The churches that were being strengthened in the faith (2)
“Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra And a disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek, and he was well spoken of by the brethren who were in Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted this man to go with him; and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. Now while they were passing through the cities, they were delivering the decrees which had been decided upon by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem, for them to observe. So the churches were being strengthened in the faith, and were increasing in number daily.” (Acts 16:1-5)
In the Christian Today's newspaper (July 25, 2007), Miroslav Wolfe (Professor Henry B. Wright, Chair of The Yale University • Theology) has an article under the heading ‘How to Live with Others?” The society we live in is ethnically, culturally and religiously complex. In such a society, if races, cultures, or religions are mutually exclusive, they create tensions, so they have no choice but to live in conflict between each other. Then, in this society, the author suggested four ways to relate to each other instead of being a person unrelated to each other:
(1) Willingness to embrace each other. To do that, we need to imagine others as potentials to enrich me, rather than think of others as my reduction factor.
(2) Changing your position. In order to live up to our willingness to embrace each other, we need to reverse our perspective. In other words, when we see others, we need to see them from their own perspective. We also need to see ourselves through the eyes of others.
(3) Interaction. After we understand how we want others to be understood and how others understand us, we have to decide whether to agree, in whole or in part, or just remain in disagreement. This is where discussional mutual intervention is needed.
(4) Embracing others. We Christians need to be able to embrace beyond pure bloodlines, nationalities, cultures, and races.
As I read this article, I applied it to our church. This is because the three ethnically and culturally different ministries (Korean Ministry, English Ministry, Hispanic Ministry) were thought to be helpful in maintaining unity in the Lord while respecting diversity. I think the three ministries will have to work harder to change their positions in order to understand and embrace each other. I also think that we should not ignore the need for mutual intervention while respecting each other's differences under the premise that we cannot fully agree. In the meantime, I pray that we will no longer be “others” but “each other” and embrace each other and be used as an instrument of preparation for building up the church in one heart and one mind.
We have already learned that we must all be disciples of Jesus in order for our church to be a church of strengthening in faith and increase in number daily, based on Acts 16:1. And we learned that the Jesus' disciples, like Timothy, have “sincere faith” (2 Tim. 1:5), that is, faithful faith, faith without hypocrisy. For example, we meditated on Abraham, a ancestor of faith, and took time to test and confirm ourselves whether we have faith or not: (1) Abraham's sincere faith was a faith that believes against all hope (Rom. 4:18), (2) Abraham's sincere faith was a faith that would not be weaken in an impossible situation (v. 19). (3) Abraham’s sincere faith was a faith that gave glory to God because it was strengthened in an impossible situation (v. 20). (4) Abraham's sincere faith was a faith that was being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised (v. 21). Today, I would like to be instructed by meditating on the remaining two things that our church must do in order to become a church that strengthens in faith and increase in numbers.
Second, we must all be well spoken disciples of Jesus in order for our church to be a church that strengthens in the faith and increase in number daily.
Look at Acts 16:2 – “The brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him.” Jesus' disciple Timothy, who had “sincere faith,” was well spoken by the brothers (Christians) at Lystra and Iconium. How could Timothy have been praised by those two local brothers? The reason seems to be that Timothy had sincere faith that had no falsehood. Furthermore, he seemed to have been praised by his brothers because he was a disciple of Jesus who showed true discipleship throughout his life. To be a disciple in Jesus' day means first walking with the Lord, learning, obeying, and imitating the Lord. Timothy did not walk with the Lord as a disciple of Jesus, but he lived after Jesus. In other words, Timothy was a man, who became like Christ and wished to dwell in Christ's faith and deeds, systematically and gradually moved on to all that he did for that purpose. That's why he was praised by Lystra and Iconium Christians. But the disciple of Jesus who is praised is not praised by anyone. Although we should be praised by sincere believers like Timothy, we need to guard against being praised by the world. When anyone is praised by a group of demons, they must be alert to themselves knowing that they are going to be demons. But if we are praised by true believers, we must not receive that glory but give that glory to God (Park). The wise man says in Proverbs 27:21: “The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but man is tested by the praise he receives.”
A community that is gathered by Jesus’ disciples like Timothy can become a church that is praised by others. The praised church of Jesus' disciples who resemble Jesus is, like Antioch church, the ‘Christian church’ (Acts 11:26). When Barnabas and Saul (Paul) systematically taught and cultivated disciples of the large gathering in Antioch for a year (v. 26, Yoo), as a result, the Antioch disciples reached qualitatively amazing maturity for the first time and their nickname became “Christians” by the non-Christians. It means followers of Christ.’ How well did the Antioch church members have been trained in discipleship and followed Jesus Christ well, so that in the eyes of the surrounding non-Christians, they would be called ‘the followers of Christ’? May our church be the church of the Christians like the Antioch church. I hope and pray that we all have Jesus in our hearts, imitate Jesus and be His disciples who boast Him. Richard Foster puts it this way: ‘Maybe the greatest disease of the church today is the members of the church who are not disciples of Christ. It affects the whole life of the church and is the reason for the low spiritual level of the local congregations.’ We should never have a low spiritual level. Rather, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:1, we must imitate Christ. Therefore, we eagerly want to be able to exhort, like Paul, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (v. 1).
Third and last, we must all obey God’s commandments in order for our church to be a church that strengthens in the faith and increase in number daily.
Look at Acts 16:4 – “As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey.” When Paul wanted to take Timothy, who was well spoken by the brothers of Lystra and Iconium, along on the journey, he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that are (v. 3). The reason was because Paul thought that since Timothy’s father was a Greek (v. 3) Timothy's uncircumcision, like the Gentiles, would interfere with his mission to the Jews (Yoo). This wasn’t yielding to the legalists and the Pharisees of the Jewish believers in Acts 15 that they must be circumcised to be saved. In other words, Paul didn’t circumcise Timothy as a means of salvation. The only reason for Paul to circumcised Timothy was to consider the Jews in Lystra and Iconium (Yoo). Here we can see Paul's wisdom. His wisdom, as it is said in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, is that Paul became all things to all men so that by all possible means he might save some (v. 22). That was why even though he was free and belonged to no man, he made himself a slave to everyone to win as many as possible (v. 19). And to the Jews he became like a Jew and to those under the law he became like one under the law to win them (v. 20). Paul did all this for the sake of the gospel, that he might share in its blessings (v. 23). After Paul circumcised Timothy, Paul, along with Silas and Timothy, traveled from town to town and urged them to observe the decisions made by the apostles and elders of the Church of Jerusalem (Acts 16:4). That decision was an ordinance for Gentile believers to keep (15:20, 29). The ordinance is written in verse 29: “You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.” The reason for giving this ordinance to the local Gentile believers was because of the reconciliation between Jewish and Gentile believers (Park). Perhaps a large number of Gentile believers and few Jewish believers were mixed in the first missionary journey that Paul and his co-workers visited at that time (Yoo). Hence, Paul and his co-workers urged the Gentile believers, the majority of the church, to consider the few Jewish believers and give them the rules prescribed by the apostles and elders of Jerusalem.
As we look back at our church, many of our Korean Ministry members should be considerate to the small number of English Ministry members and the Hispanic Ministry members. When we are considerate of them, we should refrain from things in order to reconcile to each other. For example, we the Korean Ministry members should refrain from treating the English Ministry members as kids. Although they are our children, grandchildren, and are younger than us, we should respect them and their personalities. When we think of Hispanic Ministry brothers and sisters in Christ, we the Korean Ministry members shouldn’t call them “Mexican” because they may be offended by it. We must not show any prejudice against Hispanic brothers and sisters in Christ. Rather, we must throw them away, if we have one, before the cross and embrace them with the pure love of the Lord. In order for all three ministries to reconcile and to keep the unity of the Spirit is to obey His commandment which is to love one another. Just as Jesus loves us, we should commit ourselves to love each other. As we commit ourselves to get to know each other, we must humble ourselves to learn from each other and endeavor to comfort and build up each other while being patient with each other. In order for us to be responsible for our reconciliation ministry, we must not only be all peacemakers, but we must also be peacekeepers.
William Barclay, a well-known Bible teacher and commentator, spoke of the meaning of service: ‘When the world evaluates, its standard is how many people are we dominating, and how many people are going to come and go with one finger, and how many intellectuals, academic excellence, and executive meetings are held. And many measure the greatness of a person depending on how much the bank balance, assets, and material possessions are. But the evaluations that Jesus makes have nothing to do with them. There is only one criterion for the Lord's evaluation: how many people he serves. There is greatness in it’(Internet).