For those of you who have followed the saga of our chilli-growing experiences over the past fifteen months or so, you may be wondering how things are going after our summer batch of chillies.

The tops of the chilli plants (where all the growing activity has been located up till now) look forlorn and rather sad. For weeks we assumed this was the end of the chillies and wondered if they would need pruning back and would then grow again next year, or if that was the end of the story. Then, just before Christmas, we noticed new signs of life lower down the plants:

New shoots are appearing; on Mummy Plant there is even a new flower lower down, so life is clearly ongoing. One area may not be yielding fruit any more, but the plant is clearly still thriving and the cycle of life and growth is ongoing. Even Runty, our little feeble plant, is still growing!

For us, this is a parable of growth. Periods of apparent stagnation, where nothing visible is happening, are deceptive. New life bursts forth when we least expect it. We are reminded of Is 43:19: ‘See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.‘

Don’t despair if you can’t see growth in your own life or in those for whom you are earnestly praying. New shoots will appear in God’s timing as you nurture godly habits and continue in God’s teaching.

In what must be a record for our church, we not only completed a whole chapter in the Bible study in one week, but a whole book! Admittedly that book was 2 John, which is one of the shortest letters in the New Testament, but even so, there was a real sense of achievement in the group tonight!

2 John contains many of the themes expounded at much greater length in 1 John: truth, abiding in Christ, acknowledging the humanity and deity of Jesus, belief in God the Father and in Jesus His Son, obedience to God’s commandments and the supreme importance of love. It too was written to counter heretical teaching (those who seek to deceive and are antichrists), to the extent that John warns the Christians not to show hospitality to those who teach false doctrine. He is at pains to remind us of the grace, mercy and peace which are found in God the Father and Jesus Christ and to show us that truth and love are not mutually incompatible, but necessarily go together. ‘Abiding in the truth is essential to maintaining brotherly love,‘ Dr Thomas Constable says, and certainly John warns us against those who would run ahead of God, claiming superior spiritual insight that goes beyond  historical, biblical truths. John Stott, commenting on these verses, writes “Christian faith is rooted in the historical events of the incarnation and the atonement, the revelation and redemption that were finished in Christ. To advance beyond Christ is not progress, but apostasy.” (The Epistles of John, P 211-212) We must seek to communicate truth in as relevant a way as possible to today’s society, but we must never compromise the truth – scandalous though the cross continues to be – in order to be more ‘relevant’ or to assume that we have ‘progressed’ beyond truth.

Heretics love to claim special insight, an insider knowledge which renders faith and obedience redundant. Marshall says “When the teaching of the Bible needs to be supplemented by some ‘key’ to the Bible or by some new revelation, it is a sure sign that ‘advanced’ doctrine is being put forth.”  We need to walk with God, continuing in His teaching, not lagging behind or running ahead if we are to live as God decrees.

John’s tone throughout the letter is one of affection and concern for the church. He asks them to follow God’s commands, rather than commanding them (see also 1 Thess 4:1, 1 Thess 5:12), even though his authority as ‘the elder’ was unquestioned. Christian leadership will always follow the principles of humility and service rather than dictatorship or authoritarian diktat. God calls us to relationship, with Him and with each other, and the concern John feels is rooted in that relationship. He longs to see them face to face (literally, ‘mouth to mouth’) so that their joy may be complete. Face-to-face communication allows misunderstandings to be resolved quickly, tone of voice to be understood immediately and relationships to be deepened. How we long for that face-to-face meeting with our Saviour! (1 Cor 13:12)

Many of you will probably remember English lessons at school and having the meaning of ‘simile’ and ‘metaphor’ drilled into you. A simile is a figure of speech when you say something is like… or as… something else. (eg “For hope grew round me, like the twining vine.” (Coleridge – Dejection)) A metaphor is a figure of speech when you actually say something is something else. (God is a rock.)

Similes and metaphors introduce us to language that goes beyond the functional. They help us to see beyond the tangible and visible precisely by using what is known, seen and familiar and linking these to something invisible or unfamiliar. A metaphor goes further than a simile in that it actually puts the two ideas together without any linking or comparison, and that often jolts us and makes us see something in an entirely different light.

The Bible study tomorrow will be looking at 2 John, which is generally understood to be written to a church rather than to an individual, despite its opening greeting ‘To the lady chosen by God and to her children.’ Metaphors such as this abound in the Bible. Why? What’s the point in saying something is something when it really isn’t?! To the literal-minded among us, metaphors are frustrating because even when you know the plain meaning of a word, they don’t really make any obvious sense.

 ‘A metaphor takes a word that is commonly used to refer to a thing or action that we experience by means of our five sense and then uses it to refer to something that is beyond the reach of our immediate senses.’ (Eugene Peterson, ‘The Jesus Way’, P 25) Metaphors are useful precisely because they convey ‘in a single word the indivisibility of visible and invisible, of seen and unseen, of heaven and earth.’ (ibid.)

When we say God is a rock, we know full well what a rock is like and can picture it clearly. God is invisible, however, and we cannot easily picture what He is like. The images we have of God are refined by our understanding of a rock. Clearly, God is far more than rock-like, but the known object leads us into contemplation of the unknown. Furthermore, metaphors often leave us puzzled, surprised or even confused. They require us to think about the description, to enter into the imagery and to use discernment and imagination to see what was previously invisible.

It’s rather like the ‘Night At the Museum’ films, where the exhibits in the museum come to life at night, leaving the night watchman bemused and bewildered! During the daytime, the exhibits seem staid and rather boring, but adventures galore happen after the museum is closed. In the same way, words can seem very dry and boring, but metaphors lead us into the open air and show us all the different ways in which we can see this invisible world inhabited by God. Our eyes are opened and our world of drabness and pragmatism is suddenly invaded by light and life, miracles and angels, eternity and hope. These two worlds are not separate, even though they may appear to be. The two aspects – drabness and colour, darkness and light, life and death – are indivisible and metaphor allows us to move freely between these two worlds.

We also had a birthday to celebrate last night!

In order to understand what is meant by ‘success’ in Christian terms, however, we need to have a Biblical definition of success, an understanding of who can succeed and some idea of how to be successful, for the world’s understanding of success is very different to God’s.

What is success?

Jesus is our ultimate example of success, for we know that He received God’s approval. (Matt 3:17) However, in the eyes of the world, Jesus does not seem successful: He lived for only 33 years and died an ignominious death, which does not feature in any ‘How to succeed’ manuals we may read! The key to understanding success is found in John 17:4. Success for the Christian is defined as bringing glory to God. We can’t simply look at outward actions, but must look at the motivation of the heart. 1 Cor 3:10-13 examines some of the motives for our actions, defining those which are not spiritual as ‘wood, hay and stubble’ and those which are pure as ‘silver and gold.’ The fire of God will burn up everything which is not pure, so we need to be sure that all our actions are motivated by a desire to glorify God. Luke 12:16-20 reminds us that success as defined by the world (wealth, prosperity, a life of ease) is not considered success by God (who called the man a fool.)

Who can succeed?

The good news is that everyone in God can succeed! The only qualification we need for success is a personal knowledge of God. Success comes as we depend on God in childlike faith and delight in His word. Col 2:6 reminds us that we have to continue in Christ as we started out: by faith, depending on God’s grace and help. 1 John 5:4 reminds us that everyone born of God overcomes the world, so we can be confident that we will succeed if we are rooted in God. Josh 1:8 reminds us also of the importance of meditating daily on God’s word, allowing it to feed and nurture us so that we are firmly planted in God. (Ps 1:1-3)

Success also comes to those who are determined not to quit. Abraham Lincoln is a good example of someone who overcame adversity and was not defeated by failure. Despite personal heartache, business failure and rejection, he persevered to become the president of the United States at the age of 52. Perseverance is needed if we are to succeed.

How can we be successful?

We become successful by:

• prayerfully seeking God for His specific plan in our lives
• having a vision for what God wants us to do
• committing ourselves 100% to that vision (which will always involve moving out in faith beyond our comfort zone!)
• asking God to set us free from anything that holds us back. (see Heb 12:1) Sin is the obvious thing that entangles us and holds us back, but the weights that can hinder us are not always necessarily sinful. Regrets, past rejections, shame, fear and lack of confidence can all hold us back.
• committing ourselves to the principle of servanthood, for true greatness comes as we serve God. Matt 20:20-21 reminds us that the way up in God is to start at the bottom! Matt 20:26 reminds us that if we want to be great, we have to become the servant of all, a principle Jesus embodied. (Phil 2:5-9) Every part of the body is required for us to succeed, so we need to seek God for how we can serve Him in our local church and community. Jesus was a success in heaven, on earth and under the earth, because He came to serve and not to be served.If we are to thrive and not merely survive and be faithfully productive and fruitful in 2015, we must learn the spirit of servanthood.

Guest speaker Yan Hadley spoke last night on the theme ‘Saved For Success.’ It is wonderful to know that God offers salvation to all, but we are also saved for a purpose. Is 61:1-6 looks at some of the ways in which God saves us for success, offering healing for our brokenness, revelation for our blindness and freedom for our bondage.

God’s purposes are that we:

1. Stand firm

Isaiah 61:3 says we shall be ‘oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord.‘ Oak trees can stand firm for centuries through storms and wild weather:

We often feel unsteady and unstable, but God wants to make us oaks of righteousness, standing firm in Him. We need to turn from compromise or sin in order to be sturdy in God.

2. Are stirred into action

Motivation is so important in life. God wants us to be passionate and excited about living for Him. Is 61:4 reminds us that there are purposes in God for us to achieve: rebuilding, restoring and renewing all that has been destroyed. The enemy seeks to erode all that is good. We live in a society where our Christian heritage is under daily attack, marriage no longer being honoured (and compromise even coming into the church if we are not careful); children’s innocence being attacked and persecution for our Christian faith on the increase. God wants us to be stirred into action to proclaim His truths. It starts with being stirred to pray, repenting of sin and pleading with God to move in our nation. (2 Chron 7:14)

3. Shine as trophies of His grace

Matt 5:16 reminds us that Jesus wants us to shine for Him. We can only do this as the glory of God fills our lives and we live each day with a sense of His presence. Is 61:6 says that others will call us priests of the Lord and ministers of our God. The church is here for healing and to be a prophetic voice. We are ambassadors for God. (2 Cor 5:19-21) Often we feel a failure in this regard, but Paul reminds us that our failures are not barriers to God, for Jesus can forgive, set us free and help us to live for Him. (see Rom 7:19, 24)