The Source of Courage to Speak the Word of God
INTRODUCTION: As a relatively young believer in my late twenties, I pulled a title of the shelf in a Boston bookstore. The Title read, Creative Aggression, Why Nice Guys Finish Sick. The second line really stuck in my craw. The book graphically addressed the bitter fruits of passivity. Though the work was of a secular origin, I found that page after page convicted and pierced me concerning my passivity in relationships. After a thorough reading, I set the book down, recalling the countless times I had swallowed back my convictions and played the part of a chameleon for the sake of “peace and harmony.”
God used that little book from the Boston store to drive me back into the Word with a renewed mission. The realization that God had called me and appointed me to speak the truth in love burst on my consciousness. I could no longer escape the fact that as a child of God, the Lord had issued me his Word; the Sword of Truth. In the past, I had been too willing to abdicate that responsibility of speaking God’s truth whenever risk of offense was involved. I needed to follow the example of Elihu. Like Timoth he was willing to speak the truth, even though he was younger man than many of his peers (Job 32:1-14; see also Elihu’s entire speech in Job chapters 32-37, and see also, 1 Timothy 1:12).
It’s impossible to be a godly person and at the same time have a casual relationship to God’s truth (Joshua 1:8). Now the divine mandate, for men especially, to speak God’s truth is undeniably clear. In passages such as Deuteronomy 6 and Psalm 78, it was evident that the role of the believing man is that of a perpetual “truth speaker.” Sadly in countless Christian homes, this God-given mandate of speaking God’s truth is ignored and relegated to the job of the pastor and the church. However, to be a radically identified with Christ is more than an avid truth seeker—it is to be a truth speaker as well (Col 3:16; Eph 5:18-19).
In Christ, leaders in church and home have the confidence that their spiritual manhood is restored. Thus, believing husbands may function as a prophet (teacher), a priest (intercessor), and a king (protector). This three-fold role for the married man can only be fulfilled if he majors in God’s truth. For the godly man teaches, intercedes, and protects by means of divine truth.
When the truth, backed up by a godly life, is ministered, it heals, feeds, corrects, equips, preserves, builds up, and establishes the listener. The godly individual understands that the spiritual state of those in his or her sphere depends upon a willingness to speak God’s truth. We must come to the point where he can honestly say to ourselves, “I am not loving the people around me properly unless I am willing to speak God’s truth to them!” The people around me desperately need my holiness; this inseparable from my loving them biblically.
When we examine the example of the Old Testament Prophets and the example of Jesus and the Apostles, it is obvious that their truth speaking was pointed—it was not general, but filled with penetrating application for their listeners. In this analogy, preaching to a group may be compared to a powerful round of buckshot; BUT, speaking the Word into the life of another is like a sniper’s well-aimed bullet. It is at this juncture that our courage is most likely to fail. We fear being the “heavy,” a meddler, or regarded as judgmental, or “holier than thou.”
What enabled believers like Elihu, Elijah, Daniel, Deborah, and Phinehas to fearlessly speak the truth when they were a minority of one? The answer lies in their zeal for God’s honor and glory. They knew that all of history is but a record of the honoring and dishonoring of God, and that only those who honor God will ultimately stand and be esteemed (1 Sam 2:30).
The Christian who is willing to risk misunderstanding and rejection for the sake of God’s honor and truth also knows that the proclamation of God’s truth always involves a crossroads, or turning point. God commands repentance from those who hear His truth. There must be ongoing repentance through which our affections and will are repeatedly conformed to God’s truth. The progress and spiritual well-being of ourselves and our listeners are bound up in ongoing repentance. The better we understand this, the more willing we will be to speak God’s truth without fear.
In order for believers to excel at speaking the truth, they must be accomplished at using the Sword of Truth on themselves (1 Tim 4:15, 16). In reference to God’s truth driving our Christian life, theologian John Frame said it well, “Ultimately we really only KNOW what we do.” Thus, in describing believers skilled at wielding the Sword of Truth; they are animated by God’s truth—and they consistently desire God’s truth in their innermost being (Ps 51:6). The godly person rejects the notion that truth for the believer need not rise above mental assent. God’s truth has no power over a person unless the truth is loved (see the seminal work, The Religious Affections, by Jonathan Edwards).
A prerequisite therefore to speaking God’s truth to others is that we be skilled in habitual ‘biblical self-confrontation’. The faithful saint is continually evaluating himself by the Word, “Can I say that my thought life; my affections; and my goals are daily being ordered and corrected by the Word of God?” Scripture promises that where God’s truth is loved, it will be central in our conversations (Zech 8:16; Mal 3:16; Deut 6:4-9; 11:18 19). Only when God’s truth is loved can it dominate exceptionally in our lives so as to renew us and transform us (Rom 12:1, 2).
The godly individual ultimately can only preach with conviction what he or she has first preached to their own heart. We can only call for repentance where the truth has produced repentance in our own lives. To repent is to love the truth enough to have our behavior conformed to the truth. Outwardly religious people lose the truth because they live for years justifying their sin—in the process of doing so, the truth is distorted, denied, and discounted in order to fit with their behavior.
Truth in the inner man equips us to speak the truth (Ps 51:5, 13; 145:1-13). What must be uttered from the mountain tops must begin in the heart. We could refer to this as the principle of the enlarged sphere. There is a logical progression in the enlargement of a person’s sphere of spiritual influence. Each step of progression is stipulated on faithfulness in the previous step: 1.) The godly individual speaks truth in his own heart. He loves the truth in the inner man. He applies the truth to himself in ongoing repentance. 2.) The godly person speaks truth in his home; he faithfully fulfills his role of prophet, priest, and king. 3.) The spiritual individual speaks truth in the Body of Christ. He or she exercises spiritual gifts for the edification of the body. They are able to admonish fellow believers (Rom 15:14). 4.) They speak the truth of the Gospel with boldness to a lost and dying generation.
Power in evangelism must be built upon the principle of the enlarged sphere. For each step not only prepares a believer for the next step, but reveals the believer’s own relationship to the truth.
The godly person will not have “conflict avoidance” as his controlling motive (2 Tim 3:12). “Jesus promised those who would follow Him only three things. . .that they would be absurdly happy, entirely fearless, and always in trouble” (Gregg Levoy). How can a Christian develop enough courage and boldness to stand upon, and speak his or her convictions without fear of consequences? An important part of the answer to this question deals with an inescapable reality taught in Scripture— like Christ and the Apostles, the godly believer will be misunderstood. It is par for the course. It follows therefore that progress in our journey toward godly courage is bound up in accepting the reality that we will face misunderstanding and rejection because of the truth.
The Scriptures make it clear that all those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2 Tim 3:12). Jesus prepared His followers for persecution by imbuing them with the fact that they should expect the same mistreatment that He experienced (Jn 15:18-16:4). Though we live in a land that protects the rights and religious expression of believers, obedient Christians who stand in the truth will frequently experience rejection, ostracism, and discrimination. Our perspective amidst mistreatment must embrace the following truth: it is an inestimable privilege to have the antipathy meant for Christ fall upon us (Jn 7:7; Acts 5:41; Col 1:24). The godly individual manifests a willingness to bear the reproach of Christ (Heb 13:12-13).
APPLICATION: Why are believers misunderstood? First and foremost it is because of the truth that man is unholy and God is absolutely holy. Jesus indicated that the world hated Him because, “I testify of it, that its deeds are evil” (Jn 7:7). The human condition is such that personal holiness is disturbing to people. Why is this so? The answer is because people allow the flesh and its desires to set the standard for their behavior INSTEAD of what God requires. Thus the proclamation of the truth will be disturbing without trying to be so. People set aside what God requires of them and instead substitute an erroneous standard—namely what the flesh is capable of doing—no wonder the truth agitates people.
The fear of man brings a snare (Prov 29:25). The fear of God and the fear of man have always been, not only incompatible, but inversely proportional to one another. The greater fear of God a man has, the less he will fear men. When by God’s grace a believer answers the call of true discipleship, his or her fear of man will be overtaken and ultimately consumed by the fear of God.
During His earthly ministry, Jesus faced “wanna be” followers who remained in bondage to the fear of man. The Gospel of John 12:42-43 provides an authoritative record of these double-minded individuals. “Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God.”
Some might be quick to excuse the desire for human approval as simply as weakness, or a natural tendency in men that is not a serious sin. Jesus places this illicit craving under the spotlight in John 5:44. In this passage He warns that the fear of man is so serious, it can keep a person from living to the glory of God. “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another, and do not
seek the glory that is from the one and only God?”
Again, lest we excuse this sin, let us remember that Jesus reserved one of His “Woes” for the sin of man-pleasing. “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for in the same way their fathers used to treat the false prophets” (Luke 6:26).
Jesus puts this issue into sharp relief—if we live for the praise and approval of men, we are not living for the glory of God. In the book of James the fear of man is described as, “an attitude of personal favoritism,” and as, “making distinctions among yourselves, having become judges with evil motives” (James 2:1-7ff.). (See also the dilemma of man-pleasers faced by Nehemiah—Neh 6:10-19).
APPLICATION: We must repent of our “addiction” to the approval of men. We must admit to God that we have placed the praise of men above the approval of our Heavenly Father. We need to confess that our narcissistic desire to be liked by all has often stolen our courage to speak the truth of God in love.
The greater our ambition to please Christ and have His approval, the more courage we will have to speak the Word of God (2 Cor 5:9). The ambition to please our Lord is filled with the eschatological hope of favorably greeting Him at His imminent return. Courage is a byproduct of living to please Christ. When Christ’s approval towers over all other sources of approval, courage becomes second nature.
Those who live to please Christ have the judgment seat of Christ etched on their consciousness (2 Cor 5:9-10). In essence, living to please Christ is a measure of our fear of God. Those who live for Christ’s approval are continually weighing the glory to come against temporal losses (2 Cor 4:17-18). As a consequence, their value system is constantly adjusted to heaven’s standard. “Therefore knowing the fear of the Lord we persuade men . . .” (2 Cor 5:11a). This fact alone enables us to see how impotent our fellow creatures are when they attempt to rightly appraise us (1 Cor 4:3-4). Spurgeon hit the bull’s eye when he said, “Compared to what my heavenly Father thinks of me, the opinions of men are like so many chirping sparrows.”
APPLICATION: The one we strive most to please will necessarily be our primary evaluator. In other words, the one we seek to please will always wind up evaluating our efforts at pleasing them. In effect, we are somewhat suspended upon their approval or disapproval of us. This is the operative principle which drives peer pressure—we wind up concluding that we cannot live without the approval of certain people—we base our identity upon looking into the mirror of what others may think of us.
God has an incredibly liberating solution to this problem. Not only are we to make sure that all we do is in done in love (1 Cor 16:14), but we are to do all to the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31). Paul argues that our pleasing of men must spring from the goal not of seeking our own profit, but from the motive of seeking the other person’s edification and eternal welfare (1 Cor 10:32-33; Rom 15:1-7). This perspective places all of our relationships under the eye of Christ’s scrutiny. The point is we are most free and obedient when our actions are “as for the Lord rather than for men” (Col 3:22-24).
The more we regard Christ to be our “Source Person,” the more courage we will have to speak God’s truth. There is a paradox contained in this truth—the more childlike and dependent we are in the presence of God; the more boldness we will have with people. The more our hope and expectations are consolidated in Christ, the more we will be delivered from the fear and worship of the creature. The love and approval of men is incredibly fickle. Christ alone loves us with immutable love. Frequently the love shown by our fellows seldom rises above self interest. Most commonly, the love of the creature is not a supernatural love that is mediated by Christ. Instead it is a natural love that goes no higher than the perceived virtue of its object, and /or variations of self-interest (Luke 6:32). Our fellow creatures cannot answer our deepest needs.
Fellow sinners do not carry our worth, security, and dignity. When we mistakenly assume they do, we become too dependent upon them and we find that our courage dries up. Christ alone is our “Source Person.” He alone deserves to be regarded as the unfailing channel of every resource we need. By union with Him, we have a perfect status before God of favor, righteousness, security, and sonship (1 Cor 1:30).
Our Lord is a jealous lover, when we attribute too much ability to the creature to serve as a source to us, God may allow us to experience deep disappointment. At times the Lord even orchestrates our disillusionment that we might understand that He alone is Source of all we need. We can all recall times in which the nurture, praise, and resources heaped upon us by a fellow creature proved in the end to flow from empty flattery and mercenary motives.
APPLICATION: Paul asserts that Christ is the believer’s life (Gal 2:20; Col 3:4). To the degree that we cast our entire lot in with Christ so that He is regarded as the entire support of the soul we will have courage to speak the truth. If our persons are propped up upon corruptible, mutable supports, we will lack courage. When our well being is leveraged upon the creature, we shy away from taking the risk of boldly declaring the truth of God’s Word.
Courage is the result of habitual dependency upon the Lord. The less dependent I am upon the creature, the more courage I will have to speak the truth to my fellow man. (EXAMPLE: Daniel was ostensibly dependent upon Belshazzar for employment and political freedom. Yet due to Daniel’s conviction that God was the sole, sovereign source of his care, provision, and protection, the prophet was not afraid to rebuke the monarch to his face—Dan 5:22, 23).
The more reverence we have for God entrusting us with His Word, the greater our courage will be to speak it (Jer 23:28, 29). God has made us His ambassadors. Knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men (2 Cor 5:11). The Apostle Paul saw his role as a proclaimer of the Word of God to be a sacred trust that carried massive accountability. What is striking about Paul’s testimony in Acts 20:18-28 is that his faithfulness was joined to the fact that he was never mute when God required him to speak the Word. “Therefore I testify to you this day, that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God” (Acts 20:26-27). Man’s need is beyond human agency. As redeemed men and women, we carry in our hearts and hands the divine solution to man’s ruinous problem (1 Cor 4:7). We are armed with the living and abiding Word of God (Heb 4:12). God’s Word is backed up by His almighty attributes—God is as good as His threats and His promises—this is why the Word has such power to transform us. Confidence in His Word is inseparable from the fear of the Lord.
Paul solemnly charged Timothy in the presence of God to “Preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction” (2 Tim 4:1, 2). Paul’s apostolic ‘legate’, Timothy, was to see his task of proclaiming the Word as nothing less than the very means of ensuring the salvation of his listeners (1 Tim 4:16) (and even the salvation of Timothy himself!). Paul repeatedly warned Timothy against the error of allowing timidity and neglect to interfere with his sacred charge of teaching, preaching, and exhorting (2 Tim 4:1-4).
APPLICATION: As faithful Christians we have been entrusted by God with His almighty, living, sword of truth. We’ve seen from Paul’s letters to Timothy that this sword of truth must not be allowed to remain unused like a stainless steel blade stuck in a rusty scabbard. Those in our sphere; family, neighbors, co-workers, friends, are in need of hearing the Word of truth from us. And, as with Timothy’s congregation, God has strategically placed us in a position to speak the truth to those around us. The means God intends to use in their salvation and sanctification is tied to our faithfulness in speaking the Word with courage. God’s Word searches us in order to reveal our spiritual condition. It cuts us in order to heal us. It identifies and condemns our idols in order to slay them and bring life.
When considering how God had entrusted him with the Gospel, Paul saw himself as a debtor to both Jews and Greeks (Rom 1:14). This same principle of obligation applies to us. The Lord has called us to skillfully and courageously use the “sword” issued to us in order to encourage, reprove, exhort, instruct, equip, admonish, and evangelize. It will take courage to swing the sword in each of these arcs and orbs of application, but God expects nothing less from us as believers.
The more highly we esteem our justification in Christ, the more courage we will have to speak the Word. Salvation involves “moral trust” in God. Saving faith involves the consent to cast the whole welfare of the soul upon Christ that He might be our hiding place, Protector, and Deliverer. To the degree that we make it a habit to look to Christ for our status, security, favor, and acceptance, our penchant for self-righteousness will be mortified. By these daily ‘fresh acts of faith’ toward our Savior, we affirm that all of our eligibility before God for blessing is carried by Christ. All “future grace” and every future installment of divine blessing and kindness have all been secured for us by our Savior’s Person and work—He is our infinite qualification for an endless life of love in God.
Like the Publican who saw his only hope to be God’s mercy, the man or woman who treasures their justification in Christ will define themselves primarily as an object of divine compassion. This mindset has a powerful impact upon our work and service.
APPLICATION: It can be difficult to admit that our flesh is opposed to God’s justifying grace. We are preoccupied with our own performance. Like the toddler who screamed, “I can do it myself!” we are drawn to our own performance as the basis for our eligibility and qualification to be blessed and accepted by God. If the truth be known we secretly resent being utterly obligated to Christ for everything. As a result we look to other things to ‘clothe our souls’. Now, since our lower natures always tend to pull us in the direction of legal working and performance, we need a daily diet of the Gospel to remind us that our status, favor, acceptance, and security are all carried by Christ. Our labor, our fruit-bearing, and even our integrity must be to the glory of Christ and not to ourselves. He must have all the credit, for we are His workmanship (Eph 2:10).
When we drift away from overflowing gratitude for our justification in Christ, we will slide imperceptibly onto the foundation of our own performance. If we keep moving in that direction, we will find ourselves burning incense to our own achievements. A legal motive will raise its specter, deepening our craving for the approbation of men. When beholden to men for the praise of our works, we will lack courage to speak the Word. By contrast, when we are utterly beholden to Christ who carries our justification, we will be liberated unto the exercise of courage for the good of our neighbor.
The clear conscience of the man or woman who abides in Christ will show itself in courage (Acts 24:15, 16). We cannot make a penetrating application of God’s Word to those around us unless we ourselves welcome examination by God’s Word (Ps 139:23-24). Courage in speaking the Word is dependent upon a clear conscience before God and men (Acts 24:15-16). Even one un-mortified sin or lust “banging around” in the conscience is enough to dull the edge of our courage. Timothy’s success in proclaiming the Word with courage depended upon his maintaining a clear conscience (1 Tim 1:5, 19; 3:9). Paul did not claim to have sinless perfection; but to live a life in dependence upon Christ which had a ‘holy direction’—a life lived in loyalty to Christ—a ‘sin-judged’ life.
By “sin-judged” we mean the following: God’s answer to our fear and weakness is found in the mandate to abide in Christ. “But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 Jn 1:7).
In order for us to exercise courage, the blood of the Son of God must be the loudest voice in our conscience. In order for God’s justice at the cross to be believed and reckoned so as to silence the Accuser, we must habitually be mortifying sin by the power of the Holy Spirit, and seeking cleansing and restored fellowship with the Lord (Rom 8:12-14). Paul told Timothy (and all believers) that, “he who cleanses himself from these things shall be a vessel fit for the Master’s use” (2 Tim 2:19-22).
APPLICATION: The Apostle Peter, the same man who turned coward when questioned by a servant girl, preached the Pentecost sermon less than two months later. The Apostle Peter’s radical move from fear to courage, according to the book of Acts, was the result of two factors. First, he had been with Jesus. “Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John, and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were marveling, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). Second, Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit. “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, ‘Rulers and elders of the people. . .’” (Acts 4:8).
In the final analysis, God is the source of our courage. We are commanded in Scripture to allow our hearts to take courage (Ps 27:14; 31:24; 1 Cor 16:13). The ability to act in courage is a function of waiting on the Lord (Is 40:31). Faith’s object is the goodness of the Lord and the confident expectation that He will preserve the faithful, and empower them to bear witness to the truth (Jn 15:26-27). Those around us need our courage in speaking the Word of God. It was a penitent King David who prayed, “Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Thy ways, and sinners will be converted to Thee” (Ps 51:11-12).
The next generation is depending upon our courage—they need to see and hear our love of the truth. They are waiting for our faithfulness. They will not put their confidence in God unless they see the faith of their fathers and mothers and spiritual brothers and sisters; and unless they hear from us the joy of God, the works of God, and commands of God (Ps 78:3-8).