Bee on His Back
Dead or Alive?
The other day I was helping my daughter wash her car when I noticed a bumble bee lying motionless on the roof. Puzzled by the sight, I took a closer look. Nope. Not moving at all. Must be dead. Bummer. I really like bumble bees. They’re so tubby that it seems like a miracle that they can fly at all and when they do they’re not going anywhere too fast. Having encountered untold thousands over my 50 plus years, I’ve never been threatened or stung by any of them. I reckon that puts them at the top of my list of favorite bees.
Before hosing the vehicle down I thought I’d give that bee a little poke just to make sure he was gone before blasting him with water. When I did, to my astonishment, he flipped over and flew away. That little fella was alive! He was just belly-up, in the shade, chillin’ on a hot summer day. He had life, but for a time his inaction made him appear to have none.
Call to Action
A while back I started speaking of a “Call to Action” from the pulpit. The bible refers to these as “exhortations” and there are many of them found in the scriptures:
“And when he had gone over those parts, and had given them much EXHORTATION, he came into Greece” (Acts 20:2)
“Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; Or he that EXHORTETH, on EXHORTATION: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.” (Romans 12:6-8)
“Till I come, give attendance to reading, to EXHORTATION, to doctrine.” (I Timothy 4:13)
“And ye have forgotten the EXHORTATION which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:” (Hebrews 12:5)
Awake Thou That Sleepest
Those verses and many more like them demonstrate beyond any dispute that “exhortations” or “calls to action” are part of the primitive practice of the Lord’s New Testament church. One of my favorite ones is from the epistle to the Ephesians:
“Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” (Ephesians 5:14)
This is a call to action made to God’s regenerate sheep in the church at Ephesus. It refers to them as asleep or “dead” and in so doing makes it clear that God’s people can become inert or spiritually unprofitable. As such they often stand in need of being told: “Snap out of it! Get busy about the Lord’s business in the kingdom of God!” The “dead” condition Paul is addressing is likewise considered by James when he says:
”Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.” (James 2:17)
This exhortation has regard to the showing of our faith to a watching world (verse 18). Like Paul’s statement in Ephesians 5:14, it is addressed to “brethren” (James 2:1), which in this context designs gospel-converted, regenerate disciples of Christ. This verse is often misunderstood and misapplied to the unregenerate by others in Christendom, as though it is a recipe for how to obtain eternal life, but this is not the case.
Consider this: A man who has never had a dog has never had a dead dog. Likewise, a man who has never had faith has never had dead faith. The unregenerate do not have dead faith, they have absolutely no faith at all (II Thessalonians 3:2) because faith is a fruit of the indwelling Holy Spirit of God (Galatians 5:22). It follows that dead faith is a condition that only regenerate men can fall into. It has reference to spiritual inaction on the part of God’s regenerate people; living in such a way that produces no vital signs of spiritual life to an external observer. The Lord’s disciples must strive to live in such a way that our profession of faith is not merely some academic and private matter but a vital and evident reality in the lives we live before others.
To Bee or Not to Bee
What kind of bumble bee are you today? If you’re busy about the Lord’s business, praise God, but if you’re lying on your back, motionless… consider yourself poked.
“Awake thou that sleepest” (Ephesians 5:14)
- Elder Daniel Samons