Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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Your Father knows what you need, then why ask?

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This post is Number 26 in the Sermon on the Mount Series.

In reading through Matthew 6, this evening I read two verses which raised a question. They are these:

“. . . your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. Pray then in this way . . .” (Matthew 6:8b-9a)

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Copyright: bialasiewicz / 123RF Stock Photo

The question is, why should we pray if God already knows what we need? It is not like I am going to provide God with a missing piece of data without which he could not make a good choice.

Also, when we look at the way that Jesus interacted with humanity, his behavior does not reveal a God who is reluctant to meet the needs of those who are seeking him. So the assumption in verse 8b is that God knows what you need and is more than willing to provide it. Later in the same sermon Jesus tells us that we are not to worry because God will take care of his people.

Why then are we to ask?

I think that we are to ask because through prayer, God grants us the dignity of participating in bringing about God’s will for humanity. He chooses to work through our prayers, even though he could accomplish his purpose without them.

It is a little bit like asking a 4 year old to help you paint the house. The little tyke will be excited about working with Dad, but won’t really contribute much that will benefit the house. Allowing the 4 year old to “help” grants him a dignity that he would not otherwise have.

Because God wants to be in relationship with us, he chooses to let us “help” him get his business done. He enjoys the fact that we come to him to ask for what we need.

Sometimes we are mistaken in what we think we need. But God, being the perfect father, will use the process of praying to shape our desires. Even when we ask for things that are not right for us, God will patiently answer our prayer. If it is not right for us, he will answer in the negative, but it is the correct answer.

I am thankful that I am ecouraged to bring my requests to God. I can do so knowing that even if what I am asking is wrong, he will make it right.

I’ll close with the first verse of an old hymn:

What a Friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!

What is my motive?

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I find this verse to be challenging:

“When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the Lord of hosts.” (Malachi 1:8, ESV)

MotiveI understand that worship of God is not as much about what we do as it is about who we are and what our priorities are. Do we love God enough to give him the best? When I ask this question, I do not have material things primarily in mind.

I find that the reason that I do not offer the best to God is that I am often more interested in looking good than honoring God.

For example, when I read my Bible, am I getting a “check in the box” on a reading schedule or am I doing it to allow God to speak to me through Scripture?

Do I attend a Bible study to give Scripture and my brothers to mold me, or am I going because it is the thing to do and it would look awkward if I didn’t attend?

Am I serving out of a sense of calling or because I want to be seen as someone who serves?

Sure, we will never have completely pure motives for anything that we do, but an honest inventory is worth the effort to reveal parts of us are in need of redemption.

I should point out that there is value in doing the right thing even if our motives are not entirely pure (which they will never be in this lifetime). I’m certainly not saying that one should sit on the sidelines until something can be done with perfect motives.

My point is that we should be aware of the motive behind our activites and confess when our motive is selfish.

Perhaps the deciding question is “who gets the glory?” The recipient of the glory is either God or me, we cannot share it.

The softening of the Gospel

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Softening the waxListening to a Podcast on the way to work this week, I heard Tim Keller use an illustration that I found helpful. He used a wax seal to illustrate the impact of Biblical law upon the heart of a man (or woman).

To seal a letter, some wax is melted onto the letter and then a seal is pressed into the wax to show the identity of the one who sealed the letter. To do this properly, the wax had to be softened to take the impression of the seal.

Without softening, the seal would have difficulty in making an imprint upon the wax. Either the seal would leave a superficial impression on the hard wax, or the seal would crush the wax into pieces.

Without the Gospel, the Biblical law will have a superficial impression on a man or it will crush him. If a man does not operate under the good news of the Gospel, if he does not acknowledge his moral failure and helplessness to change, the law will either crush him or make him proud.

The result of a superficial application of the law is spiritual pride and intolerance. I saw an example of this recently when a well known comedian applied the ten commandments to his life in such a way as to prove that he keeps the Ten Commandments even though he doesn’t believe in God. To make his proof he had to offer a very superficial understanding and application of the commands. The result was that this comedian comes off as a bit condescending to those who have a different understanding of those commandments.

But non-believers are not the only ones who experience a superficial application of the law. Some who claim to believe the Gospel have also demonstrated this. They may even make every effort to live up to their understanding of the law and may genuinely believe that they are pleasing God by what they do and that they are in the right for the way that they live. The most extreme example of this can be found by following the misguided activities of the folks at Westboro Baptist Church. Their antics display the shallowest impression of the law upon their hearts and a law devoid of any Gospel.

On the other hand, if the law is applied without the softening of the Gospel, a man may be crushed by it. A proper understanding of the law will lead to the correct conclusion that no man can or will completely live up to the standard presented in the law. Any attempt to do so will end in disappointment or despair. If you doubt this, just think about how far into January the average person makes it with his New Year’s resolutions.

Prior to his understanding of righteousness coming as a result of faith, Martin Luther was a man that was crushed by the law. The best example of this is a line from the movie Luther, where Martin says to his superior, “I am too full of sin to be a priest.” Martin understood how far short of the Biblical standard he fell and was overwhelmed by that understanding until he discovered the Gospel.

When Christianity is presented as simply a moral code or philosophy of living, it is not good news, there is no Gospel in such a presentation. The only result will be pride or despair.

But, with a proper understanding of the Gospel, and how much we are loved by God, then the law becomes a tutor (NASB) or guide (ESV) to lead us to Christ (Galatians 3:24). When we understand that Jesus has satisfied the law on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21) we are no longer bound by the standard of perfect law keeping. Jesus kept the law for us.

Because Jesus has done this for us, we have no basis for pride or condemnation of others. An ever deepening understanding of Scripture leads to an ever deepening understanding of how much we have been forgiven.

Also, when we understand how much we are loved, we will not be crushed by the law. Jesus loved you and I so much that he was willing to endure the cross (Heb. 12:2) so that we might be in relationship with him. An ever deepening understanding of Scripture leads to an ever deepening understanding of how much God loves us and how far he has gone to bring us into relationship with himself.

Under the Gospel, our hearts experience the softening that allows for a proper understanding of the role of the law (Tweet this).

My guess is that each of us, apart from the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, will gravitate toward one or the other of these superficial applications of the law. Either we will be drawn toward pride over our law-keeping or we will be overwhelmed by our inability to live up to the standards in Scripture.  Personally, I am easily sucked into the vortex of the latter.

The antidote to both reactions is a proper understanding of the Gospel, which I like to summarize in two lines (this is a quote/paraphrase from Tim Keller). The Gospel tells me:

I am more deeply flawed than I ever dared to believe
I am more deeply loved than I ever thought possible

That is indeed good news.

MacLaren on being a saint

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SaintRecently, I was coaxed by my daughter into going to a thrift store for a “half off” sale. I did it to spend time with her, not thinking that I would find anything that would interest me. It turns out that they had a large book section with many books worth adding to my library, some of which I purchased.

Among the books I purchased was a partial set of Alexander MacLaren’s Expositions of Holy Scripture at the half off price of $1.50 per volume. This morning I started reading the volume on Ephesians and thought this paragraph worth sharing:

“[I]n God’s church there is no aristocracy of sanctity, nor does the name of saint belong only to those who live high above the ordinary tumults of life and the secularities of daily duty. You may be as true a saint in a factory – ay! and far truer one – than in a hermitage. You do not need to cultivate a mediaeval . . . type of ascetic piety in order to be called saints. You do not need to be amongst the select few to whom it is given here upon earth, but not given without their own effort, to rise to the highest summits of holy conformity with the divine will. But down amongst all the troubles and difficulties and engrossing occupations of our secular work, you may be living saintly lives; for the one condition of being holy is that we should know whose we are and whom we serve, and we can carry the consciousness of belonging to Him into every corner of the poorest, most crowded and most distracted life, recognising His presence and seeking to do His will. The saint is the man who says, ‘O Lord, truly I am Thy servant: Thou hast loosed my bonds.’ Because He has loosed my bonds, the bonds that held me to my sins, He has therein fastened me with far more stringent bonds of love to the sweet and free service of His redeeming love. All His children are His saints.”

I like the line “we should know whose we are and whom we serve” which I have highlighted in bold in the quoted paragraph above.

Lately, I have been increasingly aware of the disconnect between my intellectual knowledge and my emotional responses. Or, to put it another way, there is a separation between my head and my heart.

I have a suspicion that a greater awareness of whose I am and whom I serve will go a long way toward bridging that gap.

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