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“Does it Really Matter All That Much?”

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hos_4:6).

We were all assembled at the main archway of the great Library, checking our gear and supplies as we readied ourselves for our onward journey to a place called Grace.

“May I ask a question?” a timid young man said, raising his hand as though he were still in school.

“You sure can,” I replied, in a tone that put him at ease.

“Does it really matter all that much that we distinguish between God’s grace and His kindness? I mean, when you get right down to it – isn’t it really all the same?”

A few other travelers looked stunned; one could tell they concluded the young man had not been listening very well. But I felt it was an honest question, especially in light of the fact that we have been taught otherwise for so long.

“This is not a quick fix,” I said to everybody. “We are dealing with a widespread, deeply held belief. It has been promoted and unchallenged for so long that it now requires much patience on our part as we seek to help others see the truth for themselves.”

A prophet of old said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hos_4:6). Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free” (Joh_8:32). Clearly, it matters whether we know the truth or not.

Turning to the young man, I said, “Let’s look at what Paul told us, and perhaps we all can better understand why getting our thoughts right about Grace matters so very much.”

“All over the world,” Paul wrote, “this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth” (Col_1:6).

The church in Colossae was a significant accomplishment for Paul. He had never been to Colossae himself, but had met a businessman from there while on a trip to Ephesus. The man’s name was Philemon.

Paul shared the Gospel with Philemon and he was converted. Beaming with new life and a great enthusiasm for telling others about it, Philemon returned to Colossae and started a church meeting in his home!

It grew rapidly, gathering many of the greater community into fellowship with the Lord Jesus. When news of Philemon’s success reached Paul he knew, just like Barnabas in Antioch, that “the hand of the Lord was with them, and great grace was upon them all.”

Paul the Apostle, the ultimate church-planter, now from a distance watched with great delight as a new church thrived in much fruitfulness – apart from his direct involvement! This confirmed his own conviction that “the gospel is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes – Jew and Gentle alike” (Rom_1:16).

God’s grace was upon Philemon to start a church in his home. God’s grace was upon the church, and it grew with influence in the city of Colossae. What is God’s grace empowering you to do?
world is in dire need of the Grace of God. Perhaps more to the point – the Church is in even greater need of it. By failing to distinguish between grace and kindness we have wandered far off course and, as a result, there is widespread barrenness in the lives of many true believers.

Many of the Lord’s people are “being destroyed.” The root meaning of that word is “to be brought to silence.” Could this be the reason much of the Christian church has no voice in today’s world. We are experts at “preaching to the choir,” but stumble over our words in trying to share Christ with an increasingly pagan world.

The success of the Colossian believers reveals a colossal truth. Their fruitfulness in the things of the Kingdom began, according to Paul, “from the day they heard and understood God’s grace in all its truth.”

The same applies to us today. We must “hear and understand the God’s grace in all its truth” so that the same fruitfulness experienced by the Colossians will also happen to us. This is why it matters; why it matters very much!

“Thank you!” the young man said excitedly. “This really helps me a lot!”

Alright, then; if there are no other questions, let’s leave the Library and get back on the Road. We are not far from our destination. Not far at all.

What Were You Thinking?!

“Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?”

(

1Co_1:20)

We saw yesterday how scholars working on the Contemporary English Version edited the Bible by axing every single use of the word “grace” and replacing it with the notion of “God’s kindness.”

Let me tell you a bit about these scholars, and their reasoning.

The Contemporary English Version (CEV) was produced by employees of the American Bible Society (ABS) working under the direction of one of the Society’s officers, Dr. Barclay M. Newman.

Newman explained in an interview that he and his assistants “did a lot of research with children.” They wanted to create a text that was equivalent to a fourth grade reading level. “We also did a lot of research with persons who were not familiar with traditional biblical jargon, persons who are almost street people as a matter of fact, and then we tried to simply listen to the way that people speak … We got it by their language, the way they speak, and did our translating accordingly.”

In other words, let’s publish a Bible that small children, and those who are biblically illiterate can easily understand. Hey, a good idea is not necessarily a GOD idea.

For the record, I do not fault these scholars for their efforts, and at times I find their spin on certain verses of Scripture to be helpful; but in this matter regarding God’s grace, they missed the mark by miles.

Friends, there are some things you just don’t tamper with; things that need no editing, no face-lift, no help from modern man. We do not take God’s words and translate them into the way biblically illiterate people think and speak. Are we out of our minds!

Paul said it best: “And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” (

1Co_2:4-5).

“Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (

1Co_2:13-14).

In other words, there are some things we will never know apart from God opening our hearts and giving us understanding. That’s just the way it is – and God is pleased to have it that way.

their good intentions the collaborators who worked on the CEV have presented a product that falls far below the mark of truth; there is nothing at all mysterious nor majestic about their treatment of one of the single greatest revelations ever given by God to man — GRACE.

Instead, Grace is diminished into little more than sentimental mush. The emphasis in not upon God’s greatness, it is upon our worthlessness. We – poor, pitiable, and pathetic sinners – incapable of good, and undeserving of kindness, cower before God in weak and plaintive cries. And because He is so kind, loving, merciful and good — He forgives us and lets us in anyway.

Words have meaning, and their meanings have consequence. Mark Twain said, “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.”

By watering down the message of grace to make it fit more readily into our contemporary mindset, we deprive ourselves and others of one of the single most empowering truths in the Bible. No wonder so much of what passes for “Christianity” today is so utterly void of God’s presence and power.

Oh, I know; I know — your church is different. But I’m talking about all those other “dead zones.” You know, places where you can’t even get a signal? What are we to do about them? Whether we realize it or not, their weakness impacts our strength; their floundering calls into doubt our faithfulness; their limitations ultimately hold us back from our higher aspirations. For the Watching World sees us all as one Body – fragmented, powerless and offering no real message for their lives.

“Lord, Help us!”

OK. I’ll step off my soapbox now, and first thing in the morning we’ll head on our way to a place named Grace.

Drink From the Depths
“He… gave them drink as out of the great depths.” Psa_78:15
The psalmist is here reviewing the providence of God that sustained the children of Israel in the desert. That providence had made a deep impression on him, and he delights to dwell upon its wonders. There is a sense, I believe, in which the poet is really the best of all historians. He sees by the gift of a trained imagination into the hearts of men and the character of movements. And though he may lack the minute and critical knowledge that is in the keeping of laborious students, yet he often brings us nearer to the truth than the man who discovers and refutes his errors.
One often feels that it is so with the psalmist, and especially when he is dealing with the Exodus. For him the miracles that marked that journey were not isolated and solitary splendors. They were rather the discoveries of that power which is everywhere present and everywhere upholding; only in other lives they dealt with small numbers of people while here in the Exodus they are with large numbers.
Take for example the water from the rock of which the psalmist is speaking in our text. The wonder that God gave them water as out of the great depths comes to him in a flash. He sees the Israelites crowding around the rock and saying in their hearts, “This cannot last long.” He sees them watching for the supply to fail as, of course, coming from a rock, it must soon do. And then he sees their look of wild surprise when it dawns on them that the stream is inexhaustible and is fed by channels they know nothing of, from boundless and unfathomable reservoirs.
What the people crave for is a draught of water, and God in His mercy gives them their desire. But He fills their cups, not from a little cistern, but as from some illimitable ocean. And the psalmist knows that that is always true, for whenever the Almighty satisfies His creatures, He gives them to drink as out of the great depths.
All Nature Depends on God’s Goodness
Think, then, for a moment of the world of nature as it unfolds itself in all its beauty around us. There is not a bird or beast, there is not a tree or flower, but is ministered to in the way our text describes. I take the tiniest weed that roots among the stones—the flower in the crannied wall of which the poet speaks—and I ask, What does it need to live; what does it need that it may flower and fruit? The answer is that it needs a little warmth; it needs an occasional moistening with rain.
Now in a certain measure that is true, but you can never stop there in this mysterious universe. At the back of the warmth which it needs, there is the sun; and at the back of every raindrop, there is sky and ocean. And it takes the sun and sea and the white cloud of heaven to satisfy that tiniest weed among the stones, which may come to its delicate beauty only to be unregarded and perhaps crushed by a passing foot.
Try to explain the light that a rose needs, and you are carried into the depths of solar energy. Look at the raindrop on the hedge—has it not been drawn “out of the boundless deep”? And so there is not a rose in any garden nor a leaf that unfolds itself on any tree that is not ever whispering to the hearing ear, “He gave me drink as out of the great depths.”
Again, think of our senses for a moment—think of our sight and hearing, for example. One of the plainest facts about our senses is the different way they translate what they receive.
To one man a rose is just a rose and no more. To another, in the smallest flower there are thoughts that often lie too deep for tears. And it is not the eye alone that differentiates, it is the life that is hidden deep behind the eye; He giveth them drink as out of the great depths.
Two men may listen to a piece of music, and one, as he listens, is profoundly stirred by it. There seems to pass before him, as he listens, visions of what is high and fair and beautiful. And he hears the calling of his brightest hopes and the cry of regret for all his wasted years and the stooping over him again of faces that he has loved long since and lost awhile. All this is kindled in some hearts by music—this burning of hope and haunting of regret; yet play that very piece before another, and it is sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Is not the ear of a dead person perfect? Is not every membrane and convolution there? Yet call to it or whisper to it passionately, and will it play its part and carry the news of love? Yesterday there would have been a smile of recognition; there is not a flicker of response today.
So at the back of every sense we have there is a depth that can never be fathomed. All that a man is, looks through his eyes. All that his soul is, listens through his ears. If the eye could speak or if the ear could speak, would they not echo the language of the text, “He gave us drink as out of the great depths?”
The Common Joy and Sorrow of Mankind
Again let us think for a moment of God’s ways in providence—in the ordering and discipline of our lives. One of the lessons we learn as we grow older is that our discipline is not exceptional. When we are young our joys are all our own; we never dream that others could have known them. When we are young we take our little sorrows as if there were no such sorrows in the world. And much of the bitterness of childish trial lies in its terrible sense of isolation; in the feeling that in the whole wide world there is no one who has had to suffer just like us. It seems as if God has cut a special channel for us out of which no other life has ever drunk. In joy and grief, in sunshine and in shadow, we seem to move apart when we are children. But as life advances and our outlook broadens, and we learn the story of the lives around us, then we see that we are not alone but are being made to drink of the great depths.
It is not by exceptional providence’s that we live. It is not by exceptional joys we are enriched. It is not by anything rare or strange or singular that we are fashioned under the hand of God. It is by sorrows that are as old as man, by trials that a thousand hearts have felt, by joys that are common as the wind is common that breathes on the palace and on the poorest street. By these things do we live; by these we grow; by love and tears, by trials, by work, by death; by the things that link us all into a brotherhood, the things that are common to ten thousand hearts. And it is when we come to recognize that truth and to feel our comradeship within a common discipline, that we say, as the psalmist said of Israel, “He gave us drink as out of the great depths.”
The Everlasting Word of God
Now there is one thing that always arrests me in the Bible. It is that the Bible is such an ancient book, and yet is so intensely modern and practical. Think of the ages which have fled since it was written and how “heaven and earth have passed away” since then; think of our cities and of the life we live in them and of the stress and strain unknown in the quiet Bible times. To me it is wonderful, when I reflect upon it, that the Bible should be of any use at all now, and should not rather have moved into the quiet of libraries to be the joy of the unworldly scholar.
But if there is one thing certain it is this—-the Bible meets the need of modern life. In spite of all criticism, as a practical guide there is no book to touch it. There is not a problem you are called to face and not a duty you are called to do; there is not a cross you are compelled to carry and not a burden you are forced to bear, but your strength for it all shall be as the strength of ten if you make a daily companion of your Bible. Now this is what you feel about the Bible, that it never offers a draught from shallow waters. You do not find there a set of petty maxims, but you find the everlasting love of God there. You do not find any shallow views of sin there, but a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And that is the secret of the Bible’s permanence, when our little systems have had their day and ceased to be, then for sin and sorrow and life and death and duty, it gives us to drink as out of the great depths.
The Depths of Jesus Christ
And think for a moment upon Jesus—-of Jesus in relation to His words. If ever words were as water to a thirsty world, surely it was the words that Jesus spoke. How simple they were, and yet how deep! How tender and full of love, and yet how searching! They seemed to pierce into the very heart till a man felt that his secret thought was known.
Now there are men whose lives so contradict their words that when you know the men you cannot listen to them. And there are men who are so much less than their own words that when you come to know them you are disappointed. But what people felt about Jesus Christ was that when all was uttered, the half was never told, for at the back of all His words there was Himself, deeper unfathomable than His deepest speech. That is why the words of Christ will live even when heaven and earth have passed away. You can exhaust the cup or drain the goblet dry, but you cannot exhaust the spring fed from the deeps. And just because the words of Jesus Christ spring from the depths of that divine humanity, they will save and strengthen the obedient heart to the last recorded syllable of time.

The Lost Boys
“For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10
One afternoon, while sitting in my hotel room during a break in a conference, I decided to use the time to do some writing. It was quite and private, with little more than the distant sound of traffic passing by below my window. Pecking away at the keys drew me deeper and deeper into my thoughts, as I searched for the best way to turn a phrase so as to say what was stirring in my heart.

That’s when I first heard it. It was far enough in the background of my attention that I really didn’t notice it clear enough to tell what it was, but I knew that I distinctly heard it. Abruptly, I became more aware of my surroundings than I had been just moments earlier, and only then was I able to hear it even more clearly. And now it was unmistakable. I heard crying in the hallway.
What at first had sounded like the typical protesting of a small child not getting his way, quickly escalated to the sounds of full blown terror. And it wasn’t just one kid; there were at least two, literally screaming in fear just outside my door.
I leapt into action not knowing what I would find, but bracing myself for something awful from the sound of things. Opening my door I found two small boys, ages five and three, standing alone in the long hallway frightened out of their wits. They were lost in this large hotel, and the horror of their predicament was too overwhelming for their unseasoned minds to handle.
The three year old was crying the loudest; and the five year old was trying to keep a brave face in spite of his own tears, but even he knew they were in real trouble. I could see it in his eyes.
Seeing me standing there helped….but only a little. After all, I was the dreaded stranger every kid is repeatedly warned about in these foul, self-indulgent days. Instinctively, I knelt down to eye level with the boys and spoke with a calm and reassuring voice, offered with a confident smile. “Are you boys lost?” I asked, dismissing the obvious.
The five year old took heart and responded, “Yes, sir.” They had pushed the wrong button on the elevator and got off on the wrong floor. Unable to find their room – panic hit them hard and that’s when crying turned to screaming outside my door.
I offered my hand to him and said, “Let’s go down to the Hotel lobby and they will know how to find your mom and dad.” Once the five year old took my hand, his little brother took courage and came peacefully along with us, holding my other hand.
On the elevator I continued to calm them down by letting them push the buttons and feel some sense of control. And there I stood on the elevator holding hands with two little lost boys, reassuring them that everything would be alright, and asking them if Disneyland was as fun as they hoped it would be.
Once in the lobby, we found dad – grateful beyond words to see his boys safe and sound. He thanked me, hugged his boys with relief, and called off the hound dogs. I returned to the elevator to go back up to my room. The experience ended as quickly as it had started, and my afternoon was headed back into itself. That’s when the Spirit of the Lord spoke to my heart. He said five simple things.
First, being lost can be a really frightening thing to those who suddenly realize just how lost they truly are. Second, somebody somewhere needs to hear the cries of those who are lost and crying out for help. Third, upon hearing those cries, that somebody needs to do something to help those that are crying – even though it doesn’t fit into their plans for the day.
Fourth, getting on their level and speaking in words they can understand is vital if one is serious about bringing the lost back to the father. And, fifth, delivering them safe and secure in the father’s presence is the goal. Our task isn’t over until that has occurred.
Hey, heard any crying lately? Its just outside your door. Listen for a minute; you’ll hear it. Really.

Sodom’s Time Bomb
“For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the LORD; and the LORD hath sent us to destroy it.” (Genesis 19:13)
So spoke the angels to Lot when they beheld the great iniquity of Sodom, a city which vexed the souls of righteous men and women.
Sin shall not always stand unanswered; a day of judgment is surely coming when the Lord will act in certain and final justice. Those who have been sorely oppressed with have their long-awaited deliverance, and those who have long been in the wrong will at last be faced with the full consequential weight of the evil they have wrought against the Lord in doing damage to others. This will be a good day.
Our cry in times of prolonged injustice is not background noise in heaven, blended into an assortment of unimportant hums and buzzes, like the steady droning of office equipment. No, it is ever before the Lord. Why, then, doesn’t He respond? Why doesn’t He answer our cry?
He tarries for many good reasons, all of which we will agree with when viewed from eternity — but the day will certainly come when He will arise and answer the cry of His children, and all creation will break forth in song.
But in the meantime (and indeed the time way become very mean), remember what Paul the Apostle said, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us”(Rom 8:18).
But do we really have to suffer? Well, consider Bonhoefer’s thoughts, written three weeks before he was hanged by the Nazis — “Time lost is time when we have not lived a full human life; time unenriched by experience, creative endeavor, enjoyment — and suffering.”

What’s in a Name?
“And of the sons of Elam; Mattaniah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, and Abdi, and Jeremoth, and Eliah.” (Ezra 10:26 KJV)
This verse is buried twenty-six lines deep in the midst of a long list of laborious names. Very few people would even bother reading it. I guess I’m one of those few. You can see that seven names are listed; a father and his six sons. However, nothing is said about them — who they were, what they did, how their lives mattered. Nothing. Just their names. But names are important. A name defines you, and a good name is to be desired above great riches.
So I did a curious thing with this verse of scripture. Using the Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary, the Easton Bible Dictionary, and the Hitchcock Bible Names Dictionary, I looked up the meaning of each of these names and what I uncovered is worthy of your consideration.
Elam — a secret hidden by distance in the highlands
Mattaniah — the gift of hope from the Lord; the hope laid up in heaven
Zechariah — The renowned Lord has remembered
Jehiel — God’s life will be seen in me
Abdi — serviceable, servant of the Lord
Jeremoth — elevations; uplifted beyond the fear of death
Eliah — The Mighty God, the Lord who works in wonder and power
Putting the meaning of these several names together in one continuous thought produced the following treasure:
“There was a secret hidden in the heavens, far away from the sight of man. It was a gift of hope, laid up in heaven for us by the Lord. At the perfect moment, in the fullness of time, the Lord remembered the gift and brought it forth for us to have and to behold. Because of this His name is now renowned throughout the whole earth. His life has now been made manifest in and through us, making us useful unto every good word and work, and lifting us far above the power of sin and death. He is the mighty God, who works wonders of love by His great power.”
Next time your whizzing through the Bible on your way to a place called Hurry Up and Get Here, take a break. Slow down and read with an inquisitive mind, a curious soul, and an investigative hunger. You might just stumble upon a buried treasure or two.

The Unhurried Savior
“But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.” Luke 8:15
If there is one lesson that stands out in life it is that good things take time to come to fruition. Nothing worthy ever happens quickly. Years ago as a young and eager aspiring preacher, I remember hearing an older sage of God say, “When God wants to make a squash, He takes six months. When He wants to make an Oak tree, He takes twenty years. Which do you want to be?”
I’ve been around long enough now to have seen for myself the truth of his words. I’ve seen young upstarts come and go, like fireworks on the Fourth of July. A big bang, a pretty splash, lots of ooohs and aaahs — and then nothing. Nothing but the same dark sky that was there before they popped. And then there are the others; those bright-light souls that are not really noticed by most people at all, simply because they are always there like the sun in the daytime or the moon and stars at night. Just there, doing what God ordained them to do — shining.
I’ll take steady over quick every time. I’ll take shine over flash as well. God give me grace to bring forth fruit with patience. Prove that I’m built for the long haul!
Remember the children’s song? “He’s still workin’ on me to make me what I oughta be. It took Him a week to make the sun and the stars; Venus, Mercury, Neptune and Mars. How lovin’ and patient He must be! ‘Cause He’s still working on me!!”
Jesus is the unhurried Savior. He’s working on a truly great masterpiece that will be displayed in glory. That masterpiece is YOU. For your part then, be an unhurried soul; keep an honest and good heart into which you may hear His word and treasure it; and then bring forth fruit with patience all the days of your life.

Breaking Out of the Pack
“God the Father has His eye on each of you, and has determined by the work of the Spirit to keep you obedient through the sacrifice of Jesus.” (1 Peter 1:2, The Message)
How good is this!? God Himself has His eye on each one of us. That is an extraordinary thing – especially when you consider just how many of us there are! Yet, each life and every detail is fully known by the Lord — in a caring manner. Simon Peter goes on to say, “He is always thinking about you, and watching everything that concerns you” (1Peter 5:7, Living Bible). Why, even the very hairs of our heads are numbered.
He sees, He knows, and He cares. Isn’t that good enough to make today worth living?
But there is more! Not only does He profoundly care for you, but He is also determined to do something of great benefit to you. And here it is: He will cause the Holy Spirit to work in your life in every way possible so as to keep you true, faithful, and unerring in your journey with Jesus.
Yes, the Holy Spirit of God is directed by God to fill your heart and life in such measure that you may follow Jesus fully and freely, without mixture of self-will, doubt, or fear. He is here not only to comfort you, but also to consecrate you – to mark you as one set apart for God.
In other words, God is going to see to it that you break out of the pack and live a life that is distinguished and purposeful – one that brings great honor to the Lord Jesus and great blessing to others.
Are you game?

The Ultimate Understatement
And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well.” (Mark 7:37)
Someone once said, “A discerning eye needs only a hint; and an understatement leaves the imagination free to build its own elaborations.” The first followers of Jesus had that discerning eye, and bit by bit they slowly realized they were in the presence of a truly extraordinary man. This led to some interesting understatements.
In his Gospel, Mark builds the case very deliberately. First he tells us, “Everyone was amazed at his teaching”(ch.1:22). A few chapters later he says, “they all marveled at His words”(ch.5:20). And then once again Mark adds that “many hearing Him were astonished, saying, ‘Where did this Man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands!’(ch.6:2).
Amazed, marveling, and astonished — doesn’t that pretty much describe how you feel about Jesus? Yeah, me too! Indeed, all who are followers of Jesus today can equally attest to our own increasing astonishment over His boundless ability to do all things well.
Like Mark of old, our testimony in today’s world is, “He has done all things well!” Talk about an understatement that leaves our imagination free to build its own elaborations — there you have it!
The best example of one such elaboration comes from the Wuest New Testament. The translator puts this spin on Mark’s verse: “And they were completely flabbergasted, and that in a superabundant degree which itself was augmented by the addition of yet more astonishment, saying, He has done all things well!”
Now that is the ultimate understatement!

Towering Humility
“We were sure of ourselves in God.” (2 Th 2:2, The Message)
Most people assume that humility involves some form or other of groveling; that cowering demeanor that bows in an abject manner towards others. And so, when tasked with the charge to “humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord”, we tend toward a somewhat cowering posture – supposing this is what the Lord wants from us.
Outrageous nonsense! The Lord wants us to come boldly to the throne of Grace; not as beggars — but as sons and daughters.
There was nothing cowering about Jesus Christ at all. He did not snivel in the presence of Pilate’s Empire, nor cringe before the sneer of His accusers. He stood as a man of towering humility. And those hearty souls who followed Him in the early years were described by others as “men who turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). Nothing groveling about that. Nothing at all.
Humility is the God-given self-assurance that eliminates the need to prove to others the worth of who you are, and the rightness of what you do. Jesus was thus a humble man, as were His apostles. “We were sure of ourselves in God,” Paul said. And so are those who follow Jesus today. That is, those who are real as opposed to those who are merely being religious.
Somewhere around 360AD a new model of “christian” emerged; one that has altered the public image of Christ to this day. The Roman Emperor Julian, successor to Constantine, found this new form of humility repulsive, as the historian Ibsen tell us.
“Have you looked at these Christians closely?” Julian asked, “They are hollow-eyed, pale-cheeked, flat-breasted all; they brood their lives away, unspurred by ambition. The sun shines for them, but they do not see it: the earth offers them its fullness, but they desire it not; all their desire is to renounce and to suffer that they may come to die.”
Jesus was not hollow-eyed, pale-cheeked, nor flat-breasted. Neither were Peter, James and John; nor Paul the Apostle. We should not be so either. Rather, being sure of ourselves in God, we may thereby be clothed in true humility and thus receive the fullness of God’s grace to turn our world upside down today – as did our fathers of old when it was their turn.