Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

Home Archives for Mark McIntyre

More than you can handle

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I would like to comment on one of the phrases that is found in the article highlighted in this Tweet:

On the surface, it seems correct to say that “God will not give you more than you can handle.” Paul does tell us in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that God will not allow us to be tempted beyond our ability to escape the situation. But it is a huge jump to infer from this that God will not allow you to encounter situations that you cannot handle.

By Pete Sandbach from Manchester, UK (Weight of the world) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
By Pete Sandbach from Manchester, UK (Weight of the world) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
On the contrary, I would go so far as to say that God will certainly give you more than you can handle. The point is that until we come to the end of our own abilities, we cannot learn to trust God for the outcome. All of the great heroes of the Bible were put in difficult situations. Daniel, Joseph, Moses, David, Elijah and Paul all come to mind. Their faith was tested and strengthened by the difficulties that they faced.

Furthermore, anyone who is in any relationship will have more than they can handle. Unless you are a complete narcissist and ignore the people around you, relationships will make you aware of situations that are beyond your control.

We all bring dysfunction with us when we interact with friends, family and acquaintances. I have limited control over my own dysfunction and no control over yours. Relationships are messy and are sometimes more than we can handle. Yet, we are called to be in them and how we function in relationship is to be an evidence to the world that God is working in our lives. Jesus said that the mark of the church is to be love (John 13:35).

This platitude also ignores the truth that there are evil people in the world who get their kicks from hurting others. Belief in Jesus doesn’t prevent one from encountering evil. Or there are those who feel the need to force their own beliefs on others. Just ask Christians under Communist governments or in Islamic States about how much control they have over their circumstances.

We must not forget, however, that Jesus promises to be with us through any ordeal that we encounter. He said, “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). God can give us the grace to bear up under the trial, but that grace has got to be a work of God to be effective.

In the face of real danger, persecution or any other trial that threatens to overwhelm me, I don’t need a platitude to shore up my inner strength. I need a Savior to come beside me and lend me his strength.

Yancey on the need for an absolute standard

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Vanishing GraceI want to share the following passage from Philip Yancey’s book Vanishing Grace:

The poet W. H. Auden, who left Europe in the 1930’s to escape the looming war, found his entire outlook shaken as he sat in a Manhattan theater watching newsreels of German atrocities. His belief in the goodness of human beings collided with the evidence of appalling evil flashing before him. He concluded, ‘If I was to say that was evil, I had to have a standard by which to do so. I didn’t have one . . . I’d spent all my adult life was an intellectual, destroying the absolutes, and now suddenly I needed one to be able to say that this was wrong.’

Auden left the cinema in search of some absolute, one stronger than liberal humanism, that would condemn the Nazis as well as defend their victims. He soon made his way to Christian faith. Only God could ask human beings, as he later said in a poem, to ‘love your crooked neighbor with your crooked heart.’

I like the last line. Not only does Christianity provide an answer to the evil that surrounds me, it provides an answer the evil that resides in my own heart.

 

Between the hammer and the anvil

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Hammer and Anvil
“Blacksmith at work02” by User:Fir0002 – Own work. Licensed under GFDL 1.2 via Wikimedia Commons.

The blacksmith uses heat and force to transform the iron into the desired shape. The iron goes into the fire to be heated and is then moved to the anvil to be hammered into the desire form. The process is repeated until the smith is satisfied with the result.

This is a fitting analogy for how God uses trials to transform us into tools he can use to accomplish his purpose. The trials are like the heat that soften the metal and make it malleable, shapeable and transformable. The trials are not enjoyable but they are a necessary element in our spiritual progression.

Regarding trials, James tells us:

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2–4, ESV)

The hard part is that we are commanded to count it a joy when we encounter trials. To be happy about the difficulty would be disingenuous. The enjoyment of pain is considered a pathology. James is not suggesting that we find pain and difficulty pleasurable.

What he is commanding us to do is to look beyond the pain to the inevitable result. God uses the trial to build endurance into us which will then result in our spiritual completeness.

I understand that this is easier said than done. I’ve done more than my share of whining to God about different circumstances, many of which were beyond my ability to influence or control. But the difficulty does not relieve me of the responsibility to do it.

James does not here issue advice. He is not offering a suggestion. He is delivering a command. Reckon, count, consider are the words used by various translations. It speaks of an intentional direction of mind. It speaks of a choice to view the difficulty in a certain way.

Like the iron between the hammer and the anvil, we are being shaped by God and prepared for an eternity with him. Over this I can learn to be joyful.

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.

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