Finish the Job You're Given to Do!

At least once a year, I go back and read through some of my favorite classics. I just finished rereading Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, losing myself in Elizabeth Bennet's story and her blossoming romance with Mr. Darcy. I love it! 

But every time I reread that book, when I dip back into the writing style and the language of the early 1800's, my experience is always tainted with a little bit of "culture shock," because we don't talk like this anymore: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters."

It's a brilliant beginning to a book, but if we were to rewrite Austen's first paragraph to fit 2021, it would say: "Everybody knows that a rich dude needs a wife, whether he knows it or not, and since everybody knows this, then he's fair game for the dating scene." (Apologies to Austen.)

I've kind of gotten to where I dread closing out the study of each book of the Bible that I go through. Y'all, listen, I get that the words on the page in most of the translations can sound archaic sometimes. This is an old book. But the words on the page tell a timeless story, a story that transcends all time, because it began before time and is continuing on today and will carry on for eternity, so... it involves every single one of us -- believers of these words and unbelievers alike. We are each an essential part of the story of the Bible.

And that's why it can never grow stale.

Okay. I've finally arrived at 1 Corinthians 16. When I began this book, I was a little afraid of it. Maybe afraid isn't the right word. But I was leery. I knew the material in the book -- lots and lots of discussion about order of worship in the church and spiritual gifts, even directions on marriage and giving in marriage... and I just wasn't sure how it would all shake out. But I love how the Holy Spirit took me into the book and brought me out so. much. richer. for the experience. I hope you feel the same way.

In this final chapter of the book, Paul finished out with his traditional closing comments. I call it "shop-talk." He addresses any final concerns and sends greetings. In the middle of the shop talk, he places a gold nugget that I'm going to pull out and ooh and aah over for a few minutes. Paul says: "But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door for effective work has opened for me, and there are many who oppose me" (1 Corinthians 16:8). 

This entire letter that Paul has just written to the Corinthian church was written while he was in Ephesus. In Ephesus, there was a "great door for effective work" right smack in the middle of "many who oppose me."

So look at the setting and what Paul is facing: "About that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way [what this new Christian movement was called]. A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in no little business for the craftsmen. He called them together, along with the workmen in related trades, and said: 'Men, you know we receive a good income from this business. And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that man-made gods are no gods at all. There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited, and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty'" (Acts 19:23-27).

Enter the villain. When my novels passed under my editor's criticism, she often tagged me for making my "villain's monologue" too... monologue-y. You know what the villain's monologue is: It's where the end of the mystery has wrapped up, the bad guy is facing down the good guy, and all is being explained. Every loose end, wrapped up. Every waving plot thread, tied together with the story. 

It drives my husband crazy, because what real villain stands around and explains his nefarious plan to his enemy until the police arrive and halt his final crushing blow in the nick of time?

Anyway, Demetrius' "villain's monologue" is used to stir up the crowd. They get mad. They start shouting: "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" There was an uproar, pretty nearly a riot. The people grab Paul's traveling buddies, and they all stampede into the city's theater. 

Paul wants to calm the crowd, go talk to them, reason with them a bit. But when mob-mentality takes over, reason is long gone. (Side note: Have we seen examples of this loss of reason over the 2020/2021 riots? Why yes, I believe we have.) Anyway, the disciples in Ephesus, even some of the officials of the province, won't let Paul go out to the crowd, because they would have killed him on the spot.

The riot grew; "most of the people did not even know why they were there" (Acts 19:32). Heh. Riots. It took a city clerk to restore order. He assured the people that Paul was not going to take their beloved goddess away from them, and that if they had a problem, they had a means for legal redress (they could take it through the court system).

What blows my mind about this whole situation is this: Paul calls this whole brouhaha (that's one of my favorite words, by the way, so I sneak it in whenever I get a chance) "a great door for effective work" (1 Corinthians 16:9). He ain't kidding when he adds, "...and there are many who oppose me."

He doesn't say: "But there are many who oppose me;" he tacks this fact on with the conjunction and.

The effective witnessing opportunity is there along with opposition. Not in spite of.

Y'all, do we ever bow out when there's opposition to the message the Lord gives us to preach, teach, live? I am directing this to myself just as much as to anyone else; the Holy Spirit is breathing this in letters of fire on my own heart this morning. 

Paul... faced with this opposition, seized the opportunity for effective work -- aligned himself with Jesus' commission to preach the Gospel in all the world -- and he stayed on at Ephesus until the Lord led him out.

Whatever opposition you're facing today, make sure you're facing it along with, not in spite of. When God opens a door, enter that room and do all the work in that room you're supposed to do before you exit and move into another room.

Don't leave any work undone.

This is not to say there is never a time to go. Paul left Ephesus eventually and moved on. He had other people to reach, other churches to gather and organize. Even Jesus said in Matthew 10:14: "If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet. Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town" (Matthew 10:14-15). What happened to Sodom and Gomorrah? They got buried beneath a deluge of fire and brimstone because of their wickedness. Ouch!

But the Holy Spirit still had work for Paul to do. He stayed in Ephesus because a great door for effective work had opened for him and [not but] there were many who opposed him."

Paul didn't just preach this theme; he lived it. He walked in a manner worthy of the calling he had received (Ephesians 4:1)! At the end of his last letter to Timothy, he said: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day -- and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for His appearing" (2 Timothy 4:7-8).

He didn't walk off the track halfway through. He didn't even leave the track in the final stretch. He only left the race after he'd crossed the finish line.

If you are working in a room where "there are many who oppose you," those many who oppose you may just be the ones who have prompted the Holy Spirit to open this "great door for effective work." Don't leave the room until you've completed the entire job the Lord called you to do in that room.

I'm sorry to leave this letter behind. I've learned so much as I've dived into it. But tomorrow, I'm heading back into the Old Testament to a book I haven't read in a while, but is one of my favorites: It's about a Jewish girl who plays a pivotal role for such a time as this.

Can't wait!