The world is full of strife and anger
Clashing spirits, sometimes danger
We look without and find conflict brewing
We withdraw within and begin our stewing
Former friends are now far removed
Memories lost as reality, soothed
We turn away and walk out of the room
A closing door will mark our doom
Now we sit alone surrounded by a wall
Divisions created growing ever tall
Fuel for this separation is ever present
Screens before us ever aid our descent
It is not good for man to be alone…
Is a verse for marriage, but also for home
A house divided cannot stand
We should join together, join the band
Can the damage be undone?
A divided many become one?
The world will tell you it cannot be
The truth is, it is impossible for you and me
Our hope is not in governments, policies or the words of man
The only hope is in Jesus, and in His truths we must stand
One of the most popular and well known passages in the Bible is the section of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 7:1-5:
“Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged. 2 For you will be judged by the same standard with which you judge others, and you will be measured by the same measure you use. 3 Why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye but don’t notice the beam of wood in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ and look, there’s a beam of wood in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First take the beam of wood out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye.
Matthew 7:1-5 CSB
People love to pull out anecdotes from this passage: “Don’t judge!” “Don’t be a hypocrite!” “Take the log out of your own eye!” The reason for the popularity of these verses and others like them is none of us likes to feel like we are being judged. Whether we have done something wrong or not, the feeling of standing under judgement is distasteful for us all. The naughty kid isn’t sorry he misbehaved, but sorry he was caught. The lawbreaker often would have been perfectly happy if no one had noticed that they broke the law. Even in our personal relationships at home, church and work, no one likes it when it is pointed out that we have spoken or acted in an unkind manner. To be judged is to be told you are at fault and that you are “wrong”. This is something no one enjoys.
Because of this, it is human nature to desire freedom from rules, laws and accountability, at least where our own life is concerned. The irony is we don’t want that personal freedom to interfere with our own lives when it is expressed by others. If we were honest with ourselves, we would have to admit that we all have a bit of a hypocrite in us and would prefer a world where we have the freedom to judge others while they were forbidden from judging us. I’m not going to enter into the greater discussion about the laws of the land and judgement on a larger, national scale, but instead look at what role judgement should play on a smaller scale, especially in the local church.
Should Christians “judge” one another? Judge is an interesting word and I guess it depends on what definition you are using. Paul seemed to “judge” some of the churches and people in the churches in his letters. The letters to the seven churches in the book of Revelation have a degree of judgement as to the character of some of the churches. Throughout the Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments, we see people held accountable for sinful, wrongful actions and there being consequences for those actions. When you read the language used in the New Testament, the word judge doesn’t seem to fit what is being described. Here are a few examples:
Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:1-2 ESV
This is a clear situation, someone is guilty, and they have been caught, but this doesn’t sound very much like judgement. Those who are spiritual is most likely referring to spiritually mature believers in the person’s church. They go to the guilty party and restore them with a spirit of gentleness, being careful not to be tempted towards sin on their own. This is all a part of fulfilling the command to bear one another’s burdens. Guilt over wrong doing is a burden and we help those who have committed the transgression to bear it. Bearing this burden doesn’t mean dismissing the transgression as being insignificant, but rather emphasizing that the person who sinned is more important than their transgression and the first priority is their restoration.
“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
Matthew 18:15-17 ESV
This passage is often used as a manual for dealing with sin in the church. This is a very relational process, you are going to the person who has sinned, not with the goal of condemnation, but with the goal of the person’s wellbeing and keeping your relationship with them and their relationship with the church intact. The passage ends with clear judgement, a professing Christian who is unrepentant in their sin, is essentially no longer seen as a part of the church community. This is commonly called today, church discipline.
My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
James 5:19-20 ESV
James holds up the example of someone who actively reaches out and lovingly helps someone to get back on track. This seems to be talking about someone who was a part of the church and then fell into sin. James would have been familiar with Jesus’ teaching in Matthew, so perhaps he is talking about the restoration of an unrepentant sinner, though he doesn’t spell that out.
Be on your guard. If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and comes back to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”
Luke 17:3-4 CSB
This last example passage comes from Jesus and the emphasis is on forgiveness, not judgement. Again, sin is not dismissed, but rebuked. It is never loving to ignore sin. Here the sinner is willing to repent when called to account and it is our responsibility to repeatedly forgive the person who repents. Repentant sin is always forgiven. That is what Christ models for us and it is a standard for our own behavior.
In these passages, we don’t really see judgement in the way that it would traditionally be defined, but we definitely see a process for holding people accountable when they enter into sinful behavior. So, what principles can we apply in our own attempts to remove both the planks and specks out of each other’s eyes?
Community is Key. In the Matthew 7 passage, Jesus was speaking to a large crowd of people. This is similar to a post you might make on social media or an article like this one. When we are speaking to people who we are not close with, not in a local covenant relationship with, it’s best to take the advice of the Sermon on the Mount and avoid judging all together. As I wrote in a previous article, Distance is Dangerous. The further away from a problem we are, the simpler the solution appears to be. When we look at someone’s situation from a relational distance, we don’t know the details of the situation and we often will be hearing/seeing a distorted view of reality. In the other passages shared above, one very important common denominator is community. Jesus, Paul and James direct these comments to someone who is dealing with a brother (or sister), meaning someone who is a fellow believer who you are closely walking beside. We are given the responsibility to deal with the sins of those who are a part of our local family of God. It is a part of the one another commands to all followers of Christ. We take care of one another and part of that is dealing with our sins together as a local church community.
Caution is Common. Spiritual maturity means knowing our own sinful hearts and temptations and the passage from Jesus in Matthew 7 is about being very careful about that issue. All of the passages recognize that dealing with sin can be a difficult thing and it is best to exercise extreme caution. We never ignore the sin, but first we deal with our own hearts and make sure we are right with God before we move forward to confront sin in someone’s life.
Caring is Compulsory. The importance of this happening in community is for many reasons, but one of the most important is the bond of love that exists in a local community of faith. Confrontation over sin occurs within the bonds of relationship and caring. When people know how much you love them and know you have their best interests at heart, this type of correction is much more likely to both be received and be effective.
Sometimes, we have to recognize that just as only God can save people from their sins, only God can call someone who is unrepentant in their sins back to Himself and to the church. There is a time when church discipline must take place and all we can do is pray. We shouldn’t desire this or move in this direction lightly, but it is foolish to both ignore sin and false repentance. If someone continues to live their lives in this way, the loving thing is to bring them under church discipline.
If you are here on social media just for the speck and log hunting, then Matthew 7 is definitely for you. Despite what social media says, we aren’t in true community with each other and being a ‘friend’ here is not the same things as being a brother or sister. Get back into true community, invite real living people into your lives and open the door to them being the kind of brother and sister who will practice both grace and truth towards you. That is a better life and that is real living.
“The church is not a museum for saints, it is a hospital for sinners.”
– Saint Augustine
This quote makes it around the internet, usually attributed to Saint Augustine, but sometimes to other sources like Dear Abby, Abigail Van Buren, and George Craig Stewart. No one, that I can find, was able to place this quote or a similar quote in an original source for St. Augustine, so we will just place the quote in the place of “general wisdom” that the following quote also belongs to:
“Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet.”
— A. Lincoln
Seriously though, this is one of those non-Biblical truths that resonates with people across the ages. If you were to post this quote on social media, you would get many “likes” including from people who are not a part of a local church. This is because the sides of the quote represent 2 sides of modern church life, one that is despised and the other longed for. First, let’s take a picture of the ugly side of the church, the one that shouldn’t exist, but does in place to place.
The Church as a Museum for Saints
The picture of a Museum is one that highlights things that are significant or important in some notable ways. For the most part, the things you find in museums are dead. They are exemplary models of both common and uncommon forms. When we go to a museum, we go to see what is not often encountered in real life. If the church is a museum for saints than we have a real problem, because for most of us that would put the ideal Christian life not as something to be strived for and obtained, but to be admired from a distance. It stinks of a works-based theology that is designed to leave the majority of us feeling like we aren’t good enough. This might be seen as the kind of church that the Pharisees would try to create. For many of them, even the law of Moses wasn’t enough, they had to add on many additional laws to raise the bar on entering into the status of “right with God”. Jesus described this behavior in the following ways:
46 “Beware of the scribes, who want to go around in long robes and who love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the places of honor at banquets. 47 They devour widows’ houses and say long prayers just for show. These will receive harsher judgment.”
Luke 20:46-47 (CSB)
27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and every kind of impurity. 28 In the same way, on the outside you seem righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Matthew 23:27-28 (CSB)
The first passage is a warning to the people, who shouldn’t admire the scribes just because of their appearance of having a right relationship with God. The second passage is Jesus’ direct condemnation of their behavior. This is a part of a longer passage that includes many different accusations, which can be summed up in these 2 verses. You can find the entire passage in Matthew 23:1-36. Time and distance from 1st century culture may cloud our ability to see our own corrupted heart attitudes in the “impure, hypocritical, and lawless” attitudes of the Pharisees, but if we look closely we might recognize the following in our own lives:
Treating people differently based on their income or socio-economic status
Keeping a separate life between our “church-life” and “normal-life”
Harshly judging and gossiping about someone else’s sins
Hypocritical – do as I do and not as I say – behavior
Putting on a show that everything is “fine” the moment we step into the church or encounter a Christian friend
Worrying more about what other people think than what is right according to Scripture
Making big, showy public proclamations of faith and commitment that don’t match your personal life
Only being generous when it can be done in public or in a way that benefits you
All this behavior is designed to move towards the “being honored saints in a museum” model. When we focus on this path, it is a path to human acclaim, more than right relationship with God. This doesn’t just damage the people who fall into this trap, but is discouraging to everyone and rather than drawing people towards God, turns people away from the church in distaste. One negative impact was described by John this way: 42 Nevertheless, many did believe in him even among the rulers, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, so that they would not be banned from the synagogue. 43 For they loved human praise more than praise from God. (John 12:42-43:CSB) The root of this problem, is this love of human praise above a love for God. This leads to a church where it is more about performance than heart attitudes. May that never be our church.
The Church as a Hospital for Sinners
If there is a church that our soul longs for, even if we sometimes don’t want to admit it, it is this picture of the church as a hospital for sinners. Everyone, in their heart of hearts knows “the dark night of the soul”. Even the most positive person struggles with personal sin, darkness and depression sometimes. We are all sinners and we all struggle with that sin. The Bible is clear about this: Romans 3:23. So, if God is honest about this, why can’t we be honest as well? Jesus addressed this when He was confronted with hanging out with the wrong crowd:
29 Then Levi hosted a grand banquet for him at his house. Now there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others who were reclining at the table with them. 30 But the Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 Jesus replied to them, “It is not those who are healthy who need a doctor, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Luke 5:29-32 (CSB)
The Bible tells the story of the human race and it doesn’t pull any punches. We are all sinners. It also doesn’t hide the imperfections of those who followed God in the Bible. The men and women that God used for His glory in the Old Testament could make up a list of “every kind of impurity”. In the New Testament, we see the followers of Jesus losing their temper, arguing with one another, being jealous of one another, and in general demonstrating all of the human frailties that we find in our local church. When we expand it to the NT letters, we see a complete list of sins and problems that Paul and others dealt with as they attempted to lead people to follow Jesus. They don’t hide these problems, they address them openly and as is seen over and over again, the church was a part of the solution for helping the people.
If sin is the problem (sickness) and the church is a part of the solution (hospital) then why is there such a stigma about talking about personal sin in our local churches? Almost all churches that teach the Bible talk about sin generally. We love the story of the repentant sinner whose sins are all behind them, but that isn’t the picture we find in the Bible. In the Bible, people are in the church and they are still sinning. That isn’t to say that the sin is accepted and dismissed, but the place for Christians to deal with sin is in the church where we are called to:
6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:6-9 (NIV)
13 Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
James 5:13-16
This is the picture of the church hospital. It is a place where people come together to care for one another. We don’t hide our sin or sinful nature, but instead we support each other and pray for one another. Sin is not celebrated, but it is treated. We hold up the Biblical ideals and standards and we admit that none of us are able to meet them on our own. We acknowledge our need for God’s grace in its various forms and when one of us messes up, our fellow believers/church members are the first ones to come alongside and help us to get back headed in the right direction. The church is a place of community and humility where no one considers himself better than any other. This is the model of grace and truth that Jesus was the perfect balance of.
Truth is coming right to the chase and acknowledging sin and the damage that it brings about to both that person and sometimes to many others in their lives. Grace is the love to desire nothing else than what Jesus desires, repentance and a better path. It is the celebration of the Prodigal who has returned home. It is the love of Christ that is our only hope as sinners and that is the hope that we share with all who come into our churches, seeking a respite from the harshness, hatred and weariness of the world.
28 years ago, I started my studies for a Master’s degree in Marriage and Family Counseling, a degree that would take 3 years to finish. 27 years ago, in the midst of those studies, my wife Deanna and I were married. Very quickly the academic studies became practical realities. Over the last 27 years, Deanna and I have read marriage books, went to marriage conferences and retreats and intentionally done a great deal to invest in our marriage. Some of those things were quite helpful, and our marriage has continued to get better with time, but none of the things we have heard in all of that time is the perfect silver bullet that is guaranteed to give us the perfect marriage. Part of that is there is no one thing that you can do that will permanently check the box marked “good marriage”. Instead, there are things we can learn, that when practiced daily with intentionality, can keep our marriages on the right track over a lifetime. One of the most important of which is what I’m writing about today.
One of the first marriage books I read was His Needs, Her Needs. Overall it is a pretty good book, but the most helpful concept I took away from that book was the idea that we have a “love tank” and every interaction you have with your spouse is either pouring into that tank or taking out of it. The more full the tank is, the more your marriage operates in love and grace and the less any one negative withdrawal impacts your marriage. There are many ways that we make deposits and withdrawals and another book that has some helpful concepts about ways we demonstrate our love in ways that are most meaningful to our spouse is The Five Love Languages. If you want to improve your marriage over time, learning to make these deposits is essential.
Recently, I was reading a more recent study about what is perhaps the most frequent way that we make deposits and withdrawals in all of our loved ones tanks, our words. Dr. John Gottman and Robert Levenson began studying couples in order to see if they could identify key differences between unhappy and happy couples. They asked couples to solve a conflict in their relationship in 15 minutes and then sat back and watched. They then followed these couples over the course of 9 years and in the end, based on what they had learned, they were able to predict which couples would stay together and which couples would divorce with over 90% accuracy.
What was their predictor? Something they called the “magic ratio”. Of course, it isn’t actually magic, but the power it has in a marriage is magical. The greatest predictor they found was the amount of positive and negative interactions during a conflict. The magic ratio was 5 to 1. That means that for every one negative interaction during a time of conflict, a healthy, happy marriage has at least 5 positive interactions. “When the masters of marriage are talking about something important,” Dr. Gottman says, “they may be arguing, but they are also laughing and teasing and there are signs of affection because they have made emotional connections.” By contrast, the closer a couple is to more of a 1 to 1 ratio, the higher the prediction of a looming divorce grows.
Examples of Negative interactions:
Criticism
Cutting sarcasm
Eye Rolling
Contempt
Dismissive of ideas or emotions
These are often unique to each marriage and part of being a couple is learning what things impact your spouse in the most powerful ways, both positively and negatively.
Examples of Positive Interactions:
Affection through touch or words
Appreciation for positives in your marriage or spouse
Showing empathy and understanding
Showing interest verbally or non-verbally
Playful teasing or joking
Remembering things that are important/valued by your spouse
Accepting their perspective as valid, even if you don’t agree
Looking for a middle ground that you can both agree on
Apologizing for any offense
Again, which of these are most meaningful to your spouse is something that you learn in time as you grow closer together. In a healthy relationship, we learn our spouse and love them more effectively because of the things that we have learned. In a destructive relationship, it is possible to learn all the wrong buttons to press to more easily add to the list of negative interactions. As we learn to pay attention to our interactions, it becomes easier to see where our ratio might be out of balance and start to make conscious decisions to move towards the kind of marriage that we should all want to have.
Once you start to look at a study like this, we shouldn’t be surprised that the truths that they have uncovered are very well represented in the truth from God’s Word. The Bible has a great deal to say about the subject of speech and the tongue. Here are just a few of the examples:
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.
Proverbs 18:21 NIV
Death and life are a very good parallel for negative and positive interactions. Another way to describe it would be interactions that give life and interactions that give death. Positive interactions give life to your marriage, they help fill your spouse’s love tank and they move your marriage in the direction of the beautiful picture of oneness that God has in mind. Anyone who has experienced this “life” will love to “eat its fruit.”
Pleasant words are a honeycomb, Sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
Proverbs 16:24 NIV
This Proverb is a wonderful model for positive interactions. We want to give our spouse what is sweet to their soul and healing to their bones. That is a picture of what “life-giving” means.
7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.
James 3:7-10 NIV
And this stern warning is of the other side of the coin, the dangerous power of a tongue unleashed without caution. James give the impression that the default state of our speech is poison, but in reality he is submitting his tongue to his God, knowing that it is only within the power of God to tame the tongue. This is the real hope for a lasting marriage and the only true guarantee. While the research shows that if you follow the ratio of positive and negative you will have over a 90% chance of a happy marriage, if two people move beyond that and pursue a marriage that is not based on their own abilities to treat each other well, but instead on the power of Christ and the Holy Spirit working through them, they will have a much more valuable guarantee.
With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Ephesians 4:2-3
So as you mind the ratio of your positive and negative, don’t forget the standards given to us here and other places, where the ratio is not 5 to 1, but instead all humility, all gentleness, patience, and bearing with one another in love. That is a ratio that will never fail and put your marriage on a path with Christ and His eternal power, not with your own weaknesses.
I’ve survived more than my share of church business meetings. Churches exist for many Biblical purposes, gathered together for purposes of worship, Gospel proclamation, mutual encouragement, training in righteousness and ministering to their communities, but one of the areas that you might find the church gathered together in which they are most likely to depart from these Biblical mandates is the church business meeting. This is not to say that church’s shouldn’t manage their affairs well, but this kind of gathering is one of the most revealing of the hearts of the participants. Many people gather together to encourage and challenge one another to be more involved in the ministry opportunities of the church, but there are some who seem determined to speak and act against others in these situations, often over issues that are far more personal than spiritual. I was reminded of these situations when reading in 1 Timothy 6 this morning.
Teach these things, Timothy, and encourage everyone to obey them. 3 Some people may contradict our teaching, but these are the wholesome teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. These teachings promote a godly life. 4 Anyone who teaches something different is arrogant and lacks understanding. Such a person has an unhealthy desire to quibble over the meaning of words. This stirs up arguments ending in jealousy, division, slander, and evil suspicions. 5 These people always cause trouble. Their minds are corrupt, and they have turned their backs on the truth. To them, a show of godliness is just a way to become wealthy.
1 Timothy 5:2b-5 NLT
Timothy was a young pastor/church leader. He had been trained under Paul and was now doing his best to serve the church at Ephesus that Paul had begun. There are many pastors like Timothy, out there trying to continue to serve the Lord and the people of God by teaching the truth of God’s Word and leading those people in obedience to it. It can be a difficult job. It can lead to a great deal of heartache and frustration. From this passage, here are a few “guys” that we should strive not to be as we function as a part of our local body of faith and as we participate in our communities both in person and online as representatives of our local church and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Don’t be arrogant – Our confidence is in Christ and in the truth of God’s Word, not in our own opinions and intelligence. Humility, rather than arrogance is the ecosystem of church interaction. The Bible encourages over and over again humble ourselves (1 Peter 5:6, James 4:10, Philippians 2:3) and promises honor, wisdom and grace for the humble (Proverbs 15:33, 11:2, James 4:6).
Don’t lack understanding, with an unhealthy desire to quibble over the meaning of words – I put these two together because they are connected. It is not bad to understand the meaning of words. We need to have well defined language. That is the basis of truth and what brings understanding. The negative is this quibbling that Paul is talking about. Looking at what your brother and sister in Christ has said and either assuming the worst or picking apart what they said, trying to find fault. This is about going to them in private and making sure you understood what was said, but actually creating misunderstanding by the way you interpret their speech.
Don’t stir up arguments and trouble – This is representative of a divisive spirit (Galatians 5:15, Proverbs 16:28). There are ways to disagree and discuss that don’t stir up arguments and there are other ways that either intentionally or unintentionally throw gasoline on the smallest of spark. We are not to be like this, stirring up trouble that leads to…
Jealousy, division, slander and evil suspicions. All of these things are very destructive to a community of faith. This represents human sins expressed in ways that are destructive to your believing community. You may be unfortunate enough to remember a specific instance where someone you know stirred up this kind of trouble and created division among believers. Many verses in Scripture speak out against this kind of behavior. Some examples are Romans 12:16, Galatians 5:26, Romans 12:18.
Don’t let your mind be corrupted, but keep it immersed in the truth – we all consume a variety of information every day. This can be from God’s Word, social media, the news, entertainment or people we interact with. What we consume has a great power to influence the way we think. The only way to avoid a corrupt mind is to avoid turning our backs on the truth. Spending time each day in the truth is a great way to keep our hearts and minds tuned to Christ Jesus. (Psalm 119)
Don’t make the church about money – Money is important. Generally, more money allows the church to do more things, but it is a terribly dangerous tool that can be used to divide and corrupt believers. Paul talks more about this later in this same passage. We should be careful not to let money control our lives or the life of our church. We are called to be good stewards (1 Peter 4:10), but we are not to allow our lives to be driven and controlled by money (Hebrews 13:5)
Even if you never go to a church business meeting, I hope you will find this guidance as helpful for all of your interactions with fellow believers, both in person and on-line. God has given us to one another to be a great blessing as we walk together in faith. When we follow Him in obedience, we are better together and the church will aid us in our pursuit of Christ, not a be a detriment or a discouragement. Make sure that is true of you in all your “meetings” with the Body of Christ.
What happened to Lazarus? He is the center figure (other than Jesus), in one of the most significant, well-known stories in the Bible. The events take place in a way that is designed so there would be no doubts that Lazarus was dead and then he was alive again. From the Gospels, we learn that Lazarus was a dear friend of Jesus, who fell terribly ill. By this time, Jesus was well known for his healings and given that, the family did the obvious thing in their time of need. They wanted Jesus to know about Lazarus’ illness. Jesus’ response is fascinating:
When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
John 11:4-7 NIV
By this time, the disciples had already seen many unexpected things and when Jesus said this, I’m sure they thought that Lazarus would get better. After all, Jesus loved Lazarus, He loved this family and Jesus obviously is able to heal people, so it is only logical that if Jesus needed to heal Lazarus, he would have headed to Bethany right away. Instead, he waits 2 more days. The disciples aren’t happy about the decision to go back to Judea. The last time they were in that area, the Jewish leaders were ready to stone him. They argue with Jesus, thinking that Lazarus will be okay. In the end, Jesus has to speak very directly to them:
So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead,and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
John 11:14-16 NIV
The two statements Jesus made before the resurrection are very telling as well. “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” and “for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe.”
I won’t recount the resurrection story here, but you should check it out in John 11. Jesus allowed the events to take place in a way that Lazarus would not only die, but that he would be dead long enough so that there was no doubt that he was really dead. He had died and he had been prepared for burial and left in what would turn out to be only the first tomb of Lazarus. In Church history, Lazarus was considered a saint and some would even call him, “Lazarus the Four Days Dead”. Many of events of Jesus’ ministry were down in more isolated places, even the large gatherings were outside of the city centers. By the time this event happened, Jesus had already developed a considerable following and there had been several events with the religious leaders that had them looking for ways to come after Jesus. Jesus was their target, but interestingly enough after this event, Lazarus was as well. We read about this in the next chapter:
“But the chief priests had decided to kill Lazarus also, because he was the reason many of the Jews were deserting them and believing in Jesus.”
John 12:10-11 CSB
The resurrection of Lazarus had many witnesses. After it happened, everyone in the region heard about it, including the religious leaders in Jerusalem. The chief priests were not disputing the miracle of Lazarus, but instead, they were determined to reverse it. They hated Jesus so much, they were plotting to kill Lazarus. They knew they were losing political and religious power and Lazarus was evidence, walking around, that Jesus was greater than they were.
It is important to remember that Lazarus was still going to die and ultimately, Scripture doesn’t record that event. Church history and tradition tell us he would later go on to be a church leader on the island of Cyprus, but according to that same tradition, he would die a second time and there is a tomb there that marks his grave. Lazarus is significant to the story because of Jesus. The priests wanted to kill him because of Jesus, not because of anything that Lazarus had done.
This is what it means to have a true and relevant testimony for Christ. When we proclaim the Truth about Jesus, some will reject it, some will accept it and some might want to persecute or kill us because of Jesus. Our role is to be like Lazarus. We are all those who once were dead in our sins, but now are alive in Christ. Our testimony is not our own. It is not significant what we have done, but the miraculous work that Jesus has done in our lives. Both by providing salvation and by transforming us daily into His image. This good work of God doesn’t make us acceptable to all men. In fact, it is promised that many will reject us and some will want to do us harm. Life in Christ makes it worth it all.
So ultimately, what happened to Lazarus after the resurrection wasn’t that important. According to church history, the chief priests’ plot to kill Lazarus was not successful. Instead, he was able to live out the rest of his life continuing to accomplish his greatest purpose, which was proclaimed by Jesus before Lazarus’ resurrection: bringing glory to God and to God’s Son. That is our purpose as well. We testify that we were once dead in our sins, but now have been resurrected in Christ. In our own way, we are all dead people, resurrected and walking around, proclaiming the Truth of our resurrection on this earth until we, like Lazarus, will face physical death and pass into eternity with Christ. That is our greatest purpose as followers of Him and every day we can choose to serve that purpose in order to bring Him glory by our testimony of His’ Truth.
Hope is an important word, with an important meaning behind it. When I was in counselor training, one of the worst problems you would ever find was a lack of hope. When people have lost hope, then it impacts their capability to deal with all their problems, no matter the severity. Hope allows us to come back from terrible tragedies. It allows sport’s teams to pull off incredible upsets. Hope can provide a path out of some very dark places.
By contrast, when someone loses their hope, it can lead to depression, despair and the unwillingness to even try for a better outcome. If you or one of your friends have ever been in that place, you might be able to understand what I’m talking about. It is very difficult to get out of that place, and some might say it takes a miracle. What it really takes is something better to put our hope in.
People place their hope in lots of people and things. It is very common to believe that “more” of something that you have will make your life better. This is most frequently money, but it could be more freedom, more possessions, more power, a better position, better friends or a better place to live in a better community. In this scenario, the problem is only one of access. Other people have better access to what I need and that is why I’m not happy. It is a belief that the answers to our problems are concrete and real, but slightly out of reach.
This kind of hope is tantalizing. It is also the main kind of hope the world is selling to us. Politicians love to sell this kind of hope, because they can always promise to do better and to give you more of what you want the next time. Employers use this as motivation to drive us on to work harder, longer and with more commitment. Advertisements are centered around the hope of a better life through the products and services that they sell you. Whatever your problem or desire, someone is out there trying to sell you something that will give you what you want, need or require. What they are selling is hope, and it is a very cheap, usually false hope that cannot give us what we ultimately need.
In the 12 step program made famous by Alcoholics Anonymous, many of the steps focus on this need for a sense of hope. Few things can destroy a life so thoroughly as substance abuse and the creators of the program recognize that human effort is not enough to give people hope when they are in the spiral of despair caused by addiction. All of those offers of hope from the world are powerless to save someone who has lost hope, for that we need something better. Step 2 calls on the addict to believe that there is something greater than themselves that can give them the power to “restore themselves to sanity”.
The actions that follow involve familiar faith themes of committing our lives to God’s care, confession, repentance, prayer, and the community of accountability with other strugglers. The Bible talks about this as a better hope. This is a hope that is not based on religious ritual or human effort, but on the power of God.
“So the previous command is annulled because it was weak and unprofitable (for the law perfected nothing), but a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.”
Hebrews 7:18-19 CSB
God annuls the old covenant. Man has proven that “the law perfected nothing.” All the religious efforts or systems of following religious rules did not give true hope. In their own way, they are similar to other false hopes, such as money or power. In this new hope, there is no dependence on man, but only a drawing near to God, so that we might more fully rely on Him in everything. This is the better hope that is offered to all of us, a hope in Jesus Christ. This is clarified later in this passage:
Because of this oath, Jesus has also become the guarantee of a better covenant.Now many have become Levitical priests, since they are prevented by death from remaining in office. But because He remains forever, He holds his priesthood permanently. Therefore, He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them.
Hebrews 7:22-25 CSB
When we search the promises of God, we find many good things promised to us in His Word, but this is the promise of that better hope, the one that will see us through the challenges and trials that life brings. This is our only place to put our hope in which Jesus is the one who guarantees it. In the advertising world, people will often promise a “lifetime guarantee”, but this is Jesus’ forever guarantee. “He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them.” That is something to be truly hopeful for. It is a hope, not just for tomorrow, but for eternity.
We live in a world that is both bigger and smaller than previous generations. Technology and the internet have brought the far away close to us. It is not unusual for people to regularly interact with people on the other side of the world for business or common interests. This has fundamentally changed the way people think about distance. Some have called this the “flattening” of the world. This is meant to convey that the distance from one point on the globe to another is no longer defined in the same way. People in one part of the world are often heavily involved in decisions that impact another part of the world. People provide services from one country to another and whole countries’ economies are built based on the idea that they will serve the needs of people they will never meet in person.
This is an amazing reality to live in and it does have its advantages. We have access to a global economy and a connection to people, places and things that our ancestors would have never dreamed of. Want to learn a foreign language? You don’t need to depend on what is offered at your local school or university, you can actually have personal classes from a native speaker without leaving your home. Need a very obscure or rare part for your car or computer? You can probably have it shipped to your house within a few days. Need to know how to do something or fix something? A video or step by step instructions are a quick search away. People today and the generation being raised today believe in access. Information and gratification are available to all and most of it without delay. Everything is instant, but that doesn’t always make it true and even access to truth in some form doesn’t provide the wisdom needed to properly apply the information gained. There is a problem with distance in a giant world that has become as small as the neighborhood you grew up in. There is a real danger in the environment that creates.
What is the danger? Let’s call it the complexity of humanity. Every one of us has lived through this, whether you would identify it as such or not. This situation occurs whenever someone makes any decision that impacts you that has little to do with the specifics of your situation. Whenever a general rule or a general assumption is applied the amount of distance between the rule and the situation has a dramatic impact on validity. If we were to make a “general rule” about this issue of distance in human complexity, we might say that, generally, the closer to the problem, the more helpful the solution. It might be helpful to look at a few situations to explain this better.
This could be called “there is an exception for every rule“. Growing up, most likely the adults in your life gave you rules. You had rules for your household, rules for your school and maybe rules for other groups you were a part of. We have all lived under some kind of structure like this. Usually, the person putting these rules in place is doing what they think is best for the group over which they have responsibility over. The rule may make sense, generally, and it is possible that it is indeed a good basic rule, but the larger the group (the more individual humans) you are applying the rule to, the more likely that general rule is not a good and fair rule in every circumstance. The amount of “distance” between those who established the rules and those governed by the rules and those living by the rules increases the complexity of creating good and fair rules or laws. Not only does it impact it on this level, but it has an extreme impact on the adjudication of those laws. The rule keepers gradually lose the capability of fair judgement the less they actually know the people whom they are holding accountable. Instead of dealing with them as people, whose circumstances may require allowances for the specific situation, they are just another number, who is forced to comply by the letter of the law.
Another situation might be called the “grass roots example”. You have probably seen a situation where a problem, challenge or tragedy has impacted the community and that specific community has risen up to deal with the problem in a unique way. This change happens for 2 main reasons. First, those who are most impacted by the problem are highly engaged and committed to finding a solution. They have lived out the situation and know firsthand the impact it had on their lives and the lives of family, friends and neighbors. Because of this, they have a strong internal commitment to persevering through difficulties in order to see the problem solved. Secondly, their firsthand knowledge of the situation allows them to understand it at a level that isn’t possible for an outsider. That doesn’t mean that they can’t benefit from outside information or advice, but ultimately, they have information that may not be apparent to even the most well educated outsider. The combination of these 2 factors give a movement good potential for enacting tangible change which improves the situation. By contrast, when you introduce distance into the equation, it is easy to see that the further away from the problem you get, the less helpful discussion and potential solutions can become. Distance also impacts the commitment to work towards a solution. Someone who doesn’t have any skin in the game is more likely to bail before the work is done or to not being committed to doing their part of the work.
Related to this, might be called the “national conversation” problem. The information age has left most of us with just enough information about many things to be dangerous. Especially with social media, it is easy to see how a groundswell of this type of distance emotion can spread, even if it is based on almost no true knowledge and understanding of the specifics. We rely on others to relay a soundbite/bullet point synopsis of whatever is going on in our country and the world and then before you know it, we are making memes, forwarding posts and even getting in arguments with people about something that it might not even be possible for us to have a truly informed opinion about. The cost of admission to enter this national conversation may seem free, but it is possible it costs us our integrity. The more distance between us and the situation on the ground, the more careful we should be about jumping into this conversation with our opinion. Neighborhoods and cities have been changed by the force of will of groups who have never lived in those places and whose passing interest will move on much more quickly than thecollateral damageleft behind can be repaired.
One more example might be called “posturing for effect“. In 2021, as is common in most years, nations from around the world met on Earth Day to talk about improving the environment. The environment is one of those big issues that governments especially like to weigh in on. The White House made a commitment to “reduce US emissions by 50% from 2005 levels by 2030; commitment is symbolic but nonbinding”. This was pulled from a first summary paragraph in a major news publication. That last phrase perfectly summarizes this problem: “symbolic, but nonbinding“. This is how you get environmental leaders flying around the world in private jets and taking limousines to environmental meetings. The distance between the life they live and the problem they are addressing is extreme. When you have decision makers and leaders who are put in charge of things, but who are making a decision that will not impact them personally or their own personal behavior, you get bad decisions and hypocrisy. Being good stewards of the environment is something we should all take seriously, but the problem is best addressed by looking at what is in front of us and working to make that better. If we are not addressing the problem that is right in front of us, it is difficult to make sound decisions for others in encouraging or requiring them to address the problems in front of them. The more distance between the problem and the person trying to solve it, the less sound the decision. Public figures who are elite and/or wealthy of all types are often guilty of this posturing.
If you are still with me, you may be wondering, what is the main point or why are you talking about these things on a blog about Seeing God? The point is this, there are many movements in this world that are pushing towards taking problems and putting the solutions in the hands of people who have nothing to do with the problem. Humans, as I said earlier, are complex and the further away you get from the individuals the more it is impossible to deal with this complexity. When you have one leader who is trying to make decisions about what is best for millions, the only way to deal with that complexity is to ignore many of the people or simplify their needs and desires down to vague representations of their reality. We are not only complex, but we are human. We desire community. We need to be known by others. We don’t want to just be a number in a spreadsheet, but a real person, with a real story behind our life. A story that matters to us and which we hope matters to other people.
God has designed us this way. Jesus was God made flesh among us (John 1:14), so that He who is God would not just be a sovereign God in Heaven above, but a real, living savior, who closed every bit of distance between God and man and became the perfect mediator for us (1 Timothy 2:5). Jesus was the perfect embodiment of firsthand human experience. “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” Hebrews 4:15. God solved our greatest problem by sending His son to live this sinless life on the earth and to reconcile us to God through His sacrificial death. Because of this, we are no longer distant from God, but we have had all that separates us from Him removed. “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” James 4:8
By the same principle, we don’t solve the problems in our community by expending all of our thoughts and energy focused on someone else’s community. We have limited capability to have an impact on a problem we read about or watch a video about on the internet, but the impact we have on our own community is limited only by our willingness to get off our computer and go out into that community. Whether it is through individual love and care, volunteering, banding together with others to work towards reasonable solutions or even by spending time in prayer, we can change our communities. Our hearts and our first actions for overcoming the problems of our world must start with the people we are surrounded by. Wherever you live, your community needs Jesus and they need those who love and follow Jesus to be His hands and feet to them.
Finally, I hope you will realize the true danger in putting the solutions to your problems in the hands of those who are the most distant from you and your community. When we turn to people like this to solve our problems, we should realize we have no right to complain about the sub-par results we will get. It is the nature of the situation. The closer to the problem, the more helpful the solution. The farther away from the problem, ignorance, lack of commitment and engagement and misinformation make any helpful solution unlikely.
When it comes to your community, close the distance. When it comes to telling other people how to solve the problems in their communities, keep your distance!
Writing about stories out of history can be a challenge. Some authors choose to focus on events that everyone is very familiar with or choose subjects who were the most well known in the time that they lived in. These events and people tend to be fixed in people’s minds as we build a picture from the shadow of our collective memory. Little bits and pieces that we pick up or hear from a variety of sources that impact our understanding of history. Others choose the more obscure events and individuals and start with more of a blank slate for most of their readers. This is easier, but often greatly limits the reach of the work for most writers.
My favorite works of historical fiction are books like this one, which blend the two styles by taking someone who everyone knows and weaving it together with another story that intertwines with the life of that famous person. Charles Spurgeon is one of the most well-known preachers and theologians to ever live and the sheer number of his own writings could fill a reader’s slate for years. What he is less known for are his writings against slavery and his personal struggles with self-doubt and his personal and family’s physical sufferings.
Steal Away Hometells the remarkable story of a slave, Thomas Johnson, who first heard of Mr. Spurgeon when he was forced by his master to throw Mr. Spurgeon’s anti-slavery writings into a raging bonfire, created entirely of Spurgeon’s writings. The authors properly treat the lives of both Mr. Spurgeon and Mr. Johnson with weight and dignity as they recount their remarkable lives both up to the point of their meeting and the friendship they would have until Mr. Spurgeon’s passing.
In the time that we live in currently, where the emphasis is often on what divides us as individuals and groups, this story is a very timely telling of the fellowship Christians can find in Christ, even when they are drawn from such divergent backgrounds. Thomas Johnson, with his own background of personal suffering was able to recognize Charles Spurgeon’s own suffering from the time of their first meeting and see him not as one of the most famous people in the world, but a fellow brother in Christ, who needed ministering too.
This story is beautiful example for all believers as we seek to move forward in the challenging world that we live in. It is important that we open ourselves up to other believers, both for their benefit and our own. Spurgeon was known for his brilliant mind and booming voice in the pulpit, but his ministry as a pastor was also enhanced by his vulnerability and willingness to learn from others. 33 years of Mr. Spurgeon’s life were spent sick or depressed. Mr. Johnson spent the first 28 years of his life, living as a slave and experienced the loss of his dear wife early on in his ministry. Both of these men did not live easy lives, and yet they tell of how the Lord refined them through their suffering.
Especially touching is the story of Mr. Johnson’s testimony. Even though he would be 28 before he was physically freed from bondage, he experienced the release from spiritual bondage at an earlier age through Jesus Christ. The title of the book comes from the name of a hymn that was especially meaningful to Mr. Johnson during his life, both in his time as a slave and afterward and which would become meaningful to Mr. Spurgeon as well through their fellowship with one another. It is a reminder of the life to come, when our suffering and tears will finally come to an end and we will all find peace and rest with Jesus.
This book is the best one I’ve read this year and I highly recommend you read it for yourselves. You can purchase it here. I listened to the audiobook version through my subscription to Scribd. Scribd provides access to thousands of books and audiobooks for a low monthly fee. You should check it out. Below you will find the text for the hymn:
Every week, almost every day of the week, evil expresses itself in the form of a mass shooting. A disturbed individual for a variety of confused/warped/demented reasons crosses the line from thinking evil thoughts to acting on those thoughts. Sometimes this ends with them taking their own life and we can only guess about what led them to this destination. Other times, they express themselves directly about the form of evil that we are dealing with. No matter who the person is, nor what the expressed cause or reason is, what we are dealing with is evil.
This year, as of April 8th of 2020, there have been 133 mass shooting incidents in the 98 days we have experienced so far. More than 500 people have been wounded in those shootings, with hundreds more traumatized by the shooters and 167 individuals losing their lives. You might be shocked to learn there are so many, especially when only a few are highlighted in the national media. Unless one of the others occurred in your city or state, you most likely never heard about it. This ongoing tragedy has impacted many and each one of these events has their own distinctions that leave their communities shaking their heads, wondering how it could have been prevented.
Evil is real and this is just one of its ugly expressions in our world. It is an evil that has many victims and leaves behind a trail of carnage that is wider than those who are directly impacted by a shooting.
Some of the victims:
Obviously, those who were shot are victims, both those who survive and those who don’t
The family members and close friends of the victims are greatly impacted as well. They have to process both their loss and support the survivors as they attempt to recover.
The family members of the perpetrator suffer as well. Sometimes they are more directly involved, but other times, they have suffered before the event and will continue to suffer with the weight of their family member’s evil choices.
The communities – Sometimes, events like this don’t destroy the communities that they impact, but help bring them together. Other times, the ripple effect goes on for years with a far reach, damaging many outside of the immediate circle of impact. This can damage a town, a school, a church or many other communities touched by this evil.
A shooting is a horrible event that changes the lives of all of the people involved. Unfortunately, how we respond can cause the pain and suffering to increase. In recent years, in addition to the normal questions and coverage of these tragic events, additional damage is sometimes done by the nature of how the information is reported to the public. Back in 1989, I took a Journalism 101 class. The main emphasis of that class was on the ethics and responsibility of journalists. While writing this article, I took the time to look at the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics, available here:
It’s quite striking to read through this page of guidelines when thinking about the way many things are reported, but especially events like mass shootings. Some of the comments from that page:
Take responsibility for the accuracy of their work. Verify information before releasing it.
Remember that neither speed nor format excuses inaccuracy (Do Tweets count?)
Avoid stereotyping. Journalists should examine the ways their values and experiences may shape their reporting.
Never deliberately distort facts or context, including visual information.
Balance the public’s need for information against potential harm or discomfort.
Show compassion for those who may be affected by news coverage.
Balance a suspect’s right to a fair trial with the public’s right to know.
This Code of Ethics is designed because even in areas of journalism, there are lines that should not be crossed. There is the potential of evil in the reporting about events, just as in the evil of the event. In my opinion, when it comes to mass shootings, as the media and perhaps we ourselves talk about those events, we have the potential to contribute our own evil, similar to throwing gasoline on a fire. Here are some of the ways:
Making the evil perpetrator, famous. Those who commit these evil acts, should not have their names in the news constantly. No one should think that committing evil like this is a great way to get your name remembered.
Using the event to make a political statement. It has become common to look at one of these atrocities and if the parameters fit the narrative that someone wants to sell politically, using it as nothing more than a tool to achieve political means. One of the main reasons so few of the 133 mass shootings this year have been reported is because they don’t fit a popular narrative. Over-reporting a few shootings because they do fit the story someone wants to tell isn’t any more fair to the victims than ignoring the many that don’t because they are outside those parameters. One uses victims, the other invalidates victims.
Trying to contribute to racial strife. Related to the point above, some outlets seem determined to examine the race of those involved in every one of these events and immediately either ignore it or begin pushing a specific narrative of racial conflict so that the entire world knows about any incident that fits their aims. If the race of the perpetrator is the one they are looking for, the incident will be blown up to a national story immediately. Just this year, there have been 13 mass shootings where at least 4 people lost their lives, but only 2 of them became national stories and most of the 120 other mass shootings were ignored completely. This more than any other of these problems, should make us realize that there is an attempt by many in the media to manipulate us towards racial strife. Sometimes it seems that they are openly trying to incite a race war.
Running many unnecessary details that cause those involved to lose access to privacy. Having to immediately be in the public eye after suffering such a tragedy can be very damaging to those involved.
Reporting information that isn’t verified. This probably is compounded by the underreporting of any corrections that are later offered. There are instances of falsely accused individuals and their families suffering from vigilante justice and doxing due to irresponsible reporting.
These are just a few of the unhelpful ways that the public can add to the evil that has already been suffered by the victims of a mass shooting. It is important to remember that from a distance, it is often difficult to understand the intricacies of any situation and the further we get away from a problem, the less likely we are able to contribute anything positively to its resolution.
By contrast, if we want to help not only in crisis situations, but also help prevent this type of evil in our community, we can reach out in very practical ways. Evil will always be on this earth and we don’t reduce its true footprint by changes in laws, policy and talking about other people. The only true power on earth to reduce evil is God alone, for only He can change the hearts of men and women away from evil. If we want to act in our communities to really help, we have to be willing to care enough to cross relational lines and barriers and develop community with real people. Here are some tangible ways:
Mental health is a serious problem, we should seek to promote good mental health. If you have experience that could help others, be willing to volunteer to lead or participate in a group. Encourage your church to host groups for both Christians and non-Christians. Be a good advocate for mental health initiatives in your community. We want everyone to know the peace of God and we are agents of that peace. This can mean praying for people, caring for their needs or just listening. Be a good friend. Philippians 4:6-7
People lack good community. Practice it yourself by building relationships with others and gathering together. This world can be a very lonely place and we can help others by being catalytic gatherers for good community in whatever contexts we are in. Hebrews 10:25
Recognize the hurting people around you and be willing to engage in the difficult task of reaching out to them and showing the love of Christ. Don’t be the one who didn’t act when the Holy Spirit was leading you to reach out. Proverbs 17:17
As long as we live in this world, we will have to deal with the presence of evil, but we don’t have to be a part of it. We don’t need to contribute to it. Instead, we are called to conquer evil, not be conquered by it. Romans 12:21 gives the path:
Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.
Seeing God 