Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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Love without qualifications

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John 13:35 – By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

No LoveJesus is here indicating that love is to be the identifying mark of the believer. We are commanded to love, not love if . . . our love is to be not conditioned upon the response of the object of our love. There should be no qualifications on whether we give or withhold love.

While all churches would claim that they practice unconditional love, this is clearly not the case. Too often, for one reason or another, love is conditioned on rule keeping, service to the church or some other qualification. When any conditions are placed on love, it is not the love described by Jesus.

Conditional love must be avoided because it sends the message that you have no value unless you are complying with the demands. People who come to this type of church may feel loved for a while, but that investment of love better pay off in the desired response or it will not continue.

James speaks about this type of value judgment in James 2:1-8. In this passage James identifies this behavior as sin and a violation of the second great command to love your neighbor as yourself. James pulls no punches. In verse 4 he says, “have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?” The root of this type of value judgment is evil.

The verb form of agape (selfless love) is used as a command 9 times in the New Testament. In only two verses was there a qualification on the love. In Ephesians 5:25, husbands are commanded to love their wives as Christ loved the church. Later on in verse 33, Paul commands every husband to love his wife as he loves himself. There are no further qualifications. And even these qualifications are not dependent upon how the object of love behaves. In all 9 commands to love, there is no out clause; there is no situation where it is appropriate to withhold love.

James tells us that to assess the value of a person based on their use to the church or their ability to keep rules is a sin. Paul tells us in Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” We all have equal value before the Cross.

To practice unconditional love, we must acknowledge our dependence upon God and our own need for grace. Once we realize how much we have been forgiven, then it should be easy to forgive and accept others. Can we follow Paul’s advice in Romans 12:9 and practice “love without hypocrisy?”

A world starved for real love is longing for us to get this right.

The danger of relying on talent

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Staying on TrackIf there is one sad story that we’ve seen too often repeated in the church, it is the story of gifted leaders getting off track. The result is a train wreck. Some of the most famous examples have been those who had large radio and television followings.

It may be a great over simplification to say that the story of Jeroboam explains this phenomenon, but perhaps it does give us a clue.

In 1 Kings 11:28 tells us:

Now the man Jeroboam was a valiant warrior, and when Solomon saw that the young man was industrious, he appointed him over all the forced labor of the house of Joseph.

Jeroboam had talent. He was a mighty warrior and a good manager. He was a man that men would follow. Solomon recognized this and rewarded it.

Jeroboam also had opportunity. A few verses later we are told that the prophet Ahijah came to Jeroboam to inform him that God was giving ten of the tribes of Israel to Jeroboam to lead. Not only would he lead them, but if he led well and followed God’s commands, Jeroboam would have an enduring kingdom like that promised to David.

It was at this point that Jeroboam had a choice to make. He had to choose between living in dependence upon God or relying on his wit and talent. As we can see from the following chapters, Jeroboam chose the latter and Israel suffered. 1 Kings 13:33 tells us that Jeroboam “did not return from his evil way.”

In reality, all of us have this same choice to make on a moment-by-moment, daily basis. In Luke 9:23, Jesus tells us to take up our cross daily. We have to constantly choose the path of self denial and reliance upon God. This is true not only for our Salvation but for our very existence as believers in Jesus Christ.

For those of us who are not in official positions of responsibility in the church, this choice seems like it would have small impact. Yet this is not the case. For the Body of Christ to be healthy, all of the members of the body must be in harmony with the head, Jesus Christ. We cannot be in harmony with the head unless we acknowledge our dependence upon him. Small rebellions can have a big impact.

For those, like Jeroboam, who have been given the responsibility to lead, small rebellions will always have huge impact. I believe this is why James 3:1 tells warns us that teachers will incur a stricter judgment. It is one thing to move yourself out of God’s blessing, it is another to lead a group toward chaos.

For all of us, small or great in the workings of the church, we need to learn the lesson of Jeroboam. Self reliance and self will have no place in the Kingdom of God. We rely on our own talent to our own peril and to the peril of those we lead.

We need to be reminded of the words Jesus spoke to Paul as recorded in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”

Reliance upon God-given talent, no matter how great that talent is, will always end in brokenness and failure. It’s not worth it; depend upon God and God alone.

On gadflies and prophets in the church

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GadflyWhen David committed adultery and covered it up by committing murder, Nathan the prophet came unbidden and confronted David as recorded in 2 Samuel 12:1-15.  Later on, in 2 Samuel 24:11, the prophet Gad is referred to as “David’ Seer” (NASB). David gave these prophets permission to speak into his life and provide correction to his faults and errors. He granted this permission on the basis of his relationship with God and his desire to remove any obstacle to loving God.

King Ahab, on the other hand, viewed the prophet Elijah as a “troubler of Israel” (1 Kings 18:17). Ahab refused to tolerate the prophetic voice speaking into his life and reign. He viewed Elijah as a troublemaker or gadfly and dismissed his message as an annoyance.

While modern church leaders cannot pronounce the death penalty upon those who speak out with suggestions or criticism, they can make it very uncomfortable for those who do not agree with the leader. There is a danger that those who speak up and voice their disagreements will be labeled as troublemakers, the way that Ahab tagged Elijah. This is dangerous because not everyone that voices discontent is seeking to cause trouble.

Martin Luther was not seeking to split the Roman Church. He simply voiced his discontent over practices that were harmful and against Scriptural command. Yet he was tagged as a heretic and a troublemaker. We should be wary of any system which places such labels on people.

How do you distinguish between someone who is trying to bring positive change and a troublemaker? I believe the difference is in their focus. A troublemaker works his way into the spotlight and works for his own glory. The one who desires positive change (in the church setting) seeks to draw people into closer relationship with Jesus Christ and into a greater commitment to living out Scriptural principles.

Another distinction is that troublemakers attack people; change agents attack problems. It is one thing to attack the pastor’s character or motive; it is another thing to suggest a better way of doing something. Criticizing people causes dissension and division; critiquing methods can cause growth and improvement. Troublemakers tear down. Change agents seek to build up.

No human leader (with the exception of Jesus) is right all the time. No human leader should be granted the power to be the ultimate authority in a church. No human leader should have the authority to label those who disagree as troublemakers. If you find yourself within a church that applies such labels to people, my advice would be to walk quietly away and find a more loving place to worship.

Why walk away? Because eventually you will be forced to choose between acquiescing to something with which you don’t agree or be labeled as a troublemaker and be shunned. Better to leave sooner before the accusations start flying.

Leaders, I would offer this advice. Better a few gadflies than a castrated group of yes-people around you. A few gadflies will cause more growth in you than a thousand yes-people. You need your ideas challenged. You need your authority challenged because God is the ultimate authority and it is to Him that we are all to submit. The prophetic voice that you need to hear will be silenced if you start believing you are above such challenges.

Is teaching the greatest gift in the church?

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I have been working (struggling) through questions about the purpose and practice of church. Recent blog posts have revealed some of the fruit of that wrestling. As part of my search, I read the opening chapters of Acts to compare the experience of the early church to my own.

I was struck by Acts 2:42 which says, “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” There are four points of emphasis here:

  1. Teaching
  2. Fellowship
  3. Breaking of Bread
  4. Prayer

For the church to be healthy, all four of these should part of church life. My experience teaches me that an overemphasis of one does not make up for a lack in the others. A lack of balance between these four lays the foundation for an unhealthy church.

In the first letter to the Corinthians, Paul deals with a lack of balance in chapters 12-14. In the case of the Corinthians, they were out of balance by viewing the gift of tongues as the greatest gift. The gift of tongues was over-valued and as a result, overused and abused. At the end of Chapter 12:31, after providing a list of the gifts bestowed on believers, Paul writes, “But earnestly desire the greater gifts.”

We are told to seek the greater gifts. It is no accident that Paul’s statements about love come immediately after his enjoinder to pursue the greater gifts. He tells us in 1 Corinthians 13:13 that the greatest gift is love. Love should be behind all the functions of the church body. It should be the foundation.

It is interesting to me that often when discussions about gifts come up, Chapter 13 is skipped and we go right to Chapter 14 where prophesy is listed as a gift to pursue. In some circles, prophesy is equated to preaching, therefore preaching is the gift to be desired. The danger is that preaching can replace tongues as the out-of-balance gift in the body. When this happens, then there is competition and struggle over teaching opportunities and people end up functioning outside of their gifting. As a result, every church event is seen as a teaching opportunity.

Preaching and teaching have an important place, but as we can see from Acts 2:42, it is only part of function of the church. Great teaching does not make up for a lack of fellowship, community and prayer.

This is especially true in 2012. I could load my iPod with enough material to listen to great preaching 24/7. There is a surplus of teaching because so many good preachers have their sermons readily available on the Internet.

What I have seen is a shortage of the other three aspects of Acts 2:42. We in the Biblically conservative community turn up our noses at the Emergent Church movement. I have my issues with some of the theology in that movement. But what we cannot ignore is that they highlight something that much of the conservative church has missed. It is all about relationship.

It is a great oversimplification but you could say that the Emergent Church is all about relationship and misses on truth. We conservatives are all about truth and often miss relationship.

Can we find a church that incorporates both truth and relationship? Would it be possible for us to be full of grace and truth? Jesus is.

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