So I came across this in Proverbs...

"To do justice AND righteousness is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice." 
(Proverbs 21:3, ESV. Emphasis mine)

     In scripture, righteousness and justice are always mentioned together. Like conjoined twins they are inseparable. They are two sides of a single coin; both are necessary for the coin to be of any worth.

     Justice is big these days among young evangelicals. They are understandably sick of the apathy, sick of the lazy church sitting in pews and singing dry, dusty hymns while the world goes to hell all around them, sick of the hypocrisy of claiming the title: Jesus-follower" but not actually following Jesus into the world to heal the sick, care for the poor, touch the leper, and love the outcast. There is a lot to admire about the "social justice" movement in the church these days. The world is dying to see if there is an ounce of authenticity left in Western Christianity. But there is a caution to be taken if we are to follow Jesus into the world: Justice is never far from righteousness. Never. Ever.

     Many want to cast off the holiness of God in the name of His justice. Some would feed hungry stomachs with bread, but starve their souls of the Bread of Life in the process. They want to reach out and embrace the marginalized and outcast, but not require repentance from sin. They cast off God's unflinching call to purity and holy living because, after all, who are we to tell anyone how they should live? Aren't we all sinners? Isn't everyone broken in one way or another? We imagine that enough efforts to promote justice will somehow excuse us from the demands of righteousness.

     In fairness, the vast majority of American Christians have done the inverse: we have reduced the gospel to a set of doctrinal statements and a moral code of conduct: "If you agree to the truth of these statements, and can manage to avoid these particular sins (usually sexual in nature), then you are a Christian." Meanwhile, the cries of the oppressed and impoverished largely go unheeded. They can barely be heard above our state-of-the-art sound systems in our multi-million dollar facilities. Justice is re-labeled "Missions"and left to those who "feel called" to it. (BTW, you don't "feel called;" you ARE called. You either listen and obey or you don't.)

     But the truth is that Jesus requires both. The Proverb above doesn't say, "Righteousness is acceptable to the Lord, but justice is optional." Nor does it say, "To do justice is better than righteousness." It says that both together were more acceptable to Yahweh than merely superficial religious ceremony. Why? Because they are the metric of our spiritual maturity. They are the barometer of our hearts -- where they are, what they desire, how we regard the Lord.

     Righteousness is how we live before God. It measures our moral choices as they flow from the affections of our hearts. Like water that will seep through and rise to its own level, what -- and who -- we really love will be revealed by how we live. God is very concerned with what our hearts desire and how we go after it. There are ways to live that promote human flourishing in every area -- physically, materially, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. And there are ways to live that destroy us, sometimes quickly and obviously, but more often quietly over a lifetime, like a slow poison working its way through our bodies, shutting it down one system at a time until we stop living.

     Morality is what we think of most when we talk about righteousness but it is actually much more than that. It's not rule-keeping; it's loving God more than we love ourselves and trusting that His commands are an expression of His love and protection towards us. Righteousness deals more with our relationship to God, while justice is more about how we treat other people because of our relationship to God.

Righteousness and justice always go together. To attempt one without the other is to accomplish neither.

     Jesus said this was the sum of the whole Law and Prophets: "You shall love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength (righteousness), and you shall love your neighbor as yourself (justice)." He told His followers to "seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness." Righteousness and justice always go together. To attempt one without the other is to accomplish neither.

     You cannot claim a zeal for justice and embrace or accept something God calls sin. You are not being just towards those who are trapped in that self-destructive lifestyle, misleading them to believe they are safe from the wrath of God and penalty of their sin. Nor are you being just towards God by treating His Word and His holiness as something that can be casually dismissed whenever it's expedient or unpopular.

     Conversely, you cannot claim a zeal for righteousness -- holding up your morality and doctrinal positions as evidence -- if that never results in action taken to oppose oppression, injustice, exploitation, corruption, or abuses of power. What kind of righteousness leaves the helpless undefended, the hungry unfed, the naked unclothed, the sick uncared for, and the captive left to rot in captivity?

     The Proverb is saying, "Don't look at your religious service as the metric of how well your relationship with God is going. Rather, look at the interplay of both righteous living before a holy God and compassionate justice towards those made in His image. That's what God is really after." James affirms this in his letter:

     "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." (James 1:27, ESV. Emphasis mine.)

     Justice AND righteousness. Never one without the other.

     Father, help me to live a life pleasing to You. I fear there are days when not only do I not do both, but some days that I do neither. God, make me more like Jesus, who loved You more than life itself and expressed it by loving others. In Jesus' name I ask these things. Amen!

   

What Do You Want From a King?

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Week 14, Day 3 of the Grand Story...
"But today you have rejected your God, who saves you from all your calamities and your distresses, and you have said to him, ‘Set a king over us' ... when the Lord your God was your king. And now behold the king whom you have chosen, for whom you have asked; behold, the Lord has set a king over you." (1 Sam. 10:19; 12:12-13)

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” -- CS Lewis, The Weight of Glory

I used to think I knew what I really wanted. I would do anything to get it, sacrifice important stuff to have what I wanted. I would even pray and ask God to let me have what I wanted. Only to find out it wasn't all that I thought it would be. Turns out it wasn't what I really wanted after all.

What I really wanted was Him. I just didn't know it at the time. The desires I had were really only ever going to be satisfied by the love of Christ. My vision was too small. I was aiming too low. I was asking for a stale saltine when God wanted to give me prime rib. But he would let me munch on that cracker until it was all gone, and I was still hungry. Then I would be ready for what He had in store all along.

Basically, it all comes down to who you want to be your king. What do you want out of him? Peace? Prosperity? Safety? Security? “A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage”? What we are willing to give up to get what we want says everything about who we really are. We learn that every four years, when we elect a new president. We listen to all the promises and the pretty speeches. Ultimately, we elect as a country the guy who promises us the most stuff, knowing full well he hasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of delivering on half of it. 

Why? Because we aren’t looking for a King – capital K– someone that demands our loyalty and unwavering submission to his authority for the good of the kingdom even at the cost of personal comfort and safety. We want a king – little k – to give us the good life right now. We would sign over every bit of freedom we have for a nice house, nice car, and free cable.  Who are we kidding, we would sell our own children -- and we have done exactly that -- for more stuff now. We have rejected God as rightful King over our lives and replaced him with a smaller, scaled-down, easier-to-control version. We have cashed in holiness in exchange for immediate happiness, and the result is that we enjoy neither one!*

Here’s the kicker: We want to be like “all the other nations around us.” We don’t want to be different. We don’t want to stand out. We don’t want to be holy. Because to be holy is to paint a target on your back, to risk it all on the chance that God is faithful and will do everything He promised, if we would trust Him. But God makes us wait. He makes us endure suffering. He makes us work… hard! Why go to all that trouble when there is an easier way? Blend in. Disappear. Become invisible. That way you are free to do what you want, when you want, the way you want, and no one notices or calls you out. No one calls you to something higher or deeper or more meaningful.

O Father in Heaven! Save us from ourselves! Call us to something more! Stir in our hearts revival fires. Wake up your sleeping Bride! Bring glory to the earth through a holy people – Your Church! In the power and authority of the True King, I pray! Amen!

*I use the pronoun "we" to refer to the overall attitude of Americans in general, and the American Church in particular. I include my own propensity for short-sighted selfishness in this assessment.

Ought we not to walk in the fear of our God?

Been reading in Nehemiah lately. Yesterday I read this and God has been working me over with it...

So I said, "The thing that you are doing is not good. Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies?" (Neh. 5:9, ESV)

"The thing which you are doing is not good."
What thing? Well, for the people Nehemiah was addressing it was something called usury -- exploiting the neediness of the poor for your own personal financial gain. During a difficult financial time when the people of God should be caring for one another all the more, some of the wealthy Jews were lending money to their poorer brothers at exorbitant interest rates. It was extortion, it was oppression, and it was outright wrong. But what made it especially abhorrent was that they were doing it to their own kinsmen.
So what is "that thing which you are doing"? What for you is that ting that you know is wrong but you do it anyway? What are you willing to wrong another person for, even if it is a fellow Christ follower, even though you know it is wrong?
At the core of it is always selfishness and pride. The essence of sin is rejecting God and elevating the self as god in His place.

"Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God...?"
What does "the fear of God" mean? Some have said respect, reverence, or awe of who God is. That is certainly a part of it. But the scriptures use a word that goes beyond mere reverence for God's authority or holiness. That word is very specific and chosen by the Holy Spirit to convey exactly what it means -- fear. Not abject terror. Not as in the fear of something evil that means you harm and you cannot escape it. Imbedded in the minds of the Israelites was the understanding that they would one day stand before this God and give an account of their life to the One who gave it to them and required them to live it in holiness for His glory. In appealing to their Jewish understanding of the scriptures, the writer of Hebrews reminded his readers that "it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment." (Heb. 9:27) It's at the core of Jesus' parable of the talents. God has entrusted something precious to us. He means for us to make it count for His kingdom. And one day we will stand before Him and give an account of what we did with what He entrusted to us. There will be rewards for the faithful. And there will be punishment for those who hated Him and distrusted His heart, His intentions toward them. It's exactly what Jesus meant when He said, "I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!" (Luke 12:4-5)
Let's face it. We always make sure we do what's expected of us when we know someone in authority is going to come and hold us accountable for it. Homework gets done. chores get done, work gets done. Ought we, then, to live our lives as if we really believe we will stand face-to-face with our God and give an account? Even for the believer, whose sin has been covered by the blood and will not have to appear before the Great White Throne of judgement, must give an account for the way he has lived as a follower of Jesus. (1 Cor. 3:12-15)
But there is yet another important reason to walk in the fear of our God...

"...because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies?" (NASB)
Israel was supposed to be the people of the One True God. They alone had a relationship with God. He had singled them out through His covenant. He would be their God and they would be His people so that the nations would know Him through them! That was the whole purpose of setting them apart, to eventually bring all the nations to Himself. Israel alone represented the character and nature of God to the Gentile nations around them and His glory was tied up in their lives. When Nehemiah said these words, they were only just emerging from a 70 year exile from Babylon because of their failure to do exactly this.
It is no different for the Church. As Christ followers, God has strategically placed each of us, and each of His churches, in neighborhoods, cities, communities, families, schools, workplaces and relationships where those who don't know Him can get to know Him through us. The way we live is supposed to reveal Jesus to everyone around us. When we choose to do "that thing" -- whatever it is -- that indulges the self and rebels against God and defies His Word, it brings shame, disgrace, and reproach on the name of Jesus and His character. How many have turned away from the gospel because they saw the lives of those who claimed to represent it and concluded that it had no power, it made no difference, so it must not be true?
Then there are the enemies of the gospel who seek to tear it down, destroy it, erase it from the public eye, eradicate any vestige of it, and silence it forever. Will we prove them right? Will we continue to hand them fodder for the cannons they have aimed at Christ and His bride? "You will be My witnesses," said Jesus. The question is, are we witnesses for the prosecution, or for the defense of the gospel?

The stakes are high. Hell is hot. Time is short. Eternity is long. God is holy.
That thing which we are doing is not good. Ought we not to rather walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies? God help us! Revive your church! Awaken your bride! Shake your people and may the church be found faithful when you return for her!