“Kingdom people seek first the Kingdom of God and its justice; church people often put the church work above concerns of justice, mercy and truth. Church people think about how to get people into the church; Kingdom people think about how to get the church into the world. Church people worry that the world might change the church, Kingdom people work to see the church change the world.”
Quoted in The Road to Missional by Michael Frost (p80)
“Immediately accusations are brought against the applicant. For why does he not work, you say? And why is he to be maintained in idleness? But, tell me, is it by working that you have what you have? Did you not receive it as an inheritance from your fathers? And even if you work, is this a reason why you should reproach another? Do you not hear what Paul says? For after saying, ‘If anyone will not work, let him not eat,’ he says, ‘Do not be weary in well doing.”
How often have you heard the complaint about the beggar being idle or not making an effort to work? And many will answer Chrysostom by saying, ‘we did work’ for what we have. But did you get everything that way? Your childhood home, parental care, education, food, clothing, opportunity? How much of that was yours through no effort of your own but instead your good luck to be born where and when you were?
But John isn’t finished, we have more objections to pull down.
“But what do they say? He is an impostor. What do you say, O man? Do you call him an impostor for the sake of a single loaf or of a garment? But, you say, he will sell it immediately. And do you manage all your affairs well?”
I’ve heard countless the times the argument that we shouldn’t give money to the beggar because he will misuse the gift, spend it on drink or worse. And have you never spent money on something you shouldn’t? Hypocrite, John calls us, and he’s right.
“But what? Are all poor through idleness? Is no one so from shipwreck? None from lawsuits? None from being robbed? None from dangers? None from illness? None from any other difficulties? If, however, we hear any one bewailing such evils and crying out aloud and looking up naked toward heaven, with long hair and clad in rags, at once we call him, ‘The impostor! The deceiver! The swindler!’ Are you not ashamed? Whom do you call impostor? Do not accuse the man or give him a hard time. But, you say, he has means and pretends.”
The other claim I’ve heard as an excuse not to give is that really this beggar doesn’t need it, he has a Rolls Royce somewhere, he’s probably better off than I am. Well, John has an answer to that too.
“This is a charge against yourself, not against him. He knows that he has to deal with the cruel, with wild beasts rather than with rational persons. He knows that even if he tells his pitiable story, no one pays any attention. And on this account he is forced to assume a more miserable guise, that he may melt your soul. If we see a person coming to beg in a respectable dress, ‘This is an impostor’, you say, ‘and he comes in this way that he may be supposed to be of good birth.’ If we see one in the contrary guise we reproach him too. What then are they to do? Oh, the cruelty, Oh the inhumanity.”
So what then are we to do?
“‘Give to him who begs from you, and do not refuse him who would borrow from you.’ Stretch out your hand; let it not be closed up. We have not been constituted examiners into others’ lives, for then we should have compassion on no one. When you call upon God, why do you say, ‘Remember not my sins’? So, even if that person is a great sinner, make this allowance in his case also, and do not remember his sins. It is the season of kindness, not of strict inquiry; of mercy, not of account. He wishes to be maintained; if you are willing, give; but if not willing, send him away without raising doubts. Why are you wretched and miserable? Why do you not pity him yourself, but even turn away those who would as well? For when such a one hears from you, ‘This person is a cheat; that a hypocrite; and the other lends out money,’ he neither gives to the one nor to the other, for he suspects all to be such. For you know that we easily suspect evil, but good, not so easily.”
So, think again next time you rush by the beggar in the street.
All quotes from Chrysostom’s On the epistle to the Hebrews
“For if our preaching were a matter of display and ambition, it would have been right to jump from one subject to another and change about continually, taking no thought for you but only for your applauses. But since we have not devoted our zeal to this, but our labours are all for your profit, we shall not cease discoursing to you on the same subjects, till you succeed in learning them.”
John Chrysostom On the epistle to the Hebrews quoted in the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture : Hebrews
Brave man.
“Do not say, ‘Why am I not rich?’ or ‘If I were rich, I would give to the poor.’ You cannot know that you would not covet riches if you had any. For now indeed you say these things, but, if you were put to the test, you would be different.”
- John Chrysostom, On the Epistle to the Hebrews
From the Ancient Christian Commentary Series by Erik Heen, Hebrews (Downers Grove Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2005). p34
| 2011 (Rob Bell) |
1913 (various) |
| “God gives us what we want, and if that’s hell, we can have it.” | “For my own part, I assuredly believe that wrong-doing will have its reward in the world to come.” – Rev Dr Charles Brown |
| “The chasm is the rich man’s heart!” | “He [the rich man] is compelled to realise that between Lazarus and himself there is a great gulf fixed, a gulf which cannot be crossed. Who fixed that gulf? The answer is plain. The rich man himself fixed the gulf in this life, and in the life to come its existence cuts him off from hope and consolation.” – Rev C Silvester Horne |
| “For many in the modern world, the idea of hell is a holdover from primitive, mythic religion that uses fear and punishment to control people for all sorts of devious reasons. And so the logical conclusion is that we’ve evolved beyond all of that outdated belief,” | “If the Bible teaches ‘everlasting punishment’ so much the worse for the Bible, because we cannot believe it; you may quote texts and have behind the texts the very finest scholarship to justify certain interpretations, but it is no good. We are no longer the slaves of a book, nor the blind devotees of a creed; we believe in love and evolution.” – Rev AJ Waldron |
| We should be “concerned with the hells on earth right now | “From what we can see around us, there are hundreds of people alive today who are suffering torture in hells of their own making…” – Rev Dr Charles Brown |
| “Hell is our refusal to trust God’s retelling of our story.” | “We make our own hell or heaven, and we carry it with us.” – Silas Hocking |
| “So the next time someone asks you if you believe in an actual hell, you can always say, “Yes, I do believe that my garbage goes somewhere” | “Gehenna, therefore, in common speech, stood for the wastage of Jerusalem, and to the Hebrew prophets became the type of the doom of the wicked.” – FB Meyer |
| “There is hell now, and there is hell later, and Jesus teaches us to take both seriously.” | “For my own part, I certainly believe in a hell hereafter as well as in a hell here.” – Rev Dr Charles Brown |
I’m reading Richard Foster’s Devotional Classics (not currently in print) as a fresh source for my discipleship and very much enjoying it. Here’s CS Lewis from Mere Christianity on the Christian way.
“The Christian way is different: harder, and easier. Christ says, ‘Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked – the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.”
Luke 14:33 Jesus calls us to give all. I’m not sure how often that message is heard in churches today.
Clement of Alexandria wrote a ‘special discourse on to help Christians puzzled about the right use of their money and troubled by the absolute command of the Lord to the rich young ruler, ‘if you would be perfect, sell all you have…’. Here’s what Chadwick says about this,
“On a rapid reading it might seem as if Clement were merely a compromiser trying to wriggle out of the plain meaning of a commandment. But a fairer reading of his tract shows that he did not see the gospel ethic as imposing legalistic obligations but rather as a statement of God’s highest purpose for those who follow him to the utmost. What really matters is the use rather than the accident of possession. Accordingly Clement laid down a guide for the wealthy converts of the Alexandrian church, which imposed a most strenuous standard of frugality and self-discipline. Clement passionately opposed any luxury or ostentation, and much that protested to be lawful he regarded as highly inexpedient.” (p98)
Emphasis mine. What would our teaching and instruction be to the wealthy in the church?
Why did the early church grow and succeed? It’s a fascinating question. Chadwick gives some support to those that love cities but also says,
“Nevertheless, the Christian mission was not directed merely at centres of power. It was consciously aimed at the common people, and the ideals of simplicity and humility were never far from the minds of those who had to propagate their faith.” (p72)
Emphasis mine. I’m not sure that those ideals are anyway close to the minds of most church leaders in the western church. Maybe there’s a connection there.
Chadwick writes that in the 2nd century AD a ‘vivid and cruel portrait [of the church] was painted by the pagan satirist Lucian of Samosata (c.170)’ and then he says this,
“Lucian had a low opinion of the human race, and treated Christianity as merely additional evidence of human absurdity and folly. But he knew that the Christians were unbelievably generous with their money and preferred to be open-handed rather than inquire too closely into the recipients.” (p57)
Emphasis mine. Could our opponents possibly say that of the church today? Unbelievably generous and open handed?
“Church planting is not simply a matter of getting a number of individuals saved; it is about the advance of God’s community in the earth. He wants a community, his city, his family in which he could dwell. Church planting is an extension of the community, not simply an exercise in multiplying the head count. Part of God’s purpose in saving us is to overcome our intense selfishness and isolation.” (bold added)
Amen.
“A person who is obsessed with Jesus knows that the best thing he can do is be faithful to his Saviour in every aspect of his life, continually saying ‘thank you!’ to God. An obsessed person knows there can never be intimacy if he is always trying to pay God back or work hard enough to be worthy. He revels in his role as child and friend of God.”
- Francis Chan Crazy Love
“A person who is obsessed with Jesus is more concerned with his or her character than comfort. Obsessed people know that true joy doesn’t depend on circumstances or environment; it is a gift that must be chosen and cultivated, a gift that ultimately comes from God (James 1:2-4).”
- Francis Chan, Crazy Love
“People who are obsessed with God have an intimate relationship with Him. They are nourished by God’s Word throughout the day because they know that forty minutes on Sunday is not enough to sustain them for a whole week, especially when they will encounter so many distractions and alternative messages.”
- Francis Chan, Crazy Love
“People who are obsessed are raw with God; they do not attempt to mask the ugliness of their sins or their failures. Obsessed people don’t put it on for God; He is their safe place, where they can be at peace.”
- Francis Chan, Crazy Love
“We intend to reexamine our income and expenditure, in order to manage on less and give away more. We lay down no rules or regulations, for either ourselves or others. Yet we resolve to renounce waste and oppose extravagance in personal living, clothing and housing, travel and church buildings. We also accept the distinction between necessities and luxuries, creative hobbies and empty status symbols, modesty and vanity, occasional celebrations and normal routine, and between the service of God and slavery to fashion. Where to draw the line requires conscientious thought and decision by us, together with members of our family. Those of us who belong to the West need the help of our Third World brothers and sisters in evaluating our standards of spending.”
“…in a society which worships material prosperity, Jesus commands us to worship God and to invest in heaven’s treasures. This means having a mindset at odds with the materialistic consumerism of our age. It means believing that ‘a person’s life does not consist in the abundance of their possessions’ (Luke 12:16), in defiance of the claims of the advertising agencies. In a society where 6year olds are teased for not wearing the right brand of trainers, this is profoundly counter-cultural and will not be easy.”
- Simon Coupland, Success
“A person who is obsessed is characterized by committed, settled, passionate love for God, above and before every other thing and every other being.”
- Francis Chan, Crazy Love
“A person who is obsessed thinks about heaven frequently. Obsessed people orient their lives around eternity; they are not fixed only on what is here in front of them.”
- Francis Chan, Crazy Love
“People who are obsessed with God are known as givers, not takers. Obsessed people genuinely think that others matter as much as they do, and they are particularly aware of those who are poor around the world (James 2:14-26).”
- Francis Chan, Crazy Love
“People who are obsessed with Jesus do not consider service a burden. Obsessed people take joy in loving God by loving His people (Matt 13:44; John 15:8)”
- Francis Chan, Crazy Love
“A person who is obsessed with Jesus knows that the sin of pride is always a battle. Obsessed people know that you can never be ‘humble enough,’ and so they seek to make themselves less known and Christ more known (Matt 5:16).”
- Francis Chan, Crazy Love
“Obsessed people are more concerned with obeying God than doing what is expected or fulfilling the status quo. A person who is obsessed with Jesus will do things that don’t always make sense in terms of success or wealth on this earth. As Martin Luther put it, ‘There are two days on my calendar: this day and that day’ (Luke 14:25-35; Matt 7:13-23; 8:18-22; Rev 3:1-6).”
- Francis Chan, Crazy Love
- Francis Chan, Crazy Love
“People who are obsessed with Jesus aren’t consumed with their personal safety and comfort above all else. Obsessed people care more about God’s kingdom coming to this earth than their own lives being shielded from pain or distress.”
- Francis Chan, Crazy Love
“People who are obsessed with Jesus give freely and openly without censure. Obsessed people love those who hate them and who can never love them back.”
- Francis Chan, Crazy Love
“As far as I can tell, public discourse in our society is now owned entirely by advertising. We are a culture of omnivorous desire. Our conversation tends to be limited, even at college, to ‘Here are my needs, appetites, yearnings, and desires; now, how can I fulfil them?’ Everything, everyone exists only to satisfy my relentless need, with no critique of which needs are really worth having.”
Sums it up quite well.
“After reading nearly five thousand pages of emerging-church literature, I have no doubt that the emerging church, while loosely defined and far from uniform, can be described and critiqued as a diverse, but recognizable, movement. You might be an emergent Christian: if you listen to U2, Moby, and Johnny Cash’s Hurt (sometimes in church), use sermon illustrations from The Sopranos, drink lattes in the afternoon and Guinness in the evenings, and always use a Mac; if your reading list consists primarily of Stanley Hauerwas, Henri Nouwen, N. T. Wright, Stan Grenz, Dallas Willard, Brennan Manning, Jim Wallis, Frederick Buechner, David Bosch, John Howard Yoder, Wendell Berry, Nancy Murphy, John Franke, Walter Winks and Lesslie Newbigin (not to mention McLaren, Pagitt, Bell, etc.) and your sparring partners include D. A. Carson, John Calvin, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and Wayne Grudem; if your idea of quintessential Christian discipleship is Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, or Desmond Tutu; if you don’t like George W. Bush or institutions or big business or capitalism or Left Behind Christianity; if your political concerns are poverty, AIDS, imperialism, war-mongering, CEO salaries, consumerism, global warming, racism, and oppression and not so much abortion and gay marriage; if you are into bohemian, goth, rave, or indie; if you talk about the myth of redemptive violence and the myth of certainty; if you lie awake at night having nightmares about all the ways modernism has ruined your life; if you love the Bible as a beautiful, inspiring collection of works that lead us into the mystery of God but is not inerrant; if you search for truth but aren’t sure it can be found; if you’ve ever been to a church with prayer labyrinths, candles, Play-Doh, chalk-drawings, couches, or beanbags (your youth group doesn’t count); if you loathe words like linear, propositional, rational, machine, and hierarchy and use words like ancient-future, jazz, mosaic, matrix, missional, vintage, and dance; if you grew up in a very conservative Christian home that in retrospect seems legalistic, naive, and rigid; if you support women in all levels of ministry, prioritize urban over suburban, and like your theology narrative instead of systematic; if you disbelieve in any sacred-secular divide; if you want to be the church and not just go to church; if you long for a community that is relational, tribal, and primal like a river or a garden; if you believe doctrine gets in the way of an interactive relationship with Jesus; if you believe who goes to hell is no one’s business and no one may be there anyway; if you believe salvation has a little to do with atoning for guilt and a lot to do with bringing the whole creation back into shalom with its Maker; if you believe following Jesus is not believing the right things but living the right way; if it really bugs you when people talk about going to heaven instead of heaven coming to us; if you disdain monological, didactic preaching; if you use the word “story” in all your propositions about postmodernism—if all or most of this tortuously long sentence describes you, then you might be an emergent Christian.”
“Ultimately, there is no way to share: either our confidence is in God or it is in our savings account. To claim that we can thus insure ourselves and still put our trust in God is to add hypocrisy to mistrust.”
– J Ellul, Money and Power, Marshall Pickering, 1986
“It is no wonder that we in the West are so frequently described as being materialistic, superficial and selfish. Our drive to possess and consume, as well as our tendency to believe that worth can be measured by wealth, are hallmarks of a society that has lost its way.”
p295 – John Stott, Issues Facing Christians Today 4th Edition
“Hasn’t the individualistic question about personal salvation almost completely left us all? Aren’t we really under the impression that there are more important things than that question (perhaps not more important than the matter itself, but more important than the question!)? I know it sounds pretty monstrous to say that. But fundamentally, isn’t this biblical? Does the question about saving one’s soul appear in the Old Testament at all? Aren’t righteousness and the kingdom of God on earth the focus of everything, and isn’t it true that Romans 3:24ff is not an individualistic doctrine of salvation, but the culmination of the view that God alone is righteous? It is not with the beyond that we are concerned, but with this world as created and preserved, subjected to laws, reconciled and restored. What is above this world is, in the gospel, intended to exist for this world; I mean that, not in the anthropocentric sense of the liberal, mystic, pietistic, ethical theology, but in the biblical sense of the creation and of the incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
What I get from this, is a question I’ve been asking myself for a while now, in that when we preach the Gospel we make it about the individual and what God wants to save us from. Therefore essentially the Gospel is about me. This is not the whole story. It’s perhaps more true to say what God wants to save us for! To save us for His glory, to save us for the liberation of creation, to save us for His kingdom to advance amongst the nations and the gospel preached to the poor. None of this can happen while we are still in darkness so he must rescue us and redeem us. It isn’t about us, the Gospel isn’t merely about forgiveness of personal sins (but it certainly isn’t less than that) but about the glory of God and His righteousness. Which is why we seek that first I guess….
I believe Jesus when he said 'life does not consist in the abundance of our possessions'. I believe he offers something better. This blog is mostly about that search.
I'm also a husband, a father, church planter, keen runner, reader, and motorcyclist. These and a few other things make guest appearances from time to time.
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