Total Commitment Means “Without Ceasing”
“Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father.” 1 Thessalonians 1:3
“For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.” 1 Thessalonians 2:13
“Pray without ceasing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17
I’m still in 1 Thessalonians. New vistas keep opening up that I’ve not noticed before. That’s the blessing, for me, of reading a book of the Bible several times before moving on. Granted, I don’t do this same amount of rereading for every book. With the larger books I will, at times, reread chapters several times.
Rereading allows me to start connecting the dots unlike I’ve done before. It’s the repetition that enables things to “jump out.” I’m not reading anything new; it’s just new to me that time around.
The phrase “without ceasing” appears three times in this little book. To me, that seems to indicate a need to take notice, ponder, and meditate. God doesn’t give us chaff in His Word. He has carefully put into the canon of Scripture (66 books) exactly what we need — no more, no less. It’s perfect.
So, I got to thinking about the phrase “without ceasing.” Here’s where my thinking has taken me.
The walk of faith, when pursed biblically, is a challenging experience. As the saying goes, it’s not all sunshine and lollipops. Yes, it is full of blessings and great experiences. However, there is another side that doesn’t seem to get too much press from the pulpits these days.
—— Let me digress here a bit.
The pulpit isn’t a time for psychological contemplation and analysis. Nor is it a time for open dialogue and cozy discussion. The pulpit is where you not only get a hug from God but also a good kick in the rear-end. Both are needed.
However, we’ve become unbalanced. We’ve become too “seeker friendly” in the pulpit. We all know we come up short; we just need someone with guts to point it out and call for change. The hugs can come afterwards.
Our walk of faith is supposed to reflect what the Scriptures say. Paul told Timothy to “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.” II Timothy 4:2
It doesn’t always have to be Hellfire and Damnation coming from the pulpit — BUT, there should be at least some of that. Will you offend people and perhaps drive them off? Yup. But, if and when God does start to work in their hearts and they do actually get under conviction of sin, they’ll know who to turn to.
Given a choice, I’d turn to someone like a Charles Spurgeon rather than someone like a Joel Osteen. The sad truth is that few, very few, know who Spurgeon was (yes, he’s dead). The shameful truth is that everybody knows about Osteen.
—— Done Digressing
Our walk of faith …
I find it enlightening that the Bible is very clear in presenting a true picture of the walk of faith. And it’s not quite like what is paraded about on TV and radio ministries. It’s not that neat. It’s not meant to be palatable to everyone.
The walk of faith is presented in such a way that only those who truly see their need for salvation will be drawn to it. In a sense, it’s counterintuitive to common sense.
What the walk of faith requires and demands will, when fully considered, cause a person to actually “count the cost” before jumping in. It’s meant to do that.
It’s our lack of solid preaching combined with our own personal lack of knowledge and understanding that has skewed the true perception of the walk of faith. Because of that, we’ve conjured up our own versions that fit very nicely into our comfortable lives.
However, you can’t get very far into the life of Yeshua and His teachings before you realize you better “count the cost” before signing on the dotted line. The call to salvation and discipleship is a costly, demanding call. Yeshua is very open and upfront about that.
Take for example the Sermon On The Mount.
It starts out great. It’s full of promise. But, it’s not too far into chapter 5 when we’re blindsided with the notion of persecution if we dare connect ourselves to Him.
“11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”
I kind of like the blessings part. But verses 11 and 12 don’t really fit into our conception of blessing, does it? Hmmm.
Or take for example the bombshell Yeshua drops in Luke 9:23: “And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”
Volunteers? Anyone?? Hello???
You see, forgiveness of sin cost our Saviour His life. But on the flip side, the forgiveness of our sin might just end up costing us our own lives too. Why? Because …
“All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” II Timothy 3:12
We’re talking about a life of total commitment, aren’t we? It’s “without ceasing.” If we’re in for a penny we best accept we’re in for a pound.
Yeshua isn’t stupid. He knows His presentation of the walk of faith is going to weed some out. However, His hard truth and hard demands, if understood properly, will prepare genuine followers to hit the ground running. They won’t be blindsided when the difficulties come. And they will come. Not all the time, mind you … but they will come.
The encouraging thing is that we won’t, with God’s help, turn away from the faith. We will continue on “without ceasing.”
So, let’s get at it and take back the pulpits and start sounding a little more like Yeshua. Let’s also get into our Bibles and learn what the walk of faith really looks like on a personal level.
To do anything less is disingenuous at best.