by There are few people in the Bible expressly described as devout. We have the men who buried Stephen in Acts 8:2. It is said they deeply mourned for him. They didn’t send him off as the men who buried Ananais and Saphira: cold, unfeeling, indifferent and detached (Acts 5:6,10). Luke lets us know the men were profoundly moved with grief. The MEV translates their action during the burial as with great lamentation, which is consistent with burial rights in ancient Israel (Micah 1:8, Mark 5:38, 2 Samuel 18:33).
A devout person’s tears freely flow in times of bereavement as a way of bringing comfort to sorrowing hearts (John 11:33-35). Apostle Paul in Romans 12:15 commands us to be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep. Therefore, to be devout here is to have the ability to put yourself in other people’s shoes, or consider the feelings, needs and perspectives of others in your life and then make a value-based decision on what’s right.
Another person characterized as devout in the Bible is Cornelius (Acts 10:2). It is said of Cornelius that he gave generously to the poor and prayed regularly to God. The devout life we see here is two pronged: an inward life of prayer and an outward life of service. Prayer is the place where what we want and what God wants meet. God wants us to remember the poor, the widow, the foreigner and the orphans. He wants us to wholeheartedly love him alone and show that we do by calling on him and being his hands and feet to the marginalized. A devout person ties these commands of God in his heart through meditation, and actively follows the leading of God to help others.
While the promise of a long life on earth is available to all who obey their parents, sometimes devout people die early. 2Pac in his posthumous album Still I Rise has a song titled, “The Good Die Young” (featuring the Outlawz), where he reflects on premature death, unfulfilled dreams and the unfairness of life. While the sting of pre-mature death burns, what gives us hope is that those who follow godly paths will rest in peace when they die (Isaiah 57:2). Isaiah notes: ‘Good people pass away; the godly often die before their time. But no one seems to care or wonder why. No one seems to understand that God is protecting them from the evil to come. ‘ (Isaiah 57:1). He echoes the preacher, that just as the day we die is better than the day we are born, a good name is better than precious perfume (Ecclesiastes 7:1). We can trust God that these godly ones who died early before their time had faith too beautiful for this world (Hebrews 11:35-38) that he protected them from the evil to come.
In the introduction to Gerald L. Sittser’s book Water from a Deep Well: Christian Spirituality from Early Martyrs to Modern Missionaries, Eugene Peterson describes a myopic Christianity that engages in “trivial controversies and petty jealousies that divide the church, massive building and glittery programs that dazzle but not make disciples, self-help sermons that gloss over the great truths of the biblical faith, styles of worship that pander to popular tastes, Christian leaders who strive for political influence at the cost of faithfulness to the gospel.” Peterson challenges us to learn from history. Sitter’s book does this by exposing us to God’s activity in the lives of some believers who lived in different contexts but were devoted to God. He tells how Rome targeted the early church leaders for martyrdom, hoping their deaths would intimidate their fellow Christians and break apart their movement. However, these believers chose death rather than a long “happy” life here on earth.
Justin Martyr, who became a Christian after witnessing the brutal execution of several Christians in the second-century, tried to explain to secular critics why Christians were willing to die. “We do give up our confession though we be executed by the sword, though we be crucified, thrown to wild beasts, put in chairs, and exposed to fires and every other kind of torture. Everyone knows this. On the contrary, the more we are persecuted and martyred, the more do others in ever increasing numbers become believers and God-fearing people through the name of Jesus.”
These early believers were devout men and women as seen in their willingness to die for their faith.
Sitter retells of Abba Poemen who once told Abba John the Short that he had asked God to take away his passions. His prayer had been answered, and his heart had become tranquil. So he said to himself, “I find that I am at rest, with no war of flesh and spirit.” But Abba John warned him, “Go, ask the Lord to stir a new war in you. Fighting is good for the soul.” On another occasion Poemen said, “If temptations come in, and you deal with them there, they will prove you.” Or again, “Just as you cannot stop air coming into your breast, you cannot stop (evil) thoughts coming into your mind. Your part is to resist them.”
These desert fathers understood the devout life included fighting temptation. They believed that struggle was normal, necessary and even healthy in the spiritual life.
The tapestry of God’s activity in history can be drawn to reach you and I. The question is how will our devotion to God be seen in the mosaic of faith. Will we be so bland or lukewarm that God spits us out of his mouth or will there be enough evidence to convict us of our passion for God’s word? Will the records tell of the risks we took for God or are we keyboard warriors with no battle wounds, loss, harm or failure in our story? Will people raise an eyebrow of unbelief when your name is associated with being a christian or will heads nod in agreement for your loyalty and dedication to God?
You can live a devout life like the early church community where you are committed to Christian fellowship, have a deep sense of the awe of God in your life, meet the needs of others, all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of other devout people (Acts 2:42-47).
