Be Like Kevin ... or Christ?

Preachers often urge people to follow and imitate and be like Christ. They are speaking very Biblically when they issue that call. For instance, the apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:1 --- "Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.” Another passage presenting the same challenge is Ephesians 5:1 — “Therefore, be imitators of God as dear children.” Most professing Christians readily express a desire to follow and be like Christ. But are you sure you want to be like Him? Professing to be like Him and even wanting to be like Him are noble and even necessary things, but actually being like Him is sometimes very difficult to do. Years ago I ran across a little told by story by Alan Smith (Boone church of Christ, Boone, North Carolina) that humorously drives that point home. He told about a mother who was preparing pancakes for her sons Kevin, age 5, and Ryan, age 3. The boys argued over who would get the first pancake. Mother seized the opportunity for a moral lesson. “If Jesus was sitting here,” she told them, “He would say, ‘Let my brother have the first pancake. I can wait.’” Kevin turned to his younger brother saying, “Ryan, you be Jesus.” Brother Smith then added, “I think it’s safe to say we’re all a little like Kevin. We want everyone else to act like Jesus. We want everyone else to make the sacrifices and be kind and giving. We want everyone else to make the sacrifices and be kind and forgiving of us.”

I could mislead myself here and say that I always want to be like Christ. But if I’m honest, I have to confess there are more times than I’m comfortable with when I am more like Kevin. How about you? A Scripture at Galatians 4:19 presents a tremendous thought about what it means to truly be a Christian. There the apostle Paul wrote, “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.” The Greek word translated “labor” in the New King James Version is ódinó (pronounced in English o-dee'-no) and is defined by Strong’s Concordance as “to have birth pangs, to travail.” The King James Version renders the word as “for whom I travail in birth again.” We have little space to explore the context here, but the letter        of GALATIANS makes clear Paul experienced pain when he first preached and established congregations in the region known in the first century as Galatia. Some of the pain was physical (see Acts 13, 14, especially 14:19 where it is recorded that Paul’s Jewish opponents stoned him in the city of Lystra, dragged him out of town, and left him for dead). After some time he’s still experiencing great emotional, mental, and spiritual anguish over the Galatians who are being led astray by false teachers trying to convince them to trust in and keep the Law of Moses for salvation instead of trusting and obeying Christ and His gospel (Galatians 1:1-9 and all of chapter 2). Now in 4:19 he uses childbirth and the agonizing pain that accompanied it in ancient days (modern medicine has relieved some, but not all, of the pain of birthing a child) as a metaphor. He confesses he is in that kind of intense anguish “again” and declares it will continue “until Christ is formed in you.” Thayer’s Greek Lexicon defines this phrase as meaning, “literally, until a mind and life in complete harmony with the mind and life of Christ shall have been formed in you.” God’s goal for us is “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (Ephesians 3:17a). His will is that we walk and act “just as He    walked” (1 John 2:6). To end where we began above, we must not be like Kevin. We must be like Christ.

by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN

By All Means!

The apostle Paul was driven by a conviction many in the church lack today. A scan of 1 Corinthians 9:16-23 reveals an unquenchable fire burned deep inside his heart — a deep love and compassion not only for Christ but also for the immortal souls of men and women. The text says to the Jew he became as a Jew, to the Gentile he became a Gentile, to the weak he became as weak. His purpose? “... that I might win the more ... that I might by all means save some” (vs 19, 22b). No real student of the New Testament would take Paul’s words to mean he ever changed or adapted the gospel message and its demands to fit whatever crowd he happened to be in. He is not arguing that the church should adapt the Gospel so that it will be more acceptable to the culture or people or age we happen to be in (Galatians 1:6-9 * 1 Corinthians 4:17). Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow” insofar as His spiritual accomplishments in our behalf, His commands to us in the Gospel, and the promises He holds out to the faithful (Hebrews 13:8). The same gospel system and process that made a Jew a Christian in the first century also made a Gentile a Christian (Acts 15:11 * Romans 10:12 * Mark 16:15-16 * Acts 2:36-38 * Acts 10:47-48). Paul is not saying he changed the gospel to reach Jews or Gentiles. He is saying he wants to make the gospel available to as many people as possible. And he is willing to do anything within the will of God to accommodate himself to that end, his personal customs and conveniences aside! Note again, “I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” Note Paul said “some.” He was never under the illusion he could bring the whole world to Christ. Some are unwilling to give their lives to Christ no matter what means we use. But that didn’t dampen his passion to bring Christ to the whole world if he could by any means do so.                   

What means have you used to save some? Have you used any?  Are you praying for someone you know is lost? What have you done to bridge the gap between yourself and some lost person so that you might win them to Christ? In a Gospel Advocate magazine article back in October 1989 Don Humphrey wrote an article entitled: “Jonah – An Unwilling Missionary.” His words still sober my soul to this day — “Someone observed that the average member of the church of Christ has heard 4,000 sermons, sung 20,000 songs, participated in 8,000 public prayers, and saved zero sinners. How close to average are you?” I do not mean to indict every member of the body of Christ. The years have taught me there are always Christians with no desire for recognition who are involved in ongoing and intentional efforts to reach their children, neighbors, friends, and co-workers for Christ. They visit, pray, live a Christ-like life before others, regularly invite people to attend worship and Bible study-assemblies. They eagerly share their faith verbally and tactfully, and study the Bible with other people. Many who can’t “go” themselves “become fellow-workers for the truth” (3 John 8) by supporting efforts to reach others, far and near. Behind it all is a passion for souls, a willingness to “by all means save some.” How about it? What means are you using to save some? 

by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN

Holy Unclaimed Inheritance!

 "It turns out it’s not just in the movies that you can get a huge inheritance from that uncle you never knew about.” Those are the opening words of an October 24, 2022, article by Mack Liederman posted on the internet @ blockclubchicago.org. The long title of the article succinctly summed up its contents: “A Chicago Man Quietly Left Behind $11 Million — The Largest Unclaimed Estate In American History.” The article told about Joseph Stancak who lived a quiet life in Gage Park (near Chicago). Stancak, who never married and had no children or immediate family, was found dead in his modest bungalow in 2016, according to the state treasurer’s office. He was 87 years old. Little was known about him. He left no will. But according to Rudy Quinn, president of

Linking Assets Inc. (a company that finds unclaimed money), what Stancak did leave was $11,000,000! It took a while but Linking Assets Inc. finally unraveled his accounts and family tree. That tree includes 119 heirs located in the U.S. but also Canada and several European nations. Piercey noted that after taxes, the average heir would get a check in the $60,000 range. None of them had heard of Stancak before, said attorney Kenneth Piercey who represents Stancak’s estate, adding, “There’s no shortage of people who had money tucked away and nobody ever knew.”

Anybody reading this thinking about checking it out to see if you were distantly related to Stancak?! His estate may be the largest estate in American history, but it is not the largest unclaimed estate in the world’s history. Not by a long shot. The apostle Paul describes that estate in Galatians 4:1-11. His words in that text are part of his long argument that salvation and right standing before God are not achieved through the works of the law of Moses or dependence upon any merely human work that earns or merits salvation. Instead, he argues justification before God is received as a gift through an obedient faith that spiritually puts us in Christ (the gist of that message in Galatians is succinctly summed up in the passages found at 2:16 and 3:26-29). Now, in the passage at 4:1-11 Paul argues the law of Moses had a temporary purpose “until the time appointed” (vs 2) ... But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent for this His Son ... to redeem those born under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (vs 4-5). He continues in vs 6 that “God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts” providing an intimacy with God so close we can cry out, “Abba, Father!” That phrase was used by Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane in His agonized prayer the night Judas betrayed Him (see Mark 14:36). “Abba Father” occurs in the New Testament only one other time at Romans 8:15. There Paul uses it in the context of us having “received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father’ ”, indicating a an especially close intimacy. God has declared He wants to adopt us! If we trust and obey the Gospel of Christ and live in union with Jesus, we are no longer slaves to sin but sons  (and daughters of God), “and if a son, then an heir, an heir of God through Christ (Galatians 3:7), and a “joint heir with Christ” (Romans 8:16-17)! The inheritance He promises is literally out of this world (1 Peter 1:4), and gloriously rich (Ephesians 1:18). Those who obey God’s will tap into staggering spiritual riches, summarized in Ephesians 3:8 as “the unsearchable riches of Christ.” God has an eternal inheritance for all who are willing to come into and stay in Christ. Don’t leave that holy inheritance unclaimed!

    by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN