God is the ultimate Father of the heart. He is not blocked in his
relationship to me because I read a book by someone who was not entirely
approved in the divine library. He knows me inside out, and has complete
awareness of how I am really doing.
God
is constantly watching an imperfect child grappling with imperfect ministries
and resources. He is constantly dealing with the way all us children are in our
incompleteness, and in our immaturity. He will never have us as that pure and
spotless bride while we are in this earthly lifetime. Ge must always deal with us
as imperfect people receiving ministry from imperfect people and seeking to
imperfectly pass on that imperfect ministry to imperfect people.
So,
the only way God can relate to us is as the only perfect person loving all his
imperfect children who are benefiting from the ministries of other imperfect
children. God is the only perfect person[1] involved in anything to do with anything in the church.
Question:
How is it that God, the only perfect person involved in our dealings with the
church, is able to relate so freely and lovingly to all the rest of us who are
imperfect people benefiting from the ministries of imperfect people?
In
other words, while we might consider that the scenario of a brother or sister
testifying to how they have benefited from a ministry that we don’t approve is
a distinct aspect of our relationships, kind of an uncomfortable interruption
to other relationships where we are glad for the way people are benefiting from
certain ministries, the reality is that every testimony of benefiting from
someone else’s ministry is always about one imperfect person receiving
imperfect ministry from imperfect people, and imperfect books, and imperfect
ministries.
So,
when we look at this honestly, and realize that God is the only perfect person
involved in the church, and all the rest of us are imperfect, and yet we still
have concerns about whether some people and ministries’ imperfections are in
the area of unsound doctrine, or that certain ministries and resources are
leading people astray, what do we learn from God about relating to imperfect
people, since imperfect people are the only kind of people God relates to here
on earth?
What
comes to mind are the three doctrines of salvation that show us why God can
relate to us as his children now, while we are still imperfect. There is
something about these doctrines that would also enable us to relate to all the
imperfect people in our lives, including the one who keeps staring back at us
in the mirror!
The
doctrine of justification by faith in Jesus Christ tells us that our faith in
the Son of God credits us with the righteousness we need to be right with God. “And to the one who does not work but
believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as
righteousness.”[2] From God’s viewpoint, the “ungodly”
who believe in Jesus as the gospel requires,[3] who put no faith in their own good works,[4] have their faith “counted as righteousness.”
God is able to treat these people as righteous because of their faith, because,
when he sees faith, he counts that faith as righteousness.
This
is why Scripture declares, “And without
faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must
believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”[5] It is impossible for people to please God without faith, because it
is faith that is counted as righteousness. We do not please God by seeking to
attain righteousness by good works, since our good works are like filthy
garments stained with sin,[6] a constant affront to the holiness and righteousness of God.
When
someone has faith in Jesus Christ, he or she is now pleasing to God because
they have all the righteousness they need to be with him. Even while we are still
imperfect people, our faith is the constant testimony that God sees us as
righteous, making us completely acceptable to him, even now, even while we are
still imperfect.
What
does that have to do with a brother or sister in Christ telling us that they
have benefited from the ministry of someone we cannot endorse with a clear
conscience? It tells us that the starting place is to relate to them on the
basis of their faith, not their works.[7]
I
firmly believe that God uses conflicts in the church, differences among
believers, to expose our hearts about how we are doing with him, how we are
doing with people, and how freely we are able to relate to all our brothers in
love. In fact, as I was pondering these things, someone shared with me what
they were reading from God’s word, which included this verse, “Above all, keep loving one another
earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.”[8]
I
could immediately see the connection to what I was pondering. When a fellow
believer testifies to benefiting from a book on our watch-out list, this would be
one of the things we could classify as part of “a multitude of sins.” The fact of God’s kingdom is that “love covers” a multitude of sins. This
is certainly true in the way God relates to his children, so it must be true of
the way us children relate to one another.[9]
One
of the interesting things here is that Peter is not telling us to love in that
way that covers sins, but telling us that love does cover a multitude of sins.
It is the nature of love, and God is love, that love does cover a multitude of
sins. It just does that. If there is love, that is what we will find love
doing.
So,
what does Peter instruct us to do? In fact, what does he instruct us to do “above all” the other things we are
doing to live as more than conquerors through these evil last days? The
divinely inspired “above all,” is
this: “keep loving one another earnestly.”
The reality that love does cover a multitude of sins means that we have the
responsibility to “keep loving one
another earnestly.”
Applying
this to our scenario of a brother or sister who has received benefit from a
warning-lights-flashing resource, and considering there is a “multitude of sins” in the church
everywhere we look (since we are all still imperfect people), the one thing we
must do “above all” other things, is “keep loving one another earnestly.”
Keep loving earnestly because that kind of love covers all our efforts to
minister to the multitude of sins in the church.
It
is interesting that Paul would say it like this: “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are
spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself,
lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of
Christ.”[10]
Now,
let’s see if we can add all these things together. Let’s just say that the good
testimony we have heard from a brother or sister concerns us that they may be
getting caught in someone else’s transgression (what we think of the resource
and ministry they are referring to). We are concerned for them. Sound doctrine
and God’s people matter to us together. We never want to see one separated from
the other.
We
listen to where this brother or sister is coming from in an attitude of love
that covers a multitude of sins, and so we decide that, while we keep
listening, and praying about what we should do, that we are going to keep on
loving them earnestly. Since love covers over a multitude of sins, and we aren’t
even sure if our brother or sister is transgressing, let alone outrightly
sinning, but we do know that all of us in the church are imperfect, and that
God’s view of our church is that it is full of a multitude of sins, and so the
thing we know for certain is that we are going to love this person so earnestly
that they would never even imagine a cooling of our fellowship with them just
because of the book they are reading.
Isn’t
that the sense of what it means that God relates to us as justified by faith,
not as sinners in constant need of reprimand?[11]
Interestingly
enough, at this point in my journaling it was time to walk a young friend to
school. The morning was on the chilly side, and I was running a bit behind
because I had so many thoughts to get typed into my computer, so I didn’t have
time to locate my hat. The result was that my constantly diminishing hair
supply could not keep the top of my head warm, and I had quite a chill on my
bald spot by the time I was heading home.
“I
need a covering,” I thought to myself, as I began running to see if I could
warm up a bit. Suddenly I realized that this was a very good illustration of
what I had just been reading. To keep a church from growing cold in
relationships whenever there are disagreements (cool weather), or even
transgressions and sins between its members (serious storms), love covers the
multitude of sins.
Love
does not cover-over those sins, sweep them under the carpet, or gloss-over them
as if they don’t matter. Rather, there is such an awareness of the unfinished
work of God in each of us, with its corresponding “multitude of sins” still in the church (if we could see ourselves
from the mind of our holy Father we would not disagree), that when we cover over
all the imperfections of our churches with love, then we can stay together in
disagreements, just like God stays with us when we disagree with him.[12]
Which
brings me back to this issue of justification by faith. It is by faith that God
is able to justify us, counting our faith as righteousness. There has to be
some way that we look at each other this same way, that we are able to come
close to each other in our imperfections because we count our faith as
righteousness.
We
all know that there is still a lot of unrighteousness in us, as does God. But
even our holy Father is able to be with us in the person of his Holy Spirit.[13] This is not because he is unholy or unrighteous, but that he is so
satisfied with the work of his Son on our behalf that he can come into our
unrighteousness and help us grow up to be like Jesus, even while viewing us as
fully righteous because of our faith.
By
the way, the wonder of considering how justification, sanctification, and
glorification all work together is one of the things that exalts the Bible
above every other religious text. It would be better to die for a faith such as
this (although there is no other like it), than to join the false religions that
are doing all the killing.
However,
while it appears that I have another day ahead of me with no immediate threat
of martyrdom, I might as well see what I can do to love my brothers as Jesus loves
me. If I can keep my mind on my own justification by faith, and how God treats
me because he counts me as righteous in his sight, I am sure I will see good
things in my relationships with God’s people as I consider them righteous in
our Father’s sight, and so in mine.
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, Canada, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
Or is that, are the only perfect persons?
[2]
Romans 4:5 (The whole of Romans 4 addresses the truth of faith counted as
righteousness so is definitely worth reading if this is an unfamiliar doctrine)
[3]
John 1:12-13; John 3:16 (and many others)
[4]
As is clearly stated in Ephesians 2:8-9
[5]
Hebrews 11:6
[6]
Isaiah 64:6
[7]
Please note: I am talking about the “starting place”. Yes, there are steps to
take when we have such concerns. However, I contend that these things that
often turn into divisive conflicts would turn out differently if we started
where God starts, with our justification by faith in Jesus Christ whereby God
constantly, and only, sees us as righteous in his sight, even while we are
clearly imperfect in this earthly lifetime.
[8]
I Peter 4:8
[9]
I don’t want to get into a lengthy debate about the difference between love
that “covers” sins, and cheap grace that covers-up sins. If we keep in mind that
Peter means love covering sin the way God’s love for us covers us while we have
multitudes of sin, we will maintain our focus on being like Jesus even in this.
[10]
Galatians 6:1-2
[11]
I didn’t mean that God doesn’t reprove and discipline those he loves, only that
he does this out of a love that never ceases or diminishes no matter how much
sin he must cover while he helps us grow up to be like his Son.
[12]
Philippians 3:15-16 is a favorite passage about how we can stay together when
we “think otherwise” about something.
[13]
The beautiful Triunity of holy God with us is described in wonder-filled ways
in Ephesians 2:19-22
No comments:
Post a Comment