The Seven Works of Mercy Spiritual

John Wycliffe is one of my heroes. He lived in the 1300s and is best known today (if he is known at all) for his translation of the New Testament into English. For more on Wycliffe you can go to http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/john-wycliffe.html

This is an excerpt from “The Seven Works of Mercy Gostly.” 14^th century English was a little different than modern English - they even had characters that we don’t, so reading it can be difficult. Therefore I have modernized this. Some sections I have even paraphrased or rephrased: not to correct or improve Wycliffe, it is only an attempt to make the text readable for those who can’t navigate 14^th century English. My only comments are explanatory and are in brackets.

There are seven works of bodily mercy [these are taken from Matthew 25]

I hungered, he says, and then you fed me in my members;

I thirsted, and you gave me drink;

when I was a guest, you harbored me in your house, and gathered me to rest.

I was naked and you clothed me,

sick and you visited me,

I was in prison and then you came and visited me.

And the seventh from Tobit, burying of dead men that need burying

All these seven works of mercy they do to Christ when they do them to his members devoutly in his name.

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THE SEVEN WORKS OF MERCY GOSTLY [Spiritual]

Since we should serve our parishes in spiritual alms, as they serve us in bodily sustenance, it will be good to speak of the seven works of mercy that we call spiritual; these are better than the first seven, and have been called by these seven words, — Teach, Counsel, Chastise, Comfort, Forgive, Suffer, and Pray.

A man teaches another by the law of love, when he teaches him to love the will of God. 

A man counsels another when he moves him to a way that leads surely to heaven.

A man chastises another by word or by deed, or else by withdrawing of bodily help, when he helps him leave the sin that he was in.

A man comforts another when he encourages his soul to draw near to God.

A man forgives another the sin that he did to him, when he seeks not vengeance, but helps him to return to God.

By the law of love a man should suffer another [longsuffering, forbearing one another in love], much more should a pastor suffer his folks.

And since a man should pray for his enemies, as Christ did, much more should a pastor pray for his people.

And as a man’s soul is superior to his body, so these seven spiritual works surpass the other seven. And therefore each Christian man is obligated to do these seven, but more so the pastors. And so men of the holy Church should beware of this heresy, that bodily alms is better than spiritual alms. And thus the fiend [Satan] blinds pastors to covet to be rich. They should know that Christ himself was a poor man, and ordained his apostles to do these spiritual alms, and not just the bodily alms. For since alms are designed for the profit of the one who receives them, which is better, to bring a man’s soul to bliss, or to feed his body that lasts but awhile? And therefore Christ told Peter to feed his sheep by the meat of his word. And so Peter fed the folk in the teaching of God’s word, and left bodily feeding, since it fell not to him. And thus should pastors do. And this fiendish heresy deceives the Church, when they emphasize bodily works more than spiritual works.

We should believe that these works surpass other works of love, and failure to do these does more harm to Christ’s Church than lack of worldly goods. And in this manner the apostles of Christ built up Christ’s children; but now our Church suffers from the lack of these seven works of spiritual mercy; for now men seek after bodily things, like beasts, and leave spiritual things, and their faith fails. And therefore Christ praises more the hearing of God’s word, and the keeping of it, than his mother’s giving birth to him. And surely it was a holy thing to give birth to Christ, and nourish him in his youth by bodily food, and yet by the testimony of Christ it is much more holy to hear God’s word and to keep it, and yet more than this is to preach God’s word.

Thus the most holy work is to defend the faith of Christ and to preach the gospel, and to stand for Christ even if it costs you your life. And therefore Christ says that no man had more love than this, that a man should lay down his life for his friends. And so did Christ, and other Christian martyrs, who spoke the truth of God’s law because of the love of Christ and his Church, and suffered death for the keeping of his law. And since this is the best work that man may do in earth, the most cursed work that Antichrist has found is to hinder this sowing of the Gospel.

[He then speaks strongly against the pastors who don’t preach the Word but actually bring doubt about the Word. Such preachers are false and antichrist. He says a little later, “And thus is God’s law reversed by Antichrist’s pastors, so that good is called evil, and evil is called good.”]

Jesus Christ commanded his pastors to despise the world, and to teach his people the right way that leads them to heaven, both in manner of life and in their preaching. And so pastors should teach how men should come to the bliss of heaven, and not go downward to hell.

Lord! How glorious would your Church be if it stood simply by the ordinance of Christ, without fiendish novelties!

Thank you, Brenda

After my post yesterday I sang two choruses for the rest of the day and night! I thought I would share the story and teach them to you. If you know them, sing out; if not, join is as you catch on! It also caused me to think about some interesting moments on our Praise Team.

At Bible Covenant we used to have an annual camping trip. I remember the first time Steve and Brenda came with us. Brenda taught us two choruses. The first one was:

Know ye not, know ye not, ye are the temple 3x

Ye are the temple of the Holy Ghost

Filled with pow’r, filled with praise, filled with glory 3x

Ye are the temple of the Holy Ghost                (from 1 Cor 3:16)

The next one was the one I quoted yesterday

Jesus on the inside working on the outside

Oh what a change in my life    (3x)

Oh what a change in my life

We sang these a lot. And a little later on, when we finished Jesus On The Inside we would move into

And I’ll sing glory, glory, glory to his name forever

Glory, glory, glory to his name  (this we already knew, it is part of Carman’s Bless the Name of Jesus)

Brenda became a cornerstone of the Praise Team and a few years later she taught us a song that she had written, which we sang often, and which I can’t remember right now!

Libby was another sister who also became an anchor on our Praise Team. One Sunday night we held a baptism at Van & Keith’s house. When I arrived, Libby was already there, had her keyboard set up and was prepared to lead us in worship. The thing about it was, I knew nothing about it! She had practiced and practiced and then just stepped out! But it was cool, I just figured the Spirit had led her to do this. She taught us a beautiful chorus that night that we sang often thereafter - and I can’t remember that one either.

Then there was Jason. A wonderful brother who moved to Rock Hill from San Diego. We used to laugh at him because he was always cold – he would wear long johns when it was in the 50s! And he used to cut his own hair. He would come in with a buzz cut. “What happened to you, Jason?” He would explain that he cut his hair yesterday but that one side was shorter than the other. So he tried to even it out. Then the other side was shorter and so on until he had a buzz. His son often had the same cut!! But this brother could play the bass! He walked into Praise Team practice one day and announced he was working on a song and they helped finish it. Psalm 86:11-12. We sang that a lot too.

There is a hymn I used to sing when I was alone, Lion of Judah. One morning Tim announced he had put music to it and was going to teach it to us. I said OK but wasn’t really thrilled, after all I knew the “authorized” tune. We all fell in love with that song and sang it often as well!

Then there was the Sunday during Missions Conference that we had no drummer. The missionary, David Belle Isle, said he could play a little and would like to join us. It was so cool, our guest speaker was on the drums and boy could he play! He paid us the nicest compliment. We told him we had to be there at 9 so we could pray and then practice. He had been to Bible Covenant before and he said, “Yeah, I thought I remembered you were a church that really emphasized prayer.”

I could go on. Have got those first two songs down yet? Anyway, back to Brenda. I used to teach myself songs at the piano and once I got them down I would introduce them to the praise team. A couple I can think of right off are,

He is the King of kings

He is the Lord of lords

His name is Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, O………………..He is the King!

And,

There is joy in the Lord
There is love in His Spirit
There is hope in the knowledge of Him
There’s a fountain that flows
Like a river from heaven
Abounding in love to my soul

All blessing and honor are His, all glory and power are His
Let all wisdom and strength be the Lord’s in this place
Let all glory be given to Him

There is joy in the Lord
There is love in His Spirit
There is hope in the knowledge of Him
There’s a fountain I know
Every time I am near it
My heart overflows to the Lord

When I would bring them to the praise team, they would ask, “Where did you get this?” When I told them I learned it at the piano, they would say, “No. for real.” They never believed me! Whenever I told them that I had written the extra lyrics to a song we sang they never believed that either!! And Brenda was the most vocal. But I really did. That’s how I learned Lion of Judah mentioned above. I would often sit at the piano and play through the hymn book and chorus books for my own amusement and worship, and to learn new songs.

Thank you, Brenda for the songs you taught us. And thanks a lot for never believing me!

Does James Contradict Paul?

Justification by works? Or, Does James Contradict Paul? (James 2:14-26)

A short time ago I had a conversation with a blogger about this very question. He had posted a blog declaring we are justified by faith and works and used this passage. I have been contemplating this post for some time, especially how to keep it short! Now I think I have hit upon a plan! While I am so tempted to look at the entire passage, I will only focus on this phrase, “Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.”

Is it possible that James is declaring that we are justified before God by faith and works? Let’s compare notes. 

The Book of Acts - I think it is safe to say that the complete conversion process described in Acts is repentance, faith, and baptism. Everyone who took these three steps was considered a Christian. In fact, there are two places in Acts where someone asked, What must I do?

2:37  Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?

38  Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

16: 30  And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

31  And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

33  And he…was baptized, he and all his, straightway.

Neither Peter nor Paul said anything about works – and what a perfect opportunity to explain to the inquirers that they had to believe and work. Upon repentance, faith, and baptism they were promised remission of sins and salvation. If James is teaching justification by faith and works he is clearly contradicting the message in the book of Acts.

Paul - he has a lot to say about justification. But it can be summed up in this one verse, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:1). Notice the tense, being justified, or, having been justified. This took place in the past, when we believed in Jesus. How do we know that we are already completely justified? “We have peace with God.”

I asked the blogger (I think he is a pastor), If God has already declared me righteous by my faith in Jesus, how much more righteous can I be by my works? If I already have peace with God, what more do I need to do in order to have peace with God? He said my questions confused him. I bet they did. You see, if God has already declared me righteous, I cannot get any more righteous! There is absolutely nothing I can do to improve upon the righteousness of God. Not one thing. If James is teaching justification by faith and works he is contradicting Paul.

There are those who would say, “Not so. Paul only meant “works of the law. James is referring to different works.” Let’s see:

“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law”

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us”

So, Paul meant works of the law and any other kind of works of righteousness.

Therefore, James must mean something else.

Acts 15 – furthermore, James chaired the council in Acts 15 which met over what was required of Gentiles. He heard and approved of what Peter said about Cornelius, “And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us;  And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.” If James is teaching justification by faith and works he is contradicting himself!

One other things, if James is teaching justification by works then he has done the most dastardly deed imaginable – he has totally neglected to tell us what we must do to be right with God, how much of it and how long we must do it!! This is utterly unthinkable.

No, he must be saying something else. And he is. He was obviously dealing with people who had a warped idea of faith. Their idea seems to have been, “I believe there is one God.” That was it; that was all they offered. “Yeah, yeah, I believe all that stuff.” But their life was not changed.

I recently witnessed a conversation on Facebook that demonstrates this notion is still among us. A young man posted a rather questionable comment and was gently rebuked by a brother. He replied it was just a quote from a song he liked. Again, this brother encouraged him to listen to a different kind of music, since he said he was a Christian. The young man responded that he believed in Jesus, so it made no difference what he said or listened to. Then a third person joined the conversation and added, “Leave this fella alone, he believes all that Jesus stuff. He can do whatever and you cannot judge him for it.” That may not be word for word but it captures the attitude: “I believe in Jesus; I’ve done my bit, now I can do whatever.”

James responded to this with, “Wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?” Show me your faith without works and I will show you my faith by my works.

But what about “justified by works and not by faith only?” To justify means to declare righteous. We have already seen that when we believed in Jesus we were declared righteous by God. But men cannot see our faith, they can only see what we do. Therefore, we are declared righteous, or shown to be righteous, before men, by what we do.

This is illustrated by James’ example of Abraham: “Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?” But Abraham was justified before God 30-40 years before this! (And James says as much, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness) So this had absolutely nothing to do with his standing with God. BUT, when men saw that he would obey God like this their response was, “Yes. He truly is a righteous man.” And the reverse is true as well - when a person who claims to be a Christian fails and falls into sin, the response is almost always, “I thought he said he was a Christian.” Even other believers respond this way.

We are declared or shown to be righteous before men by our works. All the apostles taught this. Faith without works is dead. All the apostles taught this as well. And all the apostles also taught: “To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.” In other words, forgiveness of sins and right standing with God comes when we cease our efforts to be good enough and believe in Jesus Christ. When we do that our faith is counted to us for righteousness. But, this faith which justifies brings a change in my living as well.

As we used to sing:

Jesus on the inside

working on the outside

Oh what a change in my life! (3x)

Oh what a change in my life!

Amen.

A Confession

From time to time I hear people talking about some new teaching or emphasis they have discovered. Topics I have heard about recently include discipleship, missions, the public reading of the Scriptures in church and more. I confess, I struggle with my response. I am excited that they are seeing this and yet at the same time I feel frustrated, discouraged, and exasperated. Why in the world would I ever feel that way??

It would be one thing if they said, "Look what I have discovered. Don't know how I could have missed it, but I did. Now I want to recover this for me, for us etc." But they don't. They say, "Look at what I have discovered. I have discovered a new truth, hidden and unknown to the church since the apostles until now." Or, for some reason, that is how I hear it. And I wonder, "Where do you think it went? It has been around for ever and has always been emphasized. In fact, I preached and taught and emphasized this for years!" So, I confess, I have this problem.

This morning, for example, I was listening to a sermon in which the pastor quoted from 1 Timothy 4, "give attendance to reading" or, as his version has it, "devote yourself to the public reading of scripture." He was excited about his sense of being convicted by the Lord to do this. Unfortunately, as I listened, I think his understanding of this was that the pastor should be sure to preach and teach from the Bible. And he should. But this is covered in the rest of the verse, “Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.” And then he went on about how we should personally read the Scriptures and of all the benefits attending such reading. And that is also true.

And yet, sad. He read it then missed it. He said some wonderful things, but he missed the point of the verse. Now, I don’t know if they have added this to their worship since I last attended, but from what he said he missed it. This verse told Timothy and tells us to “give attendance to reading” or again, as the version he used had, “devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture.” This may be new to him, but this is actually older than the Church!

What? Yes! Israel had quite “the public reading of the Scriptures” program. Every year they read through the Torah, the first five books of the Bible (Genesis through Deuteronomy). They read anywhere from 6 to 10 chapters a Sabbath. In addition, they read through the prophets every two years! This explains Luke 4:16-17, “And he [Jesus] came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah.” He didn’t pick the text. The reading for that day was from Isaiah.

The apostolic church inherited this tradition. Hence Paul’s instruction to Timothy. The Greek Orthodox Church, who can literally trace their history back to apostolic times, still publicly reads through the New Testament, except for Revelation, every year. All liturgical churches publicly read the Scriptures - they read a portion from the Gospels, Epistles, and Old Testament. The schedule for this reading is called the Lectionary.

I remember when I was a young pastor. I was so spiritual - we worshipped the Lord and I taught the Word (unlike all the dead and liberal churches around us). But, I didn’t go in much for the public reading of the Scriptures, except for an occasional responsive reading selection from the back of the hymnbook. Then one Sunday we were visiting Mary’s folks (who were living in Jackson, MS at the time) and went with them to a Methodist Church. I secretly looked down on them as not as spiritual as they used to be and certainly not as spiritual as we were (see, I told you this was a confession). It wasn’t a great service but God emphatically spoke to me. As was their tradition, they had  a Scripture reading and a time of prayer. God opened my eyes and said, “That’s what I meant.” I discovered something, something as old as the people of God! And from that Sunday I set about to recover this for the church I pastored (always telling this story and emphasizing we were returning to ancient practice).  I chose to read through entire books and so diligently created my own lectionary. I decided that with today’s limited attention span and service times, we would read no more than 20 verses at a time. And so we read through most if not all the New Testament and some of the Old.

This is what Paul meant when he wrote, “give attendance to reading.” It saddens me that contemporary churches have, for the most part, thrown this out. As well as the pastoral prayer. Get this, C.H. Spurgeon, in his lectures to his young preachers, said the pastoral prayer should be no longer than 15-20 minutes!!! But that’s another post.

As I mentioned earlier, I do not know if this brother will institute such a public reading program or not. I hope he does, because that would be the biblical thing to do. Besides, I got carried away. This is really a confession on my part to my mixed feelings when I hear such things. After all, my blog is all about me, right? :-)


If you are interested, this is the LITURGY OF THE WORD in liturgical churches

First Reading
After the reading the reader says: The Word of the Lord.
All respond: Thanks be to God.

They sing a Psalm

Second Reading
Again the reader says, The Word of the Lord.
All respond: Thanks be to God.

The Gospel
"A reading from the holy gospel according to..."
At the end of the gospel, he says, The gospel of the Lord.
all respond: Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

I find it rather amusing that while evangelical churches look down on them, the liturgical brethren have a rather high regard for the Word of the Lord!

Observations from behind the counter

Just some random things I notice and think about at work.

Do you have a bathroom? It is astounding how many people are driving around Rock Hill all night long looking for a bathroom

The Lottery  it amazes me how many people have a system or a plan for playing the lottery! Do they not stop and think, “The reason the lottery has so much money is the vast majority of those buying into it will lose”? Some people have their “lucky numbers” that they play every week for Powerball. They lose every week, but they keep playing their lucky numbers! I have one man who comes in frequently and will spend $200 to $250 dollars buying scratch off tickets (4 at a time, then he goes outside to scratch them off and comes back in for more…); when he wins $100 he walks away like he won something.

20 dollar bills Usually beginning Thursday night everybody has a 20 dollar bill. They buy everything with a 20. Even a 50 cent paper. By Sunday morning I hate 20s!

(Didn’t typewriters use to have a key with the cent symbol? Why don't computer keyboards have one?)

make up your mind already – I am surprised at the number of people who have trouble deciding things. They will come in with the intention of buying gas, come to the counter, “I want……$10 gas. No, make it $11. No, $10." Or, ask and pay for $10 gas, turn to leave and then come back to the counter, Can you make it $11?

A man came in last night and said, “I would like a box of Newports. Wait, how much are Marlboro 72s. No give me Newports. Wait, do you have any specials? No, Newports. Uh, how much are those Camels? I’ll just take Newports.” I asked, Are you sure? Finally he was!

The Slammer is a newspaper that has pictures of everybody in all the surrounding counties that was arrested last week. People are enthralled with this. We have to staple them, otherwise people will stand at the counter and look through the entire paper! They seem fascinated with other people’s misery and misfortune.

That reminds me of reading. People in Rock Hill seem functionally illiterate. That or practically blind. We will have a sign on the door saying, Sorry we are temporarily closed. They will still pull on the door and be shocked that it won’t open. We could put a sign at a product saying, Pepsi $1 and they will ask, How much is this? I guess the joke is on us, because we still put the signs up!

That reminds me, I believe if we had a barricade at the door, people wanting beer and cigarettes would climb over just to get in. That is why Saturday night is nice, no beer after midnight. Well, except for the people who think that doesn’t apply to them or they are somewhere else J

Seven Works of Mercy Bodyly

John Wycliffe is one of my heroes. He lived in the 1300s and is best known today (if he is known at all) for his translation of the New Testament into English. For more on Wycliffe you can go to http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/john-wycliffe.html

I am presenting here excerpts from his work, The Seven Werks of Mercy Bodyly. This tract or book has two parts: “The Seven Works of Mercy Bodyly and The Seven Works of Mercy Ghostly.” 14^th century English was a little different than modern English - they even had characters that we don’t, so reading it can be difficult. Therefore I have modernized this. Some sections I have even paraphrased or rephrased: not to correct or improve Wycliffe, it is only an attempt to make the text readable for those who can’t navigate 14th century English. Here and there I have made comments – they are all in italics.

The Seven Works of Mercy Bodyly (1382)

If a man were sure that he should tomorrow come before a judge and either lose or win all the goods that he had, and his life too, he would dread this judgment, and busy himself full fast to ready him and his to have the sentence for him. But where is our belief in the day of doom, when we know that we shall come before the highest judge, and be judged of our life and all things that we have, to win it ever in bliss, or else to lose it ever more in pain of hell, with fiends and their angels? This should be our faith. And since our belief teaches us that Christ has mercy only on him that has been merciful, each man should learn to be merciful. And therefore saith Christ in the book of His gospel, Blessed be merciful men, for they shall have mercy!

There are seven works of bodily mercy, and other seven works of ghostly [spiritual] mercy; and Christ loves these more, as he loveth the soul more than the body, for it is better. But, since bodily works are better known to us than are ghostly works, therefore begin we at these bodily works, for so does the gospel. Christ says, when he shall come in the day of doom, there shall be gathered before him all manner of folk; he shall separate them as herdmen do sheep from goats. Sheep that shall be saved shall be on his right hand, and goats that shall be damned shall be on his left hand. And then shall he say to these that shall be saved, “Come my blessed Father’s children, and take ye bliss of heaven that was ordained to you before the world was made.” And Christ tells in order six works of mercy, whereby they shall have bliss. I hungered, he says, and then you fed me in my members; I thirsted, and you gave me drink; and when I was a guest, you harbored me in your house, and gathered me to rest. I was naked and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, I was in prison and then you came and visited me. The seventh work of mercy is mentioned in the book of Tobit [apocryphal book], burying of dead men that need burying. All these seven works of mercy they do to Christ when they do them to his members devoutly in his name.

But here many men wonder whether it is a work of mercy to do these deeds to them that shall be damned in hell, since it is certain that none of these are Christ’s lambs, and the gospel makes no mention of reward for these alms, only of those done to members of Christ. But this seems heavy and against reason, since no man but God knows who shall be saved, nor who is ordained to bliss or ordained to be damned. But here we see that each man should beware in his works of mercy that he nourish not lambs of the fiend [devil]; for if he do this knowingly, he wars against Christ, and maintains lambs of the fiend to work against Christ, and this is open treason, as each man may see. And therefore each Christian man should use discretion to whom he does his alms, lest he revile Christ. For if a man do these alms to him that lives evil against the law of his God, and stands with the fiend, it only nourishes him, and by this he supports the fiend against Jesus Christ. And therefore Christ asks two things of thine alms, that thou do it in his name, and also discretely.

on giving alms to priests who continually beg for money

[Above he asked about giving alms to unbelievers. His example of this is friars, priests and bishops! These begged and demanded money, and so he says] And thus Christ ordained how his priests should serve him by good life and good deed, and not by false words. But Christ has limited in his law who should have such alms, — poor men and blind, poor men and lame, poor men and feeble, who need such help. And thus should rich men of this world give alms to poor men that the gospel limits to help, nor they should ask proof [do you really need help? And thus be slow to give alms], nor too lightly give their goods, but be discrete in alms and base their giving on God’s law.

[Wycliffe then asks, What shall we think about the friars, monks and priests who are always begging? It is amazing how this applies to our day and the preachers who are always asking for our money. Is giving to them] any of the seven works of mercy? It is open error [this begging]. And this may we see by the Scriptures, that tell openly how priests should live a poor life, as men did in the state of innocence, — without excess, as Christ himself lived; without begging as friars, or doing as other bishops and monks; all this is unlawful or God’s law is false. If noble-men be bishops, let them think on Christ, who was the most noble man that ever was on earth, for his Father was God and his mother Mary. And since Christ, noblest man that may be on earth, was poorest man of all when he chose to be bishop, these then should be poor as Christ was and take meekly that state that Christ chose. And if they reverse the sentence of this word, they are false, and so hated of Christ, and most cursed men that ever God suffered. And so these irreligious [priests] that have possessions, they have red and fat cheeks, and fat and great bellies. Men should think on God’s word said by Ezekiel, that there were four wickednesses done by the men of Sodom: pride in heart, fulness of meat and of drink, abundance of riches, and idleness of travel. For, as God’s law says, all these are wickedness, and it is not devotion to support such wickedness. And since these four were wickedness in secular men, much more they are wickedness in priests, that Christ forbids to live such a life or thus have possessions. Either God’s law is false, or it is unlawful for priests to live this way.

The Day of Doom as motive for almsgiving

Men say this is true, when a peril is nigh, then men dread it and seek help in many ways. If I knew that by the law of man my cause should be judged to death, I would be busy and dreadful that it went on my side; but now the day of doom is far from our living. Well I know that thus men speak that savour the world. But would God that such men knew this, that the day of judgment, that is present to God, is very close, and then should they have more faith in the day of doom than they have of any work that men do in this life. For we are certain that dooms day must come, and we must answer to Christ for all that we have done. And so this great doom of God surpasses doom of men in certainty of coming and in dread of peril. Nothing is more nigh than the day of doom. For since a man may see something that is past, and God’s sight without measure is more than the sight of man, then God may see all things that ever was before, and by this same reason all things that shall be; and so all the day of doom is present to God. And so the great sight of God holds together all things that have been and all that shall be; and so a thousand years is fresher in God’s sight than is yesterday in the mind of man. “For when I think”, says Jerome, “on the day of doom, I tremble in my heart for perils that shall then fall; for whether I eat or drink, me thinks that the angel trump sounds in my ear, and bids me rise to judgment.”

This is a truth we do not hear much about today. Wycliffe in speaking of this great and terrible day and telling us how “we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.”

Alms not pleasing to God, if the money was not righteously gotten

Men should know that these goods were justly gotten of which they do their alms. For since each alms that men do they give first to God, and God does not reward for such goods that be not justly gotten, it is necessary alms should be given out of money justly gotten. For since giving is not worth anything unless God approves it, and God does not approves the unjust having of things, then it is not alms to give of these things. Lord, how should God approve that you rob Peter, and give this robbery to Paul in the name of Christ? You would make Christ consent to theft. And if you say you gave this good in

the name of God, that makes it more sinful, for here you say God approves it. For God asks cleanness of heart when men do their alms.

Restitution of ill-gotten gain before alms

But here men wonder to whom men should restore the goods that they have gotten with wrong, since they should not do their alms of such ill-gotten goods before they had restored their theft to men that should have them, and make amends to God. But oft times it may happen that these men are dead, or else he knows them not, or they dare not come to him; how should he do alms that is a rich robber, and is wrapped in such cases?

But to this doubt may men answer by reason of God’s law, and say that such robbers should first have contrition, and purpose never to sin so after, and make restitution to these men that they should. And, since this is seldom seen, therefore this sin is great, and wraps them in the grip of the fiend. But first, I think, they should restore to the men they have robbed, or else neighbors that had right to these goods; and if this may not be done, find poor men of the gospel, and give them wisely God’s goods. But yet men doubt commonly, whether they should pay their debt [make restitution] to these men that they know live a wicked life. But according to God’s law, men should serve truly their God both by word and deed, and pay them their debts, and hope for their amendment.

Almsgiving was taught, emphasized and expected of the righteous both by the Jews and by the early church. We hear almost nothing about this today. For us, personal piety consists of having regular devotions – in fact, that is what we call it, devotions. For the early church, even through the middle ages, personal piety was thought of in terms of almsgiving. This was based on the teaching of the Lord Jesus. A verse often quoted was Daniel 4:27

[Greek] Therefore, O king, let my counsel please thee, and atone for thy sins by alms, and thine iniquities by compassion on the poor: it may be God will be long-suffering to thy trespasses.

[Latin] Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to thee, and redeem thou thy sins with alms, and thy iniquities with works of mercy to the poor: perhaps he will forgive thy offences.

Consider this also, how literal he is in his explanation of Scripture, and so practical. Also, consider how bold he was to rebuke and reprove so sharply people who had the power to hurt him.

Feeble And Sore Broken

38  A Psalm of David, to bring to remembrance.

This Psalm seems rather dark. Why choose it? Why not choose a lighter one? I admit, when I found verse 8 for my blog title, I read through the Psalm and thought, “Wow, how dark and almost hopeless.” It was as if I had never read it before,  But as I meditated on it I began to think that it has something to say to our sitcom Christianity – you know, introduce a problem, solve it in 30 minutes, and move on to the next one.

What is he bringing to remembrance? His sin, or better, the sorrow he has for his sin and the deep conviction he feels and the trouble, grief and chastisement he is suffering because of it. No one seems to know what he did but he is clearly suffering the consequences for it.

I have arranged this psalm in what I perceive to be the “stanzas” (each stanza being 8 lines) and I have arranged it according to the rhyming pattern. Hebrew poetry rhymes thoughts rather than sounds and this is written in couplets. I have also removed most of the words in italics. The King James translators supplied words in italics that aren’t in the original in an attempt to help it make good sense in English.  In this case, I don’t think it worked and messes up the terseness of the poetry.

1    O LORD, rebuke me not in thy wrath:

      neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.

2    For thine arrows stick fast in me,

      and thy hand presseth me sore.

3    no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger;

      neither rest in my bones because of my sin.

4    For mine iniquities are gone over mine head:

      as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.

He sinned and is now enduring the rebuke and chastening of the Lord for it. God is dealing with him in a strong way – in his soul (thine arrows and thine hand) as well as in his body (no soundness in my flesh). There seems to be a literal physical malady.

5    My wounds stink, are corrupt because of my foolishness.

6    I am troubled;

      I am bowed down greatly;

      I go mourning all the day long.

7    For my loins are filled with a loathsome:

      and no soundness in my flesh.

8    I am feeble and sore broken:

      I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.

He elaborates on his condition. He is suffering greatly in his body but worse in his heart: I am troubled / I go mourning all the day / the disquietness of my heart. Not everyone who sins suffers bodily ailments (and not every bodily ailment is the result of sin), but every child of God who sins suffers this conviction. When a believer falls into sin there are many who fret, “They are getting away with it.” Read Hebrews 12:5-8 and stop fretting! Read this psalm and stopped being vexed!!

9    Lord, all my desire before thee;

      and my groaning is not hid from thee.

10  My heart panteth, my strength faileth me:

      as for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me.

11  My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore;

      and my kinsmen stand afar off.

12  They also that seek after my life lay snares:

      and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things,

      and imagine deceits all the day long.

He lists the troubles his sin brought: he suffers inner turmoil –his strength is failing, the light of his eye is gone out, he is alienated from his family and friends, and there are those who seek his hurt.

13  But I, as deaf, heard not;

      and as a dumb man openeth not his mouth.

14  Thus I was as a man that heareth not,

      and in whose mouth are no reproofs.

15  For in thee, O LORD, do I hope:

      thou wilt hear, O Lord my God.

16  For I said, lest they should rejoice over me:

      when my foot slippeth, they magnify against me.

He has only one hope, the Lord. He has nowhere else to turn. This would be the purpose of the chastisement of the Lord. God’s rebuke for his sin is intended to strip him of reliance on his own righteousness and all trust in himself.

Notice how he uses the names of God:

For in thee, O Yahweh, do I hope:

      [this is God’s personal name, and this is deeply personal]

Thou wilt hear, O Adonai my Elohim

      [Adonai is Lord; Elohim is God and refers to Him as the covenant making and keeping

      God. His only hope is Yahweh and the covenant of mercy!]

17  For I, ready to halt,

      and my sorrow, continually before me.

18  For I will declare mine iniquity;

      I will be sorry for my sin.

19  But mine enemies, lively, they are strong:

      and they that hate me wrongfully are multiplied.

20  They also that render evil for good are mine adversaries;

      because I follow good.

The chastisement of the Lord has had it’s intended effect, he is ready to confess his sin, be restored to God and delivered from the inner turmoil and physical distress. But alas, his enemies are still there, ready to pounce on him.

21  Forsake me not, O LORD:

      O my God, be not far from me.

22  Make haste to help me, O Lord my salvation.

His sin has had a real and tremendous impact on him and there does not seem to be an instant cure. But he is brought back to his one hope. This has taught him that he is not sufficient. He is overcome by sorrow, grief, actual physical pain, and enemies. He cannot get out on his own so he turns to the Lord. Make haste to help me. He again employs the three names of God: forsake me not O Yahweh, O my Elohim be not far from me, make haste to help me O Adonai.

He really is in a good spot, he has one and only one hope, O Lord my salvation. Not, Lord of my salvation, but simply, O Lord my salvation. “You are my salvation. If You do not undertake for me I will not and can not be saved.”

This psalm doesn’t end the way we would like for it to, with praise for forgiveness and deliverance. But this is real life. Sometimes our sin brings us low. So low we are simply overcome with the grief and pain of it and there is no way out. But the psalm ends the way God wants it to end, with the sinner turning to the Lord as his only hope for salvation.