Friday, January 22, 2010

Second Mile Re-Visited

Someone commented that it is hard to know how many “second miles” to go when serving people whose expectations seem insatiable.


One response here is that the “second mile” is done from a sense of freedom rather than obligation. Volunteering in the first place, for community, or church, or cross-cultural missions service, is already in the “second mile” category. No one is demanding that we do it. We see something that needs doing, and we freely step up and do it. That does not mean we should place ourselves under bondage to do whatever anyone tells us to do.

The Lord Jesus, who taught us about the second mile, also provided examples of setting boundaries. They wanted to make him a king, to do some more miracles, to go to Jerusalem at their bidding, to grant them to sit next to him in power, to answer trick questions, to be available when and where they wanted him, to come down from the cross. He seemed to have no trouble in declining. He demonstrates the ultimate submission to the will of his Father, with the ultimate sense of freedom. -philw

Saturday, January 16, 2010

A Heart For God

Three general components of a Christian life would be a heart devoted to God (Father, Son, Spirit), a knowledge and personal acceptance of truth, and a life of obedience to Christ’s teachings. John’s first epistle could be summed up in these three principles, carefully tying them together. We can’t love God if we don’t know him or about him. And we can’t say we love God if we don’t love people and obey what Jesus has said.


Christian traditions have tended to emphasize one of these three above the others, yet doing so presents serious problems. A passion for our idea of God without knowledge is a dangerous thing. The Apostle Paul lamented that his own Jewish nation was characterized by a zeal for God that was not based on knowledge. We might get the same feeling about those pre-occupied with deeper spiritual experiences. A heavy emphasis on how we feel and our personal rapture readily opens the door for superstition and vain imagination, if not outright self-deceit. Various splinter sects do stress careful restrictive teaching, and often demonstrate zeal as well, but too often resting on the assertions of a single very persuasive founder. The passion is not really directed toward God, but toward one’s own sect – Christian tribalism.

Christian Fundamentalism has stressed the importance of right teaching to prevent such excess and diversion. The assumption is that if we can get our knowledge of the truth accurate and complete, then a life for God must follow. This has been carried out through preaching, and Bible studies, and books, and retreats, and seminaries. And it has produced valuable systematic theology. But a perception that one has arrived at such knowledge is an irresistible temptation for pride, for further fine tuning of our knowledge, and for excluding and demeaning those who do not share that same knowledge – in other words, a “log” in my own eye. It is crucial that I regard a truth grasped as something to which I am subject, rather than as a weapon with which I beat others down.

So other Christian denominations, while acknowledging that a heart for God and right teaching are of course essential, have recognized that the only real test of true faith is when the rubber hits the road. It’s all in the doing. The result might look more like a community service club, or conversely define ever more details about exactly what a Christian should or should not be doing. It’s not hard to see how quickly we can get off track there. Miss the mark and be crushed with shame. Get it right once and be puffed up with pride. Before we know it, we have a scale of good and bad deeds that measure how close to God one is. And then of course it is a good time to review the Apostle Paul’s warnings against legalism.

So then what? I would suggest that a revelation of the Person of God, and the desirable human response of a heart for God is the prevailing theme of both the Old and New Testaments, as well as the work of God throughout the history of the Church. I think of Bible characters who did not do so well for exhaustive doctrine or stellar conduct, but whom Scripture holds up as examples because of their hope and trust and delight in the Living God. Perhaps we shy away from such a pursuit because it is so difficult to measure, or a short step to emotionalism, or just dangerous and unpredictable. While we can devise tests for doctrine and for conduct, a love-for-God test is going to be elusive. And, as John’s epistle warns, it is easy enough to imagine that one loves God without caring about truth, obeying God, or loving others.

But despite that, we will always have a sense of our own heart’s attitude toward God, and while this might be the most slippery to define and measure, it might be the best light in which to view knowledge and practice. When I hear a “great sermon”, is it great in terms of increasing my appreciation for the wonderfulness of the Living God, or is it great because it had some good ideas, or profound exegesis, or moving challenge, or memorable illustrations? Acknowledged, it will be impossible to pass a firm judgment on it, but I can still tune in to which direction my own appreciation of the Lord took as a result of it. Similarly with pursuing a godly practice or avoiding an evil one. Does this make me feel more deserving of God’s favour and feel a step above others, or do I delight in the fact that the Spirit of God is changing me into the likeness of Christ? Or when I mess up badly, can I simply love the Lord all the more as I realize my need for him and his grace toward me are even greater than I had previously known?

It would be so good to have all of our church - and personal - experience, including corporate worship, Bible teaching, and acts of service, permeated with a heart of love for God as its beginning and end. And as we do so, we might see it comes not from some effort on our part, but because “he first loved us”. -philw