Love and Holiness

04 Sunday Nov 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in 1 Peter, Ben Witherington III

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1 Peter, 1 Peter 1:23, Ben Witherington III, Holiness, love, Love

Here we see the connection between love and holiness: love, if it is to be real and sincere and wholehearted, must be pure and coming form a pure heart. Conversion leads to holiness, which produces love in the believer, though the converse is also true — loving sanctifies the lover. Thus, Wesley stressed that holiness was a loving of God with a whole heart and neighbor as self. The word “unhypocritical” (anypokritos) or as we would say “pure and genuine” is also elsewhere connected to loving in the New Testament (Rom. 12:9; 2 Cor. 6:6).
Ben Witherington III, Letters and Homilies for Hellenized Christians, 110

The Word in Acts.2 (Courage)

23 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in 1 Peter, 2 Corinthians, Acts, Ben Witherington III, Ecclesiology, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Prayer, Preaching

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1 Peter, 1 Peter 1:23–25, 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 10:3–6, Acts, Acts 3, Acts 4, Acts 4:1-4, Acts 4:29–31, Acts An Expositional Commentary, Ben Witherington, Ben Witherington III, Courageous Christianity, David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, III, James Montgomery Boice, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Prayer, Preaching, The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary, Word, Word and Spirit, Word in Acts, Word of God

In Acts 3, Peter and John come to the Temple. At the gate called Beautiful, they meet a lame beggar. Peter speaks to the man and commands the beggar in the name of Jesus to stand and walk (Acts 3:6). The miraculous healing draws a large, to which Peter preaches (Acts 3:11, et seq).

Acts 4 records that the authorities seek to stop the work of the apostles by arresting Peter and John, however, the Word has already begun to work:

1 And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, 2 greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. 3 And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. 4 But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand. Acts 4:1–4 (ESV)

The authorities were angry because “they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead”. The authorities were seeking to squelch the word. Witherington notes the irony:

Here and elsewhere Luke will emphasize that measures, including the use of force, taken against the followers of Jesus are not effective; indeed, they often backfire and lead to further growth of the Christian group. Thus, in v. 4 we hear that in spite of what was said in the previous verse many heard and believed the word of Peter, and we are told they numbered about five thousand.

Ben Witherington, III, The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998), 190. While the authorities sought to stop the power by arresting the Apostles, they failed to realize the true source of their power:

The force on the side of God’s people is the Holy Spirit. It says that when Peter began to speak he was “filled with the Holy Spirit” (v. 8). When we were looking at the account of Pentecost I pointed out that in Acts, on every single occasion, what follows specific mention of a person being filled with the Holy Spirit is strong verbal testimony to Jesus Christ. When people are filled with the Holy Spirit they always speak about Jesus. That is how you can know whether you are filled with the Holy Spirit.

James Montgomery Boice, Acts, An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1997), 76.

The Word of God, empowered by the Holy Spirit, has a power which supersedes and runs independently of human control. While the Apostles were officially and publicly discredited and attacked, the Word of God brought men and women to salvation. When the Apostles were in custody and vulnerable to physical pain and loss, the Word of God broke out and Peter spoke:

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, Acts 4:8 (ESV)

Not only does Peter speak, but he starts right in one exactly the point which got him into trouble in the first place:

10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. 11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:10–12 (ESV)

With 5,000 followers, Peter could have at least caused some sort of physical grief for his captors. But he makes no such play. Rather, Peter continues with words:

3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete. 2 Corinthians 10:3–6 (ESV)

When Peter and John were released they are returned to the congregation and there they pray. They do not pray for any ease of persecution, or privilege or security. Instead, they pray specifically for courage to continue to proclaim the Word despite their circumstance. They rehearse the persecution and perseverance of Jesus, and then seek the same boldness in their own lives:

29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, 30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 31 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. Acts 4:29–31 (ESV)

The operation of the Spirit and the Word of God brought them to a new and living hope: they were no longer frightened of death and thus could speak with absolute courage:

The Holy Spirit takes from us the fear of death and the grave. The end of unbelievers is certain; the enemy is already doomed; he is living on a lease, as it were. He received that mortal wound when Christ died on the cross, and his time is limited. That is why he is raging. But Christ will come, and with the breath of His mouth He will destroy that arch liar, the enemy of God and of humanity, and send him to everlasting destruction. Do not forget that when the devil plies you with his lies.

Look at the boldness of the apostles as they defied the authorities. They were no longer afraid of death. The early martyrs and confessors went gladly to the lions in the arena, praising God and thanking Him that at last He had accounted them worthy to suffer for the name of their blessed and dear Lord. “They died well,” as John Wesley put it. Why? Because they had a hope of glory; they could see that this is only a transient world. This is not the world of reality; this is the world of appearances. But there is a world that remains.

There is a land of pure delight

Where saints immortal reign.

Isaac Watts

There is a glory yet to be revealed, a day coming when the glory of the sons of God shall be made manifest. A crowning day is coming, a day of ultimate victory and of triumph, when Jesus shall reign from pole to pole. In the light of that day these men and women lived the lives they did and had a joy that persisted even in the midst of tribulations.

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, vol. 2, Courageous Christianity, 1st U.S. ed., Studies in the Book of Acts (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2001), 284-85. In his letter to the churches, Peter notes that the operation of the Spirit and the Word of God is set one’s hope and life upon an undying foundation. It is to be born again of a seed which cannot fail:

²³ since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; ²⁴ for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, ²⁵ but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you. 1 Peter 1:23–25 (ESV)

Thus, the Word of God by the operation of the Spirit begets an undying, unfading life – which moves one into realms the world cannot touch.

Holiness is Premised Upon a New Identity

12 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in 1 Peter, Ben Witherington III, Church History, Galatians, John Wesley, Puritan, Repentance

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1 John 3, 1 Peter, 1 Peter 1, Acts 17:26, Ben Witherington III, Church History, Conversion, Ecclesiology, Fellowship, Galatians, Galatians 3:27-29, John Wesley, love, Love, Precious Puritans, Propoganda, Puritan, Puritans, race, racism, Repentance, Self-Examination, slavery

Witherington writes of 1 Peter 1:22:

The basis of Christian community and brother/sisterhood is conversion, not patriarchy or ethnicity. What Elliot [a commentator on 1 Peter] misses altogether is that the fatherhood of God as here enunciated has nothing to do with propping up patriarchy in the physical family’s household or in the empire. It has to do with the intimate relationship of God with Christ in the first place and with those who are in Christ in the second place….Here we see the connection between love and holiness: love, if it is to be real and sincere and wholehearted must be pure and coming from a pure heart. Conversion leads to holiness which produces love in the believer, though the converse is also true — loving sanctifies the lover. Thus, Wesley stressed that holiness was a loving of God with whole heart and neighbor as self.

Letters and Homilies for Hellenized Christians, vol. 2, 110.

Love and holiness must flow from a right understanding of oneself, the other and God. The love and holiness commended and commanded, flows out of an understanding of one’s primary identity flowing from conversion — the new life in Christ:

27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

Gal. 3:27-29. Our new status in Christ overcomes and supplants our prior status as determined by our culture. In Christ, our new status dictates love for one-another, based upon the love of God for us and thus our love for others (1 John 3).

The discussion concerning Propoganda’s “Precious Puritans” seems in some places to have missed this point. That slaveholding based upon kidnapping was (and is) a grave sin cannot be denied. That we must understand that even men and women otherwise as careful Christians as the Puritans failed miserably in this respect must be admitted.

Here is the point which is missing in much (though not all) of the discussion. The premise of the discussion has been that the Puritans somehow more belong to Christians of European descent than to Christians of African descent (largely marked by skin — what is to be thought of Christians of descent from more than one place is not clear). Yet, as Peter and Paul make clear, the Puritans are more closely related to Propoganda than the African slaves who did not know Christ.

And the matter works in the direction: the African slaves belong to the Christians of European descent. First, there is only one race (Acts 17:26). Thus, when a man with white skin sees a slave with black skin, he must think, like me. Those who were enslaved where my family; that they differ from me in skin color tells me nothing more than members of a family may differ in skin color. Second, Jesus explains that when we come across the weak we must see them as Christ. Matthew 25:40. And while this applies most plainly to those who are in Christ; it is difficult to think of one who is more “least of these” than a man or woman enslaved – bought and sold like a chair or a cow. One should shudder at the wickedness of such disregard for the image of God.

Thus, the entire premise of much of the discussion is wrong. The slaves belong to us all, because we are all related in Adam. There is only one race. Second, the Puritans belong to all Christians. In short, my brothers and sisters (in Adam and often in Christ) were enslaved by my brothers and sisters (in Adam and often in Christ). Thus, even though my skin is white, when I see men and women enslaved, I must think my family, at least in Adam if not also in Christ. And when a man with black sin sees a slaveholder, he must think my family; at least in Adam, if not also in Christ.

One final point: The parable should frighten us all. That Christians could catch their culture sin so grotesquely means that we all stand in danger of catching our culture (1 Peter 1:18; Rom. 12:1-2). Were the Puritans to come to us, what sins would we be blindly accepting as somehow normal and acceptable. What of Christians from some other time or place: how deeply would they see our sin and shudder and wonder how anyone could be a Christian and sin so blindly.

This is not to make the sin of slaveholding less onerous; quite the contrary. Rather, we must own the sin more deeply. The fact that much of the discussion presumes that slaves belong more to the Africans and the slaveholders belong more to the Europeans shows how little even Christians have moved. To see the slaves and slaveholders as ours should only cause us to see the horror of the slavery with greater clarity — and spur us on to greater love.

We realize too little how conversion, how new birth has made us different, has made us new in Christ. This lack of understanding necessarily defeats our love and thus our holiness.

Here are some places to get started in looking through the Precious Puritan discussions:

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/thabitianyabwile/2012/10/02/the-puritans-are-not-that-precious/
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiousbench/2012/10/historical-heroes-and-precious-puritans/

Of Communion With the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Digression 1c.v (Shame)

06 Saturday Oct 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in Acts, Ben Witherington III, Biblical Counseling, John Owen, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Puritan

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Acts, Acts 5:41–42, Ben Witherington III, Biblical Counseling, Courageous Christianity, cross, Gospel, Jesus, John Owen, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Of Communion With the Father Son and Holy Spirit, Puritan, shame, Sin

The final note on Jesus bearing shame is that Jesus transforms shame. As stated above, there are two aspects of shame: Shame before God and shame before human beings.

Now both strains of shame flow from the shame of sin before God. Shame before human beings is an opportunistic disease, taking advantage of the judgment of God. However, when Christ weds the soul, the shame is erased in covenant love.

Yet, the shame of men seeks to lay hard upon our hearts and thus enslave us – and perversely keep us from Christ that we may not be shamed before men:

41 Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. 42 And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus. Acts 5:41–42 (ESV)

Witherington explains the transformation here:

Vv. 41–42 serve as a summary conclusion to the previous episode. Paradoxically, the apostles rejoiced in their suffering, because it was received as a result of their bold witness to Jesus. Though from human point of view being flogged amounted to being shamed or dishonored, from the disciples’ viewpoint, which involved a transvaluation of normal ancient values, it was considered an honor. The apostles were in no manner hindered or inhibited in their teaching because of this experience. Rather they continued to teach every day in the temple and from house(church) to house(church), proclaiming Jesus to be the Jewish Messiah.

Ben Witherington, III, The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998), 240. Jesus, having been weighted with the shame of sin the world, having been shamed by the world carried the shame far away.

That good news, that Gospel of Jesus carrying shame has come to lift our shame:

The world is as it is, unhappy and in trouble, simply because it rejects this Gospel. And the same holds true with the individual. Are you in some grievous trouble? Are you ashamed? Are you cast down? Are you disappointed? Are you defeated? It is all because you do not believe the Gospel of salvation and deliverance. That is why we are paying attention to this terrible condition of unbelief. I am saying all this for one reason only. God forbid that anyone should think that I am just putting up these targets in order to shoot them down. I have neither the energy nor the time to do that. No, I am sorry for people who are unbelievers. I see what they are doing, and I see what they are. But they do not see it, and it is my commission to open their eyes.

So I am trying to do what Peter did. “If you really want to know,” he said, in effect, to the authorities, “I will tell you. You want to know by what authority and power this lame man has been healed. The answer is the power and authority of the one you rejected. Can you not see what you are doing?” Peter was concerned for their souls. He was not just getting back at them; he was not trying to be clever. He, with John, was on trial, and they knew that their lives were in the hands of these authorities, who could do whatever they liked with them. Peter was not acting. He was speaking the truth, and he wanted these people to understand. And it is in the hope that, by the blessing of the Spirit, those who hitherto have rejected this Gospel may be given to see exactly what they are doing. For this reason I am calling your attention to these words in Acts.

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, vol. 2, Courageous Christianity, 1st U.S. ed., Studies in the Book of Acts (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2001), 36-38.

The Gospel seems like so much shame, because Jesus bore such shame. But what the world does not see is that he bore the shame away – and it is gone. He carried the curse , destroyed death, freed those shamed by sin. The world looks and sees the cross, the but when one sees the vindication, the resurrection, we know that shame was left in the grave and now it is glory:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Romans 1:16 (ESV)

Two Quotes from Ben Witherington III on 1 Peter 1:17, et seq.

07 Saturday Apr 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in 1 Peter, Ben Witherington III, Quotations

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1 Peter, 1 Peter 1:17, Ben Witherington III, Christ, Christ's Death, Judge, judgment, Quotations, Sin

God, not society, is their ultimate Judge and indeed also the one who ransomed them. Therefore it is God not society whose approval they should seek and whose wrath they should fear. 100

Christ also did not die so that believers might sin all the more, now having a sure means of forgiveness. ….Christ’s death, if we are to receive its benefits, implies our death to our previous sinful ways. 107

Our Status is Determined by Our Relationship to God

24 Friday Feb 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in 1 Peter, Ben Witherington III

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1 Peter, 1 Peter 1:17, Ben Witherington III, Father, Fear, God, relationship, status

[In 1 Peter 1:17, Peter is introducing] and he hath thesis the speakers each of the even they are strangers strange land. The first reason is give God, not society, is the ultimate judge and indeed also the one who ransomed them. Therefore it is God, not society, approval they should seek wrath they should fear.

…

The audience is not called “resident aliens” in relationship to God. To the contrary, they are God’s ransomed shall. But in relationship to society, we continue to have this resident alien status. Peter suggested that the controlling paradigm for their life and conduct should be the relationship with God, of the relationship society. In other words, mere assimilation is the last thing on his mind, yet since Peter is promoting an event listed faith, he does want the audience to be good neighbors their cities and towns in ways that are compatible with their faith.

Ben Witherington III,

Letters and Homilies for Hellenized Christians