Sovereignty in Silence
From 1 Timothy 1 – 1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope,
2 Timothy, a true son in the faith: grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia – remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, 4 nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is faith.
5 now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, 6 from which some have strayed and turned aside to idle talk,
Baseball writer Robert Creamer in the Ken Burns documentary series took a philosophical view of some of the stranger things baseball manager Casey Stangl said. Creamer figures that Stangl hated dead air, that silence made him uncomfortable, and that he felt compelled to fill the space with something. Often that something didn't make much sense.
The apostle Paul was already familiar with that dynamic of verbal digression. The greatest real-life drama with eternal implications, he knows and he reminds his young charge Timothy, is going on on the spiritual battleground of the church at Ephesus. Paul lays out in 1 Timothy 1:5 that pure hearts, by God's grace, or replacing impure ones, that consciences are being transformed, and that sincere faith flowing from changed people is cohering them one to another. As this goes on, as people otherwise destined for Hell are snatched like sticks from a fire by the sovereign intervention of God, Paul doesn't expect that Satan will be inactive.
His tactic, though, as Paul warns in 1 Timothy 1:6 is less often obviously sinister and more often something like Stanglese. For every Exorcist-style demonic manifestation, the enemy's ends seem much more often served by changing the subject. He is desperate to see that our discourse is filled with something, anything, more innocuous to his works than being honest with each other about the Gospel's latest work in our lives.
He stands by indifferent as we buy stuff, or perhaps even disgusted at this transaction might remind him and us of the goodness of God. Satan's interest is only a little stirred as Christians use precious fellowship time to talk to each other about purchases and some satisfaction fill in them. Even this, he knows, is but one turn from us redoubling each other's thanks to God for His latest quirky goodness. But astute cultural commentator, and former tennis player, Andre Agassi in his autobiography Open comes closer to the danger when he observes, "The most animated talks we have are about… things."
The trend is highlighted in Jeff Vanderstelt's Gospel Fluency as he takes a total view of our conversations. What we talk about most, he says, reveals where our heart is. What we talk about most reveals where our hope is. What we talk about most reveals where our real gospel is. The ongoing works of Christ are so evident around us as even the Heavens declare His glory that, like some ill-conceived plot by sitcom characters, Satan must keep us talking about something, anything else in order to distract us from the reality of Christ's sovereign goodness intruding again to reclaim our hearts, our lives, and our words.
As we begin to suspect and reevaluate our words for words' sake, we may become more circumspect. Since in many words sin is not lacking, this is already progress. By grace, we may move further on James' sanctification road as we find ourselves quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. As we rightly suspect the priorities reflected in our speech and learn to restrain this torrent, Vanderstelt observes another dynamic of grace through obedience, this one with a decided 1 Timothy one ring to it.
As we aren't filling the space with our story by default, we are better positioned to listen to and really take in what Christ is doing in other lives. While He works in us in one issue taken to one extreme, and we may be ready to fill every conversational void with the means and methods He is using, He may instead teach us more about the fullness of His work and worth by our willing silence.
2 Timothy, a true son in the faith: grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia – remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, 4 nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is faith.
5 now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, 6 from which some have strayed and turned aside to idle talk,
Baseball writer Robert Creamer in the Ken Burns documentary series took a philosophical view of some of the stranger things baseball manager Casey Stangl said. Creamer figures that Stangl hated dead air, that silence made him uncomfortable, and that he felt compelled to fill the space with something. Often that something didn't make much sense.
The apostle Paul was already familiar with that dynamic of verbal digression. The greatest real-life drama with eternal implications, he knows and he reminds his young charge Timothy, is going on on the spiritual battleground of the church at Ephesus. Paul lays out in 1 Timothy 1:5 that pure hearts, by God's grace, or replacing impure ones, that consciences are being transformed, and that sincere faith flowing from changed people is cohering them one to another. As this goes on, as people otherwise destined for Hell are snatched like sticks from a fire by the sovereign intervention of God, Paul doesn't expect that Satan will be inactive.
His tactic, though, as Paul warns in 1 Timothy 1:6 is less often obviously sinister and more often something like Stanglese. For every Exorcist-style demonic manifestation, the enemy's ends seem much more often served by changing the subject. He is desperate to see that our discourse is filled with something, anything, more innocuous to his works than being honest with each other about the Gospel's latest work in our lives.
He stands by indifferent as we buy stuff, or perhaps even disgusted at this transaction might remind him and us of the goodness of God. Satan's interest is only a little stirred as Christians use precious fellowship time to talk to each other about purchases and some satisfaction fill in them. Even this, he knows, is but one turn from us redoubling each other's thanks to God for His latest quirky goodness. But astute cultural commentator, and former tennis player, Andre Agassi in his autobiography Open comes closer to the danger when he observes, "The most animated talks we have are about… things."
The trend is highlighted in Jeff Vanderstelt's Gospel Fluency as he takes a total view of our conversations. What we talk about most, he says, reveals where our heart is. What we talk about most reveals where our hope is. What we talk about most reveals where our real gospel is. The ongoing works of Christ are so evident around us as even the Heavens declare His glory that, like some ill-conceived plot by sitcom characters, Satan must keep us talking about something, anything else in order to distract us from the reality of Christ's sovereign goodness intruding again to reclaim our hearts, our lives, and our words.
As we begin to suspect and reevaluate our words for words' sake, we may become more circumspect. Since in many words sin is not lacking, this is already progress. By grace, we may move further on James' sanctification road as we find ourselves quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. As we rightly suspect the priorities reflected in our speech and learn to restrain this torrent, Vanderstelt observes another dynamic of grace through obedience, this one with a decided 1 Timothy one ring to it.
As we aren't filling the space with our story by default, we are better positioned to listen to and really take in what Christ is doing in other lives. While He works in us in one issue taken to one extreme, and we may be ready to fill every conversational void with the means and methods He is using, He may instead teach us more about the fullness of His work and worth by our willing silence.
Comments
Post a Comment