When God Asks Questions

Therefore Jesus, lifting up His eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to Him, said to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?" This He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do. (John 6:5-6)

I have noticed something about the way that Jesus related to people that is different than leaders usually relate to people today. Jesus used the technique of questions to make a point rather than simply spelling out plainly what He wanted to convey. This has the effect of engaging others and causing them to stop and challenge their assumptions or at least to begin using their own minds and hearts more than they typically are used to doing.

This reminds me of the special benefits I have observed whenever people discover the wonderful advantages of inductive Bible study. Instead of being spoon-fed with pre-thought-out conclusions that have been broken down into what are termed 'Bible studies', a person is taught to use a simple format of study that requires them to think for themselves as well as learn to listen to the Spirit of God in ways they likely have never experienced before.

This method of Bible study can many times be viewed as a threat by mainstream religion because it undermines the control that religious institutions have over the minds of their millions of followers. It tends to put people much more directly in touch with God personally and stimulates thinking outside the normal boundaries laid down by tradition and church dogma. Because it seems to cause disunity it is often viewed with great suspicion by leadership. But the unity that they are usually trying to maintain is really more along the lines of uniformity through rigid control by human authority rather than the unity of spirit that will be seen among the true followers of Jesus Christ.

As with pretty much everything in God's kingdom, questioning can be extremely beneficial but it also has its counterfeit in Satan's schemes to lead us into deception. The key factor between true devotion in spiritual life and counterfeit ideas that appear very religious and pious is the state of a person's spirit in their personal relationship with God. In this second instance, questions are used to reinforce doubt and produce unbelief instead of to uncover exciting truths and fresh revelations of God that will increase faith and deepen a person's connection with heaven.

Jesus' questions very often were designed to stimulate people to begin to use their own minds and lead them to realize the dissonance between their intellectual beliefs and their heart beliefs many times. Here in this instance Jesus started out with the assumptions that most of us would start with even though the writer clearly states that Jesus already knew what He planned to do. He started where His disciples would likely be thinking in order to engage them with Him so that when He did reveal heaven's perspective and plans they could be part of what He was doing instead of just outside observers.

I noticed something about this question that Jesus posed to Philip that I find interesting. Jesus asked Philip where they might find food to feed all of these people who were coming to hear Jesus, but Philip in his answer gravitated to thinking about how much it would cost to feed them all, not where to find the food.

I find this difference significant. How often we become so stuck in a certain mode of thinking that we miss the simple questions that God may pose for us to ponder and instead rush to dwell on what we consider the greatness of our difficulties.

Did Jesus intend for Philip to become overwhelmed with the difficulty of the situation that was developing in front of them? I'm not sure about that. But I do believe that it may be important at times for us to be aware of the enormity and impossibility of our circumstances before we are able to appreciate God's provisions and His love and grace in providing for us. When we think that our problems can be solved by ourselves with a little assistance from God, it is very easy for us to think that we have contributed something of value to His solutions in ways that deceive us as to how God has provided our salvation.

But when God allows us to come into situations where it finally becomes obvious that our resources are totally inadequate to deal with our problems, we may find ourselves moving into the interesting emotion of hopeless despair which may be just where God wants us to be. We may be stepping into the very incubator of faith itself.

Hopeless despair is one of the big six emotions that have been identified as emotions that need to be experienced as part of our maturing process. But this particular emotion is one that many people are very afraid to experience because inside they are sure they may become stuck there and might never be able to return. Or they may think that hopeless despair may somehow dishonor God or make them look like inferior Christians with no faith, so that emotion must be avoided at all costs.

But in reality, to grow into a healthy maturity each person must at some point in their lives learn to return to a state of joy and peace from every one of these six major emotions that all of us have to face from time to time. When we fail to learn how to emotionally recover from any one of them we become almost paranoid of even getting close to those emotions because we may get stuck in them and not know how to ever escape. We also remain stuck in levels of immaturity that dishonors our heavenly Parent.

God does not want to leave us in immaturity for all of our lives. It is one thing to be immature because we have not yet had time to grow up enough, to have a chance to learn recovery from all of these emotions. But it is another thing to become stunted because we refuse to cooperate with God's leading in our life and to be mentored into greater maturity through various circumstances designed to challenge us. Hopeless despair is one of those emotions that is often the last that people are willing to face and learn to grow through instead of running away from each time.

When properly understood, hopeless despair is actually one of the most exciting emotions that we might ever face in our lives. I know this may sound absurd at first, but when we are facing situations that push us toward this intimidating emotion, we are actually getting very close to the front seat where we may be positioned strategically to view some of the most awesome revelations of God's power and glory that can be seen anywhere. But the best view can only be experienced when we allow ourselves to be seated in the front row of hopeless despair.

In essence, Jesus was inviting Philip here to take a seat on the front row and sit down with Him in hopeless despair to enjoy the best vantage point in the theater. Jesus already had learned the wonderful benefits of this seat and had developed His own maturity through obedience throughout His growing up years. Now He was engaged in the process of mentoring His disciples by introducing to them the skills and lessons needed to grow them into greater maturity. At this point it was time to learn how to trust God whenever circumstances appear totally impossible, and so He engaged Philip with this question to give him the first option of participating with Him in learning how God does things as opposed to how humans usually do things.

Sharing Reproach with Joy

Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification. For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, "the reproaches of those who reproached You fell on me." (Romans 15:2-3)

I have become estranged from my brothers And an alien to my mother's sons. For zeal for Your house has consumed me, And the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me. (Psalms 69:8-9)

As I meditate on these verses and the context of the quotation in Psalms that was a prophecy of the experience of Jesus, a number of things are starting to come to my attention. The chapter in Psalms from which this quote was taken has a lot of very interesting implications about proper perspective on relationships to God and to those around us. It also reveals a great deal of honesty about feelings, frustration, shame and a number of other feelings. It tells me the importance of being honest with God about my true feelings instead of trying to pretend that I am not hurting while attempting to put on a religious facade.

But in the specific area of that chapter from which this quote was lifted I see another dynamic. The more that I identify with the real truth about God the more out of sync I will find myself with the world that refuses to accept the truth about God. As a result I will often find myself the object of scorn, reproach and shame for the very things that increasingly are becoming important to my heart. The closer I get to God's heart, and particularly the more I am filled with the passion that is the very essence of His heart the more I will encounter shame and reproach from maybe even my closest relatives, from anyone who is resisting the heart transformation that God wants to accomplish in their lives.

Given this background it almost seems a little out of context to apply this phrase in the place that Paul uses it in this passage. But that only alerts me that there is very likely something even more profound here that I am not yet seeing clearly. God, open my understanding and show me Your amazing ways from Your Word.

The connections or roots for what Paul is saying here extend quite a ways back through this passage in Romans. It is directly linked to the whole last chapter dealing with my need to accept those who are at a different place in their walk with God without judging them. It means treating them with love like the brothers and sisters that they truly are to me, even when they may not act in ways that elicit feelings of love and affection. It involves getting my focus shifted from the externals and disputes about differences over doctrinal variations to supporting them at the heart level while being very careful not to be a source of discouragement to them. This involves pursuing the things which make for peace and the building up of one another.

While I am not instructed to adopt their views on beliefs that they may be confused about or are mistaken about through unreleased fears or lack of knowledge, I am to treat them with the gentleness and kindness of Jesus in all sincerity and compassion. I am to be filled with the Spirit of service just as Jesus was who told His disciples clearly that He did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. (Matthew 20:28 and Mark 10:45)

So where is this reproach coming from that is referred to here? The first time Paul goes through this instruction he says we should please others more than ourselves. But when He refers to the example of Jesus he changes the sequence and replaces the pleasing others part with this reference to reproach. Just what does that really mean?

Notice the difference between the two here.

We who are strong ought not to... please ourselves.

Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification.

Christ did not please Himself...

the reproaches of those who reproached You fell on me.

My mind struggles to figure out just who or where this reproach is coming from or is originally directed toward. Is it reproach aimed at the fellow believers who are weak in faith? Is that part of how we are to bear their weaknesses – by joining them in the reproach they are receiving for the choices they make even though we may not necessarily agree with those choices ourselves? Wow! That takes on a whole new dimension now.

On the other hand, from the context in Psalms the reproach seems to be coming from unbelievers and originally directed toward God. Then the Psalmist along, with Jesus who is the object of this prophecy are experiencing the reproach by their identification with God.

Ah, now it is starting to become more clear to me. The common thread between the references in Psalms and Romans is the willingness to identity ourselves with someone who is receiving reproach from others and thereby putting ourselves in the line of fire along with them. In Psalms it is identifying so closely with God's passion and perspective that those who despise and reproach God will add us to their target list. In Romans Paul is saying that we should be willing to do the same thing even for people we don't agree with theologically but are still part of God's family here on earth. They may be someone we consider weak in faith and maybe even confused in some of their theology, but nonetheless we are instructed to so identify ourselves with them that we come under the same reproach and shame that unbelievers are directing toward them.

This really does parallel the example of Jesus as Paul suggests here. Jesus never adopted any of our crazy, confused ideas about reality or God that all of us circulate and hold in our blindness. But nevertheless He identified with us so thoroughly that all of the shame and scorn and reproach directed toward God and followers of God were experienced in full within His own heart. He felt every pain no matter how large or small that any of us have ever experienced and He felt it in full force. By doing so He joined us right where we are emotionally so as to mentor and show us how to return to joy and peace.

One of the most important principles of the brain is the fact that the maturity process involves learning how to return to a sense of rest and peace from any negative emotion. It has been observed that there are six basic negative emotions that are common to all people and that it is very important for mental health to very early on learn how to recover quickly from each one of these negative emotions if we are to grow and mature in life. But the only really effective way that our brain can learn to recover from any of these emotions is to track a more mature mind who is willing to join them in that emotion and then by example demonstrate how to get back to joy and peace together.

Given that principle of the mind I can see how it applies directly to both of these passages. According to the brain's neurological definition, joy is the experience I feel when someone is genuinely glad to be with me, when I am very important to their heart and I am considered very special to them. So when someone is willing to join me in my distress without first waiting for me to synchronize with their perspective and beliefs; when they are willing to enter into my emotions with me while at the same time being able to perceive things from a more mature perspective and then gently lead me back to a state of inner rest, peace and joy with others, that is the essence of what is described here in this passage and is the main focus of the heart of Jesus for each one of us.

So if I am to follow the example of what Jesus was willing to do for me and continues to do, then I will begin to reflect His heart of compassion for those who are weaker than me in faith just as I am weaker in faith than Jesus. It only makes sense that if we are to follow the example of Jesus – which is what the word Christian really means – then we must align ourselves with fellow believers in the same way that Jesus has aligned Himself with us. His willingness to identify Himself with our pain, shame and reproach and show us a way back to joy is the path that I need to follow in my relationship to those He has put into my life that are different and that even seem quite unlovable at times.

God, thank-you for this lesson in sharing joy with some whom I would not normally think of sharing it with. Please remind me and make me more intensely aware of how much Jesus identifies with me and gives me joy in the process so that I can be empowered to do the same for others through the enabling of Your Spirit. Make me a source of joy and a companion in recovery from negative feelings for others who may be stuck in their immaturity and in need of a lift. Teach me how to be Your assistant in bearing the weaknesses of my brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. Father, according to Your Word, I ask You to write this law, this principle of Your character into my heart today.

(next in series)

The Perfect Builder

Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification. (Romans 15:2)

Yesterday I saw from the original language that this word please means to lift up, to excite the emotions in a way that builds up, to sail away emotionally. Today as I look at the next verse I see the picture taking even more definite shape. In the kingdom of heaven everyone lives to serve others before themselves. This is not because they have to do that in order to be part of God's family but rather it is because living from the heart will cause one to spontaneously live that way. To live in selfishness is to strangle and stifle the creativity and joy that our heart was created to express.

When God originally designed us, it was to perfectly live and thrive in the energizing atmosphere that will always be found in His authentic family which is His kingdom. That is how our brains and hearts are designed. Obviously a lot of damage has taken place that has terribly distorted our original design and caused a great deal of malfunctions to happen. But that does not detract from the fact that we are still equipped with minds and hearts designed for God's way of thinking and living even though it may seem largely foreign to us right now.

Salvation is really the provision of God to retrain our hearts, rewire our circuits, reeducate our minds and restore us to our original purpose and design which is to reflect His ways of thinking and feeling and be synchronized with Him. This is made even more clear in the demonstration of what God is like in the life of Jesus talked about in the next verse. Jesus came in part to show us by tangible example in human form how God feels about us and wants to relate to us. As our example, as the exhibit of the original pattern from which we have been seriously damaged, His life is a safe source that we can contemplate for our hearts to imitate.

Having a somewhat simple mind and not having much organized “higher” education according to the measurements of the world, I have found it very helpful over the past few years to question any word that raises a question in my mind. I often discover that there are rich meanings hidden within the context and the original language that I had no idea even existed if I only assume I know what a word means. So I looked up this word edification to find out what in the world the purpose is for pleasing my neighbor.

What I found reminds me very strongly of what Paul had spent some time on back in chapter twelve.

For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. (Romans 12:4-5)

This word edification is directly linked to our word for edifice or a building designed for people to inhabit. When put that way this all starts to make a lot more sense. In recent years I have been alerted to a running theme throughout Scriptures that revolves around this concept of a building or dwelling place. And what I have noticed is that God is in the business of forming a living edifice composed of all who are willing to be incorporated into it, to create a dwelling place for God Himself to live in in a very intimate way. This all comes to an unimaginably wonderful grand climax in Revelation where at the very end of the story of the great war between good and evil the Father God Himself comes to take up residence in this dwelling place that has been prepared for Him in His people. (see Revelation 21:3)

With that background for context it creates a lot more excitement and incentive for me to pay attention and grasp the real implications of these instructions for me here in these verses. I can begin to view these words from a positive perspective instead of simply demands that I suppress my selfishness for the good of others. To have the proper context from the much bigger picture suddenly can transform the details dramatically and give them a whole new light and dimension.

The real purpose of God, the reason God wants me to lift up, build up, encourage, help support spiritually and emotionally my neighbor is so that God's dwelling place, His body on earth, can be prepared in order for Him to feel comfortable living among and in us. If I am willing to obey His request and instructions that I see here I will find myself coming into sympathy and harmony with the very same work that Jesus did while among men and women during His time on earth. And in the process of lifting others up the bonds of love and joy that are essential for adhering the body together effectively will form more strongly between my heart and the hearts of those I seek to strengthen and lift up as well as the heart of Jesus.

For me personally I can see that God is showing me these things right on time. He has been convicting me for quite some time about changing my relationship and attitudes toward the people in the local church to better reflect how Jesus feels about them. I have been taking small steps to dissolve some of the tension and suspicion that has affected their feelings about me and recently they asked me to teach a lesson in church sometime soon. I realize that very possibly in their minds they want to observe in this situation if I am safe to trust in their midst or if I will demonstrate some of the confrontational, disruptive attitudes so often indulged in by my late father in this same church.

As I pondered on this passage this morning I sensed God telling me that I need to pay close attention to the real meaning and implications of these verses in all of my dealings with these people for His reputation's sake. According to these verses it is my job to be patient and sensitive to their weaknesses and mistaken ideas about God, to guard my own spirit and be much more filled with the gentleness and kindness of Jesus in my dealings with them. Instead of just focusing on my own spiritual growth and relishing the freedoms that I am beginning to appreciate in my growing understanding of the real truth about God, I am to be careful not to overwhelm them with what I believe is advanced perspective but to see them through God's eyes and to love and care for them as those who indeed may be weaker but no less important than I am.

I am beginning to perceive that my real purpose should be to help them begin to see their own true identity from God's perspective instead of the mistaken notions they have about themselves and about religion. But this has to be done very gently and under the strict guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is far too easy for me to want to rush in and try to change people's minds too quickly before the Spirit has prepared them for certain changes. Spiritual growth is all about maturing. And like a beautiful rose slowly unfolding its petals, I have to respect the work and timing of God in other people's lives or I can easily damage the buds that are beginning to show promise of future blossoms.

My job is to assist God in any way He shows me – both in spirit, in words and in actions – the work of Jesus in forming His dwelling place made up of each one of us who are willing to be built into it for His pleasure. I am to assist God with the building of His temple by cooperating with His methods that are usually starkly different than my natural impulses. I want to be a good apprentice under the training of the perfect Craftsman who is in charge of building the true new temple for God to live in. As an apprentice I need to watch how He does things, the spirit and techniques He uses, the subtle “tricks of the trade” that makes things go so smoothly when He does them, the extreme attention to little details that He never fails to notice. Yes, I want to be mentored by the perfect Carpenter.

(next in series)

Bearing the Burdens

Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. (Romans 15:1)

I looked up some of the Greek words in this verse to see what I might find to help me understand this better and I found something rather interesting. The word used for bear means to lift up, remove, sustain, take up. What is interesting is that the word used for please has a somewhat similar meaning. It conveys the idea of lifting up our emotions, to be agreeable, to sail away emotionally.

I also noticed that the very same word is used to describe the person who is weak here as was used in verse one of the previous chapter. In reality there is no break in the continuation of thought like that artificially created by this chapter break which is often the case. Paul is still directly addressing the issue of our attitudes and relationship to those in the body of Christ who are at a different level emotionally in their relationship with God than we are.

In contrast to the judgment and contempt that we are warned against indulging in in the previous chapter, here we are told what the alternative should be. Along with accepting them (14:1) we are to give them preference with our emotional strength over pleasing ourselves. Instead of indulging in the legitimate freedoms that cause our own feelings to be excited and feel more free, when we are in the presence of those who are offended and hurt by our choices because of their own immaturity in faith, we should be considerate, gentle and kind in our thoughtfulness for their sensitivities and fears.

This reminds me of a medical analogy that might fit well here. Normally in our physical contact with those around us we might not think much of holding a person's hand or arm or laying our hand on their shoulder in a gesture of affection. But if that person has experienced serious burns and their skin is raw and extremely sensitive it would be the height of inconsideration to touch or grab them in ways that otherwise we might not think anything of. To do so would induce extreme pain and even sometimes cause worse damage than what they had already experienced. Instead we must learn how to treat them with the utmost gentleness, not because they are a bad person or have some character flaw but because they are in a very vulnerable state and need time for healing.

It only makes sense that when dealing with a person who has experienced serious burns on their body we should treat them with the utmost care and sensitivity. But part of the reason for doing so is not just to avoid creating unnecessary further trauma but to assist them toward recovery so that they can once again enjoy the comfort and excitement of being touched and held by those who love them after they are healed.

So too, we should see the person who is weak in faith not as someone who is inferior to us or who is wrong and needs stern correction but someone who has been burned by the effects of sin and is very sensitive in ways that we may not be. This does not make them any less a child of God or an inferior part of the body of Christ. It makes them a sibling in need of careful attention and extra consideration with an eye to helping them heal and be recovered to a condition of more health and joy.

If we would view people who are weak in faith, not as targets to re-shape or coerce into reflecting our own opinions or to convince of our personal ideas and convictions, but people who are potential close friends who right now are suffering from emotional burns and are in need of delicate care until the healing process is more complete; if we would choose to look at them through God's eyes in this way it might be far easier to be patient and kind with them and to look forward to what they will look like when they are healed more fully.

This verse is actually highlighting the core problem of sin in the hearts of each one of us. When I choose to prefer my own spiritual and emotional pleasure and excitement above the need for me to consider the effects of my actions on someone who is hypersensitive and “burned” about that issue, then I am really indulging my selfishness and pride at their expense instead of being led by God's Spirit of gentleness and kindness.

Remember, it is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance (2:4). And if I allow that kind, gentle, patient Spirit to be seen in my relationship to a person who is over-sensitive right now with a view to helping them move toward a more confident relationship with Jesus in their own heart, then I might be able to become a channel of the kindness of God toward them that will draw them to repentance, to more release of their unfounded fears and I can be a source of joy (being willing to be happy to be with them in their immature state) for them. As I help increase their joy capacity by my willingness to accept them in their fears and gently show them how to return to a state of joy themselves from whatever is frightening them in the present, then we will become bonded more closely in our hearts both to each other and to the heart of Jesus.

What I see in this verse is that as a follower of Jesus I need to learn to imitate His example of extreme sensitivity and gentleness with all of us. As I consider the implications of this verse I realize how much I need others to be obedient to these instructions in their dealings with me. I know that there are areas of my belief or emotions where I long to experience more freedom and joy but am still bound by chains of tradition and inhibition. Those who know me very well (I'm not sure who that might be) will recognize that there are things that might bother me but at the same time that I long to be more free to enjoy. Instead of being forced into those things I need to be gently eased into facing my fears and to have someone join me in that exercise with great sensitivity to my raw emotions and fears. Gentleness is far more powerful than we might imagine and gentleness is a sign of true greatness.

Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry out or raise His voice, nor make His voice heard in the street. A bruised reed He will not break and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice. (Isaiah 42:1-3)

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Good and Evil Reversed

It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother stumbles. (Romans 14:21)

As I pondered this morning over this passage again I noticed a contrast that I had not caught before. In this verse Paul is targeting an attitude that is a source of division within the body of Christ that he wants us to correct for the sake of cooperating with the work that God is doing in building up community. In this verse he is addressing those who might be termed “stronger in faith” to go beyond their supposed superiority and advanced insights and learn to truly think of others first. He wants them to pay attention to the condition of the spirit of those around them.

In a previous post I talked about a scenario that would likely have happened based on the hot-button issues that Paul used in this chapter as illustrations to make his point. A believer who is more advanced in his faith and has more confidence in the power of God as well as a realization that false gods are nothing more than man-made carvings out of lifeless materials will have no problem worrying about whether or not the meat he might eat at a friend's house has been made “unclean” by being previously offered to some idol. He is not concerned that by eating it he could become infected in his spirit with demonic influence and control because he supposedly gave permission for them to have authority in his life by eating this meat. He believes that just because meat was offered to idols does not make it unclean; that clean and unclean is not a definition determined by demons or idols but by the true Creator of all things who is the only authority to be recognized in our life.

But a fellow believer who is “weaker in faith”, who has a long history of superstitions about idols, who has seen first-hand the terrible manipulation and degradation that demons can effect over helpless victims who have allowed them to have control in their lives – this new believer still has a great deal of unresolved fear in his heart and is not yet matured in his faith to the point of believing from his heart that food offered to idols has no power to affect the protection of his spirit from demonic influence. And that very weakness of faith itself could possibly be a loophole that demonic forces just might try to exploit to reinforce his fears, for demons operate totally in the realm of fear and deception. If anyone is basing their actions or beliefs on fear then they are still susceptible to the devices of Satan.

So in this scenario, if these two kinds of believers find themselves at the same meal, Paul is insisting here that for the stronger believer to ignore the fears and superstitions of the weaker one, no matter how unfounded those fears may be, by choosing to intentionally eat food that is offered to idols in order to force his point and accentuate their differences by contrast, he is actually tearing down the work of God going on in the heart of the weaker believer and by doing so he is actually committing an act of evil.

Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense. (Romans 14:20)

The believer with “stronger faith”, at least as he fancies himself to have, is still missing the most important point taught and demonstrated by Jesus so explicitly all throughout His life while here on earth.

Sitting down, He called the twelve and said to them, "If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all." (Mark 9:35)

And He said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who have authority over them are called 'Benefactors.' But it is not this way with you, but the one who is the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like the servant." (Luke 22:25-26)

So God puts higher priority on the attitude of our spirit in how we treat fellow believers, even more so than how accurate our beliefs are upon a particular subject. And ironically we may find ourselves at times in situations where we are committing evil, in the opinion of God, by insisting on acting out of our superior knowledge of truth. This, according to Paul, may happen if we fail to take into account the effect that our actions have on others who are not in a place in their own experience that gives them the level of confidence and assurance that we may presently enjoy.

In explaining this whole situation, Paul is actually up-ending some of our suppositions about what is good and what is evil. We may often assume that exercising our freedoms in Christ is a good thing, and that is true as long as doing so is not tearing down the work of God in someone else's life in the process. But as soon as we indulge in exercising our “rights” when we know that it is offending a fellow believer and is causing them discouragement and amplifying their fears, then what was formerly a good thing for us has now become something evil for us. For in God's eyes, good and evil are not as much based on technicalities of factual truth but is deeply rooted in the condition of our spirit and how our spirit chooses to relate and affects those around us.

Once again I am challenged to examine my own heart and become much more sensitive to how my actions and words may amplify someone else's fears instead of attracting them to the perfect love of the God I am getting to know better. I do not think it is necessary to fall into the trap of constantly stressing about whether or not anything I might have said or done may have troubled someone else without my knowing about it; that is going beyond acting responsibly to encouraging paranoia. I have also lived a number of years under that enslavement and have no desire to be controlled by that demon again.

But it is clear here that I do have a responsibility to adjust or limit my actions and choices when it is clear to me that to exercise my freedoms would become an occasion of stumbling for a fellow struggling soul that is weaker in that area than I am. In fact, this is the exact point that Paul makes emphatically just a few verses later. Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. (Romans 15:1)

Father, thank-you for this most important teaching. But it is not enough to just learn about this with my head as important as that is. Please take me to a much deeper level with this most important truth and integrate it deeply into my heart. Thank-you for providing Your Spirit to convict me and catch my attention whenever I am in danger of pleasing myself at the expense of others. I do not have the wisdom myself to know when it is good and when it is evil for me to do the very same things, but You know. Thank-you for Your words, for Your training, and for Your Spirit to apply and mentor me these things as part of my transformation. Help me to mature much more so that I can be a source of strength for those who are weaker than I am, so that I can be a channel of courage and hope and life that You desire to provide for others. I praise You for Your faithful, patient love, for Your kindness and gentleness.

You have also given me the shield of Your salvation, and Your right hand upholds me; and Your gentleness makes me great. (Psalms 18:35)

(next in series)

Clean and Unclean - 4

...nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. (Romans 14:14)

I continue to be fascinated by many implications that can be seen within this single verse and in conjunction with the surrounding context. What is this phrase implying, to him who thinks... it is unclean? And I find a similar kind of phrase in verse 20. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense. Is this telling me that religious uncleanness can be created in the imagination of each individual on earth? Is this another version of the references in the Old Testament where it says that every man did what was right in his own eyes?

I know it might seem easy to rush to conclusions to counter this and try to refute what seems to be explicitly stated here. But while I am not looking for quick and easy answers, this is baffling me to some extent. I don't want to take off on easy rabbit trails in either direction, whether liberal or authoritarian. But it is clear to me that Paul believed that whatever uncleanness means, it seems to have a lot to do with the condition of each person's beliefs and feelings. And not only that, but these beliefs and assumptions are not to be ignored or even offended unnecessarily by those who have different opinions about that particular thing or belief.

It would be easier to accept this easily if Paul would just have left it at the first part – that each person perceives religion in their own way and has their own fears and ignorant persuasions. But he had to go farther and insist that true Christians must be careful to protect the freedom of each person to cling to their misconceptions with a spirit of respect and even acceptance. This is acceptance for the person themselves, not endorsement of their narrow ideas about what causes their fears or discomfort.

This definitely runs against what comes naturally for me and for others that I know. It is so much easier to want to offer instructions and advice and corrections to challenge a person's “ignorant assumptions” so as to bring them more quickly into alignment with my own “more enlightened” beliefs. But in this chapter I am seeing that Paul is giving me a very different model to be careful to follow. Apparently it is not my job to set others straight about their misguided beliefs but it is my responsibility to accept them as my siblings in the family of God and protect their space and freedom even while they retain beliefs that may sharply differ from my own.

This is much more than an intellectual enlightenment for me. This is making me feel quite uncomfortable inside. Something inside of me is squirming around looking for an out from this instruction, looking for excuses to legitimize my tendency to want to correct others instead of embracing them with loving, respectful acceptance. But I strongly suspect that this part inside of me that is squirming is resisting true light and, like the termites that I uncovered yesterday while repairing a house infested with them, this false god is running for the cover of darkness to avoid exposure and detection.

But just like those termites that had secretly wreaked so much damage silently behind the facade of secure walls and glossy paint jobs, this false spirit inside of me has riddled me with paths and habits that run counter to the ways of God and weaken my character. I want the light of the spirit of God to invade my own heart, to expose my own corruption and to spray these false gods that cling so tenaciously to my mind with the poison of His grace and truth and love.

Satan's kingdom is founded upon deception, force, fear and independence. But these elements are like the work of termites that continually weaken the image of God within my soul, excavating and consuming all the goodness and grace and mercy and truth that is needed as proper building materials for a life after the order of God. But while I cannot repair myself or even expel the unwanted intruders that I inherited through many generations of sinful ancestors as well as my own bad choices and habits, I can call on my God and my Savior to continue to implement His plan of redemption within my own structure, my temple designed for His habitation.

This subject has been lurking in the back of my mind and has surfaced repeatedly over the past few days causing me to question many of my attitudes, reactions and assumptions about those around me. I feel very much unsettled about this and have to trust the Spirit of God to guide me into more accurate truth in this matter.

Now here is an enlightening thought that just came to me as I expressed that last statement. Just as other people have false beliefs about certain things but still need to be accepted without criticism or contempt, so I am finding myself even in this discovery as very vulnerable to misunderstanding and potential criticism and contempt by others who may find objectionable my emerging beliefs about what this chapter is saying to my heart. This chapter just as much applies to those around me as it does to me, though it is not my responsibility to impose it on their conscience. Just as these instructions are designed to protect the spirit of others from my contempt and criticism, so to it can also protect me from the same damaging effects from others.

The Need for Community and Joy

From my growing understanding of the true meaning of the word “joy”, I can see another aspect of this that is quite significant. In verse 17 the core description of the kingdom of God is spelled out as righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. The neurological definition of the experience of joy for the brain is that sensation one gets when someone else is genuinely and intensely glad to be with them. Joy seems to be the preferred fuel for our lives that God designed us to run on and that causes us to thrive and grow in maturity. It has been observed that joy is the only thing that a young baby is motivated to seek on their own. They can be motivated to avoid other emotions, but the only thing that they will be motivated to seek on their own initiative is to find someone who will be glad to be with them and increase their sense of joy.

Scientists have learned recently that joy is the primary factor in the development and growth of one of the most important parts of the human brain, the right orbital pre-frontal cortex. Apparently this part of the brain is nearly non-existent at birth but within the span of a relatively short time can grow to become up to 35% of the adult brain. What is very fascinating is that the primary exercise or input for fueling growth of this part of the brain is shared experiences of joy with significant people in their life, at first primarily the mother figure.

This is one of the most important parts of the brain for preparing a person to interact with others on a deeply bonded level through love and shared joy. What is also very important is that this “joy center” in the brain is simultaneously the very same equipment needed to handle trauma throughout one's lifetime. If this part of the brain is not properly developed early in life, it leaves a person very vulnerable to being overwhelmed by stressful traumas that can leave them emotionally incapacitated in many respects until they have opportunity to increase this part of the brain later in life. Once they have had opportunity to increase their capacity for joy they can then have the capacity to go back and reprocess previously experienced traumas and successfully resolve them.

So should it come as any surprise that part of the main description of the kingdom of God includes the word joy? Joy is not just feeling happy and pleasurable. In fact, given this advanced definition of the real meaning of joy, it can sometimes feel quite different than those words might typically convey. I know this very acutely from person experience. But I can also vouch that true joy – someone willing and even happy to be close to me, to accept me unconditionally and who genuinely cares about me even in the midst of a most painful experience – is a most powerful stabilizing force and a source of bonding that has amazing capacity for healing and growth.

This is all starting to make more sense for me now in this context. What Paul seems to be saying to me here is that just as I need unconditional acceptance that can produce joy in my heart to help me endure trauma and trials, so too everyone around me needs someone to be genuinely glad to be with them in whatever they are experiencing without the element of judgment, condemnation, contempt or criticism in the areas in which my beliefs differ from theirs. I am being asked by God to be a potential source of joy in the Holy Spirit for others who are lacking in joy strength themselves.

If I want to really further the kingdom of God on this earth, it will not involve trying to coerce other people to adopt my set of doctrines or force others to attend my church or worship God in the style that I prefer. It will not be advanced wonderfully by massive preaching campaigns or getting many people to repeat some formula in words that supposedly cause them to be “saved”. According to this passage, the kingdom will be advanced when I begin to practice genuine acceptance of others with an open heart even while we may have different ideas about what is clean or unclean for our own souls.

Uncleanness has much more to do with the condition of the spirit of a person than with some contamination from incorrect beliefs or doctrines or external activities. And evidently, something that has a worse effect on the spirit than having faulty notions about what is clean or unclean is to be viewed with contempt by others claiming to by my brothers and sisters in Christ. That is the very opposite of joy and therefore should have no place in the fellowship of believers called the kingdom of God.

Father, my temple structure is far more compromised by the termites of deception and pride and selfishness than I can even imagine. The more facade You peel away the more damage is revealed and I observe the supernatural termites scurrying for cover. When I experience this I start to feel anxious and think that You should too. I expect You to rush in to condemn me for the false ideas that are uncovered and to insist that I correct them immediately. I am surprised rather often at the seemingly slow pace and the lack of excitement on Your part whenever my faults are exposed. But just like the exterminator yesterday had a patient, calm demeanor while he carefully resprayed the area for termites, You too always have a patient assurance that Your grace and truth will have their intended effects in my life in the long run.

Father, I am slowly learning to trust in Your ways, Your timing and Your methodical, meticulous and thorough work in my salvation. I'm sure glad You are in charge of this or it would simply never be possible in the slightest. Father, mentor me and teach me to treat others with the same, calm acceptance and respect that You continue to show me. Please cleanse me of all false notions and habits and assumptions about how I should treat others who believe differently than me and have unfounded fears that hamper their joy and freedom. Please help me to see them from Your perspective, to have Your sympathy, Your patience, Your compassion and to be willing to bring real joy to their hearts by my willingness to accept them just where they are without trying to change them myself. And I would certainly like it if You would send some people into my life that would be willing to do the same for me. Just a thought....

Keep reminding me that they are Your children, not mine and they are Your responsibility. You will show them the freedom You have for them when they are mature enough to be ready to receive and believe it. Please keep me from trying to force their flower petals open before they are ready. Remind me to rest in Your timing and Your work for them as well as for me. You are so gracious and patient and consistent with Your faithfulness and love. I trust You and rest in You and praise You for Your infinite power and grace.

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Clean and Unclean - 3

Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. (Romans 14:22)

Guilt and condemnation is, at the brain level, a tension created by conflict between opposing beliefs held in the left and right brain – between intellectual beliefs and strongly held experiential or emotional beliefs. In the situation Paul is describing here, a person may try to accept intellectually the belief that there is nothing spiritually unclean about something he is encouraged to eat, or some activity. But if that belief is forced on him by others judging him, then at the emotional and heart level this belief has not taken hold and this other part of their brain does not really believe this truth. Then whenever that person might engage in those activities or partake of those things, conflict will take place within their own being and tension will ensue and grow as a feeling of guilt inside of their mind.

Just as this takes place within the mind of a person, so too in the body of Christ whenever one person views another with contempt, a feeling of guilt and condemnation is created which is very debilitating and discouraging. The heavy weight of feeling condemned is a burden we were not designed to carry around, it is the very opposite of the joyful lifestyle that Jesus desires for us in which our soul can thrive and grow and bond together with others and with Him.

It is not enough just to try to intellectually refrain from condemning one's self about something that they feel is wrong or unclean. This is why Paul keeps talking about a much deeper level of belief in this passage. This deeper level is called a conviction, being convinced, having a belief at the level of conscience that allows one the freedom to do things that formerly were unthinkable without having twinges of fear and guilt.

This is not the same thing as hardening the heart against true convictions of the Spirit of God so that we can do wrong things without feeling guilty. That is the counterfeit of this kind of conviction. Also, this freedom from condemnation is not the same thing as convincing ourselves that our opinion is right or better than others and thus allowing pride to slowly extinguish the voice of God in our souls. That may appear very similar to what Paul is talking about here, and this passage may even be used to justify such activity. But that is not the point that Paul wants to make here.

What is needed, both in our own experience and in our relationships with others within the body of believers, is a humility of spirit but also a congruency of belief. This is what is sometimes called an integrated personality where our beliefs also correspond with our gut-level feelings and impulses. Apparently the importance of this congruency is very high in God's eyes, and a lack of consistency in our own heart and thinking is a very serious liability that needs to be addressed even more so than our lack of accurate information.

What Paul might be saying here is that instead of externals or misinformation being the cause of our becoming spiritually unclean, it is our relationships and the cherished attitudes of our spirit that is most likely to have that effect in our lives. The debilitating effect of “uncleanness” on our spirit can not only come from the guilt involved in eating certain things that we may believe can produce condemnation but also can come from receiving contempt and judgment from others who should be there to encourage and lift us up. Thus, fellow Christians can potentially become the source of uncleanness of the spirit for us in place of forbidden activities that were part of the Old Covenant restrictions.

Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil. (Romans 14:15-16)

Is this talking about physical destruction here? I don't believe so, at least not in the immediate sense. So it must be talking about the tearing down of the spirit. Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense. (Romans 14:20) In verse 17 Paul explicitly clarifies what he is referring to here. The kingdom of God is not about externals as we continue to often suppose, but is about having our spirit properly aligned and synchronized and connected with the life of God Himself. This will produce real righteousness, unimaginable peace and true joy in the Holy Spirit.

What is being described here is a transition of maturity from childhood to adulthood in the spiritual life of God's people on earth. God is trying to take us past the simplistic rules needed for the protection of little children to more meaningful levels of relationship with Him through mature ways of living and thinking. That does not mean that what we were taught as children no longer applies – that is the logic of fools. It means that we shift our priorities and focus on the things that God now wants us to consider as of more importance appropriate for our more advanced level of maturity. Instead of throwing away the past instructions God gave, we should be building on their foundational principles and coming to understand them better in the increased light of advanced truth.

Present truth never discards past truth but will tend to enhance and expand on it more clearly. Some of the simplistic, childlike restrictions may be withdrawn or outgrown as one matures, but that does not mean that the underlying reasons for those restrictions no longer exist. It means that we are being trusted to act more responsibly and are being trusted to think and relate in more mature ways. If we fail to use our new freedoms responsibly we fail to enter into the proper place of advanced mature responsibility in God's family that He designs for us to enjoy.

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Clean and Unclean - 2

...nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. (Romans 14:14)

I am searching for the real meaning and nature of this concept of “unclean” here. I realize that it comes from many statements and prohibitions found in the laws of Moses and carefully observed by the Jews down through the centuries. It was also was part of the process of the externalization of spirituality that became what we call often call “religion” which largely has stripped away the inner core of what God intended for His people to experience with Him. Nearly all that is left in religion is the artificial external symptoms of what should emerge from a real relationship with God, outward evidence that is supposed to emerge from a genuine growth in knowledge and grace from true spiritual development.

It is all too easy to just brush aside all the Old Testament ceremonial restrictions as irrelevant to our lives today where we can now live “not under the law”. But this has far too often led to brushing aside things that God never intended to be lost sight of and that are still vital to our relationship with Him. While the Old Covenant arrangements in many respects are no longer in place because they have been superseded and fulfilled by Gospel realities, it is important for us even today to understand the true meaning of the Old Covenant concepts because the core principles that they reflected are eternal in nature and still hold very significant meaning for us for all time.

Paul is pointing out here an important aspect of this idea that needs to be noted. The uncleanness that he is referring to is something in the mind and heart, not an external, physical uncleanness which is another but seperate very real problem that has little to do with ceremonial issues. And while the two kinds of uncleanness often paralleled and overlapped each other, we must be careful not to summarily dismiss physical laws of health in our rush to ignore ceremonial restrictions that were fulfilled in the life and death of the Messiah.

Paul tells us that the things that were previously considered unclean in a ceremonial sense were unclean because of how they were to be viewed from the standpoint of the mind of the person so instructed. Something that was ceremonially unclean was not inherently so because of some intrinsic quality within it. So the real uncleanness was something that was going on internally in the mind, not just something that might infect the body with disease or poison, though again that was also often a very real possibility as well. And because this kind of contamination was in the mind it would have strong effect on the person's relationships both with God and with others around them.

What does it mean for us today to know the truth about something being unclean under the Old Covenant arrangement? How does it help us to understand God's ways better to learn that things are not intrinsically ceremonially unclean in and of themselves as this verse seems to indicate? I believe that there are some things that are very important in this area that can be helpful for enhancing and deepening my own relationship with God once I begin to understand it better.

Uncleanness is not fictional, it is real but maybe different than what we often think. The uncleanness that is referred to here seems to have strong implications that are of a spiritual nature and are not always referring to physical uncleanliness. But the problem often arises when we fail to distinguish between the two and jump to an assumption that nothing we eat will hurt us because the spiritual uncleanness no longer carries religious condemnation.

In the Old Testament, God very often merged the physical and religious laws together to make life more simple for very simple minds. As we usually do for very immature children, the rules had to be very plain and simple for His immature people to be safe and protected and to be able to thrive until they were old enough in terms of maturity to absorb more of the complexities and differences between what is physically dangerous and what is spiritually contaminating. Just as He gave directions for not touching dead things, personal hygiene and other laws related to clean and unclean, I believe the main reason God created classes of clean and unclean meats was in part to simplify the directions for their life and to keep them from destroying themselves by unhealthy habits that would negatively affect their ability to relate to God with their physical minds.

Science today has discovered that the flesh foods that God declared unclean in the Old Testament are far less conducive to healthful living than other foods. But that makes one wonder why many Christians today are so eager to indulge in “foods” that were once prohibited as unclean by God in the Old Testament? I suspect it is not really a sign of maturity and freedom as they want to suppose but is more of a sign of ignorance and pride and self-dependence. Insisting that the freedoms enjoyed by those who are supposed to be mature gives license to ignore the deeper principles of health and lifestyles is not a liberating truth of a new dispensation but is an insult to the wisdom and guidance and care of God for His people in the past. Instead of trying to see how much we can get away with in our supposed “freedoms” from “clean” and “unclean” laws, it would make better sense that we should try to understand more clearly the deeper reasons those were given in the first place and incorporate those principles into our own lives so as to better enable us to draw closer to the life that measures with the life of God.

In the New Testament, God is trying to relate hopefully to a little higher level of maturity in His people and begins to differentiate between what is spiritually healthy and unhealthy and no longer puts so much emphasis on the externals and the physical. Does that mean that suddenly certain items that are eaten are no longer unhealthy that were previously? Or does it mean that God is trying to move us beyond simplistic thinking to view life in more complex and mature ways of thinking? Do the principles behind the simplistic rules we make for our young children suddenly disappear when they get older? Or do we count on those principles being so absorbed into their thinking and lifestyle that we no longer have to insist on those restrictions so much and can move on to more complex and satisfying understandings which are needed to be learned in order for them to live responsibly as adults?

Is it no longer necessary for a person to wash their hands after working or dealing with contamination simply because they have grown older and their parents are no longer in charge? That is patently absurd. But we hope to be able to assume that a person will learn about the reasons behind the need to wash their hands before they handle food or eat and this habit will be so ingrained into their thinking that we will not need to continue to dwell on it long after the age of childhood has passed.

Paul does not say here in this verse (Romans 14:14) that he believes that nothing is unclean, he only says that the uncleanness is not inherent in the thing considered unclean but is rather in the mind or heart of the person viewing it as unclean. To him who thinks it is unclean could include Paul as well, but not necessarily.

What is becoming clear is that condemnation and judging about what is clean or unclean is far more destructive than any potential negative effects of violating “clean” laws. The harmful effects of being judged and condemned are destructive both when received from others or when imposed on ourselves internally.

What are the eternal principles underlying the clean laws and restrictions? That is important to know.

How do those still-true principles apply to our lives today and affect our relationship with God?

Just because the spirit with which we approach these issues is more important the the external details does not mean that the externals can be ignored altogether. We still must retain balance while keeping our priorities always in the right order.

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Clean and Unclean - 1

I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. (Romans 14:14)

After the last time I expressed my thoughts on this passage along the line of being fully convinced, I find it interesting that I find myself feeling less than convinced the more I look at this passage. That is not an invitation for zealous Christians to assault me with the purpose of convincing me that there is nothing wrong with eating unclean meats as many want to insist. That is almost always done with the wrong spirit which would only turn me off. In fact, that is one of the reasons why Christians in general have so little success attracting both Jews and Muslims to Christianity, because they mistakenly believe that insisting that converts must eat unclean foods is a supposed sign of true “freedom” in Christ. This is highly repulsive to people from those backgrounds and blasphemes the very Spirit of the One they purport to represent.

But I am praying to know the real meaning of what this verse is trying to convey. I am not very confident that I can unpack it completely even in the very near future, but like many other beliefs that I am no longer afraid to re-examine, I am asking the Holy Spirit to give me insight and understanding about the real issues and principles underlying this statement of Paul. At the same time I do not want to become too side-tracked by the simplistic, conventional arguments typically associated with this verse.

I am beginning to notice something here. Paul is not necessarily saying that nothing is unclean at all. That is not the distinction that he seems to be trying to make here in spite of the strong insistence of many teachers and preachers. He is saying that in itself nothing is unclean. The uncleanness that he is referring to here is not a physical contamination which is inherent in something that can cause disease or death when ingested. That kind of uncleanness is very real and should not be ignored by a foolish interpretation of this text. The uncleanness that Paul is referring to here is of a spiritual, symbolic nature and was very real in the minds of people in his day, particularly the Jews.

This uncleanness was due to violations of meticulous prescriptions, laws, rules and ordinances that were both spelled out in the Old Testament writings of Moses and the added restrictions accumulated over many years of tradition put in place by the teachers and elders of Israel. Their lives had become something similar, in a way, to the superstitious lifestyles of many tribes still living today in remote parts of the earth that are steeped in demon and spirit worship. Their whole daily life is filled with rules and restrictions dictated by their superstitions that seem strange and bizarre to people outside their cultures. But these superstitions are very real and pervasive in the minds of those who have grown up within that tradition.

So too, the Jews over the centuries have pieced together a whole, elaborate system of meticulous rules and inhibitions that govern practically every detail of life in an attempt to perfect a way of life pleasing (or appeasing) to God in heaven. This system was built up around the original system of laws and prescriptions first given to the Israelites in the desert just after they were delivered by God from slavery in Egypt. As a nation, the people at that time were extremely immature and typically acted and thought like little infants. Because of this condition God needed to provide for them very restrictive and detailed rules just as parents have to do for young children, in order for them to reasonably function as part of His family and to keep them from destroying themselves and each other.

Part of the meticulous rules and detailed instructions that were given during that time were a great deal of rules regarding things that were considered good or things that were considered off limits for them. The terms used for this was clean and unclean. It was a very simplistic way of setting boundaries that are very necessary for immature individuals who are incapable of making safe decisions or thinking in adult ways. And just like the way we have to oversimplify things when dealing with immature children, God had to be very restrictive and explicit and simplistic in the way he dealt with these people who simply did not have the capacity to enter into a more mature, trusting relationship with Him at a higher level.

But just as the principles behind our rules for children outlast the rules themselves, so too the principles embodied in the clean and unclean dictates given to the Children of Israel remain valid long after the simplistic restrictions may no longer be needed. But part of our problem yet today is that if we view God's dealings with men through the lens of an authoritarian and control mentality instead of God's family model, we will come up with very confused notions of why He gave many of His instructions and what His purposes were for doing so. We will fall right into the same trap that the Jews did in the days of Jesus and Paul by clinging to the rules more that clinging to the One from where the rules originated and were given to describe.

Just as we would become distraught and terribly concerned if our grown children were still trying to live under every detail of every rule ever given to them in our home from the days of their infancy, so too, God is very disappointed when we place so much emphasis on rules that He designed to restrain and protect highly immature people until they should grow up into a more mature love relationship with His heart. But at the same time, He is also very disappointed when people try to claim that since the rules were designed primarily for children that we are now free to violate both the rules and the principles underlying those rules. That is not a sign of advanced maturity but a sign more along the lines of rebellion and insubordination. Principles are eternal in nature and God's rules are more descriptive than prescriptive. It is important to understand this distinction if we are to ever begin to grow up to a level of maturity where we can enter into a deeper level of intimacy with our Creator and Lover and Redeemer.

When Jesus came to this earth, the Jews were still deeply entrenched and absorbed in the rules designed for infant and child level maturity given by God for His chosen people. They had unwisely also added many more rules in a mistaken belief that God was more interested in performance and external “perfection” than in anything else. They had almost totally lost sight of the fact that God was more desirous of a personal connection with them at the heart level than He was in their meticulous performance and alignment with every detail of every rule ever given to them throughout their growing up years. But they refused to accept this important facet of God's desire for them and so forced God to divorce them, to relinquish them as His priority people and form a new entity from all those who would accept His offer to participate in what was called the body of Christ on earth. This new body or entity was made up of both Jews and non-Jews without discrimination based on previous distinctions prescribed in the Old Testament.

This new body of believers was to be a more mature and advanced body than just infant or child where the Jews had remained stuck. The Jewish nation had become so entrenched in a juvenile mindset that God had to let them go in order to achieve His original plan to grow up a people to a level of maturity where He could interact with them like a marriage partner. This is almost astounding even to think about but is true according to the message of the Bible. God desires to draw us into a marriage relationship with Him after getting us grown up enough and matured so that we can have a healthy, dynamic life that measures with the life of God.

It is important to have this context in place when trying to understand the issue of clean and unclean and God's purpose for instituting these restrictions in the first place. Good parents still do the same thing today with their very young children and infants. We may have extremely simplistic rules like insisting that certain things are off-limits to children simply because they are “yucky”. The child is too young to understand or grasp the complex reasons and dangers behind why they should not play with something or put it in their mouth; so parents simply make seemingly arbitrary rules about those things in order to protect them from harm until they are mature enough to understand the real reasons and they have enough self-discipline to make wise choices.

That second point is also a very important part of the mix. It is not enough to just know the deeper reasons for some arbitrary rules if one does not have the internal discipline needed for self-control and self-regulation. In order to live in a healthy society successfully, we need adults who are self-restrained, thoughtful and considerate of others, who can reason from cause to effect and can have healthy, mature interactions with those around them. One cannot have a satisfying marriage to a person who is highly immature, undisciplined and irrational. That is a very tragic relationship and is due to failure of one or both partners to mature properly before entering into this kind of relationship.

Just the same, God knows that we must mature much more and internalize the principles embodied in the rules originally given to us as immature children so that our lives will become reflective of those principles, not just complicit with the external details of simplistic rules. As the true principles are more and more internalized, the outward expressions of those principles will be seen naturally. They may vary according to taste, personality and uniqueness, but the basic principles will never change.

If I am to properly understand this issue of clean and unclean, I need to grasp the underlying principles behind those early restrictions and then understand how they should be incorporated into a mature mind and heart. Many of the teachings in the New Testament are designed for the more mature, but they can also be easily misunderstood and misapplied by anyone who has failed to mature to the level needed to relate to them properly. We must understand the eternal principles behind the rules and instructions or we can easily be deceived and thwarted from entering into the relationship that God desires us to have with Him.

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Convictions and Conflict

Something I am beginning to see in my study of this chapter of Romans is the need to live in peace while properly relating to the potentially tension-creating situation described here. In this chapter (14) I am instructed to accept, even embrace as family, others in the body of Christ who believe differently about certain things than I do but at the same time be fully convinced in my own mind and heart about what God has revealed to me about those same issues.

This is a relatively new concept to me and is almost foreign to my thinking. What was modeled for me most of my life was quite the opposite of this teaching. The people who mentored me tended to play up their differences with other people and intentionally pointed them out and made that a reason to criticize and find fault with those who didn't agree with them. Thus pride was fostered in the heart and a system of comparing ourselves with other people became deeply ingrained in my life.

But I am now seeing that this way of relating to other believers is just the opposite as taught in the Bible, despite all the “proof texts” assembled to justify the actions of those who believe in amplifying differences. Is this a recipe for compromise and dilution of truth in the church as many are sure to claim? Well, I have to first of all be accountable to God for the truth as it is shared with me by the Holy Spirit directly from the Word of God. So I have to unravel this issue enough to see what the real purpose of God is for my life and listen in humility to the convictions of the Spirit.

Notice the verses in this chapter that highlight this important point.

Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions. (Romans 14:1)

...Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. (Romans 14:5)

I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus... (Romans 14:14)

The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he (violates his internal belief about some issue), because his (action that violates his own conscience) is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin. (Romans 14:22-23)

Now that I think about this a little more, I wonder if part of the real problem is that when someone else presents beliefs or doctrines that differ from my own, that secretly I feel threatened because I am not really fully settled in my own heart about that particular issue as much as I think I am. Oh, I may be a strong defender of that particular belief or doctrine even to the point of fanaticism, but that may be because I have only embraced it with my head (and a great deal of prejudice as well) but have not really had my heart transformed by the underlying truth of that belief, if indeed it is true.

If that is the case then a certain amount of tension or even guilt will be sensed whenever someone brings up that hot-button issue and to avoid feeling that sense of internal condemnation I may react in very strong opposition to that person believing that the real problem is in them and not in myself. This is a very common problem with humans, much more than most people ever care to admit or even believe possible. But whenever I find myself blaming others repeatedly for something it is a sure indicator that something inside my own heart is unresolved and needs to be exposed and faced much more directly.

It is a common reaction that whenever someone triggers a subject or unresolved issue in our own heart that we will tend to blame the ones who “caused” us to be triggered instead of taking responsibility ourself. But blame never resolves anything, it only attempts to mask the real problem and prevents us from achieving the healing that God wants to accomplish in our life and is so necessary to prepare us to encounter His dangerous presence.

It is equally true that whenever a person is fully settled in their mind and in their heart about a certain issue that when they meet others who believe differently than they do that there is no longer any intensity stirred up within them, no feelings that need to be suppressed or dealt with, no internal twinges of condemnation that create unease. This is the peace that comes from a settled mind and heart that has been healed by the truth and a gentle spirit that is synchronized with God and does not feel any need to justify itself.

As I have pointed out before, the examples that Paul used here in this chapter were some of the biggest “hot-button” issues in religion that caused the greatest conflicts in the church of his day. But they have lost most of their edge for people today and so their impact to convey the real message of this chapter today no longer illicits the explosive potential reactions in our thinking like they would have in the minds of those he was originally addressing. So to really get the strong emphasis that Paul intended this passage to have, we might do well to insert our own hot-button subjects into this passage in place of the ones he used to allow the text to speak its truth more forcefully to us today.

Those potential subjects will vary widely depending on the church, the culture or even the particular sub-group that you may find yourself in. But it is not really that hard to find something to bring this passage to life for us. Just think a little bit about what triggers you the most, what makes you feel defensive, what makes you feel an intense need to protect the religion or beliefs that you strongly believe in and you will likely have a good candidate for plugging in to this passage and seeing how the conviction of the Spirit of God can bring this truth to life in your own experience.

I know that in the culture and religion that I am most familiar with and the one that I grew up in around my own family that there are a number of hot-button topics that would easily fit this description. It takes very little to start up an argument around some of the people I know on certain subjects. But the real question that needs to be faced is, how can I relate to that trigger for conflict to examine the root cause for dis-ease in my own soul? If I feel intense about anything then assuredly there is a root of bitterness or a lie-based belief that still lies buried and potentially undetected in my own heart that God wants to expose and remove. But He can only do this with my explicit permission.

This is where I am reminded of the instruction from James, the brother of Jesus who wrote:

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4)

We typically view this verse as referring to other kinds of trials, but anything that arouses tension and conflict in our hearts is a trial. What is important is that we learn to view trials as opportunities to have the root causes inside our heart that are triggering us in our trial to be healed by God. If we relate to these situations in this way then we will find ourselves engaged in the process described here that produces better faith and more endurance and greater maturity. I believe this is a good parallel to what Paul is referring to in Romans 14.

The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he (violates his internal belief about some issue), because his (action that violates his own conscience) is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin. (Romans 14:22-23)

What I find fascinating here is that Paul seems to be implying that different people can hold very opposing views compared to each other about the same doctrinal issue and yet both parties can be in right relationship with God. What seems to be more important here to God is that we are at peace about it in our own conscience and in our personal accountability to God more than He wants our being technically correct about some divisive issue.

This might seem to open the door to excuse deliberate self-deception when a person chooses to reject truth that is undesirable, but this is not the case. That is another issue that needs to be addressed separately. But that is the excuse that is often used for us to attack others who differ with us. Instead of looking within to see why we feel so defensive and intense about our favorite topic that we desire to champion, we accuse others of insincerity and go on the offensive to force them to come into alignment with our opinions. But this is in direct contradiction to the clear instruction in verse one where we are told to accept others without passing judgment on their opinions.

This is a very hard teaching for many of us. It runs directly across our natural ways of thinking and relating to others. But it is also a revelation of the kindness of God in His dealings with us. If God related to us based on the accuracy of our knowledge about factual and doctrinal truth we would be in a hopeless situation. What I am seeing here is a clearer revelation of the importance of focusing on the heart issues above the external, factual-based issues that we so often use to distinguish ourselves from others.

At the deeper level the real problem that is being exposed here is the deep reservoir of pride that still remains hidden in our hearts and minds. Until our pride is exposed for what it really is we will continue to have great difficulty properly understanding these instructions from the Word of God. True humility will lead to true unity in the body of Christ. And the closer we come to each other at the heart level the more we will be amazed at the ease with which God can correct our doctrinal conflicts and bring us into unity in those areas as well. But if the heart is not open and in the healing process, no amount of doctrinal correctness will prepare us to enter into the unity of spirit that God says is a much greater priority in His estimation.

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Ruining the Heart

For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died. (Romans 14:15 NAS95)

If your brother or sister is being injured by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died. (Romans 14:15 NRSV)

If your brother or sister is being injured by __________, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let __________ cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died.

If we think that the only thing Paul is referring to here is meat vs. vegetables or opinions about the importance of feast days we have completely missed the whole point of this passage. For the principle that Paul is presenting is far greater than the illustrations that he chose to convey it. The bottom line issue that is so important to grasp is that the effect of my spirit and my choices and my actions on others is a very high priority in God's opinion.

I don't think that this to be extended to mean that my life must be dictated by the prejudices and misconceptions of everyone around me or anyone who might happen to be passing by. My Christian life cannot be shaped and determined solely by the bigoted, narrow and fear-based beliefs of those with very messed up pictures of God in their minds.

But on the other hand I am not to ignore the potential strong reactions in the minds and hearts of others with whom I may have significant influence. If someone is looking to me to be an example of what it looks like to be a Christian and they are still locked in bonds of ignorance and superstition about things that I have long since become free from, it is not O.K. for me to just think that I can live free from all responsibility for the effect my actions have on their heart. In other words, it is clearly my responsibility to do everything I can to protect the reputation of Jesus by carefully avoiding unnecessarily wounding a person's heart who is trying to struggle through issues and confusion that are no longer a problem for me.

Listen to the description of Jesus and the way He relates to people as put forth by Isaiah the prophet:

"Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry out or raise His voice, nor make His voice heard in the street. A bruised reed He will not break and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice." (Isaiah 42:1-3)

I have thought about alternative issues that Paul might have used if he were writing this passage in today's world. Try some of these out for size:

If your brother or sister is being injured by your music, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let your music cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died.

If your brother or sister is being injured by you raising your hands during worship, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let your expressive worship cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died.

If your brother or sister is being injured by the things you do on the Sabbath, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let your freedom from legalism cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died.

I know what kinds of triggers these examples can immediately stir up in many people. The same things rise up in me as well. I feel a sense of resentment and irritation that my relationship and freedom to worship my God in ways that are “more advanced” and connect me with Him in a deeper way than I used to feel safe to do are now somehow off-limits to me under certain situations simply because someone else's narrow thinking extends into my personal space. It just doesn't seem fair or right! Why do I have to be dragged back into the environment of legalistic, rigid dark emotions and restrictions because of someone else's immaturity? Something inside of me strongly rebels at such a suggestion.

But then I have to suspect that it is precisely this spirit of rebellion and resentment that Paul is talking about right here in this passage. The rest of this chapter intensifies the message of this verse and becomes unavoidable if I am to be honest in listening to the conviction of the true Spirit of God. If I do not want to distort the message of God to my heart, which is always an extremely dangerous thing to do, then I have to face squarely the “religious” spirit of rebellion inside my flesh and allow it to be exposed for the counterfeit that it is and be crucified.

Does this mean that I have to give up all the wonderful freedoms and insights and joy that I have been increasingly experiencing in my growing intimacy with God because other more immature people condemn these things? Not at all! That is not the point here at all. Paul never wavers in his own personal belief about the rightness or wrongness of the particular beliefs in dispute in these illustrations. In fact he goes to some length to emphasize that he personally is not bothered in the least by things that are a really big issue for others who are so easily offended.

So this is not an instruction to revert back to old legalistic patterns of thinking or adopt the prejudices and bigotry of those we are not to offend. We need to see these problems clearly for what they are and continue to become more free from them ourselves, but never with any trace of a spirit of contempt. But in the process there is something even more important that is not to be missed. It is the issue of the condition of the heart and the spirit, both ours and theirs. For in God's eyes it is never right to have the right facts but carry them around with the wrong spirit, a spirit that wounds the hearts of other honest seekers after God.

But really now, this is a principle that is almost easier to accept in the secular world for decent, polite people than it is to accept in the spiritual realm. If we go to another country with radically different customs and norms we usually, if we are a considerate person at all, will try to find out ahead of time how to adjust our behavior and speech and how to relate to people in a way that is not unnecessarily offensive to them. It is simply common courtesy to try to adapt our ways and suspend our usual behaviors that they might find offensive while we are around them so as not to insult their sensitivities.

But when it comes to spiritual politeness, why is it so hard to have that same attitude? Why is it that it is so easy to overlook the sensitivities of someone who does not see God or worship Him the same way that we do right now? Why do we think we have the right to just do whatever we want without reference to offending the feelings of others and arousing suspicion and prejudice in their minds?

I don't have all the answers for these questions. I do appreciate the newfound freedom to be able to pose real questions without feeling obliged to have them resolved immediately. I know that God is faithful and will bring more insight and resolution as I rest in His tutelage. But is it becoming rather clear in my marination in this passage that it is clearly my responsibility in God's opinion that I need to avoid as much as possible unnecessarily offending others spiritually whenever possible. When I am not around them I can still enjoy all the freedoms that I have been learning to accept myself and even desire to have much more.

On the flip side of this I am also aware at times of the offended feelings that sometimes stir up in my own heart whenever someone else does or says things that I feel are too liberal, too conservative, too radical or whatever. At those times I am reminded that maybe they may not even know that I am being offended or maybe they have not been convicted of the message from this passage. But one thing is for sure, they are not my project to fix or reprove. They are accountable to God personally just as I am, and my responsibility is first and foremost for my own attitude and spirit in the presence of God. I am the one who has to give my account to God for my choices and attitudes.

I also remind myself that years ago if I had met a person like the person I now have become that I would have been very offended by some of the things that I now so much enjoy and thrive on doing. Things that now deeply enhance and enrich my intimacy with God I would have found quite offensive and repulsive in previous years. Ironically some of that previous “person” still lurks inside of hidden, dark corners of my mind yet today and is still secretly offended by some of the things I so much enjoy now.

I have seen some of the damaging effects of the behavior and spirit of people who put far more emphasis on being right than on being gentle and accommodating in the spirit of Jesus. These kind of people usually declare that accommodation is nothing but compromise with evil and they will have nothing to do with it. However, that spirit and way of relating to others is in direct contradiction to the real lesson of this chapter. God clearly puts far more priority on the choices and actions that affect the heart than on how right or wrong we are factually or in our success at rule-keeping. This is demonstrated in the illustration Jesus told about the final day of exposure.

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' (Matthew 7:21-23 NIV)

And just what is the will of the Father in heaven?

So then let us pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another. Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of (food, music,worship style, clothes – you fill in the blank). (Romans 14:19-20)

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