Making a difference
‘Making a difference’ is a phrase you may hear in everyday speech, perhaps in relation to some person’s good works or contribution to charity. But for those like me who are focused on a Biblical interpretation of the world (not, I hope, to the exclusion of charity) whether or not we can make a difference is a serious question.
‘For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.’ (Ephesians 2:10)
‘According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love’. (Ephesians 1:4)
‘In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will’. (Ephesians 1:11)
The Bible teaches that good things happen in our world because God purposed those things, and the persons who might be instruments to do those things, before the ‘foundation of the world’. So while the Bible says I can be an instrument for good, whether I can actually change anything, or whether it is already settled by God how everything will go, and I cannot add to it, is a question which has occupied those who study such matters a great deal I suspect. Furthermore, bad things also seem to have an element of predetermination:
‘For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.’ (Jude 1:4)
‘For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.’ (Romans 9:15-18)
Jesus, in the way he so often does, sums up the whole issue in a single sentence (although there is more to this passage and much useful teaching besides):
‘Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!’ (Matthew 18:7)
I do not think Jesus would hold those accountable for wrong who had no choice but to do wrong; so this indicates we do, indeed, have a role to play which can make things better or worse, even though all we do is foreseen by God, and so in some way, overseen by him as Creator of all.
And personally I do not believe that our own free choice, and the predetermination of God, are mutually exclusive principles; both can be true, and in my view both these things are.
But Jude adds a very useful observation, by way of an exhortation:
‘And of some have compassion, making a difference:’. (Jude 1:22)
There it is! We can make a difference.
I once heard a preacher say, it is not necessary for God to say a thing many times in order for it to be true; if it is recorded in the Bible just once, it is just as true as something recorded many times. Apparently the preacher had a similar view of the Bible as I do, and I expect it was through such men that I received it.
So, concerning the question of whether we can make a difference, Jude answers with a simple ‘yes’. And it need only be stated once, though I think there is much else in the Bible which supports that statement, if less directly.
This article is not in fact about the subject of predestination, but about making a difference. Because if we can, as Jude says, make a difference – a good difference – I believe it is important we understand how we might do that. Because it seems to me the world contains a great amount of suffering, and if that can be made less, it would be a very good thing. And I believe our God does not delight in suffering, seeing he will make a new world where there is none, and he is pleased also when the suffering of this present world is made less.
In the scripture above, Jude states one way we can make a difference: by having compassion on others, as we find opportunity. And seeing that is the only direct statement I know of anywhere in the Bible that we can in fact make a difference (there may be others, I do not claim to know the Bible as well as I should) then I expect that is what any reasonable study of the subject should focus on: compassion. This study does not. Though it encompasses all kinds of works and conduct we might engage in, which by all means should include compassion.
The subject of this article (when at length I get to it) is one of those which set me on this path of recording my discoveries from the Bible, because it is something I have never heard preached or written about in any Christian communication, or anywhere. So I felt I should at least record it, and others can make of it what they will.
The first chapter of the book of Job contains one of the most extraordinary scenes in the Bible. Job is described as a righteous man – ‘perfect and upright, and one that feared God and eschewed evil’ – and very wealthy – ‘the greatest of all the men of the east’. Then we have this:
‘Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them. And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thy hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.’ (Job 1:6-11)
So began the great trials of Job, and the extensive discussions about these with his friends (though they did not make good friends for him in much of that discourse) and more – the final actions and revelation of God in Job’s life, and his restoration. But one time reading this, I found myself asking, why? What was the importance of Job’s life that he formed the sole topic of conversation between God and the devil, when I imagine such conversations were few? (And whether they occur still now, I do not know.)
It is clear to me that Job mattered to God – this was the only topic he raised with Satan so far as we know, and the way he describes Job is as someone of significance. And apparently Job mattered also to Satan; he was acquainted with Job, familiar with his circumstances and manner of life, and sought to undermine those.
Job was ‘the greatest of the men of the east’, a great man in his day. He had ‘seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household’. Nonetheless, setting aside that many sheep farms in my country today would have 5,000 sheep or more (though not so many camels!) there is no indication that Job was a man of great, worldly, historical significance. For example, he was not a king, the leader of an army, or recognized as any great religious figure at that time, so far as we know. If Job is a real figure from history, there is no other record of him outside of the Bible.
Nor is it recorded that Job did any great, charitable works. He may have done. But his good conduct as described in the Bible before his suffering concerned his conscientious intercession for his children, which included offering sacrifices, and his humble, faithful and reverent attitude before God. No doubt he was an honest businessman as well.
In the course of his suffering which followed, Job is remembered again for astonishing humility, integrity and faith in God. But what did it matter? In particular, what did this matter to Satan? Because I can imagine that God was pleased with Job, given his uniquely godly character and conduct. But as he obviously wasn’t Satan’s type, and didn’t seem to be doing anything of consequence in the world, rather, his works concerned himself and his own family only – why was it important to Satan that Job should be corrupted? Why not just find an easier target, preferably a man of influence i.e. a great leader, and make him ten times worse than Job was ever likely to be even if he could be turned?
Some would say that Satan’s attention was drawn to Job precisely because he was loved by the Lord, and that because of Satan’s hatred for God, the object of God’s affection was the very thing Satan would wish to destroy. And I expect there is truth in that. But does not God love all men? And it is not clear to me that Job, faithful or not, had any role to play in the world that could affect a great many others, notwithstanding his own household was large.
I have come to the conclusion – and for many this may seem a stretch, and perhaps it is better thought of as a hypothesis – that Job’s life did make a difference to the world beyond anything that might have appeared. And that Job’s life made a difference also to Satan; that somehow, the limits of what Satan could or could not do were set at least in part with reference to the conduct of Job. Because after all, Job was the benchmark of practical righteousness among men. God himself said, ‘there is none like him in all the earth’. When it came to righteous living, Job set the bar. And Satan was set on that bar being lowered.
(As an aside, another astonishing aspect of the book of Job is what it reveals about the abilities of Satan if he is not restrained. The account in the book has him in command of sickness, natural disasters, and the actions and movements of bands of violent men – he even calls down ‘fire from heaven’ which directly targets Job’s servants and livestock – and he was able to orchestrate the timing of all these things perfectly.)
Part of my understanding of the significance of Job’s life comes from the New Testament, where a similar idea is stated more clearly. Speaking to his disciples, Jesus says:
‘Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.’ (Matthew 8:18)
The above scripture has been widely applied to utterances in prayer, we ‘bind’ this, we ‘loose’ that, etc. However, knowing that in the Kingdom of God, actions speak louder than words (though words should also be regarded with the utmost seriousness) I have come to understand ‘binding’ and ‘loosing’ as relating primarily to our own life choices and conduct as believers. By the commission of Christ, and by his statements such as that above from Matthew, we live and act with the authority of Christ, who is Lord of all. In our world, what we say goes, and what we do, by definition, we authorize.
In the end, all authority comes from God.
‘For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.’ (Matthew 6:13)
Men and other beings – for example in the book of Job, even Satan – exercise authority only as it proceeds from God. This authority is to varying extents implied or else explicitly granted by God.
For example, a measure of authority is implied for all men because God has made us in his own image.
‘And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.’ (Genesis 1:26)
God has by choice identified himself with us. In the same way, the conduct of one’s children in society is taken to reflect upon the parents, whether or not there is justification for that. (Some notable men in the Bible e.g. Samuel, and David, had children who did not live after the example of their parents.)
It is also seen in the scripture above that God directly commissioned mankind to exercise authority in the earth, as also in the scripture below.
‘So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.’ (Genesis 1:27-28)
It is also by the grace and favour of God that all men have life.
‘That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.’ (John 1:9)
‘The LORD killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up.’ (1 Samuel 2:6)
Therefore, whatever men do – and you only need consider the news of the day to know that men do terrible things – it is done implicitly with the authority of God, because God created mankind, has identified mankind with himself by creating man in his own image, God is the giver of life to every man who lives, and if he chose, could end the life of any or all men at any time.
Whether or not God approves of what men do (and I believe in a great many cases he does not) God has created man and granted that the lives of men should continue for a season, and even authorized mankind to exercise power in the earth (to ‘subdue’ it).
The reality of the authority of mankind as implied and granted by God may also be leveraged by Satan – I do not say with any legitimacy, but Satan will try to subvert the principles of God, because neither Satan nor any other person has power apart from God. Whereby, Satan will claim a right to do whatever men do, which is done not by approval of God, but at least with his forbearance. If men are permitted to do bad things for a season, then Satan will presume to do likewise, and generally will do the same things much worse, and encourage and pressure others to do them also.
As the most godly man of his generation, Job’s conduct had a particular significance. In the assessment of the degraded state of mankind – upon which Satan leaned for his own misconduct, seeing God had not yet acted to end that degradation and wickedness – Job was the least wicked in terms of his practical example. He was also directly identified with God as a worshipper of the true God, not only as one made in the image of God as all men are. Job was known to be the servant of God, and declared by God to be such. The forbearance of God with the wickedness of men was more justified – and less a reason for others to be wicked – because of Job, and his conduct in life.
It is my conclusion that Job made a great difference to the world of his day, notwithstanding his life and works concerned mostly only his own household, and his personal relationship with God. Somehow, as a representation of the state of man which God was prepared to allow, Job set a bar in the spiritual realm which limited the authority Satan presumed to appropriate and was able to exercise. The world was a better place because of Job, though he himself had little practical influence in the majority of it, and was only present in a small part.
Consider then, if a man such as Job could be instrumental in determining the spiritual climate of his day and the bounds within which wickedness was confined on a global scale, of how much significance then are our actions and choices as servants of the King of Kings, the Lord Jesus Christ, appointed ruler of all things, who has given us direct authority in heaven and in earth? So that ‘whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven’. (Matthew 18:18)
Because there is the direct statement of Jesus that when we, his appointed servants, allow something, it is allowed, both in the earthly and spiritual realms. And it is my understanding that the spiritual realm greatly prevails in the affairs of earth, even as the tragic and disastrous natural and manmade events in which Job suffered were all initiated and orchestrated by Satan. (And of infinitely more significance, then, are the actions and influence of God and his agents.)
My further conclusion, then, is that our own choices and righteous conduct, despite that righteousness in the sight of God can only be his gift to us, and all our own attempts at righteousness would otherwise be ‘as filthy rags’ – which was yet more true of Job who lived before Christ came – that the conduct of our lives makes a great difference to our world by determining the spiritual climate, and the bounds to which wickedness may, for a season only, extend, and the depths to which it may sink. As in other ways also we make way for the goodness and kindness of God, and his judgement of evil, by our prayers, our worship, and our own godly manner of life, which even loose these things in heaven and in earth, as our God has appointed.
We can make a difference. And like it or not, we do make a difference every day in our world, no matter how obscure and insignificant our lives may appear. The forces of wickedness are bound, the goodness and power of God is loosed in our world, by lives lived in righteousness by faith not even noticed by worldly men.
Praise to our God who has made us all the instruments of his grace!
May we find his grace to be the instruments he desires, of good and not of evil, and so to make a difference pleasing to our God in the world he has made.
Amen and amen.
wilderness99 