DISCIPLESHIP: IS IT A MATTER OF BEING AND NOT DOING?

Christians have very different ideas about how to grow spiritually and become more Christ-like. Understandably, many of us have found the process discouraging. Changing ourselves from sinners into saints is admittedly a daunting process.

Consequently, many Christians are gravitating towards passivity as opposed to actively trying to act like Jesus. The late Christian philosopher, Dallas Willard, had written in favor of passivity at the expense of proactivity:

·       Jesus never expected us simply to turn the other cheek, go the second mile, bless those who persecute us, give unto them that ask, and so forth.  These responses, generally and rightly understood to be characteristic of Christlikeness, were put forth by him as illustrative of what might be expected of a new kind of person – one who intelligently and steadfastly seeks, above all else, to live within the rule of God and be possessed by the kind of righteousness that God himself has, as Matthew 6:33 portrays.  Instead, Jesus did invite people to follow him into that sort of life from which behavior such as loving one’s enemies will seem like the only sensible and happy thing to do.  For a person living that life, the hard thing to do would be to hate the enemy, to turn the supplicant away, or to curse the curser…  True Christlikeness, true companionship with Christ, comes at the point where it is hard not to respond as he would. (Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives, 7-8)

Although we are transformed from the inside out by the Spirit, in many ways, Jesus did command us to act like Him:

·       “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:43-48; ESV)

Of course, we will not be perfect in this world – far from it. However, we must not tire of following our Lord, but must press on:

·       And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:9)

The life we are called to is a proactive life:

·       Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:12-14)

Yes, holiness/sanctification is a fruit of the Spirit and the way we should be, as Willard suggests, but it is also something we must pursue and the way we should act. If we refuse to act this way, we prove that we do not love our Lord:

·       Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.  Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me. (John 14:23-24)

What Willard had written is illogical. He suggests that we should somehow follow Jesus without obeying His commands. To repeat Willards words:

·       Instead, Jesus did invite people to follow him into that sort of life from which behavior such as loving one’s enemies will seem like the only sensible and happy thing to do.

Instead, Willard suggests that we obey Jesus but only passively, as it comes naturally out of us. Somehow obedience is supposed to just happen. While, there is some truth in this – even our obedience is the fruit of the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:10) – this does not eliminate our efforts:

·       Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)

In contrast, Willard has written:

·       True Christlikeness, true companionship with Christ, comes at the point where it is hard not to respond as he would.

While there is no greater joy than in following my Lord, it still can be a struggle. It was for Paul:

·       Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14)

Paul was not teaching that there is anything uncertain about our heavenly inheritance, but rather that the true believer will receive it through effort. Not that the effort saves us, but rather effort is something that accompanies truth faith and repentance.

However, admittedly, the struggle is often discouraging and even guilt-producing. Does this mean that we have taken a wrong turn somewhere and that be need to step back and just be and believe?

No at all! Instead, we need the struggle. One man, seeing a butterfly trying to escape from its cocoon, assisted this incredible creature in his escape only to see it subsequently die. He later learned that the butterfly needs this struggle in order to survive.

How does this apply to us? We too need the struggle. How so? The disappointments humble us, stripping away our self-confidence, leading us to brokenness and repentance. And when we humble ourselves before God and turn to His Word for our only encouragement, He begins to give us a deeper illumination of grace.

What happens? We are reassured that we are forgiven and cleansed (1 John 1:9) and that it is no longer about us and our spiritual successes but about Christ and His success and righteousness.

This is utterly freeing (John 8:31-32), and it brings us to a deeper place of gratefulness for a God who loves us, who are completely undeserving.

However, this deepened understanding and appreciation of our Lord does not come through passivity but activity.

Contending for the Faith vs. Turning the Cheek

This is a command:

·        Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. (Jude 3-4)

Contending for the faith involves both challenging the sin and its philosophical justifications. Jesus contended for the faith during His entire ministry. He never ceased judging and correcting His own Apostles. They tended to be very class- and ethnicity-conscious. He judged their attitudes and never complimented their faith – only that of two, who His disciples had discounted because they were both Gentiles (Matthew 8, 15). He pointed out that it was the children who were the most Kingdom-like, not themselves or the esteemed learned ones (Matthew 18). Even when Peter had taken up the sword in His defense, Jesus corrected his theology:

·        Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?" (Matthew 26:53-54)

The faith is simply too valuable to allow others to twist it to suite their own tastes. Jesus also defended the faith against the unbelievers. When He was accused of casting out demons by the power of Satan, He would not allow this interpretation to stand. Against it He reasoned that it was unthinkable that Satan would cast out Satan, lest his kingdom would collapse (Matthew 12).

When we are passive in the face of such charges against the faith, our silence is interpreted as agreement. In contrast, Paul promoted a more proactive spiritual engagement:

·        We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Cor. 10:5)

Jesus demolished “arguments” and took “captive every thought to make it obedient” to His Gospel. However, we have been silenced and rendered passive by the accusation that we have violated Jesus’ words:

·        "Do not judge, or you too will be judged…You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.” (Matthew 7:1-5)

We have been intimidated into believing that when we raise our voice in defense of the faith, we are judging – something that Jesus had soundly forbidden. However, upon close examination, Jesus didn’t forbid judging – just judging when the judge refuses to judge himself! We first must contend with our own sin before we contend with the sins of others. Until we do this, we remain with a blinding plank in our own eye.

Even many churches preach a Christian passivity that precludes contending for the faith. In support of this errant position, they quote from Paul:

·        Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head" [Proverbs 25]. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:19-21)

Some argue that these verses counsel only love and not verbal confrontation. Indeed, we mustn’t allow the evil of revenge to overcome us. Instead, we must “overcome evil with good” and leave revenge and “wrath” to God. However, this doesn’t mean that we are limited to addressing the evil of lies and bad theology with only good deeds. Consequently, they think that they shouldn’t do anything further about evil and that they shouldn’t even bring charges against the rapist or burglar.

Such a stance is not of wisdom and will only bring disrepute upon the church, if we allow evil to go unchallenged. Once the burglar or rapist strikes again, the community will rightly blame the church.

Instead, Paul counseled “It is mine to avenge” and that we should allow God’s “wrath” to bring this revenge. This “wrath” is not limited to the final judgment. God expresses His wrath through the justice system, which He has ordained. Paul continues:

·        The authorities that exist have been established by God….For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of WRATH to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Romans (13:1-4)

Clearly, God exercises His wrath through the criminal justice system. Justice is holy, and therefore, we have a responsibility to see that He will exercise His wrath through this system. It is this system that frees us to love our enemies without the need to take justice into our own hands. Although we don’t personally avenge ourselves, we must see that justice is done through this system, not through vigilantes. Loving and pursuing justice are not incompatible! Likewise, loving our enemies doesn’t disqualify us from contending for the faith, even when they are offended by what we say.

The Christian life is not simply about hugging and feeding the hungry. It’s also a display of God’s entire body of wisdom. Israel’s light to the nations had been a matter of showing forth His wisdom as they followed all of God’s laws:

·        Observe them [My laws] carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people”…And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today? (Deut. 4:6-8)

This entailed a living demonstration of the entire counsel of God – not just justice and not just love. Both are essential! Passivity alone will not win hearts. During my brief stay as a substitute teacher in a public school, I too thought that Jesus had been teaching passivity – to turn the other cheek at the misbehavior of the students. This only won me the deserved contempt of the teachers. They didn’t find anything virtuous in passivity but rather, a clear display of folly. Instead of bringing glory to my Lord, I had briefly demonstrated that the teachings of Jesus (wrongly understood) had no place in the real world.

   

The health of the church depends on contending for the faith. An elder had to be able to contend:

·        He [the elder] must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group. They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach. (Titus 1:9-11)

We are built up by the faith, and we are ruined by those things that undermine the faith. If we fail to contend for the faith, “whole households” will be ruined. If we contend for anything, it must be for the faith! Love requires it!

I write this because many young Christians are being ruined because attacks against the faith aren’t being adequately addressed. We are failing to “demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God” and we are not taking “captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).

We are continually accused of “hate speech,” “hate-mongering,” and “bigotry” by the surrounding culture. For example, Mrs.Clinton blames Christianity and other religions for denying homosexuals their deserved rights:

·        In a speech [December 8, 2011]designed to convince the world that “gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said religious objections to homosexuality should not stand in the way of vigorous United Nations action to promote the homosexual rights agenda. On Tuesday, Clinton said promoting the global acceptance of “gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people” is “one of the remaining human rights challenges of our time,” likening the effort to ending racial, sexual, or religious discrimination. She noted that perhaps the “most challenging issue arises when people cite religious or cultural values as a reason to violate or not to protect the human rights of LGBT citizens.” These objections, she said, are “not unlike the justification offered for violent practices towards women like honor killings, widow burning, or female genital mutilation.”

   

Clinton wrongly likens our stance against same-sex marriage to “honor killings, widow burning, or female genital mutilation.” However, she is not alone in making such unfair comparisons. Many indict the Bible and the church as “homophobic.” Many of a more moderate voice are claiming that we are depriving the gays of justice, and our youth are all-ears, if the polls are any indication.

Mustn’t we speak up earnestly against these accusations? Will they not stick if we don’t? If we are denying the gays their rights, then we are also denying the adulterer, the polygamist, the father who wants to marry his daughter, or the aged billionaire who can afford to marry 50 10-year-olds. However, the university and the media would also deny these people their “rights.” Wouldn’t this similarly make them “unjust?” Why then are they calling us “unjust,” when they too are “unjust” in depriving others of their “rights,” according to their own definition?

These charges and double-standards – this blatant but unacknowledged hypocrisy – should be exposed (Eph. 5:11).  This is not an enviable task. However, when we fail to contend for our faith, no one else will, and the charges will stand.

At times, this seems like an endless and wearisome battle, but Jude assures us that it isn’t. He continues:

·        Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home--these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire. In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies…(Jude 1:5-8)

It is the Lord who will avenge. This frees us up to tend to the wounds of our detractors as we speak truth in love.

The Prophetic Ministry: The Denunciation of Evil

Should we denounce evil? Recently, a local pastor defended his decision to not protest New York City’s unjust ruling, barring the churches from renting space in the NYC schools:

• Unfortunately, one cannot rejoice at persecution while fighting for one’s rights in persecution. The two cannot go together…

Granted, we should be rejoicing, even in the midst of persecution, but does this prevent us from denouncing evil? Certainly not! However, this is just one of many reasons why Christians are reluctant to speak out against injustice. Others will defend a hands-off stance by invoking their belief that Jesus is soon returning, and therefore, our focus should be the “great commission” - evangelism. Similarly, the evangelical columnist, Cal Thomas, warned against speaking forth on the national platform:

• Real power doesn’t reside in Washington. Real power is Christ within you. Surely the Gospel is a more effective tool than the Republican or the Democratic Party. Just one example: More babies are being saved through pregnancy help centers than through anything Washington has done.

Thomas might be correct, but does this preclude raising our voices against the shameful infant holocaust? Doesn’t our calling require many forms of engagement? Shouldn’t we be raising our voices to demand justice and protection for the vulnerable? Isn’t this what the Hebrew Prophets were directed to do?

On the other side of the spectrum are the social-gospel folk – the liberals and emergent-churchers – who conflate the Gospel with social activism, reducing the Gospel to a set of actions. They forget that, instead, the Gospel is our launching pad – our joy, peace, confidence and love in the Lord – that energizes and directs everything else. It produces the fruit, which honors the tree.

If we love Jesus, we will keep His commands (John 14:21-24; 15:7-14; 1 John 5:3). Consequently, we will not only love one another (John 17:21; 13:34-35), but we will also, if need be, speak out to expose the hypocrisy that threatens them (Matthew 23; Eph. 5:11). Isaiah had called upon the people to,

• Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; Seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. (Isaiah 1:16-17)

I think that the majority of evangelical churches recognize that we have a calling to care for the downtrodden. But we have largely forgotten that we also have a responsibility to “rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.”

Mercifully, our God is concerned about exposing and punishing evil. He consequently ordained a criminal justice system to address His concerns:

• Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. (Romans 13:1-4)

Consequently, we too have a responsibility to expose, denounce and restrain evil:

• Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. (Ephes. 5:11)

This kind of talk usually invites the charge, “Well, you’re legislating morality! You Christians are always imposing your views on others!”

Not to mention the fact that denouncing evil is part of the common law which God wires our hearts (Romans 2:14-15), this is also a vital part of the democratic experience. Aren’t we all supposed to have a say, as do others? Besides, isn’t every law an exercise in legislating morality, even if law doesn’t change hearts? Martin Luther King addressed this issue poignantly:

• “It may be true that a law can’t make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.”

God also thinks that this is “pretty important!” However, many evangelicals warn against this kind of thing. Michael Spencer believes that the church’s prophetic ministry detracts from its first ministry:

• “Evangelicals have linked their beliefs with political conservatism and the culture war, which non-Christian leaders perceive as bad for society…We have done so at the detriment of our faith. Christians have been so wrapped up in the political process and especially over the last couple of years…that we have ignored our number one mission, which is to tell the world about a loving and merciful God.”

Although I don’t see how the prophetic ministry is in opposition to the Gospel ministry, I think that Spencer’s point should sensitize us regarding the causes we espouse and the way we espouse them. However, it is important to note that God associates denunciation and awareness of sin and moral failure with receptivity to the Gospel (Romans 3:19-20). The “bad news” has to precede the “good news.”

Jesus and Paul certainly exposed people to their “bad news,” not to belittle them, but to show them their need for repentance and forgiveness:

• At this the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him, "God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!" (Acts 23:2-3)

As a surgeon has to open and expose the wound in order to correct it, so too must the spiritual doctor. Stephen exposed the festering wound of Israel, even as he cried out to God to forgive them (Acts 6-7). Jesus denounced the Pharisees but then cried over them (Mat. 23:37).

However, aren’t we alienating the very world we are trying to bring to the light by such involvement? Indeed, many express great contempt for us and misrepresent us. In Why the Religious Right is Wrong, Robin Meyers writes:

• Religious fanatics who run the country…are close to realizing their vision of a heaven on earth: an American theocracy.

Likewise, in Religion Gone Bad, ex-evangelical speechwriter Mel White writes:

• We must resist before fundamentalists do what they have promised and turn the world’s oldest democracy into a theocracy ruled entirely by “righteous men.”

Although we might have brought some of the contempt upon ourselves, we can’t forget the fact that the world crucified Jesus – the model of love and perfection. He warned us that we have to take the contempt in stride:

• "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.” (John 15:18-20)

We are going to be hated, especially if we are the light in a dark, self-justifying world. We therefore can’t use the response of the world as a measure of whether or not we are doing the right thing. The measure has to be our Lord Himself, as the Apostles affirmed, after the court forbade them to speak of Jesus:

• But Peter and John replied, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard." (Acts 4:19-20)… Peter and the other apostles replied: "We must obey God rather than men! (5:29)

Ironically, the world has censured the church for speaking out, but has also censured us for not speaking. An article in a militant atheistic journal put it this way:

• European Christianity failed to prevent the mass slaughter between the faithful in the Great War and actually contributed to World War II, insofar as conservative churches supported fascism. The failure of the churches to provide sound moral guidance may help to explain the [European] Continent’s postwar lack of enthusiasm of religion.(“The Big Religion Questions Finally Solved,” Free Inquiry, Jan. 2009, 29)

Although the church was the only body that resisted Hitler and although it can be argued that the German churches had lost their Biblical rudder after years of radical criticism of the Bible, this article is certainly correct for censuring us for not resisting more proactively. To those who would retort: “Well, the politics of this world don’t involve the church,” I would simply refer them to James’ words:

• Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. (James 4:17)

If this world is God’s world, it is also ours, and we are responsible for its people. We are our brother’s keeper, as God made plain to Ezekiel:

• “But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes the life of one of them, that man will be taken away because of his sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood.” (Ezekiel 33:6)

Mustn’t we blow the trumpet when we see the sword approaching? Mustn’t we warn about the murder of the unborn or about our pornography and decadent movies that are perverting the rest of the world? Even now, the radical Muslims gain credibility by pointing to the porn and violence coming out of the “Christian” West!

Sadly, many pastors are not being prophetic; they are not speaking out against those sins which are now popular in Western culture. However, we are culpable when we fail to do this. The Apostle Paul had “boasted”:

• “Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God.”  (Acts 20:26-27)

Few of us can make a similar boast. Some pastors justify their silence by arguing that they don’t want to turn away any of their parishioners from sitting under the Gospel. However, I think that we wrongly assume that healing can take place apart from identifying the disease.

Instead, we can’t separate the two. Diagnosis and cure go together. The false prophets of Israel never taught against the Mosaic Law. However, they often preached that there was “peace” – that everything was okay – when there wasn’t peace (Ezek. 13:8-10; Jer. 8:11-12). However, Israel’s God was deeply grieved by this, because it failed to uncover the festering disease, and therefore this comforting message obscured the hope of a cure:

• The visions of your prophets were false and worthless; they did not expose your sin to ward off your captivity. The oracles they gave you were false and misleading. (Lament. 2:14)

We tend to be myopic in our pragmatic preoccupations, and therefore need the lens of Scripture to see telescopically, even microscopically. We wrongly think that our passivity will better shield the church from the secular onslaught. However, even now, many are clamoring for the State to impose the same hiring standards upon the church. Others are indicting the Bible as “hate speech.” In Europe, Christian schools are increasingly required to teach on subjects ranging from evolution to same-sex marriage. The sword is now upon us!

This doesn’t mean that we should all be judging and denouncing sin. It is reserved for only those who have first judged their own sins, confessing them to our Savior:

• "Do not judge, or you too will be judged…You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.” (Matthew 7:1-5)

We first have to confront our own blindness, rationalizations and denials before we can have the clarity to confront others. Without first judging ourselves, we become hypocrites when we attempt to judge others. But judge, we must!