I am generally a very happy man. God has given me a
cheerful disposition, even though I am sometimes prone to deep reflection and
introspection. So, it has been with sheer delight that I lead our Church into
another annual missions conference in which all but the final of the scheduled
speakers not only have forty plus years of Gospel ministry with reputations
untarnished, but each of them is committed to finishing well.
Despite this I find myself in a somewhat gloomy state
this afternoon as I sit back and begin the second volume of Stephen Kotkin’s
biography of Josef Stalin, Stalin: Waiting For Hitler, 1929-1941.
And what was it that plunged me into a funk while reading the biography if an
evil man long dead? It was a section of Kotlin’s first chapter he labelled “The
Victim.”
Everyone who is my age or older has some familiarity
with Josef Stalin’s reputation. But I had not before known one aspect of his
personality, the facility of casting himself always and in every case the
victim. Kotkin writes in connection with Stalin’s most loyal colleague,
Bukharin:
“Bukharin had grimly foreseen that Stalin would twist
his words and label him a schismatic to extract political advantage, but Stalin’s
cruelty was something his friend would puzzle over for a long time. And no
matter how underhandedly the dictator undercut Bukharin, Stalin was the victim…
Stalin wrote to Bukharin on April 16, 1929… ‘Will you at some point desist the
attacks against me?’”
I am not saddened that Stalin’s mindset was so
perverse that he used his victim mentality to justify his actions. I am
saddened that my mind’s eye fell as I read upon a Gospel minister who is quite
unlike the men preaching at our Church’s annual missions conference, who are
finishing well, and who recognize that no child of God is anyone’s victim. On
the contrary, we are the most blessed of God’s creatures. I am saddened by the
thoughts of a man who is not finishing well, a man who sees himself as a
victim, and who portrays anyone and everyone who disagrees with him about anything
as a compromising traitor to the cause of Christ. As I read of Stalin I thought
of this man, his victim mentality, and his willingness to twist the words and
actions of those who are decidedly not his enemies for short-term political
advantage.
I cannot be angry at such a man. I cannot seek revenge
against such a man. I can only feel sad and get as far away from such an unapproachable
figure as I possibly can. I must allow no one to hinder me from finishing well.
I urge every Gospel preacher to contemplate what the apostle wrote in Second
Timothy 4:
6 For I am now
ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
7 I have
fought a good fight, I have finished my
course, I have kept the faith:
8 Henceforth
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also
that love his appearing.
Let us finish well. Does someone disagree with you?
Disagreement does not make an enemy. Does someone choose not to stand with you?
Could it possibly be that he can no longer stand with you in good conscience
while standing for the Lord? We are flawed and fallible men who must focus our
attention on finishing well, so we do not undo in the end what we have spent our
lives doing for the Lord.
