Yes, biblical Christianity actually does consist of lists of do’s and don’ts!
Is it My Ambition to Keep From Grieving the Holy Spirit? part e
Ephesians 4:30-32 e
Pastor Kerry Kinchen, Bridgeway Bible Church
Please turn to Ephesians 4:30-32. As you are turning there, I want you to be thinking of the words to that great hymn;
Alas! and did my Savior bleed? and did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred head for such a worm as I? But drops of grief can ne'er repay the debt of love I owe: Here, Lord, I give myself away ‘Tis all that I can do! At the cross, at the cross Where I first saw the light, And the burden of my heart rolled away--It was there by faith I received my sight, And now I am happy all the day.
Think about these words, because our drops of grief can never repay what Christ paid in its entirety as a grace gift to you and me. What was a burden on Christ's heart, rolled away the burden on our hearts of being lost, where we didn't care about God, or we were trying to earn our salvation by our own futile efforts. Now, we are saved. Met by Christ in His effectual call and in His sovereignty at the cross, it was there by faith, our eyes were opened, and now we are happy in our salvation--happy forever in the security that Christ purchased for us in Himself through His own grief and suffering. Keep this in mind as we read our text now, where Paul says,
"30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you." Ephesians 4:30-32
The Theme of the sermon this morning is,
"Is it My Ambition to Keep From Grieving the Holy Spirit? part e"
In our passage under study, we immediately recognize the seriousness of what Paul urges;
"30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption."
This sobering verse has been the reason for the theme for the last four or five sermons. When God shows a concern for the church throughout its existence, that the church be showing its concern to not grieve the Holy Spirit, I think it almost goes without saying, that we need to sit up and take special notice. After all, we are talking about something we must do. We are talking about our task of avoiding bringing grief to God. This is indeed a very important issue for the body of Christ. It has been an important issue in every generation, but in our day and culture, where Christians do things, (on a moment to moment basis), that bring grief to the Holy Spirit, this command has a certain magnification.
What do we think of when we think of grief? We think of sorrow. We think of sadness. Grief is not something we typically describe as a good feeling. People don't say,
I wish you a grievous Christmas, and a grievous new year.
How many of you have ever described your grief as being joyous, happy, gleeful, or jolly? We don't describe grief that way, because grief is the opposite of those things. Since grief is the opposite of those things, some people are motivated to wonder if God can really experience actual grief. What I mean, is that the natural mind wants to somehow take up for God. We want to make excuses for His revelation to us. We want to say,
Our God is so big that He doesn't really feel that kind of grief. What Paul must mean is that The Holy Spirit is experiencing something else, but 'grief' is the only English word that we can find to translate what Paul means.
Somehow we want to say,
Maybe it is a metaphor. Maybe it's an analogy, or a figure of speech.
Someone may ask,
Aren't there perhaps millions upon millions of Christians in this world? Are we not all guilty of doing things on a regular basis that reflect what Paul has been warning against? Then, how can the Holy Spirit truly be grieved millions upon millions of times--over and over again--multiplied an untold number of times at any given moment?
It is a thought that is almost too horrible to imagine. And, deep minds think,
Hasn't God determined all that is, and will be, to be, and so in His immensity, He's not taken surprise by anything, and yet, the Holy Spirit, in concurrence with our actions, is said to grieve? How can this be?
So, we think about it. And when some of us think, we find it easy to think,
Surely, what Paul is saying, must mean something else?
The fact of the matter is that Paul does not mean something else. This grief that Paul says that the Holy Spirit experiences when Christians do certain things, is the same Greek word for what Jesus experienced in the garden of Gethsemene. When we read about the night Jesus was awaiting His betrayal, rejection, arrest, torture, and crucifixion, we see this word describing Christ's immediate condition,
"And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. Then He said to them, 'My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.'" Matthew 26:37-38
This is really an amazing revelation for us to try and grasp. The grief that the Bible describes that Christ experienced, and the Holy Spirit still experiences in the body of Christ--His church, is something truly hurtful. Christ was both grieved, and distressed. In fact, He was grieved to the point of death. The point of death grief experience was so bad, that we read in Luke 22:44, that Jesus was sweating drops of blood in His anxiety. I've grieved, but I've never grieved like that. Christ experienced what our current medical doctors call, hematohidrosis. Hematohidrosis is where the emotional, and physical anguish from intense distress is manifested in sweat mixed with the blood from ruptured blood vessels. Folks, the grief that Christ experienced was so bad, that an angel had to come and strengthen Jesus so that He could go on to be rejected, tortured, and executed at the cross, Luke 22:43. Certainly, at the cross is where we fist saw the light, and now we are happy all the day, (and we should be) but it took intense grief on Christ's part to get you there, and this same word is for grief is what Paul is talking about.
Now, there are a couple of reasons why I say that this is really an amazing statement;
/1/
First of all, is because, in light of God's sovereign determination of all things, He demonstrates through Christ, and now here, that He still grieves at the actions of His creations. It is amazing that God says,
"9 I am God, and there is no one like Me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times, things which have not been done, Saying, 'My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure'" Isaiah 46:9-10
and yet the Holy Spirit can be made to grieve in concurrence with the actions of His creations. Continuing in Isaiah, we read of God's people, Israel of the Old Covenant, doing this, and we also read of the consequence;
"10 But they [Israel] rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit; therefore He turned Himself to become their enemy, He fought against them." Isaiah 63:10
Such revelation is really very simple to understand. Though God was not taken by surprise, grieving the Holy Spirit, in rebellion against God is a fact, and it brought God's wrath. Even though God does not become our enemy in His New Covenant, the seriousness of bringing grief to His Holy Spirit is the same. No matter how modern philosophers might want to couch arguments to the contrary, causing the Holy Spirit to grieve, is to cause, (in some divine sense), real hurt to our huge God.
/2/
This leads us to consider the second reason why I say that this is an amazing statement. The reason is because this statement is more revelation from God that proves that the Holy Spirit is actually a person. This is important for us to recognize, because some cultic groups, claim that the Holy Spirit is some kind of energy field, or a power, or the force, or something like that. They do not believe that the Holy Spirit is God, in the Triune Godhead, as is expressed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This passage demonstrates the fact that the Holy Spirit is a grievable being "whom" is actually grieved. In other words, energy fields, or powers, or force fields, do not grieve like Christ grieved in the garden.
This leads us to consider something about our salvation experience that we need to understand. How many of you realize that the person of the Holy Spirit, as God, is our supernatural connection to God. In other words, you were sealed for the day of redemption, (where we will be changed in resurrected glory) and this is a covenantal decree by God, where the certificate of debt against you was nailed on the cross according to Colossians. But, there is more. This sealing happens by more than a covenantal decree by God. Further, you were sealed in your salvation by more than a mental assent to the truth of the gospel. You were sealed by God, where God Himself is, in fact, your seal. God energizes you with the life of Christ now. Certainly God imputes His righteousness in Christ over to you in salvation. It is an imputation that is like God declaring you righteous. But there is really more to it. There is a spiritual side to our salvation that has to do with the wonder of the miraculous. The miracle side is where God transforms you from a child of the devil, (where an evil deadness of spiritual darkness dwells) into a holy temple, where God, the Holy Spirit, dwells. To really understand this, we must remember what Paul said earlier in his contextual flow of thought coming into chapter 4. In chapter 2, we had it explained to us that;
"1... you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience." Ephesians 2:1
OK, notice that there is the spirit working in lost people. That spirit is no longer working in us saved people. We saved people are children of light. God's Holy Spirit is working in us, (and we will get to that in a second), but right now, I want you to notice that lost people are like temples of a dark wicked spirit. Paul goes on,
"... But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, [saved people] 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ ... 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus ... 18 for through Him [Christ as God] we both have our access in one Spirit [the Holy Spirit as God] to the Father [the Father as God]. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with those who are set apart, and are of God's household, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit." Ephesians 2
Listen folks, you and I, and all Christians together, really are the living temple of the Holy Spirit. This describes the spiritual side to our salvation that has to do with the wonder of the miraculous. God transforms you from a demon-temple of the devil, where an evil spirit is at work in the Sons of disobedience, into His holy, (which means set apart) temple, where God dwells in you, His adopted children, as the person of the Holy Spirit. OK, this leads us to consider, then, that whenever we do something that grieves the Holy Spirit, we are actually being sinful temples. We are being sinful temples, who are acting like the old man of the futility of the Gentile mind, Ephesians 4:17. So, what happens? In sin, we hurt the Holy Spirit of God that is within us. We are affecting the very seal of God we carry around with us everywhere we go. This is why I say that we need to sit up and take special notice of the particular doctrinal implications of this in our Christian walk. This is also why we must ask ourselves the question at every waking moment;
Is it My Ambition to Keep From grieving the Holy Spirit?
OK, there is a context here, and so we recognize that Paul has just warned us concerning the sin of lying and being deceitful. He just warned us about letting the sun go down on our anger against sin in ourselves, and in our midst. Paul just warned us against stealing. Then he warned us against filthy talk. All of these easy to understand things, are things that grieve the Holy Spirit. There's more,
"31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you." Ephesians 4:31-32
Notice that everything that Paul is talking about has to do with how we love the body of Christ--the body that Christ purchased at the cross. All through these four chapters, the Lord has been telling us that we are equipped and gifted, as saved people, in the body, for the body, from the body. He says that we are to be about the work of service. There is one big goal in our work for service: it is to edify, which means, our work of service is to build each other up. You were not created to be a demolishes expert. We are building crew. We are to build each other up to attain to the stature of a mature Christian. Folks, it is shameful that a lot of Christians don't get this. They are malcontents who tear down, complain, bicker, and refuse to forgive others. But notice that God doesn't want us to be that, so there are about 5 things that you and I are not to do. We put them away from us, in the same way we put off the old man in respect to walking in the futility of the Gentile mind. But I also want you to notice that there are about 3 things that we are to be doing in their place. All of them have to do with how we treat the body of Christ. Yes, contrary to popular assertions, Christianity does involve lists of do's and don'ts. It is important for us to realize that all seven things are God's loving explanation of how to walk in the maturity of the full stature of Christ, and His love. It is there that the Holy Spirit is pleased--not grieved. Paul gives pretty much the same list of do's and don'ts in his parallel epistle of Colossians,
"8 But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. ... 12 So, as those who have been elect of God, set apart and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. 14 Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity." Colossians 3:8-12
I want you to notice that the first items that Paul lists are things that are associated with hate. OK, when we see this, we need to have that same sense of reverential disgust for such things that God has. Think about it. It is a sad fact that the body of Christ is capable of such things that reflect hate, and grieve God's Spirit. You certainly can be angry with someone's actions and not hate the person, but bitterness, wrath, clamoring, slander, and malice toward someone are the ingredients in the recipe of hatred. The great commandment of Christ is that we love God, and that we love one another. So, what we are seeing here is that these things that reflect hate, are the things that God hates for any of his people to manifest.
{1}
The first sin that Paul says we need to put away from ourselves is all bitterness. Bitterness is that inner angst that people get toward others. Bitterness taints every thought, reaction, and motive concerning a relationship. Bitterness is deadly poison that attacks God's commandment to love. It attacks God's commandment to edify your brother and sister in Christ. Peter used this same Greek word to describe the wickedness of Simon, the evil magician, in Acts 8. Peter swiftly rebuked Simon, saying,
"I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity." Acts 8:23
In Romans 3, where Paul describes the wicked sinfulness of mankind, he says,
"Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness" Romans 3:14
Bitterness is evil folks. It is sin, and rather than repairing, and building up, it is a wrecking ball that crushes and destroys. It destroys, not only those that you are bitter toward, but it spreads like a cancerous disease that decays the flesh of the rest of the body. What happens, is that bitterness comes out, and then it infects others, and so more bitterness is produced in them. Be completely honest with yourself. Do you allow yourself to be bitter toward anyone in the body? It is a serious disease, and it grieves the Holy Spirit. The writer of Hebrews says,
"15 See to it that no one comes short of God's grace; [meaning to come short of manifesting God's grace] that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled;" Hebrews 12:15
Bitterness never does any good. It's a plague. But listen, in sin, people will try to justify their bitterness. When you are the one involved with this selfish, ungodly, unforgiving sin, then you are responsible for contaminating others with your self made plague, and there is absolutely no justification for it. Again, do you harbor bitterness toward anyone who is a Christian? Either repent, or you need to ask yourself if it is really your ambition to keep from grieving the Holy Spirit.
{2}
Wrath is the second sin that Paul says we need to put away from ourselves. Wrath is called one of the works of the sinful flesh in Galatians 5:19-20, where the same Greek word is translated as outbursts of anger,
"Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: ... hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, [or wrath] disputes, dissensions, factions," Galatians 5:19
What this means is that anytime someone has an outburst toward someone that stems from anger, then they are being wrathful. And so, here, and in the parallel passage of Colossians 3:8, we are told to put this kind of hurtful activity away from ourselves. Wrath tears down, so either put it away, or else put yourself down on your face in holy conviction at your sinfulness toward your mighty God.
{3}
The third sin that Paul says we need to put away from ourselves is anger. Earlier, Paul said to be angry at sin. The sense here in this verse, is to put away unrighteous indignation. In unrighteous indignation it is easy to want to do something that hurts people in some way. It is selfish anger that does not care about the damaging consequences;
Somehow, I'm gonna get back at them. I'm not gonna let this one slide.
In anger, people hurt others with their words. They hurt people with their actions in all kinds of ways, and so they hurt the Holy Spirit. The whole point is that the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God, as James says in James 1:20. Instead of forgiving someone, unrighteous anger indicts, and condemns, someone as worthy of your attack. So, turn from it as quickly as you can.
{4}
The fourth sin that Paul says we need to put away from ourselves is clamor. Clamor is a rather odd word, isn't it? But, clamor is an excellent translation from the Greek, and we will see why in a moment. But, first I want us to recognize some unusual things about this unusual word. This particular Greek word is used six times in the New Testament. In every other place it is used, it is not used in the sense of being a sin. It is simply a descriptive word. What the word describes, or I should say, what the word means is, to make oneself heard by crying out, or shouting out. Sometimes the word is used of the frenzy kind of crying out that mobs do, such as in Matthew 27:23, Acts 7:57, 19:28, 21:28 and so forth. Clamor is a fitting translation-word. Think of someone clamoring, like pots and pans clamoring together if you dropped them into a pile on a concrete floor. So, five times this word is used to simply describe clamoring, but, here in our text under study, we find the one time that the same word is described as something sinful that grieves the Holy Spirit. The reason for this is because God does not want the body of Christ escalating situations by crying out, and shouting among ourselves in such a way as to stir ourselves up. Because when we stir ourselves up, we tear ourselves down. God wants us to be peace makers, and workers, that seek to bring unity. Clamoring is to speak out divisiveness, and so God says put it all away from you.
{5}
The fifth sin that Paul says we need to put away from ourselves is slander; sometimes translated as blasphemy. This particular word, means to speak against someone. It is a sin to speak against a Christian because you want to selfishly destroy their integrity. This one is so easy to do. You don't even have to go into juicy stories of gossip to do it. All you have to do is drop a few words, and you have done your damage. You could say,
So, and so is greedy.
They may or may not be greedy, but you have dropped a bomb into someone else's thoughts that is slanderous. You might say,
So and so is a liar, so don't believe him, or her.
Do you notice how you don't have to explain yourself, unless the other person asks you to clarify what you mean? You are dropping cleverly placed bombs of slander that are meant to hurt someone's character. Guilt by association is another way to do this. Somebody gets slandered simply because they are associated with someone who has a bad reputation. The main point is that it is all slander that is meant specifically to be a selfish sniper attack. It is meant to tear down another member of the body of Christ. It is a mercenary tactic rather than a ministry tactic to the body, for the body, to build up the body. The question we need to ask ourselves, is whether this is something that we do. Let's not sit here and say,
Yeah man, these are things that always happen to me.
I'm not preaching that sermon. I'm preaching to you to think about how you happen to others. Are you a mercenary toward brothers and sisters in Christ? Or are you a minister to them like God wants you to be? Do you treat them as if they are an enemy? Or, are you being a minister to them, in humble obedience to God, in love for Him, and in love for them? Mercenaries against the body are grievous to the Holy Spirit that seals the body. The unsaved world of the futility of the Gentile mind is the enemy of Christians, so how dare us align ourselves with that wicked army? The bottom line, is that when, and if, we do any of these things, then we are forgetting three vital things, aren't we:
1) Aren't we forgetting that we are in the body of Christ, for the body of Christ?
2) And aren't we forgetting that other Christians are in the body of Christ, for the body of Christ too?
3) And aren't we forgetting that when we persecute another member, or despise another member in bitterness, wrath, clamoring, slander, and malice toward them, that we are doing these things to Christ, as Jesus says in Acts 9:4, Matthew 25:40 and so on. Such things are grievous to the Holy Spirit, and we need to put them off like an old stinky, grimy piece of underwear, and we are not to wait around to do it either. Do it now, or you will continue to reap the foul consequences to yourself, to the body around you and to the Holy Spirit Who sealed you.
I was reading the epistle of Clement while working on this sermon. Clement was one of the early elders in the first decades of the New Covenant church. He wrote the letter about thirty years after Paul wrote this Ephesians letter we are studying. He wrote it to the church in Corinth. Evidently, there was such fighting, and bitterness, among the Corinthian Christians, (even at that time), that they needed to be rebuked and exhorted to put away the same things that Paul lists here in our Ephesians text. Things, evidently, were getting so bad, that people in the church were not only despising one another, but they were also starting to despise their own pastors, which is unbiblical; in fact it is anti-biblical. It was because of this that Clement wrote,
"Wherefore do we tear and rend asunder the members of Christ, and stir up factions against our own body, and reach such a pitch of folly, as to forget that we are members one of another?" 1 Clement 46:7
So, isn't that what happens? Whenever we tear and rend asunder the members of Christ, and whenever we stir up factions against our own body, aren't we acting like fools; forgetting that we are members of one another? This is why Paul spent so much time explaining our body connection in the first 3 and a half chapters of Ephesians. So, when we revisit that little word all, we know it is sin to ask,
Isn't it just a little bit OK to be selfishly angry? Isn't it OK to have a little bit of bitterness?
Something in us wants to ask,
Isn't it just a little bit OK to be clamoring, slanderous, and malicious toward others? Come on! I have a reason.
There are perhaps an infinite number of reasons to do the things that grieve the Holy Spirit, but they are not excuses. Just because you have a reason does not mean you have an excuse. On the other hand, what is OK, is what pleases the Holy Spirit. Look at verse 32,
"32 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you." Ephesians 4:32
Folks, this is not an option. This is a command. That is how you need to look at it. Basically, it is more biblical revelation to us that explains what it means to love God, and love your brothers and sisters in Christ. It is a serious command to protect you, to protect the rest of the body, and, in a purely biblical sense, to protect the Holy Spirit from grief. I want you to notice how God wants us to forgive others. He wants us to do it exactly as God in Christ has forgiven you--same thing in Colossians--remember?
"... forgiving each other, ... just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you." Colossians 3:13
Before I continue with these passages, let me point out that there are biblical consequences for sin. We all know that don't we? There are consequences for all our actions. You sow to the flesh, you reap to the flesh. You sow to the Spirit, you reap to the Spirit. In fact, God has ordained proper ways for us to deal with unrepentant sin in our midst. The proper way is that we forgive the person personally, while at the same time, helping the person consequentially. For example, when a parent biblically punishes a child for sin, the parent forgives the child personally, but in the godly punishment, the parent is helping the child consequentially. Godly love is there in every stage, and every corner of the whole process. But, I want you to know, that there is a doctrinal teaching out there that is very seductive. I have been tempted, at times, to believe it, but I can not. The doctrine has gained popularity through some new books that have come out recently. It is a teaching that says that forgiveness is conditional. In other words, it is being taught that you do not forgive others unless they apologize to you first, or try to make up for what they have done. But, this is not what God is telling us here in this passage. God did not elect us in grace, based upon any meritorious thing we have done to earn His election of us. God did not forgive us in grace, based upon any meritorious thing we have done to earn that forgiveness. God does not add our apologies to the blood of the cross (where we first saw the light, and the burden of our hearts rolled away). God does not take our burdens, and then add an impossible burden of making the purchase, atonement, and propitiation more complete by our own actions. God does not first wait for us to ask for forgiveness before forgiving us. God has already forgiven us by perfect grace in His salvation of us. God did not wait for you and I to repent from each and every sin first, and then after we have crossed all of our t's and dotted all of our i's, in respect to our transgressions against Him, then He, based upon our actions, finally forgives us. Through the conviction that comes by His word, and through His Holy Spirit, we recognize we are sinners, and confess that we are in agreement with Him. That is what the first chapter of 1 John is all about. We acknowledge our sinfulness in the process of salvation. To not acknowledge (confess) your sinfulness, is to not recognize your need for the Savior. To not recognize a need for the Savior, is to not be saved. The point is that God forgives us through His work while we were sinners separated from Him--not our work. This is the good news,
"6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." Romans 5:6-10
And Colossians,
"... God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ ..." Colossians 1:13-15
God is consistent in this, and He forgives personally, while at the same time, helping us to repent and be molded into the outwardly expressed image of His Son consequentially. The passages I just quoted demonstrate how we are to forgive others--while they are yet sinners, in their transgressions. This is the light we saw at the cross. It is so easy, that we almost want to argue with it. In our flesh, we want to find ways around it. But it is as clear as a clean glass of crystal pure water. You and I, as the body, in the body, for the body, are to be forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven (past tense already) you. God, in Christ, is the pattern, and aren't you glad that you are not earning your forgiveness through meritorious self efforts? It's a full time job and you never get paid. So we see, that whereas all the other things are hate things, these other things of being kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you; are unmistakenly love things. They are the way God in Christ treats us who are His children, according to His Law of love. So, when we do these things, we are operating by the Holy Spirit in us to treat His children the way He treats his children, where we are living the law of love. And that brings joy to our Father, joy to the Son, and joy to the Holy Spirit--not grief.
I want to end this sermon this morning with a story related by Tim Kimmel, in the book, Little House on the Freeway. Just as the song we sang this morning, "At The Cross" is so pertinent to this message, so is this beautiful story concerning the body putting off the old man, and putting on the new by living out the law of love of Christ. Kimmel writes:
Shortly after the turn of the century, Japan invaded, conquered, and occupied Korea. Of all of their oppressors, Japan was the most ruthless. They overwhelmed the Koreans with a brutality that would sicken the strongest of stomachs. Their crimes against women and children were inhuman. Many Koreans live today with the physical and emotional scars from the Japanese occupation.
One group singled out for concentrated oppression was the Christians. When the Japanese army overpowered Korea one of the first things they did was board up the evangelical churches and eject most foreign missionaries. It has always fascinated me how people fail to learn from history. Conquering nations have consistently felt that shutting up churches would shut down Christianity. It didn't work in Rome when the church was established, and it hasn't worked since. Yet somehow the Japanese thought they would have a different success record.
The conquerors started by refusing to allow churches to meet and jailing many of the key Christian spokesmen. The oppression intensified as the Japanese military increased its profile in the South Pacific. The 'Land of the Rising Sun' spread its influence through a reign of savage brutality. Anguish filled the hearts of the oppressed--and kindled hatred deep in their souls.
One pastor persistently entreated his local Japanese police chief for permission to meet for services. His nagging was finally accommodated, and the police chief offered to unlock his church … for one meeting. It didn't take long for word to travel. Committed Christians starving for an opportunity for unhindered worship quickly made their plans. Long before dawn on that promised Sunday, Korean families throughout a wide area made their way to the church. They passed the staring eyes of their Japanese captors, but nothing was going to steal their joy. As they closed the doors behind them they shut out the cares of oppression and shut in a burning spirit anxious to glorify their Lord.
The Korean church has always had a reputation as a singing church. Their voices of praise could not be concealed inside the little wooden frame sanctuary. Song after song rang through the open windows into the bright Sunday morning. For a handful of peasants listening nearby, the last two songs this congregation sang seemed suspended in time. It was during a stanza of "Nearer My God to Thee" that the Japanese police chief waiting outside gave the orders. The people toward the back of the church could hear them when they barricaded the doors, but no one realized that they had doused the church with kerosene until they smelled the smoke. The dried wooden skin of the small church quickly ignited. Fumes filled the structure as tongues of flame began to lick the baseboard on the interior walls.
There was an immediate rush for the windows. But momentary hope recoiled in horror as the men climbing out the windows came crashing back in--their bodies ripped by a hail of bullets. The good pastor knew it was the end. With a calm that comes from confidence, he led his congregation in a hymn whose words served as a fitting farewell to earth and a loving salutation to heaven. The first few words were all the prompting the terrified worshipers needed. With smoke burning their eyes, they instantly joined as one to sing their hope and leave their legacy. Their song became a serenade to the horrified and helpless witnesses outside. Their words also tugged at the hearts of the cruel men who oversaw this flaming execution of the innocent.
Alas! and did my Savior bleed?
and did my Sovereign die?
Would he devote that sacred head
for such a worm as I?
Just before the roof collapsed they sang the last verse, their words an eternal testimony to their faith.
But drops of grief can ne'er repay
the debt of love I owe:
Here, Lord, I give myself away
‘Tis all that I can do!
At the cross, at the cross
Where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away --
It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day.
Kimmel continues to write:
The strains of music and wails of children were lost in a roar of flames. The elements that once formed bone and flesh mixed with the smoke and dissipated into the air. The bodies that once housed life fused with the charred rubble of a building that once housed a church. But the souls who left singing finished their chorus in the throne room of God.
Clearing the incinerated remains was the easy part. Erasing the hate would take decades. For some of the relatives of the victims, this carnage was too much. Evil had stooped to a new low, and there seemed to be no way to curb their bitter loathing of the Japanese.
Kimbell goes on with the tragic story, but the tragedy has many different dimensions to it. There was the tragic advance of the Japanese occupation, and then there were the heinous atrocities that were committed. Our only consolation at such heinous actions is the glory of the heavenlies that welcomed our martyred brothers and sisters that day. It is the same glory we look forward to. But another dimension to the tragedy is the intense bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander and brooding unforgiveness, experienced by those Christian Koreans who survived. It is there, in their wounds, that a deep root of bitterness had sprung up, and by it, caused trouble, and many were defiled. The deep dark seeds of unforgiveness had been sown, and the bitter fruit was ripe for harvest even into the next generation. Kimbell continues, and I quote,
In the decades that followed, that bitterness was passed on to a new generation. The Japanese, although conquered, remained a hated enemy. The monument the Koreans built at the location of the fire not only memorialized the people who died, but stood as a mute reminder of their pain.
Inner rest? How could rest coexist with a bitterness deep as marrow in the bones? Suffering, of course, is a part of life. People hurt people. Almost all of us have experienced it at some time. Maybe you felt it when you came home to find that your spouse had abandoned you, or when your integrity was destroyed by a series of well-timed lies, or when your company was bled dry by a partner. It kills you inside. Bitterness clamps down on your soul like iron shackles. The Korean people who found it too hard to forgive could not enjoy the "peace that passes all understanding." Hatred choked their joy.
Bridgeway, I want you to notice the unforgiveness connection to what all I have been reading. Think about it. Meditate on it. Consider yourself. Consider how you react to people--to individuals. It is so easy to be bitter. It is so easy to try and justify your bitterness. It is as easy as slipping and falling over a rock during a leisurely walk on a rough trail. Consider how, and why you forgive others. Consider to what extent you forgive others, and why. Think about it. Kimbell goes on, as I finish the story,
"It wasn't until 1972 that any hope came. A group of Japanese pastors traveling through Korea came upon the memorial. When they read the details of the tragedy and the names of the spiritual brothers and sisters who had perished, they were overcome with shame. Their country had sinned, and even though none of them were personally involved (some were not even born at the time of the tragedy), they still felt a national guilt that could not be excused.
They returned to Japan committed to right a wrong. There was an immediate outpouring of love from their fellow believers. They raised ten million yen ($25,000). The money was transferred through proper channels and a beautiful white church building was erected on the sight of the tragedy.
When the dedication service for the new building was held, a delegation from Japan joined the relatives and special guests. Although their generosity was acknowledged and their attempts at making peace appreciated, the memories were still there. Hatred preserves pain. It keeps the wounds open and the hurts fresh. The Koreans' bitterness had festered for decades.
Christian brothers or not, these Japanese were descendants of a ruthless enemy. The speeches were made, the details of the tragedy recalled, and the names of the dead honored. It was time to bring the service to a close. Someone in charge of the agenda thought it would be appropriate to conclude with the same two songs that were sung the day the church was burned. The song leader began the words to "Nearer My God to Thee."
But something remarkable happened as the voices mingled on the familiar melody. As the memories of the past mixed with the truth of the song, resistance started to melt. The inspiration that gave hope to a doomed collection of churchgoers in a past generation gave hope once more. The song leader closed the service with the hymn "At the Cross."
The normally stoic Japanese could not contain themselves. The tears that began to fill their eyes during the song suddenly gushed from deep inside. They turned to their Korean spiritual relatives and begged them to forgive. The guarded, callused hearts of the Koreans were not quick to surrender. But the love of the Japanese believers--unintimidated by decades of hatred--tore at the Koreans' emotions.
At the cross, at the cross
Where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away …
One Korean turned toward a Japanese brother. Then another. And then the floodgates holding back a wave of emotion let go. The Koreans met their new Japanese friends in the middle. They clung to each other and wept. Japanese tears of repentance and Korean tears of forgiveness intermingled to bathe the site of an old nightmare. Heaven had sent the gift of reconciliation to a little white church in Korea.
(Tim Kimmel, in the book, Little House on the Freeway, pp. 56-61)
I share this story with you because heaven has sent God's word through the pen of Paul to convict you and me by that same Person of the Holy Spirit that so many of us grieve with our thoughts, and actions. Each of us must get serious with our God. We must get serious, and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Our problem may not be with a whole race of people that we have held some inner root of bitterness toward, and so we have a hard time expressing love to the members of the body that come from them. Our problem may be the person sitting next to us. Our problem might be the person we are married to. Or that son, or that daughter. Or that Christian who goes to another church. Or even the Christian who is sinning by not fellowshipping in a biblically defined body of believers. The lesson is the same. I urge you, my dear brothers and sisters: Let us be about rebuilding what was once destroyed by the arm of the flesh. Let it be you, and me, who are humbly seeking to bring back the unity of faith in the bond of love. There is no room in the body of Christ for anything contrary to this command to be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. I urge you, to put on Christ, seek with all your might to be ambitious. Be ambitious to do everything you can to keep from grieving the Holy Spirit--amen
