The Galatian believers must have been recognizably weary for Paul to write: “Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up” (6:9).
More on weariness in a second. First I want to encourage you to reconsider the “Perspectives” course, which begins next week and will run through spring. Perspectives is not about “missions” as traditionally understood. Rather, it’s about God’s intention to fill the earth with his glory and his worshipers, and how the life of every believer figures into that. The weekly lectures are compelling and challenging, and the course is highly regarded by those who have taken it, including our own Mitch & Amy Connors and Jim & Claudia Helm. Come this Tuesday at 7p, Jan. 14, so you can learn more and decide whether you want to register.
Over the last few days I’ve been looking at 1 Tim 6:11-16 in Greek. One of the benefits of studying in Greek is the simple fact that it slows you down as a reader. Every idea comes alive. For example, in vv.11-16 Paul says, “keep the commandment until the appearing of the Lord,” which will come “in his own season,” by which he means, “in his own timing.” He’s implying that following Christ takes patience: “I know this whole thing is harder than you thought it would be. Stay with it. The Lord will come back when the time is right.”
The same idea is taught more plainly all through the NT (and good to remember in January when it’s dark and cold with no Christmas to look forward to). Patient trust is at the center of the Faith. In Luke 8:15, which is the end of the parable of the sower, Jesus speaks of the good soil bearing fruit “with patience” meaning: “the fruitfulness of your life—which is the purpose of your life—takes time.” A stronger statement is Luke 21:19 where, after speaking of war and persecution, the Lord says “by your endurance you will gain your lives.” Endurance isn’t the unfortunate by-product of a faithful life, but essential to it. This was true of the Lord himself who “for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2). In that little phrase is the pattern of the Christian life: endurance then joy. First the cross, then the crown.
Sometimes churches are desperate to pitch the Faith as essentially “recreational” in nature—fun and entertainment followed by a few minutes of clean-up. C.S. Lewis said the church of his own day was obsessed with endless “lightenings and brightenings,” as though you could build the Church by presenting it as a kind of summer camp. Nothing demanding! Certainly nothing painful. Once a church takes on that trajectory, it becomes almost impossible to preach texts like, “by your endurance you will gain your lives.” To those not regularly in Scripture, passages like that sound ominous, or at least overbearing, or worst of all—boring. In fact they are the paving-stones of the path that runs to joy, now and in eternity. That’s why Paul tended to describe the Christian life as a battle, an endurance race, or the cultivation of a crop.
Encourage one another with these things. People around you are drifting and wandering from the faith. It’s harder than they thought, or slower to bring change, or less exciting and energizing. It’s requiring patience and endurance, and they didn’t sign up for that. We need each other. We need to remind each other that “those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength” (Isa 40), not merely to survive, but that we might “mount up on wings as eagles.” Stay the course, and what Paul says you will one day say for yourself, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing” (2 Tim 4:7).