Oh, the deep joy we draw from Romans 8:28. Well, the first part, anyway. "All things work together for good for those who love God," we will repeat, through every hardship and every period of confusion. We invoke these words as an absolute statement, but it isn't even a complete thought. How often we leave off not only the end of that sentence, but the description given after about what that good actually is!

A whole post could be written just on what is meant by "called according His purpose," but let's focus on defining the good being promised. What do we think the good promised to us is? I was told once that there was concern that I was not on the path God actually had for me, because the speaker expected it would be a good bit easier for me if I was. "We walk in the steps of martyrs," I replied, "what ease are you expecting?" When we hear that God has good for us, do we think it will be wealth or comfort or ease? But the proverb says:

The author has a minimum, which is basically just that God meet their basic needs, but note where the priority lies. Asking for good things, for basic needs and freedom from deception, are not ends in themselves; if they were, there would be no cap on them. The focus is on glorifying God. The author is calling out to God to give enough that they can glorify God, but not so much that they fail to give God the proper glory. The ultimate good being requested isn't the material goods or even the freedom from deception, but the glory of God. And how many of the Psalms have the same message?

The whole psalm, David is crying out for salvation from enemies, for help in his time of need, but at the end he clarifies that this isn't just something he's asking for his own comfort. The desire behind asking for deliverance is that God's glory would be shown in how He handles the situation.

The good promised by God, like that sought after by the writers of Proverbs and Psalms, is to glorify God. And we most glorify Him when we can reflect Him to the world around us. The good God promises is that we will grow, and develop more and more in our walk with Christ, that we will enter into glory in the end. But this is a painful promise to fulfill. Paul, the man through whom God delivered this promise, could also honestly state that:

Paul not only endures, but praises, the trials God has brought Him through. Not because going through these things shows him to be a better Christian or a more devout follower. Paul is not praising the pains he has endured or his ability to endure it. He is praising the God who has brought him through it and taking joy in the way God has used these pains to conform him ever more to the image of Christ. Do we think any good greater than the glory of God? Do we think our growth must be easier than it is for other Christians?

In the beginning, God created mankind, and then He gave mankind a job to do. Adam was placed in the garden, not just to enjoy it, but "to cultivate it and keep it" (Genesis 2:15c, NASB). The very next thing we have Adam doing is, at God's request, naming the animals, an act which showcases his authority over them--an authority that God had by virtue of creating them, but handed off to Adam. When Adam is punished for his fall in the next chapter, the world itself is cursed. This connection between the people and the land continues all through scripture.

Mankind is given a sabbath rest, and commanded to give the land one as well (Leviticus 25:4). One aspect of the exile of the nations of Israel and Judah was to give the land the sabbath it had not received (2 Chronicles 36:21). The world, subjected to futility, longs for redemption alongside mankind, as described in Romans above. Finally, in Revelation, God remakes creation in a perfect state after condemning "those who destroy the Earth" (Revelation 11:18d, NASB).

Why does the land itself suffer so much hassle? Why does God make such a concern about how we treat the world? There are a few interrelated aspects of this to explore. One is that, as image-bearers and wielders of some measure of God's authority over creation, mankind was designed to serve as a race of priests. As such, we are to be as God to the created order, and as creation before God. Another is that the punishments handed out to Adam, Eve, and the serpent directly relate to the core of who they were all created to be. Adam and Eve have been commanded to work the land and multiply, and their curses reflect their imperfect ability to meet God's commands. But today's reading highlighted another.

In 1 Samuel 12, Samuel is following up on the coronation of Saul. Saul has already been anointed by Samuel, named king by the people, led a successful military campaign to save Israel from the Ammonites, and made peace with the select few people who didn't expect him to be suitable as king. Things are going well. But Samuel takes a moment to ask the people why they have chosen to have a king instead of God, and reminds them that this decision was a sinful one. But he also ties the fate of the people and the king together.

The books of Kings and Chronicles show that this impact goes both ways. When the people begin to falter, the king fails to bring them back. When the king falters, the people follow. The governor is never removed from the governed, that which holds authority is influenced through the same avenues by which it influences.

God has put creation, to some significant degree, under the authority of mankind. When mankind falls, creation falls; when creation suffers, mankind suffers. We are in a connected system. Are we taking our responsibility over the land seriously? How do we interact with the Earth? Are we honoring God in our practice of authority over creation?

If I had a dollar for every person who I've seen hurt by the church, or who told me about how a similar hurt drove them out of Christianity, I could likely begin my future missions work today with little, if any, fundraising.

Now, there is a certain degree to which the severity of pains suffered at church are inflated simply because of the nature of the church. This is a place that people invest deeply in, where we are encouraged to consider each other family, where we look at the love described of Christ and then find our fellows to fall so short of that mark. But rather than belittling these concerns, this should highlight the fact that the blows do happen, and they stand in stark contrast to Jesus' description that "by this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35 NASB). But what can we do?

In 1 Corinthians 8, Paul is explaining that there are some things the mature Christian can do and environments they can enter because they have come to know Christ well enough to discern a healthy way to do so, but there are other Christians who may, even if mature in other ways, struggle with those particular things and environments. Now, this is not the specific nature of the examples I gave above, but the principle he then describes still applies: we, as Christians, need to consider the spiritual well-being of those around us as more important than ourselves.

Neither I, nor Paul, argue that we should let sin reign in the church just so we can hopefully keep the people comfortable with that sin around long enough that they might catch religion. But when someone who needs a word of advice or correction is approached in a painful way because the one approaching is not comfortable doing it in a way that is healthy for the recipient, that is a problem. When the deacon puts the goals and expectations of their own little area of ministry over the needs of the body or even the needs of an individual within that body, that is a problem. When we drive someone out and openly condemn them because they, while holding sound doctrine and a visibly growing relationship with Christ, don't practice Christianity in the exact way we want it practiced, that is a problem. We have this understanding, that I've heard attributed to a number of church fathers, that withholding resources that we have in abundance is the same as stealing from those who need those resources; is that not true also of withholding a word of comfort or an apology or a promise to correct errors, when we have the full power to do so and a brother or sister is in need of it?

Paul tells us to put others in the body before ourselves, to the point that we may even have to give up things that we know we don't do in sin, if it helps someone else not fall into sin. And he tells us in Romans that this is done in line with the example set by Christ. Consider:

Christ gave up Heaven, He gave up all status and glory and authority to accept us. In the end He regained all of it, but Christ gave up everything that was rightfully His in order to accept us. If we are to accept our brothers and sisters in Christ just as Christ has accepted us, then we need to set aside our preferences and our desires and our comforts whenever they would hinder the spiritual health of those around us. But the example Christ gave isn't even limited to those in our family of faith. After all, everyone Christ died for was an enemy of God when He died. Following the example of Christ means spreading this love even to those who are not in the church, even to those who would oppose the church, even to those who would kill us given the chance, just as Jesus loved those who mocked Him as He hung on their cross. Jesus, having just told His followers to love even their enemies, observes:

It is not enough to simply try to do these things, however. We cannot love each other perfectly, but Christ can love perfectly through us. We cannot build the perfect church through our own efforts, for "unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it" (Psalm 127:1a NASB). We must allow God to change our hearts, guide our relationships, love those around us with our hands and our mouths and our feet and our resources.