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Discipleship: What We Believe

(This article is part of a series that starts here.)

My definition of a Christian disciple distinguishes Christianity from other beliefs, but it does not articulate everything needed to get a person saved, and so it seems incomplete. When I go through a gospel presentation, am I telling a person everything they need to know to get into the kingdom? Or is the prayer I am leading them through only leading them to a false idea of Christianity?

For example, one gospel presentation I was taught was the “Roman Road,” which uses three verses to explain the gospel and lead people to Christ: Rom 3:23, 6:23, 10:9-10. But do these three verses contain everything we need to believe to truly call ourselves Christians?

Does the Roman Road gospel presentation, using Rom 3:23, 6:23, and 10:9-10, tell us everything we must believe to be Christian? Click To Tweet

Norman Geisler and Chad Meister’s book Reasons for Faith identifies the beliefs that are essential to be true for Christianity to be true, and then breaks them down further to a shorter list of those that a person must believe in order to be saved. In other words, some beliefs must be true but we do not necessarily have to believe them, or understand them fully, to be saved. I want to focus on what we must know and believe so that we can check our own beliefs and also be equipped to help lead others to Christ more effectively. With this in mind, I summarized these beliefs below, followed by a detailed explanation with verse references.

I believe:

There is one God, and Jesus is both fully God and fully human.

Every person is sinful and therefore deserves death, but Jesus paid this death penalty for our sin on the cross and then demonstrated power over sin and death by rising from death back to life.

This sacrifice is God’s grace gift for the forgiveness of our sin, and this gift of grace is received by having faith.

These are the elements we must have in explaining the full gospel of Christ:

There is one God. Deuteronomy 6:4 says, “Listen, Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!” (NET) The Hebrew looks more like this: “Pay close attention, Israel: YHWH God, YHWH one.” This is a simple and powerful statement saying there is only one true, almighty, and sovereign God. To understand this, we each need to understand what God is to us. We all drift toward our small gods, believing in some outside force that has influence over us but not complete control, and allowing our devotion and trust to fall on aspects of the world around us. Christians must not only know that God is the one and only God, Isa 45:5, the creator of everything, Heb 11:3, the beginning and the end, Rev 22:13, and that he is complete in his sovereignty over all the universe, Col 1:18, we must also pay special attention to ensuring our life reflects this knowledge in everything we do, say, and even think, Matt 5:21-48.

Jesus is fully human. Jesus is fully God. Jesus must be more than a human teacher, and at the same time calling him a deity is not enough to adequately describe him. The first chapter of John’s gospel, John 1:1-3, makes it clear that Jesus took part in the creation of the universe, in everything that was made, meaning he helped create you! But he was also flesh and blood like us, John 1:14 & Heb 2:17, humbling himself to take on our weaknesses in order to be a perfect, eternal high priest on our behalf, Heb 6:19-20. What separates his flesh from ours is that he was born of God and not a man, Luke 1:35, and therefore did not inherit Adam’s sin.(1)

We all have sinned and deserve death. Everyone has sinned and falls short of the glory of God, Rom 3:23, and this sin requires death as punishment, Rom 6:23. It is a common thing to minimize our sin, but this is a mistake. We must recognize the evil in what we do and say and think, Matt 5:21-48, acknowledging the vast difference between our perfectly righteous and holy God and us, and accept that the only just punishment is death, Eph 2:1-2, 12. This is a penalty that must be paid, in order for justice to be satisfied, Heb 9:12-15.

Jesus paid the penalty of our sins on the cross. Because he was fully human and subject to our weaknesses, and yet without sin, 2 Cor 5:21, Jesus’s death on the cross is the perfect sacrifice for our sins, the complete payment of our debt, Heb 9:14, satisfying justice regarding our sin. There is nothing more that needs to be done or can be done about sin, it is wholly wrapped up and finished on the cross, Col 2:13-15, leaving no room for works that earn salvation, Eph 2:8-9, nor for guilt or self-condemnation, Psa 32:5.

Jesus rose from death back to life in bodily form. More than a spirit, a ghost, or a dream, Jesus demonstrated this by eating food with them and having people touch him, Luke 24:36-43, and many people witnessed his resurrection, Acts 1:3. Jesus rose from the dead to demonstrate his power over death and his deity, Eph 1:18-23, and to give us the hope of a future resurrection, Rom 6:5. His resurrection is so important, believing it is specifically mentioned as a requirement for salvation, Rom 10:9.

We all need grace. We are not able to live the life and pay the penalty that Jesus did, we all already failed, Isa 64:6. Therefore, we need the gift of forgiveness given to us, we need access to Christ’s paid penalty of sin. Just because he paid the penalty doesn’t mean he paid it for me, his blood only covers me via grace. This grace is the free gift of forgiveness and salvation, Rom 3:24. Grace is the means of forgiveness because we did not earn it and cannot attain it on our own, Eph 2:9. Grace puts us in the humble position of having to accept what another did for us. Grace is the gift offered, faith is the gift accepted, Eph 2:8.

We all need faith. Everyone has the option of refusing the gift of grace (Esau, Judas). Accepting it is an act of faith, it is the “I believe,” Rom 10:8-10, and it is how we access what Jesus did for us, John 6:47. This does not mean that we fully understand it or can explain it, Phil 3:15-16, but simply that we believe and agree to live according to these truths, Rom 1:17. Further, to keep us humble, all of us will, from time to time, be faithless and fearful and backslide into sinfulness, yet God remains faithful to draw us back to him, 2 Tim 2:11-13.

My conclusion is that most gospel presentations, the Roman Road included, do not include all the truths necessary to adequately lead someone to Christ. That being said, my wife became a Christian without believing that Jesus was God, but when someone confronted her on this issue, he easily convinced her of this truth. Why? Because she was saved, the Spirit of Christ was dwelling within her, and God lead her to that conversation with that man so that her faith would be made complete. This happened in the Bible, when Aquila and Priscilla had to explain to Apollos the full gospel, Acts 18:24-26, and when Paul met some men who had only heard of John’s baptism, Acts 19:1-7.

Therefore, I do not want to discourage anyone in using these helpful gospel presentations, but I do want to encourage everyone to better understand their faith so that all of us can more effectively sharpen one another, Prov 27:17. I hope this was helpful. I know I enjoyed studying the essential beliefs of my faith.

Blessings! – Shamar Covenant

(1) Geisler, Norman & Meister, Chad, editors. Reasons for Faith. Wheaton Illinois: Crossway Books, 2007. Kindle edition. p 98-99

Discipleship: What Discipleship is Not…

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(This article is part of a series that starts here.)

Thus far I have defined Christian disciple and then summed up Christian discipleship as Jesus’s call to “follow me.” I will further explore what being a disciple of Christ should look like, but first I want to take a moment to be clear about what I believe it does not look like. If we truly want to follow Jesus and help others do the same, we need to look at his word and the examples he gave us, and be careful who we choose to follow.

I will focus on two issues: one-on-one discipleship, and the concept that everyone should be making disciples. I have seen both of these in discipleship ministries, and I do not see either of them exemplified in the Bible. I do not believe these are prohibited, necessarily, but I believe they are grossly misapplied.

The first issue is the one-on-one discipleship method or model where a newer Christian meets with someone more mature (a mentor) to be discipled. Jesus was never shown to be discipling anyone one-on-one, he was always with at least two, if not three or four (Matt 26:37, Mark 13:3, Luke 9:28, John 21:20). And this makes sense, for accountability and transparency. I have previously posted about a former pastor of mine who I discovered was a fraud, and one of the things he would do in his one-on-one sessions was give disparaging information about everyone else. He made it seem like he was sharing confidential information because he trusted us. It was actually a way to control us by keeping him as our center and slightly at odds with (and superior to) everyone else. This is the danger in one-on-one time: it is much easier to be manipulated, and much more difficult to verify truth.

An argument for one-on-one may be that we are more willing to be open and honest in the security and privacy of a one-on-one meeting. Yet, if we are to live in community and build a trusting, loving relationship with one another as the Bible describes (John 13:34-35, Acts 2:42-47, 4:32-35, 1 Cor 12:12-27, Phil 2:1-5), would not this be better built by meeting in small groups? If we are to love one another with a love that surpasses our own blood family (Matt 12:46-50, Heb 13:1), we must act like a family.

Jesus picked twelve men to train into leaders, and he spent all his time with them, but the record indicates he spent more “private” time with Peter, James and John. I believe this is the model for discipleship, that we should find two to four other people (of the same gender) who have a desire to draw nearer to Christ, then develop this tiny group into a discipleship group. This tiny group is where we should be most open and honest with one another, confessing and praying for one another, studying the word and applying it together. Also, with a group this small, everyone can have an opportunity to share, so no one gets left out.

The second issue regards teaching that everyone should be making disciples, even young, immature or new believers. I believe this comes from what Jesus commanded before he left, “Go and make disciples of all nations…” (Matt 28:19). I have two problems with this, that these ministries focus so much on becoming a disciple-maker that they skip the part about actually being a disciple, and that the Bible clearly shows designated teachers should do the teaching.

I have seen people who are new in their faith being taught about and encouraged to implement a “discipleship multiplication” system. This is when you invest in one person for a year, helping them to develop their faith, and after that year both of you separate and each pick another person to invest in, and so on. At the end of the first year you are left with two discipled Christians (including you), then after the second year you have four, and by the third year you would have eight. This would create more Christians over time than you ever could by “converting” 10,000 people a day. However, if you or the one you invest in does not have a verified, tested faith, this is the same as a multi-level marketing (MLM) scam.

I have been to a few MLM meetings, and one of them was about becoming a financial advisor. When I asked the guy recruiting me about focusing more on how to help people with their finances, he unabashedly expressed a greater interest in becoming a supervisor of advisors, recruiting others to do the work. In other words, he was more interested in the money and power, not the actual job. That may be ok in the secular world with your vocation, but not with Christianity and discipleship. We need to think more about our personal relationship with Christ than becoming a great Christian multiplier. (Jer 45:4-5)

We need to think more about our personal relationship with Christ than becoming a great Christian multiplier. (Jer 45:4-5) Click To Tweet

The focus for any newer or less mature believer should always be on the basics of being a disciple, studying the Bible and prayer and fellowship and walking the walk. Showing others how to do this should come after the basics are solid and the understanding of the faith has grown.

This leads to the second part of my contention with this method, the emphasis on teaching. If you pressure people to be making disciples before they have even learned to walk the walk, you are putting them in the role of teacher before their knowledge and faith has been verified. This only leads to incorrect teaching and lifestyles being passed on to new believers.

I have heard discipleship ministries say something like this, “You only need to be one step ahead of someone else to help them.” I do not see this modeled in the New Testament, and it ends up causing many problems. Too many people fall away from the faith (Luke 8:14) or develop strange unbiblical ideas (1 Tim 1:3-4, 19-20) or slip into worldliness (Luke 9:61-62), and these people should not be guiding others in the faith.

One verse commonly used to argue for this one-on-one discipleship multiplication model is 2 Timothy 2:2, “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” (NASB) Do you see the word “teach” in there? The letters 1 & 2 Timothy are one church leader giving another church leader guidance, a teacher telling a teacher to train other teachers.

James wrote, “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.” (Jam 3:1, NIV) Can you teach without knowledge? Can you be a leader before you are a follower? I have seen people new in the faith put into positions of leadership who created dissension, destroyed Bible study groups, and became a poison to the ministry. All this can be avoided if we are doing what Jesus did, meeting in small discipleship groups, and allowing people to be trained and tested into leadership.

I believe Jesus was speaking to a group of people he trained and tested into leaders when he spoke Matt 28:18-20, and that he did not intend every single Christian to be doing this. The work of leaders is to build us into maturity so that we are loving one another (Eph 4:11-32), not so that we are out doing the work of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Leaders need to be developed over time, which is what Paul was saying to Timothy in 2 Tim 2:2.

Yes, there are exceptions, I can cite a couple. But for the vast majority of us, we should be focusing on walking the Christian walk, not teaching others, and we should be doing this in small groups not one-on-one. We can share our faith, giving our testimony and being a witness, without the requirement to teach others how to walk the walk or develop others into strong disciples. Let us focus on loving one another in community, which is what Jesus said would indicate to the whole world that we are his children (John 13:34-35).

Blessings! – Shamar Covenant

Next article in series, Discipleship: What We Believe

Discipleship: From Disciple to Discipleship

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(This article is part of a series that starts here.)

Look closely at Jesus and what he did. He picked twelve men to follow him closely as he traveled and taught, but have you ever noticed how he treated the crowds? He told them parables without explaining the meaning!

Then the disciples came to him and said, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” He replied, “You have been given the opportunity to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but they have not. For whoever has will be given more, and will have an abundance. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. (Matt 13:10-12 NET)

Jesus had just told the story about someone throwing seeds out and how some never grew, some withered quickly, some were choked out by weeds, and some produced a good crop, which was not news to anyone in the crowd. They all understood farming and how planting seeds worked, yet no explanation was given to them for this obvious bit of information.

It was only the twelve and those called disciples who asked the meaning of the parables. These were those who waited until the big show was over, after Jesus performed creation miracles involving flesh growing where none existed before, after feeding thousands of people with a handful of bread and fish, after the crowds had their fill of the fantastical and their bellies were full and they went off to tell their friends about the great experience. After all this, there would be a few hangers on who would press in close to Jesus and ask, “What does all this mean?”

It was these who saw that Jesus was offering something more than a momentary experience. He offered life, and they were hungry for that life, and to get that life they had to pursue that life. This is discipleship, pursuing the life of Jesus Christ, seeking to be like him, patiently waiting for the noise to quiet down so that we can press in close to Jesus and ask what it all means and how do we live it out.

In my previous article, I defined Christian disciple. This is what I came up with:

A Christian disciple is one who not only learns from and imitates Christ but worships him as God and Creator of heaven and earth, and this is reflected clearly in the person’s lifestyle, moral character and worldview.

In the Bible, the followers of Jesus were called disciples, but the word discipleship is not in the Bible. We must be very careful, then, how we define and execute it! We all too often take a sentence here and there and piece together a ministry method that strays from the point of it all.

With this in mind, I want to start very simple. I believe the best way to describe discipleship is “follow me.”

As He was walking along the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter, and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the sea, since they were fishermen. “Follow Me,” He told them, “and I will make you fish for people!” Immediately they left their nets and followed Him. (Matt 4:18-20 HCSB)

For the next three years, they followed Jesus everywhere, seeing and hearing everything. They lived so closely with him that nothing about him was hidden, and he taught them to do what he was doing, even sending them out to practice. They were trained to be leaders of the church Jesus was starting.

But here we must make distinctions. Not everyone is a leader of the church, are they? Not everyone is a teacher or preacher, and Paul states that the leaders are in their position to perfect believers for ministry (which is service), building up the body of Christ so that we are unified in faith and knowledge of Jesus, making us mature believers (Eph 4:11-13). Should everyone in the church be telling others to “follow me” if the example in the Bible only shows trained leaders doing this?

Paul wrote this, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” (1 Cor 11:1 NIV) And before this he mentioned sending someone who would set an example:

Therefore I urge you to imitate me. For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church. (1 Cor 4:16-17 NIV)

Yet, how long had Paul been a Christian, and been in leadership, before we have a recorded instance of him telling others to follow his example? In 2 Thess 3:7 & 9 he said, “For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example,” and, “in order to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate.” (NIV) He wrote this letter about year 51, more than 15 years after his conversion (AD 35-ish) and 5 years after being brought into leadership at Antioch by Barnabus (AD 46-47, Acts 9:1-30, 11:19-30).(1)

Notice there were ten years of Paul living out the Christian life before he was called into leadership. Also note that 1 Corinthians was written about year 55, four years after Paul picked up Timothy to train him as a leader, so Paul was sending a trained leader to set them an example to follow. Those who are making disciples, doing the work of teaching, training, and setting the good example, ought to be those who not only paid their dues being trained as leaders, but who also have proven faithfulness.

I do not mean to make discipleship seem unattainable. If we are living in community, we should be able to find these examples of faith, whether they are in an official capacity of leadership or not. Paul wrote this to the Philippians: “Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine, and learn from those who follow our example.” (Phil 3:17 NLT) I believe it is important to be connected to the body of Christ for this very reason. We cannot find strong disciples to imitate if we do not go where they go, and as faithful members of the body of Christ, they will be found within the body of Christ.

Therefore, make no excuses, and let no self-righteous hypocrite keep you from going to church, nor a disgraced leader, nor a pushy evangelist. In the same way the early disciples had to wait for the crowd to disperse and push their way forward to get close enough to hear Jesus explain the parables, or possibly to ask him a question, so we also must push through the mess to find those setting the good example. If discipleship is summed up in “follow me,” then find someone to follow!

But what if even in church you cannot find a good example to follow? You can only know this from the Bible, and to the Bible you can go for discipleship. Study the lives of Jesus, Peter, Paul, David, Elijah, Boaz, Jephthah, and so many others. Note their successes and failures, and model yourself after them. “Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith.” (Heb 13:7 NASB)

Do not be a member of the crowd who enjoys the show then leaves without asking for more, be among the disciples who patiently wait and press forward to find those good examples to learn from and follow.

Blessings! – Shamar Covenant

Next article in series, Discipleship: What Discipleship is Not…

(1) Timeline from The Essential Bible Companion by John H. Walton, Mark L. Strauss, and Ted Cooper Jr.

Discipleship: What is a Disciple?

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Recently some troubling things happened in my life regarding the church I was involved in, which lead me to studying discipleship, since that was the focus of the church ministry. I want to have a better understanding of what discipleship is, how it should be done, and what the Biblical model is, if there is one.

I have been told that discipleship ministries appear cultish, and I can see why, I have been in a few of them. In my first discipleship ministry 20 years ago, I was taught some things I had to unlearn after I left, mostly regarding some verses they used to validate their methods. More recently, my church promised to develop and grow in a way that never actually happened. Yet Jesus called his followers “disciples,” so we must be able to be disciples without all the weirdness.

To begin a study on discipleship, we should define the word disciple. Maybe the meaning seems obvious, but the point of studying something is to make it certain. I have most often heard that the word disciple means learner, which is true:

g3101. μαθητής mathētēs; from 3129; a learner, i.e. pupil: — disciple. (Olive Tree Enhanced Strong’s Dictionary)

We need more than a translation, though, so I went to Vines:

A “disciple” was not only a pupil, but an adherent; hence they are spoken of as imitators of their teacher; cf. John 8:31; 15:8. (Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary)

A disciple is not simply a learner. A student is a learner, but a biology student is only learning biology from his teacher and not really anything more. A disciple is more than that, because they are not only learning knowledge but trying to become like the teacher in lifestyle, character, and world view. A disciple is what you call those who pursue religion and philosophy.

This makes sense because we as Christians are trying to become like Jesus. Disciples are learning to be like someone else, which means they are trying to change themselves and become a different person.

There is something that separates Christian disciples from others, though. It was pointed out to me recently that Christians not only learn from and become like Jesus, but they worship him as God.

Sure, this seems obvious, but we are trying to understand fully what discipleship means, so we need to understand fully, in all aspects, what is a disciple, and how it is applied. Disciples of Christ do not merely learn to be like a teacher, we are learning to be like God Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. This is an important distinction.

The 11 disciples traveled to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had directed them. When they saw Him, they worshiped, but some doubted. Then Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt 28:16-20, HCSB)

Notice in this passage that they worshiped Jesus despite some doubts, that Jesus has all authority, and that disciples are taught to observe (in the Greek, to watch over closely, much like the Hebrew “shamar”) and not merely learn or know. There is a doing, a living it out that must accompany the learning, and the motive is that it comes from God, Creator of heaven and earth, Creator of all that is true. This should be powerful motive to change one’s lifestyle, character and world view.

The Vine’s definition above cites two passages that also show us the same things.

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples (John 8:31, ESV)

Here Jesus says we must live in his word, meaning the way we live our lives must have its foundation in his words. It does no good to have a great knowledge of the Bible if our lives do not change because of it, or to live contrary to what the Author of truth tells us. To abide implies that this cannot be a part of our lives, like what we do in mornings and on Sundays only, but that everything we do, say, and even think is based on what is in the Bible.

I questioned a Buddhist once about his faith, after he explained how helpful that religion was to his business and personal life. I asked him how the beliefs such as reincarnation affect him, and his answer was that he takes what is useful from Buddhism and leaves the rest.

I know many Christians often do the same thing, but Jesus did not say, “If you abide in most of my word, you are truly my disciples.” Jesus did not come and die for us so that we can only observe some of what he said and throw the rest out because it is hard to understand. No, if we are truly disciples of Christ, it should be reflected in our whole life. Jesus is not just some great teacher to emulate, but God who we must worship with everything we have.

This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. (John 15:8, NIV)

Being a disciple of Christ is not something that can be hidden, or done without notice. We cannot truly be disciples of Christ if our lives do not change in a way that others can see, because it requires living a different lifestyle, moral values, and way of seeing the world around us. Jesus not only said that we should bear fruit, but that we should bear much fruit, indicating that it should consume our lives.

I heard a Christian telling another Christian how to manipulate conversation to steer it toward Christ, and I thought this was strange. I have never had to artificially bring up my faith, because it cannot help but come out. It affects everything I do! I get up early to study the Bible, I work hard at a job I do not enjoy because I am working for Christ, and I have no fear of doing the right thing knowing that my life is in Christ’s hands. People come up and ask me questions about the Bible not because I am always preaching at them, I do not. Rather, they see that I live differently and that it comes from my faith.

A Christian disciple is one who not only learns from and imitates Christ but worships him as God and Creator of heaven and earth, and this is reflected clearly in the person’s lifestyle, in moral character, and their worldview (the sermon on the mount is a great place to see all this, Matt 5-7). Discipleship would come from this definition, but I will have to explore this next.

Are we truly Christ’s disciples if we are not demonstrating it in our lives by bearing much fruit? Do we truly believe that Jesus is God and has complete authority in heaven and earth if our lives do not reflect a drastic change toward Christ-likeness? Even writing this is convicting for me! I hope it is for you as well, to our Father’s glory.

Blessings! – Shamar Covenant

Next article in series, Discipleship: From Disciple to Discipleship

The Trust

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A strange thing happened shortly after I posted my last article, my wife and I left the church we were with and the pastor who had been such a good friend. Our pastor told others that the reason for our departure was that we were discouraged with his intention to move to California, but that was not true. The real reason was that he lied to me. But that was just the beginning…

For years my wife had pointed out similarities in our pastor’s sermons and Mike Bickle’s sermons, but I never looked that closely since I knew that Mike Bickle had worked with John Wimber, and our pastor claimed to have worked with him as well. Our pastor made it seem like Wimber was the source for his theology. Then one day my wife showed me something: she put in a google search a phrase that our pastor had used and the first result was a Mike Bickle sermon. I looked further and discovered a few of our pastor’s sermons that followed Mike Bickle’s points verse by verse. This may not seem like that big of a deal, but our pastor had always told us not to use commentaries in our study of the Bible, and here he was copying verse by verse other people’s sermons.

I confronted our pastor as politely as I could (I am not really good at confrontation). I asked why his sermons followed Mike Bickle’s so closely, even pointing out how Mike Bickle’s most recent Facebook post showed the same teaching verses as our pastor’s last sermon. Our pastor denied it, saying it was just coincidence. And I wanted so much to believe him that I went along with it. Things just kept nagging at me, though. To explain why, I will give some back story – remember my mention of him moving to California in the first paragraph?

Since leaving his church, we found that it is amazingly common for pastors to plagiarize sermons. I believe churches are too business focused, forgetting Acts 6:1-4, which make it clear that senior church leaders should be teaching… Click To Tweet

About six months before this, our pastor announced to the church that he was moving to California in about a year. He did this while my wife and I were away on vacation, which is odd since our church had only 13 members including the pastor and his wife – why didn’t he wait a week? He said it was because he wanted to address us separately knowing we would have questions (is it peculiar that he knew everyone else would just accept it without challenging him on it?). After this announcement, I met with him repeatedly and challenged him on his stated purpose of growing our group into leaders who would in turn be developing their own groups under his guidance. I also pointed out that since half the group intended to go with him, he would be leaving nothing behind since there were no leaders appointed within our small group.

Shortly following my challenges to him, his story about going to California changed, and he said he did not know when or if he would be leaving. He also began making strange accusations of me, like telling me I was too legalistic because I disagreed with him on whether or not the Declaration of Independence was biblical. At one point I suggested a night of food and fellowship that all our church would be able to attend, because up to that point the only fellowship night was him meeting with people downtown at 5pm on Fridays, and most of us could not attend this due to work schedules (conspicuously, only those intending to go to California were able to attend this fellowship meeting). His response to my suggestion was to call me an Absalom! This contradicted his statements that he wanted to develop us into leaders and that he wanted us to take the initiative to love one another better.

During these six months, I began to realize that for the five years I had known him, despite claiming he wanted us to become leaders, not once did he ever give us an assignment or do anything to actually develop us into leaders. All he ever did was preach at us once a week. He also seemed to avoid growing our group. Instead, he had excuses for why he did not want various people to come into our group, usually it was that they were unwilling to give up the sin in their life.

Thinking about all this, and remembering the look on his face when he lied to me about copying sermons, I still wanted to believe him! Yet, I decided to leave anyway, but I did so very peacefully, even telling him that I still wanted to be friendly.

However, after leaving, I started looking more into his past, and I discovered even more lies. Even a simple internet search showed that he lied about his age and the number of times he had been married! I met with a person who used to be a part of the church and who hired a private investigator to uncover our pastor’s lies. This man spoke with people who knew our pastor recently as well as those from twenty years ago, and there was a consistent story about our pastor being fired from past churches for sexual misconduct and refusing to work with other leaders.

Discovering his additional marriages may not seem like such a big deal, but he had specifically told my wife and I that he had virtually no sexual experience before marrying his current wife. I spoke with another member of the church who told me that our pastor had bragged about his number of sexual conquests, and even seemed to refer to his current wife as a conquest in pointing out that he took her virginity. He gave two completely different stories about what kind of person he was!

Now there is nothing conspicuous about being married multiple times and having a history of sexual conquests, but it does make it clear that our pastor is a liar and a hypocrite, because he preaches purity and repentance – all he had to do was confess the truth and he would be in the clear. He clearly had not lived the pure life that he claimed, and if there is no confession then there is no repentance. Why did he lie? Probably because the truth would have made it hard to hook up with his current wife. The rest of the world could probably care less about all this, but to a Christian who meets regularly with a pastor for discipleship where he divulges the most personal parts of himself as he tries to uncover his life of sin and turn it toward Christ, this is unspeakable hypocrisy and wickedness. He was lying about his past while we poured out our own truthfully and in faith.

Our pastor also made much of a Special Forces background, claiming he was a team leader of a black ops group working under a DOD title. He even correlated his alleged military experience to his Christian walk, as if the experience gave him insight into struggle, perseverance, and true servant leadership. We contacted the Guardians of the Green Beret to verify his claims and they came back telling us that there was no record of him ever being in the military! They would publicly out him if we could provide a sermon recording where he claimed to be Special Forces. Of course, we stopped recording his sermons back in 2015 except for a handful of times where someone used a cell phone to record it for someone who could not be there, but we are still digging through what we have. (UPDATE: we found a sermon, and a few others contacted him, and now he is listed on their website here.)

This, too, may not seem like a grievous evil to others, but to those of us who spent so much time with him listening to his stories and how he made himself seem so faithful and righteous, now he is not only a liar and a hypocrite, but a fraud. As I mentioned above, our lives were wide open to him while he has been telling us fairy tales about who he really is.

But after the sinking feeling of betrayal went through me, the very first thought in my head was this, “I have a good Shepherd, a perfect Pastor, and his name is Jesus Christ. Click To Tweet

Another story of his is that he works with a private military contractor, that he trains their security contractors, and that he spends time weekly doing this. He also went on trips claiming to be doing executive protection (bodyguard) work with this group. However, he told me the man who recruited him into the company was Erik Prince and the company was Academi. An internet search will show that Erik Prince sold his company Blackwater to a group of private investors in 2011 (after which it was renamed Academi), and that Erik Prince works with an entirely different company that is focused on work overseas. I am very curious about what our pastor is really doing while he pretends to be a famed former Special Forces leader doing training for one of the biggest private military contractors in the world.

I would like to mention here that since leaving his church and visiting others in the area, my wife and I have found, and heard, that it is amazingly common for pastors to plagiarize other’s sermons. I believe this is due to churches being too business focused and forgetting the words in Acts 6:1-4, which make it clear that senior church leaders should be teaching and praying, not administering. However, what makes our pastor such a hypocrite is how often he told us that we should not be using commentaries in our study of the Bible. I always thought this was silly, since there is so much good historical information in commentaries that is needed to understand scriptures, but to find our pastor pulling right out of other sermons is very surprising, and discouraging.

As we uncovered all this, and there is more than I can mention here, I also took a good look at myself and the others who have followed him for so many years. For some time I have questioned what we were doing as a group, but I went along with it because so many of the important things seemed to be in place, such as my pastor being a good friend, and because I did not expect perfection in my leadership. But others in the group appear to think our pastor walks on water, and they treat everything he says as if it was the word of God himself. One lady told us about her one-on-one sessions where she endured verbal abuse from him, and yet she still returned to him for advice and followed his counsel. Why do we do this? We all made victims of ourselves, for sure.

To be honest, I do not know the answer, I am no psychologist. But after the sinking feeling of betrayal went through me, the very first thought in my head was this, “I have a good Shepherd, a perfect Pastor, and his name is Jesus Christ. I have nothing to fear.” God worked through a liar, hypocrite and fraud to bring me closer to him, and to strengthen my marriage. And though I may question every other pastor with much greater scrutiny, though I may be more distrustful of others and the stories they tell, and though it may be hard to find a church to commit to after all this, I know I will persevere in faith. I know what truth is, I know what being a disciple of Christ is, and I know I have a good Father in heaven looking out for me.

Blessings! – Shamar Covenant

My Pastor and Friend

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Not too long ago, our pastor announced that he felt God calling him back to another state (about 1000 miles away from us). He said it would not happen immediately but would be in a year or more, and he wanted to be open and honest with us about it. This might not be too big a deal for many churches, but our church is a house church with 13 members at this time, so the pastor leaving feels like the end of it all. To make matters worse, a few of us said that they would go with him, leaving the rest of us feeling even more left behind.

My wife and I experienced feelings of hurt and loss since we are among those who would not make the move. As the feelings of hurt and loss stirred, an anger also rose up, and our thoughts turned antagonistic toward our pastor. After all, he was betraying us, was he not?! Thankfully, we were mature enough to recognize ungodly thoughts, and we corrected our hearts through right thinking. If God is moving our pastor away from us, then he has a plan for us right here where we are, and there is nothing to fear or be angry about. We began to pray for the team that would be moving away, and for guidance on our next steps.

One of the things that came to mind during all of this, which reinforced the reasons to not be angry and to trust God through it all, was that our pastor is not just our teacher, he is our friend. When I am sick, he calls me and checks in on me. When I have a struggle with sin, he is there with me pushing me through it. When I suffered the loss of my sister and my father in the same month, he called me frequently to check on me and make sure I was ok. Our pastor knows each one of us, he knows our strengths and weaknesses, our hurts and our triggers, our sin and our righteousness, our past and our present, and he obviously cares for us. He lifts us up in prayer every day. He is truly a shepherd who closely watches over his flock with diligence and care (John 10:11-16, 1 Thes 2:7-12).

I have been very blessed because I have been shepherded before, while at Christian Challenge at the University of Southern California and at Berean Church in Rochester, MN. However, I do not believe very many others have experienced true shepherding. A while back, I asked a close friend from my Christian Challenge days about his new church, whether his pastor was a teacher or a shepherd, and he wanted to say shepherd, but when I pressed him on how much his pastor knew his personal life, his struggles and joys, my friend had to admit that he was only a teacher and not really a shepherd. Just because your pastor knows your name does not mean he knows who you are or what is going on in your life.

The word pastor means shepherd. I do not think we have many pastors in America, especially in any larger churches. We have preachers, and some of them are such amazing teachers! We have access to the best teaching on the Bible the world has ever known! The resources we have nowadays to study scripture truly facilitate a deeper understanding of the word of God.

Yet what does it matter how good the teaching is, if we are not coached through the process of living it out? Or if our teachers are not genuinely invested in our spiritual growth? Instead of discipleship, American churches rely on worldly counseling (even Christian counselors use the same counseling methods the world does). Another good friend from my Christian Challenge days was on staff with a large church, and he was seeing a psychiatrist about his depression that arose after his parents’ divorce. I asked him if he had access to a pastor at his church, any sort of access at all, and he admitted that he did not have access to a pastor and did not even know how to get time with a pastor. What good is a church if someone on staff with a church cannot get time with a pastor?! Counseling never lead him to healing from all his wounds. What he needed was discipleship, a shepherd to guide him through his struggles and point him toward our Healer, Jesus Christ.

Large churches have no excuse. I have heard of and experienced churches trying to do discipleship in this way and that, and the results never seemed to pan out, and usually the excuse is size, that there are just too many people. But the Bible tells us exactly how to do it. Exodus 18:17-26 is where Moses’ father-in-law explains to him that he cannot lead the people alone, but must, “select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain —and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens” (Exo 18:21, NIV). Starting with hundreds of thousands of people, they did this, so even our churches with tens of thousands could do this.

This would not happen quickly, but it could be done. What this means, though, is that churches are training leaders who are able to teach and be responsible for the spiritual growth of others. Most churches appoint facilitators to guide conversations in Bible studies and home groups, but this will never produce discipleship since they are not teachers, nor are they responsible for those under them, nor are they shepherds who care for their flock (no matter what size the flock). Notice the qualifiers above: capable, fearing God, trustworthy, hating dishonest gain. To know if someone met these conditions, we would have to spend intimate time with them.

I need to mention that if more churches were doing this, they would all shrink in size. This may be one of the reasons preachers do not shepherd their parishioners. People would be forced to deal with their sin, but most people going to Christian churches today are going to be entertained or to feel a part of something, not to deal with their sin and grow closer to God. They want to be able to walk in, enjoy the show, and walk out without anyone getting in their business and disrupting what they truly love, their pleasures and comforts that distract them from God. Many of these people are lost in the comforts of life (Luke 8:14, Rev 3:15-18), many still are lost in their hurts and angers and struggles that are not being dealt with spiritually – to be treated with the healing waters of the Holy Spirit (Matt 5:22, 28, 32, 44, 6:14-15, Jam 5:16).

Now I ask you, who leads your church? Is he your personal friend and shepherd, or is he simply a teacher who stands at a distance? Do you want an engaging show with great music and an exciting teacher, or do you want to be challenged spiritually to grow closer to Christ? Do you want a comfortable community that makes you feel like you belong, or a community that is honestly dealing with sin and learning to truly love one another? For the most part, churches give the people what they want (a word of warning, Jer 5:31), so what do you want?

Blessings! – Shamar Covenant

P.S. I have a sequel to this article, with some surprising discoveries about my pastor, but they still do not change what I wrote here.

Beatitudes 8 – Persecuted for Righteousness

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Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:10, NIV)

Notice the first seven beatitudes describe the character of those who are saved and commit themselves to Christ, while the final one describes the result or cost of choosing this life. And the last has the same reward as the first: the reward of the kingdom of heaven, which is our future glorification in heaven with Jesus. This makes clear the intent of the beatitudes, which Jesus used to start the sermon on the mount, is to describe the character of the saved and the blessings and cost of salvation.

In summary, the character includes the humility of recognizing our need for Christ, the brokenness of repenting for sin, the trust in God required to be low and meek, the heart-change of desiring the righteousness of God over the pleasures of the world, and the self-denial of showing mercy, seeking reconciliation, and desiring that our enemies find salvation. The blessings are salvation, comfort, leadership, fulfillment, mercy, seeing God and becoming a mature child of God. And the cost is the sacrifice required to walk with Christ, which results in persecution from the world.

This last point of persecution is not at all the least significant of them. Notice that what follows the beatitudes is a further explanation of persecution, not of any of the other beatitudes, making persecution a point that Jesus did not want missed.

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matt 5:11-12, NIV)

Some things to note are that this persecution is a public and aggressive pursuit and not simply whispers or rumors, that Jesus equates righteousness with himself, and that Jesus compares those who are persecuted for him with the prophets.

Jesus wanted to be clear: choosing Christ is a huge, life-changing decision that puts us in opposition to the world. James wrote, “friendship with the world is hostility toward God,” (Jam 4:4, NASB). How often do those leading others to Christ make this point clear? Probably not at all, yet here Jesus begins the first and most comprehensive sermon in the New Testament, the introduction to Christian living, with this very important consideration.

The modern church is too seeker-friendly and not Christian-friendly enough. Church is for Christians, not non-believers, and Jesus himself was described as often encouraging others not to follow him. Read Luke 9:57-62, John 6:60-66, and Matt 19:16-22, and see how Jesus did not try to talk anyone into staying with him. Instead, he makes it clear what we have to give up in order to follow him. If we are not willing to take the hard road of self-sacrifice and persecution and pay the cost of being a disciple, we are not worthy of Christ, and are not welcome in heaven.

He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it. (Matt 10:37-39, HCSB)

As Christians, we can consider every struggle a test to reveal and strengthen our faith. If we fail the test, that may mean we do not truly love Jesus, or maybe it means we need to dig deep within ourselves and discern what we truly love. If we want to love Jesus, it is a choice. We must choose him over everything else in our lives. We must ask ourselves, “what is getting in the way?” Throughout my posts on the beatitudes, I have provided examples of things in our life that come before God and need to be changed. When we recognize our weakness of faith, and take action to rectify it, the test becomes a strengthening!

Remember, each beatitude begins with “blessed are those who,” indicating that those who embrace the Christian life will consider it a joy to pursue each of these, no matter how difficult. This does not mean that in the moment we laugh and rejoice. We certainly are not rejoicing while we mourn or in the moment of persecution, but our joy comes from knowing that there is a future reward for all that we endure for the sake of Christ, a joy that fills us with hope that gets us through these trials.

However, it is important to acknowledge that many, yes many, will fall away due to persecution, devotion to the world, and simply because it is so difficult. Jesus told the parable of the seeds (Matt 13:3-23) explaining that most would fall away, and he warned of the coming tribulations where many Christians would betray one another and that wickedness would be so great that, “the love of most will grow cold,” (Matt 24:9-12). This is not only a faith check, but also a stern warning that we must prepare for hard times! The more attached we are to the world, the more difficult the Christian walk will be for us.

…you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. (Matt 10:22, NRSV)

Are we ready to endure to the end, no matter what persecution comes our way? It all comes down to this: we must love God most.

Blessings! – Shamar Covenant

Beatitudes 7 – Peacemakers

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Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God. (Matthew 5:9, NIV)

We must first understand God’s peace before we can understand how to be a peacemaker. After looking through the use of the word peace in the New and Old Testaments, we find that God’s peace is an inner calmness resulting from a certainty of being right with God. This begins with believing Jesus is Lord and is proved by our obedience, which over time grows our faith and gives us God’s peace, no matter our circumstances.

In addition, Paul wrote, “having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” (Rom 5:1, NASB) and in Acts 10 we see Peter explain the gospel of peace to Cornelius. Our gospel is one of peace, and the conversion experience is our first taste of the peace of God, when we know and accept the forgiveness that comes through Christ. Being a peacemaker means we are bringing this peace to others. However, it is not that simple.

The word for children that Jesus uses in this beatitude refers to a legitimate heir. When referring to Christians, it refers to maturity: an heir made legitimate by faith and proved so by obedience, which is the fruit of repentance that demonstrates maturity. Thus, Jesus was referring to those whose maturity in the faith has been demonstrated by obedience over some time. We cannot expect new believers to truly be peacemakers, because it requires a maturity in the faith that is acquired over time and through hardship.

A true peace is demonstrated by how we respond to struggles, and going through struggles is the only way we grow in faith and in godly character. Paul wrote, “…we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope,” (Rom 5:3-4, NIV). It takes time and experience to see that suffering produces perseverance and character, which results in hope and leads to joy the next time around, since we have seen what comes from our suffering. We may not walk in God’s peace as immature believers, but as we continue to work through living out our faith, we should grow a greater and greater peace during our trials.

We become peacemakers when we are walking in God’s peace and sharing that peace with others, which does not necessarily mean that we are evangelizing. We could be sowing the seed that the evangelist reaps. Yet, I cannot stop here, because Jesus did not. In his sermon on the mount, he took everything to its extreme to teach us how to walk with Christ as a fully mature child of God.

One of the most difficult times to obey God is when we have to love our enemies, but this is the height of truly loving God, because he loved us in our wickedness and opposition to him (Rom 5:8, Eph 2:11-22). I know this is not easy, and that we are rarely able to “turn the other cheek,” much less truly care for someone who could be harming us. Yet, when we can love our enemies, what peace we have in our own hearts! It takes tremendous faith in God to live this out.

Also, while we do walk in peace by loving our enemies, and perhaps even create some peace within them as well, our love for them must include a desire to see them experience the peace of God by accepting his forgiveness and entering the kingdom of heaven. The heart of a peacemaker desires God’s peace even for our enemies, which means we desire to see them saved and with us in heaven!

This is all very theoretical and easy to write and talk about, doing it is entirely another matter. Someone cut me off the other day and my heart was filled with anger and revenge, and this just after praying that I would love my enemies. It is so easy to allow our hearts to drift away from righteousness in moments like that. Still, this is only the beginning. What if someone at work, who we have helped many times, is now trying to get us fired so they get an advancement? There is a personal relationship there, a hurtful betrayal, and a need for justice that wells up within us. We must forgive them, and love them, and not seek revenge or try to harm them in any way. Not easy!

Finally, what if someone we love very much is murdered, could we forgive the murderer? Could we love them, and want to see them in heaven with us? I cannot begin to understand that pain, so this is entirely academic for me. Yet, I want to be able to love my enemy, so I must begin by loving that guy who cut me off, and sharing God’s peace with the guy who betrays me, and hope that I am strong enough to want a very real, even violent, enemy to find peace with God through Christ. I want that peace dwelling within me, and I want to share it with others.

And if we can love our enemies, even desiring they experience the peace of Christ’s forgiveness, then how should our relationships with our spouses and fellow Christians look? Full of peace and joy and hope. Is that what Christian homes and fellowships look like? Is what appears on the surface of things genuine, or only a show? Remember, we must be pure in heart before we can fully experience God’s peace and reach the peacemaker’s maturity of faith and intimacy with God.

I do not want to minimize how challenging this can be, especially for those who have experienced tragic hurt and loss. When this life seems so awful, we must remember that our present peace comes from a hope in heaven, not this life (Heb 12:2). The reward of this great struggle is becoming a mature heir of God, no longer a slave or even a friend, but an intimate family member in God’s kingdom. John was so excited about this: See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! (1 John 3:1, NIV). And when we feel the same way, we will want to love our enemies, forgiving them, and sharing God’s peace with them.

Blessings! – Shamar Covenant

Beatitudes 6 – Pure in Heart

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Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God. Matthew 5:8, NIV

To understand purity of heart and seeing God, we must look deeper than the surface of things, or else we will misunderstand Jesus and fall into the same trap as the Pharisees.

To be pure is to be innocent and guiltless before God, and that is what we receive by faith (Col 3:13-14, Eph 2:8-9) when we become a Christian, which might lead us to believe we automatically are pure in heart. However, sin is a barrier to seeing God (Isa 59:1-2), so if there is anything more to do, it would be guarding our heart from the temptations of sin and training it to desire the righteousness of God. The problem is this becomes “sin management” and does not incline our hearts toward God in the least.

For instance, the Pharisees kept themselves pure and were very “good” people, as far as the appearance of addressing sin goes. Yet Jesus said, “I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matt 5:20, NLT). Jesus was explaining to us the core issues that go deeper than outward obedience. I believe it is vitally important to look at the example of the Pharisees, and to be extremely wary of assuming that we would never be like them, because we are often so much like them.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. (Matt 23:23, NASB)

Jesus rebuked them for neglecting the more important matters, but notice that we are not to neglect the smaller matters, either! Sin does matter, obedience is important. Yet, the law was never meant to save us, rather it was to direct our attention to the mercy of God, and to Jesus (Heb 10:1-18). Our obedience, the acts of taking off old ways and putting on new ones, must also involve a change of our heart. Note how Paul describes our daily sanctification:

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Eph 4:22-25, NIV)

How often do we skip the “made new in the attitude of our minds” part and focus on the sinful acts? Doing this will always make us like Pharisees. Remember, their partial obedience lead to total failure regarding salvation!

Peter said to the church, “By obedience to the truth, having purified yourselves for sincere love of the brothers, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,” (1 Pet 1:22, HCSB) showing that our purifying obedience should lead us to what matters most: loving one another. This is the command that Jesus left us, to love one another (John 13:34-35, 15:12-13). When asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus added the second, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” because our loving one another is how we show our love for God.

The problem is that we can do acts of kindness, even to our enemies, and still be checking a box on our obedience list. This is further complicated because seeking to be pure, not only in deed but also in heart, will always involve doing God’s righteousness. So how do we get to purity of heart, then?

I believe the answer is in seeing God. To see God is to be close to him, at a very intimate place, one we reach by first opening a door that is only opened by humbly coming to God, recognizing how he shows us his love, and then showing others that same love.

Go back through the beatitudes and notice that we gain access to the kingdom of heaven by making ourselves poor and acknowledging our need for God, and in doing so we see our sin for what it is and we mourn, and recognizing our humble place before our Creator leads us to become meek toward others and give up all our rights in this life. This humility leads to a greater understanding of God, his righteous character, and a hunger for it grows within us. By this time, we have recognized our desperate need for the magnificent mercy of our Lord, a mercy that we receive only when we give that mercy to others, which opens the way to true intimacy with God, a purifying of our hearts through humility toward God and toward others.

If all this seems way too academic and theoretical, this should make it as simple as it gets:

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matt 6:14-15, ESV)

We cannot be intimate with God until our sins are forgiven (Eph 2:13), and our sins are not forgiven if we are not willing to forgive others. “But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us,” (Rom 5:8, NET), so we also should show our love to others by forgiving them, holding nothing against them. Forgiveness is not, “I’m sorry,” but a heartfelt, humbling repentance that desires to make things right, and to not wrong again. Read Psalm 51 for a poetic expression of someone asking for forgiveness.

Our hearts are pure when we have let go of all our offenses against others and have sought reconciliation with all those we have offended (Matt 5:21-26). And when our hearts are pure, we can see God clearly, face to face, experiencing the glory of his presence, his character, his love. Oh, what a blessing! May I hold nothing against anyone and be as forgiving as our Lord is to me!

Blessings! – Shamar Covenant

Beatitudes 5 – Mercy

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Matthew 5:7, Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. (NIV)

The word used for mercy here assumes the ability to fill a need. Jesus was not speaking of feeling pity or compassion, but actually doing something for those in need. Matthew gives many examples of Jesus demonstrating mercy by healing people who were blind or lame. These people were not able to work and had to rely on begging to survive, which meant that healing them was much more than mere physical restoration. Instead of struggling to survive, they could work and provide a more comfortable living for themselves.

For us who do not experience creation miracles, we can still fill the needs around us according to our ability, especially within the church. The apostle John said it this way:

If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. (1 John 3:17-18, NIV)

Christians must live this out (John 13:34-35). If it does not come naturally, then we must cultivate this quality within ourselves by looking for needs and recognizing ways we can help. This will always require a sacrifice, as well as a confession of our pride and selfishness. It may mean deciding against the luxury model car, the bigger house, the fancier clothes, the overseas vacation, etc., and instead willfully choosing a more modest lifestyle so that there is extra that can be used to help those who cannot afford a vacation, because they struggle to make rent. Think about how it looks if some in our church are comfortable and living at ease while others struggle to survive? If we do not take care of one another, how can we convince the world we have love in us?

There is more to mercy than helping others materially. Notice the reward for mercy is receiving mercy. If that seems odd, look at something else Jesus said. Shortly after the beatitudes, Jesus shows us how to pray, and immediately follows it with this statement:

For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matt 6:14-15, NIV)

If this statement seems more like hyperbole than something intended to be literal, read the parable of the unmerciful servant in Matthew 18:21-35, and notice what happens to the servant who failed to show a fellow servant a fraction of the mercy he had received from his master:

Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart. (Matt 18:32-35, NIV)

Without forgiveness, our eternal destiny is hell, a place of torture where we must pay the debt we owe. When we truly recognize how much we need God’s forgiveness, and see that we must extend this same forgiveness to others, the weight of these statements becomes tremendous. This is why the beatitudes, and our Christian walk, begin with being poor in spirit and recognizing how much we need God.

Our offenses against our perfectly righteous heavenly Father are infinitely more egregious than anything we could hold against a fellow sinner. This makes the parable of the unmerciful servant so pertinent and compelling. Anger is a good indicator of unforgiveness within us because it quite simply is always unforgiveness. It needs to be countered with mercy.

Personally, I know that I often mask my anger by calling it frustration, impatience, or even hurt, yet no matter what I call it, there is still a need for mercy and forgiveness in each circumstance. My frustration has never helped a situation get better, but when I have an attitude of mercy and genuine compassion, resolution always comes more peacefully. And when it does not, I must remember Jesus on the cross and allow myself to be low while others hurt or even oppress me, and then I can trust Christ for refuge instead of relying on my own strength or wit.

This may seem like a harsh and difficult standard, but it gets more so. Jesus taught that even our thoughts and words about others can reveal an angry, murderous attitude toward them.

You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell. (Matt 5:21-22, NIV)

When we think or speak of someone as an “idiot” or call someone “stupid,” we are murdering them in our heart by making them less than us, or putting them beneath us. The Pharisees were doing this when they questioned Jesus dining with tax collectors and sinners. Jesus’ response was that he came for the sick, not the healthy, and that the Pharisees did not understand Hosea’s writing, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” (Hos 6:6, Matt 9:13, 12:7)

Imagine how we appear to God… would words like “idiot” and “stupid” apply? The error of the Pharisees was failing to see how much they fell short of the glory of God and acknowledging their need for the obliteration of their own sin. We do the same thing when we insult other people. Politics is an obvious example, because even within the church I see so many Christians putting others down for ideas they believe are good for the country. We must be different from the world! This demands humility, which is why the first three beatitudes build a foundation of humility.

We desperately need God’s mercy. However, there is a requirement for his mercy: If we are not merciful, we do not receive his mercy! This ought to compel us to grow in mercy. If all of us in the body of Christ are taking care of the needs within the church, then everyone’s needs will be supplied. This means not only material provision, but an attitude of the heart and a perspective of mercy in our thoughts and words. We must extend mercy to others, we must forgive others, and we cannot see others as beneath us or even as equal, but rather as being better than us (Phil 2:1-4). The result will be a true family of Christ.

Blessings! – Shamar Covenant