by Paul Harrison
President Pinson, Welch College family and friends, and esteemed graduates: As followers of Jesus the Christ, we are witnesses of and combatants in a great war. A massive and dark army is surging forward in our world, leaving devastation in its wake. Ruthless and malignant, they press on seeking to bend all to the evil will of their master. They have every follower of Jesus in their crosshairs, and many are falling on our right and left. Individual believers and whole churches—and I do not exaggerate to say entire denominations—are succumbing to their force.
In earlier days these enemies sought to advance through subterfuge and subtlety. One needed a discerning eye to ascertain their point of attack. That day is past. Now they boldly press the fight, demanding from us nothing short of complete submission. They would have us embrace their ideology. They would have us forsake our commitment to God’s Word. They would have us undermine the moral code the Almighty wrote with His own finger. And be not deceived, they would have us deny the very Lord Whose blood bought us.
Some, squeamish of battles and blood, would wish for an exemption from warfare and would seek fields of service where none slay nor be slain. I must tell you: There are no such fields. The battle pursues us and will find us and reveal our fight or lack thereof.
Thomas Hardy wrote of “the vast middle space of Laodicean neutrality.” You recall Laodicea, those “neither cold nor hot,” but tepid as the Latin Vulgate puts it. They sought that neutral, that non-extreme, that middle position. How tragic that Hardy’s experience led him to employ the adjective “vast” to describe this neutral space. But know this: To be neutral is to capitulate to the enemy. None other than our Master calls us to be hot in His service. Otherwise, to use John’s words, He will, in disgust, spew us from His mouth.
In that context, I view you graduates not as scholastics but as soldiers, men and women who take up swords and shields in this great conflict. We must be clear, however, as to how we fight. Paul explained that the weapons of our warfare are not flesh, not at root physical, but rather spiritual. Thought and argument and spirit translated into life—these are the weapons we employ. With godly minds and holy lives we march into battle.
Micah masterfully captured our orders when he wrote: “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (6:8).
Act Justly
In our warfare we must act justly. Living rightly, performing justice, maintaining honesty and integrity—these are powerful weapons in the hands of God. With these He smites the enemy and shames them, and evil ones, even against their will, see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven. But O, how difficult it is to live out our faith in righteousness, for none other than self and the devil and the world oppose us.
In perhaps the greatest of all novels, Les Misérables, the lead character Jean Valjean steals a loaf of bread for his starving family and for this act lands in prison. After an unreasonable number of years in jail, he escapes and encounters a holy priest who leads him to faith. He changes his name and makes a new life for himself, one surrounded with affluence and prestige as a mayor. He exemplifies integrity and stands for goodness. Yet his past pursues him.
He learns one day that an old convict friend of his has been mistakenly identified as he himself, Jean Valjean. Ah, here is the test: To do nothing would save himself but leave his friend to face injustice; to identify himself as Jean Valjean would cost him everything. On the battlefield of life, integrity often comes at a high price, even the price of life itself.
Those mis’ries dire, which guilt alone should share,
The guiltless often are condemned to bear.
Vice sits triumphant on a lofty seat,
And treads on Virtue, prostrate at her feet.
Worth, that in public view might well have shown,
In darkest shades immers’d, remains unknown.
What strange confusion marks the present state!
The just man suffers the vile sinner’s fate.
These lines from Herman Witsius remind us that the price of living righteously may appear to exceed all reason. But be not deceived, the benefits of a clear conscience far exceed the expenditure, no matter the cost. Conversely, rest assured, sin and compromise, no matter how great a bargain they promise, will ultimately prove to be a most unwise purchase. Knowing this, Jean Valjean turned himself in. In our fight we must act justly.
Love Mercy
Micah tells us also that we are required to love mercy. Followers of Jesus must emulate His example. As Christ was kind, so must be His disciples. Our Lord saw the destitute and loved them. He saw the fallen and reached out His blessed hand. He saw the guilty and offered forgiveness. God loves acts of mercy and expects them from His children. All will know we are Christians by our love.
I know, we are talking about warfare and the idea of employing mercy as an armament seems most strange. But let me tell you, kindness is a powerful weapon. It pierces hearts like no other. Remember, there is power in the cross, and the cross dripped with mercy.
As I said at my father’s funeral almost three years ago: Dad grew up in poverty. He and his ten siblings often went to bed hungry. They did without and that included adequate clothing. For years Dad wore threadbare shirts and pants.
In his early teenage years, when the soles of his shoes would partially break loose from the uppers, he would cut off a section from an old bicycle inner tube, stretch it around the shoe, and tie the sole and upper together again. Once when he was walking home, his makeshift shoe repair snapped, causing the sole to flap loosely and noisily on the sidewalk with his every step.
Dad’s Sunday school teacher at the local Methodist church was a Mr. McFall, an employee at the nearby glass plant. It so happened McFall was sitting on his front porch that day when dad’s shoes broke apart and started making all that racket. “Come here, Harrold,” he said. “What’s all that noise?” After my father explained, McFall said, “Harrold, you go down to the store on Main Street and tell them to give you a pair of shoes and to put it on my bill.” Dad did as he was told and soon was sporting brand new footwear. Every quiet step in those new shoes announced loudly to my father just how powerful kindness could be.
Not long after that day Mr. McFall died. From one perspective, it was just another death in a small Oklahoma town. But to my dad, it was a day of great sorrow. He recalled: “I thought God had died.” Mercy possesses great power.
Walk Humbly with God
In our battle we employ God’s weapons, however strange they may seem. We act justly, we show mercy, and we walk humbly with our God. Micah did not say that we walk humbly before our fellowman. Now surely, we do that, but that is not what the prophet said. We walk humbly with our God. Perhaps it is so worded because the appropriateness of humility shows up most clearly when we are compared with God. He is righteous; we are sinful. He is almighty; we are weak. He is the Creator; we are the created.
Again, surprisingly, humility carries great force. We foolishly swell up and want to display diplomas and the positive aspects of our resume, thinking that if others only knew who we were and what we had accomplished, they would really be impressed. But the reality is that presenting the lowly truth about ourselves—we are merely redeemed sinners, merely recipients of grace, merely people who need forgiveness—such humble acknowledgements impact others much more. Jesus said, “Come to Me,” and they came because He was meek and lowly.
Having recently graduated from Harvard College, Samuel Sewall began to keep a diary in 1673. Over the years it tells of his publishing business, his election as judge, and his rise to chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court. He regularly dined with governors and other influential people. Unfortunately, in our day, he is most known, if he is known at all, for being one of the judges in the Salem Witch Trials. I should note that M. Halsey Thomas, Princeton archivist and editor of Sewall’s diary, wrote: “The learned and the ignorant of 1692 no more questioned the existence of witchcraft than we question the passage of radio waves through the air today.” But leave that aside, my intention is not to discuss witchcraft.
Though apparently uneasy about the trials, nonetheless Sewall was involved in the court’s decisions, and in the aftermath of those horrible days, his Christian conscience smote him. He became convinced he had been an instrument of gross injustice. Perhaps all the judges felt such remorse, but for Sewall remorse was not enough.
What does a dignitary do when he becomes convinced he has seriously mis-stepped? We all know what they usually do: vacillate, equivocate, blame others—anything but own up to wrongdoing. How many times does pride sit on the throne of our hearts and dictate the terms of our response! This reaction would not do for Sewall.
So, on January 14, 1697, at church he handed a note to his pastor and asked him to read it to the congregation. With Judge Sewall standing, the preacher read the following:
Samuel Sewall, sensible of the reiterated strokes of God upon himself and family; and being sensible, that as to the Guilt contracted . . . at Salem . . . Desires to take the Blame and Shame of it, Asking pardon of Men, And especially desiring prayers that God, who has an Unlimited Authority, would pardon that Sin and all other his Sins; personal and Relative: And . . . Not Visit the Sin of him, or of any other, upon himself or any of his, nor upon the Land.
Ladies and gentlemen, that is Christian humility. That is walking humbly with our God.
Conclusion
In the battle for God’s kingdom, while others surrender, the Lord calls us soldiers to stand and fight, to take up the unusual yet powerful arms of justice, mercy, and humility and to wield these healing weapons until all bow at Christ’s feet. So, graduates, charge into the fray. Fight in the classrooms. Fight in offices. Fight in pulpits. Fight in the halls of justice. Fight in America and fight overseas. Wherever God Almighty places you, take up His arms and empowered by His Spirit, fight!
About the Author: Paul Harrison has served as pastor of Madison Free Will Baptist Church in Madison, Alabama, since 2015. Formerly he served Cross Timbers Free Will Baptist Church in Nashville, Tennessee. He has been married to the former Diane Beasley since 1978. They have two sons and three grandchildren.
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