Putting others first

¹³ Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. ¹⁴ I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. ¹⁵ If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died…

 Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. ²⁰ Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. ²¹ It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall…

²² So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. ²³ But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.

Romans 14:13-22

We must have been still in our twenties, Bill and I, when we first met. He was lying in the local high street one dark Friday night, and I thought at first that some clothes had been dumped in the road. I didn’t miss him by much, and it wasn’t at all easy to haul him to safety. But I managed, and so began a friendship that lasted just a few years. Then death.

Bill was a wreck of a man, totally ruined by drink. He started coming to church and got to know a number of Christians, all of whom were good to him, though he was never regular. He never “made a commitment” or “received Christ as his Saviour”. But he was always happy to be prayed with, and I remember once when his eyes lit up with ironic recognition as we read from the end of Proverbs 23.

Alcohol-abuse is a common curse, and there is no doubt it could be a problem in biblical times. Often attitudes to it have divided Christians in the modern world. (When I was a new Christian it was taken for granted in the circles I moved in that Christians simply didn’t drink, and that was that.)  In Romans 14 it’s not what Paul has in his sights (I’m just using it as a present-day example); no, he has in mind other issues that may divide Christians, and from them he broadens out his teaching to lay down a fundamental principle which is for everywhere and all times: the great need for us to be respectful of, and sensitive to, one another’s different opinions, different needs and different personalities.

He divides Christians into two groups, the “strong” and the “weak”, which probably boils down to something like the spiritually mature on the one hand and timid newcomers on the other, those who are confident and knowledgeable in their faith, and those who for whatever reason are hesitant and unsure.

Two of the issues that were alive in the Rome church seem to have been vegetarianism (verses 1-4) and sabbath observance (verses 5-6). And Paul’s essential argument, I think directed mainly at the “strong” contingent, can be summed up very simply: don’t fall out over such matters! don’t judge one another! don’t split off into factions! “Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master servants stand or fall” (verse 4). In short, Hands off! Get it?

Paul uses two particular words in Romans 14 which, I think, are worth exploring a little, not least because they are slightly startling…

First, stumbling-block (verse 13). “Make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister”.

Nasty things, stumbling-blocks! – especially in a world, like Paul’s, that didn’t have many smooth, paved streets, even more so after dark. They can do you a serious injury. So the thought that a fellow-Christian might deliberately place one before you seems simply absurd: why would they do such a thing!

I don’t think Paul is implying that they might do it deliberately, but he is suggesting that if any of us fall out with a fellow-Christian because of some secondary matter - if we are so foolish as to “make an issue” over something that really isn’t worth it - then in fact that is exactly what we might be doing: a previously contented, growing Christian who is at peace with both God and with him or herself experiences a serious wobble to their faith which threatens (to change the image) to derail them completely.

Probably all of us have talked to fellow Christians from time to time who have felt driven out of a previous church because of someone’s insensitive or over-bearing manner. We have responded (I hope) by trying to encourage and reassure them. Good.

But have we stopped to ask ourselves: Have I ever done that? Is that the kind of Christian I am? For myself, I blush to think of the times in my life when I have caused confusion, hurt or anger by ill-chosen words or even perhaps by a well-meant but over-zealous enthusiasm. The times I have laid a stumbling-block in their path… Lord, have mercy!

The second word is even more startling: destroy (verse 15), as in “Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died” . Paul seems to be suggesting that to get it wrong in this area may mean not simply confusing or troubling that other person, but actually destroying them.

But what can that possibly mean? Not literally kill, surely! He’s not suggesting murder! No, of course not. He is talking about the danger of bringing about somebody else’s spiritual collapse: “Do not let the food you eat ruin the person for whom Christ died” (verse 15, as the Good News Bible puts it). In plain terms, he’s talking about “setting a bad example” or “leading somebody astray”.

We probably fail to recognise that human beings are often quite delicate little plants, easily bruised, even crushed. All it might need is a careless word or an over-bearing manner to leave somebody flattened, broken. We then go blithely on our way, blissfully unaware of the damage we have done. Isn’t this the kind of thing Jesus has in mind in passages such as Mark 9:42-50: strong meat, but needing to be taken seriously. I can still remember things said to me, for good or ill, as a child – which is quite frightening, don’t you think?

Back to Bill. He was, if anybody ever was, “a lost soul”, and my efforts to bring him to Christ were pretty feeble, though I did decide to “go teetotal” for a time in order to identify with him.

But who knows what may have gone on in the depths of his heart during that short period when he was exposed to the gospel? I can only harbour the hope that I might yet see him again - not lying pathetically in a busy street, but “clothed and in his right mind”, and radiant in the immediate presence of Christ?

Father, please help me to distinguish between things that really matter and things which are matters of individual conscience. If a fuss needs to be made, help me to make it graciously and lovingly; if a blind eye needs to be turned, help me to turn it. Help me always to put the needs of my brother or sister in Christ before my own. Amen.

What kind of man is this! (2)

During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him… Hebrews 5:7-9

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. John 1:1-14

Last time I shared a story of someone I knew who took a step forward in her spiritual life when she started to take seriously the fact that, apart from sin, Jesus was fully human as well as fully divine. The point was that taking that truth seriously makes him more real for us; we grasp that he has been through many of the experiences we know - growing, learning, suffering. He is not, so to speak, God-in-disguise, God merely pretending to be human.

That was the point where I ran out of space, so I never got onto the second thing I felt might be helpful. Putting it very simply, this is: Such verses as Hebrews 5:7-9 reassure us that we don’t have to understand in order to believe.

On one level such verses seem contrary to what we as Christians instinctively believe. Indeed, we might be tempted to throw up our hands almost in despair and exclaim: “How could he be both fully human and fully divine?” How could the perfect Son of God need to “learn obedience”? Was he ever disobedient! How could he be “made perfect”? Wasn’t he always perfect! Yes indeed. I think God fully understands such puzzlement and is not in the least offended by it. After all, if we are grappling with divine, ultimate truth we are bound to find that there are mysteries behind mysteries behind mysteries: so we might as well get used to it!

In the early centuries of the church’s existence the wisest heads set about the business of summarizing the essence of the Christian faith in what were known as “creeds” – summaries of what is essential to mature faith. (If the church you belong to is “liturgical” in its worship you will be familiar with such creeds.) It was no easy task to compose them; there were big disagreements over all matter of topics, some of which even became violent. Among these topics were what became known as “the Holy Trinity” (there is only one God, but he exists in three “persons”; how could that be?) and the one we’re talking about, the nature of Jesus’s “being” while on earth, where the mystery was how the human person and the divine person of Jesus could co-exist in one man without turning him into some kind of hybrid being.

Perhaps creating those creeds was necessary in order to safeguard biblical truth and to flag up possibilities of error. But the down-side is that it has proved fatally easy to slip into a false mentality: that assenting to the right formulas or doctrinal statements matters more than simply loving and trusting Jesus as the one who died for us, rose again, and who offers to come and live in us by his Spirit and make us new people.

The result is that there have always been Christians who define Christian faith so precisely and exactly – every i dotted, every t crossed – that they end up seeming to say “If you don’t agree with this, then sorry but you can’t be a true Christian”. (One wonders how many people down through the centuries have been put off coming to Jesus because they found it hard to grasp the mysteries in these creeds and statements.)

How did the first followers of Jesus – Simon Peter, James, John, and the rest – become believers? By suddenly understanding the doctrine of the Trinity? or that this man Jesus was in reality God in human form? Answer: No!

What happened was very different, very practical, very down to earth: they spent time with him, listened to his words and saw his deeds, and, though often puzzled by what he said, found his personality and his power irresistible. And so that memorable day came when he took them to  the region of Caesarea Philippi: “On the way he asked them, ‘Who do people say I am?’ They replied, ‘Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; still others one of the prophets’. ‘But what about you?’ he asked. ‘Who do you say I am?’ And Peter answered (and here comes a lightbulb moment if ever there was one!) “You are the Messiah...” (Mark 8:27-29).

The “Messiah”, of course, was the divinely anointed king who was predicted to come to Israel in the pages of the Old Testament. I can picture the apostles’ jaws dropping as Peter took a deep breath and blurted out the truth which they had all begun to suspect, but which none of them had yet dared to put into words.

It’s worth remembering that, historically, the Messiah was not thought of  as divine; great though King David was, for example, no-one ever suggested that he was God in human form. That conviction  would come later, after the miracle of the resurrection (and bolstered by the creeds). But it was simply a fact that the first “Christians”, who were all Jews and therefore firm believers in “only one God”, found themselves worshipping this man, contradictory though that may have seemed!

Where does all this lead us? Just here: if ever you have found believing in the deep mysteries of the Christian faith perplexing and confusing, even off-putting, be encouraged! Turn whole-heartedly to Jesus, a man with (no doubt) a tanned face and muscles hardened by his years working as a carpenter, a man who was at different times tired, puzzled, disappointed, angry, and ultimately killed by perhaps the most cruel method of execution ever devised by man, and accept with childlike simplicity that that death accomplishes the washing away of your sins and full reconciliation with God. Your life will never be the same.

The ”full package” – God and man in one person… that can wait. Just walk with Jesus, obey him, trust him, enjoy him. And the day will come when you will see him face to face. Yes, the very “man who is God”.

Lord Jesus, I do not claim to understand all that the Bible says about you, but I declare that I believe, with a simple, childlike trust. Please receive me, forgive my sins – and make me a new person, the person I was always meant to be. Amen.

What kind of man is this!

During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him… Hebrews 5:7-9

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God… The Word became flesh, and made his dwelling among us… John 1:1-14

Very soon after I was ordained to the ministry I tried to help a young woman in the church who suffered from serious depression. I’m afraid I didn’t do her much good, and she understandably turned to another minister for support (a healthy blow to my youthful arrogance!). She later told me that he did indeed say something which helped her: namely, that, in turning to Jesus, she should think of him more as human rather than as divine, as a man rather than as God-in-the-flesh. She was still a very new Christian, and this advice led to her seeing Jesus in a whole new way.

The other minister wasn’t denying that Jesus was divine. Not at all. But he was pointing out a different aspect of the truth, and taking that aspect on board seemed to be a significant stepping stone in the life of that young woman.

As Christians we tend to emphasise, indeed to glory in, the truth that we sometimes call the “incarnation”, the “enfleshment” - that Jesus really is “God-in-the-flesh” – and we gloss over his humanness: that he really was fully human, like you and me, “though without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

Is it time for a re-think?

No books of the New Testament lay a greater stress on Jesus’ superiority over all men and women (not to mention angels) than John’s Gospel (especially chapter 1) and the Letter to the Hebrews. Yet at the same time it is Hebrews that gives us the striking words of chapter 5:7-9, where he is portrayed in unmistakably human terms, and John 4 too shows us him resting and “tired from the journey” when he met the Samaritan woman. He experienced agonies of prayer, “with fervent cries and tears” (can you see him, hear him?). Even more startling, he had to “learn obedience through what he suffered”, and had to be “made perfect” (but wasn’t he already perfect?).

How do verses like those help us? Regarding the young woman, I can’t remember now, some fifty years on. But here are one or two thoughts that I find helpful.

First, such verses, however startling, make Jesus more real for us. We see that, even though fully divine, he needed to grow, learn and endure hard times, just like us (and far, far worse).

The New Testament nowhere gives us a picture of Jesus as, say, a five-year-old boy or, at his synagogue school, playing with his friends in the playground (was he ever naughty, mischievous?). We find it hard to imagine him sitting at his desk frowning with concentration as he learned to read and write (nor, come to that, crying as a baby needing to have his nappy changed.)

But these are phases he must have gone through if indeed he was truly human. There’s a tiny glimpse into Jesus’ youth in Luke 2, which tells us exactly that: “Jesus went down to Nazareth with Joseph and Mary and was obedient to them… And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man”.

When Hebrews tells us that he “learned obedience through what he suffered”, that suggests that we too should accept the hard experiences of our lives not as grumble-points but, by God’s grace, as growth-points in our spiritual and moral development. Though he was without sin, it seems that obedience didn’t come naturally or easily to him.

As for being “made perfect”, that can’t mean being perfected in matters of right and wrong, but rather that he had to go through the normal human process of slowly, gradually reaching full manhood, progressing from childhood to adolescence to adulthood – as The Message translation of the Bible puts it, thus arriving at “the full stature of his maturity”. Yes, God in the flesh wasn’t spared the kind of growing-pains we know so well.

Some of those medieval “Madonna and child” paintings you see in art galleries portray the infant Jesus as a little man-baby perched grotesquely on Mary’s knee – a portrayal, surely, far, far removed from the truth. Likewise, I heard a preacher once, speaking about the psalms, make an off-the-cuff remark: “Of course, Jesus would have known all 150 of the psalms off by heart, because he was the Son of God”. No, no! That comment precisely illustrates the kind of misunderstanding that Hebrews 5:7-9 and Luke 2:52 exist to puncture.

Summing it up… Jesus, in his humanity, had to grow and learn, both in the “ordinary” business of everyday life and in the spiritual battle of walking in holiness with his heavenly Father.

And if him, how much more us? As the old hymn puts it, “Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer”. He will help us and if, like him, we persevere we too will “grow in favour with God and man”.

I’ve run out of space for my second thought, so I’ll have to do a second instalment. Please join me again next time.

Father, I can’t begin to fathom how the Lord Jesus could possibly be both fully human and fully divine. I simply rejoice that it is so. Lord Jesus, be my comfort, my strength and my hope. Holy Spirit, be my life, my guide and my energy day by day. Amen.

Silent voices - that still speak

And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead. Hebrews 11:4

Last Sunday morning I was brushing my teeth to the accompaniment of BBC Radio 4 when I found myself listening to a tribute to Timothy Dudley-Smith, Anglican clergyman and prolific hymn-writer. He died last August at the age of 97.

His hymns have formed part of the backdrop of my Christian life – I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know some of them. Just two examples: “Lord, for the years your love has kept and guided” (where all five verses are truly meaningful prayers), and “Holy child, how still you lie” (a simple, lilting Christmas carol). The radio programme reminded me how much my life and faith have been enriched by them.

Dudley-Smith’s hymns tend to be fairly traditional in style, and they are rich in biblical truth, always focussed on God first and foremost, genuine poems in their own right, and set to attractive and singable tunes. Though helpful to the individual singer or reader, they are perfectly suited for congregational singing (unlike so many songs which tend to be all about I/me - I must confess a pet dislike of mine!). Sad is any church that doesn’t make good use of his output.

Then, as I put my toothbrush away, I found my mind turning to a more recent death: that of former US President Jimmy Carter, just a week or so earlier, at the age of 100. He too received many tributes, though often they seemed to focus more on his failures as a president than on his stature as a man of God. I suppose that, being known primarily as a politician, that was inevitable; but it was heart-warming and challenging too when people – not necessarily believers - referred to his “devout” and “humble” Chrisian faith.

Of course I never met or knew either of these men – but that doesn’t mean they made no impact on my life. They certainly did, in their different ways, one by writing powerful hymns, the other by setting a challenging example, albeit at a far distance. And so the verse about Abel in Hebrews 11:4 came to mind: “… by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead”.

Go back to Genesis 4, and you find no explanation why God “did not look with favour” on Cain’s offering. But he is certainly portrayed as morose and angry, whereas presumably Abel had a right, good spirit in the eyes of God.

I suggest two practical responses to this ancient story and the comment of the writer to the Hebrews…

First, give thanks to God for people long gone whom we still remember with fondness and appreciation, who, in effect, “still speak”.

Personally, I remember an elderly Sunday-school teacher who, I think, was the first person ever to teach me about Jesus (and who fascinated me with his alarmingly drippy nose). There is no way of estimating the level of his impact on my life – but for all I know I might never have become a Christian at all apart from him. I can only imagine that…

I remember too the young man who was the main influence in leading me to Christ. (Actually, he is still alive, as far as I know, though I have not had any contact with him for probably 50 years, and I think he would be amazed and embarrassed if ever he read this. Hi, Doug!)

I remember too whole battalions of church members I was privileged to pastor, and who taught me far more than I taught them – and pastored me far better than ever I pastored them.

Ordinary people – not by any means Jimmy Carters or Timothy Dudley-Smiths! But people who “still speak” into my life and, I’m sure, into the lives of many others. I hope you too can summon up such a list. If you can, why not take a few minutes to give thanks to God?

Second, take Hebrews 11:4 as a challenge.

The fact is that each of us will leave behind a legacy after we are dead, for good or ill. Of course, we must resist any temptation to try and live a good life and do good things in order to be remembered: God knows the truth about our motives, and we must live good lives and set good examples for no other reason than that it is the right thing to do.

But let’s be encouraged to think that I and you – yes even I and even you! – have the potential to influence generations not yet born. Jesus spoke of seed that bears fruit in God’s good time, and even where we may feel we have failed, the fact is that we will never know how or when some good seed may germinate in blessings we cannot imagine.

Of course, the story also has a dark side, for Cain left a legacy too: falling into jealousy and anger, and becoming the world’s first murderer. And I am sure that we all have memories that fill us with shame and regret, and which may have done real damage in someone’s life: I certainly do. And now it is impossible to offer an apology (though, to be brutally honest, I’m not sure that I would do so even if I had the chance). Can you identify with me in that? The best we can do then is to pray: “Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner”.

But let’s be positive. Even long-silenced voices can still “speak” for good. And that, by God’s grace, includes mine and yours.

Remember, Christian, even some trivial little word or act of Christlikeness done today may make a difference to someone’s life a hundred years from now.

Father, I do thank you for long-gone Christlike people who have enriched my life in ways big and small. Please help me every day to do for others – others I may never know – what they did for me. Amen.

Lord, for ourselves, in living power remake us,/ Self on the cross and Christ upon the throne./ Past put behind us, for the future take us,/ Lord of our lives, to live for Christ alone. Amen!

Timothy Dudley-Smith.

 

A woman worth getting to know

Does not wisdom call out?
    Does not understanding raise her voice?
² At the highest point along the way,
    where the paths meet, she takes her stand;
³ beside the gate leading into the city,
    at the entrance, she cries aloud:
⁴ “To you, O people, I call out;
    I raise my voice to all mankind.
⁵ You who are simple, gain prudence;
    you who are foolish, set your hearts on it.
⁶ Listen, for I have trustworthy things to say;
    I open my lips to speak what is right.
⁷ My mouth speaks what is true,
    for my lips detest wickedness.
⁸ All the words of my mouth are just;
    none of them is crooked or perverse.
⁹ To the discerning all of them are right;
    they are upright to those who have found knowledge.
¹⁰ Choose my instruction instead of silver,
    knowledge rather than choice gold,
¹¹ for wisdom is more precious than rubies,
    and nothing you desire can compare with her.

Proverbs 8:1-11

My daily Bible-reading cycle has brought me to Proverbs 8, all about wisdom. Of course the whole book, all thirty-one chapters, is about wisdom, but the focus is particularly intense in this chapter.

Wisdom is pictured as a woman, sometimes called by commentators Lady Wisdom. We are not told she is particularly beautiful (after all, the Bible as a whole takes little interest in any kind of physical attractiveness, female or male), but I for one can’t help seeing her as elegant and dignified. Perhaps surprisingly, she is a wayside preacher, taking her stand at a cross-roads near the city gate, and she seems to have found a natural pulpit – “the highest point along the way” (verse 2). She is gifted with a strong voice, for she “raises her voice to all mankind” (verse 4), so her congregation is, well, anybody and everybody who cares to listen.

Could I invite you to take a few moments to read right through the chapter? – not in order to extract “doctrine” in an intellectual sense (Proverbs is not that kind of book!), but in order to bathe your imagination in a whole variety of hints and impressions. Lady Wisdom is a woman worth getting to know!

Confining ourselves mainly just to the first eleven verses, there is far more to glean than we have space for here, but hopefully we can whet our appetites for more, deeper reading.

First, wisdom is readily available.

She is a public figure, calling out to all and sundry. That means we don’t have to go seeking her out in weird or hidden places like cultic sects or mysterious religions. But it also means that we have no excuse for ignoring her, those of us at least who have been told about Jesus (according to parallel verses in Proverbs 8:22-31 and Colossians 1:15-17 she is supremely to be found in Christ).

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So…You want wisdom? Good! – the message couldn’t be simpler: look to Jesus.

Second, wisdom has many close cousins.

There’s a whole list of synonyms or near-synonyms in just these opening verses: understanding, prudence, trustworthiness, rightness, truth, justice, discernment, knowledge. In other words, if we choose to gain wisdom it won’t just make us “clever”, it will literally change the kind of people we are, transforming our very characters and ways of behaving.

So… You’re weary of being a failure in this bewildering business of life? Be encouraged! And seek wisdom!

Third, wisdom is truly practical.

Perhaps this is where “prudence” (verse 5) is especially important. It’s a slippery word, not easy to pin down, but it conveys the idea of commonsense, an ability to face our troubled world with open and seeing eyes, shrewdness, a “not-to-be-taken-in-ness”. It may mean being cautious, but not over-cautious, discerning but perhaps also adventurous.

So… You feel you lack prudence in a world that’s full of confusion and dishonesty? Well, you know where to look!

Fourth, wisdom is closely allied to holiness.

I nearly wrote “moral excellence” rather than “holiness”. But then I thought, “No, that would sound rather dry, even academic – let’s go for one of the Bible’s most beautiful and important words”. To be holy is, in essence, to be like God himself, and words like “upright”, “true”, “just” make it plain that wisdom means far more than simply being hands on in the business of living.

If we stay for a bit with the metaphor of wisdom as a woman (and why shouldn’t we?), we can imagine that Lady Wisdom has a couple of sisters. One is described in chapter 9 verses 1-5. This woman could of course be the same person in a rather different mode, but I like to think of her as an older and more prosperous sister: she has an impressive house (with “seven pillars”); she is a generous hostess (she has “prepared her meat and mixed her wine”); she has servants at her beck and call; she is compassionate, especially concerned for the “simple” and “those who have no sense”; she is an accomplished teacher (she offers “insight”).

Ah, but what about the third woman – Sister Folly (9:13-18)? Perhaps the less said the better. She is “unruly” and a seductress, not just sexually but also in offering the cheap and tawdry pleasures of life (“stolen water”… “food eaten in secret”). But all that her devotees end up with is… death (“her guests are deep in the realm of the dead”).

Yet Sister Folly could be mistaken for her two holy sisters. She too takes her seat “at the highest point of the city”; she too makes her appeal to anyone who will listen – and who is foolish enough to be taken in.

The challenge of these very poetic verses of Proverbs is clear: am I a disciple of Lady Wisdom or of Lady Folly? Am I heading for life – what Jesus called “life in all its fulness” (John 10:10) – or for death? The choice is ours; there is no coercion with God. His word is right there for us – the living Word of Christ, and the written Word of Scripture.

Lord, help us to choose with our eyes wide open!

Father, our modern world seems to be so often shallow, tawdry and awash with folly, enslaved to sin. God forbid that I should ever be arrogant or self-righteous in judgment – but a true and humble disciple of Lady Wisdom. Amen.

Are you really you?

The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7

Jesus said, For out of the heart come evil thoughts – murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person… Matthew 15:19-20

Everything they [the teachers of the law and the Pharisees] do is done for people to see… Matthew 23:5

Many years ago I worked as a part-time hospital chaplain. This involved interacting with staff as well as patients, and one day I met a young man wheeling a trolley whose face seemed familiar, but which I couldn’t place. I said Hello anyway and apologised for not remembering who he was. “Oh, don’t worry about that!” he replied cheerfully, “I decided to change my image a bit”. Ah! As soon as he said that I understood my confusion – of course! he’d drastically altered his hair-style and various other things.

Thinking about it, I found myself pondering, “What a strange thing to do! Why would anybody feel the need to ‘change their image’! How much time, energy and even money might be wasted in changing one’s image? Why would anyone even feel the need to have an image, never mind change it?”

But then it struck me that in truth many if not all of us (certainly me!), tend to be more or less “image-conscious” – we want to feel confident that we come across to other people in a good way. What we are actually like takes second place to what we want people to think we are like.

The word of God through the prophet Samuel in 1 Samuel 16:7 puts the key point with crystal clarity: God is not interested in how we look outwardly, our “image”; but he is very interested in the condition of our hearts, what we are really like inside. Don’t worry, I didn’t launch into an impromptu sermon that day in the hospital corridor; but for those of us who claim to be followers of Christ, this surely is a truth which we need to frequently remind ourselves of.

I can think of various ways this simple saying, taken with proper seriousness, can help us to be better followers of Jesus, to be, in fact more like the human beings God wants us to be.

First, it is a safeguard against anxiety.

Many of our anxieties are just inevitable and, as I wrote in a recent blog, it is our responsibility to bring them under control with the help of the Holy Spirit. But how many are self-inflicted? How much anxiety do we load upon our own shoulders by worrying unnecessarily what other people think of us? How much energy, effort and time do we burn up struggling to “keep up with the Joneses”, bothering about our “image”.

I started to go grey in my early twenties. Various people were kind enough to recommend preparations which would keep the dreaded grey at bay; some did this as a friendly joke, others, I fear, more seriously. But such is my sometimes rebellious spirit that I had no difficulty batting that suggestion aside. (I claim no credit for that, of course: I wish I could say the same of other temptations to “go with the flow”.)

I hit upon what seemed to me a good, practical life-motto: Be like Christ -  and be yourself. As long as we get the order right there, that just about says it all, doesn’t it? What a weight of anxiety might be lifted if we learned to consistently snap our fingers at the world’s pressures!

Second, Samuel’s word is a safeguard against hypocrisy. 

Too much of a focus upon ourselves, then, can be a self-inflicted burden, a folly of our own making. But let’s crank it up a notch: it can also invite the sin of hypocrisy.

This word originally meant “play-acting”, pretending, putting on a show, and the link between it and “religion” is no accident. Jesus often used it to criticise the religious leaders of his day, not least in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and in Matthew 23.

Is there anything hostile unbelievers enjoy more than pointing out areas where we Christians display evidence of hypocrisy? Sometimes, of course, their criticisms are unjust; but, sadly, too often that isn’t the case. And we don’t need to be scribes and Pharisees to fall into it.

This week I’ve been following with interest the many comments in the media on the life of former American president Jimmy Carter. What’s been particularly noticeable is the way people – people of all faiths and no faith - have queued up to pay tribute to his humility, honesty and integrity. Some, also - though not many – have drawn attention to his “simple” and “devout” Christian faith. Oh yes, they have commented too perhaps on what they see as his failures politically; but this almost universal respect for him as a person is very striking.

No doubt Carter was far from perfect; he himself was the first to say so. But if “what you see is what you get” is a good definition of the non-hypocritical Christian, it certainly seems to have fitted him.

To sum up: there are two you’s and two me’s; the outer, public one, and the inner, secret one. The question is: Are they in alignment with one another? That is the key to Spirit-filled, Christlike holiness.

Dear Father, forgive please my often unthinking tendency to put on a show, to worry too much what other people may think of me, especially to hide corrupt thoughts and feelings under a veneer of goodness. Help me day by day not only to appear like Jesus, but truly to be like him. Amen.

For further reflection – Paul’s sobering lists in Galatians 5:19-26