The big difference
II Peter 1:5
Previously in The Apprentice…
We have been learning that a Christian is an apprentice of Jesus – he or she is steadily learning the theory and practice of being a new kind of person, someone growing to be like Christ.
We have opened the toolbox and had a quick look at its contents (5-8) and we have discovered that repentance and faith are the power-tools that we will need to use throughout our lives (rather than one-off actions at the start).
Last week, Pete explored faith more deeply and this week we are going to explore repentance. In the New Living Bible verse five says, “So make every effort to apply the benefits of these promises to your life, then your faith will produce a life of moral excellence” (or in the New International Version, “add to your faith, goodness…”).
We are immediately introduced to the process of life-long life change: repentance: promises lead to faith… faith leads to life change resulting in moral excellence… all this comes from God but God requires our participation; make every effort. This is the big difference between a Christian and someone who has never responded to Christ – the process Peter is describing has begun in a real Christian’s life; with the help of the Holy Spirit the Christian is steadily changing while his friends are not.
Today we are going to consider more deeply how that process works.
If…
Britain ’s favourite poem was written by Rudyard Kipling, the original author of the Jungle Book. It is a song about the ideal man – here is a sample:
IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
Kipling’s poem is about virtue and what it looks like. It is also a very challenging poem: in Britain it is well loved and despised in equal measure. We love it because we would like some of it to be true of ourselves, and we hate it because we don’t see how we could ever succeed in being like this. Something inside us longs for a life of moral excellence and despairs that we will ever attain it so most people become cynical and abandon the quest. Yet the Bible says that change is possible – how does it work?
It begins to work when you take the idea of apprenticeship or discipleship seriously.
It is time for some expert help in understanding this word. The word disciple or apprentice is our way of saying the Greek word mathetes. Here’s a definition:
A ‘mathetes’ was one who attached himself to another to gain some practical or theoretical knowledge. Whether by instruction or by experience. The word came to be used both of apprentices who were learning a trade and of adherents of the various philosophical schools. After the time of Socrates the word lost favour with the philosophers who were not at all happy with its association with labour. [1]
The Jewish rabbis developed this idea and young men would join them to share their lives in a simple community learning as they went. As the church grew and had to find new ways of bringing Christians to maturity this learning community widened out into the local church model. Yet this teacher-apprentice relationship is always there, wherever you look in the New Testament. We need the church but we also need more intimate apprenticeship-style relationships in the church to help us become the kind of people we want to be.
In order to drive this process of change we need to learn how to practice repentance; that is to build the practice of repentance into our daily lives The word repent is deeply associated with negative, fire breathing preaching that stresses judgement without emphasising grace, so the word is deeply misunderstood. Quite simply repentance means a change of heart that is visible as a change in behaviour – it is rooted in a passionate belief held by God that if you and he work together you will change.
So how can we make this work in our lives?
The circle of change
Imagine you have a row with a friend, you say some stupid and untrue things and when you both calm down you are friends again but you think to yourself, “Why do I fly off the handle like that?” You don’t know and forget the whole thing until the next time. And there is a next time because the issue has not been addressed and no change has taken place.
What you need is a dose of New Testament metanoia – repentance. This means that you must look at your behaviour and reflect on what happened and why. You make some decisions about what to do the next time you begin to feel so angry, perhaps you will leave the room for a while or avoid the subject that caused the problem. Then you make a plan and act on what you have decided. The next time you begin to get angry you are in a position to be a different person.
Here’s that process in a simple diagram. If you are a teacher you will recognise this – it is David Kolb’s circle of learning with spiritual knobs on! [2]
Now let’s introduce something else into the circle. Life is busy and it is difficult to think deeply about our behaviour if we are rushing around doing the things we always do. What would happen if we introduced a mature friend into the circle and we discussed our behaviour with that person; “I flew off the handle again, would you believe it?” This is a radical new step because it introduces a formal process whereby we can be challenged and encouraged. Not only that; your buddy can tell you when he or she sees changes taking place and help us to feel a sense of progress.
This is what the Bible is talking about when it says, “Confess your sins to one another and pray for each other that you may be healed”. The first Christians found that this moved them forward and generations of believers ever since have found it works for them too. This is the personal dimension of Apprenticeship and you will feel the benefit if you can find someone with whom you can develop this kind of relationship.
So when Peter tells us to ‘make every effort’ a brilliant way to do this would be to find a buddy or a co-mentor to team up with. He or she can help you to learn and grow as you help them to do the same.
What do you talk about when you meet together? It might be football or films, but you agree to focus regularly on a number of key spiritual indicators. Try these for size; in these questions I am using our passage in II Peter 1:5-8 as a script for a conversation:
- How are you doing morally, do you need to confess anything?
- What have you been learning about God recently?
- When did you last loose control, what are you doing about it?
- Are you being reliable and persistent in service?
- How do you feel when you pray and worship God?
- How are your relationships with others?
This is just one way to do this and in the coming weeks I am going to give you a few more ideas. You make them part of your conversations together and pray for one another. This kind of relationship encourages healthy self-examination and steady change over time. The problem with the circle of learning is that we can just go ‘round and ‘round in circles, with friends to help us the circle becomes a spiral staircase leading us upwards.
We are apprentices of Jesus. This is true but if we were to become apprentices of one another then we could mutually encourage one another to move forward instead of stagnating. Another passage of scripture pops into sharp focus when you look at it this way:
Let us think of ways to motivate one another to outbursts of love and good deeds. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.
Hebrews 10:24-25
We often hear this applied by preachers telling us not to miss church – but what if the writer to the Hebrews really meant us to understand that our more intimate meetings with our mentors were of the utmost importance? It is at least possible, isn’t it?
So can I encourage you to find someone you trust and to buddy up with that person, having regular and purposeful conversations leading to change and development – climbing the spiral staircase together!
As this process begins to bite genuine change kicks in. Peter focuses first on goodness (NIV) or moral excellence (NLT)
Moral excellence
The Greek word behind this phrase is quite interesting, so let’s take a closer look. If you look at several different versions of the Bible you get a different translation every time – it is not an easy word to convey in English. It can mean moral excellence or goodness or virtue or good character, but all of these options lacks one essential dimension. The word is arete and this same word is used of God in I Peter 2:9; “…that you may declare the praises (aretes) of him who called you out of darkness”. So Peter is talking about the kind of goodness that makes others speak well of you, God’s virtues evoke praise from his people, our virtue will draw favourable comment from those who know us.
When Christians learn to live lives marked by the beauty of goodness people notice and talk about it; they quietly long to share your secret.
This is the surprising thing about goodness; it is beautiful. In our twenty-first century world we have been conned into thinking that becoming like Christ is boring, that to be godly you must turn your back on all that is available to you and become a shrivelled up human being living a desiccated life.
The opposite is true; true holiness is true humanness and when people see the real thing it shines because it is beautiful and people want it badly. When people see true holiness they recognise success – not because of your looks, or your wealth or your achievements but because of who you are.
So here’s a question; who do you want to be? Do you want to be rich, or do you want to be good looking, or do you want to be cool, or do you want to be Christ-like? Wealth will evaporate, your looks will fade, and no matter how cool you are by the time you get to my age your kids will think that you are an idiot. Christ-likeness is the only humanness that will last or that will make you happy. Who do you want to be?
So what’s the difference?
A lot of people ask me about the difference between Christians and those who have never responded to Christ. Take a look at a representative sample of both groups and, frankly, you will not notice much difference. So what is going on?
Imagine two people. We will call the first one Andrew; he is a bright guy with loving parents who try their best to bring him up well. They make sacrifices to get Andrew into the best schools and to surround him with good influences. He goes to the cubs and then the scouts and after finishing university he takes a year out to serve overseas with a charity helping poor kids in an orphanage.
Let’s call the second one Lee, he is just as clever as Andrew but he has never known his dad and his mam is on drugs. She doesn’t know how to bring Lee up so the kids on the street do it for her. He didn’t connect with cubs, but the kids in his gang always protected him. By the time Andrew started working in the orphanage Lee was starting his first prison sentence for robbery. It was not to be his last.
Let me ask you a question, who is going to heaven, Andrew or Lee?
Most people would say that Andrew stood a better chance – but the gospel says that they both have the same chance because Christ died for both Andrew and Lee each of them has the same access to God’s gracious forgiveness. This is what is wonderful about God’s grace, it is freely available and it does not depend on how nice we are!
Now let’s imagine that Lee accepts Christ as he Saviour and King but Andrew does not. Lee gets some help from his new Christian friends and begins to change. It is slow and difficult work because Lee has so many obstacles to over come – but he is changing inch by inch. Then one day you bump into him in the street – just an accidental knock – and Lee reacts defensively. You get the impression that he may have hit you if he had not stopped himself in time but he does tell you to watch where you are going next time. Then by chance you collide with Andrew a few minutes later – he almost knocks you over. Andrew is profusely apologetic, tells you it is all his fault and insists on buying you a coffee afterwards.
Lee is a Christian and Andrew isn’t, Andrew seems so much nicer than Lee. But what you can’t see is the amount of change that has taken place in Lee’s life and the work that God has done in him to bring him to this point – this is the big difference; change - a Christian is changing when his friends are not.
[1] Expository Dictionary of Bible Words, Laurence Richards, Marshall-Pickering, ISBN 0-155-01619-1 – the entry on disciple is very illuminating.
[2] http://www.businessballs.com/kolblearningstyles.htm