Dodging Hypocrites

I saw a cartoon by political cartoonist Glenn McCoy that showed two toilets, one with a Koran in it, the other with a Bible. Over the Koran was a sign saying "hate crime." Over the Bible the sign read, "Art." Someone had taken the cartoon and made it into a poster with the caption under it: "Hypocrisy: It's Everywhere." Obviously the point is the hypocrisy in our culture and in the media that accepts brutal criticism, defamation, and mis-characterization of Christianity and labels any similar action toward other religions as criminal. But that's not the point I want to make here.

What struck me is that there really is hypocrisy everywhere. Pick a profession. There's hypocrisy in the media, in medicine, in plumbing, in carpentry, roofing, trucking.... So how do you avoid the hypocrites? Do we stop watching any TV, reading any news anywhere online or in print? Do we quit going to the doctor or dentist? Do we let our pipes leak & our septic tanks overflow because of some dishonest plumber? Do we let our roof rot, fall apart, and leak because of some dishonest roofer? No, because we know there are some out there in any of those professions who are honest and have some integrity. We even may tolerate mistakes from them if we know they didn't intend to fail us and they'll try to make it right.

Yet there are many people who reject Christ, religion as a whole because of the "hypocrites in the church." Sorry, but that doesn't make any more sense than letting your roof cave in because some roofers are hypocrites and take your money and don't deliver a good job. It's as ridiculous as dying of cancer because some doctors are hypocrites who only want to make a buck and don't really care about their patients, or worse, some break the law and hand out illegal prescriptions. Sorry, but I'm going to find an honest doctor who knows what he's doing. I'm going to find an honest roofer who will do the job right for a price that's fair to both of us. And I'm going to find Christian people who really know and love the Lord and hang out with them.

If you read that far, hopefully you get the point. What's below just develops the idea a little further.

Churches are populated by people. Most are Christians. Some are not, but call themselves by that name. Now, people make mistakes. Even sincere Christians are still human, and sometimes fail. Most of us can handle that. I think "hypocrites" in the church fall into two main categories, that are really two versions of one main problem.

But there are some who are just trying Christianity. They don't know the Lord, have no relationship with Him, but are "Christian" because that's the religion they belong to. If Christianity is just a religion, and just another set of rules, it's powerless. It's as powerless as any other religion - based on rules and laws and standards of behavior. This approach to Christianity totally misses the point of the Old Testament: "You can't follow all these rules and be holy in your own strength - you're going to fail"; and the New Testament: "You need a Savior to pay the price of your sins, give you the power by which to live, and open up a relationship between you and God." People who approach Christianity as a religion and a set of rules, are going to fail. It's disappointing when they do, and the sad part is they have no solution to the problem other than to just keep struggling or to give up altogether and decide it doesn't work.

Even worse is when they decide what's needed is a more strict adherence to all the "rules." It becomes all about obedience to the law and what they perceive as "holiness." The worst of these become hyper-critical of others, abusive, and misuse people, even justifying it by Bible verses they totally misunderstand and take out of context. They hurt and wound others without remorse, thinking they are being holy and defending the faith.

Paul addressed this in Galatians 5:4 - "You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace." The word translated "severed from" is sometimes translated "destroyed" or "done away with" or "made powerless." The idea of it is being made of no effect. It's like those times on your computer where you type something, forget to save it, shut down the computer and totally lose it. You worked. You put forth effort. But there is nothing to show for it. No results. No effect. That's Christianity under law instead of grace.

Faith vs. Trust?

I read something yesterday that suggested that trust is a better word for our relationship with God than is faith. Faith is part of the name of many churches and organizations, but most don't recognize what it means. The writer pointed that out and suggested that trust indicates the level of faith we need in relationship to God. He suggested that trust goes beyond faith. That trust had to do with the person of God, and how trustworthy He is, as well as how knowable He is. It was in the Foreword to a book that seemed to indicate that trust would result in our knowing God better (leaving the impression that faith might not). Most of what I read in the foreword and the author's preface made me want to read the book. It was written by one of my favorite contemporary authors. However, if I understood the foreword correctly, I gotta say I disagree.

Trust is not a better word than faith. The problem is that we have allowed "faith," like many words that are part of Biblical Christianity to become so overused and misused and even abused, that they no longer carry the significance in our discourse that they should. Rather than looking to alternative words, we should seek to better understand and reclaim the words that were foundational in the Christian relationship with God. I think faith is one of them.

It's partly the focus my He Is a Rewarder manuscript. Rather than building toward knowing God, I start there. Knowing God is the starting place. It is foundational for our faith. True, as our faith matures, we move toward knowing Him even better, and that serves to increase our faith. It is both starting point and result.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. It is impossible to please God without it. It is the "sense" by which we experience the spiritual, as our other 5 senses allow us to experience the physical. Faith involves resting in Him. It comes from knowing Him, and accepting that He cares about me as an individual. (He is, and He is a rewarder). Faith in the Greek New Testament is both a noun and a verb. In English, we general translate the verb as "believe," because we have no verb for "faithing." As a result, we often fail to realize that faith is an action. As a further result, because belief and believe are used in much broader, non-spiritual ways, the concept of faith also becomes somewhat diluted.

Faith, in some ways is a synonym for other words we find in Scripture - like believe, trust, abide, wait, rest. In another sense, I think it is more than that. It is the sum of all the best connotations of each of these other words. None of them by itself is an adequate synonym. None of them can replace it. All of them help us understand faith more completely.

Let's don't give up on our dialect. Let's don't stop using certain words because the world uses them differently, denigrates them, makes fun of them, or just plain can't understand them. Let's make sure we understand them and lovingly share the insights we gain from them. We don't have to use a Christianese dialect that no one can understand, but these words have meaning and when rightly understood and communicated should help us, and others, understand the incredible, relentless, loving tenderness of the God who is and who is a rewarder.

Fruitful Labor

I was reading in Philippians 1 this morning. I journaled some thoughts on the whole chapter, but I'm trying to keep my blogs a little more brief when possible. So here are some thoughts from the last half of that chapter:

I find it striking, and challenging, that Paul's desire was that Christ be exalted. He wanted his body, whether in life or death, his physical existence, to be a channel for the proclamation and exaltation of Christ. He wanted all men to see and know Christ; that Christ would be lifted up before all men, revealed, exalted. He wanted all men to be changed by this knowledge. That to him would be "a fruitful labor." That was life to Paul. To choose life or death was to choose between living a life that would reveal Christ to others, and living eternally in the presence of Christ Himself.

Though he desired to live in the heavenly presence of the risen Lord, he was convinced that for the time being it was more necessary to live on in the flesh for the sake of others. Therefore, he believed he would yet be set free from prison and remain in this life and continue to share in their progress and joy in the faith.

Lord, let my life be about love and joy and faith and Christ. Let my love abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, that I may approve the excellent, in order to be both sincere and blameless until the day of Christ, having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes in Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. Let my life be about exalting Jesus so that others may know You and walk in Your joy. Let my life be an example of faith and joy (and progress in both) to the praise and glory of the Father. Amen.