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The Pastor and His Congregation

Published November 4, 2014 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: Congregation, expectations, Pastor, Stewardship

The church of Jesus Christ is not just an organization; it’s an organism. It is always growing and maturing, reaching out replicating itself all over the world. But it is also an organization made up of a leadership structure and members. During this Stewardship Emphasis Month, we’ve considered what causes a church to grow: the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. As each member learns how to submit himself to the Holy Spirit within him, he will learn what gift or gifts he has been endowed with, and he will learn how to use those gifts in the most effective way within his church to the benefit of his congregation. All members of the church, from the pastor on down, have a responsibility to be faithful to the moving and direction of the Spirit in this regard.

Beyond this purely spiritual dimension, lies another aspect of a healthy church. It involves the pastor and his congregation, each recognizing their respective roles within the dynamic of the local church. The Bible doesn’t say a lot about the roles of the pastor and his congregation, but what it does say is very significant. God’s people are described as “sheep” in the Bible and our Lord as the “Shepherd,” or if you will, the “Head Shepherd,” with pastors functioning as His “under-shepherds.”

Peter wrote about the pastor and his responsibilities:

And now, a word to you elders of the church. I, too, am an elder; with my own eyes I saw Christ dying on the cross; and I, too, will share his glory and his honor when he returns. Fellow elders, this is my plea to you: Feed the flock of God; care for it willingly, not grudgingly; not for what you will get out of it but because you are eager to serve the Lord. Don’t be tyrants, but lead them by your good example, and when the Head Shepherd comes, your reward will be a never-ending share in his glory and honor. (1 Peter 5:1 – 4 TLB)

And Paul, not to be outdone by Peter, penned this about the congregation:

Dear brothers, honor the officers of your church who work hard among you and warn you against all that is wrong. Think highly of them and give them your wholehearted love because they are straining to help you. And remember, no quarreling among yourselves. (1 Thessalonians 5:12, 13 TLB)

In considering the roles of pastor and congregation, we’ll take these passages as jumping off points.

Part One: What the church may expect of their pastor

Believe it or not, your pastor is God’s gift to you, assuming he is in your church by the will of God. Don’t believe me? Feast your eyes on this:

It was he who “gave gifts”; he appointed some to be apostles, others to be prophets, others to be evangelists, others to be pastors and teachers. He did this to prepare all God’s people for the work of Christian service, in order to build up the body of Christ. (Ephesians 4:11, 12 GNB)

Yes, the pastor is a gift to a congregation, but he has his hands full. He has a job to do: to prepare you, his congregation, to serve the Lord with an eye to building the church.

To that end, what can you, as a member of a church, expect from your pastor?

Your pastor should be called by God

Any pastor who is not behind the pulpit God wants him to be behind shouldn’t be there. Natural talent notwithstanding, the pastoral ministry is a calling first and a profession second. All believers are called to serve the Lord, or course, but only a select few are called to stand behind a pulpit. This was something the apostle Paul understood:

For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me. (1 Corinthians 9:16, 17 NIV)

Like Paul, we whom God has chosen, feel compelled to preach. Preaching is something your pastor must do. Verse 17 is a bit difficult to understand, but turning to The Living Bible, it’s paraphrase clears Paul’s meaning up:

If I were volunteering my services of my own free will, then the Lord would give me a special reward; but that is not the situation, for God has picked me out and given me this sacred trust and I have no choice.

If your pastor is truly called of God, he’ll feel the same way.

Your pastor should be in your church only because that’s where God wants him to be

You, as a member of a congregation, have every right to expect that your pastor is in your church because your church is where God wants him to be. A pastor should never leave a church or accept a position in a church because of the money or the benefits. And he should leave a church only after a lot of prayer and clear direction from the Lord to do so; after the Lord has taken the burden for that particular congregation away.

Salary may be important. Working conditions may be important, especially when the pastor’s family is taken into consideration. As Paul wrote:

Pastors who do their work well should be paid well and should be highly appreciated, especially those who work hard at both preaching and teaching. For the Scriptures say, “Never tie up the mouth of an ox when it is treading out the grain—let him eat as he goes along!” And in another place, “Those who work deserve their pay!” (1 Timothy 5:17, 18 TLB)

Pastors are not oxen, but Paul’s point is well taken. But do you know what your pastor’s real reward is? It isn’t his paycheck. Again, Paul wrote:

What pay do I get, then? It is the privilege of preaching the Good News without charging for it, without claiming my rights in my work for the gospel. (1 Corinthians 9:18 GNB)

You see, Paul knew it was his right as a Christian preacher to expect to be paid, but he said his real reward was in the ministry of the Word itself. That’s the attitude you may expect from your pastor, if he is called by God to be filling the pulpit in your church.

Your pastor should be an example of godliness

A congregation rises or falls to the spiritual example set by its pastor. Your pastor may or may not be an accomplished preacher or teacher. But if he is a godly man, that will make all the difference in the world. A godly pastor doesn’t mean a perfect pastor. Your pastor may make his fair share of mistakes. But if he is a man of God, he will always make things right; he will always be learning and growing and going back to God for direction, inspiration, and forgiveness.

You can expect your pastor to be a man of prayer. Behind every sermon or Bible study should be hours of prayer. It takes time to pray, but faithful prayer always pays off. But the pastor doesn’t only pray for his work; he prays for his flock. Mind you, you and your problems are not the reason God has called your pastor to your church; he is there because God put him there, sometimes for reasons known only to Him. But you are his responsibility while he is there. And a good pastor will feel the burden of what’s burdening members of his congregation. The only way to deal with that is through time spent in prayer.

Sometimes church members wonder what the pastor does all day. If your pastor is a contentious man, he will be a man of prayer and prayer will take up much of his day.

Your pastor should be faithful in his ministry

Some of the laziest people I know are in the ministry. It’s easy to be lazy in the ministry. Pastors get a month or more off every year. They don’t work Monday’s. They take long lunches. They go to conferences umpteen times a year. They “work from home.” Right. And congregations in all likelihood have been conditioned to maybe criticize his long sermons but to never do more than that. How many times have you been told this verse applies to so-called men of God:

Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm. (Psalm 105:15 KJV)

Fact is, that verse has nothing to do with your pastor. You have the right to expect your pastor to be faithful in his ministry while he is in your church. He should prepare and preach sermons he himself has written with you in mind. He should visit the sick when needed and pray for them. He should make the time to listen and advise when called upon. He should be honest with how he spends his time. He doesn’t punch a time clock and most pastors don’t answer to anybody. It takes a lot of discipline to be faithful in the ministry. It’s not easy. But if a pastor will honor both his God and his congregation, he will be found faithfully discharging his call.

Your pastor should take his job seriously, but with a spirit of good cheer

The pastorate is great profession for men who like to work as little as possible. Or for men who like a sense of power. Or for men who like lord it over other men. But for those of us who take the calling seriously, we understand that the responsibility of shepherding God’s flock is heavy indeed.

Obey your spiritual leaders and be willing to do what they say. For their work is to watch over your souls, and God will judge them on how well they do this. Give them reason to report joyfully about you to the Lord and not with sorrow, for then you will suffer for it too. (Hebrews 13:17 TLB)

As a pastor, I can tell you that there isn’t a day that I don’t think about this verse. Every night I replay what I did that day, hoping it was enough for the souls in my charge.

That’s not to say I don’t have a good time doing what I do. There is great satisfaction – personal and spiritual – in the pastorate. No other profession allows a person to be involved in and to watch the spiritual growth of people like pulpit ministry affords. It’s an honor to preach and teach a congregation the Word of God. But it is a dreadful responsibility. There will come a day when I and others in my profession will be called to give an account. The writer to the Hebrews pleads with his readers, as I plead with my congregation, to live lives that will cause me, their pastor, to give a positive report to the Chief Shepherd.

Divine Determinism

Published October 31, 2014 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: divine determinism, God's sovereignty, theology

If we as Christians want to worship God “in spirit and in truth,” and if we want to fulfill the Great Commission by taking the Gospel to the lost, then we need to be thinking rightly about God. In other words, our theology needs to be correct. All people, Christians and non-believers, acquire their “theology” or their “philosophy of life” from someplace. For most of us, our worldview is shaped by our parents. How often have we heard, “My father was a Democrat, my grandfather was a Democrat, and by golly, I’m a Democrat too!” Well, that’s often where our beliefs begin and end. Other people start off inheriting their beliefs from their parents, then off to college they go, where they are brainwashed by either their peers or more likely their professors. They went into college believing one thing and came out believing another.

Christians are the same. Which is fine, as long our parents or professors are filling our heads with true, Biblical ideas. This is, unfortunately, often not the case. It’s surprising how Biblically illiterate our parents, our Sunday School teachers, or even our pastors may be. The most influential Christian people in our lives are often sorely lacking in a fundamental knowledge of what the Bible teaches. They may know and teach a lot of “church doctrine,” but “church doctrine” is sometimes not the same as Biblical doctrines. That’s funny, since the church is supposedly in business to teach the Bible! But what happens so often is that instead of teaching what the Bible says, what gets taught in many churches is what the pastor thinks or what some theologian thought or what some denominational constitution or book of order teaches.

But if we want to think rightly about God, we need to know what the Bible teaches. It’s good to know what the great thinkers of Christianity thought, but it is essential to know what the Bible teaches. It’s good to know what John Calvin or John Wesley thought about theology, but what if they were wrong sometimes? The Bible, however, is never wrong. It is God’s revelation to man. And that’s why you need to know what really says.

How much of what we do and think is foreordained and rendered certain by God? According to one wing of the Christian church, everything is. They teach that absolutely everything down to the minutest detail of history and individual lives is ordered by God. Even evil thoughts and actions are ordained by God to further His will. This is called “Divine determinism,” and maybe you believe it. Maybe you don’t. C. Everett Coop believed it. In fact, he famously spoke on the topic, “God Killed My Son.” Dr. Koop’s son was killed in a tragic mountain climbing accident and Dr. Koop believed that God had foreordained his son’s death and that it was no accident. God quite literally “killed his son.” It gave Dr. Coop great peace to think this; knowing that his son’s death was not an accident and that there was some grand purpose behind it.

A lot of Christians believe this for the same reason. And if you don’t think too long about it, you may believe it too. It was a quick death. Dr. Koop’s son died immediately. He didn’t suffer. So you can see how appealing this aspect of Divine determinism is. It puts a purpose behind a horrible event.

But does God work that way? If He does, it’s hard to see a purpose behind a lingering, painful death by, say, cancer or some other disease. Is that Divine determinism at work, too? Some would say it is. God causes some people suffer terribly for reasons known only to Him. If you believe God orders the tiniest details of our lives, then that’s what you have to believe.

Ulrich Zwingly, John Calvin and Providence

Where did the idea of Divine determinism come from? A lot of scholars trace it back to Ulrich Zwingli’s and John Calvin’s ideas of “providence.” To put it simply, God’s providence is “God’s rule over and direction of all things in the universe. For if anything were guided by its own power or insight, just so far would the wisdom and power of our Deity be deficient.” Zwingly, who greatly influenced Calvin, flatly denied that any event in the world is “contingent, fortuitous or accidental.” His teaching was that God is the sole cause of absolutely everything that happens.

But where did this idea come from? A lot of it comes from philosophy Zwingly believed, but there are Bible verses that seem to indicate Ulrich Zwingly was on to something. Here is just a handful:

The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord. (Proverbs 16:33 NIV)

For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back? (Isaiah 14:27 NIV)

I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things. (Isaiah 45:7 NIV)

There are many more verses like these, but just these three seem to support Ulrich Zwingly’s teaching of God’s absolute providence. Later on, John Calvin continued in Zwingly’s footsteps, except while Zwingly’s theology was more philosophical, Calvin’s theology was grounded more in Scripture. His teaching was simple:

No wind ever arises or increases except by God’s express command.

Even Adam’s fall, Calvin thought, was foreordained by God. Calvin continued:

Since God’s will is said to be the cause of all things, I have made his providence the determinative principle for all human plans and works, not only in order to displace its force to the elect, who are ruled by the Holy Spirit, but also to compel the reprobate to obedience.

It seems pretty clear that Calvin believed that everything, even horrible, evil things done by the unsaved are rendered certain by God.

Other Calvinists

Jonathan Edwards, great revivalist preacher and philosopher, taught the idea of Divine determinism in the strongest way possible. As far as he was concerned, all things on earth, including sin and evil, follow a course laid out for them by God.

God, however, is forever untainted by the sin He Himself foreordains. Take Adam’s sin, for example. Adam sinned because his intentions were sinful. Even though God foreordained Adam’s sin, God cannot be held culpable in any way because God’s intentions in Adam’s sin were not at all evil. As Edwards wrote,

In willing evil God does not do evil.

It’s hard to get around the fact that Jonathan Edwards believed, in some fashion, that God is the author of sin.

If by “author of sin,” is meant that permitter, or not the hinderer of sin; and at the same time, a disposer of the state of events, in such a manner, for wise, holy and most excellent ends and purposes, that sin, if it be permitted or not hindered, will most certainly and infallibly follow: I say this, if this be all that is meant, by being the author of sin, I don’t deny that God is the author of sin.

For Edwards and most Calvinists, “God is the author” of sin means that while God certainly did not force Adam to sin, or anybody else for that matter, God does render man’s sinful actions sure and certain. Most, if not all, Calvinists – R.C. Sproul and John Piper included – hold this high Calvinist view of God’s sovereignty: everything down to the smallest particle of history – history in the grand scale and history in the individual – including every human being’s thoughts and actions, are foreordained by God and necessarily rendered certain by Him so that everything and everybody carries out God’s will.

Remember, though, God is in no way stained by the sin He foreordains even though the person committing the sin has no choice in the matter. As another famous Calvinist wrote:

God wills righteously those things which men do wickedly.

God does not force men to sin but men WILL sin because God will withdraw or withhold His influence to deter them. Therefore, this wing of the church says that everything, including sin, is ordained by God for His own glory.

Is that the right view?

While much of Calvinism is worthwhile, some Calvinist teaching just doesn’t make much sense, at least to a majority of Christians. All orthodox Christians from all wings of the Church, affirm the absolute perfect goodness of God. From Calvinists to Arminians to everybody in between, we all agree that God is totally good. There is NO debate on that. There are dozens, or perhaps even hundreds of Bible verses that either directly or indirectly uphold the theology that God is good. Here are a few:

“Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.” (Matthew 19:17 NIV)

Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:16 NIV)

Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. (Psalm 73:1 NIV)

You are good, and what you do is good; teach me your decrees. (Psalm 119:68 NIV)

The list goes on and on. “God is good all the time,” as the song goes. But God is also sovereign. This is also a belief that all orthodox Christians believe. And herein lies the problem. Calvinists, while affirming God’s goodness, also scrupulously protect God’s sovereignty to the point of making it an “all-determining sovereignty,” which we call Divine determinism. But can an all-good God engage in the kind of shady manipulation Calvinism teaches?

Sovereignty

That God has a plan for His creation is not disputed. God does have a plan – a will – for all of us and when we speak of God’s sovereignty we are saying that, to put it simply, “God is in control.” Non-Calvinists, though, often speak of God’s permissive will. This, they say, explains the story of Joseph. Here is how Joseph, who probably wouldn’t consider himself a Calvinist, viewed the events of his up-and-down life:

You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children. (Genesis 50:20 NIV)

If you don’t like that example, here is a New Testament verse that says the same thing in a general way:

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28 NIV)

God foresaw and permitted sinful people, like Joseph’s brothers and Potifar’s wife, to do the sinful things they did because He is sovereign, and in His sovereignty He would take the sinful actions committed by those people and turn the results around so that He would be glorified. But – and here’s the departure from Divine determinism – God did not foreordain the sin or render the sin certain. He simply knew beforehand that sins would be committed and who would commit them and why. God’s foreknowledge is absolutely perfect because He knows what’s inside the heart of man:

“I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.” (Jeremiah 17:10 NIV)

Because God knows what is in the hearts of all men, He knows their thoughts and intentions. He knows what they will do. God doesn’t have to foreordain their actions, He already knows what they are planning. He doesn’t have to manipulate sinners to guarantee what they will do. His foreknowledge is perfect in ever way.

Here is where your theology determines your view of God. If you believe in Divine determinism – or God’s sovereignty to the endth degree – then God is the author of all that is good but also the author of all that is bad. He doesn’t just allow sin, He causes it so that He will be glorified. In other words, God ordains evil (and everything else) to glorify Himself. Adam sinned, not because of a decisionAdam made, but because God set the first man up for a fall. This view of God will determine how you view sinners and even how you view things like evangelism. Sinners may be lost, but they are lost because that’s how God wants them to be, because in their lost condition they somehow glorify Him. Huh?

The alternate view of God’s sovereignty is a more “passive” view. Yes, God is involved in His creation, but He doesn’t trick, manipulate or coerce people into doing what He wants them to do. He could if He wanted to, but God limits Himself. He allows His creation freedom of will – including freedom to sin – knowing that even that can bring about His will. That freedom man has is a gift from God. You can also consider it a curse. In His sovereignty, God allows His perfect will to be stymied by the actions of man. He lets this happen because He loves man and respects him.

God’s two wills

Instead of God being a cold, impersonal force that sneakily controls man, what if God really is personally involved in the lives of man to the point where He knows them so well nothing they dream of doing surprises Him? This view of God sees Him as having not one but two wills for His creation. God has a perfect will for His creation. This will is what God truly wants to happen. A good example of God’s perfect will is this:

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9 NIV)

And yet we know NOT everyone will come to repentance. Most people won’t. God’s perfect will is one thing, but God also has a consequent will. This is His will based on the consequences of Adam’s fall and man’s subsequent rebellious nature. This will graciously allows man to choose not to repent. God doesn’t manipulate man into not choosing Him. He genuinely limits His influence, and in doing so man makes his own, free choice.

Does this view of God do damage to His omnipotence or His sovereignty? Not at all. God is sovereign by absolute right, but He willingly limits that sovereignty temporarily.

The god (Satan) of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:4 NIV)

As I stated, this self-limited sovereignty is just temporary. God’s full sovereignty will become actuality in the future when “the god of this age” is defeated for good.

When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all. (1 Corinthians 15:28 NIV)

So, whose view of God is right? Is God sovereign, or does He operate in divine determinism? Consider this:

Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?” (John 14:9, 10a NIV)

So Jesus lived and acted as His Father would. He did nothing His Father didn’t want Him to do. Including this:

He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. He was amazed at their lack of faith. (Mark 6:3 NIV)

Jesus “could not” heal everybody in town because the people had no faith (a sin, by the way). As God, of course Jesus could have healed everybody, but He limited His awesome power because the people refused to believe. Is the power of God dependent on man? Not at all. But, we serve a God who makes covenants with man. God has willingly bound himself to man in a covenant relationship. If man rebels – if man refuses to exercise faith, for example – God’s hands are tied as far as that man is concerned.

We serve a God who is not a Calvinist. Nor is He an Arminian. Our God is a sovereign God, above any labels we try to velcro onto Him. David Bentley Hart wrote:

How radically the gospel is pervaded by a sense that the brokenness of the fallen world is the work of rebellious rational free will, which God permits to reign, and pervaded also by a sense that Christ comes genuinely to save creation, to conquer, to rescue, to defeat the power of evil in all things. This great narrative of fall and redemption is not a charade, not simply a dramaturgical lesson regarding God’s absolute prerogatives prepared for us from eternity, but a real consequence of the mystery of created freedom and the fullness of grace.

The Awful Truth About Sin

Published October 24, 2014 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: degrees of sin, differences in sin, original sin, sin, total depravity

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Evangelical Christians love their sound bite theology. If it’s a catchy slogan that fits on a bumper sticker, or a refrain in the latest Christian pop song on KLOVE, they’ll believe it. “God is in control.” “God has a plan for your life.” “Jesus is coming soon.” There is no shortage of these kinds of slogans. But are they Biblical? Is God really in control of everything? Everything? And just how long has Jesus been “coming soon?” That’s the trouble with slogan theology. It makes all the sense in the world, but only as long as you don’t think too long about it.

“All sins are equal, you know.” That’s what passes for profound thinking in the church these days. I haven’t seen it on a bumper sticker, but it certainly qualifies. There are variants of that slogan, like this one: “All sin is sin.” Let’s talk about the notion that “all sins are equal.”

Two views

Unless you are a Roman Catholic, you’ve probably heard and repeated this bit of popular theology. Roman Catholics believe there are mortal sins and venial sins. A mortal sin is a super serious sin that separates a person from God. The only hope for one who has committed a mortal sin is confession to a priest, repentance, remorse, and some kind of penitential service. A venial sin is a sin that must be confessed to a priest, but it’s not nearly as serious a sin as a mortal sin. It won’t stop a person from having fellowship with God. A person can never be eternally condemned just because he commits a venial sin.

That’s a relief. Or is it? Is the Roman Catholic two-step even Biblical? As far as the Protestants go, the great Reformers (Luther, Calvin, etc.) didn’t like the Roman Catholic idea of sin. They thought sin was much more serious than the Roman Catholic Church did. They came up with the idea that man is totally depraved, and no mere talk with a parish priest could help him. They believed that every man is rotten to the core – that sin infects every square inch of a man’s being.

Of course, the doctrine of total depravity, as the Calvinists call it, or original sin as other refer to it, is an accurate picture of sinful man. He is totally depraved. That doesn’t mean he’s as bad as he could be, only that he is riddled with sin (like a disease) and that there is no hope for him apart from a work of grace initiated by God. Martin Luther and his pals, by the way, never once taught that “all sins are equal.” But over the centuries since the Reformation, that’s the impression a lot of Protestants have been left with. In fact, the idea that “all sins are equal” is so ingrained in Protestant consciousness, it’s hard for them to see the truth even when it is in black and white. Or red and white. Verses like these are often misunderstood and used to support the notion that “all sins are equal.”

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:27, 28 NIV)

Is Jesus really saying that a lustful thought about illicit sex with a woman is just as bad as the act itself? Of course not. That would be ridiculous. What Jesus is doing in these verses is explaining that all sin begins, not with the act itself (like murder or adultery), but with a thought or an attitude. The Pharisees prided themselves in keeping the “letter of the law,” but the problem they couldn’t overcome using the law was the same problem we can’t overcome: total depravity. Jesus’ point was that merely keeping the law really didn’t do anything to change a person’s life; that a list of do’s and don’t’s is useless in making a person righteous. It takes a change on the inside of a person to do that. What Jesus wasn’t doing in that teaching is saying, “all sin is equal.”

Sin versus sins

Essentially, what Jesus was saying is that nobody can get through a day sin-free. Yes, you can make it through a day without committing adultery. You can make it through a day without committing a murder. You can get through a day or two without stealing, telling a lie, taking the Lord’s Name in vain, etc. But you are still a sinner because you are living in sin. You can stop committing a particular sin, but you can’t stop being a sinner. According to Jesus, sin is not just outward acts but an inward disposition; the root of sin goes deep into man’s inner-most parts.

In Romans 7, the apostle Paul describes what normal life is like for the true believer. I know some Bible scholars see Romans 7 as the way Paul was before his conversion, but a Bible reader has to do exegetical backflips to see it that way. Read these verses and I bet you’ll see yourself in them:

I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn I can’t make myself do right. I want to but I can’t. When I want to do good, I don’t; and when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway. Now if I am doing what I don’t want to, it is plain where the trouble is: sin still has me in its evil grasp. It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love to do God’s will so far as my new nature is concerned; but there is something else deep within me, in my lower nature, that is at war with my mind and wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. In my mind I want to be God’s willing servant, but instead I find myself still enslaved to sin. (Romans 7:18 – 25 TLB)

I believe that to be the normal experience in every Christian’s life. We, as genuine born again Christians, struggle every day with our sinful nature (root of sin, total depravity, original sin). We’re saved and our sins are forgiven, but we still have a natural bent toward sin.

All sins can’t be equal

So, why is this an important topic? Does it really matter if you believe “all sins are equal?” What you believe about God (your theology) influences what you think about God and what you think He thinks about you. Isn’t it a perverse God who thinks that murder is on the same level as, say, telling a white lie? Or stealing a loaf of bread to feed your family is just as bad as stealing it because of greed?

Many times our assumptions are wrong or inadequate. A lot of cherished beliefs we hold come not from the Bible but from Aesop’s Fables or some stories we learned from our parents. It’s vitally important to know your theology is Biblical so you can function in the mind of Christ.

All sins can’t be equal because, first of all, such an idea goes against common sense. Is it reasonable to believe that, for example, fudging on your tax return is as bad as molesting a child? Or engaging in a little neighborhood gossip is as serious as poisoning your nagging spouse? Or an act of horrible violence is no worse than reusing a postage stamp?

Common sense tells us that all men are sinners because of what theologians call “original sin.” In other words, all human beings ever born inherit the condemnation heaped upon Adam. We may not be guilty of committing the sin he committed, but Adam is our spiritual and moral “head.”

When Adam sinned, sin entered the entire human race. His sin spread death throughout all the world, so everything began to grow old and die, for all sinned. (Romans 5:12 TLB)

So by virtue of the fact that we descend from Adam, we are sinners just he was. Total depravity and original sin were passed on from Adam to succeeding generations, down to this very day. The finished work of Christ took away the guilt of original sin, but our tendency to sin remains. That’s why Paul wrote this in Romans 6 –

Your old evil desires were nailed to the cross with him; that part of you that loves to sin was crushed and fatally wounded, so that your sin-loving body is no longer under sin’s control, no longer needs to be a slave to sin; for when you are deadened to sin you are freed from all its allure and its power over you. (Romans 6:6, 7 TLB)

And in the very next chapter, this –

I don’t understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I can’t. I do what I don’t want to—what I hate. I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience proves that I agree with these laws I am breaking. But I can’t help myself because I’m no longer doing it. It is sin inside me that is stronger than I am that makes me do these evil things. (Romans 7:15 – 17 TLB)

So all men are sinners, equally. That’s common sense. We know all men are sinners because the Bible tells us, but also all we have to do is look around. The evidence of our own eyes confirms our theology.

Common sense tells us something else: some sinners are worse than others. Common sense tells us that Jack the Ripper was far more evil than some schmuck who pilfers a few thousand dollars from his employer. Of course, we’re talking about crimes here. God is concerned about sins. Both a murderer and a petty thief have two things in common: they are sinners by God’s standard and criminals by ours. Their crimes are not equal. But what about their sins?

Let’s take another example; one that hits close to home – my home. One day, I shouted my order into the microphone at McDonalds. A Big Mac, large fries, and a Coke – a diet Coke, of course. My order as it appeared on the screen was correct, right down to the penny. I drove up to the window, handed my debit card to the girl and she handed me a bag, a diet Coke, then my card and receipt. I drove off. When I got to the office, I sat down to eat. Out of the bag I pulled: A Big Mac, a large fry, and a Double Quarter Pounder with cheese. I checked my receipt immediately. My receipt – what I ended up paying for – was for a cup of coffee! So not only had I been given an order I hadn’t ordered, I actually paid for a much smaller order. All of this happened without my knowing; I didn’t look in the bag before driving off and I didn’t look at my receipt. The fault was McDonald’s, not mine.

I admit I enjoyed both burgers immensely.

So the question is: did I sin by not going back to McDonalds to straighten out the order; at least pay for what I got? What if the mistake was really God’s blessing in disguise? And after all, who was hurt? It’s a trivial event in my 50 years of life, but it’s stuck with me all these years. If “all sins are equal,” is my sin of getting a meal for the cost of a cup of coffee the same as Jack the Ripper’s sins of murder and who knows what all?

In God’s sight

As always, common sense is revelatory: all sins may be not be equal in terms of human judgment, but they may or may not be equal in God’s sight. There is another folksy saying that goes like this: “How many sins will keep you out of heaven? Only one.” That’s a little better. While all sins may not be equal, God is cognizant of them all, and all sins equally alienate us from God. All sins equally damage our relationship with God. All sins need to be repented of because – note this – they all equally bring condemnation. All sins, from telling a little white lie to stealing an old person’s pension to killing another human being equally grieve God.

So are the Roman Catholics right with their two-step approach to sin and are the Protestants, with their “all sins are equal” wrong? Or is their a third view? A Biblical view?

In 1 Corinthians 5, the apostle Paul confronted a particularly nasty situation: a man was sleeping with his father’s wife. The Greek is a bit fuzzy; but at the very least there was a case of adultery going on in the church and at worst it was a case of incest. Paul’s solution seemed harsh:

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. (1 Corinthians 5:4, 5 NKJV)

If all sins are the same, why single this loser out? Why excommunicate him when surely there were other terrible sins simmering beneath the surface in this large, metropolitan church? Clearly in Paul’s view, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, not all sins are equal.

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife! (1 Corinthians 5:1 NKJV)

That’s Paul shocked at what was going on in that church. For sure there were gossipers in that church. There were liars and cheats, too. There were over-eaters and maybe even drunkards sitting in those Corinthians pews. But Paul singled one out. Not all sins were equal to him. Some, in this case sexual sin, were definitely more heinous than others. There is a hierarchy of sins. There are degrees of sin. That is, some sins like sexual sins, do more harm to the Body of Christ than others.

That is why I say to run from sex sin. No other sin affects the body as this one does. (1 Corinthians 6:18a TLB)

Some scholars view “the body” as being the human body. But others, I’m one of them, think “the body” refers to “the Body of Christ.” That it means this seems obvious since in the preceding chapter, Paul dealt with a sexual sin going on within a congregation – the Body of Christ. So the most serious of sins are those that do the most harm to the Church of Jesus Christ. If we view sins as varying in degrees, then we can say that both the Roman Catholics and the Protestants are partly correct. Not all sins are the equal (point to the Roman Catholics) and all sins are equal in the sense that they grieve God and harm man’s relationship with Him (point to the Protestants).

Degrees

We can conclude safely that from the Bible’s standpoint, there are differences in sins. Some harm the Body of Christ more than others. And there is at least one sin that is unpardonable and therefore shouldn’t even be prayed for. But all sins are the same in that they grieve God’s heart and cause a rift to develop between a believer and God and between believers.

Common sense application of tried, tested, and true Bible passages make a lot more sense than sound bite, bumper sticker theology.

Biblical Church Growth, Conclusion

Published October 21, 2014 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: church growth, gifts of the Spirit, immature believers, spiritual maturity

Here’s what Jesus said about church growth:

And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18 NKJV)

Our Lord made it crystal clear that it is His church and He is One building it. We forget that. The church you attend isn’t “your church.” The church I pastor isn’t “my church.” All churches belong to the Lord. They form His Body – the Body of Christ. Jesus is interested in His church growing, both in terms of spiritual maturity and in numbers, and He has given His church certain gifts to make that growth happen. Jesus builds His church but He does it through its members as they take advantage of the many gifts the Lord has given. Here is a sampling of those gifts:

Some of us have been given special ability as apostles; to others he has given the gift of being able to preach well; some have special ability in winning people to Christ, helping them to trust him as their Savior; still others have a gift for caring for God’s people as a shepherd does his sheep, leading and teaching them in the ways of God. (Ephesians 4:11 TLB)

God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, then prophesy whenever you can—as often as your faith is strong enough to receive a message from God. If your gift is that of serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, do a good job of teaching. If you are a preacher, see to it that your sermons are strong and helpful. If God has given you money, be generous in helping others with it. If God has given you administrative ability and put you in charge of the work of others, take the responsibility seriously. Those who offer comfort to the sorrowing should do so with Christian cheer. (Romans 12:6 – 8 TLB)

To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; someone else may be especially good at studying and teaching, and this is his gift from the same Spirit. He gives special faith to another, and to someone else the power to heal the sick. He gives power for doing miracles to some, and to others power to prophesy and preach. He gives someone else the power to know whether evil spirits are speaking through those who claim to be giving God’s messages—or whether it is really the Spirit of God who is speaking. Still another person is able to speak in languages he never learned; and others, who do not know the language either, are given power to understand what he is saying. It is the same and only Holy Spirit who gives all these gifts and powers, deciding which each one of us should have. (1 Corinthians 12:8 – 11 TLB)

There are other spiritual gifts, but these are the ones most Christians are familiar with. God has given all Christians spiritual gifts to be used within the context of a local church. These gifts aren’t used in your office or at the library or in line at the grocery store. If you are a Christian, then you have at least one spiritual gift, but probably more than one, that God wants you to use in your church. When church members are obedient to the Lord in using their gift or gifts in their church, then their church will grow. It has to. God said it would.

Mature and immature members

As a church grows in both spiritual maturity and in numbers, all of a sudden there will be a mixture of mature and immature members in that congregation. It takes time for a Christian to become spiritually mature and we all mature at different speeds. Some Christians never mature. These “babes in Christ” love the Lord, they’re born again, they’ll go to heaven if they drop dead tomorrow, but even though they’ve been saved for 25 years, they’re still immature. Who knows why? These “babes in Christ” are the bane of my existence, and they may be yours, too. What do you do with them?

The Bible tells us that we who are strong must bear with those who are weak. Church growth takes place when strong members understand the weakness in others. For example:

There will always be a segment of the church that will be immature. They are the new converts who haven’t had time to grow yet. They are the worldly-minded members who make it to services on Sunday but that’s it. They don’t really have a relationship with the Body of Christ outside of that one, single hour on a Sunday. They are the members who rarely study or even read the Bible at home during the week. There will always be members like this in every congregation, and we who are strong must bear with them and help them to grow. We can’t punish them or ignore them.
As a church grows, sometimes things can get messy. Proverbs 14:4, in its own quaint way, gives us a precedent: Where no oxen are, the trough is clean; but much increase comes by the strength of an ox. Just so.
New members may be rough around the edges. Maybe they’ve had no good Christian role models and no discipleship since they found the Lord. Sometimes these new members are part of families that don’t understand what the Biblical roles of husband/wife/father/mother/children should be.

It takes time for Christians to grow and mature in the Lord and we who are strong must work with them. It’s not just the job of the pastor or of the elders. The apostle Paul – a strong member – understood this:

Now we who are strong have an obligation to bear the weaknesses of those without strength, and not to please ourselves. Each one of us must please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. (Romans 15:1, 2 HCSB)

Spiritually weak and immature Christians are always, without exception, the cause of problems within a local church. That’s not to say that’s their intent, mind you. Sometimes it may be – some immature members are so because they are troublemakers – but generally speaking, in their ignorance these spiritual infants cause problems arising from their immature state. The solution to this problem are the mature believers in the congregation. As Paul wrote, “we who are strong” ought to be the ones reaching out to those who are weak. We are the ones who are to take the initiative. Paul uses the strongest word possible: obligation. The apostle is not making a suggestion here. Strong Christians are to bear with the shortcomings of the weak in love and understanding.

Does this mean if a weak member is engaging in some sin, we who are strong ought to ignore it? Of course not! Paul’s admonition here must be taken in context. Here is what he is getting at. We who are strong may have no issue with, say, listening to secular music on AM radio. But an immature believer may take issue with it – he may view it as being a sinful habit. We who are strong need to take HIS issue into consideration. When he is present, we refrain from turning the radio on. In love, we respect his feelings on the matter. To do the opposite – to keep the secular music blaring while he is present or to make fun of his belief as being infantile – is viewed as “self pleasing” or selfish.

This is what Paul means by “pleasing your neighbor,” or fellow member of the Body of Christ. In time the weaker member, with growth and maturity, may very well change his views on secular music. In the meantime, because we who are strong reigned in our freedom in Christ (to listen to secular music, for example), we kept a weaker member in church; we didn’t offend him and cause him to leave.

I used the example of secular music, but there are hundreds of things as innocuous as that hackneyed example that challenge a weaker believer’s faith.

Restoration

What if a fellow member has fallen into some sin? Does the church simply write him off? Again, we turn to Paul for a dose of ecclesiastical theology:

Dear brothers, if a Christian is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help him back onto the right path, remembering that next time it might be one of you who is in the wrong. Share each other’s troubles and problems, and so obey our Lord’s command. (Galatians 6:1, 2 TLB)

It’s supposed to take a lot of work to be a member of a church! All this caring and respecting; it’s a lot more than just showing up to listen to a sermon. We’re supposed to be watching out for each other’s spiritual well-being. Being a member like that is, as Paul put it, “obeying our Lord’s command.”

To another church, with a whole different set of problems, Paul wrote this pithy admonition:

Dear brothers, warn those who are lazy, comfort those who are frightened, take tender care of those who are weak, and be patient with everyone. (1 Thessalonians 5:14 TLB)

Nowhere in that verse do you see the words “mock” or “cajole.” Instead, we get the impression that, again, the onus is on we who are strong to respect, care for, and love those who aren’t. The tendency is for the strong to expect too much from the weak. No church will grow in that atmosphere.

Don’t get frustrated!

It sounds like the spiritually mature and strong members of a church have a heavy responsibility. They do indeed.

And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith. (Galatians 6:9, 10 NKJV)

Paul wrote that because from time to time we do get tired. It’s not easy being a mature believer sometimes. It takes constant effort. But if you want your church to grow and if you want to honor the Lord, you’ll do what Paul says. You won’t grow weary. You’ll find the strength in your spiritual gifts.

The problem some churches have is that its strong members get weary. And they get frustrated and they get disheartened. Their solution is to just up and leave. They want to find a church where they’ll be appreciated.

But that’s not God’s solution.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. (1 Corinthians 15:58 NKJV)

Look at the words that describe spiritually mature Christians: “steadfast,” “immovable,” “always abounding in the work of the Lord.” To be “steadfast” means to be “personally faithful,” it means you will “stick to it.” Being “immovable” suggests staying faithful no matter what. It means remaining clearheaded and objective. It means remaining grounded on the Word of God. And “abounding” means that if you are a mature Christian you will always go beyond the minimum requirements. It means you’ll do more than enough.

And you’ll have to. There are plenty of immature believers in our churches and it’s our job to help them grow and mature in the Lord. There are more of them than there are of us. We have our work cut out. But Paul encourages us to keep on doing the work of the Lord; it will pay off.

There is help

…glory be to God, who by his mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of—infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes. (Ephesians 3:20 TLB)

Whatever you need, God is able to supply in abundance. You need wisdom? He’ll give you more than you think you need. You need strength? He’ll give you more than you ask for. You want to do more for your church and for other believers? God will supply you with what they need.

And that’s why a church that allows the Holy Spirit to move and work within its members is a church that grows, both in spiritual maturity and in numbers.

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