The Christian Parody, Part Two

I suggested in my last post that a return to biblical spirituality would correct what A. W. Tozer calls the parody of Christianity that has infected the modern church. If that general answer is correct, it begs for a more specific response. Because only God can change a heart, and because He does it through His indwelling Spirit, I believe we need to put more focus on what it means to live in the spirit in contrast to living in the flesh. I think we would do well to concentrate on the elements Tozer said were lacking in modern Christians: “A state of heart purity, fiery love, separation from the world and poured-out devotion to the Person of Christ.” Defining those spirit/flesh contrasts may help to discover what needs to change.

The element that is easiest to contrast is “separation from the world.” James said that friendship with the world is enmity with God. By “the world” James meant the fallen system we face every day of our lives. It is a system ruled by God’s arch enemy whom Paul named  the god of this age. Our enemy is not flesh and blood, as Paul reminds the Ephesians; he is a spiritual being of great power. He loves to entice our flesh toward worldly things; it takes a conscious effort to resist his promptings. Resistance is not futile because as James promises, if we resist the devil, he must flee from us. As John said, “Greater is He who is in us (Holy Spirit) than he who is in the world.”

But resistance is only half of the battle. Once the devil flees and earthly desires fade, we must fill the void with heavenly things: “Set your mind on things above,” Paul counsels. By “things above” he means things of the spirit. God has spiritual works for each of us to do every day; He had them planned for us before we were born. It is our responsibility to learn from God what those pre-planned works might be. First and foremost, each believer has been given a spiritual gift, so any Christian who is not aware of that gift is duty-bound to find out what the Holy Spirit has provided. The gifts of the Spirit are given for the express purpose of maturing the Body of Christ. The failure to exercise our spiritual gifts is a big reason why the church remains stuck in the worldly mud.

The next contrast, the “fiery love” Tozer recommends, is love unlike anything the world knows. The love the world recognizes is either the lust-driven passion of Hollywood or a self-serving emotional fulfillment. By contrast, biblical, Spirit-led love is self-giving, self-effacing, even sacrificial. In “People of the Flame,” I detailed what it means to be on fire for Christ. The fiery love poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit burns for the lost souls around us. When we consider that the First Century church reached the known world within a few years, we can appreciate how feeble our love must be by comparison. Jesus said that love would be the tell-tale sign of His disciples. Because the love of church people isn’t showing, the church isn’t growing.

I suspect that one aspect of the “poured out devotion to Christ” Tozer finds lacking is our tendency to settle for good enough instead of striving to “be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect.” We may in fact be doing what Tozer says: “We have measured ourselves by ourselves until the incentive to seek higher plateaus in the things of the Spirit is all but gone!” We must stop comparing ourselves to ourselves and begin to measure our condition by the standards revealed in the New Testament. We cannot reach those “higher plateaus” in the flesh; the Spirit is the path up the mountain to the perfection of God. When we get a glimpse of that perfection, we cannot help but notice our imperfections. That should lead to worship.

Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well that God is spirit, and He seeks those who will worship Him in spirit. To be devoted to Christ, to worship Him properly requires worship in spirit. It is a fine thing to get an emotional boost from worship – singing, praising, praying – but it is another thing altogether to feel the Holy Spirit lifting your spirit to new heights. I am most often led to that plateau by worship music. I once read that in music, the words and the melody reach our minds, and the harmony and the rhythm touch our spirits. I have no scientific proof of that, but I know that the right song can transport me to a place of rapture in my spirit. We all have different tastes, but one of my favorite worship songs currently is “I Will Praise You” by Hillsong Worship. (Play it on a system with good bass fidelity if possible.)

Finally, the “state of heart purity” Tozer calls for is a call to holiness. The biblical meaning of holiness is separateness. It implies purity because it entails separating from anything that dilutes or dampens our desire for oneness with God. Just as purity in gold requires separation from all dross, spiritual purity requires the abandonment of all worldly desires. We may sing, “This world is not my home; I’m just a’passin’ through,” but we often live as though the world and its fleshly appointments are home enough for now. Most churches look like just another social club with religious overtones. Who needs that?

Paul warned that the spirit and the flesh are at war within us – us Christians. After lamenting his own inner battle in Romans chapter seven, the Apostle announced the victory through living in the spirit (or Spirit). The church will never become the pure and spotless bride Christ longs for unless she learns to appropriate the gifts the Spirit gives: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” If the church would live by these, she would never carry out the desires of the flesh.

A parody is a reproduction that has some features of the original but differs in significant ways. A song parody mimics the original musical structure but replaces the words with a different message. Tozer’s suggestion that the modern church is a parody of true Christianity is painfully accurate. The Christian parody uses some of the same words, but it denies or ignores the power inherent in them. The story is told of a simple country gent who bought “one of them new-fangled chain saws.” He came back a few days later complaining that it didn’t work as well as his hand saws. The store owner looked it over, then he pulled the starter cord and it roared to life. The country gent jumped back saying, “What the heck is that?!” It seems he didn’t realize it had a motor.

It is no laughing matter that the church today acts similarly surprised when the Spirit moves and mountains fall. We are like the people James told that they weren’t getting anything from God because they didn’t ask, or they asked with wrong motives. There is only one source of right motives: the Word of God. Up to this point, my answer to the church’s failure to produce real Christians has been to seek the spiritual and avoid the fleshly. Becoming more “spiritual” does not require some mystical exercise. The source of proper spiritual life is found where God is found: in His Word. R.C. Sproul says, “The key to spiritual growth is in-depth Christian education that requires a serious level of sacrifice.” For modern Christians this probably means sacrificing some TV time or maybe some early morning dozing.

If Tozer is right and the modern church is a parody of real Christianity, something must change. You correct a parody by restoring the original. Jesus said His words are spirit and life; that is where the church needs to go to remember how to produce the spiritual life which defines real Christians. Both from the pulpit and in the prayer closet, the church needs to scour the Scriptures to learn how to live in the spirit (Spirit). If we don’t do that, there will be a bunch of surprised “Christians” when Jesus returns for His church.

Stay tuned for part three.

Related Posts: Christian Parody, Part One; Despising the Down Payment