At the start we said that we don’t really know who wrote this letter (some think Paul, some Barnabas, etc… but only God really knows). But one thing we know from the end of the letter is that the first readers knew him. Here as he finishes he gets personal, he speaks of mutual friends of whom he has information (Timothy – the details of who’s imprisonment are unknown (cf. 2 Tim 4:11,21); and of Christians from Italy).
This personal touch is important to note, especially as we have seen that this sermon-letter is not an easy one to receive, and may not have been kindly received by the first readers. Our writer clearly is very aware of this, and is obviously concerned that they receive his letter well, applying it to their hearts and Christian lives. But he knows it is not an easy letter, so he concludes saying four things about this letter which are calculated to get them to read it again and again.
1) Notice how he asks them to bear with it. The readers are encouraged to receive this message with open minds and warm hearts, in contrast to those who “will not endure sound doctrine” (2 Tim. 4:3).
2) He calls it a word of exhortation – as we have seen not to depart from the living God (3:12), but to go on to maturity (6:1) and endure in the faith to the end (3:6, 14). He is trying to persuade a group of Jewish Christians not to give up on their allegiance to Jesus Christ. Two things appear to be contributing to their general slide away from a public allegiance to Jesus Christ:
a) their own theological confusion, for in chapter 6 we read that they were sluggish in learning, i.e. they had been slow to grasp some of the elemental truths of the faith.
b) the persecution of opponents, for in chapter 10 we read of how they have had property confiscated, been treated badly, some have been placed in prison.
He writes therefore to call them to keep going, giving a mixture of positive encouragement (based on a clearer and fuller understanding of biblical truth about Jesus and His work) and negative warning (based on the implications of any denial and unbelief). Now such words are not always easy to hear, as we all know when someone is trying to correct us; but by calling it an exhortation he is reminding them that it is meant in love and with their benefit at heart.
3) He further he calls it a brief letter – some 10,000 words, that could be read in an hour. This indicates his awareness that so much more could be said (letters naturally are bound by an economy of words). By saying this he is indicating that they need to tease it out where necessary (as we have sought to do these past months).
4) But also that they need to be understanding. He indicates he would rather be present (be restored to you the sooner) and be able to say all the things he wanted, and to respond to all their continuing and new questions (which letters can’t easily do, and at best can only anticipate). But he pleads with them, on the basis of what is written, to not write it off or delay because they still have questions, but give it due respect and a Christ-honouring response in their life.
So he commends to them both the letter’s contents and the benefits of coming to grips with what it is saying, and to that end he stresses that he wrote to them with:
1. A clear conscience
He assures them, as he encourages them to pray for him, that what came to them in his letter was written from a clear conscience. In other words, he is saying ‘I would’ve said the same things in the same way if I was actually with you face to face or preaching from your pulpit’.
It also means that he is saying that in no sense did he want to manipulate them of exploit them, even though it is clear that he has written some hard things to them. His ambition was simply this: that as a result of what he has written that they would persevere in the faith and therefore he talked about what he saw as necessary to bring that about.
From our own personal experiences we know that it is true that it is necessary from time to time to direct strong words to someone. But if we’ve ever been on the receiving end of that or witnessed it we’ve perhaps thought that that was overly harsh, even bordering on the point of exploitation. But he wants to distance himself from that and says, ‘Look, my conscience is clear. I felt I had to speak these strong words, that it was necessary because of your intransigence, your unwillingness to move.’
This is not manipulative or authoritarian leadership, but servant leadership at its best. He was putting them first.
On the contrary, he is saying that he was personally and inwardly governed by a commitment to act honourably, and to do always the right thing. So though like many of us his life was characterised by many imperfections he had repented of and prayed for forgiveness, it seems here that he doesn’t want those mistakes to characterise his life and his leadership.
Surely all of us can relate to that at some level. Those of us in leadership (elders in a congregation, leaders in a small group, or teachers in a Sunday School) need the prayers of others. ‘Church leaders are made of the same stuff as those they serve. They have sins, weaknesses, limitations, blind spots, and needs of all sorts, just as everyone else. They both need and deserve the prayers of God’s people, without which they cannot be the most effective in His work’ (MacArthur). It is a real blessing to know that you are praying regularly for my ministry, and be assured that this is a blessing to other ministry leaders also.
Do pray for your leaders, pray that they have clear consciences and pray that they would act honourably in all things. Pray also for their families and family life; and not only for our own church, but for leaders in all of Christ’s churches. Richard Coekin poses the concern: It may be going too far, but worth thinking through before God that if in some way we have been disappointed with our leaders in some point, then maybe we haven’t prayed for them.
2. A clear concern
Having asked them to pray for him, he tells them that he is praying for them. He not only speaks to them about Christ but speaks to Christ for them.
What a glorious picture of Christians, of people and leader: at the throne of heaven they are found to be praying together and for each other! May God always make it so for us, may He always help us to remember that this is what our leaders and people are doing. He is saying I will meet you at the throne of grace in prayer. Such is his genuine concern for them that he is praying for them.
Now there are 3 questions we should consider
(1) To whom is He praying? The title God of peace is used 6 times in the New Testament (Rom 15:33; 1 Cor 14:33; 2 Cor 13:11; Phil 4:9; 1 Thess 5:23); and in each case some sort of difficulty existed among the recipients of the letter.
He is the God of peace because he is the one who desires and initiated the means as well as brought into effect peace with Himself through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is also the God of peace because He provides peace amongst those whom He has reconciled to Himself; such that instead of hostility peace should be a chief characteristic of a Christian congregation.
But the context raises the issue that it is not peace with the God of peace but with the world that these Christians have begun to value. They enjoyed the absence of hostility perhaps with their friends as a result of just being quiet about and even drifting away from a public allegiance to Christ – after all their unbelieving friends had been such a thorn in the flesh giving them such a hard time. And it is though the author is saying, He’s the God of peace – now which peace is it that you value the most? The world’s or with God? – because you can’t have both.
Being a Christian is to know but also to value peace with God above all other offers and experiences of peace.
(2) For what is he praying? For the full effect of his words in this letter, so that as a result they will remain faithful, living a life that is pleasing to God!
He prays that God will equip them (“make you complete in every good work”) to be the people He has called them in Christ to be. Look at the verse again, “to do His will.” He wants them to pursue lives in which they will obey God, and in so doing please God. This is what the writer has been encouraging his readers to do from the beginning of the book. He wants them to live for Christ and not to retreat from Him. So he is praying to God that He would give them everything needed to do just that.
Being a Christian is about living for God and not living for ourselves. It is to obey His will. But more it is to follow a Leader – Jesus Christ “the great Shepherd of the sheep”. Here he gives a final though brief view of Christ, drawing on language form the OT that highlights His divinity, for God is the Shepherd of Israel. Jesus Christ is our great Pastor, “the great Shepherd of the sheep”. He is this superlative and incomparable Leader who will lead and deliver us, who will care for and protect us. Indeed it’s because Jesus Christ is our Leader, leading us through the demands of the Christian life, that we can live the Christian life, that we can even begin to aim to please God so.
Being a Christian is about following our Leader, the exalted Christ, and when our ideas conflict with His ideas, accepting that He is the wise powerful Ruler who gives us His instructions because He is wise and because it is beneficial for us. Many of us are prone to being wayward sheep who when our ideas conflict with His ideas we think our ideas are better. We wander off and we end up distancing ourselves from our wise Shepherd, from His wise counsel. And if truth be known we end up putting ourselves at risk. He is a great Shepherd and we need to follow Him.
(3) Why is he praying this? On one level for them, for he knows that this is the path of blessing. But on a deeper level it is because of Christ: “through Jesus Christ to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”
The risen Christ will make it possible, to Him then belongs all the glory.
Jesus will receive glory in the new creation when all His people will be gathered around Him adoring Him and praising Him for who He is. So when we are in heaven on that last day for all eternity our attention will not be on the people around us, but our attention and the credit will go to the one on centre stage, to Jesus Christ. In that day none of us will be getting out our scrapbooks to illustrate how impressive our Christian life was. None of us will be saying ‘Look at how I lived the Christian life!’ No, all the attention, including our own, will be Jesus Christ – not me – saying, ‘He is the One who made it possible; the fact that I kept going for Him throughout an existence that I found very demanding was only because of Him. I frequently fell on my face, but He picked me up. I may have done a number of things I thought were beyond me, but it was He who enabled me to do them. You need to pay attention to that God-man up there. He is quite extraordinary!’
Being a Christian is about bringing glory to Christ. If you want to sum up the Christian life it would be this: to bring glory to Jesus Christ. And our hope and our prayer ought to be that in some way our lives are used by God to bring glory and magnify the reputation of Jesus Christ. Wouldn’t that be great on our tombstone: ‘He brought glory to Christ’!
How encouraging this prayer would have been to the initial readers! Yet this lovely prayer is for us as well, since God is the true author of these words.
3. A clear confidence
Why is he so confident in praying? The answer always lies in God and in His grace. To call people to pray for you or to pray for them is not merely to say we need each other’s help – it is to say we need God’s help.
And he knows God has the power for He brought Jesus back from the dead. He knows that God will be faithful for the eternal covenant is established by the death of His Son and by which God is bound to His people. He knows that God has the resources. He knows that God knows what is good for them and has gifts with which to equip them. The writer’s hope in prayer is anchored in God.
And so he sums all that up in the last verse in the word “grace.”
Grace has been an important recurring sub-theme in this letter. There are 7 earlier references to grace (2:9; 4:16; 10:29; 12:15; 12:28 where it is translated “thanks”; and 13:9) in which the readers have had opportunity to recognise that yes living the Christian life is exacting and demanding, yet that at the same time we are not left to our own meagre and totally inadequate resources. A gracious God will meet His people’s needs.
That is the note of radiant confidence the letter ends on – and by it we are encouraged to see that our lives will continue to go on. The rich supplies of His unlimited grace are available to every believer (4:16) and they are ours forever. All these things are secured to us in the eternal covenant.
So as he closes, the writer’s look is from himself, to them, and then to God – drawing them and us with him! May the Holy Spirit in the light of this letter continue His work so that we always look to God and His grace through Christ.