Author: Warren Berkley

Timber Fellowship

Warren E. Berkley

It is hard to imagine. Some trees not only communicate with each other, they help each other. I hadn’t known this or thought of it, until a trip to Utah several years ago.

A dynamic illustration of this is the un­derground root network system of the “Quaking Aspen” Tree. When you look out into the forest you see individual trees. While they are grouped together, what you see is individual trees. Under­neath the surface there is a root system connecting the group. If one tree has an abundant supply of nutrients, that thriving tree is able to share the nutri­ents with struggling trees. It is some­times described as a compassionate sys­tem of timber fellowship.

Stronger trees “look after” the weaker trees. Weaker trees are able to “tell” the stronger trees that they need help. So, what you see isn’t really independent trees but a group, a family, like a healthy church – where the strong help the weak and where the weak do not hesitate to seek the help of the more mature trees. Growth and longevity depends on the “fellowship” or unselfish generosity of the members.

This is what God built into His creation. These trees could not have lived without this “organic” system of mutual assis­tance and community aid. I do not be­lieve this system of community aid could have slowly evolved (how could the trees have survived before the system evolved?). God built this into nature in the beginning.

Likewise, God has ordained that this system of shared assistance be active in families and local churches. “We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves.” Rom. 15:1

Come Back Tomorrow?

(Prov. 3:27,28)

Warren E. Berkley

“Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do it. Do not say to your neighbor, ‘Go, and come back, and tomorrow I will give it,’ when you have it with you,” (Prov. 3:27,28, NKJ).

This is a call to generosity but it is written as a prohibition (“do not”). Here’s a little “secret” of good Bible study: When you read a prohibition, spend some of your study time focusing on the opposite. So when you read, “do not lie,” think of the value of honesty. When you come to “do not forget” God’s law (Prov. 3:1), consider how important it is to remember God’s law. Every prohibition has some positive opposite. The point of the prohibition is not only to keep us from sin, but to take us to that positive opposite.

In this case, “do not withhold good” is a call to generosity, sharing, benevolence. Whatever we have that is subject to sharing, we should be willing to give with those “to whom it is due.” Generosity combined with wise stewardship is all over Scripture.

The hard part of this is figuring out “to whom it is due,” or (NIV), “those who deserve it.” To give profusely to undeserving recipients is apparently not wise (Matt. 7:6). But it is often not clear. Seems that the line between deserving and undeserving is not always easy to discern. But I would say to us these things:

1. God doesn’t expect us to see everything He is able to see. God can look right through the externals to the internal motives, and God has in His perfect mind – Instant Background Checks on everybody. God knows that we have no such powers. So there is no expectation that we have perfect knowledge of every prospective recipient of our goodwill. We can only act on what we are able to know.

2. Never cancel a duty because exaggerated qualifications. Could be, we become so obsessed with the qualification (“those who deserve it”) we just cancel the duty, thinking the work is too imprecise or demanding. Generosity (as directed by God) involves the hard work of wisdom, discernment, good stewardship and prayer; that’s part of the sacrifice of giving. Good responses to God and people are never subject to human anger, whim, greed or emotion.

3. Don’t let your experience with the undeserving lead you to deny the deserving. Most of us have heard people say something like, “I gave this guy some help, and he turned out to be a thief. So I just don’t help people anymore.” That’s reactionary, creates suffering for the deserving and puts you squarely against the will of God. Your experience should never be the basis of your generosity. The basis of all giving is, you are a recipient of God’s grace and responsible to obey Him.

“Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings” (Hebrews 13:7–9, ESV).

The flow is deliberate: remember the leaders who taught faithfully, observe how they lived and died, imitate their faith. And then the declaration: Jesus Christ is the same. And then the warning: do not be led away by strange teachings. The unchanging Christ is the antidote to doctrinal drift. The leaders who taught faithfully were teaching about a Christ who does not change. The faith we are called to imitate was faith in a stable Savior. And the strange teachings that would lead us away are strange precisely because they present a different Christ—a Christ who has updated, evolved, progressed beyond what the apostles taught.

The church in every generation faces this pressure. New teachings arise that claim to represent an advance, a development, a more enlightened understanding. They present themselves as progress. But the test is straightforward: Is this the same Christ?

Is this the faith once for all delivered to the saints? Is this consistent with what was taught from the beginning? If Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, then the teachings that were true yesterday remain true today. The doctrines do not expire, the ethics do not evolve, and the gospel does not require updating. What the apostles delivered is what the church must guard, not because the church is backward, but because the Christ it proclaims is unchanging.

-Herb Berkley, quoted from his pre-publication manuscript of a book soon to be released. We will post when the book is released.