Two eyes and two voices: Hunting for grace in the church

He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. (Titus 1:9)

What are the deep roots of those two voices - encouragement and rebuke? There are many - the nature of truth, goodness, God, the gospel - but one deep root is that the undershepherd/friend-of-the-bridegroom should be a man after the own heart of the Great Shepherd/Bridegroom (Jer. 3:15; John 3:29; 2 Cor. 11:2) who speaks with the same voice as the Great Shepherd/Bridegroom (Luke 10:16; John 10:16; Eph. 2:17). As Luther said, "Let me and everyone who speaks of the word of Christ freely boast that our mouths are the mouths of Christ" (A Sincere Admonition, 1522).

So how does Christ feel towards and speak to his church? Richard Sibbes is particularly helpful on this. 

The bruised reed and the smouldering church

In probably his best known and loved work, Sibbes expounds Isaiah 42:3 (quoted and fulfilled in Jesus in Matt 12:20): "A bruised reed he will not break, and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out." He applies it both to individual believers and to churches, noting that "in the seven churches, which for their light are called `seven golden candlesticks’ (Rev. 2 and 3), most of them had much smoke with their light." And how did Christ speak to these churches? Even those most severely infected with heresy, immorality and complacency? "In the seven churches (Rev. 2 and 3), we see that Christ acknowledges and cherishes anything that was good in them" (Sibbes, Bruised Reed). First he affirms; second he rebukes, warns and commands repentance where that is needed (in 5 out of 7 cases); third he gives spectacular gospel promises.

Dark but lovely, cherished by Christ

The other place that Sibbes frequently goes is the Song of Songs/Solomon, which he takes (as I would take it) as all about Christ and the church. And he notes that the church/bride is a strange mixture: 
"Dark am I, yet lovely" (SoS 1:5).
"I slept but my heart was awake" (SoS 5:2).

There is darkness - both outward afflictions (darkened by the beating sun) and inward sin (spiritual sleepiness and neglect of her own vineyard) - but there is also loveliness and wakefulness. "There is a glory and excellence in the saints of God in the midst of all their deformities and debasements" (Sibbes, The Church's Blackness).

Astonishingly, despite a mixture of deformity and beauty, the bridegroom constantly pours out lavish praise on the bride:

"How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful!" (SoS 1:15; 4:1)

"Christ looks more at the good in them which he means to cherish than the ill in them which he means to abolish" (Sibbes, Bruised Reed).

"The church droopeth, and had many infirmities, yet she is Christ’s love. So that the love of Christ is a kind of love that is unconquerable; no water will ever quench it; no sin of ours; no infirmity.

Question: But ...cannot Christ see ...weakness, sinfulness, hatred... in the church? 

Answer: Oh yes, to pity, help, and heal it, but not at all to diminish his love, but to manifest it so much the more. His love is a tender love, sensible of all things wherewith we displease him, yet it is so invincible and unconquerable, that it overcomes all. Again, he sees ill indeed in us, but he sees in us some good of his own also, which moves him more to love, than that that is ill in us, moves him to hate. For what he sees of ours, he sees with a purpose to vanquish, mortify, and eat it out. The Spirit is as fire to consume it. He is as water to wash it. But what he sees of his own, he sees with a purpose to increase it more and more" (Sibbes, Bowels Opened (helpfully updated as The Love of Christ)). 

Christ's garden

NB in the quote just above that the good things Christ sees in his church are "his own." Sibbes wonderfully draws out this truth from SoS 4:16:

"Awake, north wind,

    and come, south wind!

Blow on my garden,

    that its fragrance may spread everywhere.

Let my beloved come into his garden

    and taste its choice fruits."

"He delights to add encouragement to encouragement... He doth not only plant graces, but also waters and cherishes them. Where the Spirit of Christ is, it is an encouraging Spirit; for not only it infuseth grace, but also stirs it up...  And is it not fit that Christ should eat the fruit of his own vine? have comfort of his own garden? to taste of his own fruits? The only delight Christ hath in the world is in his garden, and that he might take the more delight in it, he makes it fruitful; and those fruits are precious fruits, as growing from plants set by his own hand, relishing of his own Spirit, and so fitted for his taste (Sibbes, Love of Christ).

So Christ's encouragement of the Church is a) his gracious, prevenient love - the great objective gospel truth that he has loved them to death in his substitutionary propitiation for them at the Cross and risen to clothe them in his righteousness; and b) his recognition of the sanctifying grace that he has worked in them by his Spirit. 

Application

So what does this mean for how pastors should speak to the church? 

1. Have the heart disposition of Christ. He is gentle and lowly. He is the Messiah who would not snuff out a smouldering wick. He is the Bridegroom who cherishes - dare we say it is captivated by his bride (SoS 4:9). He loves to praise and commend. His first word is a word of encouragement. And that is what his discouraged bride often needs to hear. "Oh, that this gaining and winning disposition were more in many! Many, so far as in us lies, are lost for want of encouragement" (Sibbes, Bruised Reed).
2. Have two eyes. "We must have two eyes, one to see imperfections in ourselves and others, the other to see what is good" (Sibbes, Bruised Reed). Christ is not blind to the evil in his church. We must not be blind to the evil in the church. We should look on the broken down walls and gate and mourn like Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Nehemiah and Ezra over the terribly debased condition of the church in our day. And yet, at the same time we must have an eye to see the grace Christ has worked in his church. "How blind are we who cannot see the sunshine, and no excellency in those whom all the glorious angels serve, whom the King of glory terms 'the fairest of women!'" (Sibbes, Church's Blackness). 
3. Have two voices. Encourage and rebuke. The two eyes to the two realities of the church mean that there will need to be two voices. The two parts of each letter of the churches in Revelation 2-3. The two parts of Paul's letters - thanksgiving and correction. "With what admirable skill [Paul] ... “changes his voice,” in meekness or in vehemence—in tenderness—or in sharpness—in reproof or in expostulation" (Charles Bridges, Christian Ministry). 
4. Hunt for grace. We must not be naïve about the state of the church. Certainly many buildings bearing the name church should actually read 'Icabod'. Others are homes for genuine churches but fellowships in various states of decay and corruption. There needs to be continual reformation and Temple cleansing (cf. 2 Chron. 29). We should have a holy discontentment. But our direction of attraction should be towards signs of grace not towards signs of corruption. "We must not still be poring into the deformities of God's church and people, like flies on galled places, or dogs upon garbage and raw flesh" (Sibbes, Church's Blackness). On one hand is the danger of complacency and assuming everything is well with the church (when it is clearly not). We must not be flatterers who preach, "Peace, Peace" where there is no peace. But on the other hand is the danger of cynicism and a critical spirit, sucked into a vortex of seeing only more and more darkness. The focus of the pastor's energies and passions should be, as Christ's, in a fervent "scavenger hunt... for evidence of God's gracious work" (Timothy Lane). As the sage parenting advice has it: "Catch them doing something good." As Sibbes, says, "Search good... and be thankful to God for the least measure of grace... See a flame in a spark, a tree in a seed. See great things in little beginnings. Look not so much to the beginning as to the perfection" (Bruised Reed).

Pastor, see the church as Christ does. Mourn how far we are from where we should be but also see how far we've come from where we were. Read the Song of Songs. Make a list of everything grace God has worked in your church. Start by encouraging God's people by affirming His work for them and his work in them.