In our Sunday School class at PRC, we have begun a study on defending the faith, apologetics. What we are studying is a little different than the average apologetics study. This one is not about giving the class a particular set of arguments to help them respond to particular objections to the faith. Instead, this one is aimed at helping them to navigate the difficult conversations they might have with wisdom.
Because we are in this course, I immediately find it interesting when I read something in Scripture with powerful apologetic interest. So, when my daily reading took me through 1 Corinthians 15, it got my attention.
In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul needed to respond to an odd heresy that had arisen in the church in Corinth. It seems that among the people in the church were some who denied the possibility of physical resurrection. They simply could not wrap their minds around the idea that people who had died would eventually, physically come to life. This is probably due to the influence of certain philosophies that held that matter was in itself low, dirty, and evil while spirit was good. So the people could not fathom the idea of a physical existence after death.
But Paul made a simple argument from the basic facts of the gospel to show the Corinthians that belief in Jesus requires belief in physical resurrection. Why? Because the gospel absolutely hinges on one singular fact: Jesus rose from the dead. In that argument, Paul shows us that there is one simple truth that rises to the highest level when we defend the faith. There is one question that has to be answered. And the answer to that question will ultimately have everything to do with a person’s beliefs. Did Jesus rise from the dead or not?
1 Corinthians 15: 14, 17-19 – 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.… 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
Take note here, as Paul presents the one thing that would render the entire religion of Christianity meaningless, futile, and useless. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, Christianity means nothing.
But, if Jesus did rise from the dead, what does that mean? The alternative must be true. If Jesus went to the cross, died, and then came back to life three days later, he has proved by an amazing miracle that all that he has ever claimed about himself is true. Jesus did all that he did in accord with the Scriptures. He came to earth as Scripture promised. He lived a perfect life and died as a sacrifice as Scripture promised. And he rose from the grave as Scripture promised. And all our faith hinges on that final truth. All of our faith stands or falls on the fact that Jesus is now alive.
So, every person must consider the question, “Do I believe that Jesus is alive?” If you do, then entrust your soul to Jesus and follow him. If you do not, then Christianity ultimately has nothing to offer to you. But, before rejecting the notion that Jesus is alive, also understand that there is a great deal of historical evidence to point us to the fact that Jesus really is alive, that he really did rise from the grave on the third day, and that through his resurrection, he changed the world and the lives of many forever.
I am fully convinced that Jesus is alive. I am fully convinced that, because Jesus is alive, I too will live even after I die. Jesus promises forgiveness of sin and resurrection to new life for all who come to him in faith. And I would urge any person to come to trust in Jesus and find that life.
Christians, I would also urge us to see that the New Testament always makes the resurrection of Jesus the final argument related to defending the faith. The New Testament writers did not tend to make their arguments about other things. Yes, they told the story of Jesus. But it was always on the resurrection that a person’s faith either stood or fell. So let’s remember that the resurrection, the fact that Jesus is alive, is the big point of contention. Is Jesus alive? Then worship him and follow him. Is he dead? Then ignore Christianity and any other religion that claims life after death. It’s really that simple.
Living with the Shepherd
Psalm 23:6
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.
My Old Testament professor at seminary liked to tell us that the picture painted in Psalm 23 is almost like a sweet cartoon. God is our shepherd and we are sheep, little lambs. The cartoon closes in verse 6 with the most ridiculously beautiful scene. The sheep goes to live with the shepherd in his house forever. Sheep do not live in houses, trust me. But this one is so beloved by his shepherd that he dwells with him forever.
David is saying that he, and all those who truly know God, will live with God forever—even beyond their days here on earth. Forever we will live in God’s house. Forever we will give honor and glory to his name. Forever he will satisfy our souls. Forever we will do what we were created by him to do. Forever, that will give us joy.
Today, if you are a follower of Jesus, be comforted by the hope of eternal life with him. Hope, in a Biblical sense, is not the way that we use the word hope today. We say, “I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow,” but we do not know whether or not it will. When God talks about our hope in Christ, it is an assured hope that simply has not been fulfilled yet. It’s like saying that you have hope that the sun will rise tomorrow. Of course it will. There is no doubt. You know it will, and you plan your life in that confident assumption of truth. In the same way, Christians who know and follow God have hope that their eternity is full of blessing. That is what we live for, not the comforts and ease that this world can offer. Our hope is in eternity, and we long for the day when it will be fulfilled. So, Christians, look forward to the hope you have for eternity.
Also consider that sheep, in the Scriptures, were often used as sacrifices. They were often killed, fairly brutally, as a payment for sin. You and I actually should be those sheep. We are sinners before a holy God. We deserve to be hounded, not by goodness and loving kindness, but by God’s wrath and justice. We deserve to suffer the fury of God for every little sin that we have ever committed before him. Since his holiness is perfect and his perfection is infinite, we deserve to have to pay an infinite price for our sins. Put plainly, we all deserve hell for eternity because we have sinned before an infinitely holy God.
The only way that we are able not to be hounded by wrath and judgment is because God chose to take out that wrath and judgment on someone else. You and I deserve God’s wrath. God chose, however, to pour that wrath out on his Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus died in our place. He suffered in our place. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter for our sakes. He suffered the wrath that I deserve for my sins and that you deserve for yours. Since Jesus is God the Son and our good shepherd, he was able to pay all the price for all the sins of all who come to him. Go and reread Isaiah 53 sometime, and watch the scene as it is predicted 700 years before it happened. Watch as the Son of God, the good shepherd, gives up his life as a sacrifice for the sins of many.
Today, if you want God to be your shepherd, if you want to be able to trust him in times of need, if you want to be able to rest in him during times of peace, if you want to be able to follow him toward righteousness, if you want to be comforted in the troublesome times, if you want to be able to receive his blessings with joy, if you want to look forward to eternity in his house, then you must first become his child by receiving his gift of salvation. Believe that God is and that he is perfect. Believe that you are a sinner in need of his grace. Believe that Jesus died to pay the penalty for your sin. Bring your life to Jesus, and ask him to change your heart from that of a dead sinner to a living follower of his. Place your trust in the work of Jesus and the work of Jesus alone for your salvation. Turn away from sin and sinful self-sufficiency and turn instead to Christ to be forgiven. If you do this, God will forgive you of your sin, and he will become your good shepherd.
Something Definitively True about Spiritual Gifts
Whenever we talk about spiritual gifts, there is often a lot of heat generated in the conversation. What should we say about those who differ from our views on what gifts are active today? How do we explain what some people claim is happening around the world while others are sure those things are not true? How do we deal with the seeming abuse of gifts in certain circles?
I want to say something very definitive on spiritual gifts with this post. It is extremely important we get this truth, even if we do not know exactly how to handle everything said about spiritual gifts, strange fire, and all the rest. This is not to say that I do not have a strong belief about the other topics, but to say that I believe that there is something that is perhaps even more urgent for us as the church.
1 Corinthians 12:7 – To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
As Paul wrote to the Corinthian church about gifts, he began with the principle in the verse above. The gifts of God are given to individual believers for the sake of the good of the body of Christ. If you are gifted in any way, the gifting is for the sake of the good of the local church. And be sure of this, every individual believer is gifted by the Spirit of God.
So, Christian, hear this truth. You have been given a gift by God. Perhaps you are gifted to handle the word in a powerful way. Perhaps you are gifted to care for others in need. Perhaps you are gifted to speak into the lives of others with a spiritually empowered ability that others find truly helpful. Perhaps you have some other gift. The gift that you have been given is not at all for your own personal benefit. The gift you have been given is intended by God for you to use in the local congregation for the overall good of the church.
So, when you think about your spiritual gifts, do not worry about a spiritual gift inventory. Neither should you focus on hoping for a gift that looks more supernatural than the gifts that others have. Nor should you expect your gift to be there to give you a really deep personal thrill. The point of your gift is that you put it to use so as to help others in the body love Jesus more. That is it: help others in your local church love Jesus more.
By the way, this also means that you cannot experience your spiritual gifting without being a committed part of a local church body. If you are not connected to a local body, serving under the leadership of biblical elders, giving of yourself to help others in that particular congregation love Jesus more, you are not doing what your gift is intended for. (Yes, I realize that there may be someone with a traveling ministry or missional calling, and I’m not dealing with that here.) If you will not use your gifts to help the local body, you are not really using your gifts.
On the simplest level, then, spiritual gifts should make you be regularly present with your local church body. Spiritual gifts should make you love others in the body. And you cannot love others in the body faithfully if you do not make attendance a priority. You will be where the people of God are gathered if you want to use and experience your spiritual gifts. And you will be where the body is gathered if you want to experience and benefit from the gifts of others. To absent yourself from the body is to do the body harm as you withhold your gifts. To absent yourself from the body is to do yourself harm as you prevent yourself from benefitting from the gifts of others.
I know, many would love it if we could have a nice argument on continuationism or cessationism. I have those arguments to make, and I think they are very important. But I think it is more important that we be committed, out of love, to be together with the local body of Christ, that we be committed to one another, that we do not give up meeting together (Heb. 10:24-25), that we care for each other, that we grow together in Christ, and that this is how we experience our gifts. Your gifts are for the body and for the glory of God. Your gifts will give you joy as you glorify God by investing your life in the lives of those others to whom you are committed in the local church. This is the definitive word on spiritual gifts to which all other arguments should be subject.
Freedom or Foolishness
I sometimes think of wise Christianity as similar to driving down a road with a ditch on either side. On the one side of the safe path is the ditch of legalism or moralism. If we veer too strongly toward strict rules and regulations, we will glide into that self-destructive and God dishonoring ditch. Paul wrote about such things in Colossians 2:16-23 and Romans 14 as he charged the church not to attempt to hold Christians to man-made rules that did not come from God.
At the same time, some people get so excited about our freedoms that they move toward a lawlessness. That, I would argue is the ditch on the other side of the road. Sometimes people decide that they are free from man-made restrictions and then they veer into the foolishness of sinning against the Lord by going too far and violating God’s clear commands.
Which ditch is worse? Does it really matter? If you crash into a ditch, you have crashed. It’s bad.
1 Corinthians 10:19-22 – 19 What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. 22 Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
In this passage, Paul talks about the ditch of an over realized freedom that leads to sin. People in Corinth, at least some of them, knew that they were not forbidden from eating meat that had been a part of a pagan temple service. They knew that to restrict meat eating just in case a particular steak had been in a pagan temple was just a bit legalistic. And so these people exercised their freedom to eat meat.
But for some, this correction away from legalism led to lawlessness. Before you knew it, these people might have felt the freedom not only to eat the meat if they bought it in the market, but to actually go and sit down with the pagans in the temple of the idols as part of their ceremonies. Thus, what started as a true freedom has led to foolishness.
Paul tells the people that they cannot be so free as to let themselves participate in the celebrations of the idolaters. No, the idol is nothing. Neither is the meat anything. But the idol worship is actually the worship of demons. No Christian is so free that he or she is free to participate in the worship of demons.
For us today, this calls us to measure our freedom against foolishness. Are you free from the Old Testament law? You bet. Christ has fulfilled that law. But are you free from the principles of that law? Are you free to do things that God has forbidden? Are you free to participate in acts that the lost would participate in which dishonor the Lord? No, of course you are not free to sin.
Consider what area in your life you consider to be part of your Christian freedom or your Christian liberty. Where could it, if you are not attentive, lead you into sin? Measure it well. Think logically. Ask another Christian, especially one who does not think exactly as you do, what it would look like for your freedom to lead you into the ditch of lawlessness. Ask sincerely, and listen to the counsel you receive. You may find that your freedom is real, but that the danger is also real. Love freedom, but not to the point of foolishness.
Knowledge Puffs Up
What would you rather be: really smart or really loving? O, I know if you are a Christian that you should automatically know the right answer. But I wonder how often we do.
1 Corinthians 8:1-3 – 1 Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. 2 If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. 3 But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.
The context of this passage is a bit of controversy in Corinth. Some Christians would, without any objections, eat food they knew had been involved in pagan temple sacrifices. Other Christians, those recently converted from those religions, were being put in a sort of spiritual jeopardy. The meat-eating Christians knew, with perfectly sound knowledge, that the false religion of the idol worshipers did not contaminate the meat. But those who had so recently been a part of the pagan temple system were not so sure.
Picture the problem. One person has a completely clear conscience. They could eat along with a bunch of idol worshipers without committing any sort of personal sin. They are just happy to have some bargain priced steak.
On the other hand, we have a person who just got out of that temple system. If they go back into the temple to have dinner, who knows what other temptations they will face. First, they will struggle to not let themselves believe that something has spiritually happened to their dinner. Second, they will be surrounded by the very familiar confines of pagan idolatry.
A Christian with only knowledge would, at this point, make a solid argument before the former idolater about the substance of idols and the fact that the meat is not contaminated. They will argue for their right to walk into any building anywhere so long as they are not participating in the worship. And, in a technical, legal, personal sense, they will be correct.
But the outcome of that argument could be devastating. The former idolater may then think that he should be personally comfortable with going into the temple. He may then find himself encountering a temptation that he is not at all ready to bear in his young faith. Thus, the well-reasoned argument of the meat eater does harm to the former idol worshiper.
What is the answer? The answer is love. Knowledge puffs us up. it makes us think we are superior. Knowledge alone will lead us to put down those who do not see things our way and flaunt our freedoms in such a way as to put others at risk. And this is never going to help the body of Christ or please the Lord.
Now, love here does not mean that the former idolater gets to tell the meat eater to become vegetarian. But love would make the former meat eater, when with the former idolater, not wave his freedom around. When the two are together, temple meats should not be on the menu. This is not because there is something wrong with the meat, but because the menu could lead the weaker brother toward the danger of sin that is completely unnecessary.
At the same time, love would keep the former idolater from proclaiming to the world that all the good Christians avoid meat. Love would lead the weaker brother to say,” I understand that some folks are free to go in there and buy a steak, but for me, it is too dangerous right now.”
I’m sure you have all sorts of personal areas where you can draw application here. And in truth, I’m not making an argument in those areas. Instead, my argument here is about love being more important than someone’s scholarly argument about their freedom. Our first goal should be to love the Lord and to love others in the body of Christ. And that means that, from time to time, we will curtail our personal freedoms when those freedoms will put another’s wellbeing at risk.
Honesty in Scripture
I love the Psalms. I love them for their poetry. I love them for their picture of God. But I probably love them most for their honesty. In the Psalms, we see the full range of human emotions. We see into the hearts of those who worship the Lord rightly and those who sin in their souls. We see, in short, pictures of ourselves.
Psalm 73 is one of those Psalms that is gloriously honest. It speaks to the depths of who we are. As the people of God, we are greatly blessed. But, if we are honest, we will also admit we can be bitter. We do not like it when life is hard. We do not like it when those who oppose God seem to get away with cruelty and nastiness. WE do not like it when the poor are crushed or the hurting are laid waste. We do not like it when we are not recognized for whatever good we think we possess. And we do not like it when it appears that eternity is so far away that we forget what we exist to be and do.
And when we get bitter, when we hurt and let that hurt coarse through our veins, we act foolishly. And in those settings, we need to be reminded of God and his perfection.
Psalm 73:21-23
21 When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
22 I was brutish and ignorant;
I was like a beast toward you.
23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.
The psalmist writes of his time of bitterness. He was frustrated at the injustice of the world. HE did not think he was getting the good he deserved. And so he sinned in his heart.
Notice how he describes his sin. How real does it seem? He says to God, “I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you.” Have you ever been like that? I have. I have more recently than I would want to publicly admit.
This passage is a perfect picture of the soul-crushing self-pity that we are so easily led into by our foolish and sinful minds. We come up with a way we want the world to be. The world will not, it cannot, meet our expectations and demands. Nor would having all our expectations met be good for us. And so we rage. WE fuss. We grumble. We become brutish toward the Lord. WE growl and snap and huff and snort and act like animals because we are not getting things the way we think they should be.
What is the solution? For the Psalmist, as we see in verse 23, the solution is to remember that God is with him. Even when life is not giving him what he wants, God is there. Even when he has been grumbling and griping and sinning out of sheer crankiness, God is still there. The Lord has not turned away from him and left him alone. God’s grace is still upon him.
I love the Psalms. Texts like the one above remind me of just who I am and how I can behave. They show me my failures in vivid color. They remind me of the grace of God for my sins that was fully purchased by Christ. No, I do not like seeing my sin. I do not like having a heart that still needs so much sanctification. But I am grateful to God that he has let me see that other believers, better men than I, have fought the same battles, failed the same failures, and landed softly on the same grace.
Short circuiting God’s Protection
It’s funny how we often summarize a passage of Scripture without allowing its import to really sink in. In 1 Corinthians 6:1-8, we see a passage of Scripture that most Christians could not quote, but which many have summarized in our minds. We know that the Bible forbids Christians from taking each other to court, from suing each other over minor offenses. We know that we are supposed to be spiritually mature enough to settle our differences or to prefer to be wronged rather than to drag the name of Christ through the mud in the court system in front of nonbelievers.
As I came across that section of Scripture in my read through the Bible, I found myself seeing a further application that I think we often miss.
1 Corinthians 6:1-4 – 1 When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? 2 Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? 3 Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! 4 So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church?
Now, I have no objection to the typical and right interpretation of this passage. We ought not take trivial cases before nonbelievers to solve them for us. But I want us to think about this situation from another angle. How often do we fail to bring major life decisions to others in the body of Christ to help us consider and pray through them before we make those decisions? How often do we fail to take advantage of the wisdom of God given to believers to protect us from making unwise choices? How often do we make our decisions and then tell the church what we are doing rather than allowing people (who will eventually judge angels as Paul told us) to help us think through life-altering plans?
Here are two examples. A single woman is part of a church. She does not, however, share her life and struggles with others. Her life is her own. One weekend she is not at church, and nobody knows why . The next weekend she is back with a man in tow. She lets us know that she is now married. Or a family which is a major part of the body comes to church one Sunday with an announcement. They are moving to a new city. The dad is taking a new job in his company and they will soon be packing up the house and the kids and heading off to a brand new city.
Now, let me be really clear. I have no desire to think that the church should control such decisions. WE are not one of the cults who exercise absolute authority over an individual’s decisions. But, and this is the point I think, should not a wise and growing Christian allow other wise and trustworthy Christians to speak into those decisions? Does it not make sense that the elders of the church ought to have some knowledge of what a person is considering when it is a major life plan?
In both of my examples, actual examples from real life, I have seen them go extremely badly when, in truth, the elders of a church could have prevented the problem. In the case of the single lady getting married, it turned out that she got married to a man she met on line and had not wisely assessed his actual commitment to Christ. It turned out she married a deceptive man without a genuine faith. And I knew, immediately after meeting this guy, that he was a fraud. Had she sought the counsel of the elders, we could have saved her a ton of pain and actual physical danger. But she chose to make her own call about her own life and short circuited God’s plan for her protection.
In the case of the family, the same sort of thing can happen. All the dad could see was an opportunity for career advancement. But he and the wife did not consider whether or not there was a healthy church into which they could settle. Nor did the dad consider the implications of moving his kids at their particular stages of life. He just saw promotion, assumed it was best, and put the family into a really hard spot. Again, the elders of the church might not have prevented the decision, but certainly could have helped the family navigate the move and the church transition far better.
No, I do not want the responsibility of telling everybody how to make every decision. But, is it not obvious that, when we are in a position to make life-changing decisions, we should seek the counsel of the church elders? When we do not do so, we most assuredly short circuit the plan of protection that God has placed over us in our Christian lives. God has given us the church for a reason. He has given us elders for a reason. God has shaped the church body with wise, God-centered men and women who can give us biblical counsel as we consider what steps to take in our lives. And when we ignore the counsel of the wise and the wise counsel of the elders, we extend our risk beyond the protection of the body to our own hurt.
So, perhaps the next time you have a major life decision to make, consider sitting down with your elders (or pastor if your church does not have a plurality of elders—though it should). Talk to a trusted small group leader or Sunday School teacher. Stop making major decisions on your own. I know that we push back in pride, declaring this to be “my life.” But God has a plan to protect us with the wisdom of others in the body. Let us not short circuit that. Instead, let us call on the wisdom of those who will judge the angels to help us navigate the world in which we live.
A Lesson in Context
If you have known me for any amount of time, you will know that I regularly remind believers that we must take the context of a Bible passage seriously if we are to properly understand it. In my reading through 2 Samuel, I found a perfect example of a verse that, out of context, gives us a very faulty impression of what the passage is saying.
2 Samuel 5:8 – And David said on that day, “Whoever would strike the Jebusites, let him get up the water shaft to attack ‘the lame and the blind,’ who are hated by David’s soul.” Therefore it is said, “The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.”
Ok, play with that verse with no context. What is your interpretation? Obviously, David, the king over Israel, hates blind people. He hates people with crippling disabilities. He really sounds like a nasty guy. He is even commanding people to go and strike such people down.
Now, think of what would happen if a person tried to make a devotional Bible lesson out of that verse when taken out of context. They could come up with all sorts of nasty conclusions, the worst of which might lead to concentration camps for the physically challenged.
But we know better. We know that this is not the way of God. We know that God does not hate the blind and the lame. He does not tell his leaders to turn against those who are needy. So what is going on?
Context! Context matters! It matters a lot!
Let’s see that verse in its context. David had been king living in Hebron. But now he is preparing to move his capital city to Jerusalem, the city of the Jebusites. Obviously, the Jebusites are not interested in giving their city over to David. So they shut the gates. And then they taunt David, because the Jebusites are sure that David and his army cannot get into their city to defeat them.
2 Samuel 5:6-8 – 6 And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who said to David, “You will not come in here, but the blind and the lame will ward you off”—thinking, “David cannot come in here.” 7 Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, that is, the city of David. 8 And David said on that day, “Whoever would strike the Jebusites, let him get up the water shaft to attack ‘the lame and the blind,’ who are hated by David’s soul.” Therefore it is said, “The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.”
In verse 6, we see that the Jebusites are mocking David. They are saying that their city is so strong that an army of the blind and the lame could ward off David and his men. They are putting down David’s army and saying that they are not a challenge.
So, when David hears the mocking of the Jebusites, he orders his men to find a way, even through the water shafts, to get into the city. And David turns the words of the Jebusites back on their heads. He tells his men to go get those blind and lame defenders of the city. David is not at all suggesting any hatred of real blind people. He is saying that he has a problem with the Jebusites, and they will not be able to defend their city against him. They said blind people could defeat David. David says they cannot.
Now, my point was to show us the value of context. If verse 8 were taken alone, one would have an entirely false impression of what the passage was saying. But, when we see verse 8 as part of the entire paragraph with the history filled in, we see that the words of David are intended to be a sarcastic taunt, not a nasty slur against people with disabilities.
When you read and handle Scripture, please, for the love of God and all things good, learn to keep the context of the passage at the forefront. Learn to ask what is really going on. Learn to see what has passed before what you read. Very few passages are intended to stand alone. Almost all Bible passages have something that came before them that help us understand them. (The Psalms are examples of stand-alone units, but even they have context we can learn from.)
Besides thinking about the historical context, ask yourself what kind of thing you are reading. David’s words were a taunt, not at all intended to be taken literally. Are you reading a text that is supposed to be rigidly factual, or is it full of metaphor, slang, or poetry? There is a big difference in how one handles a history book and a line from Shakespeare. The same must be true in Scripture.
Context matters. Let us learn to read the word of God with the intent of the author in our minds so that we will not mishandle it.
Do You Judge Yourself?
Either group mentioned above can be hard to talk to about spiritual things. And both groups are making an error in judgment. In our society, we often hear that we are not to judge others. Of course, that is a very incorrect handling of Matthew 7:1. But I wonder how many of us make the mistake of thinking we can rightly judge ourselves. How many of us think we know who we are deep down and thus can rightly assess our actions and motives? Let me present to us this for consideration: We are not capable on our own to judge our own lives.
1 Corinthians 4:3-5 – 3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. 4 For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.
When the apostle Paul was writing to the Corinthian church, he made sure that the church knew that he was inadequate to judge his own life. Paul, the man who wrote nearly half of the New Testament books, said that he was unqualified to declare himself to be anything before the Lord. Paul would not judge himself. Instead, he left the proper judging of his life to the Lord.
Notice as well that Paul said that the judgment of God on our lives would come when the Lord Jesus returns. When Jesus makes his way back to the earth, he will bring to light what is hidden in our lives. He will expose not only our deeds but the motives and purposes of our hearts. Jesus will not simply look at a record book of our actions, but he will see clearer than we have ever seen the exact reasons behind everything we have ever done. He will know when we have done a right thing so that others would be impressed by us. He will know when we have given out of guilt instead of out of joy. He will know when we have tried to make ourselves look good, to gain position, or to put down others.
The point, dear friends, is that we must find ourselves under the grace of Jesus and then leave all assessment of our worth up to him. Alone, we cannot please the Lord. We must believe in Jesus and turn from our sin to be saved. But even when we are saved, we must not think highly of ourselves as if we can see through our own motives. The truth is, we cannot see into our own hearts very well. We may give ourselves too much credit. We may be too hard on ourselves. But either way, our judgment of our own lives and actions will be far from perfect. So may we stop assessing ourselves by our standards, get under the grace of Jesus, and trust him to make us into what he wants us to be.
A Sign of Spiritual Maturity
It is interesting to note the different ways that our weaknesses manifest. In some churches, it is like pulling teeth to get people to want to study the word of God in depth. In others, the body has such a strong desire to believe that they are going deeper and deeper in their understanding that they may miss the value of simple grace. But neither the one who ignores doctrine nor the one who thinks only of being deep is really honoring the Lord without other things being central to his or her life.
1 Corinthians 3:1-4 – 1 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?
As Paul opens 1 Corinthians 3, he is chastising the church at Corinth for their shallowness. This reminds us that we do not want to be shallow Christians. None of us want to be the people who are only fed on spiritual milk. We need to grow up into maturity. We need to grow to be able to follow the Lord and handle the deeper truths of Scripture.
But notice what Paul has to say to this group about why they are shallow. He is not saying that they require milk because of their lack of study. Nor does Paul indicate that they are disinterested in deep doctrine. In fact, from what he writes in this chapter, it looks like the people are all about steaking out their positions. But, somehow, in the midst of their wrangling, the church is still not mature.
What is the issue? Paul points out that this body of believers is shallow, not because of a lack of knowledge, but because of a lack of love and spiritual kindness. Inside the church, there appears to be a factionalism arising. Some love one teacher and some another. Some have their favorite leader while some follow another. And instead of learning from each other, the church has gotten to a point where they are being nasty to each other because of whom they follow or whom they do not.
Can you imagine that in our churches today? I would think so. Even in churches that are united on tough doctrinal things such as reformed theology, how often do you see people measure each other by their favorite? I follow Piper. I follow MacArthur. I follow Mohler. I follow Washer. I follow Lawson. I follow Platt. I follow Chandler. You can get the picture.
Could you imagine, however, a group in which one person in the body looks down on another or poorly treats another because of how they feel about another’s choice of favorite teacher or author? I surely can. And, you can probably also imagine that such a person, when they feel the need to let you know why they don’t like your favorite author or teacher, might end up hurting your feelings or putting you down in one way or another.
Now, go back to Paul’s point. If you are lining up and choosing sides based on your favorite teacher or leader, you are immature. You are babies still on milk. It does not matter how many conferences you have been to. It does not matter how well you can spout catechism. It does not matter whose systematic theology you can quote verbatim. If you are divisive, nasty, and unloving toward others in the body, you are not mature. If you are someone who puts people off and cannot keep friends in the church because of your positions on doctrines or leaders, you are an infant in the faith.
I think this lesson is needed in every church in a different form. For some believers, you need to mature by actually starting to care about biblical doctrine. If you do not know enough Scripture to have a position on sovereignty, election, end times, baptism, divorce, remarriage, eldership, or other such things, you need to grow. There is no biblical excuse for remaining ignorant of the things that the church has wrestled through for centuries.
At the same time, if you are doctrinally well-educated, but your education somehow impacts your personality so that people do not like you, it is your responsibility to grow toward love. No person is spiritually mature who cannot be lovingly connected to a local church body. Even if the people around you land differently on some doctrinal positions, you should be able to be gracious and to show kindness and to keep friendships so long as we are not here talking about doctrines essential for salvation. If you are a deep thinker, a heavy learner, a voracious reader, but if you cannot be friends with an average believer, you are not mature. In fact, Paul would tell you that you are on just as much of a baby bottle diet as is the immature believer you keep offending.
May we learn, therefore, to desire maturity. And may we understand that spiritual maturity always includes loving others in the body and showing the kindness of Christ. Learn the truth, but do so with grace. Tell the truth, but do not break the body in the process.
Pastor Travis Peterson 