Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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The Church and Summum bonum

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Summum BonumRecently, the term summum bonum was brought to my attention. The phrase is a Latin expression meaning, “the highest good” and is used to designate what is of ultimate importance in life.

Jesus spoke to this in Matthew 22:36-40 when he identified two commands that comprise the greatest good. We are to love God with our entire being and love our neighbor as ourselves. The highest good, the summum bonum is love.

The question that comes to mind is whether an outsider that visits my church quickly perceives that love is the summum bonum of the group. I have been in many churches that would agree that the two great commands are the highest good, but struggled to live that out.

In actuality, other things can usurp the place that the great commands should have in our life and worship. For example, I have seen the following “goods” take the place of love:

  • Doctrinal correctness
  • Adherence to a set of rules
  • Loyalty to a particular Bible translation
  • Loyalty to a particular worship style
  • Material prosperity
  • Social standing

I’m sure that my readers could add to the list (feel free to do so in the comment section below).

My intention is not to point fingers or to present myself as above all this, because I am not. In my own life, I struggle to “keep the main thing the main thing.” While it is easy to understand that love of God and love of neighbor are the highest good, it is difficult to live this out.

When a visitor comes to your church, what would they perceive is the summum bonum of your group? Does the visitor feel loved? Does the visitor see the work of God in the lives of the congregants?

If the real summum bonum of the church is anything other than love, the only proper response is repentance. Jesus told the church in Ephesus:

“But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.” (Revelation 2:4–5, ESV)

The point is that since it is easy to get off track, as individuals and in our church groups, we must be intentional about seeking to live out the two great commands. If those who visit our churches perceive that we hold love as the highest ideal, even when we fail to live it out, then we have something attractive to offer.

The Apostle John tells us that we love because God first loved us (1 John 4:19). When we understand the Gospel, when we understand that God loves us despite our rebellion and failures, when we understand and accept the forgiveness made possible by Jesus, that understanding should impact how we interact with each other.

In short, when we respond in love to those around us, we are modeling how Jesus responded to everyone. By loving others, we point to Jesus, the author of love. That is the highest good that we can offer.

One Another

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One AnotherWhile reading Philip Yancey’s book Vanishing Grace, I ran across a list of statements made is Scripture which contain the words “one another.” Here is the list presented by Mr. Yancey:

  • Love one another
  • Forgive one another
  • Pray for one another
  • Bear one another’s burdens
  • Be devoted to one another
  • Regard one another as more important than yourself
  • Do not speak against one another
  • Do not judge one another
  • Show tolerance for one another
  • Be kind to one another
  • Speak truth to one another
  • Build up one another
  • Comfort one another
  • Care for one another
  • Stimulate one another to love and good deeds.

He then goes on to ask the question:

I wonder how different the church would look to a watching world, not to mention how different history would look, if Christians everywhere followed that model.

This is a great question and one that we should take very seriously.

The point is not to beat ourselves up by our failures in implementing these “one anothers.” The point is that we should be seeking God to empower us to better live these out.

Rather than being overwhelmed at my failure to do these well, I should be encouraged that the desire to do them well is an indication of God’s handiwork in my life. I should also seek to be in fellowship with others that want to do these well and are seeking God for the power to do so.

One caution, the danger in church circles is to limit the “one another” to those in the church. But, I paraphrase Jesus here, if you love those who love you back, what’s the point?

If we did a better job of “one anothering” those outside the church, perhaps those on the outside would see less of our failures and more of Jesus.

Evil and death

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Evil and DeathI ran across this quotation from Nicholas Wolterstorff while reading Philip Yancey’s book Vanishing Grace:

When we have overcome absence with phone calls, winglessness with airplanes, summer heat with air-conditioning – when we have overcome all these and much more besides, then there will abide two things with which we must cope: the evil in our hearts and death.

I run into very few people who speak and act as if this life is all you get and there is nothing beyond death. It is often said of someone who is deceased, “he (she) is in a better place.” This belief persists in spite of efforts of those who subscribe to a completely materialistic world view.

The evil in our hearts is an even more difficult problem. When I read of war crimes, it is too easy to think that I would have responded differently. Would I do better? Perhaps not.

Why is it that so many New Year’s resolutions fail? Why is it that none of us live up to our own standard of behavior? Why is it that I can take the opportunity to change lanes into the smallest of breaks and then get mad at the guy who does the same in front of me? The potential for evil lies in my heart and self discipline can only force it below the surface.

Philosophers can tell us that we are simply products of our DNA and our responses are preprogrammed, but we know better. There is a part of us that knows that this is a cop out. The evidence points that way because nearly all of us have the desire to be better than we are.

It is to these issues that Christianity is uniquely qualified to speak. Christianity does not offer behavior modification (if we properly understand the Gospel). We do not explain away the evil. We worship the one who gave his life to conquer the evil inside us.

Christianity does not offer platitudes about life beyond the grave; we worship the one who demonstrated power over death by raising himself from the death. We do not need to fear the evil inside us, we need to surrender to the one who is uniquely qualified to remove that evil and replace it with his Love.

Today  we celebrate Jesus’ victory over death and evil. It is this event that gives us hope that the power of death and evil can be broken in our own lives.

Being right or being loving . . .

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rightIt seems to me that if we are forced to make a choice between being right (winning the argument) and being loving, we should always chose the latter. Unfortunately, this has not always been the case with the Christian Church.

John 13:35 records Jesus as telling us that love is to be the defining characteristic of his followers. But love is not the first characteristic that comes to mind when those outside the church think of those of us inside. They think of us as judgmental, argumentative and coercive. They think of us this way because too often we have been judgmental, argumentative and coercive. We need to be honest about our failings in this regard and seek to do better.

The point is that we may pretend that we are better than those outside the church, but that is not true. We may pretend that we have better understanding of the world than those outside the church, but that is also not true. We are fumbling through life like the rest of humanity.

This is not to say that we don’t have answers. But any answers we have are those that God has given to us. They were given to us because God loves us, not because we are any better or any more deserving. If we get a good grade on the test, it is only because the Teacher gave us the answers.

What would happen if believers did the following?

  • Spent more time listening to our neighbors’ and coworkers’ stories and less time pushing our agenda.
  • Served others rather than argue with them.
  • Admitted our own inability to live up to Scriptural standards and our tendency to become smug, judgmental and coercive.
  • Prayed for a proper sense of humility.
  • Invited non-Christians to critique how well we represent Jesus.
  • Got past our discomfort in being around people who come from a different point of view and tried to get to know and understand them.

It seems to me that if we did a better job of loving our neighbors, we would be better representatives of the Christ that we claim to follow.

My observation is that most people realize that they don’t have all the answers and distrust people who act as if they do. Christians don’t have all the answers. We only have one answer and that is Jesus himself. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6), we are fumbling along trying to follow that way and must admit that we often get it wrong.

So let’s stop focusing on being right and focus on being loving. The God we claim to worship is big enough to show others where they are wrong and he will do it in a far better and more healing way than we ever could.

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