There is always a tendency for Christians to latch onto those parts of the Bible that they find appealing while ignoring those portions that they don’t like so much. We can be quite selective in what we run with and emphasise in Scripture. And this happens quite often.
We are of course to believe and proclaim the whole counsel of God, as Paul told the Ephesian elders (see Acts 20:27). The pastor or teacher especially must keep this in mind. But so too do all believers. We cannot just pick and choose what we like or what makes us feel good. ALL Scripture is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16).
However, our temperament or personality may well determine which parts of the Bible we are more drawn to. And there can be a place for this – at least to an extent. We all know of Christians who tend to concentrate on love and compassion for example. And guess what? We SHOULD be loving and compassionate.
The problem is, however, that sometimes this can come at the expense of justice, righteousness and holiness. So those on the religious left who tend to champion all things homosexual and transgender will usually say they are just showing God’s compassion and care for others. But they ignore or completely overlook the sin question.
Yes we should love those struggling with various sexual attractions that Scripture warns against, but if we really love them, we will want to see them set free from their sinful and ungodly inclinations and desires. Biblical love is always about willing the highest good for the other person and NOT just accepting them in their sin and lost condition.
And yes, I can have my own predilections here. I have always had a strong sense of justice – even when I was a non-Christian. So while some believers might latch onto pacifism to affirm their understanding of love of neighbour, I latch on to things like just war theory.
In my book, loving people means making sure they are treated justly and rightly. Thus stopping Hitler was a morally right thing to do, and it involved really loving others enough to not let them suffer unjust aggression and worse.
To weep or not to weep
Another area where my personality can impact my biblical stance on things has to do with who I tend to more readily latch onto and identify with. My ministry has a prophetic sort of edge to it, and that in some ways reflects the sort of person I am. So the Old Testament prophets can especially appeal to me.
As an example of this, on the social media the other day I posted this:
I often go to bed heavily weighed down and grieving over the state of the world – and the state of the church. Some might say I am too melancholic and negative. If so, I am in good company. Jeremiah is rightly known as the “weeping prophet”. See some key passages where he heavily grieves, weeps and laments: Jeremiah 4:19-22; 8:18-22; 9:1-3; 10:19-21; 13:17.
I thought that was innocuous and fair enough, so I was somewhat surprised by some of the reactions to this. Some folks said I should get my eyes off the world and its problems and put them on Christ. Now in one sense that is quite sound advice. We must keep our attention focused on our Lord, or we can easily get too discouraged and overwhelmed.
But as I replied to one such person:
Being heavenly minded is NOT to think we need not care about, grieve over, and pray for, the world that we find ourselves in, and the sad state of the church. And God gives people today a prophetic ministry and a prophetic burden. We dare not just try to dismiss this. We all should have the heart of God, rejoicing over what he rejoices in, and grieving over what he grieves over. Our Lord is known as the suffering servant. We are not above our Lord. He wept over Jerusalem and it is fully appropriate and Christlike for us to weep over Melbourne or Chicago or London or Bombay. So we can have both the joy of the Lord and God’s heart for the lost and the broken of the world. It is not a matter of choosing one or the other, but having both.
And then another person also seemed to think I was off base, saying we are ‘a new creation in Christ.’ I answered this way: “Sure, but what does that have to do with reflecting fully the heart of God that grieves over sin and laments when his people go astray? Jeremiah had the very heart of God on these matters and so should we.”
This person came back and said, ‘We live in a New Covenant though.’ That was a somewhat odd response. What does it mean? Are we to ditch the entire Old Testament, thinking it no longer applies to us or has any relevance for us? That is certainly not how any biblical Christian should be thinking.
I said that being part of the New Testament people of God does NOT render everything said in the OT null and void. Jesus fulfills all the promises and words of the prophets. The heart of Jeremiah fully reflected God’s heart, and we should reflect it too. And that means grieving over the lost and those who reject God. Not to have such concerns means we are not reflecting who our Lord is.
But I had to remind this person of something even more telling: The very phrase “the New Covenant” first appears in the OT – in Jeremiah! Indeed, Jer. 31:31-34 is one of the most quoted passages in the New Testament! So we dare not try to pit Jesus against Jeremiah, or the NT against the OT.
The simple truth is, we need the whole counsel of God here. It is not a matter of choosing to either rejoice in the Lord or to weep over the sad state of the world. We can and should do both. It is better to stick with Scripture, and not make false and unbiblical dichotomies.
And there are various biblical texts where BOTH are found in the very same place. Here are just two of them:
“Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” (Romans 12:15)
“[There is] a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance.” (Ecclesiastes 3:4)
On this matter I would say that Spurgeon got it right: “The road of sorrow is the road to heaven, but there are wells of refreshing water all along the route.”
So once again, we must not run with unhelpful extremes when we should run with both sides of the equation. Yes, the way God made us might lead us to emphasize certain things a bit more than others, but we must nonetheless strive to get and keep the biblical balance in these areas.
Thankfully, while we Christians are all different, the whole people of God together can fully represent and display just who God is. So the moral of the story is this: just as I need to strive more to embrace and demonstrate love along with my passion for justice, others might need to do the reverse; add a bit of justice to their concerns for love.
Then we can say along with the Apostle Paul: “I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.”
2 Replies to “Christian Differences and the Body of Christ”
You are definitely on track here, Bill and thanks again.
I believe the prophecy in Ezekiel is even more harsh and telling.
Chapter 9:-
4 And the LORD said to him, Go through in the midst of the city, in the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men who are groaning and are mourning because of all the abominations that are done in her midst.
5 And He said to those in my hearing, Go over in the city after him, and strike. Let not your eye spare, nor have pity.
6 Fully destroy old [men], young men and virgins, and little children and women. But do not come near any man on whom [is] the mark. And begin at My sanctuary. And they began at the old men who [were] before the house.
7 And He said to them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out! And they went out and killed in the city.
The Apostle Paul was absolutely clear that we are the building blocks of the Temple and destruction awaits those who defile the Temple and Jesus said where two or more are gathered in His Name there Am I in the midst yet modern churches defile and desecrate the Holy Place in God’s very presence. They are in the very Holy sanctuary with the promotion of what God called abomination. They are declaring abomination holy in direct opposition to God and in the holiest place we can attain on Earth. Just imagine what Heaven would be like if that sort of thing was allowed there.
They are like those in the previous chapter (eight) who bow towards the East but with their backsides towards the Temple.
So while we have assurance through the light of the loving kindness given to us freely by God, I believe scripture is clear: Those who are not grieving at the desecration and abomination are not of God and are set to be destroyed. They have not been sealed in their foreheads. They are not following the Apostles’ doctrine.
I think I am an Old Testament fan too Bill as when covid came I remembered that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego wouldn’t bow down to King Nebuchadnezzar’s golden statue in Daniel 3 (and Daniel didn’t obey King Darius’ decree in Daniel 6) and so I knew when governments try to make us do ungodly things it’s best not to obey them which seems contradictory to the New Testament in Romans 13 which says we should obey the government – I know you have explained all this before – However, just recently I found someone advising that the Geneva Bible, which is older than the KJV, in Ephesians 6:12 says this ‘For we wrestle not against flesh and [b]blood, but against [c]principalities, against powers, and against the worldly governors, the princes of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness, which are in the high places.’ – so the NT does speak out against worldly governments according to the Geneva Bible.
You are definitely on track here, Bill and thanks again.
I believe the prophecy in Ezekiel is even more harsh and telling.
Chapter 9:-
4 And the LORD said to him, Go through in the midst of the city, in the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men who are groaning and are mourning because of all the abominations that are done in her midst.
5 And He said to those in my hearing, Go over in the city after him, and strike. Let not your eye spare, nor have pity.
6 Fully destroy old [men], young men and virgins, and little children and women. But do not come near any man on whom [is] the mark. And begin at My sanctuary. And they began at the old men who [were] before the house.
7 And He said to them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out! And they went out and killed in the city.
The Apostle Paul was absolutely clear that we are the building blocks of the Temple and destruction awaits those who defile the Temple and Jesus said where two or more are gathered in His Name there Am I in the midst yet modern churches defile and desecrate the Holy Place in God’s very presence. They are in the very Holy sanctuary with the promotion of what God called abomination. They are declaring abomination holy in direct opposition to God and in the holiest place we can attain on Earth. Just imagine what Heaven would be like if that sort of thing was allowed there.
They are like those in the previous chapter (eight) who bow towards the East but with their backsides towards the Temple.
So while we have assurance through the light of the loving kindness given to us freely by God, I believe scripture is clear: Those who are not grieving at the desecration and abomination are not of God and are set to be destroyed. They have not been sealed in their foreheads. They are not following the Apostles’ doctrine.
I think I am an Old Testament fan too Bill as when covid came I remembered that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego wouldn’t bow down to King Nebuchadnezzar’s golden statue in Daniel 3 (and Daniel didn’t obey King Darius’ decree in Daniel 6) and so I knew when governments try to make us do ungodly things it’s best not to obey them which seems contradictory to the New Testament in Romans 13 which says we should obey the government – I know you have explained all this before – However, just recently I found someone advising that the Geneva Bible, which is older than the KJV, in Ephesians 6:12 says this ‘For we wrestle not against flesh and [b]blood, but against [c]principalities, against powers, and against the worldly governors, the princes of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness, which are in the high places.’ – so the NT does speak out against worldly governments according to the Geneva Bible.