Exam Time

Having been a schoolteacher for most of my career, I am used to thinking of examinations as a way to measure progress in learning. Self-examination is something I didn’t begin until my mid-life. I am currently in another season of introspection. Some people belittle introspection as “navel gazing,” a waste of time. I prefer to follow Socrates who asserted that the unexamined life is not worth living. I think the Apostle Paul echoed the philosopher’s opinion when he recommended taking one’s measure in at least two places, and Peter joins him as well. (2 Corinthians 13:5; 1 Corinthians 11:27-30; 2 Peter 1:10-11) as well as demonstrating that he took the inward look himself. (Philippians 3:4-11)

Having been through the process of self-examination before, I find I generally have had to reconsider who I am based on what I have discovered about myself. For example, when I used to look back on my life as a student in elementary and secondary school, I thought of myself as a nerd. My wife assures me that cannot be true because she would never have married a nerd. I mentioned my nerdiness to a fellow-classmate at our fiftieth high school reunion and she agreed with my wife; she had not thought me a nerd either. This misapprehension didn’t really cause any harm or bring any shame, but it does make me realize that others don’t see me for what I think I am.

After being married to my high school sweetheart for a couple decades, I had the opinion that I was a fine example of a loving, Christian husband. Then something brought me into that state of introspection, and I began to realize that I had fallen far short of perfection. In fact, I think I was basically a jerk for quite some time. I was not consciously abusive, but because I had never tried to learn what my wife really needed, I dragged her through a life furnished with most of what I needed thinking she was fulfilled as well. That was a wake-up call, and I still hear that alarm ringing on occasion.

About the same time, I discovered my wife had unfulfilled needs I was ignoring, I also came to the surprising conclusion that for all of my thirty-seven years, I had been trying to please my father. My Dad was of that “greatest generation” that suffered through a Depression and fought in WWII. Like may of his peers, he didn’t share much of what he was feeling. He was also a workaholic which meant that even if he had been more forthcoming with expressions of emotion, he wasn’t around very often to share them with me. I realized during my mid-life examination that I had been asking, “What would Dad think,” about everything in my effort to garner some praise or at least recognition.

I also got a shocking revelation from one of my children a few years later. I had always thought I was a really good father. I even began to write a seminar program to share my expertise on raising perfect kids. It’s probably a good thing I never finished it. My oldest was approaching middle age herself when she told me (in a context I have forgotten) that as a child, she was afraid to talk to me about anything important. Although none of them ran away from home, each of my children found someplace else to be immediately after high school, and I haven’t seen much of them since then. Apparently, the nest was a little prickly.

Now I am looking over the fence at seventy. I am examining what I have been and done in my three-score and ten. I have said for most of those years that I am called and gifted by God as a teacher, and I would have said in the past that I have done well at that. Even though I am retired, I still have occasion to teach by my writing and in person when given a chance. Lately I have been told that my teaching methods are not only ineffective, but even harmful in some instances. This is bringing on another bout of self-examination. I haven’t decided if my detractors are correct, but I have to look because of what Socrates said.

Now I will explain why this autobiographical rambling belongs on a site that claims heaven always matters most. First, there is one thing I am positively certain of: it doesn’t ultimately matter what others think of me or even what I think of myself. All that matters is what God thinks of me, and I know beyond doubt that He thinks of me as His child, accepted in the Beloved. When He looks at me, He sees Jesus. I am seated in the Heavenlies at His right hand, the place of highest honor. I have done nothing to gain His acceptance and His love; Jesus has done everything necessary to guarantee it. I don’t find this truth by looking into my mind, which I have just demonstrated is messed up. I learn the truth of my position by looking into the mirror of the Word as James calls it. God’s Spirit testifies to my spirit that I am his child.

The second reason these ramblings belong here is this: the preceding paragraphs were written yesterday. Today, Pastor Bill Johnson of Kingdom Life in Muskegon shared a word that spoke clearly to what I had written, but in a remarkable way. Bill spoke of the need to be grounded in the love of our Heavenly Father and to be rooted in the foundational teachings of the Word of God. He pointed to the words of Jesus that warned of times to come when deceit and lawlessness would cause many believers to drift away from righteous moorings. Finally Bill referenced Hebrews 12 which warns of a “shaking” that will cause worldly things to fall away.

I’ll keep trying to be a better husband-father-teacher-man, but I won’t waste a minute worrying if I am a good son of my Heavenly Father; He has taken care of that – no examination needed. I will also focus my deepest efforts on clinging to the things that cannot be shaken while letting go of all that can. I have been a sincere, diligent student of the Bible for over forty years. In spite of all that, I don’t think I have ever felt a more compelling desire to immerse myself in the Word and be conformed to it. I pray everyone in Christ’s true church will find the same passion. With everything that is happening in the world these days, I am reminded that there is an examination coming, perhaps soon, that we don’t want to fail.

Red Letters; Red Faces

In the title, I am referring to the practice of putting Jesus’ words in red letters in some Bible translations. Some people believe we should take the words in red more seriously than the others. Certainly, Jesus words are very important because He was speaking as the perfect Son of God, and every word His followers recorded is Scripture. I am not discounting the importance of Jesus’ words.

However, there are two things to consider when interpreting Jesus words. First, the things Jesus said during His earthly ministry were spoken almost exclusively to ethnic Jews who were under the Old Testament system of Judaism. His message echoed John the Baptist’s in that He repeatedly called His listeners to repent because the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. He called for change of mind because a major change in how they would approach God was in the offing.

One example of how Jesus’ words need reinterpretation will illustrate what I mean. At one point He counselled His listeners to “leave your gift there before the altar” if they had any issues with a brother. Since we no longer sacrifice animals on the altar in the Jerusalem temple, this counsel must be reinterpreted if it is going to apply to New Testament believers. The same condition exists with Jesus’ instructions about the temple tax, ceremonial cleansing of lepers, interaction with tax collectors and the military, and countless others. Principles can be extracted from the words, but they don’t apply to us directly.

The second thing to consider about Jesus’ words is that one of the last things He said was that His disciples would get a fuller understanding of His words after the Holy Spirit came to help them. This means that the words of the New Testament writers who came after the gospels have as much weight as Jesus’ own words and may have better clarity. There is no conflict between the “red letters” and the rest of the letters in your Bible. These too must be reinterpreted in some instances because of cultural changes that occurred in the intervening centuries, but the principles drawn from either set of words will align one with the other.

The reason I mention the red-letter controversy is slightly obtuse, but I will try to explain how I got here. A corollary to the well-known question, what would Jesus do? (WWJD), is what would Jesus say? (WWJS) Now comes the leap: how would Jesus say what He said? We know from the biblical record that different groups of people had different reactions to the same words of Jesus. The religious leaders thought Him a heretic; there were some who thought Him a lunatic; a few recognized Him as the Son of God. Same words, different perceptions.

The ill-conceived idea that perception is reality doesn’t fit here at all. Jesus spoke only truth – ultimate reality. Yet He was misperceived by many of His hearers. Here is the crux of my problem: WWJS needs clarification as to the tone of the Master’s delivery. In my youth, I was known by many for my use of the Bible as a club. I beat people into agreement – rather, I tried to. Often as not, I drove them away instead of drawing them closer to the truth.

I want to say I have grown away from my earlier misadventures in teaching, but of late I have been accused of something akin to my Bible-thumping ways. After decades of Bible study, I fear my method of delivery may not have grown at the pace of my knowledge. I am still accused of insensitivity at times, occasionally causing people to get red-faced with anger. When I look at some of Jesus’ words, I want to say I am following His example. Here are some troublesome red-letter words: “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” I try to imagine Jesus saying that in a tactful, loving tone. I struggle. At one point, Jesus looked at one of His closest disciples and said, “Get behind me, Satan!” Put yourself in Peter’s place and try to hear that in a loving tone.

There are many other red-letter examples of questionable tone such as Jesus calling the hypocrites of His day vipers, whitewashed tombs and sons of the devil. One wonders how would Jesus handle crazies on Facebook? How would He engage with misguided politicians in our representative democracy? How would He react to believers who embrace the homosexual lifestyle? I know: He would love them all. But love can sometimes get tough to borrow James Dobson’s coin. WWJD?

The books of the New Testament are full of admonition, correction and rebuke. No one is more corrective than Paul, yet he suggests his readers, “become imitators of me as I imitate Christ.” I am currently reading Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus. He makes a strong point to both his proteges not to engage in petty squabbles or meaningless disputes. I suspect I have ventured into that territory occasionally, although I pray it has not been expressing heresy as were the subjects of Paul’s correction. The best I can do is to continue to pursue and present truth with this admonition foremost in my thinking: “But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow into him with reference to all things, who is the head, Christ.” Then, hopefully, red letters or black, at least I won’t be red-faced.

How Can They Think That?

For almost two decades I have been trying to understand the “liberal” or progressive mindset. These labels encompass most twentieth century Democrats, and today’s Democrats are more puzzling than ever. When I was on the road, I spent hours listening to the BBC and Air America and the mainstream media on satellite radio trying to understand where the liberals were coming from. I think I finally have the answer.

My Bible reading today was in 2 Thessalonians where Paul describes the workings of the “man of lawlessness.” It is not lost on me that the most radical progressives are exactly that: lawless. Anarchists who call for defunding of police are the essence of lawlessness. Many of the political left’s other policies follow the same idea. They remove the law against murder by giving women the right to kill their unborn children. They remove the laws governing immigration so that the country may be overrun and the economy destroyed by illegal aliens. They remove the law against homosexual marriage, destroying the traditional meaning and purpose of marriage in the process. They despise the laws of free-market economies that have allowed America to flourish and prefer to redistribute all wealth in a socialist/communist pattern.

Virtually all the planks of the progressive platform would upend society as we know it and replace it with a socialist vision that would be anathema to the Christians who founded this country. Recent experience, history and logic itself demonstrate that their policies don’t work – never have. This makes me ask why they are so adamant about their revolutionary ideas. Paul tells the Thessalonians why: “God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie.” The Apostle said much the same thing about homosexuality in Romans: “God gave them over to a debased mind.” Similarly, he cautioned the Ephesians, “that you no longer walk as the Gentiles walk: in the futility of their mind, being darkened in understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart, who, becoming callous, gave themselves over to licentiousness, for the pursuit of all uncleanness in greediness.”

There is something else at play here that motivates people to remain “ignorant” as Paul calls them in Romans and Ephesians: lust. Lust for power and all that it provides is the primary motivator of many politicians in both parties. I wrote before about the corrupting influence of power (“The Uncorrupted Life”). This helps to explain why so many laudable campaign promises are abandoned once the statehouse or Capitol Hill are gained. The levers of power are controlled by a small oligarchy in this country, and for better or worse, that elite band must either be mollified or manipulated to get anything done.

Where does this leave Christians who want to see the Kingdom come? On our knees where we rightfully belong. I cannot find anyplace in the New Testament that encourages us to take over secular government to accomplish God’s will. We are commanded to pray for our leaders so that things will go well. We are also promised that God remains in control despite the hubris of ignorant people (Paul’s description) who think they run the show.

I am writing this between election night 2020 and inauguration day 2021 with no certainty who will be making the speech in January. I have decided to stop debating and redouble my praying. Paul’s characterization of the people with whom I would disagree tends to make me think I am wasting my words on them. I am not being arrogant or dismissive; I am being confident that God’s will is going to be done on earth as it is in heaven, and the final outcome will be for the good of those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. I think I am on pretty solid ground there.

Related posts: Honor the King, What is the Church?, Beware of Bowlegged Politicians, What's Wrong With Politics in America, Bringing the Kingdom