Exhortation and admonition are wonderful words. Exhort: "To urge by strong, often stirring argument." Admonish: "To reprove gently but earnestly; to counsel against something to be avoided; caution." Unfortunately, as with the word “discipline,” in many cases the church has made these into very legalistic words that they use to manipulate people and try to keep them under control. But those are not the reasons the Apostle Paul exhorted, admonished and encouraged the people he wrote to, as he built them up in who they were, and in what the Christian life looked like in action. And you know what, if you don’t want to use those words, that’s fine. The point is that Paul spoke practical words to people that showed them what life in Christ looked like when lived out, and it was a really good thing!
Paul made sure that the people of the church were rooted, grounded and established in grace and in their identity in Christ. Paul made sure the people knew that it wasn’t about their efforts at pleasing God. It wasn’t about them striving to be good. Paul is the one who showed us that we have died, and the life we live in the body, we live by faith, not by our own flesh-produced works! I believe he also showed us what this looks like by speaking practical words (practical: “capable of being used or put into effect”) that would aid in stirring up the inward Christ-life and getting it out.
One wonderful truth that has helped me in my Christian life is the idea that God initiates and we respond. In other words, it’s not about us going and looking for things to do, and principles to follow, but as we rest in Christ, God gives us the thoughts and ideas and He works in and through us to make it happen. I believe there are myriads of ways in which God does this, and one of the many ways is through our communication with one another. As we encourage one another, and speak words of edification and admonishment and exhortation to one another, we stir one another up. We dig into the Christ-life that is within each other and we spur one another on toward love and good deeds. It’s all God’s doing, and in these instances He does it by speaking to us through one another.
Again, I don’t believe it’s a matter of us going around trying to find principles to follow and I also don’t believe it’s a matter of a preacher coming up with a new set of generic principles to preach each week. I think it’s more a matter of, in the normal course of life, God’s children communicating with one another, and in the proper times and seasons speaking words to one another that come from our own life experiences and from biblical truth that fit the given circumstances, and that will help us to grow in grace and in the living out of who we truly already are in Christ.
I’ll give some ‘practical’ examples in the next post to show where I’m coming from.
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3
Grace Roots Blog
Showing posts with label practically. Show all posts
Showing posts with label practically. Show all posts
Monday, February 23, 2009
Practically Speaking – Part 1 of 3
All who read this blog know me to be someone who has a passion to speak words that are based on being rooted, grounded and established in the grace of God and in our identity in Him. My almost 800 posts speak to that! Although this post is a bit different from my other posts, I do believe that what I’m going to say here is rooted in the pure grace of God.
I’ve said plenty of times that I’m very opposed to the idea that the Christian life is a matter of living by rules, principles, methods, etc. Life in Christ is a matter of His life in us, working in us and through us and out of us. It’s not about us studying principles to keep us and guide us. It’s not about becoming better people, but rather it’s about living from the new creations that we already are, trusting in Christ’s life in us to animate us.
So does that mean that we never speak words to one another that spur on this animated new creation life? Does resting in Christ simply mean we sit back, basking in His love and grace, and before you know it we’re simply bearing good fruit? Does it mean that as long as we’re learning our identity in Him, and we become established in His love and grace, that everything automatically falls into place?
Of necessity, we will never live out the Christ life in its most natural way unless we’re rooted, grounded and established in His love and grace and in our identity in Him. I can never see myself not believing that! As I’ve looked back on my life and have seen myself and others growing in all of this, and growing in the outward expression of who we already are on the inside, I’ve noticed that a lot of it has come from some really great encouraging words from others, as well as some really great – and practical – Christ-and-grace-filled exhortations and admonitions from others.
The word practical simply means “capable of being used or put into effect.” In speaking these practical words to one another in our Christ-life, we can bring out the Christ in each other. Christ is living in us no matter what, of course! Sometimes “considering one another in order to stir up love and good works” (Heb 10:24) and “exhorting one another” (Heb 10:25) means that Christ speaks words to us through one another that aid in bringing about the change of mind, attitude, decision making process, etc, that leads to real Christ-produced fruit. None of this is to give us any better of a standing before God, or to make us closer to Him. That was all taken care of with the Blood of Jesus. No… these are all simply words that we can use with one another to spur one another on toward love and good deeds.
For quite some time I was really turned off by even the mention of any of this. “Principles for Christian living” had been jammed into my head through the constant preaching and teaching of them, and I knew that I knew that I knew that this was not what the Christian life was about. Practical teaching has been very overdone and has become a very legalistic thing in the church. People have even used it to control and manipulate others. Church ‘leaders’ have sadly turned them into rules and commands, taking away from the original intent of this type of talk amongst one another.
And so in saying all of this, I want to be absolutely clear that I’m not saying that our life in Christ is a matter of striving to apply godly principles to our lives. It’s not a matter of preaching a new set of principles every week and then going out and trying to make them work.
What I am saying is that as we get more and more rooted and grounded and established in grace and in our identity in Christ, God can and does speak to us in all kinds of ways, through internal and external means, and part of that includes encouraging, exhorting and admonishing us through each other.
The Apostle Paul did a whole lot of this in his epistles. It can be a very grace-full thing to speak these things to one another. Again, it doesn’t make us “better people” and it doesn’t make us any closer to God. It simply helps to bring out the life of Christ.
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3
I’ve said plenty of times that I’m very opposed to the idea that the Christian life is a matter of living by rules, principles, methods, etc. Life in Christ is a matter of His life in us, working in us and through us and out of us. It’s not about us studying principles to keep us and guide us. It’s not about becoming better people, but rather it’s about living from the new creations that we already are, trusting in Christ’s life in us to animate us.
So does that mean that we never speak words to one another that spur on this animated new creation life? Does resting in Christ simply mean we sit back, basking in His love and grace, and before you know it we’re simply bearing good fruit? Does it mean that as long as we’re learning our identity in Him, and we become established in His love and grace, that everything automatically falls into place?
Of necessity, we will never live out the Christ life in its most natural way unless we’re rooted, grounded and established in His love and grace and in our identity in Him. I can never see myself not believing that! As I’ve looked back on my life and have seen myself and others growing in all of this, and growing in the outward expression of who we already are on the inside, I’ve noticed that a lot of it has come from some really great encouraging words from others, as well as some really great – and practical – Christ-and-grace-filled exhortations and admonitions from others.
The word practical simply means “capable of being used or put into effect.” In speaking these practical words to one another in our Christ-life, we can bring out the Christ in each other. Christ is living in us no matter what, of course! Sometimes “considering one another in order to stir up love and good works” (Heb 10:24) and “exhorting one another” (Heb 10:25) means that Christ speaks words to us through one another that aid in bringing about the change of mind, attitude, decision making process, etc, that leads to real Christ-produced fruit. None of this is to give us any better of a standing before God, or to make us closer to Him. That was all taken care of with the Blood of Jesus. No… these are all simply words that we can use with one another to spur one another on toward love and good deeds.
For quite some time I was really turned off by even the mention of any of this. “Principles for Christian living” had been jammed into my head through the constant preaching and teaching of them, and I knew that I knew that I knew that this was not what the Christian life was about. Practical teaching has been very overdone and has become a very legalistic thing in the church. People have even used it to control and manipulate others. Church ‘leaders’ have sadly turned them into rules and commands, taking away from the original intent of this type of talk amongst one another.
And so in saying all of this, I want to be absolutely clear that I’m not saying that our life in Christ is a matter of striving to apply godly principles to our lives. It’s not a matter of preaching a new set of principles every week and then going out and trying to make them work.
What I am saying is that as we get more and more rooted and grounded and established in grace and in our identity in Christ, God can and does speak to us in all kinds of ways, through internal and external means, and part of that includes encouraging, exhorting and admonishing us through each other.
The Apostle Paul did a whole lot of this in his epistles. It can be a very grace-full thing to speak these things to one another. Again, it doesn’t make us “better people” and it doesn’t make us any closer to God. It simply helps to bring out the life of Christ.
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3
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