The Bulletin
of the
Church of Christ at
New Georgia
Tim Johnson, editor
April 19, 2009
In
This Issue:
The
Goal of Longsuffering
by
Steve Klein
Paul:
The Debater
by
Raymond Byers
The Goal of Longsuffering
A housewife sits alone in the kitchen late at night. Her husband comes in after midnight. Drunk again. He is sour and abusive. It upsets her to see him this way. Her hope and prayer is that he can get help, turn his life around, and be the good man she knows he can be. In the morning she'll be up early to fix his coffee -- strong and black. And maybe she'll plead quietly with him to attend an AA meeting. Or maybe she'll just sit in silence and weep.
A parent is at the end of his rope. His teenager has broken curfew again. So many nights, waiting up late, wondering if this could be the night an automobile accident occurs, or the night his child falls in with evil companions, or the night fornication is committed. Wondering where the child could be. Then, the child comes in. Maybe there's a quiet talk about the importance of getting home on time. Maybe there are heated words, lame excuses, revoked privileges and another sleepless night for all.
Why does the housewife put up with it? Why doesn't the parent just take away the keys permanently!?! What motivates their longsuffering? Is it not love for the one who is doing wrong and hope that the person will change?
In 2 Peter 2:3, we learn that "The Lord is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." God is longsuffering toward us, not because He is "overlooking" our sins and shortcomings, but because He wants us to repent -- to change our minds and our lives! God's forbearance and longsuffering are designed to "lead to repentance" (Romans 2:4). When we continue in sin, we are showing great disrespect for God's goodness.
Like God, Christians are to be longsuffering (Colossians 3:12; Ephesians 4:2), but few of us probably have a very clear idea about what longsuffering is and why we should practice it. Longsuffering is not overlooking sin and error or pretending that they don't exist. It does not involve failure to rebuke and reprove sin, for these things are to be done "with all longsuffering" (2 Timothy 4:2). Nor is longsuffering some kind of Chinese water torture that God has devised to see how much pain His children are willing to endure for no good reason. Longsuffering has a goal, a purpose. The reason we show longsuffering to others is the same reason God shows it to us -- We are patient in dealing with the sins and faults of others because we love them and we want them to change for the better.
Even when we know what longsuffering is and why we are to show it, it is seldom easy to do so. Paul prayed that the Colossians would be "strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy" (Colossians 1:11). Indeed, we all need to pray for God's strength that we might be longsuffering with others, in the home, on the job, at school, at play, and in the church.
-- Steve Klein
When we look at the word debate, many times we reflect upon past experiences. This man was a dirty debater, and rightly so. But the apostle Paul was a man with great love for truth and was the greatest debater of the apostles as far as the New Testament reveals. Many times the word debate is associated with evil (II Corinthians 12:20 and Romans 1:29). But Proverbs uses it for good (Proverbs 2:9). Webster's New World Dictionary gives the word "argue" as one use of debate and "argue," Webster says, can mean "contend," so this is the good use of the word. Jude writing to Christians tells them to earnestly contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints Jude 3).
As we follow Paul as he followed Christ, I Corin-thians 11:1 states that we look at Paul when he went to others. He challenged the philosophers with the one true god (Acts 17:24-28). In this we can say that Paul was earnestly contending for the truth. The only way that I can follow Paul in his contending for the faith is to study the word of God, for in it he wrote to Timothy saying, "Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine" (I Timothy 4:13). Also, Romans 10:17 states "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God."
We must be willing to even debate our brethren when they leave the Word of God. Paul not only loved the truth, but he loved men to the point of trying to teach them the truth. We see this as we look at Romans 9:1-3, which says "the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh." When Peter failed to meet with Gentile Christians when Jewish brethren came, Paul said in Galatians 2:11, "I withstood Peter to the face because he was to be blamed."
Paul was not afraid of truth. He told Festus in Acts 26.25 that he was not mad. Even though Festus had accused him of being beside himself, Paul said that he was "speaking forth the words of truth and soberness." Paul was contending for the gospel of Christ even before kings.
Now, as we have seen the love of Paul for the gospel and that he was willing to risk his life to preach the gospel of Christ, we need to look at ourselves. What about my attitude when it comes to standing for the truth regardless of the price I would have to pay? I may never stand in a pulpit and preach a gospel sermon, but I can earnestly contend for the faith by the way I live. How about the services of the church where I am a member? Am I there every time the door is open? Do I honestly believe that I have to be guided by the Word of God to gain that home in heaven? We need to stand up and be counted. Souls are being lost every day while members of the church spend time at the lake, watching television, just extra time in bed on Sunday morning. No, there is nothing wrong with the things mentioned if we put the Lord first. These are just a few examples of things that will keep me from earnestly contending for the faith. One day we will have to stand before the Lord in judg-ment. The Hebrew writer speaks to us saying "For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:30-31). Let us do our best to please the Lord and to encourage others.
-- Raymond Byers
Via The Manslick Road Speaker, Vol. 25, No. 21, October 11, 1985