I am preparing a study for the Wednesday Mens Group, "Fellowship of the Bean." The following commentary on 1st Corinthians 9:9-10 by Charles Hodge illuminates how Hodge approaches his study of scripture.
1 Corinthians 9:9-10
Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same? For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned?
Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop.
Charles Hodge
Some of the ancient, and not a few of the most distinguished modern commentators assume that Paul gives an allegorical interpretation to the passage in Deuteronomy. They understand him to say that the passage is not to be understood of oxen, but of us, ministers. ‘This command was given on account of us ministers, that we ploughers might plough in hope, and we threshers might thresh in hope.’ But this entirely foreign from the manner of New Testament writers. They never argue except from the true historical sense of Scripture. Gal. 4, 21-31, is no exception to this remark; for that passage is an illustration and not an argument. (, p. 158)
I have a few concluding thoughts on how to prepare for a mission trip. When we minister in Haiti, we experience many negative emotions such as anger, grief, and sadness in response to the suffering and poverty we see. As Christians, who spend their whole lives in relative ease and prosperity, dealing with these emotions is difficult. Furthermore, Christians are encouraged to exhibit the fruits of the Spirit such as love, joy, and peace in their lives. We may think anger and grief are at odds with these spiritual fruits. Some preachers even preach that negative emotions may be sinful or at least, show a lack of trust in God. This tension between what we experience in Haiti and our unrealistic expectations may lead to confusion or even guilt. This blog post will examine how Jesus and Paul handled the negative emotions in their ministry, so we can learn to handle our emotions in a more biblical manner.
Christ's Emotions in Ministry
One of my favorite books on the Christian life is G. K. Chesterton's, "Orthodoxy." At the end of the book, Chesterton writes meditatively about Christ's life on earth. Chesterton points that Jesus exhibited the full range of human emotions, except for one.
G.K Chesterton
“And as I close this chaotic volume I open again the strange small book from which all Christianity came; and I am again haunted by a kind of confirmation. The tremendous figure which fills the Gospels towers in this respect, as in every other, above all the thinkers who ever thought themselves tall. His pathos was natural, almost casual. The Stoics, ancient and modern, were proud of concealing their tears. He never concealed His tears; He showed them plainly on His open face at any daily sight, such as the far sight of His native city. Yet He concealed something. Solemn supermen and imperial diplomatists are proud of restraining their anger. He never restrained His anger. He flung furniture down the front steps of the Temple, and asked men how they expected to escape the damnation of Hell. Yet He restrained something. I say it with reverence; there was in that shattering personality a thread that must be called shyness. There was something that He hid from all men when He went up a mountain to pray. There was something that He covered constantly by abrupt silence or impetuous isolation. There was some one thing that was too great for God to show us when He walked upon our earth; and I have sometimes fancied that it was His mirth.”
I do not know if I agree with Chesterton's conclusions about mirth, but when Chesterton read the gospels he encountered in Christ a person who experienced the full range of negative human emotions: anger, grief, and sadness. As we read the bible we find that even hundreds of years before Christ's birth, Isaiah predicts two of the identifying characteristics of the coming Messiah will be sorrow and grief. I quote the key prophecy from Isaiah below. Following each verse, I quote Motyer's commentary on the verse to provide a wider context for the passage.
Isaiah 53:3
He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
J. Alec Motyer on Verse 3
The reappearance of sorrows in verse 4 indicates that Isaiah is not using a man of sorrows as the stereotyped language of lament (cf. Westermann) but is being realistic and descriptive. If verse 3 stood alone we would be left to think that the Servant was burdened with a morose temperament and a sickly body, but verses 4 and 10 fill out the picture. The Servant was not an incessant sorrower and sufferer but he was notably so, not by reason of his constitution but because he took our sorrows and weaknesses as his own. Familiar with means either 'to know' and hence 'with personal experience of'', or is a homonym meaning 'submissive to/humbled by', and either meaning suits. Both the experience and the willing acceptance of suffering/'sickness' ( more in the sense of weakness than of illness) matches Isaiah's portrait of the servant. (p. 429, The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction & Commentary)
Isaiah 53:4
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken
smitten by God, and afflicted.
J.Alec Motyer on Verse 4 Took up means 'to lift up' (off someone, in this case) and carried ('to shoulder') is take as one's own burden. Infirmities translated suffering in verse 3b, is the 'weakness' of sickness, which coupled with sorrows encapsulates all that mars our lives. We wish for more than we are able to achieve, so that the good life is always eluding us; we long for a truly happy life but are constantly baulked by sorrow in whatever from it may come -- disappointment, bereavement, tragedy, whatever. But he made our burdens his (Mt. 8:17; Rev. 21:4). (p. 430, ibid)
The prophesy of Isaiah teaches that the Messiah would be acquainted with sorrow. When we read about Jesus in the Gospels, we see the prophesy fulfilled: a man who is well acquainted with grief and sorrow. We see that He understands the pain that death causes the relatives and friends of the deceased. This is most clearly illustrated in the Gospel of John, where Jesus arrives shortly after Lazarus's funeral.
John 11:32-37
Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?
Leon Morris commentary below provides insight into the biblical description of Jesus's emotions.
Leon Morris
Jesus was deeply moved at the sight. John makes use of a very unusual verb to describe his feelings. It clearly denotes a deep emotion and on occasion means "to be angry," a meaning some people find here. If it is understood in this way, the anger will be directed at death, though some think Jesus was angry with the crowd who so misunderstood both what death is and what the power of Jesus is. But it seems more likely that John wants us to see that Jesus was deeply moved at the attitude of the mourners than that he was angry. The crowd did misunderstand Jesus and his power over death, but it is surely deep sorrow rather than anger that Jesus felt towards them. That this is the right understanding seems clear from the addition that he "troubled himself," another expression for deep perturbation of the spirit (p. 415, The Gospel of John (New International Commentary on the New Testament))
In the Gospel of Luke, there is another passage where Jesus is moved to tears. He weeps or even wails when He approaches Jerusalem in his final days. Crowds are excited because they think the prophesied King is arriving in Jerusalem. However, Jesus knows that they will soon reject Him and thus, incur the wrath of God in just a few decades later. At the time of Jesus, Israel wants a militant ruler to free them from the hated Romans, but Christ is offering peace.
Luke 19:41-44
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
Leon Morris
The lament took place near the city, but Luke does not say precisely where. It forms a striking contrast to the joy of the crowd. Wept might be rendered 'wailed'; Jesus burst into sobbing as he lamented lost opportunity (p. 297, Luke (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries))
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus displayed more strong emotions. The religious leaders of a synagogue confronted Jesus about healing on the Sabbath and Jesus responded.
Mark 3:5
And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.
Even with all these negative emotions and struggles that Jesus experienced during his life on earth, Jesus still promises us that we might have His joy. Jesus's joy is to be in fellowship with His Father.
John 15:11
These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
We look to Jesus in our suffering, because Jesus is our example of pursuing joy through the suffering and shame.
Hebrews 12:2
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Here again I provided some notes from key commentaries to provide some context and insights into this passage.
John Owen Scorning its shame. In his death the Lord Jesus was exposed to ignominy, contempt, shame, and scorn. This he literally "despised"; that is, he did not sink under its weight. He did not faint because of it. He kept his eyes trained on the glorious effect of his sufferings. (p. 243, Hebrews (Crossway Classic Commentaries))
F. F. Bruce
The pioneer of salvation has been made perfect through sufferings, and has therefore taken his seat "at the right hand of the throne of God." His exaltation there, with all that it means for his people's well-being and for the triumph of God's purpose in the universe, is "the joy set before him," for the sake of which he submitted to shame and death." (pp. 338-339, The Epistle to the Hebrews (New International Commentary on the New Testament))
Christ endured suffering, scorn and shame because He knew the promises the Father had given him. His current and future joy was defined by being reunited with the Father in heaven and presenting the Church as His Bride to Himself. Jesus knew His suffering resulted in His exaltation and His Church's glorification.
Paul's Emotions in Ministry
Paul also experience the full range of negative emotions from his ministry.
that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. (Romans 9:2)
my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!(Galatians 4:19)
For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn—fighting without and fear within.(2 Corinthians 7:5)
But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.(2 Corinthians 11:3)
For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain. (1 Thessalonians 3:5)
Paul, like Christ, had much joy in his ministry. Paul, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, also encouraged us to "rejoice" and "give thanks".
Rejoice always, (1 Thessalonians 5:16)
Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. (Philippians 3:1)
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. (Philippians 4:4)
giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, (Ephesians 5:20)
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.(Romans 8:28 ESV)
However, there is one emotion according to Paul that he never experienced during his ministry: "despair."
2 Corinthians 4:8
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair;
One of my favorite theologians, Charles Hodge comments on the passage.
Charles Hodge Perplexed, but not in despair,constantly doubtful what way to take, and yet always finding some way open. The word ἀπορέω (ἄπορος εἰμί) means to be at a loss what to say or do; ἐξαπορέω is intensive, to be absolutely shut up so as to have now way or means available. (p. 469, 1 Corinthians (Crossway Classic Commentaries)
Despair means to give up all hope. No matter how confused or perplexed Paul became, Paul trusted in God's sovereignty over circumstances. Paul never gave up hope so he never fell into despair.
Romans 8:28
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
God the Comforter
I have no idea of how to reconcile completely these two sets of verses from Paul. We have Paul writing about his "great sorrow and unceasing anguish", but commanding us to "Rejoice always." Furthermore, we have Jesus weeping at the funeral of Lazarus and wailing over Jerusalem, and yet Jesus wanting us to share in the joy that He and His Father share (John 15:11; John 17:13). Jesus had a life full of trials and tribulations. He even promises that those who follow Him will share in those trials. In spite of the trials and suffering, He has peace and wants to impart that peace to us (John 16:33).
How do we resolve this tension? One small part of the resolution is answered by Paul in 2nd Corinthians. I quoted 2 Corinthians 7:5 earlier about how unsettled Paul and his team were about the spiritual status of the Church in Corinth. Paul goes on to write in the next verse,
2 Corinthians 7:6
But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus,
Emotional travails will come as we participate in ministry. However, we have God given-means to face these issues: God will comfort us. Notice that verse 7:6 is a short verse, but the verb "to comfort" is used twice in two different tenses. My linguistic key explains the meaning of the different tenses. The first time, "who comforts" is in the present tense. The tense "refers to the habitual character of the comforting God" (Rienecker and Rodgers). The second time the verb "comfort" is used, it is in a different tense and describes how God comforted Paul and his team through the news that Titus brought them.
We learn two different lessons about comfort from this verse. First, God comforts His people because it is part of His character. Second, God comforts us in many ways, and one of the main ways He comforts us in this age is through other believers.
Paul writes several times in the New Testament about this concept of comfort. It is a beautiful and complex theme in scripture. The verse that encapsulates many aspects of comfort is in 2nd Thessalonians.
2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.
First, notice that all of the Trinity is involved in our being comforted. The Father and the Son are mentioned, but since the Holy Spirit is our "comforter" (John 14:26) and the Holy Spirit dwells within us (Romans 8:9), He would be a major part of the gift of eternal comfort and good hope.
Second, notice that comfort has three chronological aspects to it. Past, present and future are all being referenced in this verse. The verbs "loved" and "gave" are past tense, Therefore, we already have "Eternal comfort and and good hope". These gifts are given to us at our salvation. We can take comfort in the historical fact that Christ died for us and we are reconciled to God. He has given us the Holy Spirit as a pledge to assure us of our salvation (Ephesians 1:13-14).
In the present, Paul was praying that the Thessalonians would be comforted and established by God. The intended result of this prayer was that in the present time they might be in the Word and performing good works. I have talked to short-term mission team members after we returned and one of the best ways to conquer the Haiti Hangover was to continue being mission oriented. These members kept performing good works and kept pursuing God through His Word. We should follow Paul's example through praying for one another that we would be comforted and be established in every good work and Word.
In the future tense in the 2nd Thessalonian passage, it was an eternal comfort and good hope which had been given to us. This word comfort is used in a similar sense in Luke 2:25, where the passage states that Simeon was looking for the "Consolation of Israel."
Luke 2:25-26 ESV
Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
This word translated "consolation" was the same Greek word as comfort that was used in 2nd Thessalonians. Simeon was looking for a future time of when Israel will be completely comforted. This future time without suffering was predicted by Isaiah. However Simeon realized through the Holy Spirit that this infant Jesus will somehow complete the prophesy.
My theological dictionary defines "comfort" as a tie between our future blessing in the presence God with our current state of being comforted by God. We can have comfort now because God will comfort us in the future.
Theological Dictionary of the New Testament
God finally comforts when He definitively removes all suffering by His glorious presence among men, Rev. 21:3-5. This consolation. which is given already as a good hope, is thus called an eternal consolation. 2 Th. 2:16.
The definition references Revelation 21. This passage is about how Jesus will comfort each believer in the future Jerusalem.
Revelation 21:3-4
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
There is a connection between our future state in the New Jerusalem with Jesus and how we are to comfort and receive comfort in the present day. God uses small groups to have us encourage and comfort one another. As we see in the following passage in Hebrews, God
uses the members of the body of Christ to comfort (in this passage
"encourage" is the same word as "comfort" in the Greek) one another. This comfort is to stir up each to love and good works and keeps us going until Christ returns.
Hebrews 10:24-25
And
let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not
neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging
one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Summary
Grief, sadness, and anger are appropriate responses to the suffering and sin we see in the world.
Seeking to be comforted by the body of Christ, praying to be comforted by the triune God, and hoping in future comfort from God are appropriate reactions to these emotions.
Praying that God will comfort others is encouraged in scripture.
Comfort and hope are link inextricably in scripture. Combating despair through comfort is giving people hope that eternal joy is available no matter what their circumstances.
Small groups are key to fighting despair in our ministries. Giving and receiving comfort (or encouragement) occurs within a small group context. (Hebrews 10:24,25). This encouragement is our main defense against despair.
Being engaged in ministry to others means being emotionally involved in the life of others. As we look at Jesus's and Paul's ministries, we cannot describe Paul and Jesus as emotionally detached. They laid their whole lives on the line for the Church: their bodies, their minds, their relationships, and their emotions.
Joy is the product of our union with the triune Godhead. Joy is a gift of God and will be our experience in the presence of God. Joy can abide with our suffering and our grief, because we know our loving God uses suffering to further His good purposes in our lives. We also know at a future time we will have an everlasting joy in His presence unimpeded by suffering.
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