What sin IS

The glory of God is not honored.
The holiness of God is not reverenced.
The greatness of God is not admired.
The power of God is not praised.
The truth of God is not sought.
The wisdom of God is not esteemed.
The beauty of God is not treasured.
The goodness of God is not savored.
The faithfulness of God is not trusted.
The promises of God are not relied upon.
The commandments of God are not obeyed.
The justice of God is not respected.
The wrath of God is not feared.
The grace of God is not cherished.
The presence of God is not prized.
The person of God is not loved.

John Piper wrote those words to describe what sin is. It is infinitely more than wrong against one another.

Adorning the Doctrine of Our God and Savior Jesus Christ

Read Titus 2:1-15 (ESV) and notice the following:

Verse 1: But as for you, teach…

Verse 2: Older men are to be…

Verse 3: Older women are likewise to be…

Verse 4: Train younger women to love…

Verse 6: Likewise, urge the younger men to be…

Verse 9: Slaves are to be…

Paul commands Titus to teach men, older women, younger women, younger women and slaves to do or be this or that. What for? What’s the purpose?

Verse 10: SO that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.

The word “Adorn” is the same Greek word as that of 1 Peter 3:3-5 where Peter instructs women not to let their adorning be external. As a bride adorns herself with braids and jewels to embellish her beauty, so we are to put on display the beauty and excellence of the doctrine of God our Savior.

What’s the motivation here? Why should anyone have listened to Titus’s teaching about godliness?

Multi-level marketing, Evangelism and multual exclusivity

I’ve been recruited into a multi-level marketing or “network” marketing business with a company called Monavie.  The company has created an incredible product that I genuinely believe in.  But that’s not the problem.  The question that continues to loom in my mind and has kept me on the reservation is this:  Can I fulfill the call to evangelize and at the same time be profitable in business?  Or as John Piper put it in an artical titled Some Questions to Ask When Considering a Job:

 5. Will this job help establish an overall life-pattern that will yield a significant involvement in fulfilling God’s great purpose of exalting Christ among all the unreached peoples of the world? “Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).

Put aside whatever you know, think or feel about MLM (multi-level marketing).  The fact is, that those who passionately pursue this business strategy are very sucessful in a fairly short amount of time (a few years).  It takes a lot of work but it can and has been done by many.  Monavie has “made” 85 million and multi-millionaires in their short 5 year history.  Now I’m not looking to be a multi-millionaire but I do know several people who have retired from their normal careers thanks to Monavie.  But none of this is in question.  The trouble for me is this: I sense that to be evangelically oriented and MLM-minded are mutually exclusive.  Now I don’t want to make that as an absolute statement for all people for all time.  Perhaps there is a way to do this thing called Network Marketing in a way that honors God and does not interfer with the proclamation of the Gospel.  I just haven’t been convinced by the arguments.  In fact, the internet is chock full of articles and webpages devoted to convincing you that these two things are not just compatible but complimentary to one another.  Again, I’m not convinced.  I have generally detected a level of confusion concerning Gospel and its implications among the authors of such articles.

My business mentor is a professing Christian, and I believe a genuine believer.  He continues to encourage me to be friendly to everyone I meet and intentionally meet people.  He says I should (as he does) strategically interact with strangers in the checkout line and people I frequently see at Starbucks (his example) or home depot (my example).  I should then strategically, if this person is responsive to conversation, lead/steer the conversation in the hopes of getting that person to ask me the question, “What do you do for a living?”  Or to share something personal about themselves as a stepping stone into a different conversation.  This then is my opportunity to share the business model or more often, to get their contact information and set up an appointment to share some ideas with them.  This strategy is very effective.

The problem is this is all too familiar to me and it should be to you too!  This is evangelism (in strategy).  Whenever I think about doing this sort of thing I’m sidetracked by my conscience convicting me of how infrequently I think about the dying world around me.  What’s the link between the two?  I should be learning people’s names at home depot and building relationships and “networking” with people I meet in the checkout line for KINGDOM purposes, not for Monavie purposes.  These people need the GOSPEL, not a health beverage, regardless of profundity of its genuine health benefits.  When striking a conversation with strangers I try to draw them out a little and steer the conversation to get them to ask me where I went to school and what for so I can tell them my major:  biblical studies.  99% of the time they ask, “What is that?”  And BANG!  There’s my opportunity to share the gospel!  Lately this has been even easier.  I ask someone where they’re from.  They ask me.  They ask me why I moved.  They ask me why I moved to the west valley.  I tell them about the church plant…etc.  Bang!  Instant opportunity. 

The thing is, I’m TERRIBLE at this!  I’m not talking about the actual “skill” of evangelism…I’m just thoughtless to the people around me.  I’m all wrapped up in why I’m in Home Depot for the 20th time this month and what I need to get there and what I’m going to do when I get home or to the job site.  I don’t think first as an ambassador of reconciliation rather I think first about myself. 

So how do I do both?  Can it really be done?  Several leaders in my upline are professing Christians.  The one man told me he has had hundreds of opportunities to witness to people as a result of being in this business.  I believe him.  After all, part of network marketing is relationship building and so it can yield opportunities to be salt and light but in the long run it seems like it may just be a hinderance.  Other business owners don’t seem to have this problem.  My dad for instance owns an autobody shop.  People come to him because they need his services.  They sit down in his office, tell their sob story, look behind him at the poster on the wall that has all the names of Jesus and they start asking questions.  My dad has countless opportunities to share Christ to his customers.  He’s not in conflict with trying to share a product or a business opportunity on the one hand while trying to share Christ with the other.  He doesn’t need to market his business.  He has a sign and a reputation that does that for him.  Telling people about his business and the services he offers probably never even enters his mind, lest he’s in a position to help someone. 

Network marketing on the other hand is very different.  Its all a numbers game.  You need to reach more and more people with your product and business model in order to be sucessful.  Only a handful out of those people will join you or purchase your product.  So you keep pursuing more and more people with the Monavie gospel.  As Christians, we don’t view sucess strictly as “soul winning.”  To preach the Gospel is to suceed because we know that the seeds of the Gospel are planted and that another may water and yet another will harvest the fruit.  This is not so with Monavie.  Generally there’s either fruit or there’s not.  So you share and share and share and run with those who join you and move on from the multitude who won’t. 

So as I’m standing in the checkout line, the reality is I may never see this person again.  I ought to live as though this is my only opporunity.   So which message do I want to leave with them?  The message of Monavie?  A better financial future and physical health?  Or do I want to plant the seeds of the Gospel in the hopes that God would delight to grow in their hearts until they are made alive to Christ?  I don’t want to have to make that choice…to choose between my finciancial freedom and someone’s freedom from Sin and death.  Its hard enough as it is to choose to share Christ.  Do I really need something else competeing for my allegiance to the Message?  Like there aren’t enough of these already!

Laying the Axe of the Gospel to the Root of Bitterness

In leaving Community Group last night, I was encouraged to consider the sin of bitterness further but I really didn’t feel as though we had come away with a clear plan for destroying the root of bitterness. After all, it’s the root of sin that we must defend against and destroy. Otherwise we merely mask the issue with behavioral change. So in my quest to mortify the sin of bitterness in my heart I ask the question, “What can I do?” It has been established, as with all sin, that we cannot change our heart’s condition. That power lies with God and God alone. But as always I would defend that God has given us means of grace by which He normally works, through which we can best position ourselves to receive healing and experience the fullness of God’s forgiveness in the Gospel through Christ.  

Consider Matthew 18:21-35:

²¹Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” 22Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.  

 23″Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. 24When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. 26So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. 28But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ 29So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ 30He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. 31When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. 32Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ 34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” (ESV) 

Do not read this story with familiar eyes. This story is SHOCKING! How unbelievably wicked of this servant that he would call upon his debtor of 100 denarii to pay up after being forgiven a debt of 10,000! But its worse than that, isn’t it? The wicked servant seizes his servant by the neck and begins to choke him! What a picture of violence! The point of this detail in the story is to say to us, “In light of the magnitude of the debt you’ve been forgiven, to then turn and cling to bitterness against your brother is as violent and vile as seizing your brother by the neck so to choke him and throw him in prison…holding him there until his debt is paid or your sense of justice is satisfied.”

This is preposterous! We know these words of Jesus, “He who has been forgiven much loves much.” How outrageously wicked that I should EVER cling to bitterness over some perceived wrong. Where was God’s sense of justice as He passed over my 10,000 sins to claim me as His own? I’ll tell you where! It was hanging there with Christ, satisfied by the nails which pierced his hands and feet! 

To cling to bitterness, anger and resentment is to MISS the Gospel! I have been forgiven…not 10,000 days wages but 10 TRILLION. “But God shows his love for us, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” “For Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God…”  

The sin of bitterness either fails to behold the glory of the Gospel or it is simply unmoved by the mercy of God. It is an affront against God’s grace which is the pinnacle of His glory! It fails to believe that God has forgiven us, that God works every cause for bitterness for our ultimate good, that God is faithful to exact justice. Most importantly, it projects into the world the lie that there is no such thing as grace with God. The sin of bitterness displays our lack of love which in turn tells the lie that God has not forgiven much, either because sin is not so heinous as to deserve everlasting death or because God is not faithful to forgive us our sins and so we are left without hope.  

So then, if this sin results from a failure to behold the unending mercies of the Cross, then the only solution is to meditate on the holiness of God, the heinousness of our sins, the magnitude of our debt and the free Grace of God in Jesus Christ. The heart that has been captivated by the love of God in Christ for us, demonstrated by the great grace through which He loved us on the Cross, will be freed to suffer ANY injustice with joy and not bitterness. So then, let us lay the axe of the Gospel to the root of bitterness and so be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

 
 

 
 

The Misapplication of Descriptive Texts

I have just finished reading a pamphlet that I picked up at a friend’s church titled, “God’s Formula for Success,” by Pastor Clay O. McGuire. This material has spawned the following considerations:

1. The bible is full of descriptive language and prescriptive language. Descriptive language describes. So the stories in the Old Testament, much of the Gospels and of Acts are written in descriptive language. So when Acts 4 describes the early church as having “everything in common,” this is not prescription. It is not imperative language. It is indicative. No where in Acts 4 do we find commands to mirror the exact practices of the NT Church. You can argue all you’d like that there are imperatives in scripture that imply we should strictly emulate their example. Even still the Acts 4 passage can not be used as a stand alone authority on Church living.
2. Many descriptive passages in the Old Testament contain imperatives from God to a particular person(s) or people. Since these imperatives are found in the midst of a descriptive passage (a historical narrative) they are not necessarily applicable outside of their immediate context.
3. Similarly, the bible is full of promises. The object of a promise or promises may be as narrow as a single soul or a broad as all of humanity. The point is, promises are for a very specific person or people group. This is especially evident in the context of narrative. So for example, when God promised Abraham that through Him all the nations would be blessed or when He promised David in 2 Samuel 7 that his son would build the temple of God, it’s very clear this promise is not for me. They were made to Abraham and to David. I should not expect that all the nations of the earth are going to be blessed through my Eli (my son), nor that Eli is going to build God a physical temple.

   So when I read the blessings of the covenant that God made with Israel in Deuteronomy 28 I must remember that I am not under the Mosaic Covenant. Certainly there are “timeless principles” that I can derive from this passage which would have application in my life and context. But God has not made this promise to me. I should not expect that when I walk in righteousness that all the work of my hands will prosper and that I will abound in health, wealth and prosperity anymore than I should expect God to strike me with wasting disease and fever, or that I will be continually robbed and oppressed while my wife is raped each time I fall short and sin.

   A hyper-spiritual interpretation of Deuteronomy 28:1-14 is not enough to allow for Christians to apply these blessings to their lives. No, more than this, you must also completely ignore verses 15-68 since it is impossible to make sense out of these curses outside of an obviously literal interpretation.

   So how many times have you heard these same preachers preach from 28-15-68? Seems strange to me to give attention to 14 verses of blessings at the exclusion of 53 verses of curses…

   It is not enough to disciple Christians in content. We must also instruct our brothers how to rightly handle the word of God for themselves.