Living and Dying to Show the Preciousness of Christ
The world is full of scary things, wicked monsters, and unseen— but cunning —dragons. God wants us to fight them. How do we defeat them?
We fight them by trusting Jesus, singing God’s praises joyfully, sharing what God has given us with others, and obeying His word. So even though there are scary things in the world, God gives us courage to defeat them.
There’s a story told of a town in Ohio where the entire town started running, helter-skelter, out of town, but no one knew why; only some vague notion that the dam had broken. After everyone realized that they’d simply stampeded out of town for no reason whatsoever, they all, with red-faced embarrassment, headed back to their homes and workplaces.
Men are a herd creature. When they get spooked they stampede. Crowds, when they get moving, are not governable, they’re not going to pause to consider, weigh, or deliberate the arguments for or against their direction. So, what took place in our nation’s Capitol this week––and lest we forget, what took place most of the summer in many of our nation’s most prominent cities––is the result of crowds flowing downhill.
The duty of the Christian is that no matter which direction the crowd is flowing, he must not get swept off his feet. Crowds entice fools to join them. But as Solomon warned his son, the wise man must learn to stand fast in wisdom, no matter how enticing the offer of the sinful crowd is. It isn’t because crowds are innately wrong. Rather, it is because there’s only one crowd which we are called to rush forward with, and that is the great host without number, which surrounds the throne of Christ. We must join with the company of saints to eagerly offer our worship to the Risen Christ.
The reason our nation is fracturing into tribes, breaking the tenuous alliances that held us together, and drawing battle lines is that we have fled from the worship of the triune God, and run to worship various idols. So, don’t join frenzied crowds who aren’t governed by the Spirit of Wisdom. But do not lag behind when it comes to zealously pursuing the worship of God alone.
Courage is not being the first to comment, and the last one to leave a Facebook fight (round about 1am). Courage isn’t talking louder than everyone else. It isn’t the mere presence of adrenaline in the midst of a tense situation. Courage has many counterfeits, while cowardice often wears a bold face.
The coward masks his spinelessness with all assortment of props. Protein shakes & workouts. Or an arsenal of guns & ammo. Or an airbrushed Instagram profile with perfect furniture, perfect clothes, perfect food, perfect family, perfect face. But when push comes to shove, the coward’s props all topple over with him.
Scripture defines courage, very simply, as standing strong. This begins in the inner man; but true courage is too big a thing to stay in the heart, it manifests in our actions. To stand fast when everyone else is fleeing takes firmness of will, confidence regardless of circumstance, and determination to remain in the place which you’ve been assigned.
It takes courage for a couple in the midst of a marital rough patch to remain faithful to their vows. It takes courage to not capitulate when a rebellious teenager is trying to exploit loopholes in your household rules. It takes courage for a citizen to swim against the current flowing quickly to national destruction.
So, do you cover your cowardice with all variety of props? Or do you stand firm? When you give in to temptation, you prove (despite all your props) that you’re a coward. But, if you would be a man or woman of courage, you must remain steadfast in obedience to God’s word, with a godly immovability. Some may call it stubbornness, but if you are standing in the spot God assigned you to stand, it goes by another name: courageous obedience.
Children must learn to be courageous. While movies and books often moralize that you need to “believe in yourself” and use that motto as the basis for your confidence, scripture has a different basis for where courage comes from.
First it doesn’t come from looking within yourself. The Lord told Joshua
Joshua 1:5-6a (KJV)
5 There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, [so] I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong and of a good courage…
And David commanded Solomon, the future king of Israel with an echo of that same commission:
1 Chronicles 28:20 (KJV)
Be strong and of good courage, and do [it]: fear not, nor be dismayed: for the LORD God, [even] my God, [will be] with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee, until thou hast finished all the work for the service of the house of the LORD.
Courage comes from God’s nearness, not your own self-assurance. So, are you shy about standing up to your friends when they are foolish? Remember God is with you, and be courageous. Are you fearful about your dance recital, getting sick, or monsters in the closet? God tells his children, “I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.”
We have largely been duped into thinking that the cardinal characteristic which should distinguish us as Christians is “niceness”. Christ said it was our love which ought to denote the fact we are His disciples (Jn. 13:35); we have taken this love to mean a simple, placid docility. But agape love is not easy, quaint or tidy. It is hard work, and takes courage. Loving our enemies implies having enemies.
In the first two chapters of Joshua an interesting contrast is presented. After Moses’ death, God is imperative that Joshua “be strong & courageous” and Joshua, in turn, exhorts the tribes to “be strong & courageous” (Jos. 1:6, 7, 9, & 18). They face a vicious fight in front of them, and must be braced for the battles ahead. Their enemies were indeed fierce and mighty, with towering cities.
Yet, it is remarkable that when the two spies are hidden with Rahab the Harlot in Jericho, she intimates that it is the enemies of God’s people who are terrified of them and (as the KJV puts it) their “hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you” (Jos. 2:11). God’s people, when obedient to God’s commands are to be a terror to their enemies.God’s people, when obedient to God’s commands are to be a terror to their enemies.
The Church is to be militant in our advancement of the Gospel of Peace. Our sword is the Word of God, and it is unloving to not proclaim the kingship of Christ over all the nations. The mealy-mouthedness of many Christians has had the net of effect of inhibiting the Gospel’s advancement. Note how fearful many secularists are of the distinctively Christian policies which the Trump administration seems poised to enforce and advance.
However, we must bear in mind too, that God will destroy His enemies and often this means turning them into His friends. We must be known by our agape, which will truly terrify the enemies of God and His people. For many Christians, we think having enemies is a bad thing and we go about making peace treaties with our enemies primarily by conceding the truth and purity of the Word of God. It is peace through compromise, which is no peace and is no love. But in this Gospel Age, God aims to destroy His enemies by converting them through the potency of the truth of His Word. This isn’t about merely “winning arguments”; it is about Gospel-confidence and love which invariably will accomplish the very thing which God intended it to perform. As a pastor once memorably lamented, “Wherever the Apostle Paul went there were riots, wherever I go, they serve tea.”