A little while back, Walen gave a lesson about going beyond the basic requirements of the law and doing better things. We have many examples in the bible of people who went beyond what was required by the law.

The first example of someone who went further than he had to, that I'd like to look at is Job. Job went through terrible ordeals in his life. He started out as a very rich man. But he wasn't proud.

But as the book of Job starts out, we see his faithfulness in the way he offers sacrifices

Job 1


	¹ In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. ² He had seven sons and three daughters, ³ and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East. ⁴ His sons used to take turns holding feasts in their homes, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. ⁵ When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would send and have them purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, "Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." This was Job's regular custom.

Job was a man who was so careful in his offering of sacrifices, that he performed some sacrifices just in case. Though he was rich with all that he possessed, he was still humble enough to make sacrifices to God. Even sacrifices “just in case”! He was careful to send and have his sons and daughters purified. Job could have just left the purification of his sons and daughters to them (it sounds like they were old enough), but he undertook to make sure it was done. He took it upon himself to go that extra mile and make sure it was done. For one thing this shows us that he must have cared for his sons and daughters a great deal. He worried about them. We also see the immediacy with which he made sacrifices for his children. Early in the morning! He didn't put it off. And where did such faithfulness get him? He remained true to God through the loss of all that he had, through the death of his sons and daughters, through disease. It kept him loyal to God when things in his life were so bad that his own wife told him to curse God and die. He wasn't someone who was just faithful enough to get him by. It was strong faith. It was proven. If he were the type not to go the extra mile, he would have taken his wife's advice when he had lost everything. But he didn't, and in the end, he was rewarded with much more than he had in the first place.

Another example of someone who went further than he had to was Jesus himself. A small example of this was when Jesus gave the temple tax, though he certainly didn't have to

Mat 17

²⁴After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax came to Peter and asked, "Doesn't your teacher pay the temple tax?"
²⁵"Yes, he does," he replied.
When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. "What do you think, Simon?" he asked. "From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes--from their own sons or from others?"
²⁶"From others," Peter answered.
²⁷"Then the sons are exempt," Jesus said to him. "But so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours."

Jesus was the son of God. He didn't have to pay the temple tax. This was the house of God and he was God's son. But Jesus didn't want to offend them at this time, so he paid the tax, doing a miracle as he did so. If you were to go fishing right now, you would barely know whether or not you'd catch a fish, much less whether you'd find money inside. But anyway, Jesus went so far as to pay the tax so that he wouldn't offend anyone.

Paul had the right to ask the church to support him as he spread the word about Christ, but he went th extra distance to work with his own hands to support himself as an example to the churches.

[This chapter talks a lot about Paul's effort to go the extra mile]

1 Cor 9

¹Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord? ²Even though I may not be an apostle to others, surely I am to you! For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

[There seemed to be some at this time who claimed that Paul was not a legitimate apostle.]
³This is my defense to those who sit in judgment on me. ⁴Don't we have the right to food and drink? ⁵Don't we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord's brothers and Cephas ? ⁶Or is it only I and Barnabas who must work for a living?
⁷Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk? ⁸Do I say this merely from a human point of view? Doesn't the Law say the same thing? ⁹For it is written in the Law of Moses: "Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain." Is it about oxen that God is concerned? ¹⁰Surely he says this for us, doesn't he? Yes, this was written for us, because when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they ought to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest. ¹¹If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you? ¹²If others have this right of support from you, shouldn't we have it all the more?

[Paul is going to a lot of trouble to talk about his right to expect material support from the Corinthians. As he sows spiritual seed, he says he has a right to receive funding from them. Perhaps as part of this doubt that they had that he was a real apostle, they were unwilling to provide him the same support that they did to other apostles.]

¹³But we did not use this right. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ. Don't you know that those who work in the temple get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? ¹⁴In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.
¹⁵But I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing this in the hope that you will do such things for me. I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of this boast. ¹⁶Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! ¹⁷If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me. ¹⁸What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not make use of my rights in preaching it.

[Though Paul went to all that trouble to talk about his right to be supported by the church in Corinth, he says he did not claim this right. He felt compelled to preach, whether he was supported or not. Do you remember when Jesus entered Jerusalem on the colt and the Pharisees told him to rebuke his disciples for praising him. Then he said that if his disciples kept quiet, even the stones would cry out? This was the case with Paul. He could not keep silent about the news of Jesus Christ. Whether he was paid or not, he did it because he was compelled to do it. He was so enthusiastic, he couldn't stop spreading this wonderful news, even facing flogging, prison, hunger, thirst, lack of sleep, being cold and naked.]

¹⁹Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. ²⁰To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. ²¹To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. ²²To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. ²³I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. [we'll stop here]

[Paul did not preach from selfish motives. He didn't do it to get paid. He was willing to work so that he wouldn't burden anyone. He is an example to us today not to preach just to get paid. We are to preach with the sake of the gospel as our main concern so that we can share in its blessings. He worked so hard to demonstrate this...much harder than he had to just to get by. He went above and beyond the call of duty and so he glorified Jesus Christ.]

Paul talked further about this in

2 Thessalonians 3

⁶In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us. ⁷For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, ⁸nor did we eat anyone's food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. ⁹We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow. ¹⁰For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat."

[Paul wanted to show the people in the churches that they shouldn't be lazy. They shouldn't just walk around expecting to live in ease from the generosity of the churches. They had to work to eat. And so Paul did so himself, though he didn't have to, as an example.]
¹¹We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy; they are busybodies. ¹²Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat. ¹³And as for you, brothers, never tire of doing what is right.
¹⁴If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of him. Do not associate with him, in order that he may feel ashamed. ¹⁵Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.

[Apparently, this problem already existed with the Thessalonians. Some of them wouldn't work. They were so busy with trivial matters, perhaps gossiping, that they didn't even work. Paul was trying to turn them around here.]

We should take these lessons to heart that Jesus and Paul were giving for our benefit.

As Jesus was teaching his disciples, he told them this...

Mat 5


	³⁸"You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' ³⁹But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. ⁴⁰And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. ⁴¹If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. ⁴²Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

Jesus laid down in this a pattern of generosity in the face of persecution.

Paul confirms this in

Romans 12
¹⁹Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,"^[¹^] says the Lord. ²⁰On the contrary:
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."^[²^] ²¹Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

This was a quote from the book of Proverbs in the old testament.

For us to do these things. For us to not only ignore it when someone is giving us a hard time, but to go the extra mile and do good to those who hurt us, we have to fight directly against our human nature. We are fighting the real enemy, satan, and if we win a battle, satan's effect in our lives is weakened. We are better prepared not to give in to our human nature the next time. We train ourselves.

It's similar to the way we train for anything. If you're training for a marathon, each time you run, you run further. You try to stretch your limits. You're not going to be able to run 20 miles if you just run 1 mile every day. You have to increase it over time. You have to get up to 5 miles, 10 miles, 15 miles. This applies to us as Christians as well.

If you want to know the bible more and “be ready with an answer” as we always say, then you have to start reading it. You sometimes have to go out of your way, reading the bible after a long tiring day when you just want to sleep. Reading the bible rather than doing something recreational. You can always find an excuse, but you have to go beyond those excuses if you ever want to become more knowledgable about the bible.

We were talking recently in a study about how it is for us to get up here to speak. Clint mentioned that even Bill Yarbrough was really nervous the first time he got up to speak in front of a crowd. I know the feeling. Those nervous traits tend to disappear with practice. But you never have the chance unless you get up here for the first time to speak. If you're not willing to overlook your nervousness.

1 Cor 9


	²³I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. ²⁴Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. ²⁵Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.

Again, as we think of this analogy of a runner running a race, do all of the runners win the prize? If there's someone there who's only been running and training a month and someone who's been running for years, which one will probably win? We may not expect to succeed with flying colors the first few times we try something, but with practice and an effort to go beyond our limits, we can improve.

Imagine what the twelve disciples must have been thinking as Jesus told them this.


	Matthew 10 ¹⁸On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. ¹⁹But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, ²⁰for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

If I were to tell you right now, that, as you walk out of here tonight, you'll be arrested for being a Christian, you'd might be pretty frightened. Perhaps you might be able to overcome that fear with trust in God.

If we look back on Jesus' disciples, they didn't make a very good start of it that night he was betrayed. First, there was Judas who outright betrayed Jesus. He immediately lost the race there on the spot. We can think of the example of Peter. What was he doing on this night Jesus was betrayed? He denied three times that he even knew Jesus. But did he stop running the race? Did he say, “Look what I've done! I can't even try anymore after what I've done.” No, he kept running. It was a bad start, but how do we think of him today?--a faithful apostle.

We look at Paul himself. How did he start off? He was guarding the clothes of the men who were stoning the faithful Christian, Stephen. He was persecuting the church, imprisoning Christians left and right because he was Jewish and thought the idea of Christ to be a blasphemy. Perhaps one of the worst starts ever. But thankfully, he didn't look back on all this and get frustrated and quit running. In fact, he ran the race as hard as any apostle.

What happens if we quit training to run the race as we should? What happens if we don't try to grow and learn in Christ?

There's an example of what would happen in the book of

Hebrews 5


	¹¹We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. ¹²In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! ¹³Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. ¹⁴But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

If we don't keep trying to learn from the bible. If we just give up, saying we'll never learn it all, or that we're too scared to talk to anyone about Christ, we would be like the Hebrews who were, spiritually speaking, still on milk when they should have been on solid food by that time. They were unwilling to go above and beyond what they had already learned to move on to more vital matters. We should all be spurred not to stagnate, but to keep growing in Christ.