Life, lips, covers and colour. Here are some things God has been challenging me with, causing me to ponder.
Monthly Musings: We're all hypocrites… well, kind of.
Some of you may have noticed that I've been reading through 1 & 2 Corinthians this year. With my new NLT Study Bible open, I watched a Bible Project class on 1 Corinthians, and have been reading an old Professor’s commentary: Conflict & Community in Corinth. It has been fascinating! (Thanks BW3.)
A couple of weeks ago, I was spending time in 2 Cor. 5, where, in verse eleven, Paul is writing about the need to persuade others. “God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too,” Paul writes. I won’t go into the context around the use of rhetoric as it’s not the actual text that I want to touch on, but BW3’s poignant words. In commentating on Paul, BW3 writes,
“It was critical to his ministry that his life and his lips both speak the same language.”1
that his life and his lips speak the same language.
When I read those words, I sat in silence for a time, marinating in them.
… that our lives and our lips would speak the same language.
Those words can apply to so much. They can apply to:
authentic discipleship
all-of-life worship
hidden sin
holistic mission
The list goes on. Other dot points might spring to mind as you read this.
In some ways all followers of Jesus are hypocrites. Bear with me for a sec! Even the most fervent, the most devote of us, stumble. Even the most dedicated and disciplined of us, fail. Even the most holy of us does not measure up. Our lives and our lips may try to speak the same language, but we so often find ourselves stuttering, falling over our tongues here, forgetting a word there. We may be sincere, like Paul in 2 Cor. 5:11, but we are rarely perfect.
But, oh, what an invitation - to speak one metaphoric language - our life and lips perfectly united, moving in synchronized motion as we follow fast after Jesus’ heels and seek to live and speak Him out well to those around us.
That’s our challenge, isn’t it? To live authentically, to live wholeheartedly, our lives harmonised. Harmony, not hypocrisy. One life, one face, whether it be the one no-one sees or the one everyone sees. That what our lips utter would make complete sense because it’s demonstrated in the ordinary push and pull of each day. That our lives and our lips would speak the same language, even in the hard, even in the mysterious and confusing. Even then.
How are you feeling the tension of these words? I’d love to hear from you.
May this united harmony of life and lips be found in each of us, whether it be in days of love and laughter, or days of strain and struggle. May it be so.
Book News: It has a cover!
About two weeks ago I was plodding along, seeking to be faithful in the ordinary, which on that day meant lots of admin for a leadership development process I lead with a range of multicultural mission leaders. It was a long day and I was glad to shut down my computer.
Before heading to bed I had a quick peek at my emails on my phone, and saw one from my editor. “I’m delighted to attach for you here our proposed jacket for Shaped by the Spirit,” she wrote. I saw that and thought, “No, you can’t look at it now. If you love it, you’ll be too excited to sleep. If you don’t like it, you’ll be too concerned to sleep.”
In the morning I woke, eager to find out what that email held. But I knew I needed to spend some time in prayer first, readying my head and heart before the Lord. And then, I opened the attachment.
Oh! Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh! My face split into a smile. The designer captured the ocean theme sprinkled throughout the book, weaving in an idea that caused joy, wonder and surprise to bubble forth. A smile kept claiming my face in the hours to follow. “Oh, I love it. I think I really love it,” I kept on murmuring. Spoiler alert - the colour may or may not be found in a variation of one of the ocean hues below!
I’ll admit I got a touch teary when I saw the cover design. It made this journey real, the publication date real, this book real. It’s no longer black and white type, but it’s being shaped into a real life book with a jacket and pages to turn, a tangible reminder of the Spirit’s shaping motion.
I hope you, too, were captured by the challenge in those words - that our lives and lips would speak the same language.
How are you giving room to the Spirit to keep forming you in relation to this invitation?
If this was helpful, please share it with others. That’s how this community will grow. Thanks so much!
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Ben Witherington III, Conflict and Community in Corinth: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1995), 392.