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When someone writes a great book, someone else usually comes along and
writes a summary of it. By this means what begins as a 500 page effort is
condensed down to a mere half page. The essential points and qualities of the
whole work are captured in a few words, yet the person who reads the few words
and thinks he understands the whole book is dreadfully misguided. What the
condensation does is rob the whole work of its splendour – like reducing the
mighty sun to a pin-prick of light, or drawing the Atlantic ocean as a mere
diagram on a sheet of paper.
The universe is full of such condensations produced by Man. And it
doesn’t matter how large or grand the object is, Man will reduced it to about
the size of a blurb on the back cover of a novel. For example galaxies, which
are unbelievably large, are grouped together into clusters and given numbers,
the nine planets, spinning through the immensity of space, are called a solar
system, the whole interconnected web of life on this planet is summed up as a
biosphere. Humans themselves, not content with summarising the infinite and
immense, also classify themselves, using several simple words,
converting and reducing the amazingly complex down to the simplest of
drawings and diagrams, and many people have the impression that if they look at
a few of these medical diagrams they will have understood the body.
In a similar way, a person once told me “I have read the Bible” as if
that was sufficient effort to absorb the entire book. The whole infinite
universe of the Creator’s wisdom, straight from His Mind, through the mouths
and pens of prophets and inspired souls, encapsulated into a few pages – and
this person was quite sure that he had “read” the Bible.
Let us look at the realities.
It is not possible for any individual or even the whole human race
combined to fully seek out or understand the things which God has made, though
that boast is often implied in some of the statements which come from some
people, especially in the world of science. DNA may have been discovered and
analysed, but there is a huge difference between counting the nucleic acids and
understanding the meaning of their sequences, and even if that were accomplished
there would still be the question of what exactly are atoms, and why do they
even exist as they do? What is energy? What is time? How many dimensions are
there? There is a vast difference between mapping the planet and actually
understanding the network of interdependencies. Science may think it has worked
out many things, but there is still an enormous amount left undetected.
A simple illustration would be to imagine humans were only as big as an
average bacterium. Suppose God had placed Adam and Eve on a small leaf of a
plant 6000 years ago. The human race may have grown to its present population
but it would still be more or less confined to the same leaf. There is still the
garden to discover, then the hillside, then the other hills, the country, the
lakes, mountains and rivers, and finally the whole planet. Man the bacterium
might boast of his knowledge while he peers over the edge of the leaf, but God
is wiser than Man.
This unfortunate habit by people, of condensing large things and making
them seem very small, has led to many problems. People who are unaware of their
own ignorance (in the better sense) are quick to make broad generalisations,
forgetting their limited knowledge. One cannot possibly understand the large
simply by glimpsing the small, and although generalisations are very useful,
they can also destroy.
For example the question of healing. The condensed view is so
narrow the book of Job is an embarrassing exception, because Job suffered great
sickness, for no apparent reason, despite keeping his side of the healing
covenant in the Law. He obeyed, therefore he should have been well, but he was
sick, and God did not tell him why. The broad view includes Job but brings no
final solution to the puzzle. If we keep to the narrow view we have no
explanation for Job’s sickness – but if we broaden our view we have to allow
more of God’s sovereignty in, which leaves us feeling ignorant and helpless
before a God who does what He pleases. Many people do not like to feel helpless
and ignorant, so they become dogmatic, and demand healing – thus overruling
God’s sovereignty. People who accept the broad view ask for healing but accept
whatever happens because they know God is in control no matter how things may
look.
The large view needs the small, yet the small does not faithfully
reproduce the large because God is bigger than our understanding.
Health,
Healing and Prosperity.
There is no doubt in my mind that God intends to give most Christians
good health. Health is what Jesus gave to all the sick who came to
him. God’s name is Ropheka, which means the Healer. But healing is not as
clear cut as some would like it to be. Jesus healed to prove that he was the
Messiah. He does not need to prove this any more. His three year ministry set
the seal on his identity and, although healing is still available today, it is
not so common. Why? God alone knows. The proof of this however is clear to see -
not all Christians are healed when they become sick, and not all Christians are
healthy. Many suffer from many diseases and disabilities. Sickness is a fact of
life, and Christians are often cut down by it regardless of their faith, zeal or
prayers. So the small is not a full summary of the large. God heals, but the
subject of healing is much larger than the front seats in a church. Healing
is broader and fuller than a few people having their headaches cured, or their
sore backs eased of pain. Healing is part of the big picture, though it is also
included in the small.
The broad view of health and healing covers all human frailties, all
genetic disorders, recovery from death, restoration of all things, the ultimate
expansion of God’s everlasting kingdom, and whatever fullness God has planned
for that kingdom somewhere in the future. It is only the small-mindedness of
people which makes the difficulties seem impossible to solve. Lack of
understanding leads to false conclusions. If we could all see things from the
larger view, the expansive view, the broad, wide aerial view from heaven which
God alone has, we would not get so caught up in the minutiae of questions.
Perhaps Jesus on the cross is the best example of this. To many
on-lookers Jesus was doomed, cursed and beyond help. Nobody survived crucifixion
(when it was carried out properly). Yet Jesus was about to turn the cross into a
healing power. The pain was about to become a river of life. Death was about to
become the elixir of eternal youth. The small view saw a man suffering on a
cross, but the large view saw a 4000 year sequence from the first Adam to the
second Adam, and during this time the preservation of a few souls during a
global flood, the rise and fall of empires, the slow transformation of nations
from scattered tribes, wars, droughts, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions,
inventions and progress, followed by more thousands of years, the Dark Ages, the
Reformation, the rise of modern city states, until finally that suffering man on
the cross became the returning King of Glory. And even this summary is a very
narrow view of something indescribably vast.
There was a man in Christchurh, much-loved, a dear brother to many, who
began to die of cancer. The fellowship prayed for him regularly, they laid hands
on him, the elders prayed, the fellowship fasted, oil was used, and still he
died. Every Biblical procedure was followed yet he died. The small view was
simple: God had failed to heal. Many people’s faith was damaged. They
couldn’t trust the healing promises implicitly any more. There was an
uncertainty, as to whether such effort and faith should go into praying for the
next sick person. Was God fickle? Did He deliberately shun the prayers of His
children?
But the larger picture placed the man in God’s everlasting kingdom at
the day of resurrection, and the sickness he went through paled into
insignificance compared to the enormous weight of glory he was to be welcomed
into. God had obviously over-ruled and called the saint away from this Earth.
The fellowship should have accepted this. The healing had occurred, but after
the grave not before it.
So health and healing are two of the tiny words we use to summarise huge
things. The third tiny word is prosperity.
I believe it is God’s will to give to most (but not all) Christians,
health, healing and prosperity, but there are always exceptions, and we must
never allow the exceptions to become the rule. And we must be very careful about
what we mean when we say “health”, “healing” and “prosperity”
because there are many shades to each of these colours.
The small view is pathetically shallow. If health and healing means : no
sickness all my life, even if I live 120 years, and if I break a leg it will
snap back to health 5 minutes later, then I will have entered something like
Edenic conditions before sin entered the world. Or perhaps Jesus has returned?
And can you imagine the rush to join the church if this miraculous health
happened to all Christians? And think of the mess it would make of theology –
people would be walking by “sight”, not by faith; false Christians would be
just as self-centred as ever, and many people would use their God-given health
as a tool to advance their evil work as they went about in Satan’s kingdom.
Health, healing and prosperity had very little positive impact on Israel
when they were travelling from Egypt yo Canaan. Israel had 40 years of steady,
reliable food, and water, and clothes which never wore out, yet they remained
wicked and rebellious. Healing did not change their hearts or cause them to be
obedient to God.
Ten lepers were healed yet only one returned with thanks.
Health and healing are sometimes given, but they are never the rule. The
Church is sometimes blessed by health and healing, but this is the exception,
never the rule. The big picture cannot allow for that sort of thing just yet.
Prosperity also means many different things. To the greedy and
covetous it means money and worldly goods. To the money-hungry Christian it
means receiving more than he or she gives – like exorbitant interest. It can
lead a Christian to gamble, and make prayers for lotto tickets or whatever. It
can draw the saints into commercial cults where they prey on their brothers and
sisters in order to make more money. God suddenly becomes the money-machine who
must be played, coaxed, pleaded with and pressured to shower the wealth down.
Prosperity of a kind was something Jesus always had, yet he grew up in a
poor neighbourhood and during his whole public ministry he always depended on
others for his support. This shows that prosperity must be a larger thing than
money or clothes, houses or goods. Perhaps the meaning of “prosperity”
expands to fill the whole universe, and the tiny definition we sometimes have is
the sort of thing a beggar might imagine who, in his ignorance is only
reflecting the state of his own heart? Why must we measure prosperity in terms
of things anyway? The beggar would consider a three-course meal a great wealth,
whereas a wealthy person would need a palace to think of wealth. It is all
relative.
So the small view always produces sin and ignorance, frustration and
anger. The small view is the binoculars held the wrong way round. The narrow
understanding is the Jewish leader who wouldn’t pick the corn on a Sabbath in
case it was considered “work”. The tiny definition excludes the bigness of
God and reduces His Great Heart down to a formula made of a handful of words.
We must be very careful what we mean when we use the words health,
healing or prosperity. They are not small concepts.
…………………………………………………….
Another big three are the things which all Christians have (or OUGHT TO
have) in common: Love, Freedom and Equality.
I came across a Christian woman who had married then divorced a Christian
man only to marry another Christian man. I’m stressing “Christian” because
there are some who like to look for a loophole and say that non-Christian
marriages don’t count.
The woman was worried that she might be sinning, because the only place
in the whole Bible which allows for a person to re-marry is when the other
partner in the marriage has committed adultery (Matthew 19:9). There have been
many cases, in my knowledge, where Christians have been shunned or spoken to
unkindly over this issue, but what does the Bible say?
First, we are to love each other, regardless of what we might
think of another Christians conduct. If we are told to love our enemies, how
much more should we love our brethren? There is no room for intolerance or
rejection on our part, even though we may rightly feel disgust or anger over
what our brother or sister has done.
Second, we are called to walk in God’s sight as individuals.
This means that I am accountable to God for my life as an individual, just as
all other saints are accountable to God for their individual lives as
individuals. I cannot hide behind a group, and neither can any other saint. It
is as if God has only one human on the entire planet – you.
Certainly there is discipline in a healthy church, but there is no
warrant given for individual Christians to go about laying down the Law when
they see offences in other Christians. It is no saint’s job to be a gossip, a
judge, or a busybody.
The only time I would see a place for presenting a criticism is
indirectly through the preaching of the Word, and in the case of someone
actually asking me for my opinion. If I volunteer my thoughts I am stepping out
of my place and invading God’s territory.
So what is the correct approach?
Kindly, and lovingly present what the Bible says then back off. I am not
God, or an apostle. I am restricted to only one authority, the Bible, and it is
my ‘job’ to present what God says. If I am asked, I share what God says, but
if I am not asked I say nothing. I try to love, regardless of what the other
saint is doing.
As Paul said in Romans 12, some saints eat meat, some don’t. Its really
none of my business what they do, and by the same token they ought to leave me
alone too.
This principle can be extended widely. There was a time when many
Christians thought slavery was supported by the Bible, but other Christians
thought otherwise. If I had lived 200 years ago I might have defended slavery
“from the Scriptures”. I could not do that today.
Some Christians march, fly or sail to war, believing God is with them –
others stay home believing that God does not support Christians in uniform.
Some Christians go into politics – others refuse to.
Some Christians avoid church – others go every Sunday.
Some Christians prefer a Pastor – others prefer elders.
Some Christians go to movies – others are sure Satan rules Hollywood.
The list is extensive, and in every case it is none of my business what
another Christian thinks or does. To God they answer and to God alone they must
live.
So Christian love is (or ought to be) unconditional, and as broad
as God’s heart. Every erring child in His kingdom needs to know they are
accepted, and loved – otherwise they lose the incentive to keep trying. God
knows our ignorance and frailty, but he never gives up on us, despite our shaky
and often pathetic progress. In the same way a father supports a child as it
learns to ride a bicycle, and never abandons the child when the first (or
second, or third) crash happens. It takes time. God is patient with his saints.
He helps and supports, and picks up, and restarts, and encourages, year after
year. He loves us.
But look at the contrasts in the churches which God has to ‘live
with’ so to speak: Some Christians revel in vegetarianism, some don’t. Some
fire missiles, some march for peace. Some smoke, some hate cigarettes. Some
drink, some will not touch a drop. Some marry and re-marry (and remarry again),
without a single twinge of the conscience. Some will never marry. Some listen to
rock music. Some prefer classical. Some gamble, some refuse to. Some worship on
Saturday, others prefer Sunday. Some practise baptism, others don’t. Some have
communion, some see no place for it. Some play computer games excessively,
others never play them. Some love the TV soaps, others abhor the soaps. Some
work hard, some are lazy. Some are evangelical, some couldn’t care less. Some
read the Bible every day, others almost never. Some have hobbies, some refuse
them as ‘distractions’. There is huge variety in the Church, and a multitude
of personalities and lifestyles. But God loves all the saints and accepts all
their choices and the variety which follows. Many of these choices are a result
of ignorance, or sin, but it is not for me, or any other Christian to go about
‘correcting’ these saints unasked.
Freedom. This word is always open to abuse, so before we look at
what it means we ought to see what it does not mean. Freedom does not mean the
abandonment of God or His rules. Liberalism is not freedom. Licence is not
freedom. Obedience, as an act of choice, is the best form of freedom, when that
obedience is given to the Lord Jesus. True freedom is willing submission to
Jesus.
But having said this we know that Christians are free to act and speak,
dress and sing, work and play, in a wide variety of ways within the limits laid
down by God. It is a bit like swimming between the flags – one can do all
sorts of things in the water between the flags but there is great danger in
doing anything at all outside those flags.
For example, some Christian women like to wear make-up, while others
avoid it. Some Christian men are not bothered by their ‘scarecrow’
appearance, while other men are fastidious. Some Christians like loud music and
emotionalism, while other Christians prefer to be quiet and restrained. Some
Christians play sport on Sunday, others will not. Some tithe, others refuse to.
Some are generous, some are not. There are dozens of issues over which
Christians differ – in the areas of worship, dress, music, dance, the media,
politics, literature, art and so on. The Bible says Christians are free to
choose whatever lifestyle they want, with the only provision being the moral law
– they ought to ask themselves : is what I am doing morally clean, free of
obscenities, honest, true, etc? Is it free of cruelty? Is it free of pride or
snobbery? Is it kind to animals? Is it helpful? Is it a good witness to other
saints? i.e. Is it Christian?
Paul exercised his own personal freedom when he said he was a Greek to
the Greeks and a Jew to the Jews, in fact whatever the other man was
like, Paul was like him (without sinning). This shows a huge amount of
flexibility and adaptability. Paul knew how to change his manner/s to match
whoever he was trying to reach. His words, dress and interests were modified to
meet the lifestyle of the person he was witnessing to.
This highlights one of the big problems which most churches have today.
They are often very inflexible - unable to change in order to reach the people
outside their doors. Instead, they expect the lost to come in and for them
to change to match the church. This is like expecting a visitor to a hospital to
change his clothes, put on a white coat, wear a stethoscope, and use medical
jargon in a doctor’s conference. The lost or unchurched person usually has no
wish to be like the Christians, nor do they usually understand what Christians
are talking about when they use jargon like “propitiation” and
“Eucharist” or “ecumenical”.
But ‘freedom’ is wider than simply making choices between the flags.
God has never barred the way for more than that, although He has given warnings
about what will happen of the flags are ignored. Christians are in fact free to
be whatever they like. They are free to do and say anything they wish. God will
discipline them if they choose to stray beyond the flags, but He does not make
it impossible. Adam and Eve were permitted to sin, but they were warned about
the consequences. Here is the perfect balance between free will, responsibility
and discipline. Discipline does not negate choice, but discipline does confirm
the fact that choice is available.
As Paul said “All things are lawful to me, but not all things are expedient”
1Cor.6:12.
Equality. Why is it that, whenever fellowships form, there are
always some who take leadership roles, and others who take less public or less
obvious roles? These imbalances arise because of differences in personality,
attitude and gifting (talents) within the fellowship. But in a fellowship where
someone leads, there is a natural tendency to regard that leader as more
important than the people who prefer to be listeners. Unfortunately, leaders
often wear special clothes, badges, door signs, or practise distinguishing
ceremonies. They give orders, or take on more responsibility than they ought to.
The Bible says all Christians are equal – in the sense that they are all of
equal value to God. Certainly some talents are more public than others, but
since when did gifts equal value? Does a parent love the talented piano-playing
son more than the hairdresser daughter? Does a parent love the singing child
more than the non-singing? Such bias would be unjust.
In the same way God has no favourites. Gifted Christians are expected to
serve just as much as less gifted, and Jesus actually commanded Christians to
place in leadership those who were “least esteemed” among them. Luke 9:48.
This turns leadership on its head! It is not the loud, ‘charismatic’ person
who should take the lead, but the humble, meek person, who places God’s word
above his own ability. Some leadership is simply an expression of pride, or
emulation, a desire to ‘call the shots’, and perhaps to gain money.
Equality works on many levels. There should be equality between men and
women, adults and children, and children with children. The oldest saint should
not think of him or herself as any better than the youngest new convert. The
only difference between Christians is the distance down the road we have all
travelled. Some of us are just beginning the journey, while others have walked
for many years. The road is the same under all our feet and we all share in the
same everlasting kingdom when this life is over. That is a kind of eternal
equality too.
Footnotes:
The happiest Christians are those who have found no reason to condemn
themselves (Romans 14:22) They have escaped the misery of self-condemnation
because they love themselves. They love themselves because they know God loves
them, and that is more important to them than worldly peer pressure,
church peer pressure, or self-image pressure. They know that the relationship
they have with God is a good one. They enjoy being themselves, and they live
life according to their relationship to God – not according to other
people’s expectations or rules or customs. Inner harmony is the greatest
blessing in the Christian life, and it is also the basis on which a Christian
should live.
If I love God, I will also love myself. If I am made in God’s image I must accept that I am the way I am because God made me this way. If I love myself, I can have the confidence to love others. Without self-love life can be miserable, but with self-love, I can enjoy being me, and better demonstrate God working in my life.