“In the same way you
judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be
measured to you” (Matt. 7:2).

The
ability to be critical is a valuable skill, but it can be either good or bad. Like
all tools, what matters is how you use it.

The
first meaning of critic in the dictionary is “a person who forms or
expresses judgments of people or things according to certain standards or
values.”[1] There
is nothing wrong with the abili­ty to critique in this way. We do it all the
time, and we need to. There are critics in art, music, education, and
government. Civilization requires critical people to keep us in line; otherwise,
we would slump to an awful place.

Another
meaning of critic is “someone who cen­sures or finds fault.” When that is done
well, it is alright. You can legitimately find fault with something that is
bad. The process of criticism itself is not a problem. A critical mind is
necessary. But having a critical spirit is another thing entirely.

WRONG JUDGMENT

What
is the difference between a critical mind and a critical spirit?
When you have a critical spirit, the plea­sure of criticism takes over, and you
set yourself up as judge or sheriff. A critical spirit is fault­finding or
censorious of other people. This faultfinding is not for the other person’s
good but is judgmental, condemning, and self-righteous.

Linked
with criticism is the term discernment, which is the ability to see and
compare. Years ago, when I first started Christian work, I asked God to give me
the spirit of discernment. This is important for a Bible teacher. You need to
be able to spot error when it creeps in. God gave me the gift of discernment,
but years later He convicted me deeply of the abuse of that gift. 

Why do you look at
the speck of sawdust in your broth­er’s eye and pay no attention to the plank
in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, “Let me take the speck out of
your eye,” when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite,
first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to
remove the speck from your brother’s eye. (Matt. 7:3–5)

There’s
a splinter in the other person’s eye and a tele­phone pole in yours. The
temptation is to deal with the other person’s problem first and ignore our own.

We
all have a blind spot somewhere. We don’t know everything. However, the ability
to see error starkly in someone else can sometimes make us think we do
know everything. We have a very difficult time turn­ing the spotlight back on
ourselves and asking, “What about you?” Even the best driver cannot see every­thing.
It’s impossible. When we are driving, we need to be aware of the blind spots.
Spiritually speaking, Christian friendships help us to determine where our own
personal blind spots are.

O would some power
the Giver give us

To see ourselves as
others see us.

—Robert Burns

I
did not think I had a blind spot. I was a missionary. I had been told so often
that I was very spiritual that I believed it. It took marriage to open my eyes
and bring out the blind spots. The major one was self-pity. I was very proud of
my abil­ity to never be angry, to accept everything. If there was trouble of
any kind, I would suffer rather than say any­thing. I honestly thought it was a
great virtue. I had been told how levelheaded I was and how easy I was
to get along with, and I believed it. Then my husband Jim pointed out that if I
was offended and became quiet, I was as hard to get along with as if I had
blown my top. I couldn’t buy that at first. I had grown up with a sister who
blew her top, and I thought it was the most dreadful thing to live with. But
Jim said, “Which is worse, to make the house cold for three days, or to have
fifteen minutes of fireworks?”

It
wasn’t until Jim pointed this out to me that I re­membered something my dear
father said to me when I still lived at home. I had four brothers and a sister,
and I was the youngest. The dishwashing duty had been lodged with me. All my
siblings would say they had tak­en their turn over the years, and now it was
mine. There I was stuck with washing the dishes for all those people.

One
evening, I had my hands in the dish water, feel­ing very much a martyr, and my
father came up behind me and said, “Bess, you know we wouldn’t help you for the
world. You’re having such a good time.”

Self-pity
can be a luxury to be indulged in. You can feel like you’re the world’s best
martyr. “Am I not stuck with all this, and am I not being so patient
about it?”

Although
marriage quickly opened my eyes to several blind spots, I did not have a
critical spirit in my early mar­riage. It took having four children to develop
that. As a mother, you are forced into a position of leadership in the home.
The meals, the laundry, the general running of the house are all your
jurisdiction. I don’t know where it started, but somewhere in that first thirty
years of marriage, I became the sheriff of the house. I was critical about ev­eryone
else’s performance and about my own. I didn’t see any good anywhere. I looked
at our minister in town with a critical eye. When Jim talked to me about what
was being done with the ministry he ran, I didn’t tell him what I thought was good
about it. All I could see were the problems. I said, “Well, that is wrong, and
I don’t like this, and I don’t like that.” My good ability to judge got out of
hand. I set myself up as the sole determiner of right and wrong. I criticized
everything and everyone. As I sat in this position, I had a great, big plank in
my own eye.

The
critical spirit is based in pride. How so? When we make a critical evaluation
of something, we appoint ourselves as the final authority. We are setting
ourselves above it. “I wouldn’t do that. I wouldn’t say that. How can this
person act like that and be a Christian? Why did they do this? Why did they say
that?” Before you know it, you have forgotten that you do those things,
too. Why do you look at the speck in your neighbor’s eye when there is a plank
in your own?

A
critical spirit commonly causes depression. When you have a negative view of
everyone, and all you can see are the wrongs, it is natural to become very
depressed. I found myself unable to thank God for the beauty around me. I was
unable to thank Him for the spiritual growth I saw in different individu­als.
Instead of rejoicing in the progress my husband and I were experiencing with
peo­ple in our Christian work and counseling, I saw only how much more they
needed. I became increasingly miserable. Then one spring, we talked of taking a
sabbatical and going to Canada for a few months. I realized that I was looking
forward to the sabbatical to get myself straightened out; and the Lord said to
me, “I want to straighten you out right now.”

That
day, I was deeply convicted of the sin of having a critical spirit. I couldn’t
share it with anyone. I knew if I tried, I would cry my heart out and not be
able to finish telling them about it, so I put it down on paper. In a letter to
my husband and children, I wrote: “There have been occasions in my life when
God has blessed me in spite of what I know is ‘an iceberg of judgments’
resulting in bitterness of heart. Most of my Christian life I have been in
Christian lead­ership, and I see this sin (a critical spirit) now as a peril in
leadership. Having once prayed for discernment, I see now it needs a balance.
Oswald Chambers said that discernment is given not to criticize, but to
intercede. I have become a sheriff in the Christian community, in my home
and marriage.”

I
wrote much more than this and received nothing but love and understanding from
my family. In repen­tance, I cried before the Lord in agony to have this sin
removed from me and to be forgiven. Never before or since have I been so
repentant.

At
the time, I was leading a noon Bible study on the University of Idaho campus.
We were working through the book of Micah and came to this verse:

I will bear the
indignation of the Lord,

Because I have
sinned against Him,

Until He pleads my
case

And executes justice
for me.

He will bring me
forth to the light;

I will see His
righteousness.

(Micah 7:9 NKJV)

I
was still overwhelmed with my sin and had been thinking, “This is the way I
always have been, and this is the way I always will be.” God used this verse to
say to me, “No—I want to take it from you.”

I
wanted to be delivered from my critical spirit, and, thank God, He did deliver
me. Does that mean I have not had a critical spirit since? Yes, I have at times,
but I can identify it now faster and be rid of it again by confessing it to Him
as sin.

by Larry Lucas (continued from 9/2)

When you begin to look for the truth about Jesus, there’s an
unsettling sound that starts to develop in the background. It’s as though we
have spent our lives walking along a railroad track, day after day, mile after
mile; it’s all we’ve ever known. And now the track has led us beyond the noise
of the city. Our hearing has become more sensitive. We could always hear the
wind; now we hear the breeze. We sense light movements. And now, in the
farthest reaches of our hearing, we become aware of a train. It’s Jesus talking
about what comes next, after this life ceases:

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels
with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be
gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a
shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right
and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come,
you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared
for you since the creation of the world.’…Then he will say to those on his
left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for
the devil and his angels.’…Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but
the righteous to eternal life” (Matt. 25:31-46).

Death sobers us up once we move past the jokes and
posturing. Because all the opinions we’ve ever heard were merely that—opinions.
Who do we know that can say for certain what follows death? And so each of us
is left with a choice: will we believe Jesus, or not? But perhaps most
unsettling is our aloneness at that moment of death. No one will accompany us.

On occasion, Jesus spoke explicitly about what follows
death, but whether explicit or not, his teaching was tied to those
eventualities. It always held them in sight. Jesus came because of what we will
all face: eternal life or an unimaginably hard alternative.

The description offered by John, which he was shown by
revelation, is unmistakable:

“Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on
it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And
I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were
opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were
judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave
up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in
them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and
Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.
If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into
the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:11-15).

You Decide

Most of us are busy: busy with what we have to do, busy with
what we want to do, busy with responsibilities, busy with what others expect of
us. Busyness is a distraction. It crowds out what is important with what is
urgent. But busyness can be shelved; for example, when a man or woman is
diagnosed with cancer, the fight to stay alive sets aside other claims on their
time. Time is made for treatment. If Jesus is telling the truth, coming to
terms with him is more important than cancer. You’re not too busy. You don’t
know when you’ll run out of time.

You decide.

Jesus gave a more likely reason why men and women avoid him.
They don’t want to be exposed, and light exposes:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only
Son  that whoever believes in him shall
not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world
to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in
him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already
because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.  This is the verdict: Light has come into the
world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for
fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into
the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done
through God” (John 3:16-21).

Busyness has nothing to do with this.

There’s an incident described in the Gospel of Luke where
Jesus is seen eating at the house of a man named Levi with a group of people
that the religious leaders looked down on, and they commented on it to his
followers. Responding, Jesus placed a very simple truth on the table:

“Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and
a large crowd  of tax collectors and
others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who
belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, ‘Why do you eat and drink
with tax collectors and sinners?’ Jesus answered them, ‘It is not the healthy
who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but
sinners to repentance’” (Luke 5:29-32).

Jesus didn’t come to call the righteous. If you’re
righteous, that is, if you are not a sinner, Jesus didn’t come to call you. You
have to be a sinner to answer his call. I think it’s the righteous people that
so hate the light. It exposes them. So they won’t listen to him. They will
judge him without letting him testify.

You decide.

by Larry Lucas (continued from 8/31)

The four accounts mentioned above are named for their
authors: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Mark’s profession is never mentioned,
but Matthew was a tax collector, Luke was a physician, and John was a
fisherman. Jesus called John to come and follow him at the very beginning of
his ministry. He told John he’d make him a fisher of men. So John, along with
his brother James, left his father Zebedee in the boat and took out after
Jesus. They never turned back.

The most explicit statements Jesus made about himself are
concentrated in the Gospel of John. It’s there that you’ll most often find
Jesus using the defining phrase “I am.” If you want to know what Jesus said
about himself, it doesn’t get any more basic and to-the-point than this. Here,
from the Gospel of John, is Jesus talking about who he is:

“Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes
to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty’”
(John 6:35).

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone
eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will
give for the life of the world” (John 6:51).

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never
walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).

“Therefore Jesus said again, ‘I tell you the truth, I am the
gate for the sheep…whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and
go out, and find pasture…I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down
his life for the sheep’” (John 10:7-11).

“Jesus said…‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who
believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes
in me will never die’” (John 11:25-26).

“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me’” (John 14:6).

The problem with listing these verses out like this is that
it invites speed reading, skimming along without hearing what Jesus is saying.
These are astounding claims. And they’re exclusive. According to Jesus, there
is one way to come to the Father (“who art in heaven”) and he’s it. He
repudiates the notion that many paths lead to the Father. He deliberately says
that there are no alternatives.

Who does he imagine he is? Well, he doesn’t imagine. He
speaks with the certainty of knowing. What he says he presents as fact, and
he’s either telling the truth or not. He leaves it up to us whether to believe
him. What he doesn’t leave room for is considering him merely one of the great
moral teachers. That’s someone else’s take on him, not his.

There’s more that Jesus said about himself, about his
followers, about religious people, and people in general. See for yourself by
reading the Gospel of John. When you do, you will see that each of the passages
cited above occurs in a context. In each case, Jesus is speaking to someone,
and these bare-bones statements are part of larger discourses. But you’ll need
to read them for yourself. There isn’t room for all that here.

If you’re bent on giving Jesus a fair hearing, that is if
you’re knocking, asking, seeking (not just pretending to), you’ll probably
chase down a copy of the New Testament and read the full account in John. You
might even read the other three gospels. Reading the Gospel of John should not
become some kind of a spiritual litmus test of your sincerity. God knows if
you’re for real, and that’s enough.

To be continued on Monday.

by Larry Lucas 

Three thousand years ago, a king named Solomon ruled in a
land east of the Mediterranean Sea. That was 30 centuries ago. Since then,
kingdoms large and small have regularly risen, flourished, and disappeared—and
their rulers with them. Of all those kings, few are widely remembered, but
Solomon is one of them. The curious thing though, is why he is remembered.
Other names endure because of what they accomplished—they conquered, they
built, they fended off. Not Solomon: he is remembered for a quality he possessed,
and because he possessed more of it than any one before him or anyone since.
That quality was wisdom.

This post isn’t about Solomon. It’s about Jesus. However,
the way you think about Jesus, what He said, what He did, or whether you’ll
even give Him a hearing, has everything to do with wisdom—the very quality
Solomon owned above all others.

Wisdom is not the same as knowledge. The distinction is
important, especially in an age when the process of acquiring knowledge (i.e.,
education) is revered. Fools can be knowledgeable. So let me offer this simple
test to help you recognize the real thing: wisdom loves correction. The impulse
to resent correction comes from folly. Fools hate being corrected.

So what does this have to do with Jesus? Just this: most of
us already have some ideas about Jesus, and those ideas may need correcting.
Consider all the things that could have gone into shaping our ideas over the
years. Consider sources. Add up all the times we have let our ideas be shaped
by what is simply untrue or have misunderstood even what was true. Wisdom says,
“Let Jesus speak for Himself.” Folly says, “Shut up!”

What does this have to do with Solomon? Well, it was
something he said: “An honest answer is like a kiss on the lips” (Proverbs
24:26). You see, in Solomon’s day (just like today) men weren’t always
truthful. If there was something they wanted to hide because it might make them
look bad, like jealousy or unfairness or greed, they’d cover it up, sometimes
by spinning the truth, sometimes by shading it, sometimes by telling only half
of it. They’d deny, change the subject, cloud the discussion, accuse. This went
on all the time. It was part of life. That was the world Solomon saw when he
looked around him: people ready to be dishonest if they thought an advantage
could be gained or a loss avoided. And seeing all this, Solomon said, “An
honest answer is like a kiss on the lips.”

So let me perhaps save you some time—this message will be
just another pile of words if you’re unwilling to listen to what Jesus said
about Himself. And if you’re unwilling to let Him present his own case, that’s
your decision; but don’t lie and pretend you know about Jesus if you don’t.
What you know is hearsay. And while it may be embarrassing, be straight up
enough to give the honest answer that’s like a kiss on the lips: “My views have
been formed by listening to others, not Jesus. I’ve decided not to check him
out for myself.”

Jesus has always been controversial, even divisive.
Religious people hate Him as much as sinners, because He exposes their
hypocrisy. And there’s a good chance that you’ll decide against Him. But if you
do, let it be after you’ve given Him a fair hearing. Base your decision on what
He said about Himself, not on the things that have been said or done in His
name. There’s plenty to hate about Jesus without dragging up the despicable
things done by those who claim to be His followers.

You may conclude He’s not who He claimed to be. You may
conclude things aren’t going to happen the way He describes, or that you don’t
need the help He offers, or that you have too much to lose, or that you’re
capable of making changes on your own (should you even want to). You may
conclude you’re beyond hope; I can’t predict. But this I can tell you: Jesus
said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the
door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds;
and to him who knocks the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8). And if your
honest answer is, “Yes, this describes me,” then you’re going to discover that
He keeps His word.

If you’d like this openness to describe you, but it doesn’t,
take it up with Him. Something along this line: “Jesus, I don’t even know if
you exist, but if you do, I’m asking you to make this seeking, knocking, and
asking true about me.” I don’t want to be a fool.

Sources

In the New Testament, there are four books called gospels
which recount Jesus’ birth and then the last three years of His life, up
through His crucifixion and resurrection from the dead. Those three years
comprise the period of His ministry, and in them is recorded what He said and
did. These four accounts are either true or make-believe. You’ll have to decide
on your own whether or not to believe them. No one can do this for you. But
again, it’s premature to dismiss them before actually reading them.

These four accounts have been with us for about 2,000 years.
They were all written within fifty years of Jesus’ life, which means they were
written while many of the eyewitnesses were still living, and while many of His
followers were being put to death for believing what these accounts said. Since
that time, various other accounts have been written, but none of them survived
the scrutiny of Jesus’ early followers; they were found to lack the
authenticity of the four gospels.

You can pick up a copy of the New Testament easily. It’s
published in all common languages, either in a whole Bible or as a separate
publication. It’s also available on many Bible apps. There are several
translations in English, the most common of which is the King James. It’s a
splendid translation, but you might find a 20th century translation easier to
understand. The New International Version (NIV) and the English Standard
Version (ESV) are both good alternatives.

What Follows

You’ll need to investigate the things Jesus did on your own,
because what follows will concentrate on what He said; and even then it will
consider only a small part of the whole. Of course, both what He said and what
He did are important for drawing your conclusions, but what He said, especially
about Himself, is the focus of this post and the ones that follow.

However, this much you should know now about what He did: He
spent His time healing the sick, feeding the hungry, and teaching. He welcomed
outcasts, shared meals with sinners, forgave and taught. He repudiated the
religious leaders, chastened them for their hard-heartedness, and gave truth to
the common, simple people. In every way, His actions lived up to his words.

To be continued on Wednesday…

by W. Robert Smith, Th.D.

Christianity is a body of facts, it is the interpretation of
those facts, but more than that, it is a way of life. Christianity says
something about how a man treats his wife and his child; it says something
about whether a man is honest in his work, about how he pays his taxes, how he
spends his time, about his attitudes of life, whether he is kind and loving,
generous and patient, whether he is jealous or has a self-centered ambition. It
says something about his aspirations and the purity of his thoughts, about his
relationship to the church of Jesus Christ, about how he loves his fellow men,
about how he spends his money and makes his money, about how much he charges
for his services. Christianity deals with government, politics, medicine,
philosophy. Christianity is a way of life which is supposed to dominate every
aspect of a person’s being:

“Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk
in love as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering
and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. But fornication, and all
uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh
saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not
convenient; but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, that no
whore-monger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolator, hath
any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you
with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the
children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were
sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light” (Ephesians 5:1-8; note also Galatians 5:19-26).

Those of us who work in the Gospel ministry are deeply
troubled about some strange ideas of what Christianity is. One such idea among
certain evangelical circles today is that all a person needs to do is to
believe in a certain set of propositions and in a certain creed and then he is
“saved.” This is not the New Testament teaching at all. You could believe all
the facts of the Gospel, the virgin birth, the resurrection of Jesus Christ and
His glorious return, you may have a faith that is absolutely circumspect, you
may have studied theology for fifty years of your life and know all the answers,
but if that’s all you have, you are not a true follower of Jesus Christ. Did
you ever read in Scriptures that even the devils believe and tremble? (James
2:19) As far as knowledge is concerned, there isn’t any man who is as orthodox
as the Devil. Satan knows that the cross of Jesus Christ is the method of atonement. That is the reason he tried to stop
Jesus from going to the cross. You remember that he even put it into the mouth
of Christ’s dear friend. When Peter heard Jesus foretell the crucifixion, he
said, “Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.” Jesus answered,
“Get thee behind me, Satan” (Matthew 16:21-23).

Satan knows that the Bible is the word of God. That is why he tries to get students so
concerned about bacteriology and parasitology and all the rest of the “ologies”
that they never have time to read the Bible. That is why he tries to interest
students to read everything Mr. Aristotle says, and Hume, Spinoza, Leibnitz,
Locke, Hegel, Shelley, Fichte, and all the rest of the philosophers, and never
read anything that the Lord God says in His record. No wonder so many students
have languishing faith!

The Bible does not say that just men believe by faith, it
says the just live by faith
(Galatians 3:11). Faith in the Bible invariably is linked with action. By faith
Abraham obeyed to go out of Ur of the Chaldees; by faith Moses led the children
of Israel; by faith men lived and worked: they stopped the mouths of lions,
they quenched the power of the sword, they wrought righteousness. Faith is
revealed by life.

A college student came to me one day and said, “I have a
roommate who professes to be a Christian but I don’t think he is.”

“Why is that?” I asked.

“Oh,” he said, “when I’ve talked to him about Jesus Christ,
he says, ‘I know all that. I’ve accepted that. I believe the Bible from cover
to cover.’”

“What about his life?”

“Well, that’s the point. He’s not changed. He’s a
fornicator, he drinks, he gambles, he never reads the Scriptures, he never
worships. He’s smutty in his speech. He lives a vile life. But whenever I talk
to him about Jesus Christ, he says, ‘Oh, that’s all right. When I was seventeen
years old I raised my hand and went forward. I believe all the doctrines. I
know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He died for my sins. My sins
are under the blood. I can do anything I want because I’m saved.’ What do you
think about that, Doc?”

I said, “Son, that is a perversion of the eternal gospel. Christ
never saved a man to be an adulterer, did He?”

Christianity, uniquely and finally, is a living relationship
with Jesus Christ Himself. When Jesus Christ takes possession of a man, that
man begins to demonstrate by the way he lives that Christ is in him.

A bishop who was speaking in a cathedral in England said,
“Dear people, some of you have been attending church for many years, but do you
really know Jesus Christ? Maybe you have been a vestryman, or a clergyman, or a
high church official, but if you do not know the Savior, you are not a
Christian. Perhaps you have been preaching the eternal Gospel, but unless you
know Jesus Christ in the living experience of being transformed and regenerated
by His Holy Spirit, you are not a child of God.” A few days later the bishop
received a letter from the dean of the cathedral. It read: “My dear bishop, as
you spoke in our cathedral, my heart was touched. I recognized for the first
time that I really needed a person to save me and that that person was Jesus
Christ. It was a new idea. After the service, I went to my quarters and prayed,
‘Lord Jesus, will you take over my life and make my shabby soul a tabernacle
for Thy holy presence?’ Jesus Christ took possession of my life, and now I am a
child of the King!”

You see, “head knowledge” alone is not enough to make a man
a Christian.

J. B. Phillips says in the preface of his book Letters to Young Churches: “The great
difference between present-day Christianity and that of which we read in these
letters (New Testament epistles) is that to us it is primarily performance; to
them it was a real experience. We are apt to reduce the Christian religion to a
code, or at best, to a rule of heart and life. To these men it was quite
plainly the invasion of their lives by a new quality of life altogether. They
do not hesitate to describe this as Christ living in them. Mere moral
reformation will hardly explain the transformation and the exuberant quality of
these men’s lives even if we could prove a motive for such a reformation. Certainly
the world around offered little encouragement to the early Christians. We are
practically driven to accept their own explanation, which is that their little
human lives through Christ had been linked up with the very life of God.”   

Christianity is not belief in an idea; it is not connected
to an institution; it is love and commitment to a person. To be a Christian, an
individual gives everything that he knows of himself to everything that he
knows of Jesus Christ. “But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to
become the sons of God” (John 1:12). This is the great definition of
Christianity: Christ in you the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).

This talk was given at a meeting of the Christian Medical
Society in 1956. W. Robert Smith taught Philosophy and Logic at Bethel College
in St. Paul, Minnesota for many years. He went to be with the Lord in September
1997.

by W. Robert Smith, Th.D.

Two young men who had fought side by side in the mud and
blood of the Anzio Beachhead and were now enjoying life together on a college
campus stopped at my desk one day after a class in logic. “Professor,” one of
them said, “we are grateful for what you said today, only we wish you had said
it about two weeks ago.”  

This must be a rare day, I thought, as I asked, “What was so
interesting about what was said today?”   

“Well,” he explained, “you were saying how necessary it is
to define terms. About two weeks ago we got into a bull session that turned
into a hot debate. About three in the morning, when we were getting wild-eyed
and desperate, we accidentally discovered that we were using different words to
describe the same idea and actually we agreed. If we had thought to define our
terms, we wouldn’t have lost that sleep.”

These men illustrate the need for clear definition of terms.
How often we use two different words for the same idea or two different ideas
for the same word with the result that we never get together! A word is a
linguistic sign by which we convey thoughts one to another. However, if we use
a symbol and no one has the faintest idea what we are talking about, what good
is it? We have to define our terms.

There are two types of definitions. The first is what is
known as a resolved or stipulated definition. We agree together that for our
purposes a word will have a certain meaning. Let us say, for example, that we
want to talk about “gobbledy-gook.” You say, “I don’t know what gobbledy-gook
is.” I agree that I don’t know what it is either, but let’s resolve together
that gobbledy-gook will refer to a pound of spaghetti, one half pound of rice,
five olives, three anchovies, and one teaspoonful of vanilla. You say, “I
wouldn’t have the stuff.” I wouldn’t have it either, but that’s not the point. As
long as we are talking together, let us agree that gobbledy-gook will refer to
spaghetti and rice, olives, anchovies, and vanilla. You say, “All right, we’re
agreed.” That is a resolved definition. It is neither true nor false. We have
merely agreed together that this linguistic sign which is either a sight
pattern written or a sound pattern uttered is going to refer to a particular
item.

Another type of definition is what is known as reported
definition. A reported definition is
true or false. There are two types: the dictionary definition and the
contextual definition. A dictionary definition of any topic has been agreed
upon by men in a certain technical or specific field, or has been agreed upon
by long usage. For example, if I am talking to you about penicillin, I speak of
an antibiotic which is useful in the treatment of certain particular diseases
caused by bacteria. If I should try to convince you that penicillin referred to
spaghetti and rice, olives, anchovies, and vanilla, you would question my
knowledge, because I would be diametrically opposed to the truth.

On the other hand is the contextual definition, which comes
from a man’s writings. If you want to know, for example, what Mr. Kant means by
his Categorical Imperative, you would hardly go to a dictionary. Rather, you
would get Mr. Kant’s Metaphysics of
Morals and read until you discover that his Categorical Imperative means
simply that you should so live that your maxim could become universal law. By a
maxim Mr. Kant means a subjective principle for an ethical situation. To
illustrate, you are rushing to class so you want to short-cut across a lawn. However,
there is a “Do not walk on the grass” sign before you. You stop for a moment
and say to yourself, “I’m in a hurry; no one is looking; I think I’ll cut
across the grass.” According to Mr. Kant, your subjective principle or your
maxim is that it is perfectly legitimate for you to walk across the grass. However,
before you do that, could you will that everybody walk across the grass there? Of
course you could not, because if everybody walked across that grass, there
would be no grass left to walk across. That is a Categorical Imperative. I do
not have to agree with Mr. Kant, but if I disagree with him, I am not at
liberty to call myself a Kantian. That would not be honest.

If I want to know what Mr. Aristotle means by his concept of
Intellecti and the actualized
becoming potential or the potential becoming actualized, I have to go to Mr.
Aristotle’s writings. If I want to know what Mr. Plato means by Idealism, I
have to read his dialogues. The contextual definitions I would give for these
subjects would be either true or false. Either I would be true to what these
men say or I would not be true to their teachings.

Now, then, the point is this: if I should ask you this
question, “How do you define Christianity?” what kind of definition would you
use? Is Christianity a resolved definition? Can you say this is what you think
Christianity ought to mean? You are not at liberty to stipulate that any more
than I am at liberty to stipulate what Mr. Kant’s Categorical Imperative is. Would
you find the definition in the dictionary? No, a dictionary definition of
Christianity would not be adequate. A contextual definition would be your
answer. If you are an honest individual, you would go to the writings of the
New Testament and distill out of the context what Christianity is. You would
not have to believe it, but if you want to know what it is, you ought to study
it in its context. However, if you disagree with it, you are not at liberty to
call yourself a Christian. That would not be honest.

What do you find when you study Christianity in its context?
In the first place, Christianity refers to a body of historical facts. It deals
with the person of Jesus Christ: His birth, His earthly ministry, His
crucifixion, His resurrection, His promised return, and His ascension to glory.

The second thing to which Christianity refers to is not
merely a body of historical facts but the interpretation of them. What is the
meaning of the facts of Jesus Christ’s life on earth? Jesus said that He came
into the world to die. If someone said to you, “The greatest thing that you
could do, old man, would be to die,” you probably would be insulted. Yet, Jesus
said that the greatest thing He came into the world to do was to die. Do you
remember when the Greeks said, “Sir, we would see Jesus,” and the disciples
relayed their request to Him? Jesus cried out, “Father save me from this hour.”
What hour? Seeing Greeks? No, He was talking about the hour of His agony and
death. Then He added, “But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father,
glorify Thy name” (John12:20-28). “The Son of man is come to seek and to save
that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). “The Son of man came not to be ministered
unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).

What about the person of Jesus Christ? He said that He came
from Heaven (John 3:13). He was not mere human being; He was the eternal God in
our midst (John 14:9-11). I do not have to believe that, but I cannot
disbelieve that and call myself a Christian.

After a meeting at Iowa University at which Canon Green of
England had talked about the person of Jesus Christ, a group of students got
into a college bull session. One young man asked, “Sir, you believe that Jesus
Christ was the incarnation of God, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Canon Green replied, “I do believe that with all my
heart and soul.”

“Well,” said the young man, “I don’t believe it.”   

“You don’t have to believe it.”   

“But,” the student continued, “I want you to know that I’m a
Christian.”

“Oh, no,” said the canon, “you are not a Christian. You
don’t have to believe in the deity of Jesus Christ, but, you see, Christianity
is what God did for the world when He became incarnate in the person of Jesus
Christ to die and be risen again for our sins. Now, then, if you don’t believe
in the deity of Jesus Christ, you are not compelled to, but don’t call yourself
Christian. That’s dishonest.”    

At that moment a clergyman stood up in the back of the room.
He was indignant. “Sir, I am insulted. You are trying to shove something down
my throat that I don’t believe. I say that Jesus was a man like anybody else – a
great man and a great teacher. But I profess to be a Christian and I’m a
Christian minister. I am indignant that you should say that I’m not a Christian
because I don’t believe in the deity of Jesus Christ.”     

Said the canon, “I’m not trying to shove anything down your
throat. If you want to believe that the moon is a chunk of cheddar cheese and a
satellite of the earth, that’s your privilege. I’m not trying to say that you
shouldn’t or should. I am saying that in all honesty, if you disbelieve the
deity of Jesus Christ, you are not a Christian in the New Testament sense of
the word.”

Christianity deals with the interpretation of facts. We find
these basic interpretations in the New Testament and the great Creeds of
Christendom. Whether you have the Apostolic Creed: “I believe in God the Father
Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ His only Son, our
Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary, suffered
under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried, the third day He arose
from the dead, He ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the
Father Almighty from whence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead; I
believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting,”
or the Nicene Creed, whether it happens to be the Augsburg Confession of the
Lutheran church or the Thirty-nine Articles of the Anglican church, whether it
happens to be the Westminster Confession of Faith of the Presbyterian church,
or the Heidelburg Catechism of the Reformed church, or the Constitution of the
Wesleyan churches or the Baptists, these are all attempts of honest men, guided
by the Spirit of God, to discern contextually what Christianity is all about. Do
they disagree in the minutia? Oh, yes, they differ as to the form of the
sacraments, or the ecclesiastical qualities, or minute interpretations, but if
you survey all the great Creeds of Christendom, you will find that they agree
on the basic facts which are contained in the New Testament: Jesus Christ is
the eternal Son of God, salvation is not a matter of achievement but of belief;
before man can come into the presence of Holy God, he has to be purified and
cleansed, which can be done only through the imparted righteousness of Jesus
Christ in the life of the believer.

(Continued on August 26.)

“Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy,
and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it,
because the time is near” (Revelation 1:3).

Here is a promised blessing to those who read or hear it and
take to heart what is written in it.

Periodically, I take an informal poll that goes something
like this:

How long have you been a Christian, in years?

How many times do you know that you have read the whole
Bible?

How many times do you know that you have read all of the New
Testament?

The last time was a few months ago in an evangelical church
in another state. We collected all of the answers, added up the years and
divided the total times into the total years. The results were, as I remember,
for the New Testament once every four years; for the whole Bible once every
eight years.

At a men’s conference a few years ago, the results were New
Testament once every 17 years, the whole Bible once every 27 years. If we have
a conference of consciously committed Christians, the time gets cut down to
every two years for the NT and every seven years for the whole Bible.

If a person is a slow reader, the whole Bible can be read in
80 hours. If you are an audio learner, you can hear it read aloud.

Do we not believe it is the Word of God?

Do we not want the blessing?

Are we afraid we will become godly?

This post coordinates with today’s reading in the Same
Page Summer Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading
plan, please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with
us.

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of
what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1).

It was at a Bible conference in Japan in 1956 where I heard
Bill Pape teach on faith. One of his statements stayed with me over these many
years. It was, “Faith requires ignorance.”

Recently,* I received a letter from a man named Gary, a Young
Life staffer in San Jose.

Let me quote them both, starting with Gary.

“It became quickly apparent that I had indeed relied very
heavily on clarity and detail when it came to seeking God’s answers. Whether
for myself or for those I work with, I was guilty of wanting clear answers and
direction as the ultimate assurance of God’s will.

“I began to consider people in the Bible that God directed.
It seemed that in almost all cases He gave them only enough information to take
the next step. ‘Leave your family and go to a far country that I will show
you,’ ‘Stay in the city for three days until I send someone to you,’ ‘Stay in
Jerusalem until I send the Holy Spirit,’ ‘I will tell you what to say when you
need it,’ ‘Do not concern yourself with him; follow Me.’ I wonder how many of
Jesus’ disciples would have followed Him if He gave them details of what would
happen if they did. Perhaps it is out of love that He spares us many details.

“On my last Beyond Hiking trip, we had to cross a steep
glacier field. It was very foggy, and in fact we could only see the person
directly ahead of us. In spite of the conditions, we trusted the guides and the
ropes that connected us. It was enough to follow in the steps of the one
leading. On our return trip, it had cleared, and I was very glad that I had
been unaware of the crevasses and other dangers that surrounded us on that trip
up. It was clarity in this case that produced fear and doubt and
made it harder to focus on the path. Why then, are we so concerned with clarity
when we pray?

“We do not always know where the road will lead, but it is
enough to know the One who leads!”

Back to Bill Pape on faith: “Suppose Daniel had the book of
Daniel for reading the night he spent in the lions’ den. ‘I’m glad this is
going to turn out all right!’”

Trusting requires not knowing, not seeing.

*Written October 1999.

This post coordinates with today’s reading in the Same
Page Summer Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading
plan, please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with
us.

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power
and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7).

God has given us His Holy Spirit. As we read the
characteristics of the Spirit that He has given, we find…

• Boldness (Acts 4:31, 4:8-13)

• Faith (Acts 11:24)

• Power (Acts 1:8)

• Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23)

All of these are the opposite of fear.

“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear,
because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect
in love” (1 John 4:18).

If God did not give a spirit of fear and we have a spirit of
fear, guess who gave it.

• Fear comes from the Enemy.

• Fear always has to do with the future.

• Fear is always based on a lie.

• Fear is contrary to those gifts and fruit the Holy Spirit
gives.

At present, we are seeing thousands of Christians giving in
to fear. These thousands are generating more thousands. They are believing the
lie of the Enemy. The problems we are facing, even if they are catastrophic, are
no reason to become immobilized with fear. It is future. Jesus said, “So do not
worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we
wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father
knows that  you need them. But seek first
his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as
well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about
itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:31-34).

We have our job. Seek first His kingdom and do not
worry about tomorrow. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Please do not participate in tomorrow’s panic.

This post coordinates with today’s reading in the Same
Page Summer Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading
plan, please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with
us.

“Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid
arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must
not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not
resentful. Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God
will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that
they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has
taken them captive to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:23-26).

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation
has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who
reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of
reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ,
not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message
of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God
were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be
reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in
him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:17-21).

These two passages teach how to minister and how not to
minister. The passage in 2 Timothy speaks of four wills that are involved in a
man’s conversion:

•           God’s will

•           The
Christian’s will

•           The
non-Christian’s will

•           Satan’s
will

The key will in the passage is the Christian’s will. He is
told how not to witness and why. He is told how to witness and is told what the
effect of that witness will be.

In 2 Corinthians, we find out five things:

•           The
Christian is reconciled.

•           He has been
given the ministry of reconciliation.

•           He has been
given the message of reconciliation.

•           He has been
given authority to speak for Jesus Christ.

•           God has
given us the gospel.

This post coordinates with today’s reading in the Same
Page Summer Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading
plan, please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with
us.