Claiming Our Inheritance: Overcoming Sloth and Strife in the Life of Faith

The journey of faith, spanning all of redemptive history, consistently calls God's people to active participation in His divine purposes. Two distinct, yet equally dangerous, expressions of spiritual failure threaten this journey: a debilitating inertia that delays possessing divine gifts, and an active discontent that poisons communal life. Examining foundational texts from both the Old and New Covenants reveals how God challenges these tendencies, urging His beloved to embrace their calling with both diligent effort and joyful unity.

In the ancient story of Israel's promised land, after the initial conquests, a significant portion of the tribes remained hesitant. They had gathered at Shiloh, a place of divine presence and security, yet they were spiritually sluggish, neglecting to go forth and fully occupy the territory God had already sovereignly granted them. This wasn't a failure of God's promise; it was a failure of human initiative. The ancient word describing their state implies a self-induced slackness, a letting go, a lack of resolve in the face of the work required to transform a divine endowment into a tangible reality. They treated God's certain promise as an excuse for spiritual procrastination, failing to actively claim the inheritance that was rightfully theirs. Their comfort at the sanctuary became a barrier to their calling.

Centuries later, the New Covenant community, empowered by God's indwelling Spirit, faced a different, yet related, challenge. The Apostle Paul exhorted believers to perform all their duties without murmuring or disputing. This command followed a profound declaration: God Himself is actively at work within believers, enabling both their will and their actions for His good pleasure. Here, the danger wasn't passive inaction, but active, internal friction. Murmuring, an onomatopoeic word for low, muttered complaints, echoes the chronic grumbling of the wilderness generation against God's providence. Disputing speaks to argumentative deliberation, inward skepticism, and relational strife that tears at the fabric of community. This suggests that even when believers are actively engaged in service, a heart of discontent or a spirit of contention can negate the power of their actions, obscuring their witness.

Both of these spiritual maladies—passive inertia and active discontent—spring from a common root: an incomplete trust in the character and sovereignty of God. The tribes at Shiloh doubted God's power to sustain them through the remaining work of conquest. The early church, by contrast, might have questioned God's wisdom or fairness in their circumstances, leading to internal strife.

This reveals a profound theological truth: divine grace never excuses human effort, nor does it tolerate a spirit of resentful compliance. God's declarations (His "indicatives") are the foundation and powerhouse for our responsibilities (our "imperatives"). He has given us every spiritual blessing, but we are called to actively "possess" them through faith and obedience. He works within us to empower us, and therefore, we are to "work out" our salvation, not with reluctance, but with fear, trembling, and a spirit free from complaint and contention. Our obedience is not merely about completing tasks; it's also about the manner in which we complete them—with joyful submission and harmonious collaboration.

From the physical sanctuary at Shiloh, where unexercised faith kept a people from their land, to the spiritual temple of the church, where internal strife threatened its mission, the message is clear. God's people are called to a missional visibility. Whether establishing God's reign in a physical land or shining as beacons in a dark world, our collective witness is paramount.

For believers today, this message is deeply edifying. We are heirs of an incomparable spiritual inheritance in Christ. We are gifted with His Spirit, called to specific purposes, and promised His unfailing presence and power.