October 27, 202

     I can remember growing up, my mother’s last words as I was headed out the door would often be “stay out of trouble,” – no doubt many can remember parents saying that or something much like it. I took what she said seriously and tried not to do things which could land me in some kind of difficult situation. Her advice served me well (don’t tell her I said that). I didn’t get into any real trouble growing up and my life was certainly easier because of that. Now that I am grown, I like many others still try to stay out of trouble. Generally this is good advice but there are times when my desire to stay out of trouble conflicts with God’s expectations for my life.

     As I read through the New Testament, especially the epistles, I am struck by how often there was trouble and what was done about it. From sexual immorality, to pride, selfishness, divisiveness, and false teachers Churches had all kinds of trouble. When this happened contrary to my mother’s advice Paul, Timothy, Silas, or someone else would go and work to help their brethren with the trouble they were in. Timothy is told to gently correct his enemies (II Tim 2:25), to preach the word of God even to people who don’t want to hear it (II Tim 4:1-3). Titus is told that part of the work of elders was to silence rebellious men, who are empty talkers (Tit 1:10-11). Jesus on many occasions could have avoided conflict if he’d wanted to. He could have waited to heal the blind man in John 9. He could have toned down his claims of divinity in John 5, 6, 8 and 10. He could have kept his mouth shut about the hypocrisy of the Pharisees (Matt 23). He could have stayed away from Jerusalem in John 11 and Matthew 20 but he didn’t. Instead he got into trouble.

     I have no doubt that Jesus’ mother wished he had listened to her and stayed out of trouble as she stood at the foot of the cross. But as I look back at the cross and what it means for my life, I’m glad Jesus was willing to get into trouble.

     What about us? In the short time that I have been in ministry, there have been many times when I have thought how much easier it would be to listen to my mother and stay out of trouble. When I have wanted to avoid dealing with an unpopular issue, or just keep quiet about a bad choice someone is making. Times when preaching that I have wanted to leave out one of the points that scripture makes about a subject because I know people won’t like it.

     As I read and hear of all the trouble among brethren my heart breaks and I can hear Paul saying “Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches”. What I have to ask myself and what I want you to ask yourself is do I care enough to get into trouble?

~ Kevin Cleary