day no. 17.126: a kind of nice that is not kind

“But evangelicals—babes in the woods when it comes to this kind of thing—have confused the biblical requirement to not be mean with the impossible requirement to never be accused by liars of being mean. Once you accept the latter as your standard, you can always be steered, no matter how nice you are.” — Douglas Wilson, Virgins and Volcanoes

God commands His people to be kind, not nice. Niceness is not a Biblical standard. Kindness is. This may seem like splitting hairs or merely playing games with words, but this is not simply getting sassy about semantics. One might say "nice or kind, it's all the same thing." And, I must confess, in some situations or circumstances it probably is. Ok, so why all the fuss then. The fuss is for those times when it's not the same thing, which are becoming more frequent. Being kind and being nice do not have to be distinct per se. But the kind of nice that defines kindness as never making anyone upset, is not Biblical (and it is not kind.). The kind of nice that would twist the truth in order to avoid twisting up someone's panties is not kind. It is the kiss of an enemy instead of the kind kick in the pants from a friend.

"What is the solution to all this? The solution is the divine gift of not caring what they think. But of course, not caring at all is apathy, and that is also a sin. Caring is another inescapable concept—not whether, but which. It is not whether your conduct will be approved, but rather which group will approve it. It is not whether you care if your conduct is approved, it is rather which group’s approval you care about." — Douglas Wilson, Real Offense and Not So Much

We must care about what Christ thinks and we must be kind according to His standard. Beyond that, we must not conform our words or behavior to the dictionaries and decorum of liars.

day no. 17.125: paying the dane-geld

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last." — Winston Churchill

You don't have to be faster than a crocodile, you only need to be faster than the other guy running from the crocodile. That is the mindset of the appeaser. He is fine with feeding his friends to the crocodile if it means he gets to keep running. What he fails to consider is that someday he will run out of friends and the crocodile will still be coming for him. What he also fails to consider is that he cannot keep running forever and in the meantime he is committed to a life of running. The strategy only works as long as you keep running (and as long as there are others for the croc to catch).

And that is called paying the Dane-geld;

But we've proved it again and again,

That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld

You never get rid of the Dane.

—Rudyard Kipling, Dane-geld

Paying the dane-geld is never a good idea. It does not keep the dane away and it funds their gym membership in the interim. They grow stronger as they plan to come back. The more you pay, the stronger they get, and the more likely they are to return.

day no. 17.124: the deacon of wrath

Romans 13:1-9

Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour. Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

The civil magistrate is the deacon of God's wrath. It carries the sword because it is required to execute justice. Just as deacons in the church of God answer to their elders and execute their orders, so the state answers to God and executes His orders. They are not permitted to slay whomever they find offensive, but only those lawfully convicted of crimes for which God requires execution. Caesar is the only one given jurisdiction to execute, but Caesar does not have the right to define who should be executed. Those orders, like their sword, come from God.

Deacons in the church of God have a fund set aside for them by the elders from the tithes of the people. These funds are at their disposal in answering and responding to immediate needs within the local body. They do not have access to the entire tithe, but only the portion set aside by the elders and designated for these purposes. In similar fashion, the state should not have access to everyone's entire income. In fact, it can, at most, require 9%. The first and the best go to God, so 10% of a person's income goes to their local church. That leaves 90%. If the state takes their full 10%, that amounts to 9% of the person's overall increase. This leaves the person in question with at least 81% of their increase when all is said and done.

The state must use their 9% to execute justice. If their scope is limited to their God-given jurisdiction, they should find themselves adequately compensated for their duties. They carry the sword and must keep them sharp and cleaned up after the fact. If the state, however, uses the sword to try to take more than 9%, it is in violation of its authority and outside its God-given jurisdiction. God has not permitted Caesar to define what is Caesar's. He has reserved that right to Himself. He has not given the state the authority to redefine reality. God is the Dictator. His words define reality and His Word must be obeyed. The state may not contradict or dictate otherwise.

When the deacons of the church allocate portions of the deacon fund to a person or project, they are distributing someone else's money. The deacon fund does not belong to the deacons. It is the church's money and they are its stewards. In similar fashion, the state does not own the taxes they take. They are spending someone else's money. They would do well to remember this when making decisions about how, where, and when to spend its resources. The state owes its people justice and their taxes are to be spent to that purpose (and no other). How much more so then is it prohibited to use taxes to propagate injustice in either harassing otherwise law-abiding people or refusing to apprehend and execute law-breakers?

day no. 17.123 presupp or shut up

Isaiah 54:17
“No weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD and their vindication from me,” declares the LORD.

The legacy of the Lord's people is enduring the blows of pagan pugilism and refuting their heathen heresies with aplomb. We are not merely to seek to survive, but to endure and overcome. We outlast the worldlings like the anvil outlasts the hammer. We bear their blows and beat their hammers into smithereens. 

“We must not be satisfied to present Christianity as the most reliable position to hold among the competing options available. Rather, the Christian faith is the only reasonable outlook available to men.” — Greg Bahnsen, Presuppositional Apologetics: Stated and Defended

Christianity is not just a good option. It is the only option. We should not be content merely to be permitted to have a booth at the interfaith festival. We are not suggesting simply that Christianity is reasonable or reliable, we are insisting that Christianity is the only thing that makes reason possible, let alone reasonable.

“To reject revelational epistemology is to commit yourself to defending the truth of autonomous epistemology.” — Greg Bahnsen, Presuppositional Apologetics: Stated and Defended

Anyone who rejects the revelation of God must accept the speculations of men. If there is no eternal, unchanging, indomitable standard to which we can appeal, there is only a temporary, mutable, fragile standard to which you must attribute timelessness, consistency, and strength. If you do away with God, you are not only forced to defend godlessness, you are left defending it as though it were god.

“When we say that as Christians we believe in an ultimate rationalism we are, naturally, not intending anything like the idea that we as human beings have or may at some time expect to have a comprehensive rational understanding of God. We have just asserted the contrary. Here too every non-Christian epistemology may be distinguished from Christian epistemology in that it is only Christian epistemology that does not set before itself the ideal of comprehensive knowledge for man. The reason for this is that it holds that comprehensive knowledge is found only in God. It is true that there must be comprehensive knowledge somewhere if there is to be any true knowledge anywhere but this comprehensive knowledge need not and cannot be in us; it must be in God.” — Cornelius Van Til, The Defense of the Faith

A finite being cannot apprehend infinite knowledge. In order to know anything, everything must be housed somewhere else and someone must have access to that everything. God knows everything and by His grace He has given us access to general revelation through His creation and special revelation through His Spirit in addition to access to salvation through His Son.

“If one does not make human knowledge wholly dependent upon the original self-knowledge and consequent revelation of God to man, then man will have to seek knowledge within himself as the final reference point. Then he will have to seek an exhaustive understanding of reality. He will have to hold that if he cannot attain to such an exhaustive understanding of reality he has no true knowledge of anything at all. Either man must then know everything or he knows nothing. This is the dilemma that confronts every form of non-Christian epistemology.” — Cornelius Van Til

The buck has to stop somewhere in order to spend it. If it is not backed up by the treasury of Heaven, it must be backed up by the world's wallet But printing currency does not flood the world with more value, it only diminishes the value of anything previously printed. Only God can create ex nihilo because only God has life and light in Himself. He can make more things without reducing their value in the process. God is not less God after He makes something else and He has enough to make everything valuable in itself without borrowing value from something else. He is in a sphere of His own, but He sent His Son into our sphere to reveal Himself and He sent His Spirit after the Son ascended in order to spread that Good News.

day no. 17.122: self-pity is satanic

“Self-pity is Satanic.” — Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

Self-interest is not merely thinking highly of oneself as much as it is thinking too often of oneself. You may think of you are a loser, but if you think about that loser all the time, it is apparently a very important loser.

“A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.” — Carlo Cipolla, The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity

Self-pity is stupid. It is the desire to rule over ruins rather than serve under someone else's sovereignty. It is impetuous and ignorant. It does not merely hurt others to gain for itself, it hurts others without getting anything back. It sends itself to its room without any supper in order to punish its parents. It starves itself in order to send a message, but ends up cutting off its lines of communication.

“No sin is worse than the sin of self-pity, because it obliterates God and puts self-interest upon the throne. It opens our mouths to spit out murmurings and our lives become craving spiritual sponges, there is nothing lovely or generous about them.” — Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest 

Self-pity is satanic. It is consumed with petty desires and even pettier vengeances. 

“Discouragement is disenchanted self-love.” — Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

We often lose heart when the world does not clap along with our self-congratulation. We love ourselves to the moon and back and find out that the power of self-love cannot get us anywhere we want to go. Love is not love as it turns out. Especially when it is self-love.

day no. 17,121: do or die (sermon outline)

The following was originally preached on Sunday, August 17, 2025 at Christ Church Leavenworth as part of our sermon series through the book of James. It was also my 18th wedding anniversary.

Christ Church Leavenworth

James 1:22-25

August 17, 2025

…

OT READING: Deuteronomy 30:11-20

NT READING: Luke 6:46-49

"Do or Die"

READING OF THE TEXT

Our text this morning is James 1:22-25, these are the words of God

Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the Word of our God stands forever.

PRAYER

Our Father and our God, we come before You this morning through Jesus Christ, our Lord, and in the Holy Spirit. Give us ears to hear, eyes to see, hearts to believe, and hands to do everything according to Your Word. In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen.

INTRODUCTION

Last week we were told to “be quick to listen and slow to speak.” We have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen twice as much as we talk. This week, James points out that we also have been given two hands: one for each ear.

In other words, when it comes to the Word of God, what we hear should match what we do. 2 Corinthians 6:7 says it this way, “as servants of God we commend ourselves with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left.” We have two ears because God has much to say. We have two hands because God has much for us to do. And that is where our text begins this morning. Turn with me to James 1:22-25 as we take a quick survey of the text before circling back to set up camp in a few verses.

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

(22) Listening to God means hearing what He says and then doing it. God does not talk just to hear His teeth rattle. When He says something, He expects a captive and obedient audience. As James points out, however, the one does not always follow the other. It is possible to hear the Word of God and not do it. You can be a hearer without being a doer. Not only that, but you can hear the Word, not do it, and trick yourself into thinking that you’ve done the work of God simply because you heard it. But hearing and doing are separate sides of the same coin. You cannot spend one side of the coin without spending the other. And if you think you can, try putting half a quarter in an Aldi cart. Do not be deceived: hearing and doing cannot be divorced. God has married them and what He has joined, let no man separate.

(23) If you think listening to sermons is the same thing as doing what the sermons said, you are kidding yourself. You are like a person who sees a mailbox in his rearview mirror, but backs into it anyway. Your life, like that car, is going to be a wreck if you forget what you’ve been told. Forgetting is a gateway sin. It is a sin in itself, but it always leads to harder sins. So, we must remember what God has said and the best way to do that is to get to work. If a word from God hits home, put it into practice. Quick obedience is the best memory aid.

(24) If you look into a mirror and see cream cheese on your face, you find a napkin and you wipe it off. You don’t walk away without doing something about it. It’s that simple. You see the crud in your eye, the gunk in your teeth, the stain on your shirt, and the booger in your nose. And what do you do? You wash your face, you brush your teeth, you change your shirt,  and you wipe your nose. Simple. 

So, why don’t you do the same thing with your sins? It’s the same thing. You see your face in the Scriptures and you see all your imperfections. You see your blemishes, your sins, and your shortcomings. And what do you do? Nothing? How can you do nothing? How can you just walk away without doing something? You should not be able to see yourself in that state without being motivated to do something about it. Sure, there’s a lot to fix, but still… start somewhere. Some of us wake up to some pretty gnarly reflections looking back at us, but we do our best and we get ourselves where we need to go looking better than what we began with. So, what do you need to do?

(25) The Bible, like a mirror, tells it like it is. Don’t blame the mirror for what you see in it. The Bible is not smeared, streaked, blurry or broken. It is crystal clear. There are no blemishes or flaws in it. So, if you see any issues staring back at you, they are yours. The Bible is also a full length mirror. It is not like one of those little mirrors they stick on the back of your car’s visor. It is big enough to get all of you in view. And what you see is a perfect reflection of who you are because the mirror itself is perfect. It is flawless, that is why it can show you your flaws. That is the reason why many people don’t like to stand in front of it very often or for very long when they actually do. That is why some people avoid going to church altogether and why some bounce out of the service as soon as it is over.

But if you are in the habit of looking into the law of God and getting after the problems you see in its reflection, you will be blessed. You will see yourself being conformed to the image of Christ. It may only be as in a mirror dimly, but it is a glimpse of what you’re going to be. The grace of God gives you the ability to face yourself without falling apart because it gives you the ability to see Him face to face without being destroyed. After all, the same mirror that points out your faults also points you to Christ. The same Word that calls you out, calls you back home.

HEAR THE WORD OF THE LORD

The tension in today’s passage is between hearing and doing, or rather, between hearing and not doing. James is not against hearing. He did, after all, write this letter with the expectation that someone would read it. But more importantly, he expected the hearer to do something about what they heard. But not just any thing. James is not promoting a “ready, fire, aim” form of a religion. 

On the contrary, he is committed to doing what God has said. This begins, of course, with hearing but it cannot end there. We’ve all sat through conversations, meetings, or even sermons that we technically heard, but could not, for the life of us, remember. Hopefully not this one though. So, take heed, hearing the Word of God at church may be the main context James had in mind. 

More often than not, the only time people hear the Word of God is at church. They might read it at home, but they hear it at church. This is the one place where it is regularly read out loud. And if that is true today, how much more so was it the case at the time he wrote this? We can listen to Johnny Cash read the New Testament on YouTube. And if you haven’t already had the pleasure, I would highly recommend it. The original recipients of this letter, however, likely only ever heard the Word at church. Consider 1 Timothy 4:13 where Paul tells Timothy this: “Devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.” The church has been given the Word and the sacraments and it is its job to protect them and proclaim them. So, church people, all things considered, hear the Word of God more than most, which is why the sin of hearing without doing is almost exclusively a problem particular to parishioners.

DO THE WORD OF THE LORD

Three times in four verses James contrasts hearing with doing. He then goes so far as to say that those who hear the Word of God without doing it are dopes. They are like a man who puts a rabbit into a hat, waves a wand over it, reaches in, and is just as shocked as everyone else to see a rabbit come out. They have somehow fooled themselves. Those who act like listening to sermons is the same thing as obeying them are deceived. They are under their own spell.

Children, pay attention. Listening to your parents is not just hearing the words that they say, it is doing the things that they say to do. When the Bible says, “Listen to your parents,” like it does in Pr. 23:22, it does not mean simply waiting around for them to be done talking. It includes that, of course, but it primarily means paying attention to what they say and then doing it when they’re done. It is the same with God. Listening presupposes doing. The child of God who truly “listens” to his Father is the one who obeys him. 

The Word of God does not come back void. The Lord does not talk just for the Heaven of it. The Bible is not chit chat or small talk. If God says, “Jump!” your only question should be, “How High?” If He says, “Hop to!” your only reply should be, “I’m your huckleberry.” Do not pat yourself on the back because you heard the sermon. Big whoop. The devil has sat through countless sermons. Aim higher. Consider Ezekiel 33:30-31, “The people say, ‘Come, and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord.’ And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear what you say, but they will not do it.’”

There is a long, rich history of people gathering to listen to sermons they have no intention of obeying. Going back to the days of Ezekiel, they would get excited to sit under teaching that they felt the freedom to ignore. People have always preferred a “take it or leave it” kind of approach to going to church over a “hear it and do it” approach. But sitting under preaching with that kind of attitude reminds me of a story I heard about a boy who got in trouble in class. He kept standing up and wandering around several times after he was told to find his seat. After several gentler approaches had failed, the teacher sternly said, “Tommy, sit down right now!” He walked slowly back to his seat and sat. The teacher continued with the lesson and turned around every once in a while to make sure little Tommy was staying put. He was, but she noticed that he was wearing a big grin on his face. It seemed odd for a child who had just been corrected in front of his peers to be so cheerful about it, but she considered that perhaps she had finally gotten through to him. So, she turned back to the whiteboard and continued the lesson. She glanced back once more and saw that lil’ Tommy’s grin had grown wider. Her curiosity now getting the best of her, she stopped the lesson and said, “Tommy, what are you smiling about?” Tommy took a moment, looked up, and said, “I may be sitting down, but I’m still standing up on the inside.” If you see the Word of God as optional and sermons as a matter of opinion, you are like lil’ Tommy. You may sit under the Word of God most Sundays, but you are standing tall in your heart. 

If you only do the things in the Bible that you already like and only do the things in the sermon that you were already doing, you are not a doer of God’s Word. You only hear what you want to hear and do what you were going to do anyway. This kind of thing was apparently prevalent in the days of Augustine of Hippo as well, for he once said, “If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don't like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself.” 

If you only do what you want to do, you are not following Jesus, you are just following your own fancies. At some point, being a Christian will require you to do something you didn’t feel like doing; at another point, it will require you to stop doing something you wanted to do. If it doesn’t, it is not Christian. If Christ is King, He gets to contradict you. You do not get to contradict Him.

THE F-WORD

Consider Matthew 21:28-31, “‘What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?’ They said, ‘The first.’”

Both sons got the same instructions, but neither wanted to do what they were told. The first said, “No,” but ended up doing it anyway. He told the truth about not wanting to do it, but he repented and did it anyway. The second said, “Yes, sir,” but ended up doing nothing. He told a lie and then went AWOL. Hear the Word of the Lord: honest repentance is better than dishonest lip service. It is better to look bad and do the right thing than it is to be a good looking good-for-nothing. It is better to eat crow than it is to cook up stories. And that brings us to a very important and powerful word. The F-word. Yes, you heard me correctly. There is a four-letter F-word that everybody knows and everybody despises. Especially God. I’ll spell it out for you. F-A-K-E. Fake. 

Listen to Matthew 15:7-8 “You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.’”

We get the word “hypocrite,” from a Greek word used to describe an actor on a stage. A hypocrite was someone who played a part and wore a mask. You’ve likely seen the classic comedy and tragedy masks that are used as symbols of the theatre. Those were worn by hypocrites. In this context, it is like someone cosplaying Christianity. The worst part is, however, as James points out, is that some people have tricked themselves into thinking that that is all Christianity actually is. And so, just like the demons, they believe that there is a God and just like the demons, they refuse to do what He says.

Consider what Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:13, “Impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” The worst part about telling lies is that you start to believe them. Lying is like trying to remember two truths. There is the one you know and the one you want others to know. But the longer it goes on, the more lies you have to tell, and if it goes on long enough you can’t remember what is what. Sir Walter Scott it well when he said, “Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.” In other words, those who spin tales either get caught up in them… or they become spiders.

Consider Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” There will always be more people saying, “Christ is King,” than there are people living as though they were His subject. If you play fake games, you will win fake prizes. You might fool some of the people some of the time, but you won’t fool Jesus any of the time and in the end what will it profit a man if he gains the approval of the whole world, but forfeits the approval of God? God is not fooled by fake IDs. The only solution then is to get real with God and with ourselves.

1 John 1:8-10, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” When you are high on pride, you cannot see your own sin. But the Word of God can sober you up. And once you see your sin, you must confess it. The word “confess” is the Greek word homologeo and it literally means homo = same + logeo = word. Confession then is a matter of using the same words that God uses. Confession is agreeing with God and finally saying what He has been saying all along. And if you do that and then call upon Christ to save you, He will. If you give Him real, solid sins, He will give you real, solid forgiveness. If you set aside all the faking and get real with God, He will become real to you. But if you call yourself clean, you are calling Him a liar. You have heard His Word, but it is not in you. You have said something other than what He has said.

The only person who cannot be helped is the person who does not think they need any help. That person is drunk with pride. They need someone to take their keys and drive them home before they hurt themselves or somebody else.

C.S. Lewis said it this way, “When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse, he understands his own badness less and less. A moderately bad man knows he is not very good: a thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right. This is common sense, really. You understand sleep when you are awake, not when you are sleeping. You can understand the nature of drunkenness when you are sober, not when you are drunk. Good people know about both good and evil: bad people do not know about either.”

That brings us to our NT reading today. Turn, if you will, to Luke 6:46-49.

NO, LORD AND OTHER NON-SEQUITORS

In Luke 6:46, Jesus asks the following question: “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” It is a penetrating question, is it not? Why call me Lord if you’re not going to do what I say? Either say, “Yes, Lord,”and do what He says or say, “No, you’re not my Lord.” But do not say, “No, Lord.” That doesn’t make any sense. That’s not even possible. If He is your Lord, you have to say, “Yes,” and if you say, “No” He is not your Lord. 1 John 2:4 says it this way, “Whoever says ‘I know Him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” You cannot say, “I know God” and then act like you don’t know Him. You can’t say, “I’m a follower of Jesus,” and then refuse to follow Him. 

Jesus goes on to punctuate this point with a familiar parable in vs. 47-49, “Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.” 

Both men heard the Word of God, but only one built his life upon it. He did his best to keep Christ’s commands and his house endured the day of the difficulty. Convictions are not formed during times of trouble, they are revealed in times of trouble. The day of difficulty reveals what doctrines you hold to.

The second man heard the Word of God, but built his life on something else. He may have gone to church every week, but he did not do what he heard there. He may have read his Bible in the comfort of his home, but he did not put it into practice. And his house, according to Jesus, came crashing down. It could not endure the day of difficulty and it fell down in dramatic fashion. The point then is obvious. The blessing is in doing what you’ve heard. 

In John 13:17, Jesus said it this way, “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” Knowing is incomplete if it does not do something. Repentance is a change of mind that manifests itself in a change of conduct. If your theology comes out your fingertips, and it does, what do yours say about your doctrine?

Keep this in mind: Judas heard of all Jesus’s sermons. In fact, he was sitting in the room when Jesus said, “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” He heard those words with freshly washed feet. He sat at the supper table with Jesus that same night. But he did not do what he heard. He already had something else in mind. And so he chose to do something else. And that leads us to our OT reading for the day. Look at Deuteronomy 30:11-20.

HEAR IT AND DO IT

The commands of God are always for today. The question is always, “What does God want me to do today?” You cannot carry two days at once and God doesn’t ask you to. So, let the past rest in the grace and forgiveness of God and stop trying to pick up the future. It is too heavy for you to carry. And besides, God will be there to help you carry it when you get there. Life and death are before you. Good and evil are your only two options. God has made it clear: it’s do or die. If you obey, you will be fruitful and you will multiply. Blessings will abound. But if you don’t do what you’ve been told or stop listening to God altogether, you will not be long for this world. Heaven and earth are God’s witnesses. They are watching whatever you do. Whatever you choose, they will see it. So, choose life. What you do with what you have heard from God is the most important decision you make every day. So, what will you do today? You have heard. What comes next?

WE BECOME WHAT WE BEHOLD

Begin by reading your Bible and paying attention when the Word of God is read or preached. In other words, take a look in the mirror. What do you see? If there is something wrong, set to putting it right. The Word of God is a good mirror that tells it like it is. But here’s the Good News. The mirror of God does not just show you what’s wrong with you, it shows you what is perfect about Him. It is not just a reflection of your gross, it is a reflection of His grace. And the longer you look to Him, the more you will become like Him. It is another one of those inescapable concepts: you will become like whatever you behold. You will look like what you look to. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says it this way, “we all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.” Hear the Word of the Lord: if you look to Christ, you will become like Him. Because this is an inescapable concept, however, it can and does work in the opposite direction as well. Psalm 135:15-18 “The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; they have eyes, but do not see; they have ears, but do not hear, nor is there any breath in their mouths. Those who make them become like them, and so do all who trust in them.” Hear the Word of the Lord: if you look to idols, you will become like them. 

Everything is going somewhere and sooner or later it's going to get there. Everyone is becoming something and sooner or later they are going to become it. The best predictor of where you are going to end up is the direction you are currently going. Direction determines destination. The best predictor of who you are going to become is what you do today. So, look down at your feet. What are they aimed at? That is the direction you are going. If you don’t like the direction things are headed, repent and point your feet in a different direction.

IT IS FINISHED!... AND SO IT BEGINS

At this point, you might be thinking, “Ok, this all makes sense, but who could do everything God says? I want to do what He says, but I keep falling short. Is there any hope for me?” Yes, there is. So, you have not done what God said to do. What does the Bible say to a man in that place? Does it have anything to say to him? Yes, it does. Hear the Word of the Lord: Repent and believe the Good News. 

If you have heard the Word of the Lord and done what it said not to do or failed to do what it commanded, there is yet more Word of the Lord for you: REPENT. Confess your sin as sin and believe the Good News of God. Christ has completed the work of God. He has lived a perfect life in your place for your righteousness. He has died a sacrificial death in your place for your sins. He has risen on the third day in your place for your justification. And He has ascended into Heaven in your place that you might be seated with Him at the right of God the Father Almighty. On the Cross He cried, “It is finished!” Are you calling Him a liar? He completed the good work His Father called Him to do. He finished his race without faltering. He never sinned. He never fell short of anything God called Him to do. As such, He has a perfect record. He has a spotless resume’ and He is willing and able to give it to you. The Gospel of God is that Jesus takes all of your sin and nails it to the Cross and He gives you all of His righteousness and credits it to your account. So when God sees you, He sees His Son. And how does God feel about His Son? He loves Him. In Christ, that is how God feels about you. So, when you feel like you are done, remember what He has done. Today we have talked a lot about doing, but don’t start there. Begin with done. The DONE of God in Christ saves you from what you have done and what you have left undone.

You have heard the Word. What will you do now? Will you do it? Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to wake everyday with this battle cry in your heart, “It is finished! …and so it begins!”

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, we have heard Your Word. Help us now to do it. We have been blessed by the opportunity to hear You speak. Let us now go out and be blessed in doing what You have said. We ask these things in Jesus’ name and we offer up the words of the prayer He taught us to pray singing...

day no. 17,120: eat or be eaten

“There are only two ‘ways,’ two fundamental religions in the world. One of them feeds people, and the other one eats people.” — Douglas Wilson, Virgins and Volcanoes

Oneism is the false belief that everything is unified. In that world, for one to eat, another must go hungry, or worse, he must be eaten. It is a zero sum existence. God is just another object inside the system. He may be the largest and strongest, but He exists inside the same circle as everything else. For Him to gain is for us to lose. For us to gain, He must forfeit.

Twoism, however, is the true doctrine that God is altogether unlike the created order. He is not just another creature inside the system, He is entirely other and outside the system entirely, an uncreated eternal. He is substantive and everything else is derivative. He exists on His own in His circle. He created a second circle in which all other things, that is things created, exist. He made the second circle without diminishing Himself. He did not lose anything in order to make it. He overflows. He radiates. He can make the second circle larger to accommodate larger slices of the same pie because He made it from nothing in the first place.

God is not a billiard ball knocking into and displacing other billiard balls. He is not on the table. He is above it and playing the game. He hovers over it, like the Spirit did the waters in the beginning.

"There were many other differences between a saint and a dragon. But the essential difference was simply this: that the Dragon did want to eat St. George; whereas St. George would have felt a strong distaste for eating the Dragon. In most of the stories he killed the Dragon. In many of the stories he not only spared, but baptised it. But in neither case did the Christian have any appetite for cold dragon. The Dragon, however, really has an appetite for cold Christian—and especially for cold Christianity. This blind intention to absorb, to change the shape of everything and digest it in the darkness of a dragon's stomach; this is what is really meant by the Pantheism and Cosmic Unity of the East. The Cosmos as such is cannibal; as old Time ate his children. The Eastern saints were saints because they wanted to be swallowed up. The Western saint, like St. George, was sainted by the Western Church precisely because he refused to be swallowed." — G.K. Chesterton, A Miscellany of Men

The wisdom of the world is eat or be eaten. It is be at the table or be on the menu. The Christian man refuses to be swallowed. He does not allow himself to be digested by the lie of oneism. He resists the temptation to reduce his mission to eat or be eaten. He refuses to fall for dog eat dog.

"The justice of Hell is purely realistic, and concerned only with results. Bring us back food, or be food yourself." ― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

Hell is consumed by hunger. It reduces the world to predator and prey. It insists on a forced choice situation: bite or get bit.

Galatians 5:15

But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.

Biting is only one step away from chewing. Once you have grown accustomed to biting, you keep going and find yourself gnawing which gradually turns into chewing which ultimately ends in eating. All that to say, if you allow yourself to be snippy, you are in danger of becoming a cannibal. But this is not of God. Jesus gave us His body and His blood so that we would no longer develop a taste for each other.

“We want cattle who can finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sons. We want to suck in, He wants to give out. We are empty and would be filled; He is full and flows over. Our war aim is a world in which Our Father Below has drawn all other beings into himself: the Enemy wants a world full of beings united to Him but still distinct.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

There are only two religions. There is the fear and frenzy of famine where everyone eats to avoid being eaten and there is the faith and satisfaction of feasting where everyone eats to avoid becoming a backbiter.

day no. 17,119: totalitolerance

“Without an exhaustive rule through the predestinating love of the Father, unbelieving men will always see a job opening. They will want to fill that gap. They mimic the Father’s omnipotence, which is where we get the totalitarian part. They also try to mimic His love, which is how we get the tolerance farce. And so it is that we find ourselves suffocating under this totalitolerance.” — Douglas Wilson, Mere Christendom

Where men want to know everything without being seen as know-it-all's and where men want to control everything without being called dictator's, they create totalitolerance. It gives them the ability to meddle and the authority to be moral. In other words, they can say things like "enforced because we care" without blushing. 

“Once abolish the God and the government becomes the God.” — G.K. Chesterton

If there is no standard above us all, the thing above most of us will claim to be over everything.

"If men will not be governed by the Ten Commandments, they shall be governed by the ten thousand commandments." — G..K. Chesterton

Because the state is not God, it cannot cut with the sword of the Spirit, so it must settle for a million tiny pin pricks. Because it cannot reach the conscience, it must break the skin. Because it does not have unchanging principles on which to conform its people to the image of Christ, it must make a myriad of changing laws to conform its people to an image of its own liking.

"There is now a false idealism of turning Government into God, by a vague notion that it gives everything to everybody." — G.K. Chesterton

The state is insatiable because it is unsustainable. It can only maintain power by grabbing for more power. It cannot rest on authority because it relies on stolen valor. If it slows down, it will cease to exist. So, it high jacks the sphere of authority rightly assigned to it by God and uses it to eliminate the other spheres of authority God has created: the individual (self-government), the family (household government), and the church (ecclesiastical government). Imagine, if you will, they implore, no Hell below and above us only sky. They repeat this mantra as they mandate the use of more drones, cameras, credit monitoring, and surveillance.

"Mankind has two problems: pride and lust. Pride repels us from heaven and lust binds us to the earth." — Blaise Paschal

Our pride pushes against Heaven and our lust licks the floor. Because we despise grace, we set up our one stop meritocracy shops. Because we are attracted to sin, we legislate licentiousness and outlaw the Law of God. The two of these combine to become the modern love story of totalitolerance.

day no. 17,118: fighting for unity (sermon outline)

The following was originally preached on Sunday, August 10th, 2025 at Christ Church Emporia in Emporia, KS. The material was largely borrowed from a message I preached over Judges 20 and repurposed for Psalm 133 to use in this pulpit supply slot for the saints at Christ Church Emporia.

Christ Church Emporia

Psalm 133

August 10, 2025

…

OT READING: Numbers 25:1-13

NT READING: 1 Corinthians 5:9-13

Fighting for Unity

READING OF THE TEXT

Our text this morning is Psalm 133, these are the words of God

1 Behold, how good and pleasant it is

    when brothers dwell in unity!

2 It is like the precious oil on the head,

    running down on the beard,

on the beard of Aaron,

    running down on the collar of his robes!

3 It is like the dew of Hermon,

    which falls on the mountains of Zion!

For there the Lord has commanded the blessing,

    life forevermore.

The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the Word of our God stands forever.

PRAYER

Our Father and our God, we come before You this morning through Jesus Christ, our Lord, and in the Holy Spirit. Your Word is the standard for unity, clarity, charity, and authority. Speak to us now that we may know how and when to wage war and how and when to hold our peace. Give us ears to hear and eyes to see that we may behold wondrous things in Your Word and be equipped for every good work which You have prepared beforehand for us. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.

INTRODUCTION

Good morning! And greetings from Christ Church Leavenworth. The saints there regularly remember you all in their prayers and they send their love to you all this morning as we both gather to worship our God together. In Christ we are united to God and to each other. We have both separated ourselves from the interests of the world, the flesh, and the devil and we have both united ourselves to the promised seed of the Eve. This has not sat well with the seed of the serpent. The darkness has not gone gently into that good night, but has subtly attempted to slink around. That being the case, war and peace are now a part of life. There will be war and there will be peace. So, this then begs the question: with whom will you be at war and with whom will you be at peace? There are wars worth fighting and peace worth keeping, but there are also unnecessary conflicts and sinful compromises.

War and peace are inevitable, but not equal. They are not the unstoppable force and the immovable object. A good peace is better than a good war. But it must be pointed out that you cannot have a good peace without first having a good war. A good war, in fact, according to God’s standard, is one that produces peace. A bad war, on the other hand, is one that merely sets the stage for the next conflict. So, peace is better than war, but only if it is produced by godly means. This is why the birth of Jesus was proclaimed as “Peace on earth” and why that same child when fully grown preached, “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” As Spurgeon once noted, “Christ is the great Peacemaker; but before peace, He brings war.”

Now, because a good peace really is better than a good war, many Christians have concluded that any peace is better than all wars. As a result, many now advocate for a pacifistic approach to cultural engagement and for pursuing peace treaties with sin instead of pursuing a conflict with it. If you contend that any peace is better than any war, you will end up with sin in your camp. If you are on good terms with sin, you are at odds with God. As James 4:4 points out, “Friendship with the world is enmity with God” and “whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

So that doesn’t leave much room for playing nice, right? Well, yes and no. 

Peacemakers are, according to Christ, blessed by God. So, which is it? Pursue peace or pursue conflict? Wage war or make peace? The Bible smiles back and says, “Why not both?”

Peacemaking is not the same thing as peacekeeping. Peacemaking means doing whatever it takes to make peace. Peacekeeping means doing whatever it takes to avoid a conflict. Notice the difference and then note that Jesus blessed the one and not the other. Blessed are the peacemakers. Cursed are the compromisers. Peacemaking, as it turns out, is often a violent endeavor: blood, sweat, and tears are often involved. Look no further than the Lord Himself. Jesus did not make peace for us with God by holding up peace signs with His hands. No, He made peace for us by having His hands pierced. He did not say, “Just give peace a chance, man,” as he skipped through the countryside with BFFs. No, He said, “It is finished!” as He hung on a tree. Peace is not achieved by indifference, it is acquired by conflict. The peace of God, therefore, is not the absence of conflict, it is the absence of sin.

For where there is sin, there will be conflict. You can try to make the conflict go away through compromise, but the sin will continue, and that simply sets the stage for the next conflict. Too many in modern evangelicalism have sought to make peace with sin in order to try to keep the peace. But the biggest problem with that kind of peace is precisely that it does not keep. Compromise and conflict are comrades. Compromise is always there to hold conflict’s beer. It refuses to beat the swords into plowshares and simply holds onto them until conflict comes around and asks for them back. In other words, compromise is the armor bearer of conflict. But tolerating the presence of sin simply kicks that can down the road. The conflict comes later, but still, it comes. Evil, for all its faults, does not forget that it is in a fight. If it agrees to a ceasefire, it is only to reload. Psalm 55:21 states it this way: “His speech was smooth as butter, yet war was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords.” Evil only signs peace treaties as an act of aggression, and modern evangelicalism, unfortunately, has all too often been all too eager to take that bait. It pays the danegeld and is shocked to find that more Vikings have shown up.

So, in a world full of sin, peacemaking means war. We cannot make peace with anything without bringing some other things to justice. Chesterton said it this way, “This life of ours is a very enjoyable fight, but a very miserable truce.” The apostle Paul agrees. His first letter to Timothy begins by instructing him to “wage the good warfare,” (1:18) and ends by reminding Timoty to “fight the good fight of the faith,” (6:12). Thus, his letter is literally bookended by battleplans. The Christian life is a fight from start to finish. If it isn’t, it isn’t Christian. J.C. Ryle acknowledged this reality and made the following comment: “Every baptized churchman is by his profession a 'soldier of Jesus Christ.’ He is pledged to fight under His banner against sin, the world, and the devil… We have no choice. We must either fight or be lost."

Consider our OT reading this morning. Phinehas was not content to coexist with sin. He did not find the bumper stickers compelling. To be fair, there were others who didn’t like what they were seeing either. He was not the only one who hated what was happening in his country. These other people watched and they wept, but Phinehas stood up. He stood on the Word of God and ran towards the battle. And God rewarded his warfare with a covenant of peace and credited it to him as righteousness (Ps 106:30). Phinehas’ good war gained him a good peace. 

This life then, like eternity, is binary. Recall what God said to the serpent immediately after the Fall in Genesis 3:15 “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring: He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” Who put the enmity into the story? God. And where did He put it? Between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. Because of sin, there is conflict. God declared war on sin and established a clear antithesis: this team or that team. There is no third way. This is why egalitarianism in all its forms is a Christian heresy. It seeks to erase the distinctions that God has ordained. If you are at war with what God has called “good,” you are on the side of the serpent. If you hate reality, you are at war with God. Conversely, we who believe receive the world as it is, and that means accepting the fact of warfare. Spurgeon summarized it well when he put it this way: “Better a brief warfare and eternal rest, than false peace and everlasting torment.”

With that in mind then, let’s review this morning’s text. Turn with me to Ps 133.

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Good things are not always pleasant. War is often ugly even when it is necessary. Blessings can be like that too. Trials are a blessing from God, but they are still hard. Growing pains are tough to endure, but they leave you taller and stronger when they’re through; labor pains are painful, but they end with a new baby looking back at you. Some good things, however, are also pleasant. They are a blessing through and through. Unity is like that. How good and pleasant it is. Brothers dwelling in unity is a blessing to everyone. This is not the kind of peace that people can only have by keeping away from others. You know, the kind that cannot be in the same room with someone. No, this kind dwells with others. It keeps short accounts and takes communion with others. It dwells in the land because it dwells in the people. It is special. It is like the oil on the head of the high priest. All priests had to be anointed, but only the high priest was anointed with oil on his head. 

And it wasn’t just a little oil, but enough to run down his beard and over his collar and down onto his clothes. Generous amounts of oil were needed and used in anointing him. Unity among brothers is like that. It is as precious as it is rare and it comes at a great cost that is gladly paid and richly rewarded. And while it may be rare, when it is present, it covers everything. Just as the dew covers the ground, Christian unity will cover the land. It will bless everything that it falls upon. God has commanded it. He has commanded us to make disciples of all nations as the dew covers the ground. We are to baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and then teach them everything that Christ has commanded. And when we do this, Christ has promised to be with us and the blessing will surely follow for the Lord has commanded it. The world will be saved by Christian unity and charity. But that kind of unity will not come by compromise, it will come by rightly handling the Word of God and rightly dividing from bad company.

FOLLOWING CHRIST REQUIRES BOTH UNITY AND DIVISION

In Ephesians 4:3, we are called by Christ to “make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” This kind of peace does not just happen by accident. It requires effort. And not just any effort, but EVERY effort. And the kind of catholicity God desires, the kind we confess to believe in every week when we recite the Apostles’ Creed, that will require every effort. In other words, the kind of unity Christ commands is expensive. 

You cannot have it without paying something for it and you shouldn’t be shocked to find chaos where people refuse to pay full price. There is no bargain bin brotherhood. There are no coupons for Christian community. Sometimes the cost includes covering for a multitude of someone else’s sins. Sometimes the cost includes the discomfort you feel when you have to confront a particular sin. Anyone who is happily married knows that you must sometimes ruin a perfectly good Tuesday night with a hard conversation, but that same person also has a long list of things that they’ve decided to let go.

So, how do you know what time it is? How can you tell if it is time to build up or time to tear down? A time to say something or time to shut your mouth? Or to put it in more modern parlance: how do you know if it is a time to text or a time to refrain from texting? The men of Issachar referred to in 1 Chronicles 12:32 knew how to tell time. They could read the room and they could tell what time it was. As a result, they knew what to do and they were able to instruct others. We want to be like that. So, like them, we must read the Word before we try to read the world. We cannot understand our times unless we understand the timeless Word of God. Because it is timeless, the Word of God applies wherever you are, whenever you are, whoever you are. So, what are some of these principles and where can we see them in our text?

(1) WHAT SHOULD WE FIGHT ABOUT?

In verse 1 we see that it is good and pleasant when brothers dwell in unity. But not just any unity will suffice. There are many shared interests that do not bless a land. The LGBTQ+ community is unified in their commitment to perversion, but that is not good or pleasant. It is usually angry and loud. So, some things bring different people together, but not everything that brings people together is good. Unity is not good in itself. It all depends on the binding agent.

Let’s say you have an issue with someone. First and foremost, discuss that issue with that someone. Secondly, if that someone does not end up seeing things your way, consider if it is something you would actually involve your elders in resolving. If not, don’t start a fight you have no interest in finishing. Do not aim at anything you are not willing to destroy. Chalk stuff like that up to personal differences and move on. If it is serious, handle it seriously. If it is not serious, stop being silly. 

Theodore Roosevelt once said "The unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided; but never hit softly." Soft hitting is the product of not following through. It stops short. It loses heart halfway. Do not start fights you don’t intend to finish. If you choose to fight, you must also choose to win. If you’re not willing to win, it is not worth fighting over. Pick your battles wisely and fight them decisively. Every parent of small children knows you must choose your battles carefully and win them once you’ve chosen. 

All that to say, if you cannot, in clean conscience before God and man, hit as hard as you can, don’t hit at all. Half-hearted hitting is a sin.

(2) WHO SHOULD FIGHT?

In verse 2 we see that the high priest had certain privileges that other people did not. Those particular privileges, however, came with particular duties and responsibilities that other people did not have to concern themselves with. In fact, they were prohibited from doing so. The principle here is knowing that every fight is not your fight. Now, some of you are feistier than others and need me to repeat that. So, let me reiterate: every fight is not your fight. Every person is not your person. Every problem is not your problem. It might be a real problem and still be none of your business. Just because you see something wrong does not mean that you are the one who needs to do something about it. Someone will, no doubt, say, “Oh, you don’t know me. I’m not the kind of person who can just stand by.” To that person, I say, “I’m sorry. Perhaps I wasn’t clear: EVERY fight is NOT your fight, like this one.”

CONSIDER GALATIANS 6:1

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 

Sin is the kind of thing that can happen to anyone. Anyone can get caught up in it. But everyone is not called to do something about it. What does the text say? “You who are spiritual should restore the sinner.” 

Now, this does not mean that you have to have a black belt in Christian doctrine before you can confront someone in sin, but it does mean that someone who has lost his temper is NOT in a position to confront someone else’s sins. That person has enough of his own sin to repent of at the moment. To be “spiritual” means to be both qualified and motivated. Unfortunately, the only time most people are motivated to confront sin is when they are the least qualified to do so. When we are qualified to address someone else’s sins, we are calm, collected, clear-headed, and at peace with God and the world. But when we’re like that, we don’t much feel like getting into a conflict. We’d rather just enjoy that feeling a little while longer. If the sin persists, however, that feeling doesn’t. We get irritated, annoyed, upset, or worse. And NOW we feel like confronting some sin, boy! But now the problem is that we’re not qualified to confront it anymore. You cannot roll up on someone with hot nostrils and expect anything good to come of it. As James 1:20 points out, “the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”

So, if you set out to set things right with a wrong attitude, you will do more harm than good and you will end up creating more sin, not less. This is why Paul also warned that you should only confront a brother caught in sin if you are currently in a spirit of gentleness. If you can’t do that, you’re not addressing someone else’s sins as much as you demonstrating your own. This is also why Paul reminds us to be careful. It is easy to drown when trying to save someone else from drowning. So, confront sin, but only when your head is in the right place and even then, still be careful. 

(3) WHOM SHOULD WE FIGHT?

As previously discussed, in verse 2 we see that some people hold special places, but that also means that some people are owed special attention. They owe us certain things because of their position and we owe them certain things because of their position. You owe some people more than you do others. Yes, you must love your neighbor, but the Bible defines your neighbor as the one who is in front of you at the moment and some neighbors are in front of you more often than others. Simply put, this means that the neighbor who walked down the aisle with you, has your last name, and sleeps next to you every night in the same bed takes priority over the neighbor who has to ring the doorbell just to be allowed into your living room. You owe everyone something, but you owe more to some than others.

Consider the following and take note of the especiallies:

1 TIMOTHY 5:8

If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

GALATIANS 6:10

So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

You owe some people more than others. You are obligated to pay some debts before you pay others. You are obligated to put up with more from some people than you would from others. While you may owe all men some kind of respect, you owe more to the man you call “dad.” You may owe all children some degree of patience, but you owe more to the ones you call you “mom.”

CONSIDER ROMANS 15:1

We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves.

The weak cannot put up with the failings of others. It is one of their defining qualities. They just can’t even. They’re too weak for that. So, if you imagine yourself strong, prove it. Put up with something. Don’t melt down. Stand up and bear up under adversity. If you can’t, or you won’t, you are the weak one everyone else is putting up with, not the strong one everyone else needs to start listening to. 

(4) HOW SHOULD WE THEN FIGHT?

In verse 3 we see that the world will be won over like dew settling down and falling upon the ground. Too often, like James and John, we want to bring the hammer down like thunderbolts and lightning, very, very frightening and all that. But the kingdom comes on more like dew settling down on the ground overnight than it does like a power washer taking the paint of an old barn. Sometimes you must be willing to look weak in order to be strong. As N.D. Wilson once pointed out, “the one who is losing their temper is losing the argument.” Getting loud may look like strength, but it is often a sign of weakness caused by a lack of self-control. 

On the other hand, being quiet before your accusers may look like weakness, but it requires all the strength of the God Almighty. Just ask Jesus. Was it from weakness that He stood silent or was it from strength? The best way to confront the chaos is with calmness. If you can control yourself, you may look like you’re losing, but you’re actually keeping the chaos from claiming another victim. You defeat the crazy by staying calm.

Being calm and qualified helps you maintain a sense of proportion. Confronting a brother caught in sin is different from confronting an enemy. You should not scrimmage against your own team the way you fight against the other team. Now, you do have to scrimmage in such a way as to improve your teammate’s abilities, but you must not scrimmage in such a way as to injure them before the big game. You have to challenge them to help them grow,, but you cannot take them out and still have a team left. You do not tackle a brother in practice the way you do an opponent in a game. This principle is especially true when dealing with rookies and new recruits – or in our case, children and new converts.

ROMANS 14:1

As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.

Before you change friend groups, try changing the subject. Some topics are too much for some people and some subjects are too much for some relationships. For the sake of some people then, you may have to set aside some of your opinions some of the time. A task harder for some of us than others. And remember, if you cannot curb your tongue, you are the weaker brother everyone else is putting up with. Every group of friends has that person. If you don’t know who it is in your group, I have some bad news for you…

Relationships that last are built upon big rocks. These can then endure the minor differences about tiny pebbles you often find in your shoes when you’ve walked with someone long enough. This is how you maintain a community without demanding absolute conformity. Some things must be shared, like which direction we’re both walking, but we can discuss and disagree about certain things as we walk together.

If things, however, begin to get heated, remember that your first line of defense is always your feet. Try steering the conversation back to something less incendiary. And if all else fails, walk away. Don’t get roped into a fight you weren’t looking for.

TITUS 3:9-10

Avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him.

I repeat: use your feet if possible, but If someone insists on an altercation by refusing to let you leave, then do them a favor and fire off a few warning shots before it gets more serious. Hang a “beware of dog” sign over the conversation before you actually let the dogs out.

As we saw in our NT reading, peace with God really may require us in some circumstances to distance ourselves from others, especially those who call themselves “Christian” when they refuse to repent of their sin. Those who choose to be unified with their sins are choosing to be separated from God and His people. But they do not always go out through the door that you’ve shown them. They sometimes insist on making you remove them. In these unfortunate circumstances, it is the duty of a faithful church to discipline or even excommunicate a persistent, unrepentant sinner. As you hear on a weekly basis, those under church discipline in this or any other Bible believing church, are not permitted to partake of the Lord’s Supper. As Paul points out, you cannot, of course, expect to distance yourself from the sin of the world without being removed from the world altogether, but you should work hard to distance yourself from that kind of thing if it shows up in your heart, in your family, or in your church. In other words, we must be in the world, but the world must NOT be in the us. A boat should be on the water, but water must not be in the boat; in like fashion, we must be out on the water taking on the world instead of in the world taking on water. 

ROMANS 12:18

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

Do your part to be at peace with your people. You cannot force some people to be at peace with you, but you can make it harder for them to remain at war with you.

CLOSING

In closing, pursue peace by fighting the good fight wherever you find it, beginning with your own heart. Do not pursue peace at any cost, but do pay as much as you can to purchase it. There is, of course, a unity that would cost you too much, but there is also a disunity that you can accept too cheaply. We must have character, but we must be charitable. We must have resolve, but we must be reasonable. We must be wise both when we shake someone’s hand… and when we shake our fists at someone. In short, we must be Christian. We must fight the good fight, which is to say, we must wage peace.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, give us peace. Send your Spirit now to root out any and all sin in us, in our homes, in our churches, in our nation, and in our world. Do not stop until every inch of every thing is cheerfully submitted to You and Your will. Give us grace and grit to do what You have commanded us. Help us to fight the good fight and to enjoy the good peace. We ask these things in Jesus’ name and we offer up the words of the prayer He taught us to pray singing…