This morning I listened to this message by John Piper 'The Plundering of Your Property and the Power of Hope'. You can listen to an audio version and access the full transcript here.
The Christian Church in America suffers from about 350 years of dominance and prosperity. What I mean by dominance is that in most of American history being Christian has been viewed by the wider culture as normal and good and patriotic and culturally acceptable and even beneficial. What I mean by prosperity is that being Christian has generally resulted in things going well for us American Christians. Since the Christian ethos has been dominant, it has also been a pathway to success. And what I mean by suffering — that we are suffering from 350 years of dominance and prosperity — is that this has deeply ingrained in us a massively unbiblical mindset, namely, a mindset of at-homeness in this world and in this age. This has not been good for us. We are suffering from it, prosperous though we be.
We have been dominant and we have been prosperous, and therefore we have come to feel at home in this world, and have developed a deeply ingrained assumption that things should go well for us, and that this is our world and our age, that being a good Christian and being well thought of must go together, and that poverty and sickness and suffering and death is the worst thing that can happen in a land of Christian wealth and health and ease and upbeat, success-oriented vitality.
And so we have developed a form of Christianity to support this ingrained expectation of acceptance and comfort security and prosperity. This form of Christianity begins by focusing on our felt needs (not our eternal ones that we may not even be aware of), and it makes its appeal on the basis that Christianity will make life a lot better for us in this world. It has not been a call to suffer as an alien, but a call to prosper as a respected citizen — and to be very indignant and angry if someone reveals out Christianity as a liability and not an asset.
"Hebrews 10:32-36
Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.
You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised."
This text fills me with a longing to be free from domesticated, comfort-seeking, entertainment-addicted, prosperity-loving, security-craving, approval-pursuing Christianity, set free from this distorted, unbiblical, powerless Christianity by the power of hope. I hope it does the same for you.
The writer tells the church to “recall the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings.” The word “enlightened” is used at least two ways in the New Testament: it can mean that the one enlightened sees more clearly or shines more clearly. For example, it can mean that light “goes on” in the heart and truth is seen clearly that once was dark (as when Paul prayed that the Ephesians would have the eyes of their hearts enlightened to know God — 1:18). Or it can mean that what is enlightened (doesn’t see more clearly but) shines more clearly (as when Paul says that Christ lightened life and immortality, that is, Christ brought them to light; he made them shine more clearly — 2 Timothy 1:10).
What does it mean here in Hebrews 10:32? It’s pretty clearly a reference to their conversion. And both meanings seem to be very relevant from what we know about that conversion. On the one hand to become a Christian means (from 2 Corinthians 4:6) that God says, “Let there be light,” in our hearts and “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” fills us with confidence of his reality and worth. So we are “enlightened” in the first sense — we see the glory of God and the reality of Christ more clearly. Lights go on in us.
But then the New Testament talks about how becoming a Christian means we also shine like lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse world (Philippians 2:15). We don’t just see the light of God’s glory more clearly, we begin to reflect it. God shines into us and we shine out to the world.
So I take Hebrews 10:32 to point to these two things. These Christians had come to see the light of the gospel of the glory of God as true and infinitely valuable; and they had then begun to shine in the world as a witness to this truth and value. The first experience set them free from the world and the second made them stand out from the world, and be useful as a witness to the world.
And the result was suffering. Verse 32: “But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings.” It is not unnatural for the world to see the shining of Christian truth and Christian love and hate it. Just before Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good deeds and give glory to your Father in heaven” (which sounds like a positive response), he also said, “Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account” (Matthew 5:16, 11). In other words, some are enlightened by your shining; others are incensed by your shining.
In the former days, after the Hebrew Christians started to see the glory of Christ and to shine with the glory of Christ, they also started to suffer for Christ. That’s what Christianity meant. Receive Christ and receive suffering. Evidently they thought things or said things or did things that were not politically correct in those days and the upshot was that some of them got arrested and some others got in trouble because they stood by those who got arrested.
Verses 33–34 explain the way they suffered: ““sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison.”“
So there were two ways that these early Christians suffered: one was that some of them got arrested and put in prison, and the other was that the other Christians were willing to share their suffering by showing public sympathy.
This sympathy cost them a lot. Their property was seized and plundered. Verse 34: “You had compassion on them in prison, and accepted joyfully the plundering of your property.” The scene evidently is that some were put in prison. Others had to decide whether to show their solidarity with them or not. They remembered the teachings of Jesus, perhaps, and went to the prison. Jesus said, “I was in prison and you came to me . . . inasmuch as you did it unto one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:36, 40). Hebrew 13:3 says, “Remember those in prison as though in prison with them. Identifying with the offenders, those with culturally unacceptable views, cost them their possessions.”
(John Piper then draws corresponding examples to present day America:
- Reaching unreached people (eg. Ronnie Smith, killed a year ago in Libya)
- Slavery, human trafficking. (Eg. the End It Movement)
- Abortion (eg. Lecrae and Randy Alcorn)
- Race (eg. Ferguson, Missouri, Eric Garner, Selma)
- Marriage (eg. Calvin Cochran))
What is plain from this text is that the key to this kind of love, compassion, courage, and sacrifice is radical freedom from our love affair with our possessions and our popularity. Where does that freedom come from? The text is very clear in answer to that. It comes from an all-satisfying hope in the treasure God is beyond the grave. And the answer is not that it comes from some superior kind of grace given to saints and martyrs. It comes from cherishing the reward of heaven more than life on earth. This is the other aspect of being “enlightened” (verse 32). Their eyes were opened to see the glory and worth of their future reward. Verse 34b: “You accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an abiding one. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, hope, which has a great reward.”
[...]
We are at home in this world. We love our possessions and our popularity. We love approval. But these early Christians were aliens and exiles whose true home was in heaven and in the age to come with Jesus. That world was so real to them and so precious that they did the unthinkable: they “joyfully accepted the seizure of their property.” It’s the joy that’s so jolting here. It’s the joy. This gives fresh meaning to the Old Testament word: “The joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10).
There’s only one explanation for this joy: they really saw and really believed! They were “enlightened” by God to see it! They believed two things about their possession in heaven: one is that it is better (“you yourselves have a better possession” — verse 34) and the other is that this possession is abiding. In other words they really believed that this world is inferior and this world is temporary. The one to come is superior and the one to come is eternal.
These were not words; they were realities. They were so real that when the house and the furniture and the clothes and the books burned, and the horses were stolen, they knew (the word in verse 34 is “knowing”!) that God was actually preparing them for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. They said with Paul in 2 Corinthians 6:10 — we “have nothing yet we possess everything.”
The key to their joyfully accepting the plundering of their property in the midst of danger and loss was that they simply did not put much stock in this world. They had been transferred into the kingdom of God’s Son (Colossians 1:13). They had passed from death to life. Their lives were hid with Christ in God.
The two things that everybody wants they had found — but not in this world. Everybody wants the best happiness possible and the longest happiness possible. This is what the words “better and abiding” point to. They had a better possession and an abiding one. And the possession they had was a place at God’s side in glory. “In your presence is fullness of joy and at your right hand are pleasures for ever more.” Full and forever. Better and abiding.
If we are going to be courageous and fearless before our opponents, if we are going to live so that the worth of the gospel is manifest, if we are going to take the risks the early Christians took for Christ and his kingdom, if we are going to hope fully, then we are going to have to set our minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth. We are going to have to focus our mind’s attention and our heart’s affection on the better and abiding worth of our reward in heaven — God.
(This term I've fallen in love multiple times with this life, and I thank God for it and for the joy He has given me daily. But often I've wondered if sometimes the joyful light of this world blinds me to the realities of hope in God's promise of eternal life. This world naturally feels so much more real. In a though experiment my Focus group leader did with us, she asked how we'd feel and what we'd do if we knew Jesus was coming on Friday (she asked us on a Tuesday). A lot of what I immediately thought to do included saying goodbye to this world - like visiting my family, kissing Jacob goodbye, going for a long long run, longer than ever, and savouring that final experience of finite tiredness, crying at a sad movie because in heaven there are no tears of sorrow or conflict. I wrote in my diary 'What I realise is that there is so much on earth that I haven't done that I want to do, and I don't know what I feel about God taking it away and making it new. I like the oldness, the funny, quirky, sometimes wonky ways of the earth. I'd love for suffering and injustice to be gone, but I also fear not having the life I long to experience with all its flaws and difficulties before I leave this place. I want to grow old, be married, have children, laugh till I cry, fall over, fall in love continuously, eat good food and bad food and forgettable food, swim in salty water and have it sting my eyes, cut my fingernails and pull sweaty socks off my feet and shiver the cold from my bones when I enter a warm house and... this life you know? I love this life.' Perhaps the answer lies in the italics - I love life, and God promises life to the full (John 10:10). It is silly of me to wonder if I'll be happy and satisfied in heaven, because experience is not detracted when sorrow dies, but a new experience of eternal joy is given. I just need to remember not to love this life but to love this life.
I think I've departed somewhat from John Piper's sermon, which also includes standing beside those who are suffering and enduring suffering and difficulty yourself. This is difficult anywhere, and in Cambridge some of the issues he mentioned, like abortion, race and marriage are topics of discussion and disagreement in some areas. There is a predominant and accepted stance for each of them, which is figured in a certain way and often the way God asks us to respond and live according to His word doesn't correspond to how society tells us to respond and live according to the world. For instance, in the case of abortion, someone I know who is the most kind and loving person is really passionate about pro-life, and has openly held discussions and prayer groups about it. These discussions are held in a really loving, non-judgmental way that does not condemn any group of people but earnestly seeks to protect unborn children and advocate against abortion. She has received so much criticism and anger from people who have not got to know her or tried to see where she is coming from or how she is approaching the issue, and it is heart breaking and also incredibly inspiring to see her continue to persevere in what she knows God has asked her to do. I hope that I will have the same God-given wisdom and perseverance to stand fast in what God says is right and true, despite the multiple and different ways of seeing the world around me. Give me light to lighten my mind, O Lord, that I might see with clarity your world and live it out in this one.)
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