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I read the following in an email from a discussion group I follow:

In essence you are stating that the “traditional Christians” are not filled with the Spirit, not following the Spirit, maybe not even saved. And that just isn’t true.

I think the majority of those good people are following the leading of the Spirit to the very best of their enlightenment. They are just under bad (not false) teachings. And those teachers are teaching to the best of their enlightenment also. None of these people (laymen nor teachers) are maliciously disobeying God’s commands.

[snip]

We need to be very respectful of our brothers and sisters who are “not obeying” as we see obedience. After all, look how long it took most of us to see through all the layers of bias we’d been taught. And we still don’t have it all right. We’re just barely scratching the surface.

Great insights! This is also a great example of the “benefit of the doubt” we should give to all who, in good faith, don’t see things in our faith as we do. And there are many who fall in that category.

I think the person who wrote those words echoes the same Spirit as Paul admirably:

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. (Philippians 3:13-16 KJV)

BUT there is an important caveat: “Wolves” and “Weeds” among the brethren also see things differently than us. But in their case, they are part of a strategy of Satan meant for our harm.

Note how Paul continues after the verses we just read:

Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.) (Philippians 3:17-19 KJV)

Immediately after encouraging the Phillipians to set aside honest differences in pursuit of the bigger picture, Paul warned them about staying away from trouble-makers in their midst. That’s the other side of the coin of appropriate action toward those who disagree with us.

We must give the benefit of the doubt to those who arrive at a different understanding of YHWH honestly. But Wolves and Weeds don’t differ with us honestly. They differ oppositionally.

Their interest is not in arriving at truth but rather in obscuring it so they can continue their destructive activity. That is their function among believers: destroy the saints by choking them out or by tearing them up.

Wolves and Weeds are not keeping in step with the Spirit, or even trying to do so. In fact, they work against the Spirit. They are sent by the Enemy to hinder us, even to the point of stopping us. “Wolves” are those who enter the flock with a lust to kill sheep. They usually come dressed in “sheep’s clothing” and they hide among the “Weeds” for cover.

Those of us who are charged with the responsibility of protecting a flock have learned that Wolves are very tricky. Usually there is no indication of a problem until a string of ripped-up sheep begin popping up. Then we know there is a resident problem. And experience tells us the place to find them is usually hiding among the Weeds.

The Weeds are those that are present to choke out the good crops. They have no intention of producing a harvest of righteousness nor a harvest for the Kingdom. Rather they multiply and attempt to smother the Spirit in a congregation. They do this by nay-saying, discouragement, and providing examples and enticements to follow them in their worldliness.

Wolves and Weeds do have one important function among believers: expose the real flock among the brethren:

For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. (1 Corinthians 11:18-19)

I appreciate the words in the email I quoted above. I applaud the spirit in which they were written. We should seek to have an attitude of charity and good-will with other believers, even when we have come to different conclusions about our faith in good faith.

That doesn’t mean we have to do what they do. That also doesn’t mean we should not teach or explain our position. Further, it does not mean we should not cling to our good conscience and considered study in a matter.

But it does mean that we accord those in our faith who honestly disagree with us the respect and love due brethren. In the end, just as we should do with ourselves, we must leave them to the hand of their Master.

He is able to make them stand just as He is able to make us stand. But Wolves and Weeds are a different story. They will not be made to stand. In fact, they will fall in due time. Until that day, we must take care not to be choked out or ripped up by Wolves and Weeds.

But we must also refrain from choking out or ripping up the brethren who disagree with us. If we don’t, what distinguishes us from the Wolves and Weeds?

Abba, Father in Heaven, we thank you and praise you for your great goodness to us. You have provided us with your Spirit and your Word and all of your great and precious promises that by them we may lay hold of life and godliness. May we treat our brethren with all charity and may we see all Wolves and Weeds with clarity. Grant us the grace, Father, to see as your Son sees, as we have the same Spirit as He. Glorify your Name and your Kingdom in us by helping us to respond appropriately to the brethren and also the world. We ask these things in the name of Yeshua our Messiah. Amen.

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What do you think? Please leave a comment below and let us know! Thank you.

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Copyright 2010 Jim Zboran. All rights reserved.
Permission to reproduce and distribute hereby granted if the following four conditions are met: 1) The article must be reproduced in its entirety and the content may not be modified in any way. 2) Author’s name and copyright information, including these permission conditions must appear with article. 3) Author’s contact information (jim@jimzboran.com | www.jimzboran.com) must appear with article. 4) Article must be freely distributed without charge or financial gain.

Iron sharpens iron. Those words, taken from Proverbs 27:17, are an oft quoted saying. Oft quoted, but often misunderstood and misapplied.

Strangely, some imagine those words to be justification to commence hacking away at others. They gleefully begin to whack others over the head with pet (and invariably skewed) theological ideas, fantasies, or delusions. Others are spiritual sadists that delight in causing bruises and bleeding among the saints. Either way, they err.

While some fancy themselves to be swinging “the sword of the Spirit,” they have actually only picked up sticks and stones which litter theological scrap piles. And some actually do threaten to break bones with them. The bones in our “arms” to do right or the bones of our “legs” to walk in His way. Some (perhaps better: “many”) have even had the “backbone” of their faith broken by these club bearing brutes.

This carnage is out of place before YHWH/God. If there is to be sacrifice, it is to be ourselves as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1). It is most certainly not to be the sacrifice of our brothers and sisters on the alter of our pet ideas set before some strange god we have abominably set up on the alter of YHWH! I digress. Sorry. Back to the point.

Such as these are not of us. And if they are of us, they will learn Messiah’s way more quickly when we stop engaging ourselves with them in such foolishness. After reaching a certain stage, early on, we end up only encouraging such destructive behavior by participating in it. But there is also another important benefit to us in not engaging in their ways.

While iron may sharpen iron, beating it on rocks will dull it. We risk blunting our own skill with Scripture. In so doing, we learn to engage in brute battles of force which are only effective in breaking things. And people. We will end up missing highly-valuable training in the more finessed dueling of trained fencers by which we would become skilled in parrying the point of others while placing our own trained point right at the heart of the matter.

So we must choose how we will sharpen our iron. On the one hand, we do well going up against the iron of a sharpened and skilled wielder of the Word of YHWH. There, our own mettle will be quickly tested, shaped, and sharpened. On the other hand, indiscriminately whacking iron on rocks every chance we get will only serve to dull it. Perhaps even rendering it being unable to be sharpened in the future.

One commonly observed place to find these iron-dulling rocks is mapped out in Titus:

This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men. But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain. A man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition reject; Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself. (Titus 3:8-11 KJV)

The verses immediately preceding those quoted above discuss how we have been saved by His mercy and not our works. Then, those verses above address the focus of our new life in Messiah: good works! We are saved to do good! Surprisingly, that’s a revolutionary idea to some. Sadly, that is a revolting idea to others.

Paul continues to write that we should be “careful to maintain good works.” Why? “These things are good and profitable unto men.”

Paul goes on to tell us the “rocks” that we should not be swinging at: “But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law.”

Why? Because “they are unprofitable and vain.” Have you ever had these kinds of “rocks” being swung at you? Have you ever dulled your own sword by swinging back at them?

Though spelled out plain as day, some only want to use their new found understanding to feast their mind, and not their character (which is displayed through action).

Feeling something is “missing” in their faith (which it is: action) they turn to spiritual “comfort foods” to fill the hunger they feel in their spirit. They might start with Scripture and find some momentary satisfaction. But the hunger quickly returns because they still don’t act fully on what they know. And they end up even hungrier because now they know even more, which means there is even more they don’t do!

So, imagining their hunger to be lack of knowledge (rather than lack of doing what they know) they turn to all sorts of foreign “bon-bons, pastries, and other little dainties” of a spiritual nature. These often have very fancy sounding names appreciated only by those impressed by such things.

Their folly grows and they end up hiding their insecurity in the Word of YHWH behind facades of sophisticated sounding and complicated human-inspired ideas. Their insecurity drives them to impress others with their “vain janglings.” All of this comes with a high price tag.

They cause division in the body. The word “heretic” in the verse is a transliteration of the underlying Greek word. When Paul wrote it, the word meant “somebody that causes divisions or factions.” It refers to a “schismatic.” It took on the meaning also of someone holding false doctrine. Here, Paul is addressing those who cause division in the body through the pursuit and propagation of unprofitable and vain ideas.

Paul’s answer to deal with such people is to cause a division between the trouble-maker and the body: “A man that is a heretic after the first and second admonition reject.” Why? “He that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself.”

Hopefully the sin, and the separation, will be temporary. Many times it appears to be permanent. A high price tag for foolishness and pride indeed. These “schismatics” should be thankful most local expressions of the body of Messiah fail to observe Scripture themselves. They are allowed to stay around thus allowing foolishness to prevail. But then the price for such sin is paid by the entire congregation.

Just because such foolishness is allowed to exist in our midst for the time being, that doesn’t mean we should get sucked into it. YHWH calls us to not get involved in such foolish activity. Will we answer YHWH’s call? It is YHWH’s will that we not engage in such divisive pursuits. Will we do YHWH’s will?

Beating our swords against such rocks does not make the rocks sharper. It only makes our swords duller.

Abba Father, thank you for you Word, our sword, thank you for your Spirit, our swordmaster. May we have your eyes to see what is important and what is vain, and my we have your mercy and grace to be able to pursue that which matters to you. Thank you, Father. We ask these things in the name of Yeshua our Messiah. Amen.

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What do you think? Please leave a comment below and let us know! Thank you.

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Don’t miss a Minute Message! Get it delivered daily to your e-mail. Simple and free sign-up with this form!

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Copyright 2009 Jim Zboran. All rights reserved.
Permission to reproduce and distribute hereby granted if the following four conditions are met: 1) The article must be reproduced in its entirety and the content may not be modified in any way. 2) Author’s name and copyright information, including these permission conditions must appear with article. 3) Author’s contact information (jim@jimzboran.com | www.jimzboran.com) must appear with article. 4) Article must be freely distributed without charge or financial gain.

I was skimming through some messages today and the following words caught my eye:

There are 6.7 billion portals to god… love your fellow human beings to reach him.

Interesting thought. There was something off about it (way off in light of its intended meaning), but still I was drawn to the quote because something important seemed to be “hiding” in the words.

I checked the “bio” of the person who sent the message. Just as I had suspected. This viewpoint was expressed by one whose:

…idealistic vision of the world is one where there are a few billion gods (humans) in heaven (earth).

Way off base from truth. So why did this author’s quote catch my eye? Because, with a very minor change in wording, the new thought expressed is a very profound one for followers of the Messiah. Here’s how I would revise the statement:

There are 6.7 billion portals to serving God… love your fellow human beings to reach Him.

What kind of impact would the kingdom of God make on the world in the name of Yeshua if we were in the habit of viewing each person we met, every single day, as a “portal” through which we might “bless” God? I think that widespread adoption and application of this perspective would be radically transforming to the church in the world today. Especially now, as the cry seems to be arising more often that today’s church has lost much of its love.

Do I have a biblical basis for my reworded version? We could start with Matthew twenty-five:

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
(Mat 25:34-40)

In Scripture, there is no judgment day pictured where builders of great churches and church programs are commended. But the treatment of the needy is considered so important that it is the criteria for separating the “sheep” from the “goats” in this parable.

There are more needs that humans have than are pictured in Matthew twenty-five. I think those would count as well. Emotional and spiritual needs are experienced by vast numbers of people. In that expanded sense, everyone is needy in some way. I don’t think it is too far a stretch to say, or would be too difficult to build a biblical case that, Yeshua is personally concerned about those needs as well. So now we can include virtually everyone in our perspective that they represent an opportunity to serve God.

The kingdom of God would be radically transformed if the followers of Yeshua were to take on the perspective that each person encountered is potentially a channel through which we could directly bless God by providing ministry to their needs. I think that perspective, acted upon, would be transforming to the church. That is a tall order. But it starts with just us, you and me. Let’s get started today!

I ran across a sad article from the UK’s Skynews this past Sunday that reports on a study about biblical literacy in the age-45-and-under crowd in Britain. From my personal observation, the USA is probably in pretty much the same state of affairs. The study reports:

Only one in 20 Brits can list all Ten Commandments and 16% cannot name any, a damning study of modern-day knowledge of the Bible has found. Young people are especially bad at reciting stories from the Good Book, the Durham University survey of 900 believers and non-believers learned.

The article goes on to report one conclusion drawn by the researchers:

The researchers say their findings show public figures can no longer make assumptions about people’s knowledge of Christianity.

Actually we don’t need to make assumptions. We know. Many, believers and non-believers alike, are lacking in basic biblical knowledge.

How has this situation arisen? There always seems to be an abundance of materials, print and media, related to our biblical faith and practice. We have Sunday School materials galore. VBS packages by the dozens every single year. New books relevant to the faith are published continually. I know. There’s a whole bunch of titles on my Amazon wish list at this very moment and I just can’t keep up with the steady output. We’re drowning in biblical resources!

With all of these biblical materials so widely available, we should be safe in assuming biblical knowledge is greater and more widespread than ever. But no, the opposite is true. It is, in fact, less. And it appears to be decreasing steadily year after year.

The problem, I think, is that many have used the abundance of biblical supplements as biblical substitutes. If this is true, and I think it is, then the solution would be to encourage believers we disciple to make Scripture their main spiritual food. Keep all the other stuff, but definitely feast on Scripture along with the side-dishes and deserts.

The challenge to helping others achieve this goal is one of getting them motivated, not teaching them a method. Most of us can easily communicate some version of a few basic get-started steps: open your Bible, read it thoughtfully, reflect on how to do what you read, now go do what you read. Simple. Most would be able to pick up that kind of process with ease. The difficult part is getting a person motivated to do it.

The desire for the solid meat of Scripture is just not present after one has spent many years on processed biblical material . Our challenge is to overcome a lack of appetite for God’s Word in its original unfiltered, unprocessed, and harder-to-digest form.

How do we help another get an appetite to read their Bible? By first helping them develop a taste for it. That taste will grow into a desire, and hence an appetite, on its own eventually. So to start, our goal is to introduce biblical non-readers to both the excitement of discovering biblical truths for themselves and the joy of applying those truths to their daily lives.

One approach to this issue has worked very well in our congregation. We like to start people out with an informal “mini-challenge” involving personal Scripture reading and application. When the appropriate time arises, usually during the course of a small group Bible study, each person is challenged to pick out a book in their Bible and read small successive portions of that book each day until it is finished. That’s it. No more. If in the process they find they want to do more, believe me, they’ll do more.

The key words in our approach are: read, small amounts, daily, and week-or-two. Let’s look a bit closer at each:

• Read: Not study. But read thoughtfully. There’s no pressure here, but a part of the challenge is to reflect on what is read and to find one application that can be undertaken that day. Still, it’s casual, light, easy, and even fun.
• Small Amounts: I like one chapter each day. It’s a very small amount (5-10 minutes worth) of reading. Not a big deal for anybody if they set their heart to doing it. Quite a number of folks who don’t read their Bible at all feel that one chapter daily is a lot. From where they are starting I guess it might look that way. But encourage them anyway. They’ll find it’s very doable.
• Daily: This is important. The goal is not volume but consistency. The daily approach opens up an opportunity for the reader to experience God communicating with him or her over a period of days. The series of small Bible encounters spread out over time makes a more important impact than a one or two occasion reading session that covers the same amount of material.
• Week-or-Two: “Commitment? Did I say commitment? I’m talking about a few days, not the rest of your life. See what God does over a few days. I think you’ll be amazed. If you like it keep going. If not, at least you tried it.” See what I’m getting at? Galatians or Ephesians will take about a week. If they want to tackle Mark it will take about two weeks. That’s about the range I like to keep it in.

We then offer lots and lots of personal encouragement, follow-up, and “handholding” throughout the mini-challenge period. We casually encourage Bible readers to talk about their excitement over their experiences of the Lord revealing biblical truths in response to their seeking.

The process is not always successful. It often results in less than stunning results. Try again later. That’s okay. It’s a ministry. It’s a growth process. Be encouraging and supportive. Most do succeed to some extent, even if only in small ways. And a few will get a taste for Scripture and will continue on their own.

It’s fun to see the sense of accomplishment experienced by those who successfully meet their mini-challenge. For many, it is the first time they have ever read through an entire book of the Bible on their own. This is an important building block. It provides the basis for encouraging that reader to continue with another mini-challenge. And then perhaps another after that. Hopefully they will at some point grow into full fledged Bible readers.

That’s our goal. Help our biblical non-reader take the next step toward becoming a daily Bible reader. It’s accomplished one small step at a time. Each step allows the person the chance to experience the rich and living Word of God personally. There are lots of lapses and incomplete tries. That’s okay. The Spirit provides us with lots of love and patience. We just help them up and encourage them to start where they left off.

Keep in mind that the idea here is not to manipulate or trick someone into reading their Bible. What we seek to do is encourage Bible reading and make it easy to try out. Our goal at this point is to help a person sit down briefly but consistently before God. Then we let God do His thing. We’ve done our part by accompanying that person to the fountain of God’s word. It’s up to God to get them to drink. Trust Him.

Eventually the ones who grow from the mini-challenge experience will develop an appetite for Scripture on their own. From there they develop their own reading program and set their own reading goals. Most become hungry for more than one chapter each day. All they really needed was the direction to get started, and the encouragement to keeping going at first.

It takes a little extra personalized effort in the beginning. And it’s a hundred-times more art than science when it works right. Rely on the Spirit for navigation through the process. It is a ministry after all. And it is also an investment in the kingdom. Believers who read their Bibles daily and do what they read are the living stones that will grow your congregation “deep and wide” into the future.

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Where can we find answers to problems confronting the church today? Of course we know that God has them. And we do well by looking to God for them. But there is an oft made mistake of not looking for them in the right place. A common error, though well intentioned, is to look back to non-biblical “biblical Christian tradition” to guide our steps forward.

“Biblical Christian traditions” are often not, in fact, biblical even though they usually make that claim. For followers of the Messiah, this leads to a sad state of affairs which could have been avoided because Messiah Jesus has laid the solutions before us, if only we would have looked in the right place for them.

Jesus told us that the truth would set us free. As followers of Messiah Y’shua, it behooves us to make sure we go to the source of truth for Messiah’s people (and in fact all of God’s creation): God’s Word.

Here’s an opportunity to observe this side-tracking error in action. In an online article from The Charlotte Observer titled Evangelical Editor Picks a Quarrel with His Cohorts, Tim Funk reports on a new book by Warren Cole Smith. The article may be viewed at: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/faith/story/765051.html

Funk reports that Mr. Smith, an evangelical journalist and longtime editor of The Charlotte World, isn’t happy with the state of protestant evangelicalism, which the article puts at 26% of the entire US adult population.

In his new book, an insider critique called “A Lover’s Quarrel with the Evangelical Church” (Authentic Books, $16.99), Smith argues that many, if not most, evangelical churches have lost their way. Instead of sticking with core biblical principles, rich traditions and church-as-community, he says, they promote feel-goodism, technological fads and church-as-entertainment.

Yessss! Amen to that! Preach it, brother! Warren Cole Smith has spoken truth to our generation. May God grant many the grace to take these words to heart and act upon them. We must have more of this kind of godly introspection, and the boldness to face what we see revealed in ourselves, in the body of Christ today.

But we must also make sure we look to the right place for the solutions we seek. If evangelical protestantism has, as Mr. Smith puts it, “lost its way” it would do well to find the way back by consulting the right “roadmap.”

Herein lies the detour from the road to progress in this case:

So how would Smith save evangelicalism?

Among his answers: Make pastors accountable to deacon or elder boards. Urge churchgoers to discover the vocation God is calling them to. Recover face-to-face community. Develop a stronger sense of history. Plant new churches. And avoid easy answers.

“I’m not saying that I’ve got all the answers,” Smith concluded. “But I am saying we have a rich biblical Christian tradition that has given us many, many good answers. We’ve forgotten them. Let’s try to recover them.”

Some of Mr. Smith’s answers, as presented by Funk in this article, offer promise in moving God’s people in the right direction. Unfortunately, the first answer in the list above will kill any progress made by the others. It is indeed a part of Christian tradition, but it is not biblical. In fact, the idea has proven very destructive to the body of Christ.

Briefly, making pastors accountable to deacon or elder boards is counter to biblical teaching. Biblically, the office of deacon was not instituted to oversee and guide the pastor. The opposite is true…biblically. Acts 6 demonstrates that deacons were created to assist and free up pastors (who are to attend to work important in determining and following God’s lead). Deacons fulfill their biblical function by paying attention to the implementation of the every day work of the church (which is important to the people in the church and is vital to the efficient and effective fulfillment of God’s charge to minister to human needs).

Biblically deacons, and “elders” (that is, “elders” in the sense often used today which seems to be a fancy name for “deacon”), are to be a form of church management (as opposed to church leadership). These “managers” ensure and implement affairs of the church following the lead of the leader, the pastor. The pastor is charged with the responsibility of finding and communicating vision for where the church should go through prayer, Bible study and teaching (see Acts 6:4).

Both church offices, pastor and deacon, work together to enable the body to follow God’s lead while ensuring that nobody is left behind. In so doing, all move forward in God’s movement. That works, again biblically, when the pastor leads and the deacons support the pastor by committing themselves to managing the day-to-day work of ministry.

The idea of an “Elder board review” may be beneficial if it is carried out biblically. That is, if we remember that in the Bible an Elder is a pastor. Most current “Elder boards” are made up of non-pastors who oversee the pastor. Ironically, it is the pastor who is supposed to be the overseer.

If elder boards were made up of biblical elders (what we call “pastors”) then the review board could act as a sort of “peer review” process that might be a really good idea. Structured properly, it may allow the pastor (who is an elder) and the elders (who are other pastors, functionally though not necessarily formally) to act as partners in ensuring godly church leadership and direction. In that sense, an elder board would offer many benefits.

The issue of elders and deacons in biblical church leadership is not the point here. It is an important topic that will undoubtedly appear on this blog in future posts. The point being made here is that a historic but non-biblical answer is being presented as a biblical answer to lead the church out of a mess. Unfortunately, the proposed answer is, in my opinion, a large part of the reason the protestant evangelical church is facing the issues Mr. Smith identified.

What is the lesson for us? In most cases, the default tradition for gentile followers of Messiah Jesus is Christianity. But Christianity, as defined through centuries of tradition, is often at odds with God’s Word.

It is right for the followers of Messiah Jesus to look back for answers we need in order to move forward. But we must look back rightly. Christian tradition can be instructive to us, as can Jewish tradition for that matter. But ultimately, to be relevant to the Kingdom, we must measure the tradition we follow in pursuing our faith by the words of the Author and Finisher of our faith.