When I hear
someone telling churches to think outside their box, I don’t know whether to
assess this as a good word or a bad word until I know two things. First, which
box are they telling the church to think outside of? Second, where are they
telling the church to think instead?
There are
times when the box a church is in is so restricted by denominational thinking,
confinements of a prized building, or the sarky whims and wishes of the
power-brokers who run everything, that it would be really good if the Holy Spirit
knocked their box to pieces and led them
into a genuine experience of Spirit-filled truth and life.
However, there
are also times when the world, the flesh, and the devil are offering deceptive
beliefs and practices that would lead people away from a faithful adherence to
the truth of Scripture and into an expression of the wisdom that is “earthly, unspiritual, demonic.”[1]
What we need
is a willingness to see any ways we have boxed-in Scripture, or spiritual things, to beliefs
and practices that are limited by our sarks, or our flesh. And, we need a
willingness to watch for any ways that the Holy Spirit is at work to lead us
into “all truth,”[2]
and make us “the true worshipers” who “will
worship the Father in spirit and truth.”[3]
Part of
assessing how we are doing in this regard is to answer the question: how do we
expect the Holy Spirit to confront people with ways we are limited in our faith
and expectation because we have put Scripture in a box? Or, what would it look
like for the Holy Spirit to confront churches with the boxes we have created to
limit what happens in the spiritual life of the congregation?
Do you
remember how the Holy Spirit confronted the apostle Peter with the limitations
of his scriptural thinking about who was the church?[4]
Peter’s Jewish/Christian mind was very focused on Scripture, but he had a box
around Scripture that had him thinking the church was an extension of God’s
work among the Jewish people, not something God would offer just as freely to
the Greeks and Romans, who had polluted Israel with their military, religious,
and philosophical prowess. The gospel was for the Gentiles as well, and the
Spirit had to get Peter’s thinking outside the limitations of his boxed-in
thinking.
What about
when John Hus and Martin Luther were confronted with the limitations of their
theological heritage, and discovered the message of the gospel that was there
in the Scriptures the whole time they were stuck in the wrong things?[5]
Wasn’t that the Holy Spirit ministering life to people whose use of Scripture
was boxed in like a corpse locked in a scriptural tomb?
My point is
that, when we think we have arrived at such a complete understanding of
Scripture that there is nothing more the Holy Spirit could teach us, or remind
us, or reprove us, or correct us, for further training in righteousness,[6] we
are already boxed in to a sarky belief that we are capable of fully
understanding everything there is to know of the mind of Christ. It is also a
sarky belief to think that we are competent to decide when we know enough of
everything that we can close the box to any additional knowledge, or
understanding.
Paul’s words
should push us out of such boxes. He writes, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in
part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”[7]The
more humbly we acknowledge that our present knowing is only “in part,” and that the Holy Spirit is
working in the whole body of Christ to continue building us all up to maturity
in Jesus Christ,[8]the
more we can rest in the certainty of God’s word, without boxing it in with the false-confidence
of our sarks.[9]
I do not mean
by this that we should treat all our knowledge as suspect, and be prepared to
change our beliefs about things already clearly revealed in Scripture. I am
only speaking to the prideful issue of thinking we have “arrived,” and have
nothing more to learn about God, ourselves, or the life and ministry of the
church Jesus is building.
One of the
most helpful scriptures to keep us from boxing ourselves in to scriptural or spiritual
limitations is what Paul wrote to the Philippians. He said, “Let those of us who are mature think this
way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only
let us hold true to what we have attained.”[10]Paul
clearly taught (in Scripture) that there would be times when the church would
have some who “think otherwise.” What
were they to do? Wait on God to “reveal
that also to you.”[11]
Conclusion:
Living by every word that comes from the mouth of God[12]
involves two things: “living” and “every
word that comes from the mouth of God.” Any living that is in conflict with
what comes from the mouth of God must be brought to God for transformation. Any
focus on the words that come from the mouth of God that does not translate into
living must be brought to God for transformation.
There are
things I know to be true because my Father said them, and I will never change
my mind that these things are true no matter what anyone else says. However, I
meet with God every morning in the full expectation that I will learn new and
wonderful things about God’s truth that will cause me to know him every day
better than I have ever known him before.
God is the
only one who has perfect knowledge, understanding, and wisdom about everything
there is to know about everything. He has not called his people to live in
boxes, but to live in his Spirit. And, when people like us can live in the
Spirit of the living God, teaching us from the breathed-out words of God in
Scripture, there is always going to be something more to know.
© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, 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]
James 3:15 (see James 3:13-18 for the context, and the contrast between earthly
and heavenly wisdom).
[2]
John 16:13
[3]
John 4:23-24
[4]
Acts 10:1-48 shows this wonderful development in the life of the early church.
[5]
John Hus (1370-1415). Martin Luther (1483-1546). John Hus was burned at the
stake for calling people out of their boxed in, man-centered, works-based
beliefs, while Martin Luther went on to play a significant role in the
Protestant Reformation that took place just over a century later. Both men
continue to be among the “great cloud of
witnesses” (Hebrews 11:1-40; 12:1), who called the church back to the
gospel of grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9).
[6]
John 14:26; II Timothy 3:16-17; II Timothy 4:1-2. Yes, the Spirit’s work includes ministering to
us through both the word, and the preachers who preach the word. We just need
to test everything to be sure that the spirit we are dealing with is the Holy Spirit
(I John 4:1), that the Scripture we are dealing with are understood according
to the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27), and that the preachers we are dealing
with are preaching the truth of Scripture, not their own boxed in, or
unscriptural views (I Corinthians 4:6).
[7]
I Corinthians 13:12
[8]
Ephesians 4:11-16 shows the life of the church that keeps everyone growing up
together so that the one body of Christ is strengthened in every way.
[9]
Our sarks (flesh) never get it right anyway!
[10]
Philippians 3:15-16
[11]
I taught on this more fully in our home church video: http://in2freedom.blogspot.ca/2015/03/home-church-video-otherwises-that-god.html.
I also wrote about this in my posts: http://in2freedom.blogspot.ca/2015/02/pastoral-ponderings-inner-otherwises.html,
and, http://in2freedom.blogspot.ca/2015/02/pastoral-ponderings-otherwise-way-of.html
[12]
Matthew 4:4
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