Category Archives: James

Soren Kierkegaard, The Mirror of the Word, Part 4

27 Friday Apr 2018

Posted by in Exegeting the Heart, James, Kierkegaard, Kierkegaard, Uncategorized

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Now we come to the primary purpose of discourse: What does it mean to use the Word of God as a “mirror”:

It is required that when thou readest God’s Word in order to see thyself in the mirror, thou must remember (so as really to get to the point of seeing thyself in the mirror), thou must remember to say to thyself continually, “It is I am that am here addressed, it is about me this is said.”

He calls this the “seriousness” of reading.  To explain this proposition, Kierkegaard uses an analogy and an example from the Bible. First, to explain what it means to be addressed by the Word.

King David had sinned grievously. He thought he successfully covered up his adultery and Uriah’s death. Then the prophet Nathan came to David and told a story. A rich man with a large flock had a friend come to dinner. The rich man was neighbor to a poor man whose family had only a single lamb which they had raised as a pet.  To feed his guest, the rich stole the poor man’s lamb and served it to the friend. David shocked and angry pronounced death upon the rich man. Nathan said, to David, “Thou art the man.”

Kierkegaard explains what has happened here:

Behold, this tale which the prophet recited was a story, but this, “Thou art the man,” was another story– it was a transition to the subjective.

He then gives an example how we could read the Word as Mirror. He uses the parable of the Good Samaritan.  The story entails a serious of people who should know better and who pass a wounded man on the side of the road. Only the despised Samaritan stops and cares for the wounded man. When we read this, we can easily hold a smug attitude and this and think, I am glad I am not like this priest in the story. But:

No, when thou readest God’s Word, it must be in all seriousness, and thou shalt say, “This priest is me. Alas, that I could be so uncompassionate — I who call myself a Christ — and in a way I am also a priest …

And so the Word is a mirror. We must be careful to not look at the mirror — which creates distance from the Word’s work, but look into the mirror and see ourselves reflected and exposed there. The Word of God works best and right when it exegetes the reader: it exposes the reader’s heart for examination.

[Next will be not forgetting what he have seen; and an examination of the psychology of resolutions.]

 

Soren Kierkegaard, The Mirror of the Word, Part 3

25 Wednesday Apr 2018

Posted by in James, Kierkegaard, Kierkegaard, Uncategorized

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Kierkegaard has explained that there is “reading and reading”. The Word is given not to be observed and interpreted, but to effect and transform. Yes, understanding what is contained in the Word is a part of understanding anything — but there is a kind of reading to understand which keeps the text trapped and distant.

He gives this analogy: a king issues a command. The public begins to “interpret” his command. The interpretations become more complex. There is an entire literature dedicated to reading and writing upon the interpretations. But at no point is command ever obeyed.

Since the Word is a “mirror” according to James, Kierkegaard also condemns a kind of reading which sees the mirror but never looks into the mirror.

To really read the Word, we must be “alone” with the Word:

Oh, to be alone with the Holy Scriptures! — and if thou are not, then thou art not reading the Holy Scriptures.

That this thing of being alone with God’s Word, that this is a dangerous business, is tacitly admitted ….

And then he makes an interesting confession:

And to my thinking it is only human that a man shrinks from letting the Word really get the mastery of him — if no one else will admit it, I admit that I do. It is human to beg God to have patience if one cannot at once do what one ought to do, and yet promises to strive; it is human to beg God to have compassion, seeing that the requirement is too exalted for one — if on one else will admit this of himself, I admit that I do it.

This coming face-to-face with God in the Word of God is a dangerous business. Perhaps the reason it does not seem so, is that we so rarely read.

Kierkegaard speaks of those who do not read the Word at all — most. Then there are those who read in some sort educated way to learn about the text — but not to let the text change them.  And that is not even the necessary reading. The reading which is needed is the reading which perturbs one, that changes one.

If we have not had the experience of asking God for patience and mercy when we read the Word, then it is perhaps because we have not read to be changed. Now I am not saying that should be reluctant to change: we must change. Instead, I am saying that we if have not read in such a way as to feel weight of the words in the Word, then we have not read rightly.

(part four will follow)

Soren Kierkegaard, The Mirror of the Word Part One

23 Monday Apr 2018

Posted by in Faith, Faith, James, Kierkegaard, Kierkegaard, Preaching, Uncategorized

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How to Derive True Benediction from Beholding Oneself in the Mirror of the Word

James 1:22 to the End

Fifth Sunday After Easter

 

Introduction

Kierkegaard prefaces his discourse with a note about the necessary “eloquence” of Christian preaching: it must be an eloquence of word and action:

He who is to preach ought to live in the thoughts and conceptions of Christianity; this should be his daily life — if such is the case, then (as Christianity teaches) thou shalt have eloquence enough, and just what is needed, when thou dost speak straightforwardly without special preparation. On the other hand, it is a false eloquence,  if without being concerned with these thoughts or living in them, one sits down from time to time to make a collection of such thoughts, culling them perhaps from the field of literature, and working them up together into a well-developed discourse, which then is learned perfectly  by rote and is admirably delivered, both with respect to elocution and with respect to movement of arms. No, just as in a well-appointed house one is not obligated to go downstairs to fetch water, but by pressure already has it on the upper floors merely by turning the tap, so too is with real the Christian orator, who, just because Christianity is his life, has eloquence, and precisely the right eloquence, close at ham, immediately present with him ….

For the sermon ought not to establish an invidious distinction between the talented and the untalented, it ought rather in the unity of the Holy Ghost fix attention exclusively upon the requirement that actions must correspond to words.

This idea of correspondence between actions and words is worked in the subsequent discourse on the correspondence between faith and action. There must be an integrity between what is said, and what is done.

The Sermon

Kiekegaard preaches on the following text:

James 1:22–27 (ESV)

22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Kierkegaard begins his consideration of these words with the apparent contradiction of Martin Luther: we are saved by faith alone. He then notes the nature of human depravity when it comes to works:

yet every man has a disposition either to want to have merit from works when they are to be done; or, when faith and grace are to be stressed, to want to be as far as possible liberated entirely from works.

Luther sought to work around that dual tendency:

Luther wanted to take away the meritoriousness from works and apply it in a somewhat different place, namely to witnessing for truth. Worldliness, which understood Luther radically, did away entirely with meritoriousness — and with works along with it.

Luther also notes that “faith is a perturbing thing”. Well, then if faith is a perturbing thing, “To what effect has faith, which thou sayest thou hast, perturbed thee?”

That is the trouble. And what sort of disquiet should come from faith? The disquiet of faith will seek to change things to conform to the faith — whether it is the religious order or a disquiet of “inward order.”  “A true love-affair is a disquieting thing, but it does not occur to the lover to want to change the established order.”

Kierkegaard mentioning Luther’s trouble with James suggests that perhaps Luther did not realize how easily one could twist “faith alone” to mean faith apart from effect upon one. “That does not apply to the Lutheran doctrine, but it applies to me: I have reason to know that I am not an upright soul, but a crafty fellow.”

Since I am a crafty fellow, I think to think more carefully about what is meant by this “faith alone”. “So it doubtless would be well to examine a little more carefully the subordinate clauses (works, existence, witnessing and suffering for the truth, works of love, & c.), the subordinating clauses of Lutheranism.”

It is that examination of what faith must do that occupies the discourse proper.

Falling Round About You

03 Friday Jul 2015

Posted by in affliction, James, Submission, temptation, Thomas Goodwin

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When you fall into [trials], as into a pit and snare, and so they falling round about you; so as you have nothing to stand or lean upon, but all about you fails with you and under you, so as in all outward appearance ye are sunk and overwhelmed with the ruins. In this case to ‘count it all joy,’ to shout as men in harvest, or that have gotten great spoils; when their miseries are so great that they cannot be endured, that yet their joy must be so great as more cannot be expressed; this is the hardest duty that ever was required of the distressed hearts of men. And yet God would not require it if it were not attainable; and it is attainable by no other principles but of Christianity. And argues that our Christian religion, which is the only true wisdom, ver. 5, hath so spiritful and sovereign a virtue in it that it is able to raise spirits up unto thus high and glorious a pitch and perfection in this life.

Thomas Goodwin, Patience and Its Perfect Work

Trials and Patience

01 Monday Jun 2015

Posted by in affliction, James

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A friend wrote to me today about a trial. I thought perhaps the short answer for him might be of good to someone today (or some other day). The advice comes from Thomas Goodwin (Temptation and its Perfect Work) (James 1:1-5). First, temptations will try our grace like fire purifying gold; God will then put his stamp upon the gold — and reveal that gold to be true when Jesus returns:

They are the refiner’s pot and fire. You would rejoice if you had so much gold given you. Then rejoice that you have so much affliction to try your gold. That your graces are so highly valued by God is the reason why he tries them; he would not be at the pains and cost of it else. And they being tried, and holding to right and true gold indeed, they have thereupon his approbation upon that trial; and he sets his royal Tower stamp and mark upon them, secretly in this life, and the same will openly appear to all the world at latter day;

The second reason: God can only make us “perfect” and whole by means of trials and temptations:

Let patience have its perfect work, and it will make you perfect. Now there is no occasion, or room, or work for patience, unless there be trials. And patience, its work is but so far as the affliction proves to be [we cannot have any patience than we have been afflicted]. So then, …. that the full work of patience in our souls is, of all other graces, the highest perfection of a Christian : and therefore, ‘count it all joy to fall into temptations;’ for thereby you will have that grace drawn forth to the fullest length, wound up to the highest peg, which is not done unless temptations is be answerable.

But self when opposed

05 Sunday Oct 2014

Posted by in Ecclesiology, James

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Without doubt each saint is responsible in all humility as regards himself, to speak for the Lord for his glory and will, grace and truth, are plainly revealed. Alas, how much is said that has no higher sourced himself, however veiled it maybe! But self when opposed is apt to break out into strife and party-work, with all the deadly accompaniments and results. Nor are any souls more deceived than those who accredit themselves with the best motives, and fear not to assail with odious imputations those who approve them.

Exposition of the Epistle of James,
William Kelly 1913, p. 114

An Olive Branch in a Catapult

03 Friday Oct 2014

Posted by in James, Peacemaking

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It is also” peaceable”. That is an excellent test whether the teaching which makes a man thinks he has received from God really came from God or not. Does it make him contentious and aggressive? Or, even while he’s endeavoring to prevail upon Christian men to receive a truth which they record with suspicion and distrust, it is clear that his affection for them is unbroken, and that he dreads the prevalence of bitterness and ill–temper among Christian people as much as he dreads the power of error? Is it manifest that he does not suppose is clear vision of some great truth compares the worth of all that his brother and had noticed that truth before– That he does not imagine that their claim to be regarded as loyal to Christ is lessened by the error which, as he thinks, he has discovered in their creed? Does he teach, or does he fight? Does he imply that the new truth which she has to tell get some some personal distinction?

Lord Bolingbroke said of Fenelon that “the Archbishop never outshone, But would lead you into truths in such a manner that you thought you had discovered them yourself.” What a wonderful contrast to the insolent contempt for all who do not accept their opinions which characterizes some public speakers. The mere profession of brotherly affections for those from whom we differ is not enough. Do we actually treat them as brothers, and his brothers and we love? Some of you may remember Cardinal Newman, and his reply to Dr. Pusey’s Eirenicon, said,”You have discharged your olive branch from a catapult”; And there’re some professions of a peaceable disposition which are more aggressive and exasperating the declaration of war.

The Epistle of James
R.W. Dale, 1902, pp.111-112.

The Tide Rises

30 Tuesday Sep 2014

Posted by in Ecclesiastes, James

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The tide rises, the tide falls,
The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;
Along the sea-sands damp and brown
The traveller hastens toward the town,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.

Darkness settles on roofs and walls,
But the sea, the sea in the darkness calls;
The little waves, with their soft, white hands,
Efface the footprints in the sands,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.

The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls
Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;
The day returns, but nevermore
Returns the traveller to the shore,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

James 4:13–16 (ESV)

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

 

Ecclesiastes 1:1–11 (ESV)

1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

2  Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,

vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

3  What does man gain by all the toil

at which he toils under the sun?

4  A generation goes, and a generation comes,

but the earth remains forever.

5  The sun rises, and the sun goes down,

and hastens to the place where it rises.

6  The wind blows to the south

and goes around to the north;

around and around goes the wind,

and on its circuits the wind returns.

7  All streams run to the sea,

but the sea is not full;

to the place where the streams flow,

there they flow again.

8  All things are full of weariness;

a man cannot utter it;

the eye is not satisfied with seeing,

nor the ear filled with hearing.

9  What has been is what will be,

and what has been done is what will be done,

and there is nothing new under the sun.

10  Is there a thing of which it is said,

“See, this is new”?

It has been already

in the ages before us.

11  There is no remembrance of former things,

nor will there be any remembrance

of later things yet to be

among those who come after.

The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, Study Guide.9

26 Tuesday Aug 2014

Posted by in 1 Timothy, Biblical Counseling, Contentment, Discipleship, James, Jeremiah Burroughs, Philippians, Uncategorized

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The previous post in this series may be found here

 The 

 

  1. Read Philippians 4:12: What are the categories of temptation which Paul lists?
  2. What temptation to discontentment does Burroughs list on page 103?
  3. Burroughs mentions two types of “trouble” on pages 103-4. What are they?
  4. Read 1 Timothy 6:10. What sort of trouble does money bring?
  5. What is the precise “root” – note the language used.
  6. Look to the second half of 6:10: how does Paul further define the effect of money; what does it produce in a human being?
  7. Contentment necessarily includes “having enough”. How then does money tempt one to be discontent? Is it possible to desire money and be content?
  8. Read the definition of contentment on page 40 of the book and compare that to what Jesus says in Matthew 6:24. How does money directly attack contentment?
  9. Stop and consider when or whether you have been tempted to discontentment desiring money? Has desire for money ever led you to sin? Have you been angry, covetous, envious, et cetera as a result of the desire for money?
  10. In addition to discontent caused by the desire for money, Burroughs mentions the discontentment caused by the possession of money. He uses the image of a town which deceives one upon entry. Read 1 Timothy 6:17-19. How does money which you have tempt you to discontentment?
  11. Read James 1:9-11: How does money possessed tempt one to sin?
  12. Read Matthew 6:19-21: How does money possessed tempt one to sin?
  13. Burroughs gives a picture of the effects of money possessed by discussing the behavior of insects around light or honey. He is explaining that money attracts temptations, like light or honey attract pests.
  14. Now, most of us do not consider ourselves rich –rich people always have more money than us. Yet, the average life of a human in the West is far beyond what most people in the history of the world could imagine for themselves – and far beyond what most people in the world currently experience. Moreover, even small amount of property is sufficient to encourage sin – when Jesus preached, he primarily spoke to poor people. How then have you found yourself tempted to sin by the possession of money? Consider the examples given in 1 Timothy, James & Matthew.
  15. On pages 105-6, Burroughs expands the weight of prosperity beyond just money. There is a prosperity of position which also brings along certain burdens. Look at the picture of Presidents on the day they were sworn into office and the day they retired. Consider persons who have positions that include a certain degree of respect or responsibility, what is the effect upon them? Or consider single people who think that if they had a spouse and children their life would be better – and then consider the difficulties which come with marriage & parenthood.
  16. On pages 106-7, Burroughs mentions the particular burdens which come with ministry. This was something Burroughs knew very well: When he was a poor and little known pastor and when he was a well-known pastor he experienced a great deal of trouble. In fact, he wrote The Rare Jewel when he was apparently prospering in ministry because he realized the difficulties and temptations.
  17. Consider all of the ways in which God has prospered you. Now, consider: What duties does your prosperity and position require of you?
  18. After you consider you duties, how do you think you will do when it comes time for you to give an account to God as to whether you have fulfilled your duties?
  19. On page 109, Burroughs states the “most dreadful evil”; what is it?
  20. How often have you been discontent because God has not given you what you most desire?
  21. Do you think that you are desiring the “most dreadful evil”?
  22. How is your heart’s desire the “most dreadful evil”?
  23. At the bottom of page 109, Burroughs lists the greatest sign of God’s wrath: What is it?
  24. Middle of page 110, how does God “convey the plague of his curse”?
  25. Do you believe Burroughs on this point? Are you tempted to think he got it wrong?
  26. On the bottom of page 110, Burroughs sets out worst sort of judgments. What is the worst form of judgment from God? Why do we tend to think that material prosperity is the greatest sort of good? Romans 1:21-25.
  27. What is the ninth and last lesson of contentment?
  28. Question 11 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism (which would express Burroughs’ position) reads as follows: “Q. 11. What are God’s works of providence A. God’s works of providence are his most holy, wise and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions.” In short, God is sovereign over everything that happens. You also must know that this does not mean that human beings have no ability to make decisions. We do exactly what we want to do, and it is always what God has determined. That is very confusing, but Burroughs who have believed both to be true.
  29. On the top of page 112, Burroughs explains the scope of providence. How does knowing the scope of providence affect contentment? If it helps, look back at the definition on page 40?
  30. If God is completely sovereign and you are discontent, then you must believe what about God?
  31. In the middle of page 112, Burroughs explains the foolishness of raging against providence: what does he say?
  32. Page 113, what don’t we understand about providence when we are angry at what God has done?
  33. An example of providence is included at the end.
  34. What is the foolishness of discontentment when viewed in light of God’s Providence?
  35. On page 114, Burroughs identifies a reason that Christians often have difficulty taking comfort in God’s providence: what is it?
  36. What is the usual way that God deals with His people in this world? Page 115.
  37. If God doesn’t deal with you in this way, what might it mean? Hebrews 12:8.
  38. To whom does God give His greatest mercies?
  39. What is the way of God working? Page 117.
  40. Take a matter in which you are discontent. Then quickly run over the nine lessons for contentment given by Burroughs. After you examine your discontentment in light of these lessons, explain why you are right in continuing to be discontent.

 

A recent example of providence:

Crisis of War Turned to Gospel Opportunity in Ukraine

 We pass along this recent experience of Dr. Bob Provost, President of SGA and TMS Board Member as told by Bruce Alvord (M.Div.’92, Th.M.’98):

“Traveling through Kiev, Dr. Robert Provost told us what he had seen in another city of Ukraine. There is a people group in Crimea called the Tartars, who are Russian-speaking Muslims and were persecuted by Stalin.  As a result of the recent Russian invasion of Crimea, some of these Tartars have fled north to other parts of Ukraine.  In the city that Dr. Provost was in, the director of a Baptist bible college asked the students if they would vacate their dorm rooms for the refugee families and sleep on mats on the classroom floors.  They did.

Sixty Muslim refugees came – twenty adults (including an Imam – a Muslim mosque leader) and forty children.  When the realized they were being taken for refuge to a Christian place, they were afraid. They feared there would be icons on the walls (which they would have to cover, believing them to be evil) and that they would have to hide their women from drunken, adulterous ‘priests.’ However, having no other option, they stayed. To their surprise, they found themselves and their children being treated kindly and sleeping in their hosts’ beds.  They were shocked. They told the students, ‘If our places were switched, we would never do this for you. Why are you helping us?!’ After hearing the explanation, the Imam became interested in reading the Bible, but only under two conditions: the Bible couldn’t have a cross on it, and it had to have study notes explaining the text! Dr. Provost said, “Well, we happen to have just such a Bible here.” The Russian translation of the MacArthur Study Bible had been completed and didn’t have a cross on the cover!”

 

 

 

 

Why Walter Mill Did not Waver

11 Tuesday Jun 2013

Posted by in Church History, Ephesians, Faith, James, Matthew, Preaching, Psalms, Puritan, Thomas Brooks

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(Rough notes for a future sermon or lesson):

Thomas Brooks in his “General Epistle to All Suffering Saints” noted a promise of God:

Thirdly, Know for your comfort, that you shall have mercy and kindness, and whatever good you need in due season, at that very instant, at that very nick of time wherein you most need mercy.[1]

He then gave the example of the Walter Mill, who would not be blown away:

Another [Walter Mill] who suffered martyrdom in Scotland, being solicited to recant, made this reply: ye shall know that I will not recant the truth, for I am corn, I am no chaff; I will not be blown away with the wind, nor burst with the flail; but I will abide both (440).

How could Mill have such strength to know that he would not be blown away? To see his strength, we need to look back to Psalm 1:

1 Blessed is the man

who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

                        nor stands in the way of sinners,

nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

            2           but his delight is in the law of the Lord,

and on his law he meditates day and night.

            3           He is like a tree

planted by streams of water

                        that yields its fruit in its season,

and its leaf does not wither.

                        In all that he does, he prospers.

            4           The wicked are not so,

but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

 

There are two plants, a tree and one that ends in chaff (vv. 3 “a tree….” And v. 4, “chaff that the wind drives away”)[2].   One stands strong, the other will be blown away:

 

“like the chaff which the wind driveth away.” This allusion describes the instability of the principles of the ungodly, rather than of their fortunes. Their want of principle is opposed to the good man’s steady meditation of Jehovah’s law, which is the foundation of his prosperity. On the other hand, because the ungodly want this principle, therefore they shall not stand in the judgment.

 

Samuel Horsley, The Book of Psalms; Translated from the Hebrew: With Notes, Explanatory and Critical, Fourth Edition (London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans; F. & J. Rivington, 1845), 191.[3]

 

The distinguishing mark of the two is the source of strength. The godly has a source of strength outside himself[4]; the ungodly relies upon himself alone[5]:

 

He who hath once brought himself to “delight” in the Scriptures, will find no temptation to exchange that pleasure for any which the world or the flesh can offer him. Such an one will make the lively oracles of God his companions by day and by night. He will have recourse to them for direction, in the bright and cheerful hours of prosperity; to them he will apply for comfort, in the dark and dreary seasons of adversity. The enemy, when advancing to the assault, will always find him well employed, and will be received with—“Get thee behind me, Satan!” When the law of God is the object of our studies and meditations, we are conformed to the example of our Redeemer himself, who, as a man, while he “increased in stature,” increased likewise “in wisdom,” and grew powerful in the knowledge of the law which he was to fulfil, and of those prophecies which he was to accomplish; so that, at twelve years of age, he appeared to “have more understanding than all his teachers; for the divine testimonies had been his meditation.” Ps. 119:99.

 

George Horne, A Commentary on the Book of Psalms (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1856), 37-38. The image of the man blown about is picked up by the Lord’s brother:

 

4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; James 1:4–7 (ESV)

The unstable man is one who does not rest upon the wisdom of God (which must, at the least, include the “torah” of the Lord).  He does not seek the stability of God’s wisdom and thus has no stability in himself:

24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” Matthew 7:24–27 (ESV)

Walter Mill could not be moved because he had rested upon the words of Christ.  Thus to stand is not to waver from Christ.  And it is for this stability that Christ gives gifts to his church:

11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Ephesians 4:11–14 (ESV)

The gifts given are those who teach the words of Christ, which are received within the heart of the people of Christ. Those words meditated upon, transform and conform the heart of the believer by the power of the Spirit, until that one will not be blown about by other, strange ideas.

 

 

[1] Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 5, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1867), 589.

[2]

A simple but emphatic contrast. The LXX., Vulg., and Syr. have repeated these words: “Not so are the wicked, not so.” The wicked perish even more utterly than the dry and withered tree. They are as “the chaff.” Again, far more striking as an Eastern image than among ourselves. In Is. 17:13, “chaff of the mountains;” because the threshing-floors were usually on high, exposed spots, where the wind would sweep over them the more freely. (See the same figure, Ps. 35:5, Job 21:18, Is. 29:5, 41:2; Hos. 13:3. Cf. Matt. 3:12.)

J. J. Stewart Perowne, The Book of Psalms; A New Translation, With Introductions and Notes, Explanatory and Critical, Vol. I, Fifth Edition, Revised (London; Cambridge: George Bell and Sons; Deighton Bell and Co., 1883), 110-11.

[3] Due to the plain statements to judgment in the succeeding verses, most commentators take the reference to be being driven away by the wind to apply to the final judgment. Horsely notes the reference to judgment in the next verse. However, the image of being blown away is used in other places in the Bible to refer to those who are unstable prior to the judgment (albeit such instability will result in a final loss). Bonar’s comment is representative and draws out the matter well:

The ungodly are not thus prosperous,—they are not as “trees by the river side.” They are as “chaff,” ready to be driven away in the day of wrath, and unable to resist the slightest breath of Jehovah’s displeasure (Dan. 2:35; Matt. 3:12, the “day of decision”). Hence they cannot “stand.” Even as in Rev. 6:17, the cry of the affrighted world—kings, captains, rich men, mighty men, bond, free—is, “The great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?” For the “Lord knoweth the way of the righteous.” Our Lord may have referred to this passage in his memorable expression so often used (Matt. 7:23; Matt. 25:12; Luke 13:27), “I never knew you—I know you not.” O the happiness, then, of the godly! happy now, and still happier in that day which now hastens on, when the Husbandman shall separate “the chaff” from the wheat, and the kingdoms of earth be broken in pieces “like the chaff of the summer threshing-floor,” and “the wind shall carry them away.” O the folly of those who “sit in the seat of the scorners,” and ask in these last days (2 Pet. 3:3), “Where is the promise of his coming?”

Andrew A. Bonar, Christ and His Church in the Book of Psalms (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1860), 2-3.

[4]

And he shall be like a tree planted by the water-side.* And here, leaving for a moment the LORD, David turns to the servant. He, the true follower of CHRIST, shall be like the tree planted by the water-side, which is CHRIST Himself,—the “green tree,” on which His enemies did such things, and which they hewed down, but which now flourishes in the midst of the Paradise of GOD. Thus it is said that the true servant of his LORD shall be transformed into the image of his LORD.* Planted by the water-side. For as rivers flow through valleys and low countries, so the root of all holy actions is nourished by humility. And here also the tears of repentance are set forth to us, that water-side by which the greatest of GOD’s Saints have most loved to be planted.* Planted: and that by the Hand of GOD: as it is written, “Every tree which My heavenly FATHER hath not planted shall be plucked up.”* In due season: for it is not enough that our works be good, unless they be also done at the right time. As one says, “GOD loveth adverbs; it mattereth less to Him that a thing be good, than that it be well.” And this also was fulfilled in the Man of Whom we speak, Who Himself testified, “My time is not yet come, but your time is alway ready.”*

J. M. Neale, A Commentary on the Psalms from Primitive and Mediæval Writers, Volume 1: Psalm 1 to Psalm 38, Second Edition (London; New York: Joseph Masters; Pott and Amery, 1869), 92-93.

[5] Calvin sees Jeremiah’s picture of the withered plant as a parallel image:

The Psalmist might, with propriety, have compared the ungodly to a tree that speedily withers, as Jeremiah likens them to the heath which grows in the wilderness, (Jeremiah 17:6) But not reckoning this figure sufficiently strong, he debases them by employing another, which represents them in a light still more contemptible:and the reason is, that he does not keep his eye on the prosperous condition of which they boast for a short time, but his mind is seriously pondering on the destruction which awaits them, and will at length overtake them. The meaning, therefore, is, although the ungodly now live prosperously, yet by and by they shall be like chaff; for when the Lord has brought them low, he shall drive them hither and thither with the blast of his wrath.

John Calvin, Psalms, electronic ed., Calvin’s Commentaries (Albany, OR: Ages Software, 1998), Ps 1:1. Cheyne actually reverses the chronology and puts Jeremiah as first:

Apparently imitated from Jer. 17:5–8; cp. also Josh. 1:8 (opening words). The phrase ‘muses day and night’ (cp. 119:148) is very characteristic of the Greek period, when the study of the Scriptures was the chief bulwark of the Jews against heathenism. So in the Avesta (Vendidad, xviii. 6) it is the nightly search for ‘the holy Wisdom, which makes man … cheerful at the head of the Kinvat bridge, which makes the true Âthravan.’ The law of Yahwè means all sacred writings.

T. K. Cheyne, The Book of Psalms: Translated from a Revised Text With Notes and Introduction, Vol. I (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1904), 2.