This will be a rather extensive series of short posts on what are Spiritual Disciplines. Disciplines when repeated and practice make us good at something, just like repeated practice and discipline at a sport or talent like playing a musical instrument. Addressing these disciplines one at a time like I will should help a person draw closer to Jesus Christ as we all should. When we are off base or out of kilter, these types of disciplines help restore a level of normalcy to a life in upheaval as my life has been lately. It just seemed like the right thing for me to do and as I do them I will post them for you to see. I will work through them in a question and answer format which will help address weaknesses. These topics that will be addressed are essentials for all disciples and those in discipleship. Without mastery of some sort over a majority of these disciplines...one will fall short at some point in their walk. Even with mastery of most of these topics...there are no guarantees.
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Although we are no longer required to observe the Sabbath in the strictest sense. A decent rest that centers on God can never be a bad thing. As such I have decided to note things that cause me not to take it easy on a Sunday when my family and I probably should.
Difficulties & Sinful Compulsions Inhibit Resting on The Sabbath
This one is easy to address. Making the answer stick is another issue altogether. The first compulsion is working and catching up on house work that gets neglected. As an adult with two children and a wife that is working to support a family while her husband pursues a Masters in Theology...work piles up quickly. As anyone that owns a home can inform, if a home owner does not keep after a house's maintenance, it quickly falls into ruin...starting with the bathroom.
The other (if this can be considered labor) is the need to put thoughts to paper either for personal study, blog posts or both as they may be synonymous. This to me can become quite laborious but it is a labor of love. I am not just writing mental notes I am literally going back and forth between library and desk. Sometimes it is just pure meditation on God which on the Sabbath is not a bad thing. When it turns into a work that requires hours and involves moderate levels of frustration…I have to consider that I have violated what would’ve been considered the Sabbath.
The Sabbath Enhances My Enjoyment and Worship of God
Abraham J. Heschel once wrote in his book “The Sabbath”:
“The Sabbath teaches us that there is a holiness in and of time.”
If God created rest it was originally holy. Although affected by the Fall… how we now treat the time allows us to again bring the holiness back into the day by using it to revere God. As Heschel also said:
"The Sabbath is a sanctuary in time.”
It is also a chance to have sanctuary from sin. When one is resting it is harder to sin. Sin often is thought put into action. I one’s mind dwells on the holiness of God and rest or does not proceed to action. Less sin is perpetrated.
Six days a week I wrestle with the world, wringing productivity from life; on the Sabbath I need to care for the soul which needs to seek eternity. The Sabbath is my day to do that in my worship of the Holy One of Israel. The world has my labor, but my heart and soul belongs to Jesus Christ. Six days a week I end up serving the world, on the Sabbath I should relish and enjoy the love and grace God bestows on me.
The Sabbath Nourishes and Replenishes Me
This is connected to the previous statement. The Sabbath is the Holy of Holies in chronology. This makes time sacred and how I use (or don’t use) it is imperative. What I do in this time dictates whether or not I glorify God or defame Him as a Christian. Spiritually this is a strong arm of my form of worship. Some sing, some dance. I try to utilize the time to dwell on Christ and His work. Often I write about it. My pursuit of God tends to be more intellectual than emotional in this respect. As I give this worship to God I myself feel more complete. Though I do not always do this I try.
Disaster Befalls Me When I Do Not Rest In God
I become disjointed when I do not rest or come peacefully before God's throne. I tend to be much more irritable. I know exactly when and if I have gone over that unseen line too. I feel as if I have lost something or left it behind. Either way it’s missing. A joy that has been lost as I cannot revisit that particular Sabbath ever again. It is gone forever.
It is as David felt in the 92nd Psalm: “For you make me glad by your deeds, LORD; I sing for joy at what your hands have done. How great are your works, LORD, how profound your thoughts!”
I have recently begun reading Reasonable Faith by William Lane Craig. In it he has a rather biting and harsh critique of American evangelical Chirstianity:
"Contemporary Christian worship tends to focus on fostering emotional intimacy with God. While this is a good thing, emotions will carry a person only so far..."
Craig goes on to say:
"It's no longer enough to teach our children Bible stories, they need doctrines and apologetics..."
Ouch. I can still feel the sting from those comments. After reading the entire portion where this is written in his book I find myself concurring with Craig’s assessment of American Evangelicalism. I have found myself making similar broad-sweeping comments (sometimes unfairly). We’re often told by believers in churches it is about how they/we feel or about what they/we think is good for us. The sad fact is the Bible does not use this as the gauge of what is correct or righteous. God is the gauge of what is correct or righteous.
“For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:3-4
As we have drifted away from God and Biblical principles we’ve begun to allow culture to creep into our churches. Proportionally, we see less of what God wants for us and more of what we want for ourselves. We’ve made ourselves our own highest authority in the cult of “Self”. In so doing we’ve created a syncretistic hybrid religion of what we feel is proper and mixed it with a little bit of what we are actually told in the Bible. How strong of a leader there is in a given church and how good of a biblical teacher that leader is stands in direct correlation to how intellectual or anti-intellectual that church might be. The modus operandi of a church should be teaching of God’s truth in a form of Godly intellectualism, not making people feel good about themselves at the cost of doctrine or the Gospel. If apologetics is part of a formula for helping people understand their faith and how it interacts with our world, it should be encouraged. If we cannot give the Body a firm foundation of truth and an ability to defend said truth, we will remain adrift on a sea of emotional easy-believism, ambivalence and postmodernism. In effect what I am doing in this essay is defending a defense. By agreeing with Craig I believe I am defending the defense of the Christian faith, in particular the Gospel of Jesus Christ though apologetics or a rational defense of the Christian as objective truth.
"But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect... 1 Peter 3:15
The heart of the issue Craig brings to light about our churches is that the culture (including the Church) has (1) short attentions spans and a (2) hedonistic approach to church where the desire for feel good-easy believism trumps truth. People within churches do not always care that truth is spoken, they care that they feel “positive” or feel good about what is said. In this respect they have made themselves gods and this is not a biblical approach to doing church. Craig as a point of demarcation from his stinging critique interposes a suggestion to fix the problem. He states that Christian worship fosters emotional intimacy with God; he also states that we should balance it with “substance” in the form of apologetics. While emotion in a relationship with God can never be bad, it tends to be less substantive and leaves a whole realm in the Christian life unaddressed that adds more substance: Rational explanation and logical reasoning. Apologetics adds the intellectualism back into a worldview that is viewed (sometimes rightfully) as over emotional and anti-intellectual.
We are, for the most part an empirically based society driven by the naturalistic/empirical evidences and agnostic/atheistic philosophies that preclude God. This type of mindset basically says that if we cannot observe it, repeat it or rationalize it to its smallest iota, it either doesn’t exist or can’t exist. Atheistic worldviews restrict or limit what they believe is possible because of a myopic view of reality. In the case of the scientific secular humanist world they refuse to recognize the supernatural. They refuse to acknowledge something exists if it does not fit within their criteria of determining what they consider scientific fact (which isn’t always fact, its theory). It is a refusal to acknowledge or believe something even in light of evidences or effects of things unseen on their surroundings or interactions within a human life…in other words: God
The aforementioned naturalistic philosophy has permeated churches and in some cases trumped the rationale of even believer’s thinking. In many cases churches are filled with believers educated in “higher” learning institutions that have been indoctrinated with anti-Christian worldviews. It now becomes a process of deprogramming them. It’s as if the naturalistic view has trumped God’s authority in many mainline churches. It is up to leaders or pastors to have a rationalized or logical argument from Scripture to convince many in the their body otherwise. If the leader is not able to do this, the body remains adrift and ambivalent towards Biblical truth and/or authority. If they will not take Scripture serious, which is the revealed mind and heart of God in words, how can they possibly take God/Jesus Christ serious?
Apologetics looks like an intellectual point-of-contact to do just that. It allows believers to take their faith to a point of engagement and defend it. We as Christians can meet people at their own points of doubt…even our own doubts. We are called to do this in Scripture in 1 Corinthians...
“For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” 1 Corinthians 10:4-5
I believe Craig calls this the “cultural milieu”. While emotions are nice, they are nearly ineffective in this area. It is in this cultural milieu that we have at our disposal a time and place to show many things of the world (like science or philosophy) are indeed compatible with a Christian belief in the God of the Bible.
A good way to integrate this into our churches is to give youth (through youth pastors) a toolbox to defend their faith in high school and college. It should also be given to adults in the working world. The best way to integrate anything into a body in a biblical manner is via the Bible. Perhaps doing a sermon series and growth group on Paul’s missionary journey(s) and use them as a case-in-point. Draw parallels between what Paul did in Athens, Mars Hill, with the Berea, Corinth, etc. These were broadly outlined and hinted at in Acts. The disciples didn’t live sedentary lives. They went out teaching and preaching and in some cases used apologetics. We as leaders in the church today can draw cotemporary applications we have the pattern already laid out for us in Scripture. For the teaching to stick in a diverse body (all churches) it is necessary to incorporate everyone into the learning process. Educating part of the body and not others will cause disparity and possibly division.
In the end it was the charge of the disciples (therefore ours) to evangelize and teach all members of the Body both young and old. Those disciples continue this chain of discipleship. If apologetics is a meaningful tool for maintaining this self-perpetuating cycle then all the tools of the church should be used and put at a disciple’s disposal to get the job done. We saw Paul use apologetics to get points across and defend the faith. We also saw the others disciples like Peter follow the same line of thinking…so should we. Through their actions we see that Christ’s immediate disciples including Paul use apologetics to obey the Great Commission. I fear that if we do not educate those in the Body to properly do this we as a Body will be set further adrift from the truth of the Bible with fewer and fewer people able to paddle and direct the body back to a proper anchorage in truth of God. At some point I fear the church will complete break loose from its mooring and the truth will not even be discernable too most of the Body because it will either be too far away from it to recognize it. We already see this happening. Our first line of defense against something like that happening is preaching the God’s word in conjunction with an apologia.
Art: Bill Osbourne
I am often approached about humanitarian acts and charity asking, "...isn't all action in terms of humanitarian aid and charity a good thing?" It is also phrased in this manner too, "...is charity always a Christian thing to do?"
My response? Usually...but not always.
No matter how noble the task, when done for selfish motives, even good deeds can turn into sin in the hands of a sinner. Please read that again and let it stew in your brain for a second.
When someone gives charity and/or humanitarian aid as an effort towards self-glorification, it is given to the right people...with the wrong intent. If the need to aid others is driven or comes in the form of conviction from the Holy Spirit it will be done in love for love. It will not be driven by selfish motives. I believe many do things because it is the "in" thing to do or sometimes do it for noterity. Do not get me wrong...God can work to get people life-saving supplies even through the sinful atrocious motivations of selfish people. It still does not make the intent of selfish people less sinful or proper. Sadly, as with many other things in our modern world, people are not differentiating. So when I come along and make a statement like this I am portrayed or viewed as a miserly and mean-spirited Evangelical. Hit the dump button....Bzzzzzzzzzz. Wrong. These ideas have been around a lot longer than I and they have been more eloquently worded by better men.
We see this idea in the story of the Widow's Mite in the Gospel of Mark and Luke.
"Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.” Mark 12:41-44
Beyond the obvious mixed feelings of seeing this widow give everything she had becasue of her faith and dedication to God we something else. Earlier in the passage we see the rich dumping into the temple treasury from their wealth. They gave from their surplus and did so handsomely...more than likely this was done to impress those around adding to their prestige and piousness. Based on Jesus' reaction to both them and the widow it is probably safe to say the rich had motives beyond that of pure charity based in love. Selfish charity.
Again I cite a Thomas à Kempis passage from the "Imitation of Christ"
Book I: Chapter 15 - Thomas à Kempis
Never do evil for anything in the world, or for the love of any man. For one who is in need, however, a good work may at times be purposely left undone or changed for a better one. This is not the omission of a good deed but rather its improvement. Without charity external work is of no value, but anything done in charity, be it ever so small and trivial, is entirely fruitful inasmuch as God weighs the love with which a man acts rather than the deed itself. He does much who loves much. He does much who does a thing well. He does well who serves the common good rather than his own interests. Now, that which seems to be charity is oftentimes really sensuality, for man's own inclination, his own will, his hope of reward, and his self-interest, are motives seldom absent. On the contrary, he who has true and perfect charity seeks self in nothing, but searches all things for the glory of God. Moreover, he envies no man, because he desires no personal pleasure nor does he wish to rejoice in himself; rather he desires the greater glory of God above all things. He ascribes to man nothing that is good but attributes it wholly to God from Whom all things proceed as from a fountain, and in Whom all the blessed shall rest as their last end and fruition.
If man had but a spark of true charity he would surely sense that all the things of earth are full of vanity!
Book I: Chapter 13
1. So long as we live in the world, we cannot be without trouble and trial. Wherefore it is written in Job, The life of man upon the earth is a trial.(1) And therefore ought each of us to give heed concerning trials and temptations, and watch unto prayer, lest the devil find occasion to deceive; for he never sleepeth, but goeth about seeking whom he may devour. No man is so perfect in holiness that he hath never temptations, nor can we ever be wholly free from them.
2. Yet, notwithstanding, temptations turn greatly unto our profit, even though they be great and hard to bear; for through them we are humbled, purified, instructed. All Saints have passed through much tribulation and temptation, and have profited thereby. And they who endured not temptation became reprobate and fell away. There is no position so sacred, no place so secret, that it is without temptations and adversities.
3. There is no man wholly free from temptations so long as he liveth, because we have the root of temptation within ourselves, in that we are born in concupiscence. One temptation or sorrow passeth, and another cometh; and always we shall have somewhat to suffer, for we have fallen from perfect happiness. Many who seek to fly from temptations fall yet more deeply into them. By flight alone we cannot overcome, but by endurance and true humility we are made stronger than all our enemies.
4. He who only resisteth outwardly and pulleth not up by the root, shall profit little; nay, rather temptations will return to him the more quickly, and will be the more terrible. Little by little, through patience and longsuffering, thou shalt conquer by the help of God, rather than by violence and thine own strength of will. In the midst of temptation often seek counsel; and deal not hardly with one who is tempted, but comfort and strengthen him as thou wouldest have done unto thyself.
5. The beginning of all temptations to evil is instability of temper and want of trust in God; for even as a ship without a helm is tossed about by the waves, so is a man who is careless and infirm of purpose tempted, now on this side, now on that. As fire testeth iron, so doth temptation the upright man. Oftentimes we know not what strength we have; but temptation revealeth to us what we are. Nevertheless, we must watch, especially in the beginnings of temptation; for then is the foe the more easily mastered, when he is not suffered to enter within the mind, but is met outside the door as soon as he hath knocked. Wherefore one saith,
Check the beginnings; once thou might’st have cured,
But now ’tis past thy skill, too long hath it endured.
For first cometh to the mind the simple suggestion, then the strong imagination, afterwards pleasure, evil affection, assent. And so little by little the enemy entereth in altogether, because he was not resisted at the beginning. And the longer a man delayeth his resistance, the weaker he groweth, and the stronger groweth the enemy against him.
6. Some men suffer their most grievous temptations in the beginning of their conversion, some at the end. Some are sorely tried their whole life long. Some there are who are tempted but lightly, according to the wisdom and justice of the ordering of God, who knoweth the character and circumstances of men, and ordereth all things for the welfare of His elect.
7. Therefore we ought not to despair when we are tempted, but the more fervently should cry unto God, that He will vouchsafe to help us in all our tribulation; and that He will, as St. Paul saith, with the temptation make a way to escape that we may be able to bear it.(2) Let us therefore humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God in all temptation and trouble, for He will save and exalt such as are of an humble spirit.
8. In temptations and troubles a man is proved, what progress he hath made, and therein is his reward the greater, and his virtue doth the more appear. Nor is it a great thing if a man be devout and zealous so long as he suffereth no affliction; but if he behave himself patiently in the time of adversity, then is there hope of great progress. Some are kept safe from great temptations, but are overtaken in those which are little and common, that the humiliation may teach them not to trust to themselves in great things, being weak in small things.
(1) Job 7 1 (Vulg.). (2) 1 Corinthians 10 13..
I was having a few thoughts before returning to school the other day. They are not well thought through but poignant. More rant than reasoning but fodder for thought. What brought them to mind are the increasing demands I am being presented with by God and the world concerning ministry. It seems to be clear to many (besides me) that God is preparing me for a leadership role in ministry in His Church, in His time and at His working. I must be praying on the wrong wavelength sometimes because when I pay I am getting mixed/muted signals that are the equivalent of sideband while I am stuck on the carrier signal (or vice versa). That being said I am making some observations about the culture and its potential pitfalls and punji sticks.
Facebook Churching:
I have no desire to make judgment calls today or name by name Christian congregations, denominations or individuals who seem to be exercising the gift(s) given them in a self-serving manner rather than corporate way. I've expounded on this plenty of times in the past. What really concerns me though are the dangers of the electronic or Internet churches that is emerging in the social networks. This powerful tool can reach millions (eh, billions) of people worldwide and like many things on the web (like Wikipedia), there are not a lot of checks and balances and systems to hold people accountable for some of the nonsensical garbage or outright theological goobledy-gook that passes for truth under the Christian banner. Frankly, some of the stuff is downright embarassing and I prefer not to be associated with it. People are missing the mark Big Time. I see some of the most ridiculous stuff passed off as Christianity on blogs and or social networking sites such as Facebook.
We are obliged to correct error where we find it if it does not cause more damage to the writer and the readers. That being said, getting people to accept a rebuke online or admit they are wrong through online correspondence is usually a fools-errand. Most being isolated rogue agents will not and do not accept the rebuke and many retaliate in a non-Christian manner (and that is the key: non-Christian). Please note I did not say publicly tell them they are wrong and blasting them like an idiot. Do it privately when possible and back up your corrective response with a correctly interpreted Bible first and then reason with them from that Bible.
Just this week I alone I lost count how many people requested friendings and when I look at their patchwork theology (as John MacArthur calls it) I am stunned. Some of the prime movers on the Internet are propogators of skewed and skewered ideologies that at times...are blatently unbiblical even to an untrained eye. These then have a trickle-down effect on the smaller movers near the lower end of web-traffic. Often what I see is the same theology and errant doctrine farmed out by the larger movers that show up on the websites of the smaller ones in the form of widgets and ads. We are talking some serious big business here too when millions of dollars in revenue are changing hands...all of it pushing a God that is often not the one described in the Bible. We need to tend to our own or those that claim to be of us. If not we should not balk and whine when the government comes down and tries to take away tax-exempt status from religious organizations when we have these wolves hiding among our flock. Purge the wolves or the culture purges us.
When the culture sees these charlatans as one of ours because they cannot differentiate the two, it is no wonder they go on the offensive to strangle us out of existence through financal avenues that amount to nothing more than a believers tax. Some of the trash I've seen peddled on some sites, social network pages and other media outlets...geez man...its clear they could care less about Jesus Christ. They just care about Andrew Jacksons, Ulysses S. Grants and Ben Franklins. Remember folks, heretics and demons will not try to sell you their theology and flavor of church telling you it will lead you to Hell. All of them tell you they have the path or the answer that gets you to Heaven. Hell isn't a moneymaker (unless you're a satanist), Heaven is. Demons and evil will not come as dark brooding monsters but rather they will come as beings of light. They will come making promises they couldn't possibly keep nor do they intend to. They do not have the authority to do so.
There is nothing wrong with using these tools for spreading the truth but as we have learned painful lessons from other form of biased media. When in the worng hands or used improperly, tools become weapons of the world used to try and attack the Gospel eitherr directly or indirectly.
Trapdoor Evangelsim of the Public Square
Large-scale evangelists, Christian speakers, Christian performers and Christian leaders in general appear to face some unique and vexing circumstances that center around pride and ego. These issues are not unique to Christian leaders and Christians with a high public profile. The way that those of God need to respond to these temptations and pressures is often different from those on equal footing in the secular world. Christian leaders are called to higher levels of restraint, Godly and righteous behavior. We need to have inhibitions and self-consciousness in place and moral guidelines when presented with the ability to indulge sin such as money, sex or idolatry. Where everyone else should also practice moral rectitude in similar positions it is the Christian leader that is especially held to account for poor behavior when it comes to financial dilly-dallying, sexual impropriety or some other flirtation with sin with unsavory connotations. And many fail on these fronts as even a precursory perusal of the news and media over the last 20 or 30 years will show us.
Christian public figures and Christian leaders can easily and sinfully savor the glow of warm acceptance and ego intensifying comments or compliments from adulating fans. Leaders in Christian organizations and pastors are subject to the same temptations of pride and status as any other human being. What sets them apart is the level of their dependence on God. to release anything of true value does not come from them but from God through His grace and mercy. None of us is exempt because none us is righteous without Christ.
Radical Liberation or Liberal Christians who urge action in the inner city to the acclaim of similarly striped politicians are victims of this. On the other side we have politically conservative Christians who give large sums of their investments to missions to have names attached to permanent structures. We have the newly minted Bible college and seminary students who glory in and relish their new-found knowledge. New worship leaders that must constantly be center-stage and in the heat of a single stagelight. Even the cavalier or imperious church members who fill out committees and growth groups within the church. We all need to constantly come back to the Son of God kneeling next to unbuckled sandals in the Garden of Gethsemane. Pleading that the Father take the Cup of Wrath from Him if it is possible but realizing it is not about the His will but the Father's. The One who submits to another's will...even though He knows it means excruciating death.
Christ's doing things for the good of the whole Church. Not a rogue agent bungling up the entire works selfishly to make a buck. Body not individual. Our action must be for the sake of the Body. If we loyally serve Jesus, and human approval or even celebrity or noterirty are the outcome we need God's direct intervention through grace to handle it. But if we consciously seek applause or reputation for selfish ends we effectively ostricize ourselves from God's grace and condemn ourselves giving into our own lust. We have turned a good act into an impure act because of dubious motive. This is no different than priests of the Old Testament offering blemished sacrifices in Malachi's time saving the best cuts of meat for themselves.
When we push or adverstise the human personality over the Divine message of grace we are pushing a dead religion. Instead of the love of Jesus Christ and the adherence to the Gospel we will often see a business to push by the work of human personality which is no different than slapping a flashy label on a square and otherwise insipid cardboard box that says it offers the way to heaven but instead peddles messed up theology. Like selling coffins...with the dead body inside. Instead of selling life (eternal life) these charlatans sell a flashy version of death because what they are selling has no salvation in it. If it does not contain the message of Christ crucfied, buried and resurrected according to Scripture, it is a box (more properly a hole..as in grave) or message filled with death.
"Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood." ~1 John 4:1-6
If you walk up to just about any non-Christian on the streets today and ask them their opinion of Christians you will more than likely be responsible for uncorking a tirade or dissertation of hateful and poorly informed rhetoric. Most often some of the more biting comments will include things like "doomsayer", "zealot", "judgmental", "kook", "hypocrite", or the ever popular "hellfire & brimstone spouting, sandwich board carryin' backwoods anti-intellectual". Sometimes the diatribe will include all the above in some sort of patchwork comment that is akin to vomiting insults. The other comments usually line up with hints of prude and dogmatic fool.
Unfortunately, many of these characterizations will hit on truth. Perhaps not always accurately but truth none-the-less. People that are unfamiliar with our faith will believe all kind of voodoo about how we adhere to some arcane lifestyle that makes us ultimately boring, regimented and mindless adherents to a goat-herders God (or some venomous variation on this theme). Sadly, many of us after being beat-up by these snide and marginally truthful comments or assessments will retreated into our hard shells or Christo-exoskeletons and leer ominously at the very people we are called to speak to or live out the Gospel in front of. We will often lump them all together as unreachable reprobates and chose to do little of nothing to reach them in that state. When it is us or others like us that are very tool that Jesus through the Holy Spirit most often uses to bring these "irreparable reprobates" to the light.
Sometimes we will then take the few that we do manage to get to listen to us and bludgeon them with the legalism or unnecessary dogma we are rightfully accused of. The very thing we are mocked over and that we vehemently deny. The non-core, non-salvation issues that we refuse to relinquish or bend on is where many of us lose prospective candidates in our evangelism. The rejections are so sad at times and so common as to be predictable. The code of legalism: no tattoos, no piercings, no raucous rock music, no smoking, no alcholic beverages whatsoeverr, no long hair, no short hair, no shaved heads (unless military), no Justin Bieber (oh, wait, my legalism is creeping into the post). It is the ones that we nearly convert and inevitably lose that we need to focus on. Mockers will always mock but near-misses because of judgmental attitudes, hypocritical behavior or denial is never acceptable. In these cases we do not lose these people because of them and their actions, we lose them because of us and our actions. The ones we win to a point and then drive away with absolutely unnecessary legalism is entirely avoidable. Teaching truth is one thing, teaching truth with man-made junk and/or our opinions piggybacking it is bogus. To drive home this piggybacked dogma with a hammer is even worse. Jesus would've been and is quite upset with us when we do these things. The pattern of Scritpure is clear on this behavior.
Although it is tempting to just look at the legalist as throwaway child of a religion that the world hates and just live with their presence without acting on it...we should not. It is part of the reason we are viewed unfavorably and often hated as a whole in Christianity. We are obliged to "tend" to our own as momma used to say. Jesus did. I don't mind being hated for preaching the Gospel and telling the truth of the Bible. I do mind being hated or thoroughly misunderstood because of misguided or boneheaded attempts by others to impose bogus interpretations on the Bible text just to subjugate believers and non-believers alike. Then of course we have legalistic infighting when brethren turn against the brethren internally and this petty inter-denominational or inter-congregational squabbles makes us all look like infighting backwoods rednecks.
It is also not funny when one group of Christians whose members wearing suits, ties and knee length dresses recoil in abject horror at another congregation's tattoos, Doc Martins, flannel shirts, piercings and Starbuck’s Caramel Frappuccino®. We all need to realize that not everything that comes down the pike in terms of cultural quirkiness and social oddity is necessarily evil or sinful. Sometimes harmless dopey diversions are just harmless dopey diversions (anyone remember big hair and mullets?). A passing dopey fad that’s only inherent danger is having our children find pictures of us when they are older and having a laugh riot over sky-high hair.
On the other hand, legalism includes enough threat and danger to warrant some of the most vehement admonitions in the Bible. Many of these warnings come from Jesus Himself during His ministry. Woe to you hypocrites! Some of Jesus’ most rankled moments come under the banner of legalism. The self-righteous legalism perpetrated by the hypocritical Pharisees. Even today, nothing gnaws and needles Christians and non-Christians alike more than the pharisaic attitude or religious snobbery and pious pretentiousness. We are called to be different by being humble, not different by being arrogant idiots.
And here is where the rubber meets the road. The ones today that are most akin to the Pharisees of old are often those who we consider the hardcore fundamentalists. The fundamental evangelicals (i.e. me): The ones that had such a recoiling and negative reaction to the liberal theology of the last century (and rightfully so). The ones who have attempted to avoid the near totally submissive attitude of embracing the modern culture (often rightfully so). In reaction we / they have withdrawn into hardened shells in a desperate bid to avoid being sucked into the ungodly culture and compromising our faith, we have in many cases added walls and rules to our faith to avoid falling into that nebulous no-man’s land where behavior becomes questionable so that we do not slip out and the world does not creep in. It is done to avoid stepping over the line acceptable in the Bible. In so doing we/they have added an additional fence around what’s acceptable and have on many fronts become legalistic. We sound strangely reminiscent of the Pharisees, the Pharisees who devoted their lives to following God…but ended up doing it wrong. In an attempt to stay holy they/we became hypocritical. In an attempt to stay separated for God, they/we ended up becoming separated from God.
Jesus condemned these religious denizens of Israel and he will do the same today. Why?
…because they/we had/have become overtly religious when they/we should’ve become overtly relational...in Christ.
Having withdrawn into their/our shells (like we often do today) they/we separate them/ourselves from the very people that we are set aside and made holy to be able to reach.
Let me restate that.
We as God's chosen are purposely set aside to be holy and to be different. We are to be different in a way that will allow us to teach and attract those not of the faith to come to us…not run the other way. How many of us can say we live a life consistent with that idea? I can honestly say this is not how I live my Christian walk 100% of the time and for that I should be ashamed. I often rely exclusively on my avoidance of my Christian responsibilities as a protective measure. My attitude when committing this sin is this: If I avoid people I view as being dunderheads, then I do not need to deal with the people I view as being dunderheads…will I?
Here’s the problem with that logic…by what gauge or measure have I assayed these people to have been able to come to the conclusion they are dunderheads? It certainly cannot be an evaluation according to the the Bible, can it? The Bible tells me to love my neighbor(s). The Bible tells me Jesus specifically came to save the lost. The tax collectors and sinners. Jesus was a friend of tax collectors and sinners. If Jesus was their friend, why am I not? Sinners. That means everyone. Everyone's a sinner and everyone is my neighbor. How can I love my neighbors, sinners and unbelievers if I am purposely avoiding them? How can I help save any of them if I have already passed judgment on them before I have even gotten to fully know them? Yes...discern their sin but do not judge them, it is not your place or mine. We are to gather the harvest, we are not to seperate the wheat from the tares. That has been left to God to do. To assess and measure a person without actually knowing them is to be thoroughly and unjustly judgmental. The exact things Christians are often accused of. What’s worse is we are often judgmental of the very things we ourselves are guilty of which adds hypocrisy to the hyper-criticality.
[Insert deafening silence here.......]
As a Christian, to purposely avoid people I view as “dunderheads”, I become a dunderhead. I become the embodiment of the thing I have tried to avoid. Paradox? You better believe it. Hypocritical? Probably even more so than you and I realize.
Face it folks. We cannot run and hide in our bible-thumping caves to avoid people. The Bible does not allow it. We are to avoid the immorality and sin of the culture but not the people themselves within the culture. We are essentially set aside by God and immunized (through acceptance of Jesus and indwelling of the Holy Spirit). As Christians we are immunized against the penalty of sin (eternal condemnation). The immunization does not mean we will be unaffected by the sin, it just means we will not inevitably be killed (eternally) by it. So why would one need an immunization? So they can hide away behind walls and barbed-wire fences in a hermetically sinless and sealed bubble? No! We are immunized for the very task of entering the world/culture/society with a partial immunization against the very sin that we will be teaching and preaching against. It is no different than getting malaria shot before going on a missionary journey to a mosquito infested jungle near the equator.
Legalism fools both those that practice it. The Pharisees impressed the uninitiated with their appearance of piety. But the reality is legalists are dedicated to the rules of men not God. In this way we see that legalism errs by lowering the expectations and requirements for men and not meeting what God requires which is the equivalent of either doing nothing or working against God anyway. God already did for us what needed to be done. To add to what Jesus did is to trivialize Jesus’ work. This is not acceptable…nor is it biblical. Having done something this dunderheaded, shows that a legalist missed the whole idea that the Gospel is freely given, not earned. By adding legalism we limit our growth as we get stuck in a mire of man-made regulations.
We need to be more Christ-like in these situations. As you have read in my “Hard Sayings” series on SoJo, when Jesus was approached or queried on things of the Law or questions of interpretation confront Jesus, he rarely answers questions directly. He did not become more legal, instead Jesus touches on things behind the Scripture. He reaches back to the intent or the wellspring of the passage. These are the things He drives home with vehemence. He does not become more legalistic he becomes more realistic and gets to the heart of the matter. Having drawn out the true intent, our sins lay exposed and reveal us for the sinners we truly are. Jesus does not rely on legalism, He relys on realism. We see just how sinful we are when He shows us all how far from the mark we fall short. That is what the word sin really means...missing the mark. In this realism or realization we then also realize our absolute need for Him. We should do the same as Jesus, get to the true intent of the law or rule in the Bible (if that is what it really is). What behavior is the commandment or statute of God really aiming at? The coveting laws of the Old Testament weren't so much an obsession with material possessions as much as they were warning of a non-spiritual replacement for the spiritual things...a replacement for God. when we want something in this world so much it consumes us, where is the room for God? We need not always interpret passages liberally or literally and hold everyone down to the exact letter when that is not the intent of the saying or words.
The other problem I encounter with legalism is the pride in which the possessors of it wear it on their exterior like a badge of honor. Like bright polished (obnoxious) armor it keeps everyone out and sends a message loud and clear to those that see it. !DUNDERHEAD!. Thereby this person or these types of people make themselves wholly unapproachable and unattractive. Subsequently they make the entire Christian Faith look like…you guessed it…dunderheads.
I may not like divorce and what it does to families, the alcoholism of the alcoholic or the smoke of the smoker but I will not sit in harsh judgment of these addictions or social issues either. Why? Because: (1) I have already been through some of them and know how much hell it is to extricate one’s self from them and (2) Christ died for everyone for ALL their sins. I must always look at Jesus as the final benchmark. He hated and loathed the sin not the sinner. Yes, the Bible speaks of rules concerning these issues. They are meant to be internalized and practiced not necessarily used as hammers to bludgeon those struggling in the sin. A Christian’s rules and statutes are for the internal well-being and change towards holiness for a believer, not an external eyesore to flaunt in front of those that are losing a battle with the world and with their sin. What did God tell us to do with His commandments in the Shema of Deuteronomy? Are we to wave them arrogantly and hypocritically in people’s faces? NO! It says they’re to be internal:
“These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.”” Deuteronomy 6:6
When our faith turns into a religion that turns into an exercise of what we do better than someone else or have externalized and made gaudy we have created a religion of works, piousness and hypocrisy. Conversely, what does the Bible say our salvation is based on?
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:8-10
The works are the result of the faith, not the other way around. When our faith goes external as a wall to divide us from the world we effectively force others to go internal and avoid us through rejection of what they perceive to be our rejection of them. The only way to allow people to come out of their shells is to lower ours by losing the legalist nature. A dichotomy or paradox if I ever did see one.
To win people who are potentially our enemy we must first lower our guard, lose the legalism and make ourselves vulnerable…vulnerable to our enemies.
Otherwise there will forever be two opposing camps staring distrustfully at one another mumbling “dunderhead”.
Book I: Chapter 2
1. As for knowledge, it comes natural to all of us to want it; but what can knowledge do for us, without the fear of God? Give me a plain, unpretentious farm-hand, content to serve God; there is more to be made of him than of some conceited University professor who forgets that he has a soul to save, because he is so busy watching the worthlessness, losing all taste for human praise. If my knowledge embraces the whole of creation, what good would it do to me in God's sight? It is by my actions that he will judge me.
2. Why not take a rest from this exaggerated craving for mere knowledge which only has the effect of distracting and deluding us? People are so fond of passing for learned men, and being congratulated on their wisdom -- yes, but what a lot of knowledge there is that contributes nothing to our souls' welfare! And there can be no wisdom in spending yourself on pursuits which are not going to promote your chances of salvation. All the talk in the world won't satisfy the soul's needs; nothing but holiness of life will set your mind at rest, nothing but a good conscience will help you to face God unashamed.
3. The wider, the more exact your learning, the more severe will be your judgement, if it has not taught you to live holily. Not art, no science should make a man proud of possessing it; such gifts are a terrifying responsibility. Meanwhile, however well satisfied you are with your own skill or intelligence, never forget how much there is that remains unknown to you. Let us have no airs of learning; own up to your ignorance, what is the use of crowing over some rival, when you can point to any number of Doctors and Masters who can beat you at your own game? If you want to learn an art worth knowing, you must set out to be unknown, and to count for nothing.
4. There is no lesson so profound or so useful as this lesson of self-knowledge and of self-contempt. Claim nothing for yourself, think of others kindly and with admiration; that is the height of wisdom, and its masterpiece. Never think yourself better than the next man, however glaring his faults, however grievous has his offences; you are in good dispositions now, but how long will they last? Tell yourself, "We are frail, all of us, but none so frail as I".
