Consider with me for a brief moment the correlation between believing and speaking. And keep in mind, I am referring to engaging your fellow human beings in conversation, not online social media posts or chats. Face to face, where words and tone and facial expression and body language are all integral parts of communication.
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4 that “having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, ‘I believed, therefore I spoke,’ we also believe, therefore we also speak.”
Faith and belief and what is written and what we speak are all connected. We live in a culture very much determined to disintegrate connections. Yet, “Having this same spirit of faith” rather than our own conception of faith, or someone’s redefinition of faith, we will cling to the “faith once for all handed down.” (read here) And in doing so we will let our light shine-with no disconnect between faith and love-whether in word and deed.
In word and deed
Apart from Christ, our desires, thoughts, conversations, beliefs, habits, knee-jerk-reactions, and ways of relating to the culture around us are more harmonious with the fallen world, and contrary to our creation design. But in Christ, in Union with Christ, we are made new. He is doing a restorative work in us; having begun and faithfully continuing that work until He takes us home (i.e. sanctification).
In this “being made new” He removes our stoney dead heart and gives us a new living one; one no longer enslaved to sin and untruth (see John 8 and Romans 6). This new heart has His law written on it (see Hebrews 8, 10). The law of Love (Romans 13).
Paul’s letter to Titus describes the work He begins in us as “according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour…” Stop for a moment and savor the redemptive work of our Triune God!
Washing of regeneration, and renewal.
The image of God renewed in us! Our desires and thoughts and conscience and motivations are part of this work of His. Alive in Him, gazing on Him, sitting at His feet and learning, we are being changed from one glory to another–the true glory He intends for His people (see 2 Corinthians 3:18).
Having that same spirit of faith, we too cannot but speak, from hearts and minds being renewed to a true knowledge with His Light, Love, and Truth. (see Colossians 3:1-17)
Believing that we are truly His beloved, chosen in Him, holy and set apart by and for Him, we too believe and therefore speak. God does not intend for us to keep it in. His words are like a burning fire within us, meant to come out and warm the hearts of those around us. (Jeremiah 20:9) As His kingdom of priests, His Church is intended to keep His words, abide in His words, delight in His words, teach and share His words.
“According to what is written.”
Paul never wavered from believing the written words. Upon meeting the risen Jesus on the Damascus road, Paul was forever changed. It is fun to imagine what Jesus may have taught Paul at that time. In Galatians Paul says he received his gospel from Jesus–not all the details of this encounter are written out for us in Acts, or Galatians, or any other place. We cannot ever know the fullness of this encounter, but from reading Paul’s letters, and the details we do have of his teaching and preaching and church planting we know that it was robust, life changing, and motivating.
Paul spent some time after his conversion in the Arabian Peninsula, we have very little detail about this time, but we know that he draws deep connections between his faith in Jesus and the Old Testament. He continued to cherish the law and the prophets. Jesus had taught all His other disciples how the Law, Prophets and Psalms all point to Him; did Jesus have a similar lesson with Paul? Paul, who knew the word better than his teachers, taught these connections from the beginning of his own ministry. From Acts 9:
Now for several days he was with the disciples who were in Damascus, 20 and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” 21 All those hearing him continued to be amazed, and were saying, “Is this not the one who in Jerusalem destroyed those who called on this name, and had come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?” 22 But Saul kept increasing in strength and confounding Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that this Jesus is the Christ.
The Christ. Paul taught that Jesus is “the Christ,” the long awaited Messiah, the sent One. Paul confounded the Jews, showing that the OT promised Christ is Jesus. Paul did not abandon the Scriptures. Rather he prized them, knew them, and saw Jesus as the fulfillment. Much later in his ministry, Paul asked Timothy to please bring his copies. Not many could afford such luxuries in those days.
When you come, bring the overcoat which I left at Troas with Carpus, and the books, especially the parchments.
2 Timothy 4:13
Paul had seen the risen and glorified Jesus! He had a revelation far beyond what we can comprehend. Having met Jesus, he knew the Gospel and immediately preached the Gospel. And in his teaching and writing Paul quoted from the Old Testament Scriptures, knowing that the One True God had more fully revealed Himself in Christ, but knowing that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Having that same spirit of faith, beloved, let us grow in grace and knowledge. Let us choose the good portion of discipleship, learning and growing, adorning His doctrine until He takes us home. And let the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart be pleasing to Him. May He Who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ continue to teach you as you read and muse on and meditate on His Word.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash