Category Archives: Morning Thoughts

Morning Thoughts (John 21:21-22)

Morning Thoughts,

Philip Conley's Morning ThoughtsJohn 21:21-22, “Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.”

This morning, our culture and world is gripped with the “comparison game.” People are always measuring themselves by others and their general mood stems from how they “stack up” to those in their purview. Paul makes it very clear that this behavior is not wise (II Corinthians 10:12), and most games of comparison are either rooted in covetousness or pride. When people see those that are “better” than they are in their circumstances, they get jealous of what others have and they do not. When people see those that are “worse,” they get boastful that they are “not so bad.” Whatever the outcome (pride or jealousy), the focus on others really puts the light on self. The focus should be upon the real standard of the person, life, example, and love of Jesus Christ. Anything else is not just inferior but not worthy of consideration.

In our study verses, Christ has showed Himself to His disciples for the third time after His resurrection. If someone thought that we – as frail creatures of dust – could ever get to a point where all of our wrinkles are ironed out this side of glory, surely that point would be here with the disciples. They had spent 3.5 years walking with Him and hearing the gracious words that He spoke. Witnesses of countless miracles, they then fully experienced the witness of the resurrected Lord – several times. What greater standing could one have in this world than such an intimate fellowship with the physical presence of the Lord? What greater power could they witness than seeing Him on multiple occasions after His conquering victory over death and the grave? Yet, they still had wrinkles that needed ironing.

In the preceding verses of this account, the Lord performs another miracle reminiscent of one that He performed earlier in His ministry by giving a draught of fishes. As the disciples dine with Him on the shore, He has an exchange with Peter about love. Regardless of how nuanced someone wants to make this lesson, we should never forget the main point. Do we love the Lord and how much do we love Him? How far are we willing to go to prove it? I have heard a lot of discussions about what was meant when the Lord asked Peter if he loved Him “more than these.” More discussions have ensued about what kind of love is referenced when. Most of these discussions – while lively – draw us away from the main object of the lesson. If the “these” is the fish, the other disciples, or anything else that we could consider, does it change the main point? The main point is that we should love the Lord above all else with all that we are – regardless of what is under consideration. If we can prove that the references of love have nuanced meanings to them, does it change the fact that with all that we are and with everything we can do, we should show and manifest our love to Him, for certainly He has done so for us.

If we can solidify in our minds that Christ’s message to Peter was about love in totality and showing it through actions to one another, then we can apply the message to our lives as well, for the lesson is rich and generation-spanning. After Peter unequivocally states his love for the Lord 3 times (not coincidence that the Lord did it the same number of times that Peter verbally denied Him), the Lord then gives him the simple statement to “Follow me.” Do we – like Peter – say that we love the Lord? Yes? Then the command is simple. “Follow me” the Saviour declares. If love is spoken and declared, then the proof comes in the action that follows. Love is not some gushy-squishy emotion that we let ebb and flow based on how the circumstances vary our mood. Love is a fruit of the Spirit that is borne of service, sacrifice, and selfless action, regardless of the circumstances.

However, though the Lord ironed out some of Peter’s wrinkles with this exchange, our study verses show another wrinkle in Peter’s thinking that needed straightening. So it is with us today. We tell the Lord we love Him, and He commands us to follow Him. But, but, but what about So-and-so? Peter looks at John and wonders what John will do. How often does that thinking grip and paralyze our own minds? The Saviour simply and very succinctly tells Peter, “what is that to thee…” Should anyone else garner our focus and study for comparison purposes? The answer is obvious, and the reasons for it have already been alluded to.

Peter was just given a blessing from God to know some things about his future that you and I do not have today. Peter knew how he would die and that it would be years from that point. (Verse 18) Today, I cannot answer with any certainty how I will die or how soon or far it is from me. While we all might suspect certain things about our future, Peter knew what would happen to Him for the Omniscient One plainly declared it to him. Yet, even with this special blessing to know things that most do not, Peter still looked upon others. What about them? Though we might not know about our personal futures here in this world like Peter did, consider what we do know.

For Bible readers that are blessed to be part of the household of faith, what grand truths have been revealed to us! We know about God’s riches and grace more than some of God’s children in this world do. While sitting under the sound of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we are blessed to glean in the light wondrous truths that not everyone knows. We have information about where we are going (heaven and immortal glory), that I would posit the majority of the elect family of God does not know while they live on this earth. When the gospel sounds forth in God’s house, we have His righteousness revealed to us in ways that it is not revealed otherwise.

Friends, this knowledge is wondrous and not to be taken for granted. I find myself greatly slacking in thanking God for such rich knowledge and hearty blessings here in this world. Too many times, I find myself looking on others like Peter did and saying/wondering, “What about them?” The Lord’s point rings true and fresh today just as it did then. What is that to me? Nothing. Following Him should be everything. No one else has done what He has done for my soul. No one else has been near the perfection that His mark established for my example. The only comparison that I should make is how well I measure up to His mark. Answer: lacking every time. So, what is there for me to do? Follow Him harder and straighter than before.

When I was a youngster, I was taught to hunt and fish by my father and some of the “moss-back” deacons of the church. One of those deacons was a true outdoorsman, and he quite honestly helped raise me. When I first started following him in the woods, we would oftentimes hunt by walking through a briar patch/cutover to “scare up” the deer that were bedded down there. At first, I would try to find “better paths” than the one he took. Over time I learned that it was always best to follow in his path. The two reasons were: 1. he was more experienced than I was at picking the least thorny path and 2. his trailblazing made his wake less thorny for me than it was for him. What a forerunner we have in Jesus! Not only has His path marked the way that is less thorny, but by following in His steps, He has removed so many of the problems for us. We get tangled up and bloody when we want to “blaze our own trail.” May He bless us to look less at others and more at Him. In so doing, may our steps align tighter into His path so that we might experience those blessed seasons with Him while walking in agreement with Him and His ways.

In Hope,

Bro Philip

Morning Thoughts (II Corinthians 13:5)

Morning Thoughts,

Philip Conley's Morning ThoughtsII Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?”

This morning, the fallibility of man’s thinking shines forth with “changes and improvements” in many fields. Though man – in general – considers these things progress, it really shows how little man truly knows since there is a regular need for revision of thought. For example, remember the old expression, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”? Then, the medical field decided apples were not that good for you, and then they changed again. They still cannot decide whether to recommend or denigrate eggs as they fluctuate between being good for you and bad for you by “the experts.” These ever changing mindsets and new “discoveries” that perpetually find footholds in public thinking show the reality of how little man truly knows. Even many of the “facts” thrown out by experts in their field are based on at least one or two assumptions.

Paul is reaching the conclusion of his longest discussion with any church body. The two epistles in our Bibles that he wrote to the Corinthian church comprise a hefty amount of information, and they also include some topics that are not that desirable (like church discipline in I Corinthians 5) and touchy (like preacher worship in I Corinthians 1 and 3). This body had many problems, and by the end of Paul’s work with them, they had fixed some of them. Paul had a great love for them in spite of all their problems (II Corinthians 6:11), and Paul was even willing to apologize to them for his own shortcomings (II Corinthians 12:13). Truly, the study of these two epistles will take us many places, and honestly, it will bring us to places that we would rather avoid than confront.

What more could be said to this church after all that Paul has told them by way of doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness? Paul even talked of his own experience in the previous chapter. What is there left to say? We might ask this question today in a different light. As members of the Lord’s church, what more is there for us to say or do? Since the question “men and brethren what must we do” is answered with repentance and baptism (Acts 2:36-38), what happens after that? What if we have been in the church most all of our lives (30, 40, or even 50 years)?

Paul answers the question and cuts right to the heart of everything we feel and know. Let us approach this from the backend of the verse and move to the front. Paul said that Jesus Christ is in us – provided we are not reprobate or unregenerate of course. This means that there is something to our existence that is felt and should be known. When we eat food, that sustenance literally goes “in us” which can be felt through sensations of eating and feeling full. If Christ is literally in us (as He is described as being through regeneration), we find that there are some feelings associated with that. Paul encouraged the band at Mars’ Hill in Acts 17 to “feel after Him.” Why is this so important? If He is in us, should we not always feel Him?

Many things can go on around us that prevent us from knowing what we feel or experiencing the sensation. For example, in my food analogy above, we know that we need food when we feel hunger pangs. These sensations let us know that food is being asked for, and by eating, those sensations quit. However, if we “get busy” doing something, we can forget about or not notice those pangs as we would have otherwise. Likewise, we may be born again by the Holy Ghost and be so “busy” in life that we forget about the knowledge and feeling of Christ being in us. Now, perpetually staying busy like that can end up ruinous in the life of a child of God, but it suffices to make the point that we need to be feeling after Him to prove to our own selves that He is there.

Now, using that to move up in the verse the knowledge that Christ is in us is how do we prove our own selves? How do I know proof positive that God loves me? What assurance is there that I am eternally His? The surest proof that I have is the life of Christ in me. Paul asserts the same point to the Galatian brethren in 2:20. Paul knew that he was living the life, but it was by the faith of the Son of God (not faith in the Son of God), which was ultimately predicated upon Christ loving him and dying for him. How do we prove that the promises of God are ours to have forever? We prove that by understanding and knowing that Christ is in us. Many scoffers in the world will tell the Christian, you cannot know what you assert. While in college, I brushed shoulders with many atheists and agnostics that scoffed at my beliefs in general. One asked me, “How could you know for sure that when you die, you’re nothing more than worm dirt?” My answer was simple (like the songwriter of old), “He lives within my soul.”

Therefore, we prove our standing and position in Christ in God by understanding and knowing that the Spirit of Christ resides within us, but Christ has given us more than just His Spirit to dwell with us. He has given us His word that testifies in complete agreement with the laws and precepts that He wrote on our inward parts. Paul starts the verse by declaring that we need to examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith or not. Here the term “the faith” references not that fruit of the Spirit per se but the body of truth that was once delivered to the saints. (Jude 3) God’s Holy Bible is oftentimes referred to as “the faith” or body of work that houses pure and unadulterated truth.

Paul says that our examination and proving needs to be more than just internal but also against a known standard. That standard or “measuring stick” is the Bible or “the faith.” Interestingly, we looked at the verse in reverse for the purpose of seeing position and relationship through the internal lens first. But, reading the text as it is written we see that before the internal lens can be properly focused, some calibration must take place first. This is why it is so hard for a child of God to verbalize how they feel about Christ’s Spirit within them without the written word of God. The word testifies to us the truth of our position and shows the life that should be led as a result of that. Without reading Acts 17, I might not know how to feel after Him regularly. Without Romans 8:9 telling me that the feeling of life in the soul is the Spirit of Christ, I would not know how to describe or term it.

In addition to these things, Paul encourages us all through the words to the church here to examine ourselves to see how we stack up to the standard. How far off are we? Corinth, no doubt, had a lot of “measuring up” to do. How about us today? The rule is simple. If the word of God says do it, then do it. If the word of God says refrain, then refrain. Too many sentences for explanation or justification of our decorum start with, “I think…” or “I feel…” No doubt, the church at Corinth did not like to look inward and admit that the fornicator needed to be excluded. Some may have had friends among the group saying that there was no resurrection. Cutting off members or avoiding hereticks is never pleasurable, but the word of God asserts its necessity.

Friends, life is hard and will always be so. However, no matter the season or trial, may we look inward to prove again what is true and what we feel and know. Recently, I had a discussion at work with a man about the origin of the universe and the age of it. In the process of the discussion, he said, “Look I’m a Christian too, but you keep referencing the Bible instead of science.” While I am an engineer by trade, the surest standard we have and will ever have for our thoughts and examination is the Bible itself. Some do not and will never see that, but the only way to examine ourselves about how well we stack up is to have something to stack up against. Let us use the court of His word and not the courts of what man finds pleasing, what our minds prefer, or what would be the easiest. All those other courts change and ebb and flow, but God’s court and abiding presence with us are faithful and never-ending.

In Hope,

Bro Philip