Month: July 2018

Copyright 2018 by Shea Oakley

All rights reserved

In Luke 6:27-36 Jesus tells his disciples what he apparently later said to his wider listeners in other gospel accounts. It is part of His plan for the flourishing of human life and the glorification of His Father. Here is how it reads in Luke in the NIV translation of the Bible:

²⁷ “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸ bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. ²⁹ If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. ³⁰ Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. ³¹ Do to others as you would have them do to you.

³² If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. ³³ And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. ³⁴ And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full.³⁵ But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. ³⁶ Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

This entire section has been a tremendous challenge to human, or at least fallen human, sensibilities for the last 2,000 years. It is no less a challenge for we 21^st Century Christ-followers to accept. In fact it might even be harder for us “rights-obsessed” Americans in A.D. 2018 to deal with than it was for the Israelites in A.D. 30.

Here Jesus turns on its head a basic assumption we tend to make about what is fair in this life versus what we think is unfair. He definitively directs his disciples in every age to use this “love your enemies” command to fundamentally re-orient them from self to other-centeredness in one of the most profound ways possible. For Christians today it especially flies in the face of our surrounding culture’s predominant spirit: that we both deserve respectful treatment from other people and we have a right to act against them in one way or another if they do not give us that respect.

I think it is safe to say that everyone reading my words at this moment would admit that the first time they encountered the whole idea of loving one’s enemies, in any of the books of the Gospel, they felt what might be called “the dismay of the impossible.” What I mean by this is that our Lord’s implied command to live in such a way seemed simply beyond our ability to comply. “Who” we may have thought “could possibly do this?”

It is a valid question with a simple answer: no one…in and of themselves. If we try to love our enemies in the power of our flesh using just “will-power” we will either immediately fail, or manage it for some period of time while deep resentment and bitterness grow, and ultimately lead to more hatred in our hearts for that enemy than we felt before.

As with many other aspects of the Christ-following life the only way to walk this principle out is to rest in Christ’s total forgiveness of our own sins against others and, more importantly, against God Himself. In thus resting we acquire the power that comes from accepted grace to die to ourselves, to our flesh, and to live by the Spirit now resident within us. It is then, and only then, that we can sincerely and effectively begin to answer hate with love, evil with good, our enemies with mercy, because we have come to accept the grace already given us and allowed it to overflow through us to others (even others who have hurt us very deeply.)

Then, God willing, our enemies will stop being our enemies in the best way possible, by having their own hearts changed and becoming our friends. Beyond that, even if they remain our enemies, we will know the peace of God in place of our own anger and hatred. As with all the other seemingly “upside down” commands of Jesus in the New Testament the ultimate result of allowing Him to change our hearts by grace, through faith is our own good, and the glorification of our Lord.

Copyright by Shea Oakley

All rights reserved.

Many of us who became Christians later in life share this story. In the weeks or months following our conversion we began to think that most, if not all, of the secular music we grew up listening to was “of the Devil.”What followed might be described as “The Cleansing of the Music Collection.” In my case dozens of albums were consigned to the garbage can. Around the same time I attended my first Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) concert and realized that there was more to sacred music than musty old hymns played on decrepit church organs. Soon my racks were full of pop music with Christian lyrics. Surely it was the best of both worlds.

Or was it?

In the 15 or so years that followed my CCM collection grew until about two out of every three CD’s ( I know…dating myself) that were on my shelf were by Christian artists. The problem was that I found myself spending an awful lot of time listening to that other one out of three. I must also admit to buying back a number of the secular albums that were so zealously disposed of many years before. Why?

Maybe it is because, when placed side by side with the CCM, quite a bit of secular music is simply better music.

I remember when a local FM station became the first in the New York area to play Christian music around the clock. At first I was happy to see this happen. We had enough talk radio and the kind of music that appealed to my generation (I was in my thirties) simply could not be found on the Christian dial. So the station got programmed into my car stereo and every day my commute was filled with the latest in “Christian Top 40.” After several days, though, I began to feel like I needed an insulin shot if I was going to keep listening to it. To me the bulk of the songs were what can only be described as sickly sweet, a cross between bubblegum music and bad TV commercial jingles. The lyrics were simplistic and sometimes not even theologically sound. Oh, and one more thing, most of it was so overproduced as to make one wonder if the stuff was made by real musicians or by Disney “Audio-Animatronic” replicas. These days you will almost never find me pushing the button that calls up that particular frequency on my radio.

Some readers are now probably asking what could possibly make “worldly” music a better choice than that which is said to be dedicated to the glory of God. Well, I happen to believe that one of the things God likes to see in people, especially His people, is excellence. I think another is depth. Too much CCM has neither. A song is not necessarily excellent, or thought provoking, or moving just because Jesus’s name shows up every third line. In fact the repetition of “Christianese” cliches mixed with His name can make a believer who loves intrinsically rich and compelling music start to twitch after a while. C.S. Lewis once referred to the Christian music of his day as “fifth rate poems set to sixth rate music.” While I would not go quite that far I frankly do not think the proportion today is all that much better.

Then, too, for me there are those occasional secular songs that, without even mentioning that name, can better communicate the truth and reality of God, and our hunger for Him, than a dozen CCM songs. Think of “Love, Rain O’er Me” by the Who or “Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel. Are these people Christian? Based on their lifestyle it is fair to say no. Does the Spirit of God use them anyway? I happen to think so. And the music itself usually has so much more character.

Ok, so you may be willing to concede that perhaps some secular music is of better quality than the bulk of what makes up what’s currently on the Christian charts. What can be done about it? For starters we could get some believing music reviewers who are not afraid to call bad music bad music. A local Christian newspaper in my community used to carry regular monthly reviews of the latest releases in CCM. I read them for years and never saw one album get panned. Now, it is true that believers are to encourage and build up one another. This is certainly the case and a vicious review has no place in any Christian publication, but what about constructive criticism? Can’t we call “a spade a spade” if we do so in love? I once belonged to a writer’s group that critiqued some of my material. Sometimes it was hard to accept when a fellow writer was honest about where he or she thought my writing was weak. Without that honesty, though, I might not have grown as a craftsman of words, and neither will a craftsman of music.

I will continue to listen to secular music that is not clearly ungodly. However, it would be nice if someday I could enjoy more of the Christian albums in my possession with as much enthusiasm as those written with just the common grace exhibited by so many secular artists. I suspect that a little less “pop-religiosity” in the Christian music world, along with a lot more intentionality in regards to craft, is the only way that is going to happen.