Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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A checklist for the church

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Question 36 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks this:

What are the benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption and sanctification?

In other words what is the result of being in relationship with Jesus Christ?

The catechism gives four benefits:

  1. Assurance of God’s love
  2. Peace of conscience
  3. Joy in the Holy Spirit
  4. Increase of grace

ChecklistIt seems to me that these four things provide a good checklist to see how we are doing individually and as a group.

Am I acting as if I am assured of God’s love? If so, it seems as though I would be communicating that love to others. I will become a radiator of God’s love into the world around me.

Do I have peace of conscience? Or, I am pressed down by my lack of conformity to the revealed will of God? Do I act as if I know that I am forgiven? Can I forgive myself and forgive others?

Do I display joy? Or, am I pressed down by the circumstances around me? Do I act as if God has been, is and always will be in control? Do I act as if I trust him?

Is grace an increasing trait in my life? Do I show grace to others and allow myself to receive grace? Am I patient with the progress that myself and others are making in “working out their salvation?”

In looking at all of these questions, I realize that there is a gap between my behavior and my belief. I believe in God’s love, I know that I am forgiven, I know that God is in control and I know that I have received and am to give grace. Yet, I do not always live according to that knowledge.

The gap between my knowledge and behavior is wider than I would like it to be but it is shrinking.

As mentioned above, these questions can also be applied to churches. This is a good checklist to assess the health of a congregation.

Would a visitor sense our assurance of God’s love? Does the visitor experience peace, joy and grace radiating from us? Do we give them a taste of the living water of Jesus Christ (see John 4)?

I hope so. The world desperately needs to see believers living out the Gospel.

Self inflicted wounds

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“But I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they came.” (Ezekiel 36:21, ESV)

Self-inflicted woundWhat did the nation of Israel do to profane God’s name? In reading the Old Testament prophets I find these themes recurring:

  • They allowed the surrounding culture to corrupt their worship of the one true God.
  • They ignored Scriptural commands when they conflicted with their material gain or personal pleasure.
  • They became unconcerned about social justice issues.

Let’s be honest. On a personal level and as a group we struggle with these same issues. The very first temptation began with the words, “Did God really say . . .” and we have struggled to obey ever since.

My observation of Christendom in 2015 is that we sometimes profane the name of God by misrepresenting him in our dealings with those outside the church. We are seen as judgmental and unforgiving by much of the populace. As a group, we can be quick to denounce and slow to forgive. A cursory internet search will provide numerous examples of condemnation and “holier-than-thou” nonsense coming from Christians. The nonsense is not only targeted at non-Christians, we have a tendency to condemn other Christians over the slightest provocation.

When those outside the church criticize our lack of love and hypocrisy, we respond as if we are being persecuted. But much of the perceived “persecution” is self-inflicted. We are rightly condemned by the culture around us when we fail to represent Jesus well.

We will fix this when we become less concerned about our own reputations and more concerned about God’s name. We need to be less inclined to misrepresent God to the people who do not claim a relationship with him.

In John 17:1 Jesus prayed, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you . . .” Jesus was all about bringing glory to the father.

The next time you feel like going on a rant about your pet issue, ask yourself these questions:

  • Who gets the glory? Am I concerned about my reputation or am I concerned about people recognizing the glory of God?
  • Does my action misrepresent the character of God as displayed in Jesus?

I keep coming back to the fact that the only group toward which Jesus was harsh were the Pharisees. Jesus was harsh with them because they should have known better.

They say that people who live in glass houses should not throw stones. I agree and freely admit that I have a long way to go and God has a lot of work to do in me so that I can more accurately reflect the character of God. So, this post is not in condemnation of anyone.

What this post is intended to condemn is unrighteous anger, stony hearts and self-righteousness. All of which I put on display at the most inopportune times.

Perhaps if we all look in the mirror and admit that we fail to accurately represent God, we could then begin the process of restoring the damage and show people in 2015 AD why the Jesus who walked the Earth was so appealing to people in 30 AD.

Learning as I go . . .

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This is an apology to many of you who get posts from Attempts at Honesty by email. I made a mistake and I’m sorry for it.

WordPress (the platform I use to manage the blog) uses plugins to add functionality. I had been using one plugin that provided many functions that I didn’t use so I decided to find more efficient options. I chose to add only the functions that I really need. In theory, this will speed page load times.

Unfortunately, when I deleted the all-in-one plugin, I didn’t realize that it would also disable email distribution of the posts. So you may have missed the last post or two.

I have now added all the email addresses to the new list so everyone who signed up should be getting this post by email. I’m learning as I go . . .

If you haven’t seen an email from Attempts at Honesty in a while, feel free check out the most recent posts to see what you missed. If you are getting this by email, links to recent posts appear below.

Ashley Madison and Matthew 5

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Pick up the first stoneThere have been many articles responding to the release of names associated with the Ashley Madison web site, a site where prospective adulterers could find connection.

Some have expressed surprise and dismay that Christian leaders have been found to have their names on the list. But I don’t think that we should be surprised. The church is not filled with people who have it all together. We know this because they let us in and we do not have it all together. Whether our failures are obvious to others or not, we all fail.

So let’s put down the stones before someone gets hurt. There is not a person alive that has not had his or her mind taken to places that it should not go. As Christians, we have to learn to “take every thought captive” and redirect the trajectory of our thoughts.

Why is this important? In Matthew 5:27-30 Jesus tells us that adultery starts long before any physical activity takes place. Adultery takes place first and foremost in the mind. Adultery begins with lust and lust is the real problem.

Rather than our condemnation, we should offer to those on the list our sympathy and prayers. Certainly, they were wrong to flirt with or commit physical adultery. But every human has crossed into territory that he or she should not go whether the thought was acted upon or not. Knowing our own hearts, and how easily our minds can be driven off course, we should have some understanding of how those on the list got there.

The problem is essentially one of idolatry. Lust takes place when we seek something that provides a distraction or what we think will be lasting satisfaction. Lust is essentially trying to meet a legitimate need by illegitimate means. Any desire for sexual fulfillment that is contrary to the prescription of Scripture is harmful and wrong.

Rather than worship God through the legitimate means of meeting a need, we worship a false god when we turn to the illegitimate. That false god can be a person or an experience.

Now that it is all in the open, the illegitimate desires can be addressed and help can be sought. Let us as a group of believers skip the condemnation and offer the needed help. A few thoughts come to mind:

  • We can create an environment where it is OK to be not OK. In other words, we need to develop church cultures where brokenness and failure can be admitted without shunning or other ostensibly anti-Christian behavior.
  • We can more accurately teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Some well-meaning Christians acknowledge that salvation cannot be earned and they try to earn it anyway. They then turn around and teach others to do so. When we understand the Gospel, then we can let ourselves and others be where we currently are, knowing that God is in the process of making us better.
  • We can do a better job of understanding how the Gospel speaks to the issues in the culture around us. Scripture speaks to our motivations and our need for transformation.

When Hootie and the Blowfish agree with Jesus on something (John 8:7) then we should pay attention.

You without sin, pick up that stone

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