One of the blessings that have been handed down through the ages has been the record of pastoral care contained in letters. From Paul and John’s letters to the correspondence of Augustine, Calvin, Newton and Rutherford, we possess the fruit of their pastoral care put on display.
In a letter to the church members of Kilmacolm, Samuel Rutherford (d.1661), addressed their concerns about being worn down and tired from holding true to the Christian faith. The social turmoil brought by persecutions and counter-revolutions made the people of this church complain about their spiritual fatigue and feelings of weakness.
Like many Christians, they were wanting to relax a bit. In Rutherford’s words, their problem was that they saw their calling to obey God (personally and as a church) as too demanding, and they wanted to loosen up a bit. He said, “You write that God’s vows are lying [heavy] on you”. It appeared that the Christians at Kilmacolm were looking for a less strict confession of faith, a quicker compromise to current church debates, and a smoother pathway to comfortable Christianity.
Rutherford replied with three remedies to this apparent longing for spiritual ease and earthly security in the midst of their weakness.
1. Life Isn’t Easy Until We Are in Heaven
Rutherford addressed the common desire for things to go easy. We all desire an easier life and when things get difficult we can act surprised. Rutherford’s response was to point out that life isn’t easy until we are in heaven. In heaven, when the victory is complete, then we can sleep. He said, “if I sleep, I would desire to sleep faith’s sleep in Christ’s bosom”.
Rutherford knew that like the disciples who slept as Jesus was in Gethsemane (Mt 26:43), our natural selves, “loveth not the labour of religion”. Rutherford was telling the Kilmacolm church that they needed to admit that their desires for “a break” when it came to church controversies and biblical obedience, was a natural temptation to choose sleepy ease in this life, rather than the rest that resides in heaven alone.
2. Worrying About Staying Faithful Can Show a Lack of Faith
It is a common feature in churches that people’s complaints reveal the things they aren’t trusting God for. Caring about doctrine is too hard. Loving the unlovable is too difficult. Submitting to authority is too chafing. Yet in each case, the complaint that a call to obedience is too much, reveals that a person doesn’t think God can give the grace needed to obey.
Rutherford made the observation that “Sorrow for a slumbering soul is a token of some watchfulness of spirit”. By this, he meant that because people actually cared about doctrine, obedience, and faithful witness, it would lead to spiritual fatigue. He said that this willingness to “care” was a grace. But this caring, he said, “as a grace in us is too often abused”. Worrying too much about the difficulties of staying faithful can show a lack of faith in God who keeps us faithful (Phil 1:6, 2 Tim 2:13). The fact that Christians get tired of obedience and ‘suffering outside the camp’ (Hebrews 13:13), shows that they may not be trusting God for the strength to persevere.
3. Weakness invites Christ’s comfort to you.
Our weakness is evidence that we are not in heaven yet, but it does hold promise that Christ will comfort us until we get there. Rutherford explained this comforting idea to his correspondents when he said, “To [lack] complaints of weakness, is for heaven, and angels that never sinned, not for Christians in Christ’s camp on earth”.
Rutherford pointed out that one of the defining characteristics of the church is its weakness. He said:
“I think our weakness maketh us the church of the redeemed ones, and Christ’s field that the Mediator should labour in. If there were no diseases on earth, there needed no physicians on earth. If Christ had cried down weakness he might have cried down his own calling. But weakness is our Mediator’s world: sin is Christ’s only fair and market.
Letters, 156-157
So when we are feeling especially weak, we can trust that we are clearly qualified to receive comfort from God. As we share in Christ’s sufferings, we share in his comfort too. (2 Cor 1:3-7). Paul received comfort when he learned from the Lord, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor 12:9). This was the overarching truth that Rutherford was sharing.
Rutherford knew that when we are weak, our strength must come from the Lord. And so, Rutherford said, “we are carried upon Christ’s shoulders, and walk, as it were, upon his legs”.
As many Christians grow fatigued in their walk of faith, they need to realize that an easy life on earth is not the answer. Rather it is to find the help of Christ’s legs to carry us on. That was Rutherford’s counsel on an August day in 1639 and it applies directly to us today.
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