“Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Don’t worry about anything.”
Some days I live caught between Merle Haggard and Bobby McFerrin.
I grew up in South Florida, not exactly a bastion of country music. However, I had a brother and a father who both enjoyed the genre. Country radio was on at our house 24/7. That is not hyperbole! Understandably, country music is in my bones. And yes, I still enjoy some of it today.
As a child of the 60s and 70s, country legend Merle Haggard’s 1970 hit, “The Fightin’ Side of Me” is part good memory and part personal credo. Some of my closest friends know I need the Lord to keep that “fightin’ side of me” in check. When I get stirred up, Haggard’s lyrics get turned up in my soul.
Usually, not a good thing!
But I know what God says, “Don’t worry about anything.” That’s where Bobby McFerrin comes in. McFerrin took “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” to number one on the Billboard chart in 1988. You’ve heard the song. Once it gets inside of you, it’s kind of hard to shake.
Now I know Jesus wasn’t throwing a nod to Bobby McFerrin when he said, “Do not worry about your life” (Matthew 6:25), and Paul was not quoting him when he said, “Don’t worry about anything” (Philippians 4:6). Still, if I can put it this way, I want to be less Merle and more Bobby!
Yesterday I wrote, I Appeal To Caesar, a plea to take action regarding H.R.5 - The Equality Act, a bill currently before Congress. Later that afternoon, a friend and co-worker here at Lancaster Bible College | Capital Seminary & Graduate School, pointed out to me that Amazon recently erased from its site (yes, ERASED) the book, When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Movement. You can click hear to read what the author, Ryan T. Anderson, has to say about it. As my friend noted,
“This should concern anyone, left or right, who cares about living in society together.”
My tendency in response to such insanity is: “Interesting days!” And they are, but they are also chilling days, days marked with a certain foreboding. I awoke this morning with my personal forecast looking more “cloudy skies” than “bright sunshine.” It’s been a week of back-to-back meetings, necessary deadlines, and a country that seems to have lost its way more than Dorothy and her friends.
I hear Merle Haggard warming up his vocal cords.
Then I opened up my Bible to today’s reading from Philippians 4. I was greeted with four words I have read many many times, but today they connected like never before: The Lord is near.
“Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Don’t worry about anything.”
In the past, my tendency is to view those words in an eschatological sense, “the Lord’s [coming] is near.” But today, they hit me in a different way: “the Lord is [always] very near.”
I am a student of the Word. I had to check this out. Was Paul telling me to go Bobby McFerrin because the Lord is coming soon, i.e. “Chill out. God’s going to right this sinking ship soon.” Or was Paul telling me to take off my gloves because the Lord [himself] is [always] very near, i.e. “God is with you right now in this mess!”
Friends, I have more than 20 commentaries on Philippians so it was pretty easy to do an exegetical check-up. So I consulted Gordon Fee, a New Testament scholar. His words were eye-opening.
The sudden appearance of an indicative (“The Lord is near“) is as surprising as its intent is obscure.… One cannot tell whether Paul intends it to conclude what precedes or introduce what follows, and therefore whether expresses future or realized eschatology.
A big sigh of relief . . . I’m not the only one is who wrestling with this! As I read further, Fee concludes by saying:
Does he intend, “Rejoice in the Lord always; and let your gentle forbearance be known by all, for the [coming of ] the Lord is near”? or Because the Lord is [always] near, do not be anxious about anything, but let your requests be made known to God?” Or does he intend a bit of both, perhaps something as close to an intentional double entendre as one finds in the apostle? . . . . On the whole it seems likely that this is a word of encouragement and affirmation.
The Lord’s presence — in my life now; and the certainty of his presence — in his coming soon, is my reason not to worry. Do not worry about anything: not a busy day, not a country adrift, not a piece of crazy legislation, not COVID, and not even that song that you can’t get out of your head!
“Don’t worry about anything!” is not a call to sit on your hands, but it is an invitation to work from joy, the joy of a Savior present and a battle already won.
And why? The Lord is near!
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Notes:
“The sudden appearance of the indicative . . .” from Fee, Gordon. Paul’s Letter To The Philippians in The New International Commentary of the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 1995. Page 407.
“Does he intend . . . “ from Fee, Paul’s Letter To The Philippians, page. 407-08.