little joke (ha-very-ha)…

Yes, it’s a long psalm. Which means that, though it’s divided up into bite-size sections (each starting with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet), it’s not easy to get to know; putting it another way, though there are some very striking passages which deserve close attention, they can easily get lost in the sheer welter of verses.

One thing that has struck me over the years is the theme of “affliction”, and especially the way it pops up three times in the space of just a dozen verses or so (verses 65-75). It’s as if the psalmist can’t get it out of his head, for he keeps coming back to it from a slightly different angle.

Is it possible to trace a recurring thread? – to see his thoughts moving in stages? I think it is…

First, stage one… verse 67 looks back to what was a real turning point in his life: “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word”. He looks back (“Before…”) but then comes up to date (“but now…”).

He doesn’t tell us what his particular affliction was. As with us today, it can take many forms: sickness, sorrow, failure, humiliation, disappointment. Some Bible translations take it here to be “punishment”, in the sense of God’s discipline. Whatever, it has obviously been a painful and upsetting experience, and he associates it with a time when he “went astray”.

We shouldn’t automatically blame ourselves when something goes wrong in our lives: in the New Testament Jesus firmly rules that out - in relation to the man born blind (John 9:1-12), and to the hapless victims of Roman brutality, and the collapse of the tower in Siloam (Luke 13:1-5). But we shouldn’t totally rule out the possibility: we may have in fact brought it on our own heads. If we act foolishly and sinfully, well, there are likely to be repercussions, aren’t there?

However that may be in our circumstances, the psalmist in Psalm 119 sees a connection between his suffering and his errant behaviour. Could the same thing be true for us? The question, surely, is worth asking, for it is easy to become complacent and spiritually sluggish. A fresh start is never a bad idea if that is the case. Could it be time for you or me to pray very honestly, “Search me, O God, and know my heart…”?

Second, stage two… verse 71 is a clear advance on the observation of verse 67: “It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees”.

That word “good” is certainly striking. Perhaps he has experienced what is often known these days as a “lightbulb moment”: Hey, that dark and painful time is turning out for my good! I am seeing the pattern of my life with greater clarity. No, I didn’t enjoy my affliction while it lasted, but I believe it has refined and strengthened my weak faith. It has brought me back under the authority of God’s word (referred to here as his “decrees”). Isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing!

The psalmist, of course, didn’t know Paul’s letter to the Romans, but I am sure he would have fully endorsed the words of chapter 8 verse 28: “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him…” That expression “all things” is important; Paul doesn’t mean just the rather inconvenient things, the nuisances of life, or even obviously “spiritual” things; no, by “all things” he means “all things”!

I recently read a Christian book by two Christian writers who have devoted years of study to what we often call “natural disasters” like earthquakes, famines and floods, the sort of things that very naturally cause us to cry out “Why, Lord...!” They have humbling stories to tell of deep faith, truly heroic service - and wonderfully unexpected outcomes.

This isn’t an easy truth to speak to people in the midst of affliction (as I write I’m thinking of the terrible catastrophe that recently struck the people of Valencia, Spain). No, there must be no shallow, glib comforts offered – remember Job’s comforters. But Romans 8:28 remains true nonetheless, and one day, by God’s grace, that will become apparent to us.

Third, stage three… verse 75 indicates that the psalmist’s affliction has taken him deeper in his understanding of the character of God: “...in faithfulness you have afflicted me”. God is a faithful God.

But how can affliction be a sign of God’s faithfulness? A fair question.  Perhaps the best commentary on this verse is found in the New Testament letter to the Hebrews, chapter 12 verses 7-12: “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children…” It’s not that God hates you or even that he is angry with you (though perhaps very sad). No, his discipline is a sign of his fatherly love. If he didn’t care about you he wouldn’t bother.

When Jesus told his followers to address God as “our Father in heaven” he meant it with compete seriousness.

Let’s sum up the psalmist’s train of thought…

He starts with a statement of fact: “Before I was afflicted I went astray… (verse 67). He progresses to a flash of new understanding: “It was good for me to be afflicted…!” (verse 71). He finishes with a fresh grasp of just who this holy God is: “in faithfulness you have afflicted me” (verse 75).

Do some of us need to let the psalmist’s journey of discovery reprogramme our minds too?

Father, I confess that I like my life to be comfortable and trouble-free. But I recognise that this earthly life just isn’t like that. Help me to confront it with faith in your good purposes, and so to draw good out of what seems bad. Amen.

God whispers in our pleasures but shouts in our pain. C S Lewis.

A suggestion for Christmas

When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments. 2 Timothy 4:13

Last time I invited us to think about the sheer humanness of the apostle Paul (2 Timothy 4:9-16) – he was no super-apostle, but a man of flesh and blood. This comes across in various clues, such as the touching little request to Timothy to bring a cloak that he had left at Troas. He was feeling the chill! And it’s worth noticing that he also asks Timothy to “bring my scrolls, especially the parchments”. Even while in prison he wanted to keep up his study, especially, presumably, of the scriptures.

The Jewish and Christian faiths have always laid great emphasis on the word of God, whether it’s what we now call the Old Testament or the New. We are very much “people of the book”.

But the Bible is a big book, or, to be strictly correct, a big collection of books, and it’s a life-time’s work to get anything like a firm grip on it. Many “ordinary” Christians (whoever such a person may be) never get familiar with more than a few favourite passages – some special psalms, perhaps, or particular passages from the gospels or letters. That’s in no way a criticism of them; they just don’t have the time and energy in their hectic lives to do much more.

But this means that they are very dependent on the deeper and more expert knowledge of trained pastors and teachers. Happy is that congregation whose leaders take the Bible seriously and who aim to anchor their teaching fairly and squarely on scripture!

But even then it’s an impossible task: preaching opportunities on a Sunday are limited, and covering the whole Bible even with the addition of various mid-week gatherings still leaves much that can never be covered. So can anything more be done by Christians who want to go deeper but who have very limited time?

An answer lies in a simple word: books. Paul obviously treasured his, though we have no clear idea what they consisted of (remember that, at the time he wrote, the New Testament didn’t exist, for he and various other people were still busy writing it!), and even though the mysterious author of Ecclesiastes warns his readers that too much study can be wearisome, he obviously believed in its value as well (Ecclesiastes 12:12).

We live in a world awash with books and other forms of written communication, and the good news is that there is a wide range of Christian books available. It struck me that, especially with Christmas approaching, it couldn’t be a better time to buy such a book as a gift, or even perhaps to treat ourselves. The problem is that the range is so wide that we don’t really know where to start – plus, of course, that we need a little guidance in order to avoid literature that might not be reliable.

So I thought I would take an unusual step and simply recommend one particular book which has stood the test of time (first published in 1973, and now on its fifth edition). It falls fairly and squarely into the “evangelical” camp, is written by a galaxy of people who are experts in their fields, is readable for the non-expert, and is beautifully produced, with coloured maps, charts and diagrams galore, plus an (admittedly very condensed) commentary on the whole Bible. It can be used both for sustained study and as a dipping-in book. It’s published by Lion Publishing and is called “The Lion Handbook to the Bible”. (And no, I’m not on commission from Lion, just in case you were wondering!)

So if ever you have wondered, say, just how the Bible actually became the Bible, it would be a perfect gift for yourself or for a friend. After all, the Bible didn’t come to us floating down from heaven, like the manna in the wilderness, beautifully bound in leather covers! No, it’s an assortment of books that was slowly, gradually gathered into one book over many centuries. As well as being divinely inspired, it was also humanly written, and we can learn a lot from discovering who these people were, and what, humanly speaking, motivated them to write.

Why are there four Gospels and not just one? Why not a compendium of all four? - wouldn’t that be perfectly simple? Who was “Jude” who wrote that tiny letter near the end of the New Testament? What can we discover about Amos the herdsman of Tekoa? Or Daniel? Or Habakkuk? Who wrote 1 and 2 Samuel, or Chronicles? What are we to make of “The Song of Songs”? or “Revelation” (and not “Revelations”, please!).

Just throwing out these random questions makes me aware that a warning is needed: not all of them have clear-cut, certain answers! But that’s hardly surprising – we are talking, after all, of documents that belong to a world long gone, and which are written in languages most of us can’t read. But that, I think, just adds to the fascination.

A book like The Lion Handbook can only give us greater clarity regarding the written word of God – and, what ultimately matters even more, can only lead us closer to its chief figure, the Living Word of God, Jesus himself.

Happy Christmas!

Father, thank you for your written word in scripture. Help me to value it as the inspired word of God and to give what time and attention I can to absorbing its teaching. And thank you for those you have gifted with the necessary expertise to help explain its origin, its main characteristics and its message. Help me to gratefully take advantage of their knowledge, and so to grow in maturity and understanding. Amen.

When you're groping in the dark

¹⁶ When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, ¹⁷ where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them. ¹⁸ A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. ¹⁹ When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were frightened. ²⁰ But he said to them, “It is I; don’t be afraid.” ²¹ Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading. John 6:16-21

It's a slightly puzzling story, this account of Jesus feeding the 5000 (that’s John 6:1-15) and then walking on the water, the second of those two miracles especially.

Various questions arise.

First, how did Jesus and the disciples become separated after the feeding miracle? Verses 16 and 17 suggest that the disciples expected him to be back with them by the time evening came and they needed to head off for Capernaum in their boat - but he “had not yet joined them”, so they set off without him. Matthew and Mark agree with John that he had gone up into the mountains to be alone, but no reason is given why he seems to have kept them waiting in vain. Did he let them down? Or did they simply misunderstand his intentions?

Second, when he came to them walking on the water in the dark (spooky!), what was the point of this spectacular display of sheerly supernatural power? I heard it suggested recently that “it’s almost as if he is showing off!” Nobody gets healed, after all, or raised from the dead, and the disciples’ danger doesn’t seem to have been as dire as in, say, Matthew 8:23-27, so a miracle like this could be said to be, well, rather superfluous. What is he doing?

Who are we to question the ways of God? He does as he pleases, and is not answerable to us, so it seems almost impertinent to raise these questions. But we can be sure that he never acts in ways recorded in scripture without some good reason, so hopefully it’s not wrong of me to probe a little (remember Job!). I can think of at least two lessons we can draw, one of them somewhat “theological” (so please bear with me if that’s not your thing!), the other comfortingly pastoral.

First, the theological point. This hinges on the fact that the whole episode is set in the context of the Jewish Passover Festival (chapter 6 verse 4). This, of course, was the great event when God delivered his people from slavery in Egypt under the leadership of Moses, and miraculously fed them in the barren wilderness. Moses was a pivotal figure for the people of Israel, and the first five books of the Old Testament are linked with his name.

In the last of those books, Deuteronomy, he predicts the coming of “a prophet like me from among you” (Deuteronomy 18:15-18), and this expectation – of a once-for-all, greatest-of-all prophet - was eagerly awaited by the Jewish people. By feeding a large crowd (the estimate of five thousand men didn’t include women and children, by the way) in a deserted place, was Jesus making a claim to be that once-for-all prophet? The people certainly drew that conclusion: “After the people saw the sign Jesus had performed, they began to say, ‘Surely this is the prophet who is to come into the world’” (verse 14).

John doesn’t spell it out, but he clearly wants his readers to see Jesus in a new light; not only the Son of God, the living Word, but also the prophet who is even greater than Moses, the prophet long awaited by the people.

Christian tradition has often referred to Jesus as our “prophet, priest and king”, but, perhaps understandably, we tend to downplay the “prophet” part. Priest, yes, of course – in fact he is both priest and sacrifice, making atonement for us by the shedding of his blood; and king, of course that too - the one to whom we pledge glad allegiance and obedience.

But prophet? This covers a variety of roles: inspirer, rebuker, leader, teacher, guide, comforter, encourager; in essence the very spokesman of God in human form. Perhaps this can give us today a fresh angle on how to relate our Saviour.

As for the walking on the water… no, this wasn’t an example of Jesus show-boating! It was an illustration of the fact that in a time of fear and trouble for the disciples, Jesus was watching them and came to them, even though humanly that was impossible.

Every Christian of any experience will know times when the absence of Jesus seems to be more of a reality than his presence; as the disciples must have done, we are puzzled and ask the question “Where is he? Why doesn’t he come? Why has he left me?” Prayer may seem unanswered; the going seems to get harder every day; we may feel abandoned.

But the message of this second miracle is that though we can’t see him, he can see us; though we struggle to come to him, nothing can prevent him coming to us.

For me, Paul puts it perfectly in Romans 8:35-39: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No! In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us”. Nothing, not even the loneliness of a storm-tossed boat in the dark of night “will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”.

Are you feeling the absence of Jesus today? Even groping in the dark? This remarkable event can only encourage us, if nothing else, not to give up on him. He is there, though you cannot see him. And he will come, even though you have no idea when or how. His beautiful, simple promise doesn’t change: “It’s me! Don’t be afraid!”

Dear Father, when I feel afraid or anxious or lonely, when my prayers seem to go unheard and unanswered, when I even feel abandoned by you, please help me to hold on until I see Jesus with the eye of faith. Enable me to hear his voice “It’s me! Don’t be afraid!” Amen.

Real-life saints

 

⁹ Do your best to come to me quickly, ¹⁰ for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. ¹¹ Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry. ¹² I sent Tychicus to Ephesus. ¹³ When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments.

¹⁴ Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done. ¹⁵ You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message.

¹⁶ At my first defence, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them.  2 Timothy 4:9-16

We human beings, foolish and feeble as we are, easily look for heroes. It may be a favourite sports star or pop idol. It may be someone we get drawn to in more serious areas, history, perhaps, or politics. And it may be in the church – a favourite preacher, pastor or writer who, as we see it, can do no wrong. (I knew an elderly minister when I was young whose mode of dress was very out-dated even at that time: pin-stripe trousers, wing-collar, waistcoat, the lot. And - would you believe it - young men in his church, as well as lapping up his preaching, also took to imitating his dress.)

We all know that we should worship God alone, that our focus should be firmly on Christ. But such is our lack of security that we unwittingly gather to ourselves human props who make us feel better. It’s usually pretty harmless, perhaps, but in extreme cases it could lead to us going seriously off the rails.

I can’t think of any Bible character more prone to this kind of treatment in today’s church than the apostle Paul. Not that he would have wanted it, of course. God forbid! - just see the horror with which he and his friend Barnabas responded to the idolatry which the people of Lystra treated them with (Acts 14). I love Bible passages such as 2 Timothy 4:9-18, passages which show us Paul in his weakness and sheer unadorned humanness. They’re included in scripture, I suspect, as a warning to us: “By all means admire and respect such people - but be careful; keep your eyes firmly fixed on Jesus!”

If we skim through these verses I think we find super-saint Paul portrayed in down-to-earth human terms, the mere man he was: no halo round his head, and no pedestal under his feet. And as such he can be a real challenge to us lesser disciples.

1.   He could feel lonely: “Do your best to come to me quickly… Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia…” and then the rather plaintive little note: “Only Luke is with me”. All right, I may be reading more loneliness into his words than he really felt. But it’s very clear that he valued and appreciated his friends and missed them when they weren’t around.

Is there a word here for us about our friendships? Are we sometimes guilty of taking them for granted? We enjoy the pleasure of receiving the benefits of friendship – but what about also giving those benefits? Is it largely a one-way journey? The question that matters most is not “Do I have good friends?” but “Am I a good friend to others?”

2.   He knew the pain of being let down: “Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica”.

Oh. Fancy anyone “deserting” Paul! Who was Demas, and what went wrong with him? What did “loving this world” mean in his case? The answer to both questions is simple: we don’t know. All we have is the briefest of mentions from obviously happier times (Colossians 4:14 and Philemon 24). But, well – it happens.

One of the first lessons we learn in the Christian life is that it carries its weight of hurts and disappointments: the enthusiastic conversions that fizzle out; the eager companions in some form of ministry who run out of steam; the rock-solid friend who suddenly shocks us by giving in to temptation. Such things go deep. But let’s beware – it’s just when we’re feeling low and perhaps a little self-pitying that we need to examine ourselves for the times we have been a disappointment to others.

We have no idea if Demas was ever restored, but who knows? What we do know is that the tragic story of Judas Iscariot can never be erased. But whatever, here’s an idea for us: how about setting aside a concentrated prayer-session for the Demases we have known? There could be some wonderful surprises coming our way!

3.   Paul is flesh and blood like the rest of us: “When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas”. I picture Paul (in prison, remember) sitting at a desk as he writes this letter, and looking up at his friend Luke on the other side of the room: “Luke, is it just me or is the weather beginning to turn a bit chilly? Now, what did I do with that cloak…”

Earlier verses make it clear that he didn’t expect to live long, so that a little home comfort (not that he was actually at home, of course) would have meant a lot. (Let’s also notice, especially those of us who lead and preach, that he asked for some reading and writing matter as well: keep up the study!).

4.   Paul refuses to give in to anger or a spirit of revenge: “Alexander the metal-worker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him…” (implying, “So I won’t”.) The same thought recurs in verse 16: “At my first defence, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them”.

A truly Christlike sentiment (“Father, forgive them – they don’t know what they are doing”: Luke 23:34).

Exactly who this Alexander was no-one can be sure, and it doesn’t matter anyway. But remember that Paul was there when Stephen was stoned to death, and may have heard his dying words, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:60). Forgiving those who hurt us in some way may not be easy: but it alone is the way of Christ. Are any of us harbouring grudges or nursing bitterness? It’s time pray for grace to wash it all away.

So… the very human, weak Paul. Looking at him in this light somehow makes the great apostle even more attractive, don’t you think?

Father, I’m aware of being really a very ordinary person, and I have no desire to be anything else. But I delight in the way you take the damaged goods of human nature and turn them into something beautiful in the likeness of Christ. I consecrate myself to you afresh. Please make of me what you please! Amen.

The curse of covetousness and the joy of contentment

You shall not covet… Exodus 20:17

Jesus said, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head”. Matthew 8:20

... I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. Philippians 4:11

Do you ever feel like slinging a brick at your television? I do, but fortunately we don’t keep a ready-to-hand supply of bricks in our living-room. My problem can be summed up in a single word: adverts. The psalmist in Psalm 139:22 is talking about his enemies when he says “I hate them with a perfect hatred” (KJV), but I must confess that I tend to apply that verse to adverts; they’ve become something of a pet hate of mine.

Am I going a bit over the top? Well, yes, of course. But sometimes a little exaggeration helps to make a point. I’m sure there are adverts which are honest, realistic and sometimes genuinely amusing. But so often they are vulgar, shallow, gross - and just plain dishonest, not to mention downright stupid. (And the money that must have been poured into producing them…!)

My wife and I have a fairly elderly car which runs pretty well and is looked after efficiently and inexpensively by a friendly (if very greasy) mechanic. No problem. Ah, but wouldn’t we be much happier if we had one of those glitzy, glamorous cars which only ever seem to go sweeping through glorious scenery on empty, sunlit roads – and which never get snarled up in traffic jams or scraped by a careless driver talking on his phone instead of concentrating on the road? Answer: no, not really, not once the initial buzz has worn off.

And as for “must-read” books, “must-see” films, “must-have” clothes, etc, etc, etc… grrr! Who has decided on that “must”? Oh, and that very pleasant drink called coffee – well, pleasant certainly, but it’s just a drink, isn’t it, for goodness’ sake?

All right, I’ve calmed down now, and I invite you to ponder the three Bible passages at the top. They touch on the related themes of covetousness and contentment…

You shall not covet - Exodus 20:17.

This is the last of the Ten Commandments, and it’s particularly interesting because it’s the only one which is about attitudes rather than actions; coveting is something that goes on in your mind and heart.

But though that’s so, its great danger is that it so readily leads to actions, even to sins like murder, stealing and adultery. Even if we don’t give way outwardly, it turns our personalities crabby and shrivelled, over-preoccupied with what our lives might be, rather than encouraging us to roll up our sleeves and get on with the far more fulfilling job of living Christlike lives in the situations we are actually in.

A question to ponder: are miserly, acquisitive people ever truly happy?

Jesus said, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” - Matthew 8:20.

Jesus is speaking to an over-enthusiastic lawyer who has made a rather rash pledge: “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go”. And it’s as if he is saying, “Well, that’s wonderful. But you need to be aware that if you do indeed follow me wherever I go you must be prepared to sacrifice any or all of the normal comforts of life which most people take for granted. Are you sure you are ready for that, really ready?” (Matthew doesn’t tell us how the lawyer responded to the challenge…)

But we get the point, which is for us as much as for the lawyer: following Jesus is indeed wonderful, but count the cost! Among other things, say goodbye to materialism. Don’t even begin to swallow the lies of the slick advertising executives; they will only lead you astray.

... I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. Philippians 4:11

This, of course, is the apostle Paul, writing to a church for which he had a particular affection. He has been going through a hard time, and the believers in Philippi have given him material help, for which he is grateful. But he adds an interesting note: he is not simply “content” with what he has, but he has “learned the secret of being content”.

From which two things emerge. First, contentment is a “secret”, not easy to define or recognise; and, second, it has to be “learned”, implying that it doesn’t come easily, and certainly not automatically. We don’t know how well-off Paul was in his pre-Christian days, but quite likely he was fairly prosperous, so to have to adjust to his new life as a Chrisian (see 2 Corinthians 6:3-10!) must have required some determinedly gritted teeth, to put it mildly.

Over all this, of course, hovers the great saying of Jesus: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” For us that’s pretty much a figure of speech – we don’t expect to have to take up the cross in a literal sense. But for those who first heard it, it was anything but - it was stark, literal reality…

Jokes aside, the advertising industry, dedicated to the false gods of greed, jealousy and discontent, seduces us into worshipping an idol. Well, we know what we must do about that, don’t we? Somebody pass me a brick, please…

Father, I am so prone to be seduced by the idol of materialism or self-centredness. Please forgive me! And please help me to learn the precious secret of contentment, that Jesus alone might be my all-in-all. Amen.

The Greek philosopher Socrates (c 470-399 BC) is reported to have said, as he strolled through a market in Athens, “Who would have thought there could be so many things I can do without?”