CROSSROADS #4/5
Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>
CROSSROAD OF OBEDIENCE
March 28, 2004
(evening service)
Text: James 1:19-27
Parents that I have known for any length of time have always expressed,
in some form or other, a wish that their children would take the fifth of
the ten commandments literally: "Honor thy father and mother." Or, as
repeated in other passages, "give honor to your parents by obeying them."
Parents know how important obedience is in family life. There are many
times during the process of growing up where a child's disobedience is
life-threatening. "Don't run into the street" and "don't play with the
pot of boiling water" are but two examples of commands which keep the
child safe and out of harm's way. To disobey such commands could lead to
injury or death.
Throughout the history of the world - from the earliest age right up to
modern times - God, too, has given commands to His children. God has
given commands aimed clearly at keeping His children safe from injury or
illness; He has given commands aimed at keeping His children focused upon
their Father in worship, such as laws of sacrifice; and He has given
commands to protect His children from each other, such as "Thou shalt not
steal, murder, and so forth." By issuing these commands, God has expected
- and still expects - obedience.
But it is not always easy to speak about obedience to God because of the
many issues and questions that arise. Issues of justification by faith or
justification by works are among those that come up. The whole thrust of
the Reformation was to reject the theologies established upon and
distorted by salvation through human works.
Even today, we are too often caught between the cross-fire of libertinism
and moralism. In Christian terms, libertinism is that attitude that says,
"because God forgives our every sin, we can sin as much as we want."
Opposed to this is moralism, which says, "we preach salvation by grace,
but if you don't keep certain moral standards then it is evident that you
are not Christian."
The foundation which is laid before us is that we are saved by God's
grace, and that alone. We cannot be bought or blessed into the kingdom of
God by anyone but Christ. The cross of Christ stands in history as the
unalterable testimony that human morality and piety have failed and will
always fail. No amount of good works kept Jesus from going to the cross,
and they do not keep us from going to hell. Only God's love and grace
restores us to Him.
At the same time, we incur an obligation to obey God. It makes no sense
to claim to trust Him, to accept Jesus Christ as savior, to witness to
others, and then go on doing what everyone else does. The need for
obedience among the children of God is always evident. C. S. Lewis gives
us some insight into Christian obedience when he wrote in Mere
Christianity that "people often think of Christian morality as a kind of
bargain in which God says, 'If you keep a lot of rules, I'll reward you,
and if you don't I'll do the other thing.' I do not think that is the
best way of looking at it. I would much rather say that every time you
make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you
that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before.
And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all
your life long you are slowly turning this central thing into either a
Heaven creature or into a hellish creature: either into a creature that
is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or
else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its
fellow creatures, and with itself. To be the one kind of creature is
Heaven: that is, it is joy, and peace, and knowledge, and power. To be
the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal
loneliness. Each of us at any moment is progressing to one state or the
other." (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, New York: Macmillan Publishing
Co., 1943)
We find in the book of James an emphasis on works and deeds. There is
very little background on this book; in fact, this is one book that was
debated long and hard before its acceptance as one of the books of the
Bible. It was finally accepted on the basis of apostolic authorship.
It appears that James was writing this letter to a group or groups that
had calcified some of Paul's teachings. That is, there were very likely
some who decided that Paul's emphasis on faith allowed them to make a
verbal confession and then either comfortably sit back and do nothing or
continue on in their unchanged ways. Paul, of course, taught no such
thing, but that's what they made it. So James told them that they were
very wrong, and that obedience was part of the Christian faith. In our
lesson today, James offers to us three mediums through which we can be
obedient: through self-control, through action, and through God's
commands.
James tells us through his letter that we "should be quick to listen,
slow to speak and slow to become angry." Doesn't that tell on us already?
Then immediately, we read, "for man's anger does not bring about the
righteous life that God desires." James doesn't just stick the dagger
into us up to the hilt; he twists it around a bit before pulling it out.
Anger marks so much of our human existence! It is universal. We see the
fruits of human anger daily as news reports inform us of murders,
muggings, and massacres. The Middle East is inflamed today by the
propagandas of hatred. If our anger is worked up enough, we can justify a
multitude of actions; from a little name calling to pushing and shoving
and right on through murder itself.
Because all of humanity is wrought with evidences of anger, some
researchers have tried to determine whether or not uncontrollable tempers
are an inherited trait and, therefore, beyond self-restraint. If that is
the case, then such Biblical admonitions such as this would be a waste of
breath. Except for just a few unusual cases, everyone has some control
over how his or her emotions are displayed.
Who hasn't at some time lost money in a vending machine? Now that's
angering. Not only do we not get what we have desired, but we have to pay
not to get it. In spite of how frustrating this experience is, I know
that if any of us walked by someone who was beating the crud out of one
of these machines, we would not comment on how spiritual he or she was
acting.
A key to this portion of Scripture is James' specific referral to man's
anger. We know from those who have studied human emotions that anger is
not a primary emotion. That is, in any given situation, the first emotion
we feel is not anger. What is usually felt first is hurt, disappointment,
frustration, stress, pride, or any other similar emotion. In the case of
the vending machine episode, we would first feel frustrated at not
receiving what we wanted. It is at this point that we are given our first
choice. We can seek resolutions which, in C. S. Lewis' terms, bring us
into harmony with God; or we can seek resolutions which bring us into
strife with God. Either way is up to us. But, if we choose to lose our
temper, don't be surprised if we find that others don't take our
profession of the Christian faith too seriously. Continually seeking to
become as God desires to have us is the only defense we have against
"man's anger." We are taught too well in life that turning to anger and
revenge is the correct response to our initial emotions. To correct this,
we must spend time with God - through Scripture, through prayer, through
fellowship - in order to retrain old habits and ways.
As we move closer to God, we can learn to distinguish between "man's
anger" and God's anger. For the only anger which we are justified in
expressing is an anger like God's. That is an anger which is not the
expression of private discontent but of public resentment against
behavior or actions which cause others to suffer without blame on their
part. It is unfortunate that I, like many, can too readily accept for
myself the words of one anonymous writer who wrote, "I do well to be
angry at times, but I have usually chosen the wrong times."
The second medium of obedience mentioned by James is obedience through
action. Verse 22: "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive
yourselves. Do what it says." People remember quicker the things we do
than the things we say. And if a person preaches one thing and does
another; well, we all know that will be remembered. So our witness is not
complete if we cannot follow through on our stated beliefs.
We worship in vain if we cannot go to God in both word and deed, for the
perfect law of Christ gives freedom. To reach back and quote Martin
Luther again: "Christ does not free us from good works but to good
works." Can you imagine a Noah who said, "I believe You, God, and I
worship You, but I'm not going to build a boat"?
All along, in Old Testament and New, God's call to His people has been a
call to action. We would not expect anyone to fare too well if he signed
the contract for military duty and then wanted to sleep in on that first
day of basic training. Anyone who signs up to defend our country knows
that it is a commitment to action.
In Amos 6:1, the prophet says, "Woe to you who are complacent in Zion,
and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria, you notable men of the
foremost nation, to whom the people of Israel come!" It was God's curses
- not blessings - that were poured out on His inactive, complacent
people.
A good-looking, talented, and high-salaried young man who was drinking
heavily and living immorally responded to his minister's warnings by
saying, "Don't worry about me. Nothing really bad is going to happen to
me. If I see things getting out of hand, I'll do something about it. I
believe in Christ. He's helped me in the past. He'll do so in the
future." Some time later, however, this young man's life was a shambles.
He lost his job. His marriage came to an end, and his drinking habit was
out of control. He had been living with a false confidence; conforming to
those patterns of a hellish creature; refusing to become obedient to God
through action.
James then gives us insight into this last medium of obedience: God's
commands. Verse 27: "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and
faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and
to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."
James could have given us here a list of moral codes that we could run
through and check off. But something like that would have been
incomplete; it runs much deeper than any list. When I think of lists of
moral codes, I always think of this favorite: "Don't smoke, drink, cuss,
or chew; nor go out with the women what do." Please don't misunderstand
me, though, because I believe that the codes of morality given in the Old
and New Testaments are vital and important and not to be taken lightly.
But adherence to them does not a Christian make.
The deeper side of obedience through God's commands is devotion to Him.
The prophet Micah, in 6:8, offers a wonderful definition of religion:
"What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with thy God?" And we always do well to bring to mind
the greatest commandments of the Law: "Love the Lord our God with all our
heart and all our soul and all our mind; and love our neighbor as
ourselves."
James' definition of religion is not necessarily complete, but he does
underline two prominent essentials: compassion toward our fellow human
beings and unworldliness. Look after the orphans and widows. Those were
the most helpless of groups in James' day. No government programs or
agencies, no social security compensation, no efforts to lobby for
charitable contributions. If there were no relatives to care for such
persons, then, most likely, no one else would either. No matter how many
others we could add to this list today - homeless, jobless, destitute,
and so forth - obedience through God's command is clear: compassion.
Don't cast them out; don't become bitter or hardened. Obedience through
God's command requires us to be merciful as God is merciful.
And we are to keep from being polluted by the world. "Worldliness"
represents all the purposes and practices which work to counteract the
good will of God. W. R. Inge has suggested that, "what the New Testament
calls the world is a system of co-operative guilt with limited
liability. The Crucifixion was possible only by the co-operation of a
cowardly governor, unscrupulous ecclesiastics, a traitor disciple, a
thoughtless mob, and callous executioners." It is from such evil
attitudes and behavior that we must keep ourselves unstained if we hope
to be obedient to God's command.
The crossroad of obedience brings us face to face with some tough choices
- choices of attitude, choices of behavior, choices of lifestyle. But
running throughout each of James' mediums of obedience is the strong cord
of devotion and desire to love God.
When I married, I made promises to God and witnesses that I would remain
faithful. I am not faithful to Lois because of these contracts and
promises, however. I made promises because I loved her and was devoted to
her; I am faithful because I love her and am devoted to her. I am
obedient to God best in the same manner. I am not obedient because of
former promises or requirements of the Law. I am obedient because I love
Him and am devoted to Him, and I desire to please Him.
When any of us pause at the crossroad of obedience, let us desire greatly
to choose to be "a creature that is in harmony with God." And when we
choose to "do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our
God," we will discover that obedience to God becomes not a toilsome
burden but a pleasing fulfillment of our love for and devotion to God.
Rev. Charles A. Layne, pastor, First Baptist Church, Bunker Hill, IN
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