I’ve been thinking about a few things lately. Mostly stuff that happens in life in the context of community when believers of different stages have different convictions and points of few, and they come together. Also, I’ve been wrestling with some thoughts when I ponder over Scriptures and I can’t believe some things are actually in the Bible. You know what I’m talking about; the things where we have all our theological T’s crossed and I’s dotted, but then there’s one story or one verse in the Bible we can’t ignore, that throws it all out of whack. Those two things are what has got me thinking on the following lately;
The other morning as I woke up and lay in bed, I felt the Lord ask me why I thought the Pharisees accused Him of being a glutton and a drunkard when He walked the earth. It’s not that Jesus actually was either of those things, but He obviously was doing something so much that the religious establishment could look at His life and ministry and assume to take up these accusations against Him. In order to be falsely accused, you have to be doing something worthy of accusation, after all. He was a friend of sinners and tax collectors. He wined and dined with those whom the religious folk of the day would have nothing to do with.
But getting back to stuff that I’d do differently if I were God or wrote the Bible: for example, does it bother you that in the first few chapters of Genesis, the Lord told Adam and Eve not to eat of a tree…that He Himself PUT there in the middle of the Garden of Eden? Like, seriously–how come God would put it there in the first place and not build an electric fence to stop them?
Or if you’re a devout believer who thinks Christians should abstain from all forms of alcohol, does it bother you that Jesus’ first public miracle was to make wine for believers who were already drunk? 1 Does it bother you that He would make something that can be, and has been, abused, for the people who were already well under the influence of it? I’ll give you a very “Jane see the ball” tip for Bible interpretation; in order for them to run out of wine at the wedding, that means–GASP!–they were drinking wine! I know, right?! Put that one in your Bible and read it!
An electric fence is a barrier that uses electric shock to deter animals or people from crossing a boundary. The voltage of the shock may have effects ranging from uncomfortable, to painful or even lethal. Sometimes I think well meaning Christians try to help God by putting up fences and may not use electricity or barbwire, but instead use fear, judgment, and shame as a way of shocking other people so as to avoid things that WE ourselves have decided need a boundary put around it. The serpent asked Eve about the tree in the middle of the Garden, and she added to it the idea they were to not even touch it. God didn’t actually say that.
There are a lot of things in contemporary Christianity God didn’t and doesn’t say, but we have thought He needed help, so we have erected electric fences to stop others from crossing boundaries we ourselves might not go past. When you live in another culture than your own, such as I do living in South America, you get confronted with the fences your culture –whether that’s a national culture or a Church culture, or both–has constructed. You are confronted with things which are a part of the Gospel universally, versus which things are just the electric fences you or someone else has erected or had built by others around you.
Before throwing your stones at me, let me get where I’m going with this; sometime fairly recently I had an e-mail exchange with a friend who I assume would not like me to use his name, for various reasons that will be obvious as you read the following quote. In passing, he made this remark about how people tend to get into rules and regulations when the Spirit of God is not among them–especially if they have previously experienced revival;
Once the phenomenon is over, and souls begin to join a work who never experienced the revival, the rules not only become burdensome, but more rules are added in an attempt to re-create the holy environment that might be more conducive to a renewed renewal or “fresh wave”. So the pattern goes from repentance to revival to rules to legalism to elitism to judgementalism to ostracization to isolation. You can see this pattern having formed in the time immediately following the Cane Ridge Revival in the early 1800s, and many of the offshoots from the Azusa Street Revival. That was certainly the direction I took in the years after leaving [the Pensacola revival...]
…I’ve heard horror stories, some very humorous, of fellow grads who went to work for other churches and attempted to implement these extra-biblical revival-era constraints on their youth groups or congregations, resulting in confusion and division more than in deep inworking and outworking of Biblical holiness.
Since the Holy Spirit is the One who guides us and will guide us into all truth (John 16:13), then I think we don’t need to build fences and tell people to “Keep Out!”, but encourage them into a deepening encounter with God Himself. The closer we get to Him, and look into Jesus’ Eyes of Fire, we’ll become more like Him, and the things of this world will burn and drop from us.
Maybe the electric fence mentality is symptomatic of a lack of actual relationship, both in terms of with each other in community, but also in teaching people, especially maybe when people are newer believers, how to relate to the Holy Spirit for themselves. Admittedly, it’s much easier to create rules and expect conformity, much more than it is to let the chips fall where they may and deal with messes that may come up–but that’s what happens in actual relationships.
Our fences and boundaries, though well-intended often times, are just man-made attempts to try to coerce each other by law-code. If we’re helping people connect to Christ Himself, or are in relationship and encouraging each other and not JUST holding each other ‘accountable’, then these types of rules and regulations are unnecessary.
Paul had a lot to say about this kind of stuff, and it wasn’t always pleasant. So, based on Romans 14 and First Corinthians 9, what is the difference between a conviction and a preference? How do we show grace to others who may not share our personal convictions? Or how to we respond when someone’s puking on us for not living holy enough for their standard? Or vice versa–when we think someone needs a kick in the pants?
The following podcast discussion with author and speaker S.J. Hill dives into some of these very issues.
Conviction, Preference, or Opinion?
Download this episode (right click and save)
For more in this series, visit my personal blog at http://stevebremner.com.
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