Growing in holy living (12)

Growing in holy living (12) - Daily Devotion - 28 September 2024

St Barnabas Anglican Church Fairfield & Bossley Park

REFLECTIONS

Written by Stephen Shead

Earlier in the month, we read this verse from Hebrews:

Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:14)

If you read that verse on its own, you might think it means, “Unless you’re good enough for heaven, you won’t get there.” Thankfully, the writer to the Hebrews has already made it crystal clear that believers in Jesus have already been madeholy and are being made holy through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross (see Hebrews 10:10, 14).

That doesn’t mean our effort isn’t required. God commands us to make every effort to live out our holy position. But that doesn’t mean you need to be “good enough.” It’s another way of saying: Don’t walk away from Christ! Don’t give up the struggle. Press on towards the goal (Philippians 3:12).

The effort is hard though, isn’t it? What will keep us motivated to continue striving?

Yesterday we looked at Paul’s Christ-centred perspective in Colossians 3:1-4. In the following verses, Paul describes what striving for holy living looks like in practice. He lists aspects of our old selves that we are to put to death, and characteristics of Christ that we are to put on. You’ll recognise many of the topics we have explored:

5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. … 8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, (Colossians 3:5, 8-9a)

12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. (Colossians 3:12-14)

But sprinkled through the passage, there are also a number of motivations for holy living. The first one is a negative motivation for putting off the acts of the earthly nature:

Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. (v. 6)

This isn’t really a fear-based motivation – though the coming judgment of God is certainly a fearful prospect! But Paul’s point is that it would make absolutely no sense for us to keep throwing ourselves into the very things that are the reason for the coming judgment day.

It’s a bit like me and sun protection. My skin is sun-damaged and prone to skin cancers. I love the feeling the sun on my face – but it would be crazy for me to lie on the beach in summer with no sunscreen or protection. Sunlight on my skin is why skin cancers are coming, so why would I go back for more?

It makes just as little sense for a follower of Jesus to carelessly continue in the things that have provoked God’s righteous anger.

The rest of the motivations in the passage are all positive and grace-filled:

9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. (v. 9-10)

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved… (v. 12a)

Forgive as the Lord forgave you. (v. 13b)

If you are committed to Jesus being your King, you are safe and secure in God’s love. He has chosen you, forgiven you, made you holy, set his love on you; and he is at work moulding your new self into his own image. Having that security is what will most help you to live for God.

Growth in holiness comes from gazing on God and his grace, and so clothing yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 13:14).

Let’s return one last time to the same list of practical life areas that we considered yesterday. Did you manage to choose one to work on? I’m a big fan of the general principle in life: Choose one thing to improve. It doesn’t have to be the “right” one. Don’t overthink it and don’t try to pick everything, or you’ll end up paralysed. It’s much better to work on one thing than none … so just pick one! Here they are again:

• Money, greed, and generosity

• Lying and keeping your word

• Submitting to authorities

• Anger and forgiveness

• Sexual purity and contentment

• Stealing and honesty

• Slander, gossip, and gracious words

• Coveting and contentment with what God has given you

Make a plan, put it in your diary, line up a holy-living buddy … and keep working on our three steps until they become your natural instinct: Be real with God, rest in the gospel, and resolve with God to live in devotion to him.

Because it’s all – from start to glorious finish – by his grace and power.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stephen is our senior minister.

Growing in holy living (11)

Growing in holy living (11) - Daily Devotion - 27 September 2024

St Barnabas Anglican Church Fairfield & Bossley Park

REFLECTIONS

Written by Stephen Shead

For our last two devotions in our series on growing in holiness, we’re going to take a step back to see the big picture again. But at the same time, we’ll think back over the practical topics we’ve covered. Here’s a list of the areas of practical living we considered. Choose the one that stands out as the area where you most need to grow in holiness:

• Money, greed, and generosity

• Lying and keeping your word

• Submitting to authorities

• Anger and forgiveness

• Sexual purity and contentment

• Stealing and honesty

• Slander, gossip, and gracious words

• Coveting and contentment with what God has given you

As you think about those, let’s turn to Colossians 3:1-4. These verses give us such a clear and simple perspective on life as a follower of Jesus. This is the perspective on life that will help us to persevere and grow in holy living.

1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:1-4)

If you have turned to Jesus as your saviour and Lord, the most important thing is not what’s happening in your life here and now. It’s your past, present, and future with Jesus. I find it helpful to visualise it as “back, up, forward”:

1. When you look back, you remember that Jesus died and rose to deliver you from sin and devote you to God.

2. When you look up, you remember that your true life is safe with Jesus. He has secured an eternal inheritance for you, safely guarded in heaven.

3. When you look forward, you remember what you are eagerly waiting for: the return of Jesus in glory. When that happens, you will be raised to life and joy with him, and the only “you” left will be the new you, remade to be like Jesus.

So Paul encourages to fix both our hearts (v1) and our minds (v2) on those realities. That is, fix both your desires and your thoughts on Christ himself. Don’t get stuck focusing on what this world has to offer, or on your own troubles or failings. Work each day at developing that steady perspective of looking back, up, and forward to Jesus.

How do you do that? There are several things God has given us to help us continue clinging to his grace in Jesus. They are sometimes called “the means of grace.” We touched on one of them when we looked at the Sabbath command: gathering regularly with other believers to remind one another of the great story of salvation. That’s the story Paul has just summarised.

The two other essential means of grace are fairly obvious: filling your mind with Scripture and filling your day with prayer. We can’t gather every day, but those other tools for keeping a Christ-centred perspective are available to us every day.

So … back to the list. Decide which area of holy living you are going to prioritise over the coming weeks, or even months or years. Change can be slow, though God may also surprise you. To start with, follow our three steps:

1. Be real with God.

2. Rest in the gospel.

3. Resolve with God to live in devotion to him, by his grace and power.

After that, make a plan! What will it look like for you to work hard at growing in this? Write down your plan, or put it in your diary, or set up a regular reminder on your phone. Even better, message someone now to say, “This is what I want to work on over the next few weeks – I’m not sure how I’ll go about it yet, but can you be my holy-living buddy?” Arrange to catch up with them and talk about your plan.

In all that, one final word: Always seek to be motivated by grace, not by guilt. We all feel guilty when we fail God, even though we are objectively righteous because of Jesus. It’s probably a good thing that our sin makes us feel guilty. But guilt is a lousy motivator to change. If you expect feeling guilty to do the job, you will cling to your guilt, but it will only crush you. Resting in the gospel means, after you have confessed fully and honestly, you return to filling your mind with the grace of God in Jesus. Remember that Jesus dealt fully and finally with all your guilt. Meditate on God’s amazing love in washing you clean, delivering you and devoting you to himself – all by his grace and nothing else.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stephen is our senior minister.

Growing in holy living (10)

Growing in holy living (10) - Daily Devotion - 26 September 2024

St Barnabas Anglican Church Fairfield & Bossley Park

REFLECTIONS

Written by Stephen Shead

Western society today seems to assume that our desires are usually good. “If you want it, it must be good.” But the Bible has a very different assessment of our condition. Ever since Genesis 3, our desires have been fundamentally disordered.

With that in mind, let’s look at the last of the Ten Commandments:

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:17)

Many people think that the Old Testament law was only concerned with outward obedience, and that Jesus introduced a new kind of righteousness of the heart. You can only think that if you stop before the last commandment. Most of the commandments are about what we do – “You shall not murder,” etc. But the Tenth Commandment takes us back to the source of our actions: the thoughts, attitudes, and desires of our hearts.

Jesus explained the way that sinful deeds come from sinful desires:

21 “For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” (Mark 7:21-23)

Both the Tenth Commandment and Jesus himself hold the highest possible standard up before us: God wants us to have desires and impulses that honour him and honour others. Living a life devoted to God means…

• not fantasising about another person’s spouse,

• not feeling jealous of someone because of their job or salary,

• not feeling bitter and angry because of the car or house or clothes or holidays that another person can afford that you would love to have,

• not imagining and toying with the idea of sin in your mind.

But … how do you obey that? It seems challenging, to say the least. For the Apostle Paul, the commandment “You shall not covet” was the one which convinced him that he was a sinner (see Romans 7:7-12).

Once again, the gospel is the answer. It brings us very good news about God’s grace in Jesus – good news that moves us to strive with all our might. God announced that good news long before Jesus, through the prophets. He promised that one day he would transform the corrupt and covetous hearts of his people. Through Jeremiah, God promised to put his law in our minds and write it on our hearts, because he would forgive our sins (Jeremiah 31:33-34). Through Ezekiel, God promised to give his people a new heart and a new spirit to obey him (Ezekiel 36:24-28).

Jesus is the fulfilment of those promises. If you trust in him, he really has put his law in your heart. He has given you his Spirit, who has implanted in you a new impulse to love God and love your neighbour.

You might doubt that sometimes – after all, the old, covetous “you” is still there, in your fleshly body. That’s why there is a battle inside us, and it’s why we need to strive to put to death the old. But imagine how much further away from holy living you would be if you didn’t know Christ! The fact that we do long to be rid of the desires that wage war against our souls shows that God’s Spirit is at work. And God’s grace and love in Jesus motivates us to strive, not desperately but with hope and confident assurance. In Philippians 2:12-13, Paul says.

12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. (Philippians 2:12-13)

In week 2, we saw that true freedom isn’t just being able to do whatever I want. It’s being able to do what God wants, by his grace and power. But we can go one better: True freedom is both wanting and doing what is good and pleasing to God. What a comfort it is to know that God is the one who is working in you to produce both wanting and the doing! So keep striving.

As we finish today: What is the positive opposite of coveting? I think the answer is: contentment! Here’s a great verse to memorise:

But godliness with contentment is great gain. (1 Timothy 6:6)

If you belong to God through faith in Jesus; if he has claimed you for himself and made you holy; if your future is to be conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29), then you are unspeakably rich.

So today, bring the desires and impulses of your heart to God. I’m sure you know which desires in your heart most need the ongoing grace and power of God. Seek to be content by remembering that Christ is your treasure. Ask God to fill “the bottle” of your mind with Christ and his grace, and the eternal riches of knowing him.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stephen is our senior minister.

Growing in holy living (8)

Growing in holy living (8) - Daily Devotion - 24 September 2024

St Barnabas Anglican Church Fairfield & Bossley Park

REFLECTIONS

Written by Stephen Shead

What is the opposite of stealing? Is it simply … not stealing?

The Eighth Commandment says:

“You shall not steal.” (Exodus 20:15)

Let’s start by thinking about what stealing is before we consider its opposite. When I think of stealing, my mind usually goes to someone wearing a balaclava and breaking into a house, or a shoplifter. But as we’ve already seen, biblical commands often apply to deep heart issues, not just “big sins”.

In the Bible, examples of stealing using deceptive methods to overcharge people, like merchants who used weights that were slightly too heavy or too light when weighing out goods. Deuteronomy 25:13-15 condemns using “differing weights” and “differing measures”, and then says:

For the LORD your God detests anyone who does these things, anyone who deals dishonestly. (Deuteronomy 25:16)

Stealing involves dealing dishonestly. One author I read defined stealing in the Bible as “the act of taking property from another without permission and in secret.” Stealing stems from greed, and it usually involves taking deceptively.

Other biblical examples include shifting the boundary with your neighbour’s house to sneak some extra real estate (Deuteronomy 19:14), exploiting the poor and vulnerable by charging high interest (Exodus 22:25-27), and not paying your taxes (Mark 12:17). Can you think of other examples? Underpaying a tradesperson; not returning an item that you forgot to pay for at the supermarket; not doing the hours you’re being paid for at work.

So, what is the opposite to stealing? Last week I introduced “the bottle principle”: the best way to get all the air out of a bottle is not to try to suck the air out, it’s to fill it with water. Similarly, the best way to get rid of sin is not to try to stop loving it; it’s to replace the sin with something much better: being captivated by God. That often means meditating on the beauty of the gospel and seeing, in Christ, the attribute of God that is the antidote to the sin.

When it comes to stealing, the God-shaped opposite isgenerosity. Listen to how Paul describes the outstanding generosity of the Christians in the churches of Macedonia (Philippi and Thessalonica):

1 And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. 2 In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. 3 For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. (2 Corinthians 8:1-3a)

This is an extraordinary testimony! How could they give generously from a situation of “very severe trial” and “extreme poverty”? The secret ingredient was: “their overflowing joy” (v2) – a joy which came from knowing just how generous Jesus was in becoming a man and dying a slave’s death, so that we could be spiritually, eternally wealthy:

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9)

Knowing and experiencing the generosity of Jesus, in his death for us, is what will captivate us with God, especially with the beauty of his generosity.

Is joyful generosity something you long to grow in – generosity to the needy, and generosity to ministry and to mission? Has it been a long time since you last sat down and worked out how much you are able to give, and who you will give to? If so, plan when you are will do it. And when you do, here are some Bible passages you could read to help “fill the battle” with living water:

• 2 Corinthians 8–9

• Luke 19:1-10

• Acts 4:32-37

• 1 Timothy 6:6-19

To finish: I recently listened to an episode of a podcast called “You’re Not Crazy”. Sam Allberry – one of the presenters – told a story from a book called Heaven and Hell about a Japanese thief who came to faith in Jesus. All his life, all he had known how to do was steal. But when he trusted in Christ, he and started going to a church which had the 10 Commandments on the back wall. When he read, “You shall not steal,” at first he thought: “How can I ever stop stealing? It’s all I’ve ever known.” But then he read those words again – “You shall notsteal” – and he read them as a promise. It was Jesus’ promise: “You are going to stop stealing.”

I think that is a brilliant way to read the Ten Commandments – and it’s true! When Jesus has finished with you, you will be wonderfully, warmly, joyfully generous. Resting in that assurance is what will motivate us to strive to be wonderfully, warmly, joyfully generous now.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stephen is our senior minister.