God alone is the author and definer of human sexuality and the context in which sexual intimacy is to occur. Sex, sexual identity, and sexuality were created for His purpose and to advance His Kingdom.
www.ocbf.org.
It always saddens me to watch church leaders bring reproach on the church of Jesus Christ. What’s perhaps most shocking to me is how frequently Christian leaders sin grossly, then step back into leadership almost as soon as the publicity dies away. It seems like Christians don’t expect much of their leaders anymore.
Some time ago I received a tape of a recommissioning service for a pastor who had made national news by confessing to an adulterous affair. It disturbed me. After little more than a year of “counseling and rehabilitation,” this man was returning to public ministry with his church’s blessing.
It is happening everywhere. Restoration teams—equipped with manuals to instruct the church on how to reinstate its fallen pastor—wait like tow-truck drivers on the side of the highway, anticipating the next leadership “accident.” Grace Community Church has received inquiries wondering if it has written guidelines or a workbook to help in restoring fallen pastors to leadership. Many no doubt expect that a church the size of ours would have a systematic rehabilitation program for sinning leaders.
Gross sin among Christian leaders is an epidemic. That is a symptom that something is seriously wrong with the church. But an even greater problem is the lowering of standards to accommodate our leaders’ sin. That the church is so eager to bring these men back into leadership indicates a rotten understanding of what it means to be a pastor.
Some have claimed that a leader’s failure makes him more effective in shepherding fallen people. That is ludicrous. Should we drag the bottom of sin’s cesspool for the most heinous sinners to lead the church? Are they better able to understand the sinner? Certainly not! Our pattern for ministry is the sinless Son of God. The church is to be like Him and its leaders are to be models of Christlikeness for the sheep.
We must recognize that leadership in the church cannot be entered into lightly. The foremost requirement of a leader is that he be above reproach (1 Timothy 3:2, 10; Titus 1:7). That is a difficult prerequisite, and not everyone can meet it.
Some kinds of sin irreparably shatter a man’s reputation and disqualify him from a ministry of leadership forever because he can no longer be above reproach. Even Paul, man of God that he was, said he feared such a possibility. In 1 Corinthians 9:27 he says, “I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.”
When referring to the body, Paul obviously had sexual immorality in view. In 1 Corinthians 6:18 he describes it as a sin against one’s own body—sexual sin is its own category. Certainly it disqualifies a man from church leadership. First Timothy 3:2 demands that elders be one-woman men (cf. Proverbs 6:32–33).
Where did we get the idea that a year’s leave of absence can restore integrity to someone who has squandered his reputation and destroyed people’s trust? Certainly not from the Bible. Trust forfeited is not so easily regained. Once purity is sacrificed, the ability to lead by example is lost forever.
What about forgiveness? Shouldn’t we be eager to restore our fallen brethren? To fellowship, yes. But not to leadership. It is not an act of love to return a disqualified man to public ministry; it is an act of disobedience.
By all means we should be forgiving. But we cannot erase the consequences of sin. I am not advocating that we “shoot our own wounded.” I’m simply saying that we shouldn’t rush them back to the front lines—and we should not put them in charge of other soldiers. The church should do everything possible to minister to those who have sinned and repented. But that does not include restoring the mantle of leadership to a man who has disqualified himself and forfeited the right to lead. Doing so is unbiblical and lowers the standard God has set.
Why is the contemporary church so eager to be tolerant in restoring fallen leaders? I’m certain a major reason is the sin and unbelief that pervade the church. If casual Christians can lower the level of leadership, they will be much more comfortable with their own sin. With lower moral standards for its leaders, the church becomes more tolerant of sin and less interested in holiness. The “sin-tolerant” church is intolerable to God. And such a church reveals the precarious status of contemporary evangelicalism—a reality that should frighten all serious and obedient believers.
The man-centered focus of modern religion has spawned the erroneous notion that committing the worst kinds of sin makes a person more effective in ministering to sinners. The implications of such a philosophy are frightening. The calling of a pastor is not to be relevant as a sinner, but to imitate Christ by striving after holiness (1 Peter 1:14–16).
Conservative Christians have for most of this century focused on the battle for doctrinal purity. And that is good. But we are losing the battle for moral purity. Some of the worst defeats have occurred among our most visible leaders. The church cannot lower the standard to accommodate them. We should hold it higher so that purity can be regained. If we lose here, we have utterly failed, no matter how orthodox our confession of faith. We can’t win if we compromise the biblical standard.
Pray for your church’s leaders. Keep them accountable. Encourage them. Follow their godly example. Understand that they are not perfect. But continue to call them to the highest level of godliness and purity. The church must have leaders who are genuinely above reproach. Anything less is an abomination.
New York Times bestselling author and former NFL quarterback, Tim Tebow, talks about being cut from the NFL, losing your identity, overcoming bitterness, his workout routine, and the joy of working in his foundation and the difference it’s making in his life and the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.
www.careynieuhof.com. CNLP: 523.
Every culture ebbs and flows as it marches toward extinction. The great Roman Empire, the Mayan civilization, Bronze Age Greece—every complex society in history has eventually collapsed. Daniel was in the midst of the great Babylonian Empire (also extinct today). As a godly and faithful man, he experienced the darkness of an oppressive government. When the foundation of society crumbles, where do you go for solid footing and how should you respond?
www.connectwithskip.com.
It takes moral courage to STAND AGAINST what is WRONG and STAND FOR what is RIGHT. It takes moral courage to SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER, to SPEAK THE TRUTH IN LOVE. Living not by lies is refusing to bow to cultural idols or ideologies if they don’t pass the TRUTH TEST. It’s living according to your biblical convictions even if it’s COUNTERCULTURE. It’s RISKING YOUR REPUTATION for what you know is GOOD and RIGHT and TRUE. It’s DISAGREEING FREELY yet LOVING REGARDLESS. It’s a conscience taken captive by the Word of God and Spirit of God.
www.theaterchurch.com. integrity
Character has always been important, but it seems like it’s never been as important as it is now.
There have been far too many stories of church leaders, business leaders, politicians, athletes and other public figures whose private walk has not measured up to their public talk and whose integrity has been far less than expected or needed.
Especially if you’re a Christian leader, there should never be a gap between your private walk and public talk.
The people who know you the best should admire you the most, not be covering up for you or dismayed at what they know.
The problem, of course, is that that’s hard for us sinners. I’m not perfect. You’re not perfect. I’ve made plenty of mistakes.
But the longer I live, the more I’m realizing character is everything.
Competency may get you in the room. But character keeps you in the room. Above all, character endures. It’s what your family and friends remember about you (for better or for worse), and ultimately it gives you the moral authority to lead. Especially today, character matters most.
So how do you guard your character…in a day-in-day-out manner?
Here are 5 character rules every leader might want to follow:
1. ASSUME WHAT YOU DO IN PRIVATE WILL BE MADE PUBLIC
What if you lived in a way that you assumed whatever you did in private will be made public?
I’m not just talking about having an affair or other scandals that make headlines. I mean definitely don’t do that.
I’m talking about less headline-worthy but still-damaging things. Like treating your spouse or kids harshly. Or turning to porn or drinking to cope with your stress. Or anything else you’d rather not anyone know about.
What if you lived in a way that just assumed it’s only a matter of time until everyone knew about it?
That would change how you live, wouldn’t it?
When I first got into ministry I was a little fearful of the level of accountability that comes with the role.
Now, I’m grateful for it. Why?
Because honestly, it’s made me a better person. Not a perfect person by any stretch (ask my team; ask my family). But I’m a better person because of the higher level of accountability that come with pastoring.
Knowing I’m accountable and living as though whatever I’m doing might see public daylight is a good thing.
So ask yourself: if what you’re about to do was made public, would you still do it?
There are so many leader who wish they had asked that question and changed course. So ask it. Daily.
It’s an incredible check on your spirit and, ultimately, on your actions. Plus, the people around you will be so grateful.
2. ALSO, ASSUME THAT WHAT YOU SAY IN PRIVATE WILL BE MADE PUBLIC
This one’s even a little more nuanced.
As a leader, there’s a need to blow off steam…I get that. You face a lot of pressure every day and it’s not always easy to keep it together. Plus, it’s important to give vent to your feelings.
But are you doing it in a healthy way?
Ask yourself: how comfortable would you be if someone had the passcode to your phone and started reading, or was a fly-on-the-wall in your closed-door meetings?
Theologically, this principle shouldn’t be a stretch for any Christian leader. Jesus promisedthat whatever we said in private would be shouted from the rooftops.
That’s true in a way we’ll only really see in eternity, but we may not have to wait that long. We live in an age where every email and text has the potential of being made public.
A few months ago, I had a situation I was nervous and a little upset about that I wanted advice on.
I emailed some friends about it, one of whom happened to have the same first name as the person I was concerned about. I accidentally emailed the person I was concerned about with the email about my concern. You know how that goes: Gmail auto-suggests names, and I picked the wrong “Alex.”
That could have been disastrous if I had been careless with my words or been acidic in my tone.
But I wasn’t. I had been trying to live by the principle that what you say in private will be made public.
The Alex I was concerned about actually let me know I had sent my email to the wrong “Alex,” and there was no harm done. Because (in that moment at least) my email was professional, balanced and more than fair.
Some of you have accidentally discovered that what you thought was a private DM posted instead as a status update. Same thing. (I’ve seen this happen many times on social.)
Just assume that what you say in private will be made public. At work, at home, in life.
You’ll be a better person. You’ll have richer and less conflicted relationships. And you’ll sleep better at night.
Assuming what you say in private will be made public changes what you say in private.
3. DON’T SAY SOMETHING ON SOCIAL YOU WOULDN’T SAY TO SOMEONE’S FACE
Social media makes us all a little bolder, and a little stupider.
There’s a weirdness to social media and any online communication that makes us think pot-shots are worth it, that hurting other people is fair game, and that public ridicule is in season.
Some of the most toxic things ever said to me have been said by people I’ve never met, never will meet, and who don’t really know me. Ditto for you if you’ve written anything. Just read the comments on this blog, my Amazon reviews or Podcast Ratings. We live in a one-star universe where people delight in tearing down people they don’t know and don’t care about.
Don’t get me wrong…the vast majority of interaction I have online is extremely positive. Good people gather online too. And sometimes the criticism is fair. I have a lot to learn.
But what’s missing online is actual human interaction. That look into another person’s eyes. That scan of their face that notes the hurt you just caused them. The realization that they’re a person just like you.
Look, I’m tempted to respond in kind—to get back at a critic. And then I think “no, there’s no point.”
There isn’t.
The reason there’s no point to responding in kind is that first, you won’t win. You won’t win because nobody wins at that game. Nobody. They don’t. You don’t. The mission doesn’t. You end up behaving like a six-year-old who can only think about themselves.
Sometimes you do need to respond to someone. And when you do, don’t let your emotions get control of your fingers. Type prayerfully.
When you’re responding, imagine that you’re talking to the person face to face. And that you care about them. And that they’re made in the image of God. You might even try to love them.
That changes a lot, doesn’t it?
Just know this, leaders: you can disagree with someone without being disagreeable.
4. ASK YOURSELF, ‘5 YEARS FROM NOW, WHAT WILL I WISH I HAD DONE?”
I know there’s a lot of verb tenses in that question, but the question has helped me so much over the years.
Leadership is emotionally confusing. You get kicked a lot. You end up being misunderstood, and sometimes you are at a loss on how to respond to a difficult situation.
When you’re in that place, ask yourself: 5 years from now, what will I wish I had done?
I don’t know why, but that question is so clarifying to me. It makes me swallow hurtful words. It makes me search for the high road. And sometimes it makes me push an issue I am too afraid to push because five years from now I’ll know I wish I had done it.
When you don’t know what to do, ask yourself…5 years from now, what will I wish I had done?
5. HUMBLE YOUR TALK. ACCELERATE YOUR WALK.
All of us in leadership can talk today at an unprecedented level.
Thanks to social media, blogs, podcasts and so many of the other channels at our disposal, talking about what we’re doing has never been easier.
Which surfaces the always-present tension of wanting to make things seem better than they are.
Big mistake.
In an age where most people seem to be accelerating their talk more than they’re accelerating their walk, one of the best things you can do to increase your integrity is to humble your talk and accelerate your walk.
If you simply make your talk match your walk, the gap between who you are and who you want to be becomes smaller almost instantly.
Increase your walk. Humble your talk.
OF ALL THE WORK YOU DO…WORKING ON YOURSELF PAYS BACK MOST
If you grew up in a conservative evangelical church like I did, it is possible there is a story from the Bible that was repeatedly used to teach you about sex – the story of David and Bathsheba in 2nd Samuel chapters 11 and 12. While our teachers’ intentions were good, the way the story was taught has planted seeds in our minds that have grown into weeds we must now deal with if we are to side with Jesus in the time of #MeToo and #TimesUp. In this short essay, I hope to give you a different understanding of David and Bathsheba, one that doesn’t just focus on sex, but also on power.
The Way I Learned the Story
David has outlasted his predecessor and been crowned king. He has defeated his enemies, he has returned the ark to Jerusalem, and he has constructed his place. He is at the peak of his power and his place in the history books as Israel’s greatest king was secure.
Then, on a Spring night, David took a stroll on the roof of his palace. While walking, he saw a beautiful woman bathing on a neighboring rooftop. He asked his servants to find out who the woman was. They told him it was Bathsheba, the wife of one of David’s soldiers. David sent a servant to get her, he had sex with her, and then he sent her home.
A little while later, Bathsheba sent the king a note that read, “I am pregnant.”
David’s first thought was to cover up that the baby was his. He brought Bathsheba’s husband home from war thinking the man would have sex with his wife while he was on leave, but out of loyalty to his troops who were still on the battlefield, Bathsheba’s husband wouldn’t sleep with her.
When David’s original plan failed, the king told his generals to arrange it so Bathsheba’s husband would die on the battlefield. After the husband was killed, David gave Bathsheba time to mourn before he married her.
This might have been the end of the story, one more political scandal cleaned before it damaged the throne if it had not been for God. In the story, God sent Nathan the prophet to speak to David. Nathan told David a story about two men, a rich man, and a poor man. The rich man had lots of sheep. The poor man had one sheep for which he cared a great deal. One night the rich man needed to feed a traveler. Not wanting to waste his own sheep, the rich man took the poor man’s sheep.
At the end of Nathan’s story, David was angry at the rich man and wanted justice for the poor man. With dramatic flair, Nathan explained to David that David was the rich man and Bathsheba’s husband was the poor man. Nathan then told David that his power would begin to fade because of the terrible thing he has done.
What I Learned in Church about Sex
Growing up in an Evangelical Southern Baptist church, I heard this story at least once a year. My Sunday school teachers and youth leaders pulled it out whenever it was time to talk about sex. It was used as a warning for boys on the dangers of sexual temptation. The central message was, “Have sex before marriage and bad things will happen, like a girl getting pregnant.”
I was told that David’s first mistake was being on the roof at midnight. If David had been in bed like he was supposed to be, this would have never happened.
David’s second mistake was looking for too long. My teachers explained that, Yes, there are beautiful women in the world, but don’t look at them. If you do, sexual temptation might overtake you.” Through this analysis of the story, my teachers gave the power to Bathsheba’s beauty. If lingered on, it would be more than any man could bear.
Above all else, it was important for young men to know that they should never investigate sexual temptation. That was David’s third mistake. He was tempted by Bathsheba’s powerful beauty and he then he dwelled on it. He did the Old Testament equivalent of Googling her. My teachers were clear, “Don’t Google sexual temptation.”
According to this line of teaching, David’s great failure was having sex with Bathsheba. All the other bad things that happened (trying to trick the husband, then killing him, then being lectured by Nathan) were born from the act of sex. If David just hadn’t of given in to his desires, everything would have been alright. It was implied (and sometimes openly stated) that if a man lingers in lustful thoughts, those thoughts will when and the man will fall into sin. The only way to escape such temptation was to run from it.
These teachings stuck with me for a long time. When I was in college, I remember walking through the mall with friends who had come from similar upbringings. As we walked by the Victoria Secret store, we’d talk loudly about how much we liked our shoes. The absurd exercise was a way to acknowledge to everyone around us that we were not going to be like David. We weren’t going to look at Bathsheba. We were going to look at our shoes because the beautiful women advertised in the windows of the store would not tempt us. We were aware that just one lingering glance at a poster could take us down a road that would end in an unwanted baby.
When I started in the ministry as a young adult, I was warned about meeting one-on-one with young women. If a meeting with a woman was necessary, it should not be done in public because people might think the meeting was romantic in nature and that would be bad. It should also not be done in private because then I wouldn’t have accountability for my behavior. I also should not ride to meetings in the same car with a woman, because that could lead to sexual temptation. Honestly, the only way meeting one-on-one with a woman would work is if I did it in my office, with the door open, and another guy was sitting outside just in case. Therefore, in the end, it was best just not to have one-on-one meetings with women unless another guy was around.
Consequences of that Teaching
Now in my forties with young boys of my own, I realize this line of teaching, although well intentioned, planted some bad seeds in my mind.
§ It taught me that David, and all men, were the victims in the story. David was being challenged by powerful temptation, the beauty of a woman, and he understandably failed to resist it. The teaching never went so far as to excuse him from responsibility, but it implied that giving in was the foregone conclusion if he remained exposed to the power of a beautiful woman.
§ It also taught me that Bathsheba and beautiful women like her were tools of temptation. Therefore, they were on the side of temptation. While they weren’t the problem, they weren’t helping. Their beauty was powerful and should be avoided unless appropriate romantic involvement was intended.
§ Finally, it taught me that the perspective that matters was David’s. This story was about him, and it was a tragedy. Poor David had fallen into temptation and lost things because of it. Just think of what an amazing king he might have continued to be if this hadn’t happened to him.
As women have begun to speak out about how they were assaulted, I feel the presence of these teachings in our cultural conversation.
When an allegation arises, we whisper about the women because we can’t help but ask Bathsheba, “Should you really have been bathing on the roof? Don’t you know how dangerous your beauty is for men?” We want to know the man’s side of the story, wondering where his moment of failure came; and after the second or third story is shared, we start asking if this whole thing has gone too far. We question allegations, asking for investigations into them, and then questioning the validity of the investigations when they do happen. We even mourn the loss of the assaulters when they are held accountable, saying things like, “Isn’t it sad that David never reached his full potential as the king because this happened to him.”
The Misuse of Power
Teachings like this version of David and Bathsheba have not served us well. I would, therefore, like to take a different look at the story. One that doesn’t place sex at the center, but focuses on the real issue – the issue we tend to ignore in conversations about sexual assault – power.
Let’s start with Bathsheba since she is the true victim of the story.
Notice that she is never the one taking action.
§ David looks at her.
§ David summons her.
§ David “lays” with her.
§ David tries to trick her husband.
§ David murders her husband.
§ David then marries her.
In contrast to David, she has no power in the narrative. At every turn, she is acted upon. This is not something she chose. This was forced upon her.
Also notice that, excluding a three-word note she writes, Bathsheba is silent in the story. In not giving her a voice, the storyteller is communicating to us that she could not speak. It is a stretch to say that she likely felt denying the king was impossible. He clearly had the power to kill her husband and end her life. She had no choice. Which is why this is not a story about an extra-marital affair. It is a story about sexual assault.
David had all the power. Bathsheba had no power. David abused his power to take what he wanted from Bathsheba.
Yet it is her life that is over. Because David stole her, she loses her home and her husband, and she is forced into a harem she didn’t ask to be a part of. Bathsheba’s life as she knows it ends because David took her.
To hammer this point home, let’s consider Nathan. The prophet speaks for God in the story. God and Nathan do not seem to think the problem is sex. They don’t lecture David about being in the wrong place or letting his eye linger on Bathsheba for too long. When Nathan arrives on the scene to speak to David, he tells a story about power. There was a rich man and a poor man. The rich man took the poor man’s things and this was the great injustice.
Notice also that Nathan does not lecture Bathsheba. He does not hold her accountable for tempting David. He does not criticize her for bathing on the roof. He does not tell her she should have covered up or been more careful. He does not have a story for her about sheep and power. In this story, Nathan sees Bathsheba as the innocent victim that she is. She is the poor man who did nothing wrong.
In Sunday School, we never got to the end of the story, and the end of the story is important.
Before leaving David, Nathan explains that because of David’s sin – his abuse of power over Bathsheba – the baby Bathsheba has given birth to will die.
And then the child gets sick.
And David refuses to eat, lying on the ground in mourning all day and night.
And after seven days, the child dies.
The conclusion of the story is that David is made to feel as powerless as Bathsheba was. Through his abuse of power, he is given a son, an heir, a symbol that his family name will go on; but then he is left to lay on the floor helpless and mourning as he watches that future die, just as Bathsheba had to watch as David destroyed her life.
It is clear to me now, as a grown man with sons, that while this story has sex in it, it is not about sex. It is about power. David had all of it, he used it to sexually assault Bathsheba, and the future she was building was destroyed because of it.
Where Should Christians Stand?
The biggest lesson for me (and the lesson I’m trying to teach my boys is) from the story of David and Bathsheba is about how Christ followers should respond when the story is repeated.
When the course of a person’s life is changed because someone with power abuses it to take what they want, where should the people of God be?
Nathan has two roles in this story.
First, he fearlessly holds power accountable.
David is king. He has armies of warriors at his disposal. He has proven himself to be a mighty warrior in battle. He has all the money, all the fame, all the resources of the kingdom.
Nathan only has his reputation and his integrity. He is the man who speaks for God.
Yet Nathan does not hesitate to look David in the eye and say, “You were wrong. You were wrong and you are going to pay for it.”
If we are going to call ourselves followers of God, we must not hesitate to speak truth to those in power. When they abuse their power (and they will because they always do), we must stand and say, “No. This behavior is unacceptable and it will be made right.”
Second, Nathan stands with the powerless.
After this story, Nathan disappears from the narrative. He doesn’t come back until David is an old man, on his deathbed. And when Nathan appears again, in the first chapter of 1st Kings, we see him standing next to Bathsheba. He encourages her to go to David and advocate for her second son, the son who was born after her life had been reset, Solomon. It is Nathan that orchestrates Bathsheba’s son Solomon becoming king. In the same way, when we see injustice happen, if we want to follow God we must also fight for the empowerment of the victims.
I tell my sons at every opportunity, “If you want to know where God is, find the people with the least amount of power, and go fight for them. You’ll find God there.”
The lesson the story of David and Bathsheba should teach us is not about sex. It’s about power. And if the church of America wants to call itself the people of God, if it wants to play the role of Nathan in the story, then it must fearlessly speak truth to power and stand alongside the victims, because that is where we will find God.
Dear Roger,
Is it a sin for a Christian to purchase a lottery ticket?
Sincerely, T,
Dear T,
Once upon a time I played the lottery—just once, just one ticket. Our family was playing Yahtzee which is a lot like poker, only you play with dice instead of with cards. The goal is to roll more good poker hands than anyone else. Rolling five dice with the same number at the same time is called a “Yahtzee” and is worth fifty points.
The odds of rolling five dice with the same number at the same time are 3,125 to 1. In the first game I rolled a Yahtzee. We all cheered with delight.
In the second game I rolled another Yahtzee! 3,125 to 1 again!
We couldn’t believe it.
In the third game I rolled another Yahtzee. No one said a word. We were all dumbfounded. I grabbed my dad and said, “This is a sign from God. We have just enough time to get to the “7-11” and buy a lottery ticket before the lottery ends at 10:00 p.m.” As I recall, it was one of those power ball lotteries worth at least half a billion dollars!
I bought one ticket. One was all I needed. Dad and I raced home to watch the drawing on TV. By the second number I was out of the game.
My mother asked my dad if he’d bought any tickets and he pulled twenty losing tickets out of his pocket. She yelled at him for the next fifteen minutes for wasting twenty of their hard-earned dollars.
It is no wonder, T, that you’ve asked this question because gambling and buying lottery tickets are never expressly approved or condemned in the Scriptures.
We must be careful in deciding what to do with issues that aren’t expressly forbidden or approved in the Bible. Considering the issue of gambling and lottery tickets we must not turn our personal convictions into what we consider to be Biblical truths for ourselves and for everyone else (Romans 14:1-23; 1 Corinthians 8:1-12; 10:13-11:1).
Whether or not a buying a lottery ticket is a sin depends on our personal convictions. Personal convictions are the expressions of our inner conscience. If we think it’s a sin to buy a ticket and proceed to buy one, then we’ve committed a sin because we’ve violated our consciences. Violating our consciences is expressly forbidden in the Bible because a violated conscience impairs our ability to hear God speak. (Romans 10:23: “Whatever is not of faith is sin.”)
This is why the same behavior can be a sin for one person and not a sin for another. If you can buy a lottery ticket without breaking your conscience then buy the lottery ticket. You have not sinned. Understanding the relationship between sin and the conscience is the key to handling the “gray areas” of the Bible which are not expressly forbidden or approved—or not even mentioned.
By the way, always beware of Christians who try to make their personal convictions into biblical truth. They harm Christians.
My personal conviction is that I do not buy lottery tickets. I’ve thought this through and have a number of reasons for refusing to buy one. Buying a lottery ticket may be all right for you; but it is not right for me.
I don’t waste money on the lottery because of the Biblical teachings about stewardship and management (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Not a single dollar that comes into our hands is ours. It all belongs to God. We are to manage it well.
I perceive that the Lord Jesus is not particularly excited to watch us throw money away. We have such slim odds of winning that we might as well drive by the “7-11” and throw money out the car window.
Here are the odds of winning some recent lotteries:
The Pennsylvania Match 6: 1 in 4,661,272.3
The New Jersey Pick 6: 1 in 13,983,816
The Ohio Mega Millions: 1 in 175,711,536
You can purchase a ticket if you want to. After all, Paul wrote: “Everything is permissible—but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible—but not everything is constructive” (1 Corinthians 10:23).
God says that there are better things to do with our money than to throw it away. Excess money should be saved for future needs or given to the Lord’s work, not gambled away (1 Corinthians 4:2).
Several other Biblical principles come into play regarding my conviction not to play the lottery.
The Bible clearly states that the lottery is a “get rich” scheme and “get rich” schemes are to be avoided at all costs. Solomon wrote from experience: “A faithful man will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished” (Proverb 28:20). (See also Proverb 13:11; 23:5; and Ecclesiastes 5:10.). The principle is that if we spend the same amount of time planning and investing as we do trying to get rich quick we will come out way ahead in the future.
Get rich schemes often tempt us away from trusting God as the real source of our financial security. They can lead us to trust more in our money than in our God. They can mess with our minds regarding the real dangers of materialism (Matthew 6:24; 1 Timothy 6:10; and Hebrews 15:5).
People often ask, “Isn’t buying stocks like playing a long-term lottery?” No, investing in the stock market is not gambling. The difference is that in the stock market we actually own a portion of the companies that we invest in. We are buying something of value in the stock market.
Others ask, “Is it OK to play poker?”
Playing poker with friends is seldom a sin. Not enough money changes hands. We receive real value when we play poker with friends—the value of a good time and enhanced friendship. In one sense this can be the same as going to a movie with our friends. We buy a ticket and receive value in the form of enjoying the movie and in experiencing it together. We go to a good restaurant and pay money for an expensive meal. We receive value in the form of good food and a pleasant evening with our friends. By the way, I learned to play poker with our church staff gambling for matchsticks. We had a rollicking good time! I finally looked at my watch and it was 3:00 in the morning. Where did the evening go!
The danger here—whether it is the lottery, or the poker, or the casino is when someone gambles to the extent that they or their families can’t afford food, bills can’t be paid, children can’t be clothed, addictions begin, drinking to excess occurs, and on and on goes the list.
The danger here is if we begin to love money.
When we buy a ticket we become participants in the wicked and immoral ways that our governmental leaders use a lottery to steal from the poor people.
The state government says, “We need more money for education (or whatever) in our state. How can we pay for it (get the money)?” Instead of admitting that we can’t afford it, or that we have to make cuts in other programs because of new priorities, the government officials decide: “Let’s have a lottery that the poor and stupid can play. The rub is that people who have money or who are wise don’t buy lottery tickets. The percentage of tickets bought by the people who can least afford it is out the roof.
The Bible has nothing good to say about entities or people who rob the poor.
He who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth and he who gives gifts to the rich—both come to poverty (Proverb 22:16).
Do not exploit the poor because they are poor and do not crush the needy in court, for the LORD will take up their case and will plunder those who plunder them (Proverb 22:22-23).
People can go to Las Vegas and have fun. We have. The glitter is incredible. Excitement is all around. Good things for families to participate in abound. But there is more to Las Vegas than the “Strip”. The real city is two blocks away on the other side of the Strip. Here we find residential areas with real life people and schools and stores just like any other city.
The tragedy of Las Vegas is not the multitude of people who live and act in moderation while spending time in “Sin City—among other things. The tragedy is the poor people who will not win. After all there is a reason that the House always wins. All the games are rigged.
The sign at the First Baptist church loudly announces, “We have no money to give out.” I asked the pastor about it. He said, “We have three or four people every day come knocking at our door who’ve lost all their money and need help with meals, a place to stay, or a bus ticket home. We’ve helped all we can. We have nothing left. We must turn them away.
I am sorry for the church; but the church is not the problem. The gambling industry ensconced in Las Vegas is the problem. Their entire system from dark rooms with no clocks so people lose track of time to free food in buffet lines so people can eat and hurry back to gambling all entice the wasting of more and more money. The casino is designed to oppress the poor and to separate the foolish from their money.
Can you have fun in Las Vegas without sinning? Sure, if your conscience is clear and you have balanced limits, keeping in mind the dangers and pitfalls, you can play the slots and receive the value of a fun experience. But, remember Paul’s advice: “All things are permissible, but not all things are profitable.”
Paul gave an intriguing picture of what happens when the line is crossed and we trust more in our money than in the God we worship. Paul addressed this in 1 Timothy 6:6-10).
(6) But godliness with contentment is great gain. (7) For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. (8) But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. (9) Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. (10) For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Here is the Biblical formula for real wealth .A good paraphrase of verse six is, “Being pleasing toward God coupled with contentment equals great wealth.”
Verses nine and ten are rather strong, aren’t they? This verse is talking about “those who would be rich…” In other words, “those who set a goal in life of accumulating wealth fall into the trap that leads to ruin and destruction.”
The sin of materialism is the desire to get rich. It is not the possession in and of itself. It is not making a profit in business… having property… but it is the desire to be rich… it is the longing for material things.
Notice what Paul says happens to the person who desires to be rich! He falls into temptation and a trap. It is the trap of materialism. Then he falls into many foolish and harmful desires which – watch it – plunge him into ruin and destruction.
Now, it doesn’t matter whether wealth is sticking to your fingers or slipping through. It doesn’t matter what your level of affluence is… what the size of your bank account is… The question is, What is your attitude toward it?
“Pierced themselves” is an interesting phrase. It literally means to put on a spit. You know what a spit is. You put a raw piece of meat on a spit and then turn it over again and again over an open fire.
I want you to get the picture portrayed here. Instead of putting a piece of chicken or beef on a spit, suppose you put a live human being on the spit and turn him over and over again and roast him on an open fire–a fire ignited by the very material things he has chased after! This is a picture of torture. It is a metaphorical picture of a person torturing his own soul.
Believers who are guilty of being eager for money will ultimately end up being tortured in their own souls.
I want to suggest to you a paraphrase of verses 9-10 which is intended to bring out the richness of the Greek text in order to sum up the essential message of these verses. I don’t claim that this is perfect; but I believe that it will help to make the central message clear:
“They that accept becoming rich as a goal in life fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and hurtful cravings which ruin lives and lead men to hell.
For the love of money is the source from which all kinds of wvil can originate.
Some Christians have grasped after wealth and have gone into a reverse spiritual growth process, and have tortured their souls with their sorrows.”
Do you think that those are strong words? I haven’t been able to find any stronger words in the Bible addressed to Christians than these right here.
I think that I know why. Because the sin of materialism is essentially the sin of idolatry. It is the worship of a false god.
Fortunately, Paul goes on to tell us how to find victory and contentment in our struggle with materialism.
He says, “run away from materialism and run toward godliness and holiness.
Well, T, I suppose you will need to answer your own question. The Bible is silent on the subject. Discern what your conscience is saying and live accordingly.
I really appreciate your question. It is so timely and relevant in a society that has lost its way in using money wisely.
Love, Roger
The relationship of homosexuality to Christianity is without doubt one of the main subjects of cultural conversation today. If you are a Christian in New York City, it is nearly impossible to talk about your faith without this subject being raised. Although it is not central to the gospel message at the heart of Christianity, right now the cultural moment requires that we be prepared to address this issue whenever we are publicly identified as Christians.
A sign of this cultural moment is the wave of new books—from very divergent points of view—that have come out recently treating this topic. So over the next few months I will be reviewing several of these books. It’s my way as a pastor to point people to those volumes that both fit in with biblical teaching and are pastorally wise and sensitive, as well as those books that, for all their good intentions, are mistaken and unhelpful.
The first two books I’ll review are both written by authors who hold two things in common. In Sam Allberry’s Is God Anti-Gay? Questions Christians Ask and Wesley Hill’s Washed and Waiting: Reflections on Christian Faithfulness and Homosexuality, both authors relate that they are sexually attracted to the same gender, but at the same time, in the words of Hill, they testify:
“to the truth of the position the Christian church has held with almost total unanimity throughout the centuries—namely, that homosexuality was not God’s original creative intention for humanity…and therefore that homosexual practice goes against God’s express will for all human beings, especially those who trust in Christ.”
It says something about the clarity of the Bible’s teaching that neither of them can find any loopholes in the traditional Christian position, but affirm it completely. Hill, who is a New Testament scholar, sums up the biblical material nicely (and briefly) in his first chapter.
Allberry’s book does so as well and, though it is a shorter book overall, he gives the biblical teaching more sustained attention. There are two basic parts to it. First, every place the Bible directly addresses sexual relations between people of the same gender, it is always unambiguously forbidden. This is not only true in the Old Testament (Leviticus 18:22) but also in the New Testament (1 Corinthians 6:9,10; 1 Timothy 1:8-11; Romans 1:18-32).
Allberry says the more he looks at the Bible the more he is convinced that what it says about homosexuality “makes most sense in light of what it says in general about sex and marriage.” I would add that the Bible’s prohibitions are not motivated by animosity toward people with same sex attraction. Rather, they are there because homosexual practice doesn’t fit with God’s wonderful purposeful design for sexuality in our lives. Even the design of male and female bodies testifies to this design.
This purposeful design is made clear in at least three ways. First, sex was given to men and women to enable whole life covenant bonding. God made sex to be a commitment-deepener—a way to say to someone else “I belong completely to you.” Therefore it is only for use inside marriage, where it is designed to operate as a way to constantly renew, remake and re-energize your covenant with love and joy so it does not grow old or cold.
Second, the purpose of sex and marriage is the reunion of the complementary but separate genders. Men and women each have distinct glories and we need one another. Marriage is the primary (though not only) place where those glories are blended and we are profoundly enriched.
The third purpose of sex is the participation in life creation. Because of the brokenness of creation, not every couple can have children, but only heterosexual marriage holds the possibility of creating life. It also provides children with the close, life-long exposure to both male and female humanity that they need to be fully integrated.
While homosexuality is not mentioned all that often, the biblical vision for the union of the different genders in marriage is one of its main themes. It is everywhere. The book of Genesis (1-3) along with Jesus’ teaching on marriage and divorce (e.g. Matthew 19:3-9) presents marriage between a man and a woman as the only divinely designed place for sexual relations. And throughout the Bible heterosexual marriage is the human construct most often used to reveal truths about God’s relationship to his people. (As in Ephesians 5:23-32.) The Bible begins with a wedding between a man and a woman (Genesis 2:22-25) and ends with one (Revelation 19:9; 21:1-9).
I said Hill and Allberry’s books have two things in common. The first is that they accept that this biblical evidence is overwhelming that homosexual practice is not God’s will. The second is that they, as men attracted to other males, believe that the biblical view of homosexuality makes great sense and is even liberating when viewed from within joyful belief of the gospel story. Hill uses this example. He observes how a parent’s warning (“be home before 11:00 p.m.”) can seem confining and senseless if the child fails to see the bigger picture of reality within which the rule makes perfect sense. It is only much later, perhaps when they are parents themselves, that they are able to see that a prohibition that looked senseless was actually quite reasonable.
Because our culture teaches us that the meaning of life is found primarily in sexual fulfillment and satisfaction, within that view of life the biblical prohibitions on homosexuality may seem harsh and cruel. Indeed, God’s will in Scripture often seems to frustrate many of our deepest longings (not just sexual ones). But if we are faithful to his Word, we find that each divine demand is really a summons into a transformative process in which we discover deeper levels of peace, joy, and fulfillment in God and in Christian love than we could otherwise have known. As Allberry says, despite the difficulty of living according to the Bible in the short run, as time goes on we get a “sense of living along the grain of who we really are.”
I have only pointed out the ways in which the two authors agree because I think they are the most important messages from the books. I should note that there is disagreement in one area. Wes Hill will call himself a “gay Christian” while Sam Allberry would refrain from that and say only that he’s a Christian with same-sex attraction. Despite the fact that both men interpret the Bible the same way and call Christians to the same path, they differ here and each makes a credible case why they speak about themselves as they do. Allberry thinks that calling oneself “gay” hints that homosexual desires are one’s essential identity, rather than who you are in Christ. Hill, I think, doesn’t want to give the impression to either people inside or outside the church that the feelings are superficial or will just go away on their own. Both make good points, though ultimately I think Allberry’s approach is probably better.
But even with this disagreement, I’m glad to see the beginning of something crucial here. These two writers are beginning to describe a particular pathway of Christian discipleship. A literature is going to get started. Others who share their experience and stance are beginning to write about it, too. But this ‘movement’ is still very embryonic. Ironically, we live in a time in which it takes more courage for authors to publicly take this position than it is now to embrace homosexual practice as compatible with Christianity.
These are books written by men who are not experiencing their lives as impoverished or sub-human. Their commitment to chastity within the lives God has given them is one of finding fulfillment and identity in their relationship to Christ.
As you can tell, I’m quite glad to recommend both these books.
This article was originally posted at Redeemer.com. Used by permission.
Is it possible to have a thriving relationship with God even in the middle of a culture gone crazy? Absolutely! And my confidence is bolstered by the testimony of an ancient biblical prophet named Daniel. He lived most of his life in Babylon as a servant of tyrants and still managed to hear from God, speak for God, and live his life in a way that was pleasing to God. And I think he has much to teach believers today.
Daniel was probably about fourteen years old when he was taken captive along with many other survivors of Nebuchadnezzar’s sack of the city of Jerusalem. He was transported, along with some dear friends, to the capital city of the world’s greatest empire at the time – Babylon.
Babylon’s biblical history dates back to the earliest chapters of the first book of the Bible, where we find a hunter named Nimrod who started a cult and founded Babel (the more ancient name for Babylon). He led his followers to worship the stars and Babylon became the birthplace of astrology, the occult, and every kind of debauchery and evil. Babylon is also used in Scripture in the Revelation of St. John to refer to the secular system that opposes God’s agenda throughout all time with commercial, political, and religious ramifications.
In other words Babylon, while a beautiful and magnificent ancient city to behold, was also a very pagan and violent place. It was quite a change for Daniel who had grown up in the royal family in the shadow of the holy temple and the palace compound of Israel.
We might conclude that Babylon would have been a tough place for a Christian to live. If you, like me, live in the context of western Christianity, this is probably because we have a pretty cushy view of religious life. We’ve had it good. Christendom’s influence has been far reaching and we’re still reaping some of the nice benefits of the remains of the Holy Roman Empire. But Christendom is falling, and we were never commissioned to erect or maintain it to begin with.
The United States and Ireland both recently legalized same-sex marriage a decade after Canada did so, and many other western nations will be following suit. This is a tough issue to navigate for Christians who have historically believed that marriage is a sacred institution reserved for a lifelong bond of one man and one woman.
Abortion happens, and that would likely be most shocking to ancient Christians. To think that we will come up with a dozen half-baked excuses to use forceps and suction to kill and remove the life of a unique, pre-born individual human being, created in the image of God, from the womb of its mother and first defender is a little mind-boggling.
There are plenty of other hot button issues I could mention that have created tremendous conflict between people of the Christian faith and the laws and customs of our land. Suffice it to say that our modern Babylon is changing rapidly around us, and it’s creating a clash between timeless truth and modern thinking.
When other Christians want me to be madder about the way things are or get angry that our Judeo-Christian values are being replaced, I hesitate, reminding myself that we live in Babylon. And we are prophets, we are servants, and we are missionaries to a culture that has never actually been “Christian” to begin with.
As I’ve taught through the Book of Daniel at Grace Hills, I’ve been a little blown away by some of the parallels between his world and ours. For example…
- If you’re young, take your spiritual formation seriously now. Daniel was 14 when he had to make really tough choices about some boundaries that honored God.
- If you’re a parent, it’s important to prepare your kids for heaven, yes. But it’s even more important to prepare them for life in Babylon.
- We don’t have to have a “Christian” nation, government, or culture to thrive spiritually. In fact, there really is no such thing on earth.
- We belong to a kingdom that is not of this world. We hold dual citizenship. So stop reacting to changes in your earthly kingdom with panic. King Jesus still reigns.
- People are never the enemy, be they political leaders, philosophers, or professors. We don’t wrestle against flesh and blood but against spiritual, invisible forces at work.
- There is a time to refuse to bow, when God’s truth directs us in conflict with what the culture around us says. And when we refuse to bow, we have to be prepared to get burned.
- All of us are builders, and that’s not bad, unless we’re more interested in building our personal empires than in extending God’s rule and reign. Seek his kingdom first.
- When the handwriting is on the wall and we know where our culture is headed, it’s time to be prophetic in people’s lives, sharing grace and truth with the loving accent of Jesus.
- Lions’ dens are uncomfortable, but our fate there rests in God’s hands, and we’re always better off in his hands than in anyone else’s.
- No matter how long we’ve been following Jesus, our proper posture before God is humility and repentance. We’re never better than the Babylonians. We’re just better off by grace.
- There is a spiritual conflict happening all the time, all around us in the unseen, heavenly realm. Angels fight for us against demons who wish to destroy us, and prayer makes a difference.
- The grand finale of history and the final judgment of God is set in stone. It’s coming. All will face eternity in a state of life or a state of death. Jesus makes the difference.
And there is more. I don’t know about you, but in the middle of my current cultural surroundings, I need this kind of wisdom. I need some basic, common sense, practical answers about what to do and what not to do as I relate to the world around me. From Daniel, I learn my role in this world…
- DO live for Jesus regardless of the environment.
- DON’T compromise your faith-fed values.
- DO serve people, Christian and non-Christian.
- DON’T bow to the false gods and systems of the world around you.
- DO raise kids to know and love Jesus and recognize him as their King.
- DON’T force, coerce, or pressure others to believe or live the same way.
- DO have friends and find a community of faith.
- DON’T ignore the needs of people and become isolated from others.
- DO pray, in all circumstances, about everything.
- DON’T stay angry or react in ways that uphold truth but fail to show grace.
I’m halfway through my preaching series in this awesome book. This Sunday, we’re “in the lions’ den.” Join me in praying for more people lost and blinded in our modern Babylon to find Jesus, to see God’s truth, and to experience the grace of God. We’ll never make Babylon be Christian, but we can help people become Christians, even in Babylon.
At the end of this article I will give four very practical steps that I take as I enter the arena of each day where I must make moral choices. But more important than my commending to you these steps is my explaining the ground on which they are taken. If I don’t give you the roots and stem, the flower will quickly wither in your hand. So the bulk of what I have to say will be an effort to lay bare the roots from which the flower of my moral choices spring up.
The method I will follow will be to ask four questions, each one being a more precisely defined form of the one before. After answering the fourth question, I will give the practical steps that I follow in making moral choices.
Question One
“How do I make moral choice?”
The first step in answering this question must be to define the terms “choice” and “moral”.
Choice: I will state my definition of “choice” in three ways.
- A choice is that act by which I prefer one thing above another.
- That is, it is the act by which I esteem one thing preferable or more desirable than another.
- Or finally, my choice is my being more pleased by one thing than another.
Moral: I call an act of preferring “moral” when it can properly be judged to be right or wrong. In general my preferences for chocolate over vanilla or stripes over checks is not a moral choice. But my preference to be honest rather than to deceive is a moral choice because it can be properly judged right or wrong.
Question Two
On the basis of these definitions question one now becomes: “How do I come to prefer one thing above another in such a way that the preference may be properly judged to be right?”
In order to answer this question the term “right” must be defined. That is, we must ask, “What constitutes the rightness of a moral choice?”
At this point I have to bring in the Christian framework of my thought and life. I am going to assume here (what I think could be reasonably defended if we had time) that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus exists and that he has revealed himself and his will in the Christian Scriptures. Within this framework I would like to mention first an inadequate and then what I think is an adequate answer to the question, “What constitutes the rightness of a moral choice?”
- An Inadequate Answer – The typical answer that one chooses rightly when one chooses the will of God is ambiguous and thus inadequate. If the will of God is conceived of as outward acts like not killing, not stealing, and truth-telling apart from the motive out of which the acts are done, then doing the will of God may be of no moral value at all. God may will things which when men perform them are sin.For example, God willed that the Assyrians destroy the Northern Kingdom of Israel (Isaiah 7:17-19), but they sinned in doing this according to Isaiah (Isaiah 10:12) because they did it arrogantly. Therefore, it is inadequate to say that the rightness of a moral choice consists in preferring to do the act that God wants done. A thing done out of no good motive is of no moral good.
- An Adequate Answer (as far as I can see) – A choice or preference is right when it is motivated by a true perception of and delight in the moral beauty of the act chosen. To put it another way, in order to choose rightly we must prefer an act not merely because God wills it but also because we have a deep agreement with God that the act is morally beautiful and praiseworthy.For example, a choice not to lie which in one sense is the will of God, has no moral value unless it is made for a true perception of and delight in the moral beauty of truth-telling.
Or again, Romans 12:13 admonishes us to contribute to the needs of the saints. But 2 Corinthians 9:7 tells us not to do this “under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” That is, the mere act of giving to the poor may not be a morally good act. It is good when the giver sees and delights in the moral beauty of generosity. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:3 “If I give all my possessions to feed the poor . . . and have not love it profits me nothing.”
(Since love “seeks not its own” but “rejoices in the truth”, it will move us to be generous not out of self-interest but out of a delight in the truth that generosity to the needy is morally beautiful.)
Question 3
Having defined the rightness of a moral choice in this way our question now becomes, “How do I come to truly perceive and delight in the morally beautiful?”
Here again several definitions are in order. What is “moral beauty”? I suggest a three-fold definition:
- The moral beauty of a human act is the harmony between that act and the totality of reality;
- an act is morally beautiful if it is fitting or suitable in the light of truth;
- an act is morally beautiful if it is appropriate in view of our true human situation.
In this definition of moral beauty I used the terms “reality”, “truth”, and “human situation”. These must be defined and here is where my understanding of the Christian Scriptures becomes crucial. I start with the basic insight that everything in all the universe from the smallest bug in the grass to the greatest constellation belongs to God, because he made it (Psalm 50:10-12). It follows that every single thing we have is a gift from God, we have not merited the daily rising of the sun or the once for all resurrection of Jesus (1 Corinthians 4:7; James 1:17). God is moved to bless men not because of any distinctive in them but because of the overflowing fullness of his glory. To display this glory to all his creatures in heaven and on earth is his goal in all that he does. He does this fundamentally (though not only) by lavishing on us the riches of his kindness in our utter unworthiness.
Since God is the source and sustainer of all that is (Acts 17:28), his goals in creation and redemption as well as his ways of achieving those goals are the reality, the truth, and the human situation with which all human behavior must accord if it is to be morally beautiful. The biblical concept of walking according to the Spirit means, similarly, bringing ones thoughts and deeds into harmony with the mind and the ways of God.
To be more specific, the fundamental truth about the human condition which could influence our behavior is that we are beneficiaries of great mercy from God. No matter how great or small our pleasures are, we do not deserve them. They come from the mercy of God as a gift not a wage. Therefore the only morally beautiful behavior is the behavior which befits a beneficiary of mercy. If a moral choice does not harmonize with the fundamental fact that every second of every benefit we enjoy is an undeserved gift, then the choice is evil.
Question Four
Having defined “moral beauty” in this way, our question now becomes: “How do I come to truly perceive and delight in those actions which befit a beneficiary of mercy?”
I will try to answer this question by describing two conditions which you must meet if you are to see and delight in actions which befit a beneficiary of mercy.
The First Condition
You must believe in your heart that you are a beneficiary of mercy and you must be glad about it. For if you resent being a beneficiary of pure mercy and would rather think of yourself as deserving and earning what you have, then you will have no desire to bring your actions into harmony with the reality of mercy. Instead your behavior will tend to harmonize with your conception of your own merit.
Knowing that you are a beneficiary of God’s mercy and gladly pinning your hopes on this mercy is what the New Testament means by faith. And the process of becoming that kind of person is called a new birth, a new creation, becoming like a child, etc. It is a miracle performed in the heart by the Spirit of God. This is the first condition that you must meet if you are to see and delight in those actions which befit a beneficiary of mercy.
The Second Condition
The transformation effected in the new birth is decisive but incomplete. Therefore we are called to be transformed by the renewal of our minds so that we can approve the morally beautiful (Romans 12:2). This continued process of becoming new results in an increasing sensitivity to our own true condition as unworthy beneficiaries of mercy and an increasing awareness of what kind of behavior harmonizes with such a condition.
There is a twofold function of the Bible in relation to this transformation. First, it is precisely from the Bible that we are made sensitive to our unworthiness before God and his great mercy toward us. According to 2 Corinthians 3:18 the more we meditate upon the glory of God in Christ the more we will be transformed into his likeness. The Scriptures are the focus of this meditation and thus the means of our transformation.
Second, the commands and the admonitions of Scripture are all descriptions of behavior which befits a beneficiary of mercy. In this way they provide guidelines by which we can measure the level of our newness in Christ. The biblical ideal for the moral person is that the law be written on his heart (Jeremiah 31:33) so that he need not be urged with commands from outside. So the more commandments that we do out of a spontaneous delight in their moral beauty, the greater the degree to which we have been transformed into Christ’s likeness. Yet while we are still imperfect and subject to self-deception, we cannot dispense with the external guidelines of Scripture. They remain a necessary part of our lives quickening our aesthetic sensitivity to what is morally beautiful and reproving us when we have been too callous to see and delight in the moral choices which befit a beneficiary of mercy.
Practical Steps in Making Moral Choices
- I pray that God will hallow his name in and through me; that he will increase my love for his glory; that he will not let me grow callous to his mercy but will cause me to cherish it as more dear than anything in the world; and that through all this he will not lead me into temptation but will lead me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
- I try to meditate upon the Scriptures day and night, desiring to saturate my thinking with the structure of God’s thinking. I try to keep alert to tests that call me out of some slumber of sin I might have fallen into. I try to pay special attention to those places where God’s reality explicitly impinges upon my behavior (e.g. The Unmerciful Servant Parable, Matthew 18:23-35). The Word of God is the tool God uses to answer the prayer I make: in them I see I am being transformed (all too slowly) into a person who sees and delights in behavior which befits a beneficiary of mercy.
- I consciously pin my hope on the promise of God to work in everything for my good (Romans 8:28; Jeremiah 32:40-41), so that my mind and heart are at rest in his mercy. To the degree that I enjoy this God given contentment of soul I can be free from pride and fear which might cause me to manipulate or abuse people for my own ends, since my ends are already met in the mercy of God.
- As I confront moral choices during the day, if time and circumstances allow, I try to understand the effects of each choice on people’s lives. Then on the basis of that understanding and all that has gone before, I choose what seems to me in that situation to befit a beneficiary of mercy and thus to give glory to God.
By John Piper. ©2013 Desiring God Foundation. Website: desiringGod.org. Used by permission.
Paul discussed questions of religious freedom with the Corinthian believers. He related that an idol was powerless, and that true worship of God is more than religious formality. Love and concern for others should guide our freedoms.
“How was the night?” asked the nurse. The young man’s weary eyes answered the question before his lips could. It had been long and hard. Vigils always are. But even more so when they are with your own father.
“He didn’t wake up.”
The son sat by the bed and held the bony hand that had so often held his own. He was afraid to release it for fear that doing so might allow the man he so dearly loved to tumble over the brink. He had held it all night as the two stood on the canyon’s edge, aware of the final step that was only hours away.
With word’s painted black with confusion, he summarized the fears that had been his companions during the darkness. “I know it has to happen,” the son yearned, looking at his father’s ashen face; “I just don’t know why.”
The canyon of death.
It is a desolate canyon. The dry ground is cracked and lifeless. A blistering sun heats the wind that moans eerily and stings mercilessly. Tears bum and words come slowly as visitors to the canyon are forced to stare into the ravine. The bottom of the crevice is invisible, the other side unreachable. You can’t help but wonder what is hidden in the darkness. And you can’t help but long to leave.
Have you been there? Have you been called to stand at the thin line that separates the living from the dead? Have you lain awake at night listening to machines pumping air in and out of your lungs? Have you watched sickness corrode and atrophy the body of a friend? Have you lingered behind at the cemetery long after the others have left, gazing in disbelief at the metal casket that contains the body that contained the soul of the one you can’t believe is gone?
If so, then this canyon is not unfamiliar to you. You’ve heard the lonesome whistle of the winds. You’ve heard the painful questions Why? What for? ricochet answerless off the canyon walls. And you’ve kicked loose rocks off
the edge and listened for the sound of their crashing, which never comes.
The young father crushed the cigarette into the plastic ashtray He was alone in the hospital waiting room. How long will it take? It all had happened so quickly! First came the news from the hospital, then the frantic drive to the emergency room and then the explanation of the nurse. “Your son was hit by a car. He has some serious head wounds. He is in surgery The doctors are doing the best they can.”
Another cigarette. ‘My God. “ The words of the father were almost inaudible. “He’s only five years old.”
Standing on the edge of the canyon draws all of life into perspective. What matters and what doesn’t are easily distinguished. Above the canyon wall no one is concerned about salaries or positions. No one asks about the car you drive or what part of town you live in. As aging humans stand beside this ageless chasm, all the games and disguises of life seem sadly silly.
It happened in one fiery instant. “Where is the bird?” shouted a space engineer at Cape Canaveral.
“Oh, my God “cried a teacher from the viewing stands nearby. “Don’t let happen what I think just happened” Confusion and horror raced through the nation as we stood on the edge of the canyon watching seven of our best disintegrate before our eyes as the shuttle exploded into a white and orange fireball.
Once again we were reminded that even at our technological finest, we are still frighteningly frail.
It is possible that I’m addressing someone who is walking the canyon wall. Someone you love dearly has been called into the unknown and you are alone. Alone with your fears and alone with your doubts. If this is the case, please read the rest of this piece very carefully. Look carefully at the scene described in John 11. In this scene there are two people: Martha and Jesus. And for all practical purposes they are the only two people in the universe.
Her words were full of despair. “If you had been here. . .“ She stares into the Master’s face with confused eyes. She’d been strong long enough; now it hurt too badly. Lazarus was dead. Her brother was gone. And the one man who could have made a difference didn’t. He hadn’t even made it for the burial. Something about death makes us accuse God of betrayal. “If God were here there would be no death!” we claim.
You see, if God is God anywhere, he has to be God in the face of death. Pop psychology can deal with depression. Pep talks can deal with pessimism. Prosperity can handle hunger. But only God can deal with our ultimate dilemma—death. And only the God of the Bible has dared to stand on the canyon’s edge and offer an answer. He has to be God in the face of death. If not, he is not God anywhere.
Jesus wasn’t angry at Martha. Perhaps it was his patience that caused her to change her tone from frustration to earnestness. “Even now God will give you whatever you ask”
Jesus then made one of those claims that place him either on the throne or in the asylum: “Your brother will rise again.”
Martha misunderstood. (Who wouldn’t have?) “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
That wasn’t what Jesus meant. Don’t miss the context of the next words. Imagine the setting: Jesus has intruded on the enemy’s turf; he’s standing in Satan’s territory: Death Canyon. His stomach turns as he smells the sulfuric stench of the ex-angel, and he winces as he hears the oppressed wails of those trapped in the prison. Satan has been here. He has violated one of God’s creations.
With his foot planted on the serpent’s head, Jesus speaks loudly enough that his words echo off the canyon walls. “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25).
It is a hinge point in history. A chink has been found in death’s armor. The keys to the halls of hell have been claimed. The buzzards scatter and the scorpions scurry as Life confronts death—and wins! The wind stops. A cloud blocks the sun and a bird chirps in the distance while a humiliated snake slithers between the rocks and disappears into the ground.
The stage has been set for a confrontation at Calvary.
But Jesus isn’t through with Martha. With eyes locked on hers he asks the greatest question found in Scripture, a question meant as much for you and me as for Martha. “Do you believe this?”
Wham! There it is. The bottom line. The dimension that separates Jesus from a thousand gurus and prophets who have come down the pike. The question that drives any responsible listener to absolute obedience to or total rejection of the Christian faith.
“Do you believe this?”
Let the question sink into your heart for a minute. Do you believe that a young, penniless itinerant is larger than your death? Do you truly believe that death is nothing more than an entrance ramp to a new highway?
“Do you believe this?”
Jesus didn’t pose this query as a topic for discussion in Sunday schools. It was never intended to be dealt with while basking in the stained glass sunlight or while seated on padded pews.
No. This is a canyon question. A question which makes sense only during an all-night vigil or in the stillness of smoke-filled waiting rooms. A question that makes sense when all of our props, crutches, and costumes are taken away. For then we must face ourselves as we really are: rudderless humans tail-spinning toward disaster. And we are forced to see him for what he claims to be: our only hope.
As much out of desperation as inspiration, Martha said yes. As she studied the tan face of that Galilean carpenter, something told her she’d probably never get closer to the truth than she was right now. So she gave him her hand and let him lead her away from the canyon wall.
“I am the resurrection and the life. Do you believe this?”