Category: Faith

Discipleship is an ongoing process of growth in Christlikeness. In the first chapter of his second letter, Peter gives an interesting overview of how the growth process works:

He has given us his precious and incomparable promises, through which you can share in the divine nature, escaping the decadence in the world caused by sinful cravings. This is the reason why you must do all that you can to develop goodness from your faith; knowledge from goodness; self-control from knowledge; patience from self-control; godliness from patience; brotherly affection from godliness; and love from brotherly affection.

The first step in Peter’s hierarchy of characteristics of a disciple is: faith leads to goodness. By practising faith we can develop our ability to be good. Goodness then leads to knowledge, not in the sense of data absorbed from books, but in the sense of an understanding of the world through God’s perspective. Knowledge then leads to self-control. The better we understand God’s perspective on life, the better we are able to make appropriate emotional responses. Self-control leads to patience. With our emotions under control, we are able to wait for the fulfilment of God’s promises. Patience leads to godliness, because patience is a key attribute of God’s character. Godliness leads to brotherly affection because the more godly we become the more we can care about others regardless of their imperfections. Finally, brotherly affection leads to love.

Many people who have not experienced being a leader assume that leadership is quite straightforward: what you need to do is make the decisions, tell people what to do, and sit back to enjoy the power and prestige that come with the position. The reality of leadership is much more complicated: decisions are often difficult, and it is impossible to please everybody. In the fifth chapter of his first letter, Peter gave the following encouragement to leaders:

As a fellow leader, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and someone who will share in the glory that will be revealed, let me encourage the leaders amongst you to look after the flock of God around you, not because you have to but because you want to, for God’s sake, not to make money, but because you are keen to please God. Do not dominate over the people entrusted to you; instead make yourselves examples to the flock. When the chief Shepherd is revealed, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.

Bad leaders dominate and dictate. Good leaders understand that leadership is about serving the people who have been entrusted to their care. It is about finding the resources that people need, helping people to fulfil the missions to which God has called them, and getting people to co-operate with each other to achieve far more together than they could achieve separately. It is difficult, but it is a sacred trust.

For many people Christianity is a relatively “easy choice”. You might be subject to a bit of gentle teasing by others, and you might be criticised by people of other faiths or people who believe that there is no God, but if you live in a modern Western democracy you will not be arrested and persecuted because of your faith. It was not always this way for Christians, as indicated in the fourth chapter of Peter’s first letter:

Dear friends, do not be surprised about the fiery trial which you are going through, to test you, as if something unexpected was happening to you. Celebrate because you are sharing in Christ’s sufferings, and you will be able to celebrate even more when his glory is revealed. If you are abused for the sake of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

Something happened in the first part of the fourth century that changed the course of Christianity. The Emperor Constantine made Christianity into a state religion. Christians were no longer persecuted, and they became eligible for government funding. The persecuted turned into the powerful, and in the course of this transformation some of the distinctive elements of the Christian faith were lost. Those elements still exist in countries where Christians are persecuted today, and they may be recovered in the West if the power wielded by the church in the West continues to decline.

What people really believe tends to get revealed by what they fear. If you fear the criticism of other people more than you fear doing what you know to be wrong, that indicates that you believe that the opinions of people are more important than doing right. If you have a growing relationship with Jesus, the extent to which you fear the same things as other people fear will diminish. As Peter said in the third chapter of his first letter:

Who can harm you, if you become enthusiasts for doing good? Even if you suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear what they fear, and stop worrying.” Worship the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks you the reason for the hope inside you, with humility and reverence, in good conscience, so that, when you are criticised, the people who abuse you for your good behaviour in Christ will be embarrassed.

Strong belief in Jesus gives you a form of protection against the insults of others. The more deeply you care about the Kingdom of God, the less you will care about what people say and whether you are abused. This does not mean that you should become insensitive and arrogant; as Peter said, you should be ready to answer people with humility and reverence, and in good conscience.

It is often said that one of the biggest barriers to becoming a Christian, for many people, is the behaviour of Christians. If Christianity really is true, surely Christians should act a lot more like Jesus and a lot less like everybody else; however many who loudly proclaim themselves to be Christians seem to be selfish and unkind. This runs counter to the instructions given by Peter in chapter 2 of his first letter:

Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and strangers, to stay away from sinful cravings, which fight against the soul. Live exemplary lives amongst unbelievers, so that even when they say that you are doing wrong, they can observe your good deeds and glorify God on the day of judgement… God wants you to silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing what is right. Live freely, without using your freedom as a cover for wickedness, remembering that you are slaves of God.

“Exemplary lives” are meant to be lives filled with good deeds, and which silence the ignorance of foolish people. Followers of Jesus need to shed their images as the “disapprovers” and those who are known for the range of things they are against. Instead, we need to become known once again as the people who amaze others by our kindness and good deeds, even when others oppose our good deeds.

It is not easy being a Christian. In fact, many of the things that Christians are supposed to do seem impossible. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world; we have to be more righteous than the Pharisees and teachers of the law, we must not get angry with a brother or sister, we must settle matters with adversaries, and so on. In the first chapter of his first letter, Peter instructs us to do more impossible things:

Get your minds ready, be level-headed, and put all your hope in the grace that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not keep following the desires you used to have when you were ignorant. Be holy in everything you do, just like the holy one who called you, because it is written, “You must be holy because I am holy.”

How can anyone possibly “be holy in everything you do”? This requires perfection, and, in spite of what some self-righteous people might seem to claim, nobody is perfect. However, there is a way to become perfect in God’s eyes. Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for all of our sins. If we trust in him, his perfection overcomes all of our imperfections. It is only by accepting Jesus’s sacrifice for us that we can become perfect and meet the standards that God requires of us.

People who live in developed countries are, on average, immensely wealthy when compared with people in developing countries or people who lived in any country more than 200 years ago. It is therefore somewhat uncomfortable to read what the Bible has to say to rich people, because wealth brings the illusion of self-reliance in place of the reality of reliance on God. The fifth chapter of the letter from James says:

Wealthy people, weep and lament because of the troubles that are coming for you. Your wealth has decayed and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you and consume your flesh like fire. You have accumulated wealth in the last days. Look, the wages which you stole from the labourers who harvested your fields cry out, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived your time on earth indulgently and luxuriously. You have fattened your hearts ready for the day of slaughter.

Wealth is temporary, gold and silver rust, clothes wear out, and earthly life ebbs away. You can choose to lead an indulgent and luxurious life on earth, but you cannot take any possessions with you when you leave. Poor people die just as rich people do, but the rich have further to fall because of the hope that they place in their possessions and power, hope that ultimately always proves to be futile.

If you believe in Jesus but do not actually do anything in your life to show it, can you still get into heaven by the skin of your teeth? Can you live your life in just the same way as everyone else – say what they say, think what they think, treat people like they treat people – and still be a Christian merely because you have at one point in your life asked Jesus to save you? This is what James had to say about unfaithfulness in the fourth chapter of his letter:

Where do the conflicts and quarrels amongst you come from? Do they not come from hungers that are at war inside you? You want something that you do not have. You kill and envy, but cannot get what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask inappropriately, to use what you get for your own pleasure. You unfaithful people, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility towards God? Whoever chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

According to James, you have to choose whether you’re going to be in love with God or in love with the world. If you are faithful to the world – faithful to making lots of money, becoming someone important, gaining power – then you cannot be faithful to God. If you are faithful to God, then you cannot be faithful to the world. The choice is yours. If you want to be a follower of Jesus, then you have to stop trusting in your own resources and the things around you, and start stepping out into the life of risk and adventure that God has planned for you.

It is easy to use words to build someone up, but it is even easier to use words to tear someone else down, particularly someone who is not present to offer a defence. Social media can be used to encourage others, but often the instant and seemingly private way of posting comments makes it very easy to launch a public attack on someone else. The third chapter of the letter of James describes the dangers of the tongue, which could equally apply to the keyboard:

The tongue is small, but makes great boasts. A little fire sets a large forest ablaze. The tongue is a fire, a world of evil amongst our other body parts, contaminating the whole body, and setting on fire the course of a person’s life with flames from hell. All types of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures can be tamed and have been tamed by humans, but no human is able to tame the tongue. It is an unpredictable evil, full of deadly poison. We use it to bless our God and Father, and we use it to curse people who have been made in the image of God. Out of the same mouth comes blessing and cursing. Friends, it should not be like this.

What is it that possesses us to make us say unkind thing to or about others? As James says later in the chapter, jealousy and selfishness are key parts of the problem. We seek to assert our own self-importance by tearing someone else down. The remedy is to seek wisdom from above, which is pure, conciliatory, kind, obedient, full of mercy, unprejudiced and genuine.

One of the reasons for the current malaise of the Christian church in the West is that Christians tend to blend in too well with their neighbours. Followers of Jesus are supposed to live a radically different lifestyle, but somehow we have managed to reduce the lifestyle to a matter of assenting to a number of doctrinal propositions. In the second chapter of his letter, James had this to say about those who claimed to have faith but did nothing to show it:

Friends, what use is it if you claim to have faith, but do not do anything? Can that faith save you? If a brother or sister has no clothes or food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warm and well fed,” and yet you did not give them the things they need, what use is it? Faith by itself without action is dead. Someone might say, “You have faith, and I have actions.” Show me your faith without actions, and by my actions I will show you my faith.

Smiling at people and thinking nice thoughts is not enough. If we make a decision to follow Christ but it does not cost us anything and there is no change in how we live an interact with others, then we are not actually following Christ at all. The malaise of the Christian church in the West is a crisis of discipleship: faith in Jesus is very much a matter of actions, as well as beliefs.