FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

Scripture Reference: 1 Corinthians 12-13

Maturity: The Graces of the Spirit

Please review 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 for background to this section.

It was Jonathan Swift, the satirical author of Gulliver’s Travels, who said, “We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.” Spiritual gifts, no matter how exciting and wonderful, are useless and even destructive if they are not ministered in love. In all three of the “body” passages in Paul’s letters, there is an emphasis on love. The main evidence of maturity in the Christian life is a growing love for God and for God’s people, as well as a love for lost souls. It has well been said that love is the “circulatory system” of the body of Christ.

Few chapters in the Bible have suffered more misinterpretation and misapplication than 1 Corinthians 13. Divorced from its context, it becomes “a hymn to love” or a sentimental sermon on Christian brotherhood, oftentimes based on feelings and emotion. Many people fail to see that Paul was still dealing with the Corinthians’ problems when he wrote these words: the abuse of the gift of tongues, division in the church, envy of others’ gifts, selfishness (remember the lawsuits?), impatience with one another in the public meetings, and behavior that was disgracing the Lord.

The only way spiritual gifts can be used creatively is when Christians are motivated by love; first for the Lord, and then for one another (Matthew 22:37-39). Paul explained three characteristics of Christian love that show why it is so important in ministry.

Love is enriching (verses 1-3). Paul named five spiritual gifts: tongues, prophecy, knowledge, faith, and giving (sacrifice). He pointed out that, without love, the exercise of these gifts is nothing. Tongues apart from love is just a lot of noise! It is love that enriches the gift and that gives it value. Ministry without love cheapens both the minister and those who are touched by it; but ministry with love enriches the whole church. “Speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15).

Christians are “taught by God to love one another” (1 Thessalonians 4:9). God the Father taught us to love by sending His Son (1 John 4:19), and God the Son taught us to love by giving His life and by commanding us to love each other (John 13:34-35). The Holy Spirit teaches us to love one another by pouring out God’s love in our hearts (Romans 5:5). The most important lesson in the school of faith is to love one another. Love (loving actions) enriches all that it touches.

Love is edifying (verses 4-7). “Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies [builds up]” (1 Corinthians 8:1). The purpose of spiritual gifts is the edification of the church (1 Corinthians 12:7; 14:3-5, 12, 17, 26). This means we must not think of ourselves, but of others; and this demands love.

The Corinthians were also impatient in the public meetings (1 Corinthians 14:29-32), but love would make them long-suffering. They were envying each other’s gifts, but love would remove that envy. They were “puffed up” with pride (1 Corinthians 4:6, 18-19; 5:2), but love would remove pride and self-vaunting and replace it with a desire to promote others. “Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another” (Romans 12:10).

At the “love feast” and the Lord’s Table, the Corinthians were behaving in a very unseemly manner. If they had known the meaning of real love, they would have behaved themselves in a manner pleasing to the Lord. They were even suing one another! But love “does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil.” The phrase “thinks no evil” means “does not keep any record of wrongs.”

To Be Continued

Adapted and modified excerpts from Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary Volume 1.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: 1 Corinthians 12-13

Diversity: The Gifts of the Spirit – Continued

Please review 1 Corinthians 12:14-31 for background to this section.

The members promote unity as they discover their dependence on one another (verses 21-26) – continued. Paul may be referring to the private parts of the body in 1 Corinthians 12:23-24. If so, then to “bestow honor” on them refers to the use of attractive clothing. The more beautiful parts of the body need no special help.

God’s desire is that there be no division (“schism”) in the church. Diversity leads to disunity when the members compete with one another; but diversity leads to unity when the members care for one another. How do the members care for each other? By each one functioning according to God’s will and helping the other members to function. If one member suffers, it affects every member. If one member is healthy, it helps the others to be strong.

Diversity of members fulfills the will of God in the body (verses 27-31). It is God who bestows the gifts and assigns the offices. He has a perfect plan, not only for the church universal as a whole, but also for each local congregation. We have no reason to believe that each congregation in the New Testament possessed all of the gifts. The church at Corinth was an especially gifted assembly (1 Corinthians 1:4-7; 2 Corinthians 8:7). However, God gives to each congregation just the gifts it needs when they are needed.

In this paragraph, Paul pointed out that there is a “priority list” for the gifts, that some have more significance (not necessarily more important) than others. But this fact does not contradict the lesson already shared—that each gift is important and each individual believer is important. Even in the human body, there are some parts that we can do without, even though their absence might handicap us a bit.

The Apostles and prophets, of course, appeared first on the “list” because they had a foundational ministry. Teachers were needed to help establish believers in the faith. The other gifts were needed from time to time to help individual believers and to build the church.

The construction of the Greek in 1 Corinthians 12:29-30 demands “no” as the answer to each of these questions. No individual believer possesses all the spiritual gifts. Each believer has the gift (or gifts) assigned to him by the Lord as needed at the Lord’s appropriate time.

The word translated best in 1 Corinthians 12:31 simply means “greater.” Some spiritual gifts are greater in significance than others, and it is proper for the believer to desire these gifts (1 Corinthians 14:1). Paul put a high value on prophecy, the ability to teach and encourage one another, but the Corinthians valued the gift of tongues. Yet, Paul put tongues at the end of the list. If only some in today’s churches would take the Bible’s counsel as inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Unity and diversity must be balanced by maturity, and that maturity comes with love. It is not enough to have the gift of the Spirit and gifts from the Spirit. We must also have the graces of the Spirit as we use our gifts to serve one another.

To Be Continued

Adapted and modified excerpts from Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary Volume 1.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: 1 Corinthians 12-13

Diversity: The Gifts of the Spirit

Please review 1 Corinthians 12:14-31 for background to this section.

Unity without diversity would produce uniformity, and uniformity tends to produce stagnation and death. Life is a balance between unity and diversity. As a human body weakens, its “systems” slow down and everything tends to become uniform. The ultimate, of course, is that the body itself turns to dust.

This helps to explain why some churches (and other Christian ministries) have weakened and died: there was not sufficient diversity to keep unity from becoming uniformity. The late minister, Dr. Vance Havner (who often had a great turn of phrase) has expressed it this way, “First there is a man, then a movement, then a machine, and then a monument.” Many ministries that began as a protest against “dead orthodoxy” became dead themselves; because in their desire to remain pure and doctrinally sound, they stifled creativity and new ideas.

However, if diversity is not kept under control, it could destroy unity; and then you have anarchy. We shall discover in 1 Corinthians 13 that it is maturity that balances unity and diversity. The tension in the body between individual members and the total organism can only be solved by maturity.

Using the human body as his illustration, Paul explained three important facts about diversity in the body of Christ. Why are there different members?

The body needs different functions if it is to live, grow, and serve (verses 14-20). No member should compare or contrast itself with any other member, because each one is different and each one is important. I suppose I could learn to walk on my hands, but I prefer to use my feet, even though I have not yet learned to type or to eat with my feet. The ear cannot see and the eye cannot hear, yet each organ has an important ministry. For example, have you ever tried to smell through your ears?

There is a tendency today for some people to seek after and magnify the “sensational” gifts. Some believers feel very guilty or at the least, less of a believer, because they possess gifts that do not put them into the limelight. It is this attitude that Paul opposed and refuted in this paragraph. Diversity does not suggest inferiority. Are we to believe that the sovereign Lord made a mistake when He bestowed the gifts?

The members promote unity as they discover their dependence on one another (verses 21-26). Diversity in the body is an evidence of the wisdom of God. Each member needs the other members, and no member can afford to become independent. When a part of the human body becomes independent, you have a serious problem that could lead to sickness and even death. In a healthy human body, the various members cooperate with each other and even compensate for each other when a crisis occurs. The instant any part of the body says to any other part, “I don’t need you!” it begins to weaken and die and create problems for the whole body.

A famous preacher was speaking at a ministers’ meeting, and he took time before and after the meeting to shake hands with the pastors and chat with them. A friend asked him, “Why take time for a group of men you may never see again?” The world-renowned preacher smiled and said, “Well, I may be where I am because of them! Anyway, if I didn’t need them on the way up, I might need them on the way down!” No Christian servant can say to any other servant, “My ministry can get along without you!”

To Be Continued

Adapted and modified excerpts from Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary Volume 1.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: 1 Corinthians 12-13

Unity: The Gift of the Spirit – Continued

Please review 1 Corinthians 12:1-13 for background to this section.

Some students have categorized the various gifts as the speaking gifts, the sign gifts, and the serving gifts. However, we should not be so fascinated by the individual gifts that we forget the main reason why Paul listed them: to remind us that they unite us in our ministries to the one body. The Holy Spirit bestows these gifts “as He will,” not as we will. No Christian should complain about his or her gifts, nor should any believer boast about his or her gifts. We are many members in one body, ministering to each other.

We have experienced the same baptism (verses 12-13). It is unfortunate that the term “baptism of the Spirit” has been divorced from its original New Testament meaning. God has spoken to us in Spirit-given words which we must not confuse (1 Corinthians 2:12-13). The baptism of the Spirit occurs at conversion when the Spirit enters the believing sinner, gives him new life, and makes his body the temple of God. All true believers have experienced this once-for-all baptism (1 Corinthians 12:13). It is the seal of the Spirit that we now belong to Christ. Nowhere does the Scripture command us to seek this baptism, because we have already experienced it and it doesn’t need to be repeated. In Ezekiel 36:26, God promised this “baptism” to all who turn to Him, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh (love).”

The “filling of the Spirit” however, (Ephesians 5:18-21) has to do with the Spirit’s control of our lives. (In Scripture, to be filled by something means “to be controlled by.”) We are commanded to be filled, and we can be if we yield all to Christ and ask Him for the Spirit’s filling. This is a repeated experience, for we constantly need to be filled with spiritual power if we are to glorify Christ and allow our lives to exalt Him. To be baptized by the Spirit means that we belong to Christ’s body. To be filled with the Spirit means that our bodies belong to Christ.

The evidence of the Spirit’s baptism at conversion is the witness of the Spirit within and the actions of a changed heart to one of love for others (Romans 8:14-16; 2 Corinthians 5:17). I’m sorry that this might offend some of my brothers and sisters, but the evidence is not “speaking in tongues.” The evidence is our witness and our love. All of the believers in the Corinthian assembly had been baptized by the Spirit, but not all of them spoke in tongues (1 Corinthians 12:30). The evidences of the Spirit’s filling are: love for others (1 John 4:7-11), power for witnessing (Acts 1:8), joyfulness and submission (Ephesians 5:19-21), Christlikeness (Galatians 5:22-26), and a growing understanding of the Word (John 16:12-15).

Because of the gift of the Spirit, which is received at conversion, we are all members of the body of Christ, which is witnessed by “the Spirit Himself” (Romans 8:16). Race, social status, wealth, or even sex (Galatians 3:28) are neither advantages nor handicaps as we fellowship and serve the Lord.

To Be Continued

Adapted and modified excerpts from Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary Volume 1.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: 1 Corinthians 12-13

Unity: The Gift of the Spirit – Continued

Please review 1 Corinthians 12:1-13 for background to this section.

From Last Lesson: We need to remember that God is sovereign and while the gifts named are adequate for the ministry of the church, God is not limited to these lists. He may give other gifts as He pleases.

The word apostle means “one sent under commission,” and refers primarily to the 12 Apostles and Paul. These men had a special commission, along with the New Testament prophets, to lay the foundation of the church (Ephesians 2:20).

The Apostles also were given the ability to perform special signs and wonders to attest the message that they preached (Hebrews 2:4). Paul had performed such miracles during his ministry in Corinth. In fact, Paul considered the Corinthian church a very special “seal” of his ministry as an apostle. Corinth was a difficult city to minister in, and yet Paul accomplished a great work because of the Lord’s enablement (see Acts 18:1-17).

Prophets were New Testament spokesmen for God whose messages came immediately from God by the Spirit. Their ministry was to edify, encourage, and comfort (1 Corinthians 14:3). Their messages were tested by the listeners to determine whether they were truly from God (1 Corinthians 14:29; 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21). Again, Ephesians 2:20 makes it clear that apostles and prophets worked together to lay the foundation of the church.

Teachers (also pastor-teacher) instructed converts in the doctrinal truths of the Christian life. They taught from the Word and from the teachings of the Apostles (tradition). Unlike the prophets, they did not get their messages immediately by the Spirit, though the Spirit helped them in their teaching. James 3:1 indicates that this is a serious calling.

The evangelist majored on sharing the Good News of salvation with the lost. All ministers should do the work of an evangelist (2 Timothy 4:5) and seek to win souls, but some men have been given evangelism as a special calling.

In the early church, miracles were a part of the credentials of God’s servants (Hebrews 2:1-4). In fact, miracles, healings, and tongues all belong to what theologians call “the sign gifts” and belonged in a special way to the infancy and establishment of the church.

Helps and governments have to do with the serving of others and the guiding of the church. Without spiritual leadership, the church flounders. Ministry (Romans 12:7) and ruling belong to this same category. Any believer with a true gift of ministry (service) should be grateful for people with the gifts of helps and leadership.

There were several “speaking gifts”: tongues and the interpretation of tongues (about which more will be said later), the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge (the ability to understand and apply God’s truth to a definite situation), and exhortation (encouragement, rebuke if necessary).

Giving and showing mercy relate to sharing material aid with those in need, as well as supporting God’s servants in ministry. The gift of faith has to do with believing God for what He wants to accomplish in the church’s ministry, that He will lead and provide. The discerning of spirits was important in the early church since Satan tried to counterfeit the work of God and the Word of God. Today, the Spirit especially uses the written Word to give us discernment (1 John 2:18-24; 4:1-6) especially so that we can stand against false teaching and false prophets (2 Peter 2:1).

To Be Continued

Adapted and modified excerpts from Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary Volume 1.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: 1 Corinthians 12-13

Unity: The Gift of the Spirit

Please review 1 Corinthians 12:1-13 for background to this section.

Since there was division in the Corinthian church, Paul began with an emphasis on the oneness of the church. He pointed out four wonderful bonds of spiritual unity.

We confess the same Lord (verses 1-3). Paul contrasted their experience as unconverted idolaters with their present experience as Christians. They had worshiped dead idols, but now they belonged to the living God. Their idols never spoke to them, but God spoke to them by His Spirit, and He even spoke through them in the gift of prophecy. When they were lost, they were under the control of the demons (1 Corinthians 10:20) and were “carried away.” But now the Spirit of God lived in them and directed them.

It is only through the Spirit that a person can honestly say, “Jesus is Lord.” A sneering sinner may mouth the words, but he is not giving a true confession. (Perhaps Paul was referring to things they had said when influenced by the demons prior to conversion.) It is important to note that the believer is always in control of himself when the Holy Spirit is at work (1 Corinthians 14:32) because Jesus Christ the Lord is in charge. Any so-called “Spirit manifestation” that robs a person of self-control is not of God; for “the fruit of the Spirit is . . . self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).

If Jesus Christ truly is Lord in our lives, then there should be unity in the church. Division and dissension among God’s people only weakens their united testimony to a lost world (John 17:20-21).

We depend on the same God (verses 4-6). There is a trinitarian emphasis here: “the same Spirit . . . the same Lord . . . the same God.” We individually may have different gifts, ministries, and ways of working, but “it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). The source of the gift is God; the sphere for administering the gift is from God; and the energy to use the gift is from God. Why, then, glorify men? Why compete with one another?

We minister to the same body (verses 7-11). The gifts are given for the good of the whole church. They are not for individual enjoyment, but for corporate employment. The Corinthians especially needed this reminder, because they were using their spiritual gifts selfishly to promote themselves and not to prosper the church. When we accept our gifts with humility, then we use them to promote harmony, and this helps the whole church.

The various gifts are named in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 and 28, and also in Ephesians 4:11 and Romans 12:6-8. When you combine the lists, you end up with nineteen different gifts and offices. Since the listing in Romans is not identical with the listing in 1 Corinthians, we may assume that Paul was not attempting to exhaust the subject in either passage. We need to remember that God is sovereign and while the gifts named are adequate for the ministry of the church, God is not limited to these lists. He may give other gifts as He pleases.

To Be Continued

Adapted and modified excerpts from Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary Volume 1.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: 1 Corinthians 12-13

Pastor’s Note: I was born-again in a Pentecostal Church, but as the Lord directed my wife and myself to serve where He leads, I followed less denominations and more closely to Charismatic theology. Over the years as my study has grown and I have seen the extremism and divisiveness of many (not all) denominations, I have tried to follow the balanced principles of the WHOLE counsel of God. This has led me to a path of teaching and study that does NOT embrace extremism of theology in any way. That is not to say I have compromised the teaching of the Word, at least to the best of my ability with the anointing of the Holy Spirit. It is a sad commentary that so many of my brothers, sisters, and peers, feel that if you don’t agree one-hundred percent with their theology, then there is a problem with you. I truly pray, that as the coming of our Lord and Savior draws closer, our hearts and spirits will also draw closer as the Apostle Paul wrote:

“With longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit . . .” (Ephesians 4:2-4).

I have always taught and believe that there is an over emphasis on titles and on the name of gifts a person manifests under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. My motto is this and it bears witness in experience and fact; you are what you do as God gives you the ability. There is no need to lift yourself up with a supposed title. Like any of God’s servants, your fruit will demonstrate your works.

To be clear, the following teaching is an adapted and modified teaching of Pastor Warren W. Wiersbe, of whom I agree with in most areas, theologically. I hope it blesses, encourages and instructs as you pursue the Lord’s direction and will in your life.

Be Wise About the Church Body

One of the marks of an individual’s maturity is a growing understanding of, and appreciation for, his own body. There is a parallel in the spiritual life: as we mature in Christ, we gain a better understanding of the church, which is Christ’s body. The emphasis in recent years on “body life” has been a good one. It has helped to counteract the wrong emphasis on “individual Christianity” that can lead to isolation from the local church.

Of course, the image of the “body” is not the only one Paul used in discussing the church, and we must be careful not to press it too far. The church is also a family, an army, a temple, and even a bride; and each image has important lessons to teach us. However, in three of his letters, Paul gave emphasis to the church as a body; and, in each of these passages, he brought out the same three important truths: unity, diversity, and maturity. The chart below makes this clear.

It is impossible to discuss the body without also discussing the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

It was the Spirit who gave birth to the body at Pentecost and who ministers in and through the body. In the Corinthian church, unfortunately, the members were grieving the Holy Spirit by the carnal ways in which they were using spiritual gifts. They were like children with toys instead of adults with valuable tools, and they needed to mature.

To Be Continued

Adapted and modified excerpts from Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary Volume 1.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: 2 Kings 6:8-7:20

5. The God Who Fulfills His Promises – Continued

Please read 2 Kings 7:1-20 for the background to this section.

From Last Lesson: When morning comes, the whole city will discover that the enemy has fled, and they’ll wonder why the men didn’t say something. When the truth comes out, the four men would be punished for keeping the good news to themselves.

It was night when the men found their way back to the city and approached the guard at the gate. Since these four men lived just outside the gate, the guard must have known them. The lepers gave him the good news and he shared it with the other guards, and one of the officers took the message to the king. Once again revealing his unbelief and pessimism (2 Kings 3:10, 13), Joram said that the whole thing was a trick, that the enemy was hiding and only trying to draw the people out of the city so they could move in. That was how Joshua had defeated the city of Ai (Joshua 8). It wasn’t so much that he doubted the word of the lepers as that he rejected the word of Elisha. Had he believed the Word of the Lord, he would have accepted the good news from the lepers.

One of the officers had the good sense to reason with the king. Let some officers take a few horses and chariots and go investigate the terrain. If it all turns out to be a trick and they are killed, they would have died had they stayed in the city, so nothing is lost. The officer wanted five horses but the king let him have only two chariots with probably two horses per chariot. The men found the camp devoid of soldiers. Then they followed the escape route all the way to the Jordan River, a distance of twenty-five miles, and saw on the ground the clothing and equipment that the Syrians had discarded in their flight.

The spies raced back to the city and shared the good news that the Syrian army was gone and their camp was just waiting to be looted. It was indeed a day of good news as the people found food to eat and to sell back in the city, not to speak of valuable material goods that could be converted into cash. But the main lesson isn’t that God rescued His people when they didn’t deserve it, but that God fulfilled the promise He gave through His prophet Elisha. Note the emphasis on “the word of the Lord” in verses 16-18.

Jesus has promised to come again, but in these last days, people are questioning and even denying that promise. Fulfilling what Peter wrote in 2 Peter 3, the scoffers have now come and are asking, “Where is the promise of His coming?” The church is like those four lepers: we have the good news of salvation and we must not keep it to ourselves. If people don’t believe the Word of the Lord, they won’t be ready for His coming; but if we don’t give them the message, they can’t be ready for His coming. What will we say when we meet the Lord?

Bad news for the king’s officer (verses 17-20). It appears that this officer had gradually accepted the pessimistic unbelieving attitude of his king. To him, it was impossible for the prices to fall that low in one day and for fine flour and barley to be available so quickly. But God did it! The very people he thought would die of starvation came rushing out of the gate. They knocked him down, trod on his helpless body, and he died. The Word of the Lord lived on but the man who denied that Word was killed. “Heaven and earth will pass away,” said Jesus, “but My words will by no means pass away” (Matthew 24:35).

Adapted and modified excerpts from Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Distinct, “Be” Commentary Series.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: 2 Kings 6:8-7:20

5. The God Who Fulfills His Promises – Continued

Please read 2 Kings 7:1-20 for the background to this section.

Good news from the Lord (verses 1-2). How fortunate it was for the kingdom of Israel that they had Elisha the prophet living and ministering among them! Throughout Hebrew history, in times of crisis, the prophets had God’s message for God’s people, whether they obeyed it or not. King Joram could turn to the priests of Baal, but they had nothing to say. The Lord spoke through “His servants the prophets” (2 Kings 21:10)

Joram wanting something to happen now; he would wait no longer. But Elisha opened his message with “tomorrow about this time.” What would happen? Food would once more be available and the inflationary prices would fall drastically. The fine flour for the people and the barley for the animals would cost about twice as much as in normal times. This was a great relief from the prices the people had paid for unclean food.

The officer who attended the king didn’t believe the words of the prophet and scoffed at what Elisha said. “Will it become like Noah’s flood,” he asked, “with food instead of rain pouring out of heaven?” (See Genesis 7:11. The Hebrew word translated “windows” in the King James Version means “floodgates.”) To the humble heart that’s open to God, the Word generates faith; but to the proud, self-centered heart, the Word makes the heart even harder. The same sun that melts the ice will harden the clay. The next morning, all the people in the city except this officer would awaken to life, but he would awaken to death.

Good news from the enemy camp (verses 3-16). The scene shifts to outside the locked gates of Samaria where four lepers lived in isolation (Leviticus 13:36). Nobody had told them about Elijah’s promise of food. They were discussing their precarious situation when they came to an insightful conclusion: if they stayed at the gate, they would die of hunger, but if they went to the enemy camp, they might receive some pity and some food. Even if the Syrians killed them, it was better to die quickly from a sword’s thrust than to die slowly from hunger. Lest they be observed from the city wall, they waited until twilight before going to the Syrian camp. Most of the camp would be resting and the lepers would have to deal only with some of the guards.

But nobody was there! The Lord had caused them to hear a sound which they interpreted as the coming of a vast army, and the Syrians had left their camp as it was and fled twenty-five miles to the Jordan River, scattering their possessions as they ran. The Lord had defeated the Moabites by a miracle of sight (2 Kings 3:20-23) and now He defeated the Syrians by a miracle of sound. They thought the armies of the Egyptians and the Hittites were coming to destroy them. The four lepers did what any hungry men would have done: they ate to the full and then looted the tents for wealth, which they hid.

However, as night came on, they stopped to have another conference and assess the situation. Why should an entire city be starving, and mothers eating their own children, while four dying men are selfishly enjoying the resources in the abandoned camp? Furthermore, when morning comes, the whole city will discover that the enemy has fled, and they’ll wonder why the men didn’t say something. When the truth comes out, the four men would be punished for keeping the good news to themselves.

To Be Continued

Adapted and modified excerpts from Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Distinct, “Be” Commentary Series.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.