Happy Daylight Saving's Day to you. This morning I thought I would write about Justin Martyr, one of the early Christian Apologists, to see if there is anything that we can learn in reaching a world which is lost (1 John 5:19). Justin was born around 100 (both his birth and death dates are approximate) at Flavia Neapolis in Samaria (the middle portion of Israel, between Galilee and Judea) of pagan Greek parents, and lived to approximately 165. He was brought up with a good education in rhetoric, poetry, and history. He studied various schools of philosophy in Alexandria and Ephesus. While at Ephesus, he was impressed by the steadfastness of the Christian martyrs, and by the personality of an aged Christian man whom he met by chance while walking on the seashore. This man spoke to him about Jesus as the fulfillment of the promises made through the Jewish prophets. Justin was overwhelmed. "Straightway a flame was kindled in my soul," he writes, "and a love of the prophets and those who are friends of Christ possessed me." Justin became a Christian, but he continued to wear the cloak that was the characteristic uniform of the professional teacher of philosophy. His position was that pagan philosophy is not simply wrong, but is a partial grasp of the truth, and serves as "a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ." Source: http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/175.html.
What I find impressive about Justin Martyr's argument showing the Truth of Christianity is his powerful faith. What separates Christians from other religions is that we worship a "Living God" who cares for each of us, individually. Justin submits that God is the source of all provision, the change of the seasons, and shows His love by delaying the ultimate Day of Judgment to ensure that more people will be saved. In addition, Justin argues that what separates Christians from the other religious groups of his time is that they only worship only idols which are "soulless and dead", as opposed to the true God. I see this as a powerful argument which separates Christianity from every other group – namely, that we worship a Living God who intimately cares for each individual, while those who worship idols that are "soulless and dead" are only insulting the true God by attaching to Him "things that are corruptible, and require constant service." So let's look at what a "Living God" means.
The phrase "Living God" is used 34 times in the Holy Scripture, in both the Old and New Testaments. Here are a few examples:
Psalm 42:2 - My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. (ESV)
Mt 16:16 - Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." (ESV)
1 Thess 1:9 - For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God (ESV).
So what does it mean to describe God as the "Living God"? I think of this as a description that means there is action, life, and power involved. But better, I like the description of J. R. Miller, The Living God (1902) - "We have put our hope in the living God." 1 Timothy 4:10
The God of the Bible is a living God. He has a heart of tenderness and love, like our mother's heart. He thinks of His redeemed people, and cares for them. He seeks their companionship, is interested in their life, craves their affection, and is grieved by their sin or alienation from Him. Jesus was the revealer of God; and He used but one name in making God known—the name Father—putting into the holy word, all that is tender, sweet, and compassionate, all that love could possibly mean.
This truth of the living God is full of rich encouragement. It assures us of complete satisfaction for all our cravings. We know what a satisfying of the heart, even a strong human friendship gives. There are friends who are to us like a great rock in a weary land. We flee to them in the heat of parching days, and rest in their shadow. A friend in whom we can confide without fear of disappointment; who, we are sure, will never fail us; who always has a healing tenderness for the hurt of our heart, comfort for our sorrows, and cheer for our discouragement—such a friend is not only a rock of shelter for us in time of danger—but is also as rivers of water in a thirsty land, when our hearts cry out for life and love.
Justin Martyr at Lystra picked up on this when he urged those hearers to "turn from these vanities unto the Living God who made heaven and earth and the sea and all things therein." In Apology 1 Justin taught that God cares for each individual (chapter 13), that He does not need anything (chapter 10), that He is a God of prophecy (chapter 12), and is the provider to us of all things (chapter 13). It is interesting that Justin uses as his one "proof" of God's love for us is His delay in judging the world. He writes:
…For the reason why God has delayed to do this, is His regard for the human race. For He foreknows that some are to be saved by repentance, some even that are perhaps not yet born… And if any one disbelieves that God cares for these things, he will thereby either insinuate that God does not exist, or he will assert that though He exists He delights in vice, or exists like a stone, and that neither virtue nor vice are anything, but only in the opinion of men these things are reckoned good or evil. And this is the greatest profanity and wickedness.
Yes, Justin Martyr was writing in the second century A.D., but it seems like he knows what is taking place in the world today. He demonstrates God's love by showing that His judgment has not yet taken place. And then Justin indicates that if some do not believe in God's love, that they will try and argue that 1) He does not exist; 2) God is evil; or, 3) God is uncaring like a stone, and that virtue and vice were created by man, and that they do not matter to God. Wow! Justin Martyr here has hit on all of the major attacks against God used by the best minds of the 21st Century world. Yet, his evidence stands, God loves us enough to delay unleashing His wrath and Judgment against mankind's sin and disobedience.
Justin Martyr comes full circle in his Apology I, when he describes the futility of worshipping anything else besides the true God, when he writes:
And neither do we honor with many sacrifices and garlands of flowers such deities as men have formed and set in shrines and called gods; since we see that these are soulless and dead, and have not the form of God (for we do not consider that God has such a form as some say that they imitate to His honor), but have the names and forms of those wicked demons which have appeared… And that the artificers of these are both intemperate, and, not to enter into particulars, are practiced in every vice, you very well know; even their own girls who work along with them they corrupt. What infatuation! that dissolute men should be said to fashion and make gods for your worship, and that you should appoint such men the guardians of the temples where they are enshrined; not recognizing that it is unlawful even to think or say that men are the guardians of gods. (Apology 1, Chapter 9, here is a link to all of Justin Martyr's writings.)
So what can we learn from Justin Martyr when confronting opposition to God? First, we must know that we worship the true and Living God, who loves us more strongly and intimately than we could ever imagine. And second, we know that God has revealed Himself and His heart when He sent Jesus the Messiah, God the Son to die on the Cross for us. Any other group who does not worship Jesus, worships an idol, which is soulless and dead. These idols have no power, and that it is wicked to think that men can act as guardians of god in this world. Who wants to worship something that is dead and lifeless, when we can worship the loving and kind God, who is a Living God? All praise to Jesus who most clearly revealed God's love for us, Amen.
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