CDA | International News

“Love is the fulfilment of the Law” (Rom.13:10)

Fred: You know Jon, what I find so liberating about the statement “Love is the fulfilment of the law,” is that it simplifies behaviour for me to a simple motivation that is easy to understand. Didn’t Paul the apostle say at the end of that wonderful chapter on love in 1 Corinthians 13 that of the three ‘greats’, faith, hope and love, the greatest is love? If more Christians practised loving their neighbour, the world would be a better place, and we would have less wrangling about doctrinal differences.

Jonathan: That sounds reasonable, but what do you mean by love? Do you mean sensual love? Or, sentimental love? Or, love that really cares about the material condition of people? Or, the kind of love that is prepared to give of oneself, no matter what the cost, so that other people might come to understand that God loves them and wants them to be reconciled with Him?

Fred: Why can’t we just learn to love other people for themselves; with no strings attached?

Jonathan: Once again I come back to the question, ‘What do you mean by love?’ If you really love the other person, don’t you want the very best for him? But what is the best we can wish for the other person? How well do we understand this? Or is it up to every Tom, Dick and Harry to interpret it for themselves? Let’s agree that genuine love is not a mere emotion. It has to be demonstrated in a practical way. What is to guide our actions so that what we do is not merely a Band-Aid solution to their problem? For example, you can give some money to a homeless person, and that could be considered a loving act, but does that really help him to get out of his situation? Is that kind of love sufficient? Surely, God has something more than that in mind when He tells us to love our neighbour as ourselves. God’s concern for people has long-term implications, and that has to do with their eternal welfare. If we don’t keep that in mind, how can we say that we are truly concerned for the other person?
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This dialogue raises a few issues that need some clarification. Paul, the apostle, wrote these words to the Christians in Rome in the context of the Ten Commandments (Rom.13:8-10). A person who loves his neighbour will not have an adulterous relationship with his wife. He won’t want to murder his neighbour, try to steal what belongs to him, or covet anything that is his neighbour’s. In other words, the law tells us what we should do, or not do, to our neighbour, and love tells us how we should behave towards him or her. The what needs the how, and the how is guided by the what.

As Christians we are constantly faced with the question, ‘How can I express God’s love towards others in a way that reflects God’s love and concern for them. After all, I am merely His representative. Every rep is inducted into his role by those whom he is employed to represent. God has not left us to work out for ourselves either the content of our message or the nature of our approach to people who don’t know Him. He has given us his Word to help shape our perspectives so that we see, and approach life from His point of view.

From God’s point of view
The Bible makes it clear that God is good; and because He is good, He has given us specific directions for how we need to live in community. These directions have the good of the individual and the community in mind. We see this explained in a nutshell in Psalm 25:8-10.

Good and upright is the LORD;
therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.
He guides the humble in what is right
and teaches them his way.
All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful
for those who keep the demands of his covenant.

What God tells us to do is an expression of his loving concern for human beings. When he gave the Law—the Ten Commandments—they were from a deep concern that people experience the best path through life. All that the Old Testament taught was simply an enlargement of these core values. God called on His people Israel to trust Him as someone who knew what was truly good for them.

When Jesus said that he came to fulfil all that the Law and the Prophets taught (Mt.5:17), what did he mean? Some commentators see this is as fulfilling all the Old Testament promises about him. The context in Matthew, however, suggests something more specific. By explaining the deeper implications of specific laws, in contrast to the meanings the common people were taught by the teachers of their day, Jesus went to the heart of God’s requirements. He brought out the deeper implications of the Ten Commandments. For example, long before murder takes place, a person who harbours ill-will towards someone else and allows it to fester, allows a cancerous growth to destroy him from within, and affect the quality of the Christian community to which he belongs. It may not end up in murder among God’s people, but the root problem, nevertheless, has damaging repercussions. It is a human problem in a sinful world, and all of us continue to be plagued by the presence of a sinful nature, even if we are Christians. Jesus wasn’t out to emphasise the harsh requirements of a harsh God. Just the opposite. He showed that a good and loving God really cares about what happens to us, individually and communally.

If love is all that matters in the life of the Christian, why did Jesus bother to give us the Beatitudes? Why did he tell us what God’s requirements are in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7? Why did Paul give careful instructions for Christians living in Romans 12-15—if all that is required of us is love?

If, however, we see these instructions as the expression of God’s love for us in the first place, we won’t regard His laws as being in opposition to His love.
The first aspect of the statement that “love is the fulfilment of the law” needs to be understood from God’s point of view, i.e. that all God’s commandments are an expression of his love.

From the human point of view
How should we interpret this statement from the human point of view? Obedience to God can take place at different levels. It can take place at the level of a child’s understanding, where a child simply does what he is told without grappling with the deep question of why he should. Or, obedience can come from the heart of a person who has matured and realises that what he has been asked to do, is for his good, and for the good of others.

This is the crux of Paul’s argument in his letter to the Galatians. The believers were being told that they needed to adopt the legalistic practices of Judaism, in addition to having faith in Christ. Paul argues that that kind of obedience belongs to mindless infancy, not to those who are seeking to be mature in Christ. The obedience of a child is like that of a slave. You do what you are told; whereas the obedience of a son, comes from the heart. A son loves his father, and therefore would do anything for him. But even a son is guided by what the father wants.

A true appreciation of everything God has done for us in Christ to reconcile us to Himself; and an understanding that all His commands are for our good, must lead to the kind of obedience that flows from a heart that is filled with love for Him. We love because He first loved us and gave Himself for us. (1 John 4:19).
It is this that sheds light on Jesus’ statement, “A new commandment I give to you that you love one another as I have loved you.” Loving one another was not a new commandment. Israel was told to love one another in Leviticus 19:18. What was new in this commandment was the depth of love that they were to show one another. It was love that was prepared to lay down its life for the other person.

Just as the commandments of God were the expression of His love for His people, they were at the same time the expression of Israel’s love for God and for one another.
The law told them what to do; and love told them how to do it.

Obedience with a ‘stiff upper lip’ can never satisfy God. But when God’s people respond to him in obedience that is motivated by genuine love and appreciation of all that He has done for us, then the way God intended the law to be worked out in the life of the believer is fulfilled.

This article is a reprint from the International Day of Prayer (IDOP) web site. http://www.idop.org/index.html

OPENNESS AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY TODAY

Religious liberty enables underground churches to surface to be agents of blessing in their communities and agents of Kingdom-growth beyond. Ideological and political resistance to religious liberty is Satan’s bulwark against the growth of the Kingdom of God and the primary cause of persecution of the Church.

In dictatorial religious and political systems, repression – the rejection of liberty – is the linchpin of power. Religious and political dictators strip away their subjects’ universal, fundamental human rights to secure their empire. These dictators and their ideologies systematically reject religious liberty to protect themselves from critical analysis and from losing adherents.

Those who reject liberty repress openness to remove choices. But these days information is increasingly difficult to suppress. Once there is any degree of openness, people demand liberty to formulate their own opinions and determine their responses based on the information at hand.

The whole world is now moving towards openness.Globalisation and advances in technology, especially information and communication technologies – Internet, radio, satellite and mobile phone – are making this transition to openness unavoidable. Resistance against this trend is causing persecution to escalate.

Many peoples and nations are now seeing openness and liberty as essential to modernisation, global engagement and prosperity. In some nations there is a willing population but a resistant leadership, while in other nations there is a willing leadership but resistant elements in the population.

The global trend towards openness is being fiercely resisted by those it threatens:the power-hungry political dictators who rule over virtually-failed states, and the power-hungry religious dictators whose ideologies cannot survive critical analysis or the presence of alternatives in a free society. The rapid opening up of the world through information and communication technology has triggered a fierce earthly and spiritual battle that may climax in the coming decades.

These are critical years for the Church to be alert and praying for the nations and for the persecuted Church. It must be really serious about its responsibility to be an agent of blessing to the world.

In Bhutan (Buddhist majority)an enlightened leadership, keen to bring progress, prosperity, openness and liberty to the people, has introduced a new and positive constitution to this formerly isolated Buddhist Kingdom. The king is devolving his powers from absolute monarch to Head of State in a constitutional democracy. Buddhist nationalists will doubtless resist the changes, and the nation’s leaders will need great conviction, strength and wisdom. This transition will not be without a struggle.

In Nepal (Hindu majority), a population hungry for peace, openness, equality and liberty has deposed a repressive dictatorial king and turned this Hindu kingdom into a free state. Displeased Hindu nationalists in both Nepal and India are seeking to incite religious unrest and the rise of Hindu political parties. The Nepalese and their new government will not have a smooth road to peace, justice, equality, openness and religious liberty. This transition will not be without a struggle.

In Morocco (Muslim majority)a courageous, liberal-minded leadership is moving the nation towards openness and equality. Religious security and rights have improved, if not religious liberty as such. Islamists however are resistant, viewing the reforms as un-Islamic. The transition will of necessity be slow and not without a struggle.

In India (Hindu majority)the present federal government supports openness and upholds religious liberty as a fundamental and constitutionally guaranteed human right. Conversely, Hindu nationalists are highly resistant and aggressively opposed as they use religion for their own personal and political gain. In Indian states ruled by Hindu nationalists, Hindu militants severely persecute Christians with impunity. Hindu nationalists are working to effect large-scale political conversions with the aim of making significant gains at – if not winning – the 2009 federal elections. If the Hindu nationalists are returned to federal power, India will regress into a Hindu state. Religious openness and liberty are at great risk and could be undermined or even shattered by the schemes of Hindu nationalist forces. India is in the midst of a critical struggle.

In the free Western world (formerly ‘Christendom’)historic fought-for, believed-in freedoms are being undermined by both religious and anti-religious hostile forces. Those seeking to exploit or remove Western freedoms for their own seditious ends find little resistance from a society that is busy willingly demolishing the foundations of liberal society. With the foundations being demolished, the roots of our institutions of liberty have nothing to grasp. The seditious underminers then simply blow the liberties away. Openness and religious freedom are more under threat in Western society than most Westerners care to believe – not because hostile forces can steal these rights, but because the West is largely surrendering them.

In China (ruled by the Chinese Communist Party)increasingly large elements of the population are educated, exposed to the outside world, and demanding more openness and liberty. Meanwhile those in authority are struggling to balance economic, social, religious and political elements so that the power of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) remains secure while the economy advances. The CCP feels threatened by growing agitation for reform. The Maoists are now a minority. Even significant former Maoists are calling for openness and liberty for prosperity’s sake. The CCP controls social forces and trends by repressing intellectual, political and religious openness and liberty. A great struggle is under way and Communist repression is greatly at risk!

In Iran (Shia’ Muslim majority)university students and women are increasingly risking their lives to call for reforms in equality, openness and liberty. Their courageous protests are crushed with brute force by armed Revolutionary Guards and Islamic militias. Despair is causing suicide and substance abuse to sky-rocket. Glorious Persian culture, rich in creative arts and intellectual pursuits, has been suppressed by a suffocating and brutal Islam since the 1979 Islamic revolution. A struggle for openness and liberty is just emerging. It is a David versus Goliath struggle, which is fine when God is in it.

In North Korea (‘Stalinist’ Juche State)the very notions of openness and liberty have been beaten and brainwashed out of existence. But after more than half a century of isolation there are cracks appearing in the fortifications through which the outside world can be glimpsed. The greatest difficulty is the tough human skin created by 50 years of lies and propaganda. But God created man for relationship with him and with a longing for spiritual truth. A struggle for openness and liberty is inevitable.

As the nations of the worldopen up, willingly or unwillingly, the issue at the heart of so much agitation and conflict is religious liberty: that people should have the right to choose Christ, and then to worship, study the Bible, pray with other believers and serve the Lord through mission and ministry according to their gifts and calling. Jesus calls, ‘Come and freely receive.’ The Church stands at the front line of this earthly and spiritual battle for liberty.

Christians should get into the habit of watching or reading the news with their minds questioning, ‘How does this affect the Church,’ and with their hearts praying, ‘Lord, how does this make you feel?’ This will help us understand the times (Luke 12:54-56) so that our prayers can be intelligent, strategic and valuable. There is nothing worse than the Church not showing up for spiritual battle simply because it doesn’t know where the front line is!

Prince Vladimir of Kiev summoned his envoys: “It’s time to give up our paganism. Our neighbours have adopted monotheism of one kind or another. We too must have a religion that will help us unify the States and help us build a better civilisation. I want you to go to the countries that have the great religions of the world and study them carefully. Look at Christianity, look at Islam, and look at Judaism. Come back and bring me a report on each of them!”

When the envoys returned the Prince listened to their descriptions of each. “No, Islam won’t do,” he said. “We have enough evil in this land without importing it into our religion as well. And, as for their rule on ‘no wine’… we would never survive without it!”

“Judaism? I’m impressed with its high moral and ethical standards, but it’s the religion of a dispersed people. That can’t help us build a successful nation.”

“What about Christianity, my lord?” asked one of his counsellors. “Which one?” asked the Prince. “I don’t want Catholicism. That’s too closely tied to Rome. Once we are under their control we’ll never be our own!”

“And what of Byzantine Orthodoxy?” questioned the Prince. “Oh, my lord,” replied one of them, “we have never seen anything like it! We did not know whether we were in heaven or on earth. The churches were magnificent° and wealthy. The robes of the clerics were wonderful. The processions, the incense, the choir singing all lifted us to another world. What’s more, the Church and State work very closely together. The Christian emperor is seen as the representative of God, and the Patriarch works closely with him to ensure a Christian commonwealth.”

“Ah, this is exactly what we need. This religion will be a good tool to build a great nation and to civilise the people. Byzantine Christianity it will be! I and all Kiev will be baptised in the Dnieper.”

So, in 988AD, the Kieven Russian State became officially Christian. While the seeds of a nominally Christian Rus, had been sown, it would take centuries more to develop into the modern Russia we know today. As the State was seen to be headed by God’s representative, the Church claimed the structure as a theocracy. It was a view that suited both Prince and future Patriarch. The Tsar could depend on the Church to back his claim to the divine right of kings, while the Church looked to the State to keep her members in order.

Dissent begins

By the time of Tsar Ivan III (“the Great”), 1462, the Church had acquired about 25% of all cultivated land in Russia. Its churches and monasteries had become incredibly wealthy, and they worked in close cooperation with the State most of the time. Not all sections of the church, however, approved of this situation, i.e. the influence of the Church in political affairs, the Tsar’s interference in spiritual matters, the inordinate wealth of the Church, and the harsh treatment of those who disagreed with the rulers.

These less than Christian practices aroused protest and debate by monks in the more contemplative orders. The protests, however, never succeeded. All who deviated from official views in any way were labelled heretics. This internal dissent was always dealt with cruelly by the combined power of Church and State…

By Elizabeth Kendall’

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Psalm 22:1) Jesus cried these words as he hung on the cross (Matthew 27:46). Today words just like them are cried from prisons in Eritrea, Egypt, China, Vietnam, Laos, North Korea and Pakistan where believers are detained and tortured. They are cried from homes in war-torn Iraq; refugee camps in Uganda, Syria, Turkey and Jordan; UN-protected enclaves in threatened Kosovo; the inhospitable jungles of Papua; by Christians who wonder every day if religious hatred will engulf them and deadly terror overtake them. Traumatised, terrorised believers frequently find themselves wondering if God has deserted them. (Psalm 22:1-11) They need our love, encouragement, advocacy, assistance and prayers. Please remember them this Easter.

When Jesus was betrayed by a disciple, brutalised by soldiers, mocked and abused by the masses, falsely accused, tried in a ‘kangaroo court’ and unjustly executed, it appeared that everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Yet, unbeknown to all who observed, a great battle was being waged in the invisible spiritual realm.

Whilst Psalm 22 is known as the Psalm of the Cross, it has a wonderful and significant progression whereby the heart-wrenching cry of pain and suffering culminates as a song of victory. The Psalm of the Cross is also a Psalm of Good News, a Psalm of the Kingdom! ‘All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him.’ (Psalm 22:27) And this is guaranteed: ‘. . .for he has done it’ (v 31); ‘It is finished’ (John 19:30).

The same progression is evident in Isaiah 53-54 where the portrait of the suffering servant who pours out his life unto death to bear the sins of many, culminates as a call to celebrate, a declaration of life and growth: ‘Sing . . . burst into song, shout for joy . .. Enlarge the place of the tent . . .’

Through the blood of the Lamb shed on the cross the Church was born. Through the witness of the saints to a fallen and hostile world the Kingdom is growing. The Easter message is one of redemption, not only of sinners but of suffering. And because of this we have both peace with God and hope for the future.

In the past, people who lived closer to the land were much more  aware of the natural cycle of the seasons and rhythms of life. The God who created harmony in the natural order, has built this understanding into life from the time of creation.

The more we move into the artificial world of our own creation, the further we move from an understanding of the natural laws that operate in life. Solomon understood this when he wrote, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, …” (Eccl.3:1-8).

God’s interruptions

Sometimes life can become so frantic that we resent any ‘interruption’ to our established routines and plans. If we allow these interruptions to get ‘under our skin’, we will become even more frustrated. However, it is in these interruptions that God can meet us in the most unexpected and blessed ways.

In his 4-volume autobiography, In a Tyrannical Abyss, Yuri Grachev tells of his experiences as a believer in Stalinist Russia. In his books he adopts the name of Leva, who, from the age of 19, went through several prison terms and terrible sufferings. Why? Firstly, because he wanted to remain faithful to Jesus Christ when officialdom was determined to obliterate the very memory of Christendom; and, secondly, because he was visiting imprisoned believers in isolated areas and encouraging them in the Lord.

Desperate to get home

Leva was finally released after his third term in prison―a total of 11 years. He was desperately anxious to get back home to see his mother and sisters at Kuybyshev (Samara). To get back home, however, he needed official permission so that he could buy his train ticket. He longed to see his loved ones after all those years, yet delay after delay postponed his departure from Ufa that weekend. How had his family managed while his father was in exile, also for his faith in Christ?

Weak, cold, hungry, and alone, Leva sat down to pray. He then remembered someone telling him about a believer in Ufa who worked at a particular factory.

That’s all Leva knew about him. When he found the factory, he stood outside the gates until it was time for the workers to go home.

“Excuse me. Do you know a believer working here, who is a Baptist?” Leva asked an elderly workman.

“Yes, that’s him over there,” replied the man.

A wonderful surprise!

What joy it was to meet a fellow believer after years of being away from the warmth and encouragement of Christian fellowship! What added to that joy was that on the following day, the believers in Ufa were meeting for worship with official permission for the first time in years.

After dinner that evening, Leva and his host Shangarov, went to prepare the room for the following day’s service. Others joined them, mainly young women. Most of the men were either in the Red Army, or in prison for their faith.

The Church is not dead

In the preceding years, the repressive measures taken against the Church by Communist authorities were so strong, that most of the believers had been silenced. Some denominational leaders had denounced God, and were selling anti-religious literature in the market places. Other believers had become completely silent. Faithful pastors were in prison; others had given up their faith to avoid persecution for themselves and their families. The young people had been strongly intimidated.

What Leva witnessed that Saturday evening, moved him deeply. These young people were excited about their faith in Christ. The embers of faith were beginning to burst into flames. They were ready to live and witness for Christ whatever the cost.

Sunday came. The room was already packed when Yuri and Shangarov arrived. The people’s eyes shone with anticipation. People kept coming. Some had to stand around the walls of the room, while others had to be satisfied with the corridor outside.

Resurrection Sunday

The service began with songs of praise and prayers of thanksgiving. How they thanked the Lord for giving them this opportunity to worship together! God’s Word was preached, and people rejoiced to hear it freely once more.

As the meeting drew to a close, Leva was asked to share something from God’s Word. Gaunt, poorly dressed, with the closely cropped haircut of an ex-convict, he felt very much out of place among people who had come to the service in their best, most festive clothes.

Freedom for the prisoner

Leva read from Luke 4:18,19, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoner and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

As he spoke of the wonder of God’s grace and mercy in Christ, the Holy Spirit fell upon that meeting. People began to weep in repentance, seeking God’s forgiveness for their sins, and their failures throughout the years of repression. The downtrodden received new strength. Some of those who had been ill, were healed. In his account, Grachev went on to say that the angels in heaven, and the earth itself, welcomed the penitent and all rejoiced greatly. He, to whom has been given all power in heaven and on earth, stood among them that day, ready to bless all who called upon His holy name. Taking human frailty and inadequacy, as it was offered up to Him, God poured out His power — at the right time!

As Yuri Grachev witnessed the resurrection of the Ufa church that day, he realised that all the delays at the Ufa railway station, and the government offices, were of God’s making. He had a purpose for keeping him in Ufa that weekend, for his own encouragement, and for the blessing of the Church. While in prison, he had been told many times by his interrogators that there was virtually nothing left of the Christian Churches in Russia.

Preparation for the future

The events in Ufa that Sunday, provided them with the encouragement they all needed, before the next wave of repression broke over them again―a wave that was bigger than anything they had witnessed before.

God’s timing is always right. We, on the other hand, can be so busy with our own routines, activities and plans, that we tend to resent ‘interruptions’ God might be sending our way. The danger is, we can miss out learning and benefiting from these ‘interruptions’. The Psalmist said, I trust in you, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in your hands… (Ps.31:14,15).

The right time

Each Christmas time we are reminded that when the time had fully come (just at the right time), God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons (and daughters). (Gal.4:4). What a moment!

The ability to express confidence in the Lord’s control of all the events in our lives, and His timing, can keep us from frustration and despondency. It can also keep us from missing out on learning the lessons He has for us.

Image creation

Two young people face the final interview by a panel of a large IT firm. “X”, a quietly spoken young man who had already shown considerable knowledge in his field, and “Y”, a young woman who impressed several of the panel with her looks and her use of contemporary IT jargon―used to cover her lack of real knowledge. Which one of them is likely to gain the position?

Laughing empty cut-out pumpkin heads watermarkA recent article stated that 60% of people interviewed for jobs overstate their qualifications, training, or previous salaries. Yet, many of these people, seem to get on in the world! ‘Spin doctors’ are paid massive sums by large corporations and governments to distract from the real substance in order to convince people to ‘buy’, or to go along with certain policies. This problem has been called ‘style over substance’.

We might smile at the story of a young group of girls in Israel who were trying to copy the British Spice Girls. First they worked up an act they believed would be a ‘hit’, then they decided that they needed to learn to sing! A recent survey in the United States revealed that the desire for fame now exceeds that for material possessions.

What is influential in the secular world, is increasingly influencing evangelical churches. The more we concentrate on image, the less inclined we are to exercise ourselves over the content of God’s will as revealed in the Bible. It would be easy to draw the conclusion at times, that we are more concerned with our public image than we are with real spiritual growth, true worship, and concerned outreach to people who are lost and without hope in this world. The apostle Paul told Christians not to allow themselves to be shaped by the influences of the secular world. Only as we work at renewing our understanding of what life is about from God’s point of view, will we be able to recognise what is God’s good and perfect will. (Romans 12:1–2).

While it is true that the Holy Spirit alone can open the eyes of Christians to recognise what is happening to them, Christian leadership has been charged with the responsibility of leading God’s people in holy living, true worship, and effective Christian service. Many evangelical Christians who avoided the influences of secular humanism when it first invaded the churches, are now succumbing to the influence of the secular.

It seems that we are losing our capacity, or our will to distinguish between what is modern and what is secular. The church is under pressure to ‘change or perish’. What is meant by this, is that we must become modern or we will die. Those who resist the kinds of changes that are being forced on them are considered stubborn, selfish, or out of touch with reality. For some, who refuse to move out of their comfort zone these charges may be true; but, many resist some of the changes because they refuse to be pressured into a secularism that is ungodly.

Leaders in the OT were condemned for failing to teach God’s people the difference between the holy and the profane—or secular: Her priests do violence to my law and profane my holy things; they do not distinguish between the holy and the common; they teach that there is no difference between the unclean and the clean… (Ez.22:26; 44:23). Yet two theological streams have merged to encourage the adoption of secular methods in today’s church.

The first of these comes from the radical, existential theology of the likes of the influential Paul Tillich. Tillich believes God to be a ‘dimension of our deep self’. Any difference therefore between some Holy God who exists apart from ourselves, and ourselves, is rejected leaving us with only the profane. This kind of view has been characterised variously as secular theology, or religionless Christianity, or even Christian atheism, to which it inevitably leads.

The second stream comes from the church growth movement which stresses ‘relevance’ to the ‘felt-needs’ of modern society as a necessary way to reach today’s world. While it is true that we must speak and act in a way that can be understood, the true message of grace and a genuine Christ-like life, is understood in any age. We seem to have forgotten the saying of Bishop Irenaeus, an early church father: “Jesus Christ, in His infinite love has become what we are, in order that he may make us entirely what He is”. Jesus Himself is our example. He entered our world into a definite culture, and he spoke a local language; his life exuded love and the grace of God, yet He remained “the Holy one” who demonstrated the deepest anger at the profaning of “His Father’s house”. Yet, today, many now feel quite comfortable using secular means to ‘attract’ others into the Church, even where the congregation remains static and the means are for the insiders. Once we start on this slippery slope where does it stop? Having attracted them by secular means, we find ourselves having to keep them by secular means. Is it for non-Christians to determine what kind of worship we offer to God? Where does God’s will come into the picture?

Appropriateness

Music has become a touchstone of change. Thankfully, there are some delightful modern choruses and songs—but there are many that are not. A considerable number of modern lyrics are not only unscriptural, but they either leave wrong impressions of ourselves and/or God, or else they leave our minds and hearts unchanged. In what way do they contribute to true worship? Do they meet Jesus’ criteria of ‘in Spirit and in truth’? (John 4:23). Music is often seen as an end in itself, with little concern by musicians to communicate the significance of the message of the songs. On one occasion the pianist and organist were corrected for varying the tempo and volume between verses. The young person making the criticism was surprised when one of the musicians explained that the music should help support the meaning of the hymn or song—not the other way around. The young person was playing without reference to the words.

Frequently, the conflict between those who prefer hymns and those who prefer songs is explained as a ‘generational’ conflict. Often, the conflict does not stem from this source at all; instead, it lies between God-centred worship and our self-preoccupation in worship. We tend to make big claims about our devotion and love for God, forgetting that true discipleship carries a high cost; it can never be taken lightly.

Another trend in Christian music is the vagueness of the message of some of the songs. Are we directing our worship to God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, or to the Holy Spirit? In some cases it is very difficult to know. Some of our songs can have a wide religious application that is not distinctively Christian. Christian songs and choruses are not a modern phenomenon—the church has been singing them for over a hundred years. What is new, is that they are being seen as a substitute for hymns, where formerly they were seen only as complementary. Choruses that are here today and gone next month, do not help us remember the great truths of the Bible. Further, some choruses are not true to Scripture. While, unfortunately, the shallowness of other song messages is the only ‘truth’ some Christians ever learn.

Music is not the only problem. This is the age of ‘edutainment’, of drama and clowning. We do not dispute that drama may help demonstrate a point if well used, but if not, it may actually distract from the true content of the biblical message. Too often, great liberties are taken with imaginative interpretation, so that the real message of the passage is actually changed. Our celebration is meant to be joyful, but this does not mean that the joy of the Lord is the same as empty, light-hearted secular entertainment. Paul warned against ‘foolish talk that isn’t appropriate’! (Eph.5:4). What is appropriate in one kind of meeting, is not necessarily appropriate for worship. What is disturbing, is that there is a lack of discernment to recognise this.

Contemporary worship is being made to suit us. While we claim to worship God, He is not the ultimate centre and the focus of our worship. We expect God to be pleased with the kind of worship we feel comfortable offering Him, and not the kind that He expects of us. This was one of Israel’s problems in the OT. They claimed they were worshipping Yahweh, but were doing so the pagan way; and God would have none of it. (Deut.12:4). In this age of ‘idols’ and ‘images’, we need to be careful that we are not making God in our image instead of the other way round.

Human-centredness

One helpful way of understanding the contemporary trend is to see it as a shift from focusing on God, to focusing on ourselves—while paying lip-service to God. Without realising it, we have become the centre in many ‘worship’ services, and God is invited to enjoy our performance, like an indulgent father at a school concert! God is holy and majestic, and we have to prepare our hearts to worship Him. A holy God is a distant and uncomfortable memory for many. A whole generation is becoming desensitised to who He really is. Not only are we losing touch with what God wants of us, but, how He wants things done.

Let’s stop and think about the implications of some current practices: Has God, the Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, left us on this earth to work things out for ourselves? Has he given us no plan, no directions, apart from telling us to ‘love one another’? This is the message of the Bible in a nutshell, we’re told; so, why worry about the rest of the Book! Having dispensed with the real significance and demands of that love, we fall back on our own wisdom—very much influenced by the world—where ‘style over substance’ rules.

Once the substance of the Bible is set aside, why should we surrender everything to God? If It is all up to us, then everything is under our control? Why should we give God our tithes and offerings? Why should we commit ourselves fully to the Church and its mission? Isn’t it just another organisation, like Rotary, or Lions, or…? One pastor was heard saying that he couldn’t encourage his congregation to read the Bible for themselves, let alone any other (Christian) literature, because people were too busy! That’s a perfectly logical conclusion if we view the Church merely as some kind of organisation that we join as volunteers.

The Lord’s Day

However, for those who see the Church as a community of God’s people, called and redeemed by Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit to grow in Christian maturity and service in the world, then surely, Sunday services are an opportunity for helping us discover what true worship is all about: a time to be refreshed, and to be equipped to serve the Lord more effectively throughout the week. A genuine concern for the welfare of people in the pew, should lead us to use Sunday services to ‘feed’ people with food for the soul—something substantial—instead of offering them empty husks, and trying to entertain them with banalities.

Recently a young mother stated: ‘I stayed home from church last Sunday, and I felt so relaxed as a result. Being Mother’s Day, I was able to visit my mother and mother-in-law without feeling pressured.’ Heb.10:25 exhorts Christians to maintain their worship together carefully as a means of encouraging each other in the face of the influences of the secular world. If Christians receive little spiritual food, spiritual encouragement, or substantial encounters with God, how many will want to set aside each Sunday for church? Someone has sadly quipped: ‘Sunday has become a time to celebrate recreation instead of re-creation.’
Hollowness in teaching

Early in my ministry, a young man who was attending an Institute of Technology, came to me after the service one Sunday evening, to tell me that he had to work very hard during the week to pass course requirements and didn’t come to Church to think! Whether this thought is expressed as blatantly as this, or not, many Christians have a similar attitude when they come to the Bible.

With a declining confidence among many believers in the relevance, integrity and power of the Bible as the Word of God, it is becoming less and less significant in sermons, in our beliefs, and therefore, in our lives. When a high profile denominational leader can say that the Gospel isn’t big enough to deal with the social problems of the world, we have the end result of our rejection of the Word of God, and therefore, of God Himself. If God doesn’t have the answer to the needs of this world, how likely are we to have it? What incredible arrogance!

Hollowness in publications

This hollowness and superficiality is also seen in a great deal of Christian material that is being published. The outward presentations are constantly challenging the artistry of graphic designers, but between the covers, there is often little of biblical substance. No wonder! The two largest Christian publishers in the USA are now owned by secular corporations, where the primary concern is profit.

John Tigwell, late of Scripture Union, has commented about similar trends in Australia. He said, “The few of us who try to publish Australian material for Australian Christians, are so often caught by the prevailing culture that everything has to be ‘easy’ and ‘cheap’; ‘user friendly’ has often meant ‘don’t disturb me’.”…Christians are being bombarded with the lowest common denominator in ‘Christian’ thinking.

Gene Edward Veith of WORLD Magazine, has pointed out that “whenever a trend emerges in the secular arena, wait six months and a Christian version will appear in religious bookstores.” For example, ‘the pop culture of celebrity worship; motivational speakers, or positive-thinking gurus whose thoughts are only remotely connected to the biblical world view; self-help books that are carbon copies of secular views on self-esteem and assertiveness training.’

Veith goes on to say “(US) polls show that many Americans are interested in the Bible, in so far as it can give ‘practical principles for successful living’. Consequently, Christian publishers sometimes domesticate (the Bible) into a rule book for a contented, prosperous, middle-class lifestyle.”

In an increasingly secularised Christian publishing world, the concern is to make a profit, not to help the Christian community discover what God has said, and what He requires.

When Satan has emptied the Christian mind, he is ready to take it over (Mt.12:43-45//Lk.11:24-26). That is why we have been commanded to love the Lord our God with all our heart and mind (Mk.12.30). This is not an optional extra for those who are academically inclined. In loving and serving the Lord we are to use all our God-given faculties. Peter tells Christians who are facing an antagonistic world, “Prepare your minds for action…” (1 Per.1:13). When Paul was addressing the Ephesian elders in Miletus, he said, “Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard.” (Acts 20:30,31a).

God’s wisdom or ours?

If we neglect God’s Word, the Bible, we have no other word from God. And if we can no longer trust God’s Word as reliable, then all of Christendom collapses, and we need no longer play games at being Christian. On the other hand, if we have become so wise that we select what is, and what isn’t God’s Word in the Bible, we put ourselves above God. God’s rules for successful living have not changed. They were given to the children of Israel as they were about to enter the Promised Land. “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” (Joshua 1:8). In every age, our understanding of ‘success’ and ‘prosperity’ needs to be re-defined by what God has to say about them.

Before Jesus began His ministry, He faced Satan’s temptations to fame, self-display, and shortcuts to ‘success’. Have we succumbed to these temptations? Paul reminds us that the weapons of our warfare are not worldly, but mighty to the pulling down of strongholds? (2 Cor.10:4-5). Do we appreciate the effectiveness of doing things

God’s way? Or, are we striving with our own wisdom to do what only God can do?

If we are to love God with our whole being, as we have been commanded to do, we need to be helped in this direction, we need less distractions, and more lifting up of Jesus Christ as the only solution to the human problem of sin and self-preoccupation, so that God is given the opportunity to draw people to Himself. (Jn.12:32). It is not

entertainment, but challenge, encouragement, and strength given through powerful and faithful preaching of God’s Word that transforms sleepy, out-of-touch Christians in every age. Being in touch with God, who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is the key to the kind of contact with the world that doesn’t lose its distinctive message. The issue is not of making ourselves more relevant to our age, but making God relevant to people’s lives.

CWatermark picture of Jesus washing a disciples feet. Picture by In His Imagehristmas and Easter are times when we are constantly reminded that God’s ways are not our ways. At Christmas time we see how the Lord of Glory came to occupy a manger in a cattle shed, away from all the ‘pomp and circumstance’ of the world. At Easter, we remind ourselves how the same Lord of Glory allowed Himself to be crucified ignominiously, forced to listen to the mocking taunts of a whipped-up crowd. It is in the cross, we see God’s ultimate contempt for all the images of self-respect and acceptability that we long for, so desperately.

Well has this modern songwriter captured the biblical contrast in the following song.

Most of us are familiar with the metaphor ‘putting the horse before the cart’, and many of us have shaken our heads in disbelief when people have reversed this relation- ship by putting the ‘cart before the horse’. Even if we do get the order right, do we always understand the relationship of one thing to another? In the case of the horse and cart, for example, we know that they are hitched together for a purpose, and that the purpose is for the horse to move either people or goods from one place to another. In other words, the horse is there to pull the cart.

Today, there are Christians who are trying to separate doctrine from Christian living. They do not seem to understand that these two have been ‘hitched’ together for an essential purpose.

To begin with, we need to understand that there is a genuine attempt by many church leaders to communicate biblical truths in a “relevant, meaningful, and understandable” way to people in our present-day society. Unfortunately, many have taken findings from psychology and sociology, and built ‘preachy’ slogans around them. For example, ‘Love and compassion are more important than doctrine’, or, ‘People need to belong before they believe’, etc. Statements like this can be distorting, false, or ambiguous. Because we live in a society where such expressions have become familiar, they can sound quite plausible when used in a Christian context. In this series we will consider some of the most commonly used slogans and ask ourselves whether they are true and faithful to what the Bible teaches.

Competing perspectives

All of life, and the ability to live it, are gifts from God, whether people recognise their indebtedness to Him or not. Wisdom, knowledge, talents such as administrative, musical, artistic, etc., are all God’s gifts to humanity. They are gifts to help people function at the natural, human and social levels of life.

However, the Bible also makes it plain that the coming of sin and rebellion against God, have corrupted the outworking of these gifts in life. They now misrepresent God’s intentions, because they have become inherently self-enhancing, and destructive of their original purpose to enrich individual and communal life that is under God, and bring Him glory.

We are constantly bombarded by ideas, values, and perspectives that devalue life as God intended it to be. It happens at work, through TV, in our association with friends and neighbours, and when we read newspapers, magazines and books. Some of the values we come across may seem very wholesome, but only by comparison with those that are obviously bad. However, our very understanding of life is so corrupted that we no longer are capable of understanding what life under God was intended to be.

This human ‘blindness’ is the consequence of rejecting God’s right to rule, including His right to show us what life was meant to be in the original, positive relationship that Adam and Eve enjoyed with God. There was understanding that came to them in an ongoing revelation that took place within their intimate relationship with God.

In turning away from God, this understanding became corrupted—a fading memory in people’s minds and hearts. What was needed was a fresh revelation of this knowledge that could not be corrupted. The very word ‘revelation’ implies knowledge coming from outside of us; something that we as human beings do not have in ourselves. This knowledge came to human beings from their Creator even before the Fall. God’s revelation can only be understood within a reconciled, and harmonious relationship with Him.

This fresh revelation, that God led people to record for perpetuity, tells us what His intentions are for human beings, and how He will achieve His purposes. This written record, that we call the Bible, is God’s filter through which we are to assess all of life, its values, its perspectives, and its destiny.

Our proficiency in understanding the Word of God, affects our ability to assess the competing views or doctrines which constantly confront us. We frequently talk about certain groups being indoctrinated. In some countries people are indoctrinated with certain class distinctions. This means that there is a doctrine, or view of life that has been inculcated into them from birth. In the minds of some Christians there is confusion between ‘doctrine’ and ‘dogma’. Dogma is a system of belief that is laid down by a human authority or institution, as distinct from Christian doctrine, which is the teaching of the Bible.

For example, in 1997, when the Dalai Lama visited New Zealand, he was invited to address the public in the Anglican Cathedral in Christchurch. He said that ‘our common efforts and experiences bind religions together.’ People of different religions should ‘pray together; if not, then meditate together. This will increase the field of harmony.’ He went on to say that we should seek what is common to our humanity, no matter what our religion may be.

That sounds very conciliatory, very inclusive, and therefore, very popular. However, if we accept what the Bible says, we must admit that the only thing that is common to all people everywhere is their sinful nature that separates them from God, and has brought them under His condemnation. The only way out of that predicament is to seek the salvation God has provided in Jesus Christ, and in Him alone. (Acts 4:12).

While the love of God seeks to bring all people, everywhere into a right relationship with Himself, people exclude themselves from that love by rejecting His conditions. Our natural understanding has to be transformed, so that we start seeing things from God’s point of view, made available to everyone, through His Word. (Rom.12:2). Becoming a Christian does not guarantee an automatic transformation of all our perspectives on life. We need to be re-educated, and that is an ongoing, life-long experience. God’s wisdom is so different from human wisdom, that there is no way of harmonising them.

The measure of our evaluation

Jesus told His disciples that when He departed this world to resume His place with the Father, the Holy Spirit would come and guide His disciples into all truth. He clarified this by adding that it would be on the basis of all that He Himself had taught them. (Jn.14:26; 16:12-15). This re-education is not some kind of private experience that comes from within us through meditation, personal illumination, and leads to an individual interpretation. Nor does it come to us in a vacuum, but through the revealed Word of God available to all, and taught to us by the Holy Spirit.

I have heard Christians say, ‘How can you come to a common understanding of what the Bible teaches, when even theologically trained ministers cannot come to an agreement?’ The problem with this argument hinges on our view of the Bible, and its authority in matters of life and practice. If our view of the Bible’s authority is rather weak, we will seek other ‘authorities’ with whose interpretation of the Bible we are more comfortable. If, however, we accept it as the Word of God, even the most ordinary person can come to an understanding of all that is central to Christian faith, because the Bible speaks for itself—if we are prepared to study it seriously.

We should never use this argument as an excuse for lack of effort in studying the Bible. If a Human Resources Manager about to dismiss an employee claimed that he wasn’t sure what the law regarding unfair dismissal stated, we would consider him either incompetent, or trying to hide something. There is always some basis on which we make decisions and judgements, and it is on this basis we stand or fall. If some professional people applied the same lack of commitment to their work as many Christians do in understanding the Bible, they would soon be out of a job!

When a girl meets a young man with whom she falls in love, the ultimate relationship she dreams about is marriage. It is a relationship in which a couple gives themself to each other in the fullest and most intimate way. No bond can compare to this relationship. It is beautiful, deep, and life-enriching.

But in spite of God intentions—and many a girl’s romantic dream—the breakdown of marriages has become a way of life in many societies, and few families are untouched by the grief that it brings: hopes and dreams are shattered, and sacred promises broken, both of which leave a trail of bitterness, disillusionment, and heartache. At least the family courts still encourage a process of reconciliation before deciding that there has been an irretrievable breakdown in the relationship.

Reconciliation has become a buzz word today. We use it when referring to our relationship with aboriginal communities; we hear it when the talk turns to conditions in Ireland, or the Middle East; and of course, the Gospel itself is called a ministry of reconciliation.

Reconciliation — what is it?

Most of us would agree that reconciliation has to do with two parties who have been at odds with each other, coming together again. At least this much is commonly accepted. Where we probably part company is in the way we see this reconciliation brought about.

In the case of the Australian Aborigines, some believe that reconciliation can only be brought about if the Commonwealth Government apologises for the wrongs of the past, and pays restitution. In Ireland, where there is a long history of action and reaction, there seems to be a recognition that no party can win. In these examples, the proposition is that the past needs to be put behind, and a compromise relationship be worked out for the future.

Neither of these ‘solutions’ match up with the Christian view of the Gospel. Reconciliation in the New Testament is almost synonymous with the concept of ‘atonement’ in the Old Testament. In what sense? The term ‘Atonement’ comes from the old English root that literally means ‘at-one-ment’. The sacrifice of atonement in the Old Testament was God’s way of removing the sin that caused the break in the relationship between human beings and Himself in the first place.

But, where do you begin with this reconciliation? The Bible tells us that it begins with God. This is the primary relationship for which we were created. The health of all other relationships flows from the quality of this relationship.

The wall needs to come down!

Although God is love, He cannot offer reconciliation by regarding ‘bygones as bygones’, giving us a ‘second go’ at the future. He cannot act this way because He is also just, and love cannot survive where there is no justice. What led to the break with God in the first place was a spirit of rebellion that was not prepared to recognise God as Creator and Lord. This spirit of rebellion needs to be removed. What kind of a world would it be, if oppression and injustice were sanctioned? An illustration of this can be seen in Nazi Germany where the leaders saw themselves above all law. The prospect of such a state is terrifying. Love could not possibly exist in such a world, for the whole idea of love includes actions of fairness and respect.

Nor does God demand that we make acts of restitution to Him in order to work our way into a right relationship with Him. Although He is not the one who caused the break in that relationship, He has taken all the necessary steps to remove the separation that existed between us and Himself. He has done this in a way that satisfies both His love and justice through Jesus Christ.

It is only when this barrier of sin and rebellion has gone, that we can experience a truly clean conscience. Most of us know how a wrong act against another person can lead to a barrier being raised between two people. There are feelings of embarrassment, shame or anger, as the case may be, leading to avoidance of each other. This is the response we saw in Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden after they had disobeyed God. They hid from God when He came to visit them (Gen.3:8). They no longer looked with eagerness to His visits. They were too ashamed to meet Him. What’s more, their relationship with each other suffered badly. Blame, recrimination, inequality and oppression became their commonplace experience. What they needed most was reconciliation with God, but they were no longer capable of understanding that, let alone initiating it.

A God-initiated contract

It isn’t a coincidence that the Bible talks about God initiating a Covenant with His people in the Old Testament. The closest parallel to this concept is the marriage contract. What was needed was for the primary relationship to be restored, i.e. between human beings and God; and only God was able to achieve this.

In Exodus 19:4f, God said to His people, “I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.” In all their journeys and hardships He was there upholding them with His everlasting arms (Deut.33:27). He loved them deeply and drew them to Himself with loving-kindness (Jer.31:3). Despite their unfaithfulness and breaking Covenant with Him, His arms were stretched out to them again and again, longing for their love (Isa.65:2). That was never to come…!

Until…, God showed His incredible love by sending His one and only Son in search of them. No amount of wooing would bring them back to God. So, God continued His wooing from the cross of His own Son, Jesus Christ. Christ’s love for sinful human beings took Him all the way to a cruel cross. The just One dying for the unjust. No other religion can speak of such love. In the cross God was reconciling an unfaithful, rebellious humanity to Himself.

Through the death of Jesus Christ, God

• Justly removes the sin barrier to reconciliation
• cleanses guilty consciences
• makes it possible for people to have a new heart (attitude), and a new nature
• makes it possible for people to be implanted with a new motivation for living (Ez.32:31-34)
• fulfils the promise to send God’s Holy Spirit to live in us, and to give us power to please God.

How can we know Him?

This personal knowledge of God begins with our readiness to respond to God’s love expressed for us in Jesus Christ. There is no greater love than that which sacrificed itself for us to bring us back to Himself. This is what we were created for in the first place. This relationship affects all our relationships.

In dealing with our rebellious nature through His atoning sacrifice of Himself, Jesus Christ offers us a relationship that is the only way that can bring about ‘at-one-ment’ with God.

We discover Jesus Christ in God’s Word, the Bible. It is through the Bible that God reveals the one and only truth about Himself. The ultimate revelation is in Jesus Christ, the centre of that revelation.

When we read a text book, we try to master the subject matter in it. But, when we read the Bible, we have to be mastered by the Subject of that revelation—Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit takes this revelation and leads us to a proper understanding of all that is true. (Jn.16:13). But, we have to pray for a readiness to be open to the truth.

In Jesus Christ we enter into an intimacy with God the Father that is unique. He claimed, “The Father and I are one.” (Jn.10:30). He also said, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” (Jn.14:23).

In this triangle of love, a desire emerges within us to please the One who has done so much for us, —our heavenly husband. Jesus added, “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love.” (Jn.15:10).

Working at our relationship

As in every marriage, the relationship has to be worked at. Our obedience to God, and all that He has made plain to us through His Word, helps us to understand our relationship and how to work at it. Our desire to please God motivates us to try to overcome the obstacle that stand in the way of our human relationships. God promised that His grace and enabling are sufficient for our every need, if we will only trust Him, and in humility, be prepared to work at our problems.

Failure to work at this personal communion with Jesus Christ tends to leave Christians feeling empty, unmotivated, directionless, impotent, and even disillusioned, at times. That’s when certain dangers creep in. We begin to look for substitute relationships and experiences.

Recognising the danger signs, admitting that we have lost our ‘first love’, can lead us back along the path of restoration and reconciliation.

Every Christian comes under some kind of Christian ministry in his or her life-time. Some come under quite different models of leadership over the years, and have formed either positive or negative views about ministers of the Gospel. Jonathan Lamb, from Langham Partnership in the UK, received the results of a survey conducted in American churches about people’s expectations of their pastor. The results indicated that most people regarded their pastor as a servant of the church.

It isn’t any wonder that people should express their expectations in this way, considering everything that has been said over the years about Christian ministry needing to be characterised by a spirit of servanthood.

Yes, we have needed a change from the days when a pastor was expected to do everything around the place, and was criticised if he didn’t. Over the last few decades we have also ‘discovered’ the importance of gifts in the life of the church. Or, were we pushed into discovering them because the outside world was already changing its management structures so that the load of responsibility was more widely shared? Did we simply tag along with this trend finding a biblical justification for the changes in the church? After all, Paul wrote about the use of gifts in the Christian church nearly two thousand years ago.

What the church has needed is to explore afresh the biblical significance of ‘servanthood’. What does the Bible mean when it talks about being a servant? If we look at the question historically, we find the concept of the servant of the Lord deeply embedded in Hebrew history and Old Testament literature. Yet, the present day understanding which seems to be influencing a vast percentage of the Christian church comes from its Greek roots; an understanding that came hundreds of years after the Christian church was introduced to the biblical concept of ‘servant of the Lord’.

If we pursue the Old Testament concept and its development, leading to the most comprehensive presentation of it in the Servant passages of Isaiah 40-66, we cannot avoid certain conclusions. Jesus confirmed this pattern, clarified and amplified it through His life, ministry, death and resurrection. It was this pattern the apostle Paul adopted in his ministry among the Gentiles of his day. What was the main thrust of this model of servanthood that is validated by both Testaments of the Christian Bible?

Every summary has its drawbacks, but it can be expressed this way:

1. The role of the servant of the Lord is to bring people who are within the orbit of the Christian church to a growing and maturing experience of Jesus Christ, and
2. To equip them to be more effective witnesses for Christ in the way they live and are able to share their faith with others, wherever they live and work.

Christian pastors and leader have the responsibility in their churches to work towards these ends. The structures and organisation of the church all need to ensure that everyone is working in the same direction, and towards the same goals.

The goals and the process needed to achieve these goals are described in the servant passages of Isaiah, and illustrated in the life of Christ. Paul knew what it was to walk in the footsteps of his Lord and Master as he exercised his ministry. He spoke in ways that seem foreign to us in our day. He said,

I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

The biblical model of ministry communicates a concept of servanthood that challenges the ‘visions of splendour’ that some churches have of themselves and their ministries. The Russian version of my book on “Christian Ministry: a biblical basis”, Христиансое служение: библейское основание, has been used as the text in my lectures at the Odessa Theological Seminary, and will again be used this year at the Evangelical Theological Seminary of Armenia.