Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Archippus
Faithfulness is required
Colossians 4:17 Say to Archippus, "Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it."
Archippus “received” his “ministry” “in the Lord”.
In the spiritual realm there is a stark contrast between those who are serving in what they have “received in the Lord” and those who have manufactured their own ministries.
From the top down – because the church is also a human institution (a human, culturally defined phenomena) - there are often merely-human leaders in the church. They are posers. They have the t-shirt but never made the trip.
They have positions and titles but are made up of something which is of a fundamentally different nature.
This is different from immaturity.
A person who is in training or actually functioning in their calling can have the internal spiritual reality and lack the type of loving humility and relational integrity that should be the norm for those who have received their ministry in the Lord.
Here’s an illustration of immaturity from the life of “The Twelve.”
Luke 9:46 An argument started among them as to which of them might be the greatest.
In that brief sentence we see the disciples giving an amazing illustration of the wisdom that is from beneath.
James 3:15-16 This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.
It can be argued, “Wait, this is before they were sent out. They were not yet apostles.” (That happened, however, in the very next chapter!) With this type of track record, would you have sent them out on an apostolic journey? Apart from the Lord’s intervention, I wouldn’t have… Jesus did!
For the sake of being reasonable, let’s agree with this perspective and say: “Good illustration, but they weren’t sent out, yet.”
Yet, we have a repeat of this same stupid argument mentioned in Luke, chapter 22.
Luke 22:24 And there arose also a dispute among them as to which one of them was regarded to be greatest.
The context of this argument is right after the Lord Jesus instituted communion.
The disciples were immature, but they were still apostles. They were not the type of people I would want to follow, would you? Yet, if you wanted to hear the true testimony of Jesus, you would have to listen to them. Despite their character and relational weaknesses, they had the substance of the office working within them. Their calling was genuine.
The record of their embarrassing time of training and character development is in the Gospels, Acts and some narratives in the epistles.
It is possible to receive a heavenly calling to serve in the Body, to function in that calling, to progress in that calling and not be perfect.
Those of us who are ‘older’ in the Body need to remember where we came from.
Those of us who are working out our callings within the context of the community of believers should not get discouraged by the weakness of our sanctity. The apostles’ focus was often off the goal, but they were genuine.
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Faithfulness is required
Colossians 4:17 Say to Archippus, "Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it."
Archippus “received” his “ministry” “in the Lord”.
In the spiritual realm there is a stark contrast between those who are serving in what they have “received in the Lord” and those who have manufactured their own ministries.
From the top down – because the church is also a human institution (a human, culturally defined phenomena) - there are often merely-human leaders in the church. They are posers. They have the t-shirt but never made the trip.
They have positions and titles but are made up of something which is of a fundamentally different nature.
This is different from immaturity.
A person who is in training or actually functioning in their calling can have the internal spiritual reality and lack the type of loving humility and relational integrity that should be the norm for those who have received their ministry in the Lord.
Here’s an illustration of immaturity from the life of “The Twelve.”
Luke 9:46 An argument started among them as to which of them might be the greatest.
In that brief sentence we see the disciples giving an amazing illustration of the wisdom that is from beneath.
James 3:15-16 This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.
It can be argued, “Wait, this is before they were sent out. They were not yet apostles.” (That happened, however, in the very next chapter!) With this type of track record, would you have sent them out on an apostolic journey? Apart from the Lord’s intervention, I wouldn’t have… Jesus did!
For the sake of being reasonable, let’s agree with this perspective and say: “Good illustration, but they weren’t sent out, yet.”
Yet, we have a repeat of this same stupid argument mentioned in Luke, chapter 22.
Luke 22:24 And there arose also a dispute among them as to which one of them was regarded to be greatest.
The context of this argument is right after the Lord Jesus instituted communion.
The disciples were immature, but they were still apostles. They were not the type of people I would want to follow, would you? Yet, if you wanted to hear the true testimony of Jesus, you would have to listen to them. Despite their character and relational weaknesses, they had the substance of the office working within them. Their calling was genuine.
The record of their embarrassing time of training and character development is in the Gospels, Acts and some narratives in the epistles.
It is possible to receive a heavenly calling to serve in the Body, to function in that calling, to progress in that calling and not be perfect.
Those of us who are ‘older’ in the Body need to remember where we came from.
Those of us who are working out our callings within the context of the community of believers should not get discouraged by the weakness of our sanctity. The apostles’ focus was often off the goal, but they were genuine.
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