Agents of Flourishing

Human beings have been given a job to do. God delineates it as follows: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:28). Theologians call this “the cultural mandate,” for it anticipates the ways in which humanity, endowed with the ability to carry out their task, will unleash the capacities of creation. They will build, organize, purpose and repurpose these capacities and what will result is what we call culture, “the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively” (New Oxford American Dictionary). It is our pursuit of culture making that marks us out as human, those made “in the image of God.”

But the commission is not a license to do with what one has at one’s disposal however one wishes. Just after the mandate is given there follows language that indicates God’s intention that the human maintain his creation as a place where life can flourish. This notion is supported by the description of Adam being placed in the Garden to “work it and keep it” (Cf. Genesis 2:15). That being said, history is replete with evidences of the abuse of our God-given abilities to harness creation’s potential demonstrating our post-fall inborn tendency to be more inhumane than humane.

In Christ, however, the potential to do what God intended is restored. Our selfish heart can be reformed into a servant’s heart allowing us to more readily create culture in redemptive ways. We can be agents of flourishing that benefits us, the other, and brings glory to God.

This has far-reaching consequences. Picture yourself sitting in the boardroom of some large multi-national corporation that is weighing the possibility of increasing its bottom line by exploiting the desperate need for employment in an “undeveloped” nation. Given the depressed nature of the country’s economy, the corporation can get away with offering less than they ought in wages while putting the work force at risk by not maintaining safe conditions. If you were the Christian on the board you’d need to speak up. That’s what the cultural mandate demands of us.

As this is “easier said than done,” our capacity to respond with courage in such ethically charged situations needs to be fed. This is why Paul instructs as he does when he says “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8). Having our own lives shaped by that which promotes flourishing will position us to humanely work and keep the garden, blessing us and those around us, while bringing glory to God. 

What, Me Worry?

“What, me worry?” Alfred E. Neuman, Mad Magazine

Alfred E. Neuman, the jug eared, tousle-headed, gap-toothed grinning icon that has graced the cover of Mad Magazine for decades, appears perpetually unperturbed by whatever is going on around him. His is an absurdly anxiety free existence. No matter what transpires, “What, me worry?”

Ah, if it were only so easy. In truth, only a fictitious character is capable of uttering such a statement. Real life is fraught with too many opportunities to fret. Whether close at hand or coming to us from thousands of miles away through various forms of media, an uncertain and threatening future looms, troubling our souls.

There’s no denying the many sources of uncertainty, but is there an alternative to worry? The Scriptures clearly teach that there is. Jesus acknowledges the reasons for why we might be troubled, but he urges us to look above the temporal circumstance to the One who dwells in eternity. This is not some “pie-in-the-sky-by-and-by” pitch on his part. On the contrary, he is asserting that we can have a bold assurance that our “heavenly Father,” the one who “clothes the grass of the field” in raiment more wonderful than anything Solomon wore, and feeds the birds of the air who “neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns,” will take care of us, for we are “of more value” than the other beloved objects of his creation. (Cf. Matthew 6:25-34)

The apostle Paul similarly encourages confidence in the face of circumstances that give rise to worry. As Jesus assured that he would never leave or forsake us, and he fulfilled his promise by sending the Holy Spirit to communicate his love and care for us, the apostle, knowing that “the Lord is at hand,” instructs us to “not be anxious about anything.” Rather than worry, he teaches that we should pray: “in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” What will result from this, he assures, is our worry being replaced with “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding” that “will guard [our] hearts and [our] minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:5-7).

On this side of life, I don’t think we’ll ever get to the place of blissful, unperturbed equanimity suggested by Mad Magazine’s front man. But we can pursue the promised peace that God offers by turning to him in prayer, “casting all [our] anxieties on him because he cares for [us]” (Cf. 1 Peter 5:7).

Productive Belonging

It must have been an awkward moment. The church had received a letter from Paul and had gathered to hear it read. They felt a close kinship with the apostle and were anxious to know how he was doing. They were already excited and glad to have their friend Epaphroditus back. Word had gotten to them that he had been gravely ill, almost to the point of death, so to have him back in their midst was both a relief and a joy. But what of Paul? What news, words of encouragement or instruction might he have included in the letter that Epaphorditus had brought with him? All were summoned, and up to this point they had been both encouraged and warned by his letter, all to their edification. But now a deafening silence has descended upon them. Two much respected women of their number, Euodia and Syntheche, had been singled out by Paul and not for praise. He had entreated them to reconcile, to “agree in the Lord,” and asked another in their church community to help them. How would these two respond?

Such opportunities are part of what is called sanctification, the process of transformation that God has entered us into, changing us from what were without Christ to what we are in Christ. Such occasions are given by God to test our faith, expose remaining sin, or learn what it means to love him and others with all of our being. The above incident, suggested by Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi, illuminates the important role the church community plays in our sanctification. He knew the church and he knew the people involved. He was also well aware of the problems that could arise within a church when two respected members of its congregation were at odds with each other. So, he spoke up. And given the manner in which he did this, he placed the obligation for helping these two to reconcile upon everyone in the church.

God intends for us to work at the new self that we are in Christ and he has designed that this be done in community. The importance of being part of a particular church cannot, therefore, be overemphasized. It’s in community with other Christians where we learn to walk in the humility, unity, and love that God expects his gospel-birthed children to pursue. I’d like to think that the two women in Philippi seized the opportunity. I’d like to think the entire community was edified by their example. If they did, together they would have experienced the answer to Paul’s petition when he prayed that their love would “abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God” (Philippians 1:9-11).

Keeping Perspective

“For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8). Really? To know Christ, to follow him, does it really require that everything else in life be counted as worthless? It might seem that way if we isolate this declaration, not letting it speak within its context. It’s not the apostle’s intent to declare all human accomplishments to be no more than animal excrement (the more graphic meaning of the word translated ‘rubbish’). It’s only when such accomplishments are put forward as justification before God that he considered them as such. We are justified by “the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (v. 9). As such, Paul would not cling to any credentials that created a false sense of worthiness, despite the fact that he could claim some serious credentials (v. 4-6).

No, Paul’s intent was not to denigrate human achievement or deny the validity of hard work. His was a preemptive strike against a false gospel that he knew to be circulating among the churches; a gospel that said one must do something in order to be in right standing with God when the true gospel proclaims that it is all of grace and right standing is possessed by faith alone. That being said, his declaration does offer a helpful perspective as regards human achievement.

Human beings are capable of remarkable things. Made in the image of God and empowered to manage the affairs of his creation, men and women have harnessed the innate resources of the earth and put them to use. The results have been mixed, to be sure, as all of our efforts are tinged with the corruption of sin, but there is no denying that we are capable of extraordinary achievement. Think of it -- we put a man on the moon!

We need to put that accomplishment in perspective, however. When Neil Armstrong uttered his famous prophecy after putting the first human foot on the surface of the moon, it signaled the culmination of nearly a decade of human experimentation, innovation, funding and flying, a harnessing of resources with few precedents in the history of mankind. But if we measure the distance he traveled by the scale that distances in space are commonly measured, light years (the distance light travels in a year moving at 186,000 miles/second, the speed of light), he traveled about one second! All that effort for one second’s worth of space distance!!

There’s fruit to be gleaned from this. While we want to have dreams and work hard to achieve them, the gospel opens the vast reaches of eternity and puts our striving in proper perspective. Knowing Christ tells us that we must never forsake eternal reward for temporal gain for there isn’t any earthly achievement that rivals gaining Christ, not even stepping on to the moon.

The Absurdity of the Gospel

Naaman was a powerful man. His king held him in high regard for he had won wars for Syria (see 2 Kings 5). But Naaman was also a sick man. He was a leper and nothing he tried had cured him. As the story unfolds, however, we learn that Naaman’s disease was not his real problem. When a new solution, one that would actually cure him, was offered, he responded according to a set of presuppositions that deafened him to the saving word of God. Tellingly, everything about the prophet Elisha’s plan seemed absurd to the powerful Naaman.

Such is always the case when the word of God comes. The message sounds ridiculous and we respond not with gratitude, but with offense. This is because the word of God is “of a different order,” to use Jacques Ellul’s language. The Greek philosophers in Athens mocked Paul’s preaching as nonsense, while his Jewish hearers thought it blasphemous. Why? As the apostle Paul teaches, the “foolishness” of God is wiser than human wisdom, and we cannot comprehend that the word of God could be true.

This is not just a problem for unregenerate Jews and Greeks (or Syrians, for that matter). We Christians have a problem in accepting the good news as it has been proclaimed. Paul had experienced this first hand when he witnessed the influence of the “judaizers.” These were people within the pale of Christianity who could not really grasp the gospel in all its richness. The redemptive covenant that God had cut in Christ was for those who came into it by faith, whether Jew or Gentile. But for the judaizers, Gentiles had to first become Jews, symbolized by being circumcised. Paul condemned such an expectation in the strongest terms (see Philippians 3:2-3; Galatians 1:6-9). For it is by “grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

It’s likely that none of you reading this would assert that one needs to be circumcised to be in good standing with God. However, you might be offering other tokens for God’s approval: your hard work in the church, your eschewing of “worldly” pleasures, your diligent devotional practices. Such pious credentials cannot -- must not -- substitute for standing in the grace of God by faith. If such approval seeking does find its way into your thinking, pray that you have ears to hear and embrace the absurdity of the gospel. It has the power to free you from every attempt to improve on the plan that God has revealed in his gracious word.

The Power of Example

Who are your heroes? Who do you want to be like? Who presents an example that you want to follow? Perhaps you haven’t thought about it much. You should, for we are built to emulate. As such, we pick stuff up. Consciously or unconsciously, the people that have been part of our lives have influenced how we think and behave. As a result, we are products, at least in part, of the examples that have paraded before our eyes.

The power of example is not to be underestimated. Examples can be innocuous, edifying, or destructive. Modeling your hairstyle after someone else is innocuous. Opening your home because you were treated generously in a time of need is good. Being abusive to your wife as your father was to your mother is destructive. In each case, we are proving that we have been influenced by the example of another.

Christians are called to “shine as lights in the world.” We are obligated, therefore, to seek out good examples. We want to emulate those who themselves have been shaped by the gospel. Timothy and Epaphroditus, whom Paul puts forward as worthy of honor, are such examples. They model the kind of other-oriented selflessness and sacrifice that is the hallmark of Christian maturity. Yet it was the apostle, who himself had learned that he must decrease and Jesus must increase, who had a profound affect upon these two. Paul had modeled what desiring Jesus entailed and Timothy and Epaphroditus wanted what Paul wanted. This resulted in lives given over to the service of Christ and others. They were godly men, worthy of honor and emulation.

We must choose our heroes wisely. Do their lives reflect core gospel components, the other-oriented selflessness and sacrifice that was the arc of Jesus earthly existence, or is it all about them? Anyone we would seek to emulate (including Paul, Timothy and Epaphroditus) other than Christ will in some way or the other fall short. But in Jesus we have the example par excellence. Model those who model him and your light will shine brighter.

Willing Obedience

Obedience is ________ .

How do you fill in the blank? Difficult? Necessary? Detestable? How about enjoyable? Given our innate rebelliousness, ‘joyful’ does not likely spring to mind. We have a hard time with obedience. There’s something deep within us that does not like being told what to do, at least without an avenue of appeal.

On the one hand, the inclination to disobey can be a good thing. It helps people resist the despotic behavior of power hungry men. Shiphrah and Puah, for example, two Hebrew midwives who ignored Pharaoh’s murderous orders are rewarded by God for their disobedience (Exodus 1:15-21). And the underground resistance movements of World War 2 did much to undermine Nazi Germany’s efforts to subjugate the continent. Not obeying can be good when what is being required is immoral.

But our relationship with God’s authority is another matter. He has set the terms of our existence and it is the case that there is no avenue of appeal when it comes to God’s laws. But unlike the self-promoting and self-protecting laws of tyrants, his are given out of love. In fact, his call to obedience is a call to joy. He knows what we were made for and how we can best experience the fullness of our humanity. So, why do human beings have such a problem with yielding to God’s rule? It’s the innate rebelliousness alluded to above. Even when blessing is promised for obedience and punishment for disobedience, we are unwilling to obey.

The situation changes, however, when, by faith, we are brought into union with Christ. Our lack of obedience has been filled up with Christ’s obedience and we possess a new relationship with God. Now, the fruit of salvation is ours for the harvesting. As a bonus, we are not on our own to pursue the expected obedience. We are told that God is at work in us changing our desires to conform to his desires and supplying the power we need to walk in his will. As Paul exhorts his beloved friends in Philippi: “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (2:12-13). Perhaps this is part of what delights Paul when at the very beginning of his letter he writes,  “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now” (1:3-5). He knows the joy that’s in store for them as they pursue the will of God together. 

Obedience is ________. How do you fill in the blank? By God's grace you can say, 'joyful.'