STRUGGLING FAITH

1 Th. 6:6-16, The Fifth week of Creation, September 29, 2019

6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9 Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Final Charge to Timothy

11 But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you 14 to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which God will bring about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.

It would be nice if people don't fight and live together, but it doesn't work. The world seems to regard fighting as the essence of life. Not only the world, but also the church. Largely, there are mudslinging  phenomena in the whole church, such as Presbyterian, Methodist, etc. In the narrow sense, there are fights within individual churches. So did early Christianity. Paul made a clear reference to that when he wrote to Timothy. According to 1 Timothy 6:4-5 in the passage of the text of today's sermon, some of the church's believers were arrogant and liked arguments and dispute. They were captured by objection, conflict, slander, and evil thoughts. And there's a fight between them because they see godliness as a way of profit because their minds are corrupt and they lose the truth. Paul explains the true path of faith to break away from this struggle in verse 6:6.

Contentment

First of all, contentment is important in verse 6. "But godliness with contentment is great gain." Supplemental explanation is made using the general epigrams in verse 7 and 8. We come to the world empty-handed and we go back empty-handed. You need to be satisfied with all the food and clothing you need to wear during your lifetime. On the other hand, some people struggle to be rich. He said they fell into many temptations. In this sense, the author affirmed in verse 10, it was love for money. The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. A man who loves money is tempted to leave faith and cannot but walking in the ways of ruin.

You might think that's a good explanation for some, but it's unrealistic. How can you be satisfied with just a daily bread? Whenever I come up with a topic like this, as a preacher, I'm also confused. The same was said in last week's sermon. "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” (Lk 16:13) Last week I told you this was not an unconditional glorification of poverty. The whole direction of life is important. There are people who are rich and don't love money, and there are people who are poor and love money. It is difficult for a third party to judge what he is. Self know own-self. Or maybe you don't know what it is to live in a world that works the way you love money. The Holy Spirit knows it. One criterion that we can determine is whether we are satisfied with our daily bread.

A life that is satisfied with only everyday food cannot be solved by eating like that. It's because people don't know how satisfied they are. I think a person who lives on a monthly rent can be satisfied even if he or she has a small flat surface. In fact, if you have a small house, you want to have a bigger flat. If you have a large house, you want to have one for your children. There is no end. The same goes for the church. The church, which has 20 members, aims to have 50 members and then 100 members. The believers of the financially troubled church are determined to be able to stand on their own feet. When it's solved, we aim for more. The biggest issue in the Korean church over the past week is the news that the General Assembly of Yejang, which includes Myungsung Church, has made a decision to tolerate the hereditary succession of Myungsung Church. The reason why I made that decision in violation of the church constitution that I cannot succeed to my own family, such as my child or son-in-law, is because I don't want to lose my rich church. Today's church gave up its daily spirituality a long time ago. It's not because they're particularly shameless, immoral, or unscrupulous, but because they're anxious that they can't be satisfied with their daily breads, they're trying to love the church and sincerely pastoralize. People are weak like this.

A good fight of faith

Paul says, "Fight the good fight of faith, not the arguments and arguments created by arrogance." It is to push away evil thoughts and order and to fight for good thoughts and good order to settle down. Look at the words of verse 12.

Fight the good fight of faith, take eternal life, for you have been called to this, and have given good testimony before many witnesses.

The reason why faith is called a good fight is that faith does not grow on its own or become healthy on its own. Even if you first experienced a hot and sincere faith, if you stay there, you will fall into distortion and error without even realizing it. As Dimjeon 6:4 says, the preceding points lean toward defense, arguments, speculation, disputes, slander, and evil minds. Don't trust yourself too much. I don't believe in myself either. You may think you're always right, but if you don't do it like you're fighting, you'll fall into a spiritual abyss.

Falling into a spiritual abyss does not mean that personality is destroyed. If you try just a little bit, your personality can be elevated. You can be a cultured person with some level. People around the world regard culture as the highest value, so they try to see it as a cultured person to others. That effort is also needed. But culture doesn't complete our lives. Even the ostensible refinement can quickly fall to self-pride. It was the Nazi group in Germany during World War II. He ran the Auschwitz camp, listening to classical music, citing philosophers, and listening to the gentlemen's voices from his neighbors. Japanese officials who colonized us also acted like civilized people, but barbarism was inside. That's what the fourth verse refers to as 'proud and ignorant'.

Modern intelligent Christians tend to turn a blind eye to combative faith life. They ignore that militant belief is an enthusiastic belief. I think it is wise to live a religious life at a reasonable distance. To live a struggle of faith does not mean to stay away from everything in the world and to cling only to the church. It means to fight fiercely for the completion of life. Because if you don't live like you're fighting, you'll become more and more distant from life completion.

Now look back at the stage where your life has reached. Let's take an example of what Paul suggested in Section 11 as an item to follow. See if righteousness, piety, faith, love, patience, and milk become richer in your life. To give you a more clear standard of knowing this, it's an interest in "honey. Decreasing self-interest and self-pity as you get older is the way to life completion. Jesus also told his disciples to deny "honey" and follow you. Some people live their lives upside down. The older you get, the stronger you become. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying it's wrong to make your voice heard for truth and justice. It means the desire to express oneself. It's not easy to tell whether it's an idea for truth or a desire to express oneself. Here's one thing that I can tell you about: If you fail the test when your ideas are not accepted, you are bound by your desires, and if you don't get tested, it's really for justice and truth. We can mistake ourselves, so we need training to put ourselves down until we die for life.

I'll be 70 in a few years. I've lived for a long time. Although he lived as a pastor who declared the word of God fiercely as if he were fighting, he is far from life-complete in real life. Perhaps a complete solution will not be possible until the moment of death. So I think I need to work harder now. It's not just words, but it's a step to deny 'self' in real life. My argument should be greatly reduced at home. I'll tell you what I think, but I don't want to put "honey." You shouldn't even think about getting accepted by your wife. But it's necessary to accept the opponent sincerely. The same goes for relationships with friends. This doesn't work out just by making up your mind. It's only possible in spirituality where you fall into nothing. Ultimately, I want to be smaller to the point where I can leave the world at any time. That's life completion.

Eternal life

Self-denial, self-reduction, and self-depreciation run counter to the instinct of survival to protect themselves and people don't want to accept it. They think that if they are denied, their life will collapse. So modern psychology emphasizes self. It comfort people that you are the center of the universe. It is a positive psychology. Such positive psychology is necessary to some extent for people with unstable psychology and emotions. But that argument is a temporary measure. No matter how positive you are, you can't get beyond the limits of the creatures. Everything surrounding you is getting old and fade and gone. It's self-destruct. When that moment comes, positive psychology is meaningless. Christian faith does not view humans at the psychological level, but at a more fundamental level. Man is the creature of God. Because God has built it, only in agreement with God can it lead to the salvation of the soul, that is, the fullness of life. That's the eternity of in verse 12.

Paul expresses in a very unique language about God who should be near in the text. This expression was sung by early Christians at the time as a hymn. I'll read it slowly and listen to what God is like in your mind. It's verse 15 and 16.

 which God will bring about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. 

The God described here will not be drawn well on your mind. When I think about these things, I'm rather troubled. The Bible doesn't say this to make us tired and complicated. I'm saying this because you can experience and enjoy life fully only when you turn your eyes to the deepest dimension of life, the world, and history. For example, look at germs. Until the microscope was invented, people didn't know there were germs. After the microscope was created, we learned that infectious diseases are transmitted by bacteria. That's why you know how to deal with it. The world we experience isn't exactly what it looks like. There are forces in it that we can't identify. That's what physics says about fields. Or the activity of elementary particles, such as elements. Paul tells God, who is invisible to us but is the master of all things, to put the center of life. God is the source of light and the source of blessing that no one can see.

Those who know this fact are not succumbed to the power of the world. I don't love money. Because I know that money is not the basis of life-complete. So I am not caught up in public arguments and dispute.  Because we know that we don't get life through those things. I know how to be satisfied with the daily bread in the world. Because I know that God is the source of blessings. He has a completely different direction of life from the rest of the world. As the 16th (b) says, it is life that gives honor and power to God.

Honor and power

It is usually described as honor and glory, but the text is called honor and power. It means the same thing. It means giving the most valuable life to God. It is a life in which God believes and acknowledges the fact that God is the most honorable and that only God has true power. Those who live like this do not give honor and power to objects other than God. Because everything in the world, however valuable and brilliant it may seem, is not relative and absolute. Those who turn honor and power to relative objects fall into vain with them. There's no one who's going to misunderstand saying, do you mean it's futile to love my family, or do you mean it's pointless to devote my passion to art and literature, or do you think it's not important to live as a sacrifice for the poor and the disabled in my life? All the lives listed now are beautiful. We should put all our energy into living that way as much as possible. But it does not attribute honor and power to the object.

What exactly is the fact that we attribute honor and power to God? Worship? Worship is a religious ceremony about life that gives honor and power to God. Through worship, we can see that God is the object of our honor and power. More important than worship is our real life. Our lives must reveal God's honor and power. What is it? It is to rejoice and praise God's glory full of the world. I'll just point out two Bible verses. First is the Psalm. "Let the glorious name be praised forever, and all the earth will be filled with his glory, Amen Amen." (Psalm 72:19). Next is Isaiah. "We call each other, holy, holy, holy.  The Lord of all armies says that his glory is full of all the earth." If you change this expression of the Old Testament to the word of Jesus, "Repent, the kingdom of God is near." Is there anyone who thinks that life is tiring, that they are sick, or that they cannot see God's glory because they are betrayed by people? That's not true. Under any circumstances, God's glory is here, the kingdom of God. If you can walk even if you're poor, you'll feel how mysterious this world is. If he could live alone and hear the sound, he would surely see the glory of God. Ultimately, we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6).

Remember Paul's words, dear saints, to fight the good fight of faith. Our faith is a fierce battle for life, to the point of devoting honor and power to God, to the point where we can enjoy infinite joy from the mystery of life. This is a good fight, and you will find that the more you fight, the more your soul becomes holy. I say it again with Paul's heart. Fight the good fight of faith.

Love and Commandment

The sixth week of Easter, May 17, 2020 

  1) Not many Christians have read the entire chapter of John's Gospel calmly, consisting of 21 chapters from beginning to end. Compared to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the Gospel of John is very speculative and requires patience to read. If the Synoptic Gospels is a epic novel, it can be said that the Gospel of John is an ideologically recorded philosophy book. The genres of writing are different, but both sides are the same in their core content. If you can follow the Gospel of John as well, you can read it as spiritually and dynamically as the Synoptic Gospels. So is today's text. The first verse, verse 15, is like this.

 

If you love me, keep my commandments.

 

  The last phrase was written with more of this first passage. Let's read verse 21.He who keeps my commandments loves me; he who loves me will be loved by my father. I will love him and present myself to him.

 

  The keywords in the two phrases are love and commandments. In verse 15, love comes out first as conditional, followed by commandments, and in verse 21, commandments come first. Similar content and structure sentences are also found in the Ma 7:15-21 parable of "trees and berries." They said that only good trees can produce good fruit, and they can recognize trees by looking at the fruits. A good tree is a dimension of existence and a fruit is a dimension of action. In connection with the content of today's sermon, a good tree is love, and a fruit is a commandment.

  Which do you think comes first in love and commandment? This question is whether the power of love is the only way to practice commandments, or thinking the practice of commandments is evidence of the power of love? These questions are not just theoretical, but directly related to our real lives. Among Christians, some love God with fervor but actual life is not so great. On the contrary, there are Christians who live very personal and respectful lives but do not seem to have much faith. If Korean Christians are good at believing and exemplary in real life, they will receive a lot of praise from the world.

  More fundamentally, you can ask these questions. Who lives a more meaningful life, between a person who has nothing to offer but lives a Christian identity and a person who lives respectfully in the world without coming to church? Those who recorded the Gospel of John would not have known this problem. Let's go into this, hoping that the Gospel of John will give us an answer.

 

2) The story of love and commandment cannot be easily dealt with in a word or two. This is because everyone's relationship is tied to this. There is a relationship between parents and children, there is a relationship between couples and lovers, and there is a relationship between friends. Friends can also be seen from the perspective of love and commandments.

It's easy to understand the relationship between parents and children in blood. All parents love their children. With that love, I do my best to help my child become independent. Because of love, I accept the hard work for my child as a joy. The painstaking practice is what the text says today.

It's the same in your child's situation. I practice something because I love my parents. It would be a lie if you say you love me and you don't take any responsibility for it. Sometimes they say they love their children, but they actually project their desires on their children. On the contrary, children who are immature try to confirm their parents' love only by toys and snacks.

The simplest example is, when a child is picky, is it love for a parent to wait until their child becomes hungry and wants to eat anything, or is it love to give the child what he wants right away? These judgments vary from time to time. There are times when you have to refuse, and sometimes it's better to feed. The words in today's text, "If you love me, keep my commandments," or "If you keep my commandments, you are the one who loves me." mean that it is a legitimate proposition, but it is not always clear in real life.We can see this in our whole life. Experts are talking about the cause of the Corona 19 crisis that has panicked the world over the past few months. We don't know the full answer yet. One of the things to listen to is climate change. Climate change has led to the outbreak of the mutated virus. It has not been decided whether this opinion is correct or not, but it is probable. The diagnosis that climate change can put the entire global ecosystem at risk, not just virus problems, is agreed by all anthropologists and earth scientists.

How should Christians, who believe in God as their Creator, keep certain commandments at what level to restore or slow down the climate change on Earth? Praying unconditionally does not solve this problem. Basically, it's going to be necessary to cut back on private cars or to cut down on meat and energy consumption. No one would disagree with this way. The problem is that it is difficult to set specific standards for how far we should put into practice. Between love and the practice of commandments, there is a troublesome difficulty for us to analyze and judge comprehensively. If Christians insist that faith can overcome such difficulties at once, then Christian faith will sound empty or burdensome.

 

3) The Gospel of John was fully aware that Christian life was not solved graphically. So in the first and last passages of today's text, we just re-ordered the relationship between love and commandment, and we mentioned the intermediate steps to reach that answer. That is, the bridge between love and commandment. The bridge is the real content of Christian faith. Only with that content can the relationship between love and commandment sound convincing.

The Gospel of John explained in the verse 16 that Jesus seeks from his father to send another adoration. The adoration, or 'paraculetos', translated as consolation, is the spirit of truth (17). It means that with the help of Parachletus, the spirit of truth, you can actually live within the relationship between love and commandment. Then there are a few other explanations. Among them, verse 20 is the key.

 

On that day you will let me know that I am in my father, that you are in me, that I am in you.

 

  This expression does not touch modern people. It is not because it is difficult to speak, but because it misunderstands the Bible language. Even modern people exchange these words with their loved ones. "You know you are me, I'm in you, you know, right?" People who date don't understand the words in the Bible because they have some preconceived ideas.

In verse 20, there are three relationships between father, Jesus, and his disciples. First, Jesus is in his father. Second, the disciples are in Jesus. Third, Jesus exists in his disciples. In means united. It can be seen as a very sincere relationship or a priestly relationship. Listen again to the three alliance relationships that the text says. Jesus and Father God were united. The disciples were united with Jesus. Jesus was united with his disciples. Jesus exists between the father and his disciples Jesus is the middle medium through which the disciples can unite with their fathers. Jesus is united with God and Father, and at the same time with his disciples. Therefore, the disciples were united with God's Father through Jesus.

 

4) The fact that the disciples allied with Jesus means that the disciples bet their future on the teachings and fate of Jesus. Such relationships occur between true lovers and between a friend who does the same thing together. The disciples were called upon by Jesus, who proclaimed the kingdom of God, and became disciples of Jesus like a married monk. The choice of disciples is a holy adventure. We don't know how desperate or great the choice of our disciples is, because we've never responded to such a call. Those who play with water in shallow waters cannot experience holy life because there is no holy adventure like those who go deep into the water and swim freely.

John's statement that the disciples allied with Jesus means that he recognized and believed that Jesus existed in God. The basis of such awareness and belief is the resurrection of Jesus. The sentence "I am in the Father" indicates that Jesus was resurrected from the dead. Resurrection is God's ultimate life event that will be realized at the end of the world. Because the life event occurred in Jesus, the disciples believed that Jesus was accepted by God. It is said that Jesus exists in God because it is accepted by God, that Jesus has allied with God.

This explanation doesn't really feel real in our daily lives. No objective evidence can be given to the demand to show evidence. Because the resurrection of Jesus is not an event that can be shown through the TV screen. When you have a special experience of Jesus like his disciples then you can experience the resurrection of Jesus. Not only resurrection but also God's experience. People who do not believe in God think Christians strange. They think Christian go to church because they don't have confidence in life or fear of death. No matter how much I explain it in words, I can't convey the fact that it's not. Even best friends and couples can't overcome this perception. Please be aware. The resurrection of Jesus is a life event that only the disciples who loved Jesus can experience.

 

5) So today, verse 21 of the text says love over and over again "Those who love me will be loved by my father. I will love him and present myself to him." He who loves Jesus will feel the love of God and the love of Jesus. And Jesus, who died, 'presents himself alive'. Here, love is not simply about liking him or the vague expectation that good things will happen if you get close to him, but about a whole union with him. It exists in the "in" expressed in verse 20. Jesus love is a very complex event. It includes understanding, trust, passion, and compassion. You can shorten it and express it with faith and love. Since I believe in Jesus and love him, I cannot help but think that I should live by the commandments of Jesus.

We Christians are people who believe in and love Jesus. I confess whenever I worship that I live in solidarity with him. But sometimes Jesus, the object of such faith, remains a doctrine. Jesus is the Son of God, so he is a worshiper, not a love. To love Jesus also means to understand the whole human existence of Jesus. We must seriously consider what Jesus said and what he thought before hanging on the cross, and what hope he lived with, Jesus as a historical real-life figure.

It is said that Jesus left home at the age of 30. It seems that he wasn't married until that age. How did the world look in his eyes? There is no detailed story about this in the Gospel, but if you look carefully, you can see it to some extent. Jesus couldn't help but think that the world worked very unfairly. Although he was completely obsessed with the kingdom of God, the reality of the world seemed to be dominated by religious and political power, not God. I can imagine how Jesus felt when he was crucified and shouted, "My God, my God, why are you forsaken me. It's hard to love someone like that. "I" refers to the person on the cross, which is referred to by the word "who loves me." It is very scary to say that only those who love the crucifixion will be loved by those whom Jesus called Father. Have we ever actually loved Jesus? Wouldn't it be absurd to say that you want to be loved by God when you don't have one?

 

6) What is it specifically that you love Jesus? Does it mean that you pray and read the Bible diligently without missing worship? Such a pious life is one way. Just as exemplary students review and prepare well without skipping school classes. That process is necessary, but the content is more important than the process. The content is Jesus' teaching, behavior, and destiny. It is not easy to enter the contents of life in the name of Jesus because everyday life dominates us excessively. It may not be possible for people living in Korea at all. In particular, young people are not interested in anything other than worldly life, so it is hard to accept the Jesus case as a reality of life. Parents with young people as their children will all feel this. I come to church well until high school, but when I enter university, I move away, or when I go to society, I usually fall apart.

This is not just a problem for young people. It is not much different in that even the established Christians in the church are not actually interested in the specifics of Jesus' love. For example, have you seriously considered the kingdom of God (Basileia to Dew), which burned the soul of Jesus, and what justice and peace are? Have you ever truly faced your own ultimate future and death? There are Christians like that, and there are people who don't. Some people will deepen their love for Jesus in their lives, while others will become thirsty. Which way are we?

Listen again to this 14:15. "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." If you love Jesus, you will know how to live in the world, and you will treat life from a mysterious depth. Yes, for us Christians, Jesus is the real content and center of life. As much as you love Jesus, your life will stand out. So John testifies in John 21:15, Jesus to Peter three times, "Do you love me more than these people?" ...then feed my sheep."