Please hold off on the hate mail and pelting me with tomatoes until you've read the entire post.
Let me explain fully before I am accused of being harsh, not compassionate or unfeeling…again.
People’s personal feelings must all be filtered
through God’s word.
The reason I am not wholly concerned with how people
feel is because if I cater all the time to people that feel certain ways I am
shaping my theology based on the whimsy of people's feelings. Feelings are man-centered (anthropocentric) not God-centered (theocentric). Because of this, our
churches are being steered more by the “feelings” of the congregants and
leadership than by the infallible and inerrant Word of God. We often try more
to find out what makes people tick and cater to that whimsy than we do just
teaching the word of God and the Gospel outright. This is usually what we see
in seeker-sensitive churches. If we are biblically literate we already know
that the message of the cross is offensive to people. We need to get over the
fact that some people just will not be reached by the Word or the offensiveness
of the Cross as they are stiff-necked and reject it outright, it has nothing to
do with our presentation.
1 Corinthians 1:23 ~ "...but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles"
1 Corinthians 1:23 ~ "...but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles"
Therefore, if the feelings do not align with
Scripture…then I really don't care about the feelings. What are they to me if
they are not in alignment with God’s Word. I’ll tell you what they are…they are
of this world or of the flesh. The filtering through the word is the only way I
know as an observer what I am dealing with.
Feelings not aligned to God and Scripture are inevitably
about the self and are inherently self-centered or selfish by their nature. If
not properly filtered through a complete understanding of Scripture they become
a detriment to the person that has them and those around that person. This is
because the less the feelings are controlled or attached to Scripture...the
more they will deviate from God. Those that will not concede this fact become
tools for the powers and system of this world. The more we conform to the
positive self-image doctrine that has pervaded the evangelical church, the
farther afield we drift from God.
When this type of mindset infiltrates a church it is
literally a rebellion right within the body. It is the feel-good mentality that
the evangelical church has borrowed from Psychiatry. Why is this bad? Because
at its base, it denies sin and therefore trivializes God and God’s role in
one’s life. People will readily take credit for a job well done but when things
are wrong or they are wrong, they will blame-shift to remove the stigma from
themselves. This is typical of our fallen nature because none are righteous. We
love ourselves and what matters to us-too much and we do not love God enough.
This type of mindset assumes that someone’s feelings
and opinions matter. This is a dangerous assumption to make in this fallen
world.
Those that overvalue their own feelings or other
people’s over Scripture nearly always undervalue God’s feelings and opinions
and other people’s opinions and feelings. And what does Scripture tell us to
do? What did Jesus say were the most important commandments?
Matthew
22:36-40 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said
to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all
your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment.
The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two
commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
We are turn outward toward God (or inward in the
case of the Spirit) and to others and love them over top of every other
command. This means trumping what we feel is proper and loving God first and
then others. If we turn inward it is only to the Spirit not purely to our
feelings as they would not contradict one another if they are in accordance
with Scripture. The people in this passage of course also need to be viewed
through the test of Scripture also as they are, after all, human and flawed.
The thing is…if one turns to God first which is what is being said here…it
assumes you would already have a decent grasp of Scripture and God’s precepts
already. The mindset is already there to put God first…therefore His word.
You need to always have Gods filter held out in
front of you when examining things in this fallen world otherwise our vision
and feelings are just as distorted as anything else in the Fall as we are all
fallen beings that are incapable of righteousness without Christ. By putting
Scripture first we view the world and our feelings through God’s eyes which are
not blurred by the feelings of people (Numbers 23:19).
To think too highly of one’s self in terms of
opinions and feelings makes oneself the highest authority and excludes others. It
makes one’s self an idol and therefore you become a detestable thing before
God. I hate to tell you folks this but you cannot base a productive meaningful
relationship with others on just your feelings. If you do then the relationship
revolves around nothing more than how you feel and frankly, that is just plain
selfish. It needs to at least include the Scripture.
In the end, I will state that I do care immensely about what people say and do and how people feel
about things, but I care about them after they have been sifted through the
perfect measure of Scriptures. I see when people are struggling in their sin when their feelings reflect the same. Everything about them swings wide of the word of God. It is because all people’s feelings (by their
nature) are selfish and tainted by the Fall of Humanity into sin. This then
makes them suspect and worthy of closer examination before just accepting them
at face value.
One must always approach everything in this world
with one question or presupposition in mind:
What does Scripture say?
It is then and only then that feelings should be
taken seriously.
This then leads to a second principle that must be
taken seriously. We do need to discern, whether or not the feelings of people
are matching Scripture. Yes people, we need to make a decision or more
specifically to discern or distinguish the difference between what is biblical
and unbiblical. Be warned, we will be accused of judging others and being
legalistic. If we do not do this we end up wasting precious time given to us to preach
the Gospel. We cast pearl before swine or throw children’s bread to the dogs.
In other words we waste time and energy continuing to allow people’s unbiblical
feelings to distract from and detour us from what is important: The Gospel and
teaching of God’s word.
So the next time you “feel” something about
Scripture or about issues taking place in the Church, please do yourself and
everyone else a favor and pre-screen or filter what you feel through the word
of God first. With the help of Scripture, filter out the ungodly in your
feelings. It is the only way for humans to know for certain what is coming
through is pure and of the Spirit of God and not our own polluted being. Test
everything against Scripture and in this way people will not need to do it for
you. In this way you will greatly aid the Kingdom spreading the Gospel. By
Scripture, through Scripture and with Scripture…never against it.
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