IF You Want To
The Christian life is all about allowing the eternal wisdom of Christ to change you down to your motivations and your desires.
“He just doesn’t get it.” Two friends were talking about me, and they didn’t know I could hear them.
They were right.
I didn’t get what they were trying to teach me. My mind doesn’t work that way. They were both trying to teach me how to do some complicated electrical wiring for a project, and I kept messing up. They seemed to have no problems with this process and were getting increasingly frustrated by me not “getting it.” I confess I was getting frustrated, too.
We trip over this kind of thing when we assume that “they should get this. After all, I get it.” But we have to “want to” get it, and if we don’t “want to,” then we usually don’t. I didn’t get the wiring situation, not so much because I was stupid but because I didn’t have that much interest in electrical wiring basics.
An enfeebled will has far-reaching consequences.
Look at our lesson today in 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8:
BRETHREN, you yourselves know that our visit to you was not in vain; but though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the face of great opposition. For our appeal does not spring from error or uncleanness, nor is it made with guile; but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please men, but to please God who tests our hearts. For we never used either words of flattery, as you know, or a cloak for greed, as God is witness; nor did we seek glory from men, whether from you or from others, though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nurse taking care of her children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our very own selves, because you had become very dear to us.
St. Paul talks about how he was run out of town in Philippi because of persecution. He then says WHY this persecution didn’t stop him from his missionary work.
He says he has “been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel…” And because he has engaged his will to serve Christ, he won’t let a little thing like persecution, death threats, imprisonment, beatings, and the loss of social status keep him from declaring the Gospel in Thessaloniki! He tells them that his courage to do this hard work flows from the Truthfulness of the Message, the Innocence of the Message, and the Boldness of the Message.
The Message Paul declares his “appeal,” as he calls it, is Truthful, not because he can empirically “prove” all his theology in a court of law. That is the standard we moderns have imposed on the Faith, and it has been an entirely foreign concept throughout history. No, Paul’s message, his Gospel, is Truthful because Jesus Christ IS Truth. The Gospel of the Church is the Person of Jesus Christ. When I focus my faith on Jesus, the courage to stand for Christ is given to me by God’s grace.
The Message Paul declares is Innocent because Paul’s motivation isn’t to make himself comfortable. Why would anyone willingly subject themselves to this pattern of persecution? Paul said that his motivation wasn’t to enrich himself, and he certainly didn’t. When I am motivated to BE purposefully Orthodox, it is because I am grateful to God and I actually love God. Then, that same motivation moves me to share this eternal, spiritual treasure with others. Paul gets the WHY behind the Gospel—love of God and neighbor!
The Message Paul declares is Bold because Paul gets the audacity of the Gospel. Paul fully embraces the amazing Message he is declaring. That message insists that the Unseen God has become seen for our sake. This Seen God has embraced humanity in becoming fully human in the best sense of the word. And This Seen God has submitted to physical death so that He can destroy death and mortality from the inside! And not only all of that but now this freedom from mortality means that every human being in the world is invited to join this Seen God in His Church so that they can become by grace what He is by nature!
St. James, the Great Martyr of Persia, lived in the 5th century during the reign of King Isdiger in Persia. James had been raised as a Christian, but in his early adulthood, he became close friends with King Isdiger. The king’s flatteries and great wealth turned the head of James, and he renounced Christ to worship the idols his friend, the King, worshipped. When his mother and his wife heard what James had done, they wrote him and told him they would no longer have anything to do with him since he preferred temporal pleasures over the eternal love of Christ. James was cut to the heart and repented. By the time of his repentance, a new King had succeeded his friend, and this new King was furious that James had renounced the king’s idols and returned to Christ. The king ordered James “dismembered,” and the saint endured this torture until he was beheaded in 421 AD and was given the eternal crown. Waking up because of the witness of his mother and sister, James was rescued from the eternal folly of abandoning the Lord.
Today, society is set up to be the opposite of the wisdom of the Orthodox Christian Faith. The rampant selfish bend of this modern age is both a challenge and an opportunity for us. If we can learn to exercise our will to choose Christ even in the small things, we can show all around us the path out of darkness and toward the Light! It’s worth the labor to live a Normal Orthodox Life!
P.S. O stout-hearted James, persuaded by your noble wife and fearing the dread tribunal, you did scorn all fear of the Persians with their profane decrees, and you were shown forth to be a most wondrous martyr of Christ when all of your body was pruned like a vine.
Fr. Barnabas Powell is the parish priest at Sts. Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene Greek Orthodox Church in Cumming, GA. He is also the founder of Faith Encouraged Ministries and produces the Faith Encouraged Daily Devotional on Substack. Watch the Faith Encouraged YouTube Channel here - https://www.youtube.com/@FaithEncouragedTV
