Guided, thankfully, by starlight

Dear friends

At many times in our lives, particularly those of personal perplexity or anxiety, or of crisis in the church, we find ourselves asking ‘What is God’s will?’ or ‘What is the Lord saying to us about all this?’

These questions may seem natural, but we find much safer ground, and greater guiding clarity, if we ask instead ‘What has God said about this?’ For we believe Jesus (John 16:12-15) who promised that the Holy Spirit would guide his apostles into ‘all truth’, thereby revealing through them, for the whole Church, what Peter called ‘everything we need for life and godliness’ until the return of Jesus.

"Paul assumes it is not complicated for the Church to find out ‘what pleases the Lord’"

Thus Paul assumes it is not complicated for the Church to find out ‘what pleases the Lord’ (Eph 5:10). He urges ‘do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is’ (5:17), going on to lay out with clarity many aspects of God’s will in the realm of domestic and family relationships — vital reading for those seeking ‘guidance’ in that complicated area.

Likewise, a good starting point for anyone asking ‘what is God’s will for my life’ is 1 Thessalonians 4-5, where Paul reiterates his previous instructions to the church about ‘how to live to please God’:

this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honour’ (1 Thess 4:3)

Granted, you may not be seeking that particular guidance at present. Perhaps you are concerned to ask ‘what courses should I be taking this year at University?’ or ‘should I get married?’ But, if the Bible is to be believed (and it is) what concerns the Lord is not which courses you take (try ones you are good at and enjoy!) or when or whom you might marry (look for someone who shares your love for Christ [2 Cor 6:14] and gives you palpitations!) What really concerns God is that whatever you do, you do it to his glory, and that you should be holy. ‘For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you’ (1Th. 4:7).

That is plain guidance, don’t you think? — for individuals seeking to live godly lives, and for the wider church in its responsibility to end public confusion about orthodox Christian teaching on matters of human sexuality.

But at the end of this discourse comes further explicit guidance, just as challenging for the church (NB the ‘you’ is plural):

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1Thess. 5:16-18)

"God commands holiness in our bodies, but he also commands thankfulness in our hearts and on our lips."

God commands holiness in our bodies, but he also commands thankfulness in our hearts and on our lips. Not just perseverance under trial, but praise is God’s will for us; the ceaseless prayer of praise, regardless of circumstances, that we saw recently in Acts 16 when, around midnight in the inner prison, feet in the stocks and backs bleeding, Paul and Silas were ’praying and singing hymns to God’!

This might seem heroic to us, but once you start looking, this concern for constant thankfulness appears everywhere in the New Testament. Read Colossians, for example, and highlight the number of references to thanksgiving — not just plain thanks, but ‘joyfully giving thanks’ and ‘overflowing with thankfulness’! At our prayer meeting recently we looked at Col 3:15-17, where three times Paul urges the congregation to be thankful, his point being that only a Church overflowing with thankfulness for all that God has done in them, and is doing through them, will be a harmonious and peaceful congregation, bound together in unity, and working together fruitfully. Thankfulness, he says, is the powerful affection that expels disease, discontent, and division from a fellowship.

Nor must we be tempted to think it’s all down to temperament; some of us are natural ‘Tiggers’, upbeat and seeing the positive side of a situation, while others are like Eeyore, or CS Lewis’ magnificent pessimist, Puddleglum. Quite the reverse. Certainly, some people are naturally cheery, others morose:

‘Two looked out through prison bars
One saw mud, the other stars’

But Paul is not talking about temperament. He is not urging on us the rose-tinted spectacles of ‘let’s pretend’ optimism, in place of the cold light of day, but rather the clear vision of reality that only the true gospel brings. Believers see, more clearly than any, the real mud of life under the curse. Yet, if we have really understood the glorious riches of the gospel, we’ll see that mud, nevertheless, bathed in the starlight of a sure and certain hope.

"Believers see, more clearly than any, the real mud of life under the curse. Yet, if we have really understood the glorious riches of the gospel, we’ll see that mud, nevertheless, bathed in the starlight of a sure and certain hope."

‘Unthankfulness’ is by definition unchristian. It is the culpable mindset of those who refuse to see the light, who blind themselves to ‘Christ...the hope of glory’ (Col 1:27). Christians, by contrast, know that they ‘share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light,...rescued...from the domain of darkness and transferred...to the kingdom of his beloved Son’. So, naturally, they will always be ‘joyfully giving thanks to the Father’ (Col 1:12-13). Won’t they?

The Christian life is hard. Living in this dark world, your experience and mine will inevitably be mud-spattered. At times we may feel we are submerged to our oxters in it, both personally and in church life. Yet even the deepest mud and slime can take on an iridescent beauty as it reflects the light of a thousand galaxies in the night sky above. Those flickering shadows naturally draw our eyes upwards to gaze at the source of such a transformation.

And therein lies path of victory. However deep the mud, it is only as we constantly ‘set our hearts on things above’ that we shall see, more and more, the joy of true Christian holiness and the holiness of true Christian joy. And, with biblical certainty, that is God’s will for each of us in Christ Jesus.

Yours, looking upwards,

William J U Philip