Filed under: Uncategorized
This just in from our friend Billy: The Law is THE BIGGEST DANGER TO CHRISTIANITY. What? Billy? I know Hurricane Fay went over your head and parked. I know you have an energized, 4-year-old daughter (or is she 5 now?). I know the boys (newborn twins) never let you sleep. I know you’re planting a church. But . . . the Law is the biggest danger to Christianity? It’s not the devil? Not the government schools? Not the democrats? Not higher taxes or lower morals? Not the Muslims? Not even Hollywood? Not nominalism, liberalism, Calvinism, humanism, or the gender inclusive Bible? IT’S THE LAW?
In fairness to Billy, he is a good thinker, and just might be onto something. Here’s his post.
Here’s my reply:
Billy’s post if very interesting. Ironic also–it was one of the topics of discussion in my Spiritual Warfare class this morning. Not that the Law is the biggest danger to Christianity (it’s not by the way), but that the Law that Jesus fulfilled is often something to which Christians return for security. It’s as though the devil says something (in a voice like Heath Ledger’s Joker voice) similar to: “Freedom? Oh, that’s so hard to deal with. You have to make so many decisions about everything. Why not just make a rule? Rules are so much easier to follow.” And we less than biblically literate Christians of a Western mindset follow along making checklists and rules to demonstrate our Christian commitment. We seem to emphasize the things Jesus said not to do, and find ourselves lacking in the thing he said to do, which is to love people (John 13:34-35).
Rather than love, we rule. Jesus’ church growth principle does not say that people will know who we serve by how we rule, but that the world will measure us by how we love. Billy rightly points out that people look at him funny when he tells them to love others. Of course they do, we have not shown them how. Ask them how to dictate to people, and they’ll get with it–we all know how to be wonderful little dictators. On the other hand, ask anyone if he or she knows when he or she is being loved or not loved. Pack a Snickers bar when you ask someone for a story about a time when she she was not loved, you’re not going anywhere for awhile.
If people know objectively when they’re not being loved, then they know objectively when they are being loved. Tell them to do the loving stuff to others–they’ll get it. Jesus told us how to be loving as well. Matthew 7:12: treat people like you want to be treated. Nevertheless, Jesus told us to love, not to rule. Simple. If you lied, own up to it and stop lying. Don’t mess around with other women. Don’t curse people. Talk nice. Think about what the other guy needs, just what you need. If the Bible corrects your behavior, accept it and thank the person who brought you that correction–they’re trying to make you wise. Don’t leave everything for someone else to do–pitch in and help. If you made a mess with someone, go to him and clean it up. Grow up for goodness sakes. Respect people; that’s what it means to love others and that’s fairly easy to measure but not as easy as a set of rules. Jesus did not seem to care that one is harder than the other, did he?
We were not told to abandon the law, that’s why I say it is not the big danger. We were simply told that the law no longer binds us. We were told to love, so the big danger is acting unloving or selfish. The biggest danger to Christianity is the pervasive human desire for selfishness. We might call that sin, but not in the sense that the world is loaded with sin and in open rebellion to Christ, which it is. I mean sin in the sense that Christ’s followers are open to sin and do not seem to care much about getting past it.
In the USA, we have traded a selfless love of Christ and desire to advance his kingdom for a sappy, unsatisfying, Wal-Martized, consumer-driven, self-centered religiosity and called it church, which it ain’t. It is sin.
The next great spiritual awakening will start after we tell unloving Pastors, Deacons, and Institutional leaders to take a hike. No, that does not mean that we act unloving to people who act unloving. It means we help them get over their unloving attitudes and actions because loving others is so critical to the advancement of Christianity. Right now, the tendency (in the American church) is to say something like, “The leaders are mean-spirited. I’m leaving.” That is an unloving act. A loving act says, “The leaders are mean-spirited. I’m going to pray for them. I’m going to study the Bible to be sure I am on the right track. I’m going to try to see things from their point of view. I’m going to get wise counsel. Then I will offer Scriptural correction. If they fire me, then I will join those who suffer for righteousness and not those who suffer for foolishness. If they do not take my correction, then I will ask God to find me a new place to serve.” Telling someone to take a hike involves a lot more steps that you imagined, doesn’t it? Maybe that’s why we don’t do it–it’s tiresome, painful, and it takes a lot of time. Love takes time.
Oh, by the way, it starts with me. I have to love people first.
So, in a way, Billy is right that the Law is a big problem. I just think that rather than telling people “get past the Law” we will have better results by telling them, “All you need is love.” Shoot, they’ll sing that one.
