Month 2:26, Week 4:4 (Revee/Shavu'ot), Year:Day 5936:055 AM
Gregorian Calendar: Wednesday 16 May 2012
The Irenic Believer
Why You Are Called to Be One
No, this devotional is not directed to all sisters with the name 'Irene' or 'Iren' but to everyone who names the Name of Messiah and especially to leaders and defenders of the Besorah (Gospel).
To be 'irenic' means we are called to approach people peacefully, that is, in a spirit of shalom. To be irenic is the opposite of being quarrelsome, a negative trait that is removed in full submission to Yah'shua (Jesus).
Now I am not saying that peacefulness means we should cease to be passionate. Far from it. It is a great and marvellous thing when believers get passionate about their beliefs but, ironically, these same passions can so easily get out of control and become militant and hostile to the point when no one actually wants to listen to you anymore. A good minister, evangelist, missionary or anyone bearing testimony of their emunah (faith) and trying to explain the Torah (Teaching, Law) of Yahweh's Davar (Word) always keeps his cool. He especially does not let the polemics of others cause him to sacrifice his level-headed calmness. When correction is necessary, as it sometimes is, tact is defined by gentleness. We have to love emet (truth) so that we are gentle:
"A servant of Yahweh must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if Elohim (God) perhaps will grant them teshuvah (repentance), so that they may know the emet (truth), and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will" (2 Tim.2:24-26, NKJV).
This is by no means an easy thing to do, which is why ministers must be mature, stable and sure in this shalom of El Elyon (the Most High God) that comes about only by making Yahweh first in our levim (hearts):
"Set-apart (sanctify) Yahweh-Elohim in your levim (hearts), and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the tiqvah (hope) that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Messiah may be ashamed. For it is better, if it is the will of Elohim (God), to suffer for doing good than for doing evil" (1 Peter 3:15-17, NKJV).
The one who is irenic - peaceable - and endures the onslaught of critics without responding in kind demonstrates that Yahweh is in control of his soul and bears witness of the power of the grace (undeserved loving kindness, unmerited favour) of Messiah at work, doing what is not humanly possible because of the fallen, carnal, Adamic nature which knows no such self-control. We are more likely to be a positive witness to the world by demonstrating these Ruach (Spirit)-controlled virtues than by any intellectual ability to argue the emet (truth) of the Besorah (Gospel) for it is not just the mind that must be converted but also the lev (heart)
So, go and be irenic!
Acknowledgements
[1] C. Michael Patton, Seven Marks of a Good Theologian
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