Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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It is necessary

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NecessaryThe following is attributed to St. Francis of Assisi:

“Preach the gospel always, if necessary, use words.”

There are some who think that St. Francis never said this, but the popularity of the quote and the persistence in attribution to St. Francis remain.

St. Francis (or the mystery writer) rightly reminds us that our actions are important. The Apostle John provides a similar thought:

“Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18).

The point is that our actions should lay a foundation so that when we do preach the gospel, we are credible. We cannot ask anyone to believe a gospel that has little or no positive effect on the preacher.

I borrow the following illustration from Howard Hendricks.

If you have seen my profile picture anywhere, you would know that I shave my head. I do so because if my hair grew out, my hairstyle would be in the style of an inverse mohawk. In other words, I would have nothing on the top and a little on the sides.

With that background in mind, would you buy hair restoration oil from me? Would you not rightly ask why it did not work for me? The lack of hair on my head belies the claims of efficacy of the product.

The danger is that we can carry this thought too far and assume that our actions alone are capable of conveying the gospel. They are not.

It is necessary to use words. While we may, by our actions, lead someone into being different on the outside, it is only the gospel that can change someone on the inside. The gospel that changes people on the inside must be conveyed in words.

Peter tells us that we should be “prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15). This is an indication that displaying hope is not enough, words are required to explain the hope.

Words must be matched with appropriate action, but the words are indeed necessary (Tweet This).

 

Shame on you . . .

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no-shameI have previously written about how truth is the antidote for shame. In that post, there is some discussion about a shame based culture that exists within some churches. Shame is antithetical to the Gospel and should be rooted out of the church culture whenever it is discovered.

That being said, I have become increasingly aware of how I have been negatively affected by shame. This has been a process of discovering how deeply ingrained and how insidious shame can be. Recent awareness came in response to a few events that could not be considered moral failings, but produced shame in me.

The more silly of the events that caused shame happened on Saturday morning. I was up later than usual on Friday night and somehow slept through my alarm on Saturday. As a result, I was late for the Men’s Bible Study. Of course, I got some good natured teasing about being late.

later in the day I realized that being late tainted all of my interactions during and after the study. I felt obligated to explain why I was up late and how I must have turned down the volume on my alarm, etc. Feelings of letting people down led to feelings of shame. Shame lead to defensiveness.

Why should I feel shame at being late? There is no good answer to this because shame should not have played any role whatsoever. Perhaps it was a feeling that I set a bad example by being late. Perhaps it was just shame at failing at something (being on time). Perhaps it was because I felt that I had let my brothers down.

Whatever the cause, it inhibited my ability to interact with my brothers. It caused me to hold back in some interactions and to be defensive in others.

Call it shame, call it condemnation, whatever you call it, it should not have any effect on my self image or how I interact with others (Tweet This).

This is where the Gospel does its work. Jesus came to Zacchaeus’ house before he cleaned up his act. Jesus came to the woman at the well while she was still in an extramarital relationship. The Gospel dispels the illusion that we should clean ourselves up to come to Jesus. Furthermore the Gospel dispels the illusion that we even have the ability to clean ourselves up.

A proper understanding of our standing before God apart from Christ should make us realize that we are all equal at the foot of the cross.

This realization will displace shame wherever it is found. Like spiritual chemotherapy, the Gospel goes on a seek-and-destroy mission against shame.

For that I am grateful.

A checklist for the church

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Question 36 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks this:

What are the benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption and sanctification?

In other words what is the result of being in relationship with Jesus Christ?

The catechism gives four benefits:

  1. Assurance of God’s love
  2. Peace of conscience
  3. Joy in the Holy Spirit
  4. Increase of grace

ChecklistIt seems to me that these four things provide a good checklist to see how we are doing individually and as a group.

Am I acting as if I am assured of God’s love? If so, it seems as though I would be communicating that love to others. I will become a radiator of God’s love into the world around me.

Do I have peace of conscience? Or, I am pressed down by my lack of conformity to the revealed will of God? Do I act as if I know that I am forgiven? Can I forgive myself and forgive others?

Do I display joy? Or, am I pressed down by the circumstances around me? Do I act as if God has been, is and always will be in control? Do I act as if I trust him?

Is grace an increasing trait in my life? Do I show grace to others and allow myself to receive grace? Am I patient with the progress that myself and others are making in “working out their salvation?”

In looking at all of these questions, I realize that there is a gap between my behavior and my belief. I believe in God’s love, I know that I am forgiven, I know that God is in control and I know that I have received and am to give grace. Yet, I do not always live according to that knowledge.

The gap between my knowledge and behavior is wider than I would like it to be but it is shrinking.

As mentioned above, these questions can also be applied to churches. This is a good checklist to assess the health of a congregation.

Would a visitor sense our assurance of God’s love? Does the visitor experience peace, joy and grace radiating from us? Do we give them a taste of the living water of Jesus Christ (see John 4)?

I hope so. The world desperately needs to see believers living out the Gospel.

Ashley Madison and Matthew 5

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Pick up the first stoneThere have been many articles responding to the release of names associated with the Ashley Madison web site, a site where prospective adulterers could find connection.

Some have expressed surprise and dismay that Christian leaders have been found to have their names on the list. But I don’t think that we should be surprised. The church is not filled with people who have it all together. We know this because they let us in and we do not have it all together. Whether our failures are obvious to others or not, we all fail.

So let’s put down the stones before someone gets hurt. There is not a person alive that has not had his or her mind taken to places that it should not go. As Christians, we have to learn to “take every thought captive” and redirect the trajectory of our thoughts.

Why is this important? In Matthew 5:27-30 Jesus tells us that adultery starts long before any physical activity takes place. Adultery takes place first and foremost in the mind. Adultery begins with lust and lust is the real problem.

Rather than our condemnation, we should offer to those on the list our sympathy and prayers. Certainly, they were wrong to flirt with or commit physical adultery. But every human has crossed into territory that he or she should not go whether the thought was acted upon or not. Knowing our own hearts, and how easily our minds can be driven off course, we should have some understanding of how those on the list got there.

The problem is essentially one of idolatry. Lust takes place when we seek something that provides a distraction or what we think will be lasting satisfaction. Lust is essentially trying to meet a legitimate need by illegitimate means. Any desire for sexual fulfillment that is contrary to the prescription of Scripture is harmful and wrong.

Rather than worship God through the legitimate means of meeting a need, we worship a false god when we turn to the illegitimate. That false god can be a person or an experience.

Now that it is all in the open, the illegitimate desires can be addressed and help can be sought. Let us as a group of believers skip the condemnation and offer the needed help. A few thoughts come to mind:

  • We can create an environment where it is OK to be not OK. In other words, we need to develop church cultures where brokenness and failure can be admitted without shunning or other ostensibly anti-Christian behavior.
  • We can more accurately teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Some well-meaning Christians acknowledge that salvation cannot be earned and they try to earn it anyway. They then turn around and teach others to do so. When we understand the Gospel, then we can let ourselves and others be where we currently are, knowing that God is in the process of making us better.
  • We can do a better job of understanding how the Gospel speaks to the issues in the culture around us. Scripture speaks to our motivations and our need for transformation.

When Hootie and the Blowfish agree with Jesus on something (John 8:7) then we should pay attention.

You without sin, pick up that stone

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