March 02, 2007
What's Being Taught?
Years ago I picked up an old Bible that someone left in a pew. There was no name in the Bible, but the owner’s handwritten note on the inside cover said, “Whatever you accept, you teach.” I was so taken with this little ditty that I wrote it in my Bible as well, and I continue to use it as a standard in my personal life. I believe speaking up on issues in the church is one of the most difficult things we are called to do. The Apostle Paul is a good example of one who boldly spoke out about situations that were askew in the church. Whether it was a personal observation or a hearsay report, Paul confronted the issues. He certainly didn’t look the other way when Peter tried to separate himself from Gentiles believers, nor when Alexander the metalworker opposed the message. What are we teaching in today’s church by the things we’ve accepted?
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4 comments:
One time my nephew came to visit me and his language was filled with profanity and foulness. After he went home I wrote him a long letter. I told him I loved him and God loved him, but that this was a Christian home and I’d not allow him to talk that way in my home. I’ve not heard from him since, but I don’t regret having written the letter. When we allow friends, neighbors and family to use crude and filthy language, we are accepting it.
Gail,
I’ve considered Paul’s life and his boldly speaking out on issues in the church. Paul paid a terrible price and gave up everything. Are we willing to give up everything for the privilege of speaking out? Are we willing to be known as a Bible Thumper? If a particular church disappeared tomorrow, would it make any difference whether or not we had spoken out? I believe I can make more of an impact by exposing social issues in prisons, nursing homes and schools, than I can by exposing issues in the church.
If we speak out about issues in the church today, will it make any difference 20 years from now? I think God’s work and the church will go on even if we don’t speak out.
Speaking up on issues in the church can be done by voting with your feet and your pocketbook.
Gail;
-----I don’t believe the church ever returned to the love it had at first. When John took dictation of those letters from the Lord, the Church at Ephesus had become occupied with doctrinal issues. They simply overlooked the more important issues of godly behavior. And though godly behavior was certainly not ignored by the Church at Ephesus at that time, and all of the churches that have followed, it could not be taught too deeply for the sake of all the petty doctrinal issues and good fights. If godly behavior did not have its limits, the divisions of the church could not be maintained.
-----We are amiss in thinking that we are doing any better at godly behavior today. Against the command to not go beyond what is written, the churches, by intricately combining varieties of scriptures, maintain doctrinal walls that only some accept, while others deny, and about which most have not a clue. Against the command to keep what you believe between yourself and God, vast numbers of personal perspectives have been drug onto the pulpit and passed off as the Word of the Lord, further dividing His people. In the face of Paul’s effort to convince the Romans and the Corinthians to allow the Spirit to use the whole variety of gifts He had given, today’s churches are trending towards mission statements, narrowing of purpose, and targeting of audiences.
-----So what was the love at first left by the Church at Ephesus? Note the spiritual depth of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. He was not needing to address a man sleeping with his father’s wife as he did with the Corinthians, nor the arrogance that considered Gentiles to be more precious than Jews, as he did with the Romans. But the Ephesians were ready to read about the magnificence of the holy structure God is making of the church, because they better understood and practiced to one another the godly behaviors that grow out of genuine love.
-----We learn less genuine love in today’s church, because leaders discourage us from acting upon what our deeper spiritual discernment recognizes as problematic with their divisive ideas. Indeed, the hush order is yet propped up and working effectively to keep quiet those who have the Word of God in their hand, a good enough mind to use it, and the Spirit in their heart to expose it. And what we learn is to substitute a pretty good Sunday morning show for the genuine godliness towards one another that the Bible exhorts.
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