Tuesday 10 April 2018

A bargain with the devil?

Jesus said: Be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect.  Matthew 5:48

Just recently the world has been commemorating the death of one of the great historic figures of the twentieth-century. A high-profile Christian, he devoted his life to the pursuit of justice and human rights, and ended up being murdered for his efforts. His achievements have been spelled out, and his name rightly celebrated.

But what have not been spelled out are his moral failings: he was unfaithful to his wife, and his private life generally, it seems, was pretty chaotic. While it is understandable that the darker side of his life should not be highlighted at such a time - or indeed at any time, come to that - the fact is that once you know something of the unsavoury facts, you can’t just brush them under the carpet.

It would seem that here was a man who behaved in a deeply Christian way in one area of his life, but in a deeply un-Christian way in another. And that raises the question: does the fact that he did such great and indeed heroic good cancel out the darker side of his life? Does it mean that his moral failings ultimately don’t matter?

You might answer, “Surely that’s for God to judge, not us. It’s no business of ours to go grubbing around in another person’s private life.” Indeed so. But if we believe that God has spoken on moral issues - you could hardly imagine a clearer example than “You shall not commit adultery” - then it’s difficult not to feel uneasy once that murky side has become known, however uncomfortable it  may make us to focus on it.

I think there are at least two truths that arise from this kind of dilemma as we think about it in the light of scripture.

First, we should be very wary of putting any human being on a pedestal.

We are all sinners - you, me, everyone. There is only one person who is fit to be put on a pedestal - and you don’t need me to spell out who that is!

Idolising people we admire is a natural human tendency, and all of us do it to a greater or lesser extent. Even we Christians who claim to worship Jesus may have our favourite preacher or leader who we regard as above criticism. And as for pop stars or film stars or sports stars, well... no comment is needed.

(Personally, I dislike the practice in top-level football of inviting children to act as mascots for their club. They walk onto the pitch hand-in-hand with men who they will very soon see snarling and swearing at the officials, committing deliberate fouls, pulling shirts and all the rest. What are they being taught by this hero-worship? Should we wonder when they end up behaving in much the same way themselves?)

“Dear children, keep yourselves from idols,” writes the apostle John (1 John 5:21) - a warning that could have been tailor-made for our modern celebrity-obsessed culture. Idolatry takes many forms, not just pieces of stone or wood...

Is there anyone in your life to whom you are giving an inappropriately high place?

Second, true holiness is all of a piece, not a matter of pick and mix.

James the brother of Jesus wrote: “Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it” (James 2:10). It’s no good saying “All right, I can be a bit of a liar, but at least I don’t steal.”

When God gave his people Israel the laws we call the Ten Commandments it was a case of all the commandments for all of the people all of the time. It wasn’t like a test where, say, six out of ten represented a “pass mark”.
Or when the New Testament gives us that lovely nine-fold list of “the fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22-23) - “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, godness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” - we are not supposed to respond by saying, for example, “Well, I’m not so bad when it comes to joy and self-control, but the other seven - well, all right, a case of ‘must try harder’”.

No: this is about the total character of Jesus being formed in us little by little by the work of the Holy Spirit.

How God judges that hero of the human rights struggle is not for us to say - how he will judge us should give us enough to think about. But the final word must surely be that of Jesus: “Be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

There’s no room for compromise or muddying of principles there, is there!

Lord God, help me to honour Jesus and Jesus alone, and to be satisfied with nothing less than the best for his sake. Amen.

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