An excellent devotion from Dr. Scott Murray's Memorial Moment for July 19, 2013
Some years ago, there was a mania
in theology in which some theologians argued that the church needed to let the
world set the agenda for the church. The church was to be oriented radically
for and to the world. There is a certain truth to this turning of the church
toward the world. Has not Christ told us that God has loved the world (Jn 3:16)?
The church's mission is to
proclaim Christ and His salvation for the sake of those who are not yet saved.
What is that but to turn toward the world? But like all truths it can be bent
by overemphasis. At the time that this thinking emerged in public theological
discourse, many theologians warned that this emphasis would begin to bend the
church into the world. If the world sets the church's agenda, then the agenda
will no longer be Christ's. In the heady days of the 1950s and 1960s this
sounded like Chicken Little's warning. The church seemed to be growing and getting with the world's agenda all at the same time.
sounded like Chicken Little's warning. The church seemed to be growing and getting with the world's agenda all at the same time.
The idea that the world should set
the church's agenda had legs, despite all the warnings. Although the
theological sources of this movement are now passé, their ideas seemed to have
crept into the churches' practice like a virus that infects a host. Now the
churches no longer preach sin and grace, law and gospel. The churches now
preach good advice about life in this world. Not long ago, a well-known pastor,
not known for his theological depth, declined to say that Christ was the only way to heaven on national television for fear of offending his viewers. Everything must be "user-friendly;" however that might be defined. The churches no longer accuse us of sin, even though this is the divine mission (Jn 16:8).
not known for his theological depth, declined to say that Christ was the only way to heaven on national television for fear of offending his viewers. Everything must be "user-friendly;" however that might be defined. The churches no longer accuse us of sin, even though this is the divine mission (Jn 16:8).
Sin is just something to be passed
over or ignored for fear of hurting "market share." The church's life
must remain centered not in our wants or desires but in God's mission for the
world. Therefore we must not let worldly standards judge the church's
proclamation, or her blessings and gifts. For the world's standards must be
inimical to Christ's.
His kingdom is not of this world
(Jn 18:36) and therefore this world will never support, encourage, or agree
with His mission. The world is blind and will never see the glory of Christ in
His suffering and death. The world will never recognize the gifts of Christ or
His glory in the weakness of the church because it does not have the tools to
understand these great spiritual things (1Co 2:14).
If the church hands over its
agenda to the world, it will be betraying God's Son anew and inheriting
in His place a mess of pottage. Neither the church nor the world will be better
off, the church having betrayed her Lord and King and the world being deprived
of the message of salvation.
This is not a matter of keeping
the nasty old world out of our churches either. For the world dwells in the
heart of every fallen human in the world, that is, in me dwells no good thing
(Rm 7:18).
Battling the flesh is not a matter
of keeping "them" out. Every one of us will have to keep up the war
against our flesh until God dissolves our flesh at death. What does this mean
for the church's agenda? It means that the world's agenda lives in every
Christian and can creep into our churches through our own fleshly mouths.
Every word that proceeds from our
mouth therefore, must be judged according to every word that proceeds from the
mouth of God (Mt 4:4).
John Chrysostom
"As having nothing, yet
possessing everything." (2Co 6:10).
And how can this be? Indeed
rather, how can the opposite be? For he that possesses many things has nothing;
and he that has nothing possesses the goods of all. And not here only,
but also in the other points, in which opposites were to have all things (2Co
6:8-10), bring forth this man himself into the midst, who commanded the world
and was lord not only of their substance, but even of their very eyes. Paul
says, "For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out
your eyes and given them to me" (Gal 4:15).
Now these things Paul says, to
instruct us not to be disturbed by the opinions of the many, though they call
us deceivers, though they know us not, though they count us condemned, and
appointed unto death, to be in sorrow, to be in poverty, to have nothing, to be
(us, who are cheerful!) despondent. The sun even is not clear to the blind, nor
the pleasure of the sane intelligible to the mad. For the faithful only are fit
judges of these matters, and are not pleased and pained at the same things as other people. For if anyone who knew
nothing of the games were to see a boxer, having wounds upon him and wearing a
crown; he would think him in pain on account of the wounds, not understanding
the pleasure the crown would give him.
Therefore, since unbelievers know
what we suffer but do not know why we suffer them, they naturally suspect that
there is nothing other than sufferings; for they see indeed the wrestling and
the dangers, but not the prizes and the crowns and the subject of the contest.
Let us therefore, when we suffer
anything for Christ's sake, not merely bear it nobly but also rejoice. If we
fast, let us leap for joy as if enjoying luxury. If we are insulted, let us
dance as if praised. If we spend, let us feel as if gaining.
If we bestow gifts on the poor,
let us count ourselves as receiving; for he that does not give this way will
not give readily. So when you decide to scatter largess, look not at this only
in alms-giving, but also in every kind of virtue, consider not only the
severity of the toils, but also the sweetness of the prizes; and above all the
subject of this wrestling, our Lord Jesus; and you will readily enter upon the contest,
and will live the whole time in pleasure. For nothing is more able to cause
pleasure as a good conscience.
John Chrysostom, Homilies on 2
Corinthians, 12.4-5
