Month: October 2013

Copyright by Shea Oakley
All rights reserved

The word “balance” is not usually associated with the Christian walk. It does not appear in Scripture. Jesus and the apostles never used the word itself. But balance is implied throughout the Bible whenever it speaks to living the life God desires us to live.

First, though, the word has to be defined. The most important part of this definition is to state what it is not and that is “moderation”. Moderation, as we normally use it, refers to never doing too much or too little of some activity. Moderation is implicitly amoral. For instance it is a good word for a Christian to use when speaking of doing too much or too little exercise because exercise, in and of itself, is not immoral. The problem comes when you try to apply the term to something like sex out of wedlock. We are not to indulge in a “moderate amount” of adultery; we are to avoid it altogether. In the context of living the life of a disciple the best understanding of balance is the avoidance of extremes in areas that are not innately sinful for the purpose of properly enjoying the gifts of God.

An example might be dealing with legalism or licentiousness in regards to our freedom in Christ. The Apostle Paul dealt with these extremes in many of his letters to the churches. Some persons in these churches were expecting “true” believers to hold to Jewish practices and restrictions like circumcision or not eating meat sacrificed to idols. In other churches the opposite extreme held sway. For instance all kinds of sexual sin were being permitted in the 1st Century Gentile churches. This happened because some of the early non-Jewish Christians believed they were free to let their physical bodies be engaged in such activities because their spirit was separate from those bodies and would remain unsullied (this belief was a forerunner to the later heresy of Gnosticism). It was also often the result of simple ignorance of the sexual standards the Torah upheld as normative for a holy people. Whether to one extreme or the other these wrong teachings and cases of ignorance in the churches were corrected by Paul and the other apostles.

The need for such correction is an old story and today we face similar extremes in living out our faith. Some Fundamentalists, for instance, tell us that anything that is not specifically allowed in the Bible should be anathema to the authentic believer. They would go so far as to say that all art, music and film without a specifically Christian message is forbidden. In fact more radical fundamentalists even take that a step further telling us that the mediums themselves are evil; usually using some Levitical verses taken out of context for justification. On the other extreme we see what might be called “Loose Evangelicals”, people who feel that they can watch or listen to almost anything without it negatively affecting their souls and their relationship with God. Here, too, is the need for Godly balance. Asceticism for the sake of asceticism is unprofitable. Undiscerning consumption of everything the World says is good is unprofitable as well.

Perhaps we should seek to be as balanced as our Lord who fasted in the wilderness but, shortly thereafter, turned the water into wine at a wedding party. His Holy Spirit can keep us from going to unhealthy extremes if we ask Him to help us lead balanced lives. In Jesus we see a life lived in perfect balance yet with great passion. With the Spirit’s help we can model ourselves after the One who truly knows the best way and come to experience the abundant life He has promised us.

The Wrong Way to React to Evil
Copyright 2013 by Shea Oakley
All rights reserved

Deliver us, oh Lord, from bitter judgment of other human beings, but do not deliver us from right judgment of evil.

There is sometimes confusion in the church today about the difference between self-righteous hatred and righteous anger. These two states of being may superficially look the same but they are actually polar opposites of each other. The problem is that professed Christians caught up in the “Culture War’s”, both inside and outside the Church, are in danger of becoming more likely to conflate them. In doing so they eliminate a cardinal quality of the very theologically healthy orthodox Christianity they claim to want to see preserved, and that is the quality of humility.

Among those who rigorously contend for the unchanging counsel of Scripture it is getting more and more tempting to become bitter at the change seen in the West, both within and without church walls. In area’s ranging from homosexuality to divorce and re-marriage the metanarratives of our society are rapidly discarding any grounding in the Judeo-Christian underpinnings that gave birth to Western Civilization. Simultaneously Biblical illiteracy combined with “easy-believism” are influencing professed believers in Christ to become more captive to the world’s new ideas of right and wrong then they are to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Much of what was universally considered to be immoral in the church of 50 years ago is being tacitly or openly tolerated today.

In response to this shift the temptation for those who recognize and resist it is to lash out at those in our congregations and in the influencing culture who are on its vanguard. In doing so we risk the age-old problem of hating the sinner as well as the sin. This temptation is exacerbated by the reality that it is becoming more and more difficult to deal with “sin in the camp” in the Christian community today even when we are truly doing everything we can to be in the right spirit. No one wants to be labeled as judgmental in congregations that believe less in church discipline than in “live and let live”. In such congregation’s personal holiness and theological orthodoxy are becoming less preached and lived out by both leaders and laity. This is causing those who want to hold the line to feel an even greater urge towards anger, and even hatred of, individuals rather than the errors those individuals have fallen into.

We must constantly be on guard against the inroads the world is making in the Church, of this there is no doubt, but we must also be just as much on guard against self-righteousness. It is all too easy for one to be biblically right in a patently wrong spirit. Those who feel called to fight the moral decline in both society and the Church must constantly ask the Spirit of God to keep them humble and to give them forbearing love towards both those who do not know better and those who should. “There but for the grace of God go I” must be constantly kept in heart and mind by all who would presume to be conservative watchdogs and reformers at this juncture in the history of Christianity in this part of the world. Otherwise whatever good counsel they might have will be completely ignored by the people whom they claim to want to bring to repentance. In fact if those going astray see more bitterness than redeeming love they will not only continue in the wrong direction but accelerate down the road to spiritual ruin. God forbid that any true Christian should be responsible for such a terrible outcome.

Moral absolutes must be upheld, but this effort absolutely must not be attempted in a prideful, hateful manner. It might be better to do nothing then do anything in such a Christ-dishonoring and ultimately destructive way.

Obedience and Trust
Copyright by Shea Oakley
All rights reserved

We are told that our friendship with Jesus Christ depends on our obedience to Him. It is difficult to be obedient to someone we do not trust. The distance many believers feel between themselves and God is often a function of their lack of trust in His goodness. Martin Luther once said that the darkest nights of his soul came during the times when he lost faith that “God is good and that He is good to me”. In this world obedience to men may be possible purely on the basis of the fear of consequences. We obey the speed limit because we know the state is ready and willing to revoke our driving privileges if we do not. But the obedience that Jesus had in mind was obedience that was freely given Him by the disciples because they had come to trust both in His goodness and His goodness to them. This trust was the fruit of knowing and receiving their Master’s love.

The term “obedience” is a dirty word in our culture today. Rebellion has never been more fashionable in Western society. Since the tumultuous cultural revolution of the 1960’s the idea of submission to legitimate authority has often been ridiculed. Even the idea that any authority is legitimate has been questioned. The concept of the total self-sovereignty of human beings has been a problem since the Garden but it arguably has never met so little resistance as it does today. It is not too much of an overstatement to describe ours as a “culture of rebellion”. Whether it is in regards to parents, the government, or our superiors in the working world, we tend to reject direction that runs counter to our own desires.

Of course there are some reasons for this increased spirit of mutiny against human authority. It is difficult, for instance, for children to obey abusive parents. Since Vietnam and Watergate our government has come to be seen as hypocritical, corrupt and overbearing and this has at times been at least partially true. As for our bosses on the job we cannot help but notice that some are motivated only by the opportunity to make the most money possible, often with the least ethical restrictions.

Unfortunately we have too often used the truth that flaws in human authority exist as an excuse for our own rebellious overreaction. The bottom line is that we could have relative moral paragons over us at home, in the government, and at work and we would still have trouble living lives marked by obedience. The hearts of the governed are no less corrupt than the hearts of those that govern them. Our problem in being obedient to those God Himself has put over us is, at its core, the problem of our sin.

True obedience can only become possible when we come to the place where we realize that we are lost if we continue following our own heart, our own will. It is then we become willing, in our desperation, to consider giving ourselves over to Someone who we come to believe is able to save us. But even after we make the decision to follow the Savior God has sent us actually becoming obedient to that Savior remains problematic, as Luther’s words made plain.

Perhaps we need to remember that we love because God first loved us. It is this divine initiative that makes it possible to love Him at all. We sometimes let our circumstances paint a picture for us of a “reality” that make us wonder if we are really in relationship with a good God. We lose the confidence that He is bigger than those circumstances. This is when it becomes difficult for us to be submissive; to be the friend the Scripture tells us we need to be to Him. What ultimately enables us to live in true, if not perfect, obedience to Jesus Christ is our remembrance of what He did for us on the cross and the renewed trust that remembrance engenders. A God who loved us so perfectly that He was willing to die for us is a God to which we can truly desire to be obedient. In the deepest sense it was His willing obedience to His Father, in seeking and saving us, that makes us willing to give Jesus that same kind of obedience (and, by extension, to give it to those he has put in legitimate authority over us.)

Serving for the Right Reason
Copyright by Shea Oakley
All rights reserved

“Service” is a dirty word for many of us. We hear it and immediately react in a negative way. This is most often true for two reasons. The first is because, in our past, some of the people we cared about and/or were dependent on granted us love that was conditional. They would love us fully only if we did something that benefited them in some way. “Conditional love” is contingent on us. It is not contingent on the other person. Many of us have been victims of this love that is really not love at all.

The second reason has nothing to do with being a victim. It is a function of our inherent tendency to make self-centered decisions. We are selfish. The one we most want to serve is the one looking back at us in the mirror. Even as Christians the idea of serving others is often either not very present or it is present but tainted by an underlying motivation to serve others in order to obligate them to serve our own interests.

These two motivations to serve others are always present to some degree in our hearts. Both must be largely overcome if we hope to be freed from a caricature of servant-hood in order to embrace the kind of true servant-hood embodied by Jesus Christ.

The Son of God was, and is, the true Servant. He also helps others for two reasons, but for two very different ones. Jesus serves us because He knows and loves His Father and is known and loved by His Father. Both these loves are perfect, and thus real and unconditional. Jesus is one with the Father and the Father is the only being in the universe whose love is inexhaustible. He does not need us to love Him. Unlike human beings He is self-sufficient in every way and therefore He does not love us to gain something He must have from us like those in our past. He also is not self-centered as we are. He is other-centered by divine nature.

Jesus has been described as “a Man for others”. This is because, being one with the Father, He perfectly reflects His Father’s nature. Our Lord loves us because he genuinely has our best interests in heart. He is overflowing with infinite love and desires to serve us because a special part of that affection is reserved for the only creation He has made in His own image. There is no ulterior, self-centered motive. God is not capable of deceit and He is not needy of anything we could possibly give Him. That eliminates “ulterior” and “self-centered”. He loves and serves us because He wants to.

So how do we come to serve like God does? We can only do so by choosing to identify ourselves with the One who embodies Him in human form, His Son. As we choose to draw near to Jesus and sit, like Mary, at His feet. We will begin to reflect His nature. Then, when we look in the mirror, we will begin to see not our old self but the image of Christ. Part of this transformation will include the dawning of a new desire to serve others, a desire that is based on a real love for people and a humble and sincere desire to seek their good, the same motivation that moves the One we are becoming like.

Then the word “service” will take on a new and blessed meaning, one which we will truly desire to embrace and live out.

Of Bugs Bunny and Beethoven
Copyright 2005, 2013 by Shea Oakley
All rights reserved

Pop culture is the “coin of the realm” in America. Our generation’s shared memories often come from television cartoon shows we watched when we were children and the music we listened to when we were teenagers. In the case of the latter it has occurred to the author that much of his pre-Christian world-view was shaped as much by lyrics from pop songs as anything else. The only “Stairway to Heaven” that I knew then was the one the rock group Led Zeppelin sang about.

Much has been written about the effect of popular culture on the church. The usual appraisal is that too many Evangelical Christians have chosen to blithely consume worldly entertainment. It is difficult to argue against that charge, especially when believers gather and the buzz is not about how we have encountered God this week but rather about some new movie with scenes of sex and violence that everyone seems to have seen. The “Rated R Church” continues its perilous journey down the world’s road, pretty much condoning at least the occasional walk on the dark side. In fact some like to think of it as a healthy flouting of Legalism. (No one wants to be known as a Legalist because, in many parts of the Church, socially that’s the Christian equivalent of “the kiss of death”. The problem is that the term has come to negatively refer to anyone who has the gall to suggest that a fellow Christian or Christians might be doing something wrong.)

What has to be reckoned with is that pop culture is here to stay. The world has become one huge electronic hive in which every kind of communication media incessantly broadcasts what is often the lowest common cultural denominator. Americans now frame their lives by what they see and hear on TV, in movies, and on the Internet. For better or worse this is where people are now finding a significant part of their identity and that is why pop culture is increasingly becoming our primary social currency.

In light of this fact individual believers need to grapple with the question of how to interact with this societal trend while keeping their quest for holiness intact. The Bible tells us to focus on that which is excellent, lovely, beautiful, praiseworthy, etc. Unfortunately it is becoming more and more difficult to do that when the high culture that produced a Mozart, Michelangelo, or Shakespeare has pretty much been relegated to the past. Some advocate the promotion of a classical education for our children through Christian parochial schools or through the rapidly growing home school movement, but one occasionally has to wonder how they will put such an education to use in a world that seemingly could no longer care less about what the composers, artists and philosophers of antiquity had to say about the human condition.

How then, as Chuck Colson once said, shall we live? First of all not all pop culture is evil just because it wears the label “pop”. There are some excellent TV shows, movies and music out there if we will take the time to watch and listen with some discernment. As in so much of the Christian life part of the answer is to “chew the meat and spit out the bones.” We must take that which is good in contemporary culture and leave the rest. Beyond that perhaps it really is time for some of the 30-50 million Evangelicals purported to live in America to adopt the best and most accessible of classical culture as our own and labor to re-introduce it to the population at large on some level. Of course that would involve what some might call a distraction from preaching the Gospel. What they forget is that the high culture we would be championing often embodied Christ. One thinks of Handel’s ‘Messiah’, Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel or Pascal’s “Pensees”. We would very often be promoting the Gospel by promoting the works of artists and thinkers such as these.

They say that in the end a people never rise above the level of their culture. As Christian Americans we need to, at the very least, make sure that we do not give ourselves over to the lowest common denominator and follow the rest of our nation into intellectual, artistic and moral suicide. But an even better scenario would see us be truly the salt and light of Christ, as a viable and visible counter-culture, seeking to set a higher bar for all cultural endeavors in America.