Our Corrupt Societies

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. (2Peter 1:3-4, ESV)
And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, "Save yourselves from this crooked generation." (Acts 2:40, ESV)
Anyone who is a Christian cannot help but notice the increase of evil in the world. Some would dismiss the idea that there is more evil in the world now than there has ever been, but if the world population is the largest it has ever been, then the number of people practicing evil is larger than it has ever been, too. John Scofflaw is the name of many people you see around you. Traffic violations go mostly unnoticed, perhaps because there aren’t enough police men and women to catch all of the lawbreakers or just perhaps they have given up, too. After all, you can’t arrest everyone, can you? Petty theft, such as shoplifting, goes on unabated. Even greater crimes than these are commonplace and we have grown to expect it. Even worse, we are not often shocked by the crimes that people commit.
While there are many gurus out there telling people that they can be their best, that the inner man or woman is really a very good person just waiting to be released, that doesn’t seem to be what hits the eye. Society is trying to rid itself of all laws, all taboos, anything that says “you can’t do that,” or “you shouldn’t do that.” Our societies are being filled with petulant children who call themselves adults. Society is corrupt.
Now, before you write me off as a doomsday prophet, think again. The newspapers are still filled with all of the terrible crimes and the terrible gossip about people that filled the newspapers years ago. News on TV isn’t any different. But what is shocking, or should be shocking, is the fact that when people who are popular or well known get caught in outrageous behavior, we have many others who are condoning this bad conduct or even praising it. At the very least, self-proclaimed psychologists will immediately begin their spin on why all of this has happened, that the person is not to be blamed, but rather bad parenting or a bad society produced this problem. No responsibility. No guilt. The petulant children have won another victory.
Is society corrupt? That’s what Peter said to the people on the Day of Pentecost. Peter exhorted the people to “save themselves” from the corrupt society around them. How can you save yourself? That flies in the face of some very basic Protestant thinking. No human can possibly save himself. Faith alone, without any action whatsoever, is the way to salvation. If that were true, then Peter would have used some other words. If you buy into the idea that faith is totally passive and there is absolutely no response necessary on the part of the individual, then I would suggest you believe in miracles. But if, in fact, the heart is free to respond to the gospel message of Jesus Christ as taught in the gospels, then it seems to me that there is something a person can do to save himself or herself from this corrupt society we live in. What? Believe on the One that the Father sent. Belief is an act, a choice that is made by each and every human being. True belief puts the believer into motion. The believer now seeks to actively take part in the transformation God wants to work in every Christian. That means that we must at least cooperate with God. It means we avail ourselves of those things that are spiritual. We seek to be pure, to be right with God and man, to choose good over evil.
Society is corrupt. That hasn’t changed since the first man and woman sinned. Remember, after they sinned, every sort of vile thing imaginable came into the world. God was so saddened at what man had become that He vowed to wipe everyone off of the face of the earth. Evidently, though, one man lived his life with great moral integrity. God was so pleased with him that He gave him the job of preaching the good news (he anticipated God’s sending of Messiah) and the job of saving all of the animal species of the earth. Noah was a great light shining in an extremely dark world. Christians are called to be the very same. We must live our lives as though we are willing to take the blows that Jesus took, for the sake of those who are dying around us. We must believe that the people of the world are lost, that they live in total darkness in a very corrupt world. When we live our lives incarnadine, real hope for the people of the world shines brighter than the stars on a very dark night. Societies can change. Societies do change. However, societies only change for the better when men and women are willing to die for justice, for mercy and for righteousness. Anything less than that is like putting a band aid on a severed artery. And that is a lesson in futility.

Right Thinking

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (Philippians 4:8, ESV)
We live in a world where very little is held sacred anymore. What do I mean? Things that I would never have dreamed of seeing or hearing on TV have become common place. Every aspect of personal hygiene is discussed in commercials, cursing and foul language are common to regular programming, not just confined to movies. Diseases that were not even mentioned in polite company are now paraded out before us with the idea that education is taking place to prevent others from contracting the same diseases.
Baloney. The commercials, the TV programs, the movies, all have one common goal and that is to titillate or to encourage people to desire to know what is sordid in life. It’s like adding sugar to foods; the sugar isn’t necessary to many products, but it gets the consumer to come back for more. We already know the end result of too many calories from sugar, but what about too much of the dark side of the world? Our minds are bombarded daily with sleaze, filth and horror. News programs don’t try to hold back on showing carnage but rather put up some flimsy warning to viewers, “May not be suitable to some audiences.”
So what’s the antidote for all of this? People have talked about how bad TV is getting since I was a teen and that’s more than forty years ago. Nothing has changed except the purveyors of the evil in our world have become bolder. You can unplug your TV. You can sell your computer. You can quit taking a paper. You can cancel your magazine subscriptions. And? And even those bold moves won’t entirely eradicate the darkness that is ever present. No, the real antidote is given in the book of Philippians. Walk with me through this verse. “Whatever is true. . .” We are so quick to latch onto things that we should know are patently untruthful when we should stand up for what is true. The Word of God is true and to think on the Word of God is to fill the mind with truthfulness. Once we begin thinking about things that are true, our view of the world begins to change. “Whatever is honorable. . .” Hollywood starlets carrying out immoral actions to be displayed on TV and in the magazines certainly isn’t honorable. I don’t need to know the latest episode in the sordid lives of celebrities. But what about the honorable deeds that happen everyday, right around me? Do I take time to think about those things? There are many honorable things done but they don’t make it into our newspapers. “Whatever is just. . .” I think we hear so much about injustice it is hard for us to think about things that are just. God is just. Christians should crave justice for everyone. We are bombarded with calls for rights, but the call for justice goes unheard. We should think about just things. “Whatever is pure. . .” There’s the one we really need to spend time on. We should think pure thoughts, not unholy, filthy thoughts. Once again, the antidote is to spend time in God’s word. When we reflect on the pure life of Jesus, our hearts are filled with light, not darkness. Whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, whatever is excellent, anything worthy of praise, these are the things we should be thinking about. We need to act decisively in this world, not merely go with the flow of what society is throwing at us. The goal of all that is lurid in what is euphemistically termed “entertainment” is our minds and our wallets. TV programs and movies need money and they get their money from sponsors. Sponsors want their products to sell and believe they will get more people to consider their products if they are connected to the latest seamy show. We need to be thinking about things that are beautiful, excellent, praiseworthy, lovely.
Thinking about what is good and pure rather than thinking about all that is evil in our world is a choice. It is the choice that Christians who are trying to live their lives incarnadine, lives colored blood red, will make because to take up your cross daily means to die to self, daily. And to die to self is to deny my mind the darkness, the evil, the vile things of this world and to replace that with the very thought of the Master. Jesus could see a "woman of the world" as a daughter of God, created by Him for that which is lovely, rather than to exploit her, even if only in the mind. Dying to self is the call of Jesus to every Christian who ever lived. Sunday morning pew sitting by itself will not insure protection from the evil one. Daily praying and meditating on God’s word will.

The World’s View of the Church

Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world." (John 18:36, ESV)
And he said to them, "Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out." ( Mark 1:38, ESV)
When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, "This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!" Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. (John 6:14-15, ESV)
The three passages of scripture above give us a glimpse of what the world wanted from Jesus and how Jesus corrected the misconceptions people had of His mission.
The first misconception was that of a physical kingdom with an earthly territory to be governed. This was the misconception that Pilate had. He was astonished that such a simple looking man could be viewed as a threat by the Jewish religious leaders. Pilate believed he had the power to give or to take life from this simple peasant, this itinerant preacher standing before him. When Pilate asked Jesus if Her were a king, he was taken back with the simple answer, "You say that I am a king.” Jesus then went on to explain that His kingdom was different from the kingdoms of this world. Neither Pilate or his boss, Caesar, had anything to worry about. Jesus wasn’t another rebel seeking to overthrow the power of Rome. Jesus also took it to a higher level. If His kingdom were similar to the kingdoms of the time, including Rome, Jesus could have easily defeated the world powers.
The second and third misconceptions were those held by the common people. After Jesus performed many miracles of healing, the people, including Peter and the other disciples, thought that Jesus had come into the world to relieve the suffering of the people. Period. It is here that many pick up on what is commonly termed the social gospel. Help the people with their needs. Give money to the poor. Often God is criticized when people say, If there is a God, why does He allow suffering? The so-called faith healers are able to continue to defraud people by claims of miraculously curing illnesses, all in the name of Jesus. Jesus had a reply to such folks: “On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'” (Matthew 7:22, 23, ESV)
Obviously, working miracles is not proof of citizenship in the Kingdom of God nor of allegiance to Jesus Christ. No, Jesus Himself told Peter and the disciples that they now needed to go into other towns to preach the good news “for that is why I came out.” Came out? Came out from where? For that is the reason the Son left His Father’s side in heaven to come out into the earth, to preach good news to the captives, to those held in bondage to sin.
The third misconception is similar to the second. Many think that Jesus should feed all of the poor, hungry people of the world. Certainly in our time there are millions if not billions of people who have less than enough to live on. We have seen books with various titles about Christians living a rich life while the rest of the world is suffering starvation. And so the world tries to dictate to the church what the world view is of the mission of the church: the church should feed the poor around the world but not try to make any new Christians. A couple of years ago I heard a politician state that since the government was short on funds for social assistance the churches were being looked to as a resource for picking up more of the responsibility of helping the poor. Large cities across North America have many churches serving meals and helping the homeless and less fortunate in their communities. Politicians believe this is good, to relieve the financial burden of the state. But at the same time, those same politicians want to severely restrict the movements of the church and obliterate any influence the church may have on society.
Now don’t get me wrong. I am not opposed to helping the poor. In fact, I believe that every Christian man and woman has a God commanded responsibility to share with the less fortunate in society. But that is not the mission of the church! The mission of the church is to continue the work that Jesus began while He walked the earth, to preach the good news to everyone who will listen. As more people turn to God and are healed, they in turn will help shoulder the responsibility of caring for the destitute, the sick, the suffering in our societies. That becomes a multiplication of assets, not merely an addition to what is already done by various governmental agencies. We are reminded by Jesus’ actions as well as by the words of scripture that pure religion is to care for the needs of widows and orphans, that is, those most unable to help themselves. Preaching the good news does not exempt Christians from helping others; if anything, it stimulates Christians to larger acts of kindness and help.
If we are to live our lives incarnadine, we need to become a threat to those who promote evil and that is not done by merely feeding the poor and nursing the sick. Jesus said that whoever would follow Him needed to remember this: “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:27, ESV) Evidently Stephen understood this for he gave his life after preaching to the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem. Peter understood this, because on two different occasions he was imprisoned for preaching the good news, the second time believing that he would be murdered just as James had been. Paul understood this because he was stoned and left for dead for preaching the good news and suffered many times at the hands of religiously self righteous men. And the list goes on and on. Are we willing to live our lives in purity, in helping others, and in sharing the good news with those around us to the point that we might actually suffer physically for the name of Jesus? That is what it means to live life incarnadine. Life that already is colored red like blood, because that is what we have been called to do. When the world sees lives lived in this way, some will come to the light because they want the light. Others will do what they can to suppress the truth. That is the nature of the battle we are in. God, please help us to be strong enough to do what you have called us to do.

Whatever Happened to Jesus’ Church?

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18, ESV)
The church as we know it is probably very different from the church that the believers knew in the first century. That is to be expected when you consider the vast amount of time that has passed. Thankfully, some things are more convenient than they were in those days. But I wonder if we have lost the true meaning of what the church was meant to be.
It’s interesting to note that in the gospels the word “church” appears only twice. But once you get into the book of Acts, the word church pops up numerous times. Evidently, Jesus taught the disciples and the apostles some things about His church that were meant to be part of the body life and that were not going to be applicable until the giving of the promised Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.
In many towns around the world, not just in North America, men and women meet together for worship. They sit on chairs or on pews, they sing some songs and pray, someone preaches or teaches a lesson and they share what they call the Lord’s Supper and go home, believing they have done everything God wanted them to do and believing that they are the church. Most Christians, though, are hard to find between Sundays and so the leaders of the local congregations devise schemes to bring people together. These plans may be for a mid-week Bible study or more probably, for some kind of reason to eat together, but true fellowship still eludes these groups. If you ask a Christian a question about worship or the Bible, that person might say, “My church teaches . . .” My church. It just doesn’t sound like the church belongs to Jesus, even if we put His name on it. We make plans and after all is ready, we pray and ask Him to bless those plans. He often doesn’t get asked before we make those plans, but only asked to put a stamp of approval on them when all is said and done.
A most interesting statement is made about the church in Acts, right after the church was begun on the Day of Pentecost. “And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. (Acts 2:42, ESV) In surveying the situation in many churches, I think it would be hard to say that the members have devoted themselves to any of the four items mentioned in that verse. Devotion. One of the definitions for the word devotion as found in Webster’s Ninth Collegiate Dictionary is this: the fact or state of being ardently dedicated and loyal (as to an idea or a person). Can we really say that many Christians are ardently dedicated to the teaching of the apostles as found in the New Testament? Do people arrange their schedules so that they can have many opportunities each week to learn more of the Bible? Can we say people are on fire to be with other Christians in fellowship? And by the way, fellowship is not just eating together; fellowship is involving ourselves with others to do things, to serve, to help, to comfort. Yesterday my wife and I dropped everything to go and be with a Christian couple who were distraught because the husband had suffered something physically and was in need of being hospitalized. We went to their home and the husband was resting on the sofa and the wife was holding her granddaughter, obviously overcome by the situation. My wife sat at the feet of her husband, patting his leg and trying to reassure him that things would work out alright. I motioned for the wife to sit beside me and let her put her head against my shoulder, as an older brother would do. Her stiff body relaxed a bit and the tears streamed down her face. She hugged and clung to my wife when we later left her at the hospital. We had fellowship with this sister in Christ, helping her with a burden that was too heavy for her to carry alone. We didn’t eat anything. Other members called her to find out how her husband was, assuring her that they were being prayed for. We were devoting ourselves to this family because they are part of the body of Christ.
If we understand the breaking of bread to be the Lord’s Supper, I would suggest that we don’t devote ourselves to that, either. Many folks believe that if they don’t take communion, they haven’t worshiped God. Get it? Take communion. We don’t say, I want to commune with my brothers and sisters and with God and share in the meal we call the Lord’s Supper. It has become a symbol, not an act. Often our minds are elsewhere. Let’s get it over with, have the last song and prayer, and I can take the family to lunch, or catch the game on TV. The apostle Paul so desired to commune with the brothers and sisters at Troas that he spent an extra week, just to be with them. That’s devotion.
And devotion to prayer. Now that’s the really hard one. I used to cook breakfast, once a month, for any members who wanted to come and pray together on Saturday morning. This went on for several years. I tried to get others to take the lead, but they politely turned me down. Once, though, a brother who was also the other preacher in the congregation, agreed to take the lead. But instead of prayer, they spent their time singing. Why? Because prayer is hard work for many of us. It is comfortable to sing, but to pray and pour out our hearts, especially in front of others, is something we are not comfortable in doing.
The book of Acts says that as the Christians did these things, they were having favor with all the people. The idea of having favor means they were attractive to the people of Jerusalem. People saw Christ in the men and women who devoted themselves to Jesus and to each other, extending themselves to others in the city. Only when we devote ourselves to Jesus in every way and only when we try to imitate the devotion of first century Christians, will we be seen as those who live their lives incarnadine, colored with the blood of Jesus. He died for the church, His church. Instead of a purpose driven church, how about a Jesus Driven Church? Unless He is the object of our fervent, ardent, undying love, all of the things we do that we call church are just so many empty things that may not count for anything in eternity.