Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “Contrary Passages”. A good lesson on “some intriguing passages that people use to justify the natural immortality of the soul” (Quarterly for Sabbath). The weekly lesson does a good job of laying-out some of the issues. And then uses Biblical texts that do no insult to the rest of Scripture’s basic tenet… that the dead rest in the grave until resurrection. But this is not what I want to write upon today.
The quarterly quotes an interesting text in Sabbath’s lesson; 2 Timothy 4: 2-3… “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine”. This text may lead some to really argue or debate a topic such as we have before us this week. We have all seen well-meaning brothers and sisters so argue such a point. Afterall, the words used in this text seem to say “be contentious”. But for some of us, arguing and debating are antithetical to God’s method of persuasion. As our beloved Graham Maxwell used to say, “you cannot antagonize and persuade at the same time”. So, for this week, I need not re-hash the Quarterly’s lessons on the “contrary passages”. Instead, I want to focus on God’s method of handling all teaching, without being “contrary”.
The actual words used in the 2 Timothy verses quote above can help us… if we rightly understand them. One of the methods I use for understanding their meaning (as I am no Greek scholar) is to see how those very words are used elsewhere in Scripture. So, let us decipher each of those action words in this way:
CONVINCE = The KJV uses the word “reprove” here. Which seems to be a rather forceful word. In Ephesians 5: 11 & 13 we have Paul telling us to reprove the “darkness” by being “light”. It is the best way to convince (or reprove) anyone… by living a life that speaks louder than any words.
REBUKE = Which seems to be another rather forceful word. Yet in Mark 4:39; 8:33; 9:25; 10:13 it is apparent that Christ is speaking “peace” into a volatile situation. Into a volatile situation where each person needs to experience peace. Not the usual understanding of “rebuke”. Our very words of “peace” can be precisely the “rebuke” that’s needed. A “rebuke” that demonstrates the “peace” needed.
EXHORT = (also the word “entreat”). In 1 Corinthians 4: 12-13 we see us exhorting (entreating) by being the example. Living the exhortation.
TEACHING = In Matthew 7: 28-29 we see how Christ taught… “as one having authority, and not as the scribes”. How did the scribes teach? “These people claim to worship me, but their words are meaningless, and their hearts are somewhere else. Their religion is nothing but human rules and traditions, which they have simply memorized” (Isaiah 29:13). But Christ said, “What I teach is not my own teaching, but it comes from God, who sent me. Whoever is willing to do what God wants will know whether what I teach comes from God or whether I speak on my own authority. Those who speak on their own authority are trying to gain glory for themselves. But he who wants glory for the one who sent him is honest, and there is nothing false in him” (John 7: 16-18). We cannot even teach unless we follow God. Then we will speak with authority, as the “Author” has so taught us… because we follow. It is the only way to learn of God. Follow “what God wants” (ibid).
LONGSUFFERING = the last word… the capstone, if you will. Paul tell us “to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love” (Ephesians 4:1-2). This is the way… the only way to convince, rebuke and exhort. If not, we will be the ones who are “contrary” even as we attempt to explain “the contrary passages”. We will “convince” no one. We will but antagonize. This is not God’s way but man’s way. We must embody “lowliness and gentleness with longsuffering” (ibid). This will be the only method that works, for it is God’s way.
With brotherly love,
Jim