Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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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.

Intentional about Grace

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IntentionalRecently I had a dialog with a pastor friend about the tendency for churches to have correct teaching about grace and have their practice of it break down. My friend made the observation that “works-righteousness is the default mode of the human heart.” After observing myself and others, I am forced to agree with him.

The Church of Jesus Christ should be the most gracious place on the planet but often it is not. If we are not consistently preaching the Gospel, if we are not reinforcing our need for a savior, if we are not intentional about living under grace, then we will become what the world thinks we are.

A definition of the Gospel, which I got from Tim Keller, is this (this may not be a word for word quote, but it is how I remember it):

We are more deeply flawed than we ever dared imagine,
But we are more deeply loved than we ever dared believe

If visitors to your church do not come away with the impression that you believe this, then you have missed an opportunity to present the true Gospel to people who desperately need to hear it. All of us need to hear this message reinforced on a regular basis.

Failure to believe the first part of Keller’s definition leads to spiritual pride and a false sense of superiority. Failure to believe the second part leads to despair and the feeling that I will never measure up.

The point is that we don’t need to measure up. 2 Cor. 5:21 tells us that Jesus did the “measuring up” for us. So why do we try so hard to do so? Jesus loved us, the entire God-head loved us, before we were even born and despite the mess we’ve made.

I need to acknowledge that my heart rebels against the first part of Mr. Keller’s statement. I don’t want to admit that I am flawed beyond self-repair. My pride wants to think that I am better than I am and I am less in need of grace than I really am. I want to appear to others better than I really am.

This is why we need to be intentional about preaching the core of the gospel and we need to be intentional about demonstrating grace. If we are not intentional about it, works-righteousness will cause us to veer off course and before we know it we will have a Pharisaic congregation who despises the tax collectors and sinners. Rather than a loving one which embraces those who are willing to admit their need for a savior.

The question is, “How is it that we can sing about grace and look down on our brother?”

We need to be honest in answering this question. Because if we are not honest, the world will continue to think we are judgmental and pompous, only because we are.

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