I'm trying!

[AI translation] As it is the last Sunday of the month, I would like to shine the light of God's Word on another question that has been asked, according to our church order. The question that came to me is. Yes, I know that the believer's life is a struggle and it must be faced. But is it eternal fear? It is impossible to endure. The fear of the church-goer is constantly kept awake by the mirror of the Word, which undoubtedly always shows our sin and makes us feel dissatisfied with ourselves. But people also ask us - often accusingly - if that is what believers are like. They often intimidate us with their demands. Do they not make excessive demands on believers? Where is the line between demand and intimidation?"On this question, I would like to pick out just two thoughts from the Word, two things I would like to emphasize very strongly. One is what the apostle Paul says about himself, "I do not think I have already attained, I do not say I am perfect." The other is this: "Leaning on the shame of the soul." So, on the one hand, the fear that is spoken of in this letter is undoubtedly justified. For it is indeed the case, as the Apostle Paul himself confesses, that the life of faith of the man who most earnestly desires to follow Christ is not perfect. To be imperfect is to be weak, and terribly weak, and to put into practice very, very little of the beauty and reality of the Christian life. And what it does implement is also very poor and very imperfect, and very far from what it should be. And every believer experiences that he is always fighting again and again in his life with his old sins, his raging anger, his vanity, his selfishness, his many inborn and natural evil qualities. And in this struggle we are often the losers and very rarely the victors.
I know very well that we, as believers, should be transparent, radiating the warmth and light of God's love. I know that in our actions and in our words we should almost make visible the benefits of the Spirit whom Jesus brought to this earth, and Jesus also said that we should be salt in this world, who, because of the purity and goodness in them, give good taste and we would be involved in human community in a way that preserves us from further corruption. And what is to be achieved by all this? Let's face it, very, very little, hardly anything and that only sometimes. When I think that I, as a believer, represent Jesus in this world, the love of Jesus, His purity, His peace and gentleness, I am somehow struck by the same feeling that the Apostle Paul describes, obviously in full awareness of his own weakness, when he wrote to the Corinthians: (1 Cor 2,3) To be an ambassador of God, to represent the Gospel of Jesus to people like us, you and I, is a truly formidable task.
So the fear of which the letter speaks is justified. The fear is justified because, by the terribly fragmented and feeble nature of our faith life, we very often do indeed offend those around us and very often bring shame on the holy name that we bear as Christian people. Fear and trembling come over us at the word that is written, "Because of you the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles." (Rom 2:24) And I feel we are justly judged and justly condemned by outsiders if we do not represent the cause of Christ well among them. And let us honestly confess that we do not represent it well. Not in an attractive way, but rather in a repulsive, discouraging way. Oh, how often those outsiders are right who, seeing our works, do not glorify our heavenly Father, but rather perhaps condescendingly and accusingly snigger that: Oh, that's what believers are like! Every believer can be condemned at some point in his life. And every time I look in the mirror of God's Word, I find myself condemning myself a great many times. I deeply feel this confession of the Apostle Paul: "I do not say that I have already attained, and I do not say that I am perfect!" Oh, no I don't!
But at the same time, let me also say that I am grateful to the Apostle Paul for this confession, because I feel that there is comfort in it, not just an accusation. After all, who is this Apostle Paul who feels so imperfect in the life of faith, in the following of Christ? Yet he is the apostle of Jesus! So, with all his frailty and imperfection, he is in the hands of the most powerful an instrument through whom many blessings are poured out in this world. So it makes some sense, then, that the children of God are people burdened with all their meanness, weakness, and infirmity. I often almost have the feeling - let us not misunderstand this, we are among ourselves, believers - that God Himself is taking care that His child, His servant, through whom God Himself wants to accomplish something in this world - and we are all like that - is not perfect in every way. Almost God Himself allows His children to be shipwrecked at some point in life, allows them to make mistakes, to be bogged down in some human frailty or weakness. Perhaps for what is written: that no flesh should boast before Him. Or perhaps it is so that the confidence and expectation of other people may not be caught up in them, believers, but may flow on to Christ. Perhaps so that the faith of men may rest not on the faith of another man, but on the power of God. Perhaps so that His glory may not be obscured by any other human glory. It is possible. But there is no doubt that everyone has his own individual weakness, everyone has his own weakness: everyone is human!
Even a believer is only a man, a terribly weak man. And in every believer, if you look a little closer, there is something disappointing. And believe me, it is probably a good thing. Or even if not good, it is necessary, necessary, because it is precisely with the knowledge of our own imperfection that God compels us not to trust ourselves, but to remain very humble people. Imagine if we were perfect, but we would soon become a spiritual star, at least in our own eyes, but perhaps also in the eyes of others. Even while doing the most sacred service, there is always the vanity that accompanies it, and one thinks with a little spiritual pat on the back: well, you did that well! What a shining star you are in the kingdom of God. And yet there is nothing more odious than the pride of the believer.
So, even if we are right to fear our own weakness, let us not let this become an intimidation, that I am not worth anything, but let us accept ourselves as the Apostle Paul said of himself, that I do not say that I have already achieved anything, I do not say that I am perfect, but that this should not be an obstacle to God's using even such an imperfect instrument for His great purposes. In fact, God is especially looking for and needs humble people who are imperfect in themselves. But still further: if we accept ourselves as I have said, let us accept one another in the same way! That other believer is no more perfect than I am perfect. At least we here as believers should not make excessive demands on each other. Let the outside world make whatever demands it wants to make of us, that is its business, at least it makes us humble, but at least let us here on the inside be tolerant of each other. Let us not criticise the shortcomings of each other's faith lives here, and let us especially not be offended by them. I can tell you frankly that it always pains me when I hear one believer say to another believer - behind his back, of course - that believers are like that! Do you, who judge another believing brother or sister, not know from your own life, from the foibles of your own life, what believers are like? I know.
I've heard, for example, the excuse of someone saying, please, I don't go to Bible study because those so-called Bible saints are so pretentious, so Pharisaical, and I don't like hypocritical people. Look, that may be true, and it most certainly is true, and let me add: you cannot say anything bad about believers that I cannot say about them, simply because I consider myself one and so I know from my own life how repulsive and how ugly such people can be. It is all true! But! What do you, who judge the foibles of your other brother, know how much struggle that unfortunate man must have with his own foibles, his own badness, his own old sins and all his miseries? And what do you know what Christ has already formed in him since he believed in Him, what Christ has already overcome in his life. Please always think, when you judge another believer, how hateful he would be if he did not believe. If even that little support and help were lacking in his life against his own weaknesses and failings, which his imperfect and defective faith in Christ, however imperfect and defective, means to him? You are not perfect, so do not expect the other to be perfect! Let us at least, those of us within, not intimidate one another with unloving judgments and excessive demands. Rather, let us try to help each other in our mutual endeavour. This is another word I would like to emphasize in the Word.
Look, the apostle Paul knows very well that he is very, very far from perfect. But it is not that he is paralysed and intimidated by this, but that he is stimulated and encouraged. That's why he says I'm trying so hard. I almost feel that word as if it were saying that I am trying all the harder. So let us not rest in the fact that we are as weak and imperfect as we are, but let us strive all the more! To strive is not to walk in contemplation and contemplation, but to make a definite advance towards some goal. Anyone who has taken a photograph in his life knows very well that on a light-sensitive plate or film the image of the subject or person being photographed is grainy. This must then be evoked by a certain process, whereby this invisible image is simultaneously produced, becomes visible, and the features are drawn out. So it has to be worked out with painstaking effort. Well, God has also made an image of each one of us in the person of Jesus. Look at Jesus, never at the life of another believer, but always at Jesus, His pure, innocent, loving, sacrificial life, and think that this is your photograph. This is your photograph, as God has made it of you and of me. Only this picture is invisible for now, seen only by the love of God. But now God puts this exposed film in your hand and says, here it is, call it forth, develop it, make more and more visible by your actions the holy precious features, the features of Jesus. So that's what it means to make an effort. This is what you have to do. It takes your hands, your feet, your heart, your mouth, your mind, it takes your pockets, your home, your ministry, your whole self, as it is, to make Christ more and more visible in you, to make the life of Jesus, His love and His sacrifice more and more visible in your life. For God does not give His redeemed people ready-made characters, but we are to make the details of that redemption practically visible and realised. To this the apostle says, I labor in the Spirit and so should we!
In fact, the apostle says, "I labor in the fear of the Spirit for the reward of the calling of Christ Jesus from above." So let's not get stuck on the fact that we are imperfect, nor on the fact that other believers around us are so very imperfect in the life of faith. With that said, we are called! Let's start each morning knowing that God is calling us. God is calling us to do some kind of service that day. So let us try to see and do all the work in our daily life that we have to do that day as if we had been commissioned by God Himself, as if we were truly called to do it. As those who know that we are responsible to God Himself and will be accountable to Him. Do not regret the help, the love, the kindness of a fellow human being who may be just waiting for a kind word! Consider that God has sent him to you, so that you can practice what can make this world more beautiful, what alone can make this world more beautiful: love! There is your family, what still needs to be done to make it a truly Christian family, to make the blood ties in Jesus a sanctified and deepened spiritual bond. Here are our spiritual brothers and sisters, the church. It is up to your efforts that we who are here may become a truly understanding and mutually supportive spiritual community, where all members are built up by the faith of one another. Not intimidating each other's faith, but building each other up. And then there's your workplace: consider that you are there because in your honest work, in your relationship with your co-workers, in your smile, in your look, in your words, in your whole attitude, Jesus Christ wants to be present. If only we would make a very small effort to do this, hair, but life would be very beautiful around us!
And finally, the apostle even talks about reward. Such effort always has its reward. Do you know what our greatest reward is? It is when we can do something for somebody that is of benefit for eternity. That's what Paul was striving for. He stumbled, he fell short, he was far from perfect, but he tried. Leaning on him, timidly. And he says that if one wants to be perfect, one should be perfect in this sense. In the striving. So don't be discouraged and certainly don't be intimidated by the fact that I haven't yet achieved it and that I'm not perfect. Of course I am not, oh how I am not! Let me, on the contrary, be encouraged by this, that, forgetting those things which are behind me, and leaning against those things which are before me, I may strive with all my heart to the reward of Christ Jesus from above. Of course, I know very well, and you know very well, that there is no other way to do it, unless we really, really pray very, very earnestly every day over and over again. Let us beg now, like this:
Just lead me, Lord, all the way and hold my hand,
till I come to my happy destination,
For without you my strength is so little,
But where you go before me, there is no fear.
Though my weakness should not touch it:
Out of the blind gloom you point to heaven;
Only lead me, O Lord, all the way, and take my hand,
Till I come to my happy goal.
(Canto 462, verses 1 and 3)
Date: 22 February 1970.