Sometimes The Truth Hurts

I had just finished reading a terrific blog post - 10 Reasons Our Kids Leave Church - when I saw a Facebook post from a former youth (who has not left church):

“I know where I'm going and I know the truth, and I don't have to be what you want me to be. I'm free to be what I want.”

Muhammad Ali

One of the points in the blog is that we, the church, have often failed to teach our youth the basic principles of our Christian faith. We too often “dumb down” the gospel message to make it cool, or make it more palatable. In an effort to get numbers, we make the gospel out to be a feel-good message, filled with emotions, self-fulfillment and good deeds. But that is not the gospel message and to our discredit, too many youth walk away from church never understanding the basic truths of the gospel message, or even where to turn (i.e. the Bible) for truth.

Muhammed Ali was a great boxer, but he was also a Muslim. He did not know the truth. The truth of the gospel is not freedom for me to be who I want to be, it is freedom to be who God has created me to me. It is a paradox of submission to God bringing freedom. It is giving up all that I am and all that I want for the sake of who God wants me to become. It is well and good to not be who others want me to be, but it is no better for me to be who I want to be. The only one that matters is God. Hope is only found in surrendering myself to Him and denying self. It is only then that I will experience genuine freedom - a freedom that is completely alien to the rest of the world.

This is the gospel that is found in scripture. It is the same gospel that claims that eternal life comes only through Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior, the Messiah, the one and only Son of God. It is the gospel message that few read in the lines of the New Testament simply because few read the New Testament, apart from isolated passages preached on Sunday morning. In the case of youth it may be even less. For far too many the Bible is only read when it is read to them, and even then few are paying attention. And very few, youth and adults alike, are taking the time to digest the truth, to contemplate what it means and how it must affect their own lives. Very few wrestle with difficult truths of scripture and agonize over the application. And almost no one is willing to take risks, to live radically different when they are confronted with those truths.

Our disservice, as leaders in the church, is that we have allowed that to be okay. We have sold a gospel message that emphasizes a momentary event for getting a ticket to heaven. We have allowed people to believe that minuscule changes are enough, both in how we teach and in how we live. We have allowed people to believe that they can still love much of the world as long as they don’t love it all. We have reduced discipleship to warm, fuzzy, feel-good, relationship drivel. We have allowed passivity, apathy, and laziness, for fear of offense or driving some to leave. But many have left anyway because what we have to offer is not so much different from what they can find in the philosophy of Muhammed Ali. 

Eternal Life

"Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was."

-- John 17:1-5

We make much of eternal life - it is, perhaps the most enticing benefit of the Christian faith. But I wonder, sometimes, if we make much of a misunderstanding of what eternal life is. Jesus says that, “This is eternal life, that they may know You (God the Father), the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” When we think of eternal life we most often think of heaven, living forever in some form of resurrected bodies, free from pain and suffering. But that is not how Jesus describes eternal life. Eternal life is knowing God and knowing Jesus Christ our savior. 

In that sense, eternal life is not something that happens at some point in the future, eternal life is something that we should have now. If I know the Father and I know the Son, then I have eternal life. Jesus does not say, “this will be eternal life,” he says, “this is eternal life.” 

If we understand this, we might also look at 1 John a little differently. In 1 John we are told that if we claim to know God, but live in darkness, than we really don’t know him. If we don’t know him, we don’t have eternal life, not now, not ever. John explains further in his letter that someone who does not obey the commands of God and the teachings of Jesus, does not know the Father or the Son. Even more specifically, someone who does not love his brother, does not know God. 

We should be careful to understand that 1 John is not laying out requirements for us to inherit eternal life, he is simply stating how the evidence of eternal life, already inherited, should look in our lives. Living in the light is evidence that you have eternal life. Obeying the commands of Christ is evidence of eternal life. Love for your brother, is evidence of eternal life. If you are banking on eternal life as a future event, than you have missed one of the most amazing points of the gospel message. If you think that you will inherit eternal life in the future without showing evidence that you have already inherited it, than you are thinking quite wrongly and you will be sorely disappointed when Christ is separating the sheep and the goats. 

Fan Into Flame Our Faith

There is an interesting theme in Paul’s second letter to Timothy, if we are willing to see it, but too often we only see how it starts and construct the rest of the message to fit what we want to hear. Hear is how Paul starts in 2 Timothy 1:5-6

“I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and I am persuaded, now lives in you also. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.”

This is a great reminder for Timothy and as we read we can be reminded to fan into flame our own gift of faith. But look at how Paul expects this to happen and ask if you are willing to take Paul’s instructions further than 2 Timothy 1:6.

2 Timothy 1:8

“So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God.”

2 Timothy 2:1 & 3

“ You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus... Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.”

2 Timothy 2:8-10

“Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.”

2 Timothy 3:10-12, 14

“You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings - what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted... But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of...”

2 Timothy 4:5

“But you, keep your head in all situations, endue hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.”

It is odd how we will read Paul’s initial charge to “fan into flame” our faith and be encouraged, but be perfectly willing to ignore the rest of his instructions to Timothy. But I don’t think Paul thought it was possible to have faith increase and have it expressed passionately without enduring hardship and suffering. And I don’t think Paul was merely talking about enduring the standard hardships that just come with life, he was talking, specifically, about suffering for the sake of the gospel. He was talking about persecution for the sake of his faith, targeted persecution from people who hated the messages he was spreading. 

How willing are we to embrace all of Paul’s message to Timothy? Do we only want to read 2 Timothy 1:6 and pretend that we can develop a passionate faith without persecution? How eager are we for our faith to be fanned into a flame?

Do We Know Him?

“We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.”

-- I John 2:3-6

If we have truly studied the teachings of Jesus, without the conservative, patriotic, American filter, then this passage should make us very troubled, but it is amazing to me how many can read and/or listen to this passage and feel so comfortable and be so unfazed. I was wondering about this while listening to the sermon on this passage today, and it occurred to me that people feel most comfortable when they are ignorant of the truth. Most people feel comfortable with this passage because they believe that they are already doing what God has commanded of them. They believe that they are, in fact, following the teachings of Christ.

But are we...?

Are we willing to sell all we have (or anything at all) and give it to the poor? Are we willing to give up everything we own for the sake of following Christ? Will we lay down our lives for our faith? Would we really follow Jesus to the most depraved ends of the earth to spread the gospel? Can we love our enemies, even when they are Hamas, or Al Qaida or a brutal dictator or a communist or anyone else who would gladly kill someone who believes that Jesus is the Christ? Are we showing by the way we live that we are willing to make costly sacrifices for the sake of our brothers and sisters? Do we embrace suffering and “taking up our cross” for the sake of Christ? Can we love the unloveable?

The list goes on and on and the more I write the more a squirm. We have been duped into believing that Christian faith is all about going to church, being nice, singing fuzzy, feel-good songs, living morally and voting republican. We believe we are doing what God has commanded simply because of a single symbolic act of surrender and faithful or semi-faithful attendance at religious events. But many Christians don’t realize the depth of God’s commands because they have never truly studied his commands. Most Christians do not fully appreciate how costly and difficult (and how joyous and fulfilling) it is to follow the teachings of Jesus, because they have never taken the time to read, or study or try to understand the full scope of his teachings.  And even if they do read his most difficult commands they ignore the depths of the implications or they rationalize easier ways to fulfill what they consider the “intent” of the teaching. Or they believe that the teachings do not apply to them specifically because they haven’t felt the “calling” to do them. Too often our faith is shallow because we never even look for depth, we are perfectly content in our shallow ignorance. Why should I be threatened by I John if I believe all that matters is weekly attendance at church. If that is what God commands, I’m doing it and all is good. 

But all is not good. Most of us do little in the way of continuing to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Seldom does our gratitude to God compel us to live radically different lives that Jesus demonstrated for us. And the problem is not that we are not doing enough, the problem is that we do not know God like we should. Because, if we did, we would do so much more. Our obedience is an indicator of faith in the one who has given us life and our ignorance and/or disregard for how to be obedient speaks volumes about how distant we are from God.