Theology, Convictions and Evil

This is an in-house entry…. To the “faithful” I write…

Throughout history, there have been plenty of evil done in the name of God by those who supposedly call on the name of Christ.  Why is that?  One answer that jumps out of the pages of the Bible is clear:  human beings are naturally evil.  As one text says, our natural behavior is obvious and includes things like idolatry, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy. There is also a number of sexual behavior that we naturally desire but is not healthy nor good and as Christians we should not practice including sex outside of marriage, using or producing pornography, orgies, and even lustful thoughts (See Galatians 5:19-21).  

One translation calls our tendency to desire and give into such desire for these things our “sinful nature” but the actual biblical writers simply call it our flesh - the Greek word is “sarx” - and it includes (a) the physical body; (b) the body’s natural desires, appetites and cravings that go against God’s design; and (c) the tendency to give into these desires.  There is a word strictly used for the “physical body” and it is not “sarx” but “soma”. This word primarily means the physical body alone.

Why the mini theology lesson?  Because Christians (if they happen to stumble onto my blog) need to be aware that the internal battles and fights we have over supposed theological issues such as the role of women, leadership in the church, what is heretical, eternal condemnation, and the like – when we have deep convictions about such things and our emotions flare up or our heels dig in, it is likely that the flesh is peeking it’s ugly head.  The Bible makes it clear what is of first importance – Christ Jesus and Him Crucified.  This does NOT mean such things (women’s roles, leaderships, heresy, etc) are not important – it just means we should not and must not destroy the church or worse, literally kill people over such things!  In fact, we should not kill people ever and we should never resort to coercive force, violence, hatred, fits of rage, yelling and screaming, and other such things. There is no Christian theological foundation for such behavior NONE – note even against those who reject or are antagonistic against our faith.

As it is written, we preach Christ and Him crucified; and he was raised to life.  This alone is the core of the gospel, the “crux of the matter”.  Get it? “crux”… out of the cross!   We preach Christ and him crucified, a stumbling block for those who consider themselves good religious people and foolishness to those who are nontheistic and/or secular humanist in their view of the world.  Out of this core comes love – love for God and love for others.  The core message implies a view of the universe that is ultimately supernatural – a sinless man rose from the dead!  It implies that we are inherently evil which NOBODY likes to accept.  But this message gives us the ONE way out of these natural desires and tendencies that go against God’s design:  forgiveness through the blood of Christ.  Ugly, illogical from a human perspective, yet this is the message.

If Christians who FIGHT over the role of women or contemporary Christian music verses traditional hymns, or other such things would step back and examine their own selves, they would see that they may NOT be representing the absolute truth of scripture but instead, defending something that may be important, but is not essential.  It may even be the traditions of men verses the will of God (Matt 15:3).  I struggle with the more "weightier matters of the law" in my life, specifically true conviction and faithfulness, resisting sin to the point of death. (Matt 23:23, Heb 12:4) Where is our commitment?  Are we 100% engaged and involved in serving the risen savior by practicing the two fundamental commands Jesus gave us:  love God with everything and love our neighbor?  Do we fully practice the fruit of the spirit to show love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control?  And by the way, these things should be practiced Monday through Saturday, not just Sunday in a one or two hour worship service.

I encourage you, if you happened to find this article and you call yourself a Christian, I encourage you to examine what I have written carefully and the implication for Christian unity and solidarity implied by this.  The core message is essential.  The one biblical idea we don’t like – that we ourselves are sinful – is very real, and we know it to be true.  Certain values that spring from the teachings of Christ and the apostles PRIMARILY impact the bulk of our lives – Monday through Saturday, not the 1 or 2 hours on Sunday.  Come on people, what’s the real deal?  Will you stand before Jesus and defend your bold adherence to theological purity about issues that cannot be clearly explained in the biblical text and that only impact ONE HOUR a week? Please hear me.... I am not saying we shouldn’t have standards or define healthy, biblical practices for our churches, but I am saying, let’s keep the main thing the main thing and not let theology we can’t fully and clearly prove and our blind convictions about such theology dictate the practices of our faith or the things that ultimately cause division due to our sinful nature.