The law of unintended consequences

Posted on September 15, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre 2 Comments

Airplane — The airline did not anticipate the consequence of their policy.

Every decision has consequences. Good leaders anticipate those consequences and will take them into consideration when choosing a path forward.

Recently I had an experience where an airline implemented a policy of charging $50 to fly standby on an earlier flight (the airline I usually fly will allow me to fly standby for free). I can only assume that some manager thought this a good way to increase revenue. For me the real consequence is that this airline will now be my last choice when choosing a carrier. My reluctance to use this airline again is an unintended consequence of a policy that must have seemed a good idea at the time.

Wisdom would say that we should not sacrifice long term goals to achieve a short term one. By trying to bilk an extra $50 out of me the airline will now get no revenue from me in the long term until they change their policy or other airlines become equally senseless.

In the same way, the church can sacrifice long term progress for short term gains. Our time frame for evaluation of our effectiveness is eternity. We will be judged on how well we did in making true disciples with whom we will spend that eternity.

To pump up programs and cultural relativity to bring people in the door and then waffle on teaching them to obey the commands of Scripture is to sacrifice the long term goal for short term gain. We do not need more attendees but we should want many more true disciples.

In the end, Jesus will not evaluate you on the church budget, the church attendance, the TV ratings or the number of programs. The question will be “did you make true disciples?”

Don’t sacrifice a long term relationship for $50 today.

You have heard . . . but I say – It is all about the heart

Posted on September 13, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre Leave a Comment

#17 in the Sermon on the Mount Series

Jesus the Radical

For those of us who have grown up on the church, it may be difficult to grasp how radical Jesus was in his day. One definition of the adjective radical is:

thoroughgoing or extreme, especially as regards change from accepted or traditional forms: a radical change in the policy of a company. (dictionary.com)

Jesus sought to bring a change to the way that his hearers understood Scripture and put it into practice.

Six times in the fifth chapter of Matthew Jesus identifies where his hearers have a deficient understanding of Scripture (Matthew 5:21-22, 27-28, 31-32, 33-34, 38-39, 43-44). He uses the contrasting language of “you have heard . . . but I say to you” to introduce specific points of where the religious leaders of the day missed the intent of Scripture.

Jesus sets himself up as a higher authority

The first way that Jesus is radical is that he sets himself up as an authority higher than any the hearers have known. Here is a man that is putting himself above all the teachers of the day and above all that had gone before.

If Jesus is just a man like every other man, this would be an act of supreme hubris. Yet, as God in the flesh, he has the authority and the right to stand in judgment of the teachers of the law.

Jesus indicates we need a change of perspective

The second way Jesus is radical is the extent to which he applies Scripture. When you look at these six contrasts, the error is not that the teachers misunderstood the texts. The error lies in their not going deep enough in their understanding. The teachers focused on behavior and Jesus focuses on the heart.

There is something in man that wants to have rules so that he can judge his performance. People typically feel as though they are pretty good and generally live up to the standard they have set for themselves. Even the most strident nonconformist displays this. The nonconformist judges himself by his nonconformity to others’ rules. We judge ourselves by our behavior, our outward acts.

Jesus tells us that we are correct in controlling the outward acts, but this type of self mastery is not sufficient to claim obedience to Scripture. To really obey requires that we peel back the skin and get below the surface to motivations and attitudes. In these six contrasts, Jesus tells us:

It is not enough to keep from murder, we must also keep from hatred
It is not enough to keep from adultery, we must control lust
It is not enough to follow the correct procedure for divorce, we must understand that divorce is only to happen when a partner has been unfaithful
It is not enough to keep vows, we must live our lives so that our word can be trusted
It is not enough that we limit our revenge to an eye for an eye, we must live lives of sacrifice for others
It is not enough to love those who love us, we must also love our enemies

Jesus shows us that from God’s perspective, rule keeping is not enough. We must get behind the behavior to the motivation for the behavior. Jesus indicates that it is our hearts that God is after, not unwilling obedience.

It is all about the heart

Two observations:

If we make rules for ourselves or others, they need to be in keeping with a correct understanding of Scripture. There is nothing wrong with correctly condemning behavior that Scripture condemns or promoting behavior that Scripture promotes.
The rules should be used as barometers to show us how well tuned our hearts are to God. If we are giving grudging obedience then we have work to be done to identify the source of the grudge and deal with it.

But in the end, it is all about the heart.

The night God was booed

Posted on September 11, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre 2 Comments

They booed God

A recent article in the Christian Post describes events at the Democratic National Convention where delegates booed when it was announced that the word God was added to the party platform.

Supporters of the Republican Party (GOP) will most likely point to this event in an effort to garner support for their own candidates. After all, who wants to be a supporter of the party that booed God?

But is the GOP the answer?

Problem in the culture

The sad thing is that our culture boos God every day. People of both parties boo God, if not in word, then by action. We boo God when we . . .

ignore God’s revelation to man in the form of Scripture
allow for the redefinition of institutions given to us by God
ignore God’s principles on taking care of the poor among us
allow for the killing of innocent children because they are unplanned or inconvenient

Christians would do well to remember that no political party exists to further the claims of Christ and the mission of his church. We may each have an opinion of which party comes closer to supporting Christian ideals but we must keep in mind that neither party is Christian in its outlook.

In America, we’ve been given the freedom and the responsibility to vote to determine which candidates represent us in the political system. We should take this responsibility seriously and vote for the candidate that seems best qualified to address the issues we face.

Politics not the answer

Perhaps the DNC has done us a favor by being overt in their disdain of God and God’s principles. It should serve as a wakeup call to the church to remind us that politics is not where we should look for answers to what plagues our culture. The problem is not the DNC or the GOP, the problem is the rejection of God by a large percentage of our population. The Republican Party is not the safe haven we seek.

The addition of God in either party’s platform does nothing of benefit for those who do not wish to be in relationship with him. There is no magic in the addition of the word. Jesus said of the religious leaders of his day, “this people honors me with their lips but their hearts are far from me (Matthew 15:8).” Likewise we can say the right thing but do the wrong.

The problem with ancient Israel was not a failure to call on God. The problem was that they relegated him to one God among many gods. They included Yahweh in an effort to cover their bases, not because of special regard for him. In the same way, the addition or subtraction of the word God in the party platform could be seen as an effort to add God to the other gods society worships just to improve the odds of being elected.

Our only hope

The only hope for our society is for the Church to have a renewed commitment to fulfill the command to make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20). We make disciples by baptizing them and teaching them to obey the commands of Jesus. This is not a political process, nor does politics enable this process.

The Church will prevail against the gates of Hell when, and only when, she is the Church and ceases trying to be a faction in a political party.

On hypocrisy in the church

Posted on September 7, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre 6 Comments

The Charge of hypocrisy

One common criticism of the church is that it is full of hypocrites, people who say one thing and do another. The problem with countering this criticism is that it is true. If we are honest, we will have to admit that none of us lives up to our own standard of behavior, let alone the standard set before us in Scripture. We all practice some level of hypocrisy in that there is a gap between what we know to be right behavior and how we actually live. I call this the belief gap.

The question is not whether there is a gap between belief and practice, the important question is whether members of the church are actively seeking God for the purpose of closing that gap.

The church is not alone

I feel the need to point out that the church does not have a monopoly on hypocrisy. In every sphere of human activity a higher standard of behavior is held than is lived. The gap between stated belief and actual practice is no less a problem outside the church than in it. Hypocrisy seems to be a universal problem.

The point of this post is not to excuse hypocrisy in the church, it is right to condemn it. The point is that we should evaluate a system on how effective it is in narrowing the belief gap.

The response

One way of narrowing the gap is to reduce the standard. If we have lower expectations, if we reduce the standard to the lowest common denominator, then perhaps the belief gap will be closed.

In western society, we have lowered our standards for what is considered decent and respectable. A short stint at channel surfing in the evening will produce ample evidence of the lowering of standards. It may be accurate to say the belief gap has been narrowed by this method, but are we willing to say that individuals and society are better off with the lower standard?

The other way to go about closing the gap is to seek help from outside. This is the Christian way. We seek the help of God to be better tomorrow than we are today. As John Newton so nicely puts it

“I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am”

Jude identifies Jesus as the one who is able to close the belief gap by growing us closer to the standard. Jude writes:

“Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.” (Jude 24–25, NASB)

If we, as Christians, are right about who Jesus is and if we stand in relationship to him, we have the hope of one day standing in his presence as blameless. Then, and only then, will the belief gap be finally closed.

Amen!