New Thoughts (1/12/06-1/13/06)
If there is a key verse to the whole Bible, this might well be it. In one simple declaration, Jesus has summed up the whole point and purpose of the Old Testament. Treat others the way you would want to be treated. It’s really that simple! This is what God wants of His children. This is what it means to walk humbly with God. This is what it means to do justice, and to love kindness (Mic 6:8). This has ever been and always shall be the whole point, the only point, really.
John, writing to the Church reiterates this point. This is no new commandment I am teaching, says he. It is the commandment we have had from the beginning (1Jn 2:7). That command, he explains, is that you love your brother. It is the same command that guides the New Covenant as guided the Old. God has not suddenly changed, nor has His definition of righteousness. Thus, in summarizing the Law and the Prophets, Jesus also summarized the Church before it had even begun.
This message of God’s theme reflects one of the fundamental, underlying laws that describe His ways. Once again, we have the law of reciprocity displayed. In science, you will hear it stated as “for ever action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” In the realms of religion, it will be recognized as the law of reaping and sowing. Indeed, by what Jesus taught in the last section studied here, the reaction in spiritual matters is not equal and opposite, but surpassing more and of like kind.
The two concepts, while different in detail, are really quite similar in concept. Throughout Scripture, particularly in the teaching of Jesus but not exclusively so, this point is made repeatedly. Following on just a short ways in Matthew’s Gospel, we find Him teaching that one knows better than to expect good fruit from a bad tree. Neither, He says, ought we to expect bad fruit from a healthy tree (Mt 7:18). Now, the implications of that in Jesus’ own ministry are profound, and worthy of greater consideration when I come to that verse. For now, however, it stands as a convenient example of this governing law. What you put in is what you will get out.
If, then, this is the whole of Scripture wrapped up in one simple requirement, how important must this point be to me? Indeed! If this is the whole of the Law in one sentence, how awful must it be that I cannot keep so simple a command? If this is the basic definition of righteousness, then it is also the basic definition of sin. Sin consists in the fact that I do not pursue the course Jesus has pointed out. I do not (certainly not with any consistency) treat those around me in the fashion I would likely demand they treat me. Indeed, the very demanding of such treatment is something I would be hard pressed to tolerate.
Is it any wonder that God’s declaration over the fallen kingdom of mankind is that not one was found righteous? I suppose it is just possible that I am the only one who is so inconsistent in my treatment of those around me, even those closest to me. It is possible, but it is highly doubtful. I think it is a symptom of that disease we like to refer to as ‘human nature.’ Funny, the things we attribute to that nature, when indeed, it is most unnatural to humanity that it behaves thus! It is a symptom of the fall, and of the sin we have allowed to rule and reign over us – we who are called to have dominion. Well, if the failure to deal with people as we ought is the great common sin of man, this habit of minimizing the sinfulness of it is the great obfuscation of man.
Simply put, we are so averse to facing our failure that we will do whatever we must to make that failure look and feel like success. We come face to face with the Law of God, and seeing the impossibility of it we avert our gaze. Rather than turn to God, who alone can bring about our success in light of His Law, we modify the Law to suit our capabilities. Oh, how we look down upon those Pharisees for what they had made of God’s Holy Law! How we join with the criticism we hear from Jesus as He points out the way they have promoted their traditions over the requirements of real holiness! How superior we feel as we say, ‘at least I am not like those Pharisees!’ And we are so blinded that we don’t even recognize the irony in that thought!
Later ages would see this same comparative approach to righteousness within the Church. The movement we know as the Protestant Reformation looked at the state of the Church and saw a need for change. Now, in this they were certainly right, and the objection to a religious rule that would brook no correction was likewise right. Yes, and for a time the reforms they brought remained an improvement over what the Roman Church had become. However, the progress of centuries has brought to that Protestant movement many problems similar to the ones they sought to correct. When they began, one great issue they had was that the priests who presided over the local congregations were all but illiterate, particularly in regard to Scripture. Well, how many preside from their pulpits today who, while they may be able to read the Scriptures, have so little belief in the words contained therein as to be functionally illiterate all the same?
The sad truth is that we are all of us guilty of this same thing in one degree or another. We have each one of us lowered the standards to suit our limited abilities. If we have managed to avoid changing the meaning of God’s words outright, then we become selective as to which parts we will pay attention to. We pick this bit of law or that bit and devote our energies to managing obedience to that one thing, and in doing so we lose sight of the rest of the issue of holiness. We are so pleased with having this little success that we no longer realize the mountain of failures that continue to speak out of our need for a Savior. Well, here’s a possible cure, friends:
This verse, which Jesus says sums up the whole of God’s requirements, might be the best choice we can make, if we must settle for one thing to pursue. Dare I say, we can spend what remains of our lifetimes laboring to get this one right, and if our focus is on this alone, well: as Jesus has said, it is the fundamental rule underlying every other thing that God has given to guide us. If we can just learn to treat others the way we desire to be treated ourselves, what a difference the world will see!
Can you imagine such a place? Why, here is that Utopian landscape that the social engineers have been striving after with all their multiculturalism and enforced tolerance for everything they deem tolerable. Yet, it is perhaps the one thing their tolerance can’t tolerate. Having rejected the Christ of God, and having rejected the Law by which God guides man to Christ, they would yet lay hold of the heavenly kingdom. Oh, but they will not have God in it, thank you very much. No, no. They’ll establish a heaven of their own, and by their own labors they will have it in a fit semblance of the real thing. The matter is patently impossible! They have fallen for the Great Lie. They pursue the pathways of their master, the devil in truth, and in pursuit of his pathways, all light of Truth and Reason has departed from them. A look at the results, even as they stand thus far, gives the lie to their expectations. The heaven they seek to create is a veritable living hell. The people they seek to enlighten are pushed towards a denial of who they are in themselves. They are trained not to express anything that might connect them with their heritage, their culture (unless it is foreign, of course), or their beliefs (unless those beliefs are the prescribed dogma of official unbelief). For now, we are still free to think what we like, just so as we don’t seek to convince anybody else of our thoughts. Let them once find a means of detecting this, though…
But I digress from the point. The point is that we are instructed to behave towards those around us as we would have them behave towards us. Do we wish people to be friendly? Then we must be friendly. Do we hope for favors from others? Then we must surely do favors for others. Do we demand respect for our views? Then certainly we must respect the views of those around us. Do we pray that we will be gently corrected when we are wrong, lest our wrong increase? Then we must love those around us enough to correct their wrongs. We must lay hold of the sweet Spirit of the Lord in doing so, lest our native harshness spoil the effort.
Here is the goal. How do I measure against it? Lord, I don’t need to ask You to reveal the answer to me at this point. I am painfully aware of how far from that goal I am. Oh, I have my moments, my times of temporary victory, yet I would be a fool to pretend that there is consistency yet. No, even as my eyes turned to this study, Father, there was the test. And I failed. I failed it miserably, and in many ways am still failing it even now. There is a place for tolerance, God, yet I find mine so stretched, so implacable when I am faced with things I wish not to face. Lord, I have been trying. I think I have been trying. Correct me if I’m wrong. Yet, there has been so much to face of late. You know. You have been with me through it this far, and I am as certain as ever that You will continue to be with me until the trials of the present have become forgotten matters of the past.
Holy One, my Father, I pray for your advice to me as a father. You see the way this thing is spreading its tribulations through the family You have charged me with. Her I am, Lord, barely able to deal with my own piece of the problem, and there is that whole stack of other problems that they keep bringing to me. Oh, Lord! How often I’ve prayed that You would teach me patience, and here I am in need of all that patience and more, and I find myself wanting.
God, this is a time of crisis. There are matters of disagreement that can no longer go unchecked. One of us has misunderstood You, and I pray that You would bring light to that situation. For my part, Lord, if I have been deceived, open my eyes. Yes, and as head of my household, I pray You would do the same for all of us here. Let us, Father, in response to all the garbage we have been left to wade through, pursue Your Truth all the more completely. Though it hurts so greatly, Lord, let Your good purposes be served by all this. By Your power and Your guidance I know we can come through this more honest with one another, more considerate of one another, and more open to one another. The time for secrecy has not passed, Lord. There never was a time for it.
Forgive me for ever allowing myself to pursue such a course. I know I have done so, and I know I have come up with any number of justifications to convince myself it’s acceptable in this case. Oh! How You have shown me the error of such thinking! Oh! How many justifications, lies, and deceptions have been ripped asunder in these last months! Oh! How great the damage of discovering how much has not been as it seemed. God! Strengthen me to deal with both the impact of this junk on my own life and family, and to deal with eliminating all such behavior from myself.
I need wisdom, Lord, to know how all of this must play out. Yes, there are things I know to do. Forgiveness is necessary, hard though it may be this time. But, how, Lord, do I go forward? How do I deal with those involved? How do I deal with my children? Oh, God! I pray that even now You would fill my pastor and myself with the understanding to navigate this troubled sea.
I thank You, also, for that flash of realization last night, Lord. Thank You for showing me that the way You calmed the Sea of Galilee as your disciples sailed into that storm was set down for our edification. How You manifested Your constancy in remaining beside me and mine in the midst of our own stormy trials. How You manifested Your help in my times of trial, calming the raging storm that I may go through on calm waters. Thank You, Lord, that You calm the waters. Calm them even now.
