Married to Jesus, Faithful to Him (1)

Tension – What to Write? What to Say? A Dilemma. 

A friend once asked me, “What do you really enjoy writing about?”

I immediately replied, “The love of God.” 

I love sharing the love of God in Christ with others. I love pondering how much our dear Lord Jesus loves us. I have found that the greatest need in the world, and most certainly in the professing church (Ephesians 3:14–19), is for people to know the depths of God’s love for us in Jesus Christ. There is a reason John 3:16 was once the cornerstone of our message to the world and to one another within the professing church. I don’t think I ever heard Billy Graham preach without quoting John 3:16; there was a reason for that too. Yes, there is nothing like sharing the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.

If my friend had also asked me, “What do you least like writing about? Is there anything you avoid writing about?” I would probably have responded, “False teaching, heresy, and teaching which I wouldn’t term “heresy,” but which is enough off-base to affect others negatively, obscuring Jesus and the fulness of His life in us and our life in Him.”  

Now if you have either listened to me or read much of what I’ve written you won’t be surprised when I talk about the fact that we are not sinners but saints in Christ, nor should it surprise you if I say that we tend to live under the Old Covenant and teach the Old Covenant even though Jesus Christ is our New Covenant High Priest. Nor will you be surprised when I write about our pragmatic approach to the Bible and church life as opposed to living as the sons and daughters of God, or when I speak of us being people who are 100 miles wide and an inch deep. 

Whether you agree with me on these things, whether or not you see them the way that I do, I hope you do know that I love Jesus with all of my heart and that I want to love Him today more than I did yesterday. Presumably if you are reading this there is something God has given me to pass on that is helpful in your relationship with Him and with your relationship to our brothers and sisters in Christ. 

I think it is only by beholding Jesus that we are transformed into His image. Therefore, I want to focus on Jesus (1 John 3:2; 2 Cor. 3:17–18; Rom. 12:1–2; Col. 3:1–4).

Yet, what to do when false teaching and heresy permeate the church? What to do when dangerous thinking and practice deceive and tear down the People of God? What to do when these things are popularized? 

How to be faithful to our dear Lord Jesus in the midst of a tsunami of destruction? 

I would like to think that simply preaching the incredible love of Jesus Christ would bring professing Christians back to their senses, but the Bible does not teach this nor does experience demonstrate this. In the Gospels we witness conflict between Jesus and the religious establishment, with Jesus clearly denouncing the teaching and practice of the Pharisees (see Matthew 23). In the book of Acts there is conflict between legalists and those preaching the Gospel. Virtually all the New Testament letters address false teaching, some more than others. 

One of the benefits of preaching and teaching the books of the Bible is that we cannot avoid the hard passages about false teaching, we can’t cherry pick what we preach…well at least I hope we don’t. A steady diet of topical preaching and teaching eventually loses its way, Jesus is no longer its center and interpretive lens. Topical preaching seduces us into self-centeredness; our wants, our needs, our desires, our priorities. 

Why do I not care to write about false teaching? 

The first reason is that I want to focus on Jesus, always on Jesus. Again, it is in Jesus that we are transformed.

The second is that it is easy to get sucked up into negativity when thinking about false teaching and false teachers. I don’t want to be defined in terms of what I do not believe, I want to be defined in terms of what I do believe, I want Jesus and His love to define me. Another way to put it is that I want to be known for what I am for (Jesus Christ!) and not for what I am against. 

There are folks who style themselves as heresy hunters, always looking for what they think is error and being quick to criticize others. A steady diet of this distracts us from our Lord Jesus Christ, plus I think it sickens our souls. 

Then there is a very selfish reason why I avoid dealing with false teaching, it is a burden to me, it entails a heaviness. To ponder the works of darkness is hard, only a fool takes these things lightly. C. S. Lewis expressed relief when he completed The Screwtape Letters, and it took him a while to recover from the experience. Lewis paid a price for touching the realm of the enemy to help God’s People, that was the only way he could tell the story. 

Yet, to be faithful to Christ and His People we need to point out that the messengers of the enemy can transform themselves into apparent messengers of light (2 Cor. 11:13–15). O that it was not so.

I have tried both ways as a pastor. I have not said anything much about false teaching and practices and have hoped for the best, and then I have made a point of dealing with them in some measure (I can’t truly say that I have been completely straightforward – I tend to be oblique too often) and have also hoped for the best. I wish that I could say that one way or the other made a difference, but I can’t…I just don’t know. 

In the last church I attempted to pastor, there was such an ingrained heresy when I arrived that I wasn’t sure how to deal with it, other than keep pointing folks to Jesus and His Word. While toward the end of my time there I did try to illustrate the problem and point to Jesus as our Way out of it, the heresy was too ingrained. Jesus was simply a mascot, a tool of nationalism, there was no difference between the national flag and the Cross of Jesus Christ. Jesus was the spokesperson for a political agenda and He was the sanitizer for a nationalism where might makes right and we need not consider morals or ethics or the widow and orphan or stranger in the land. 

Above all else, the thought that Christians are citizens of heaven and that we are pilgrims and strangers on earth (Phil. 3:20; Heb. 11: 8–16) was a Biblical teaching stoutly rejected. 

From a young Christian I have known Ezekiel 33:1–9. This passage has been a burden to me, you could almost call it a “curse.” I can hear Paul say, “For if I preach the Gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the Gospel” (1 Cor. 9:16). 

So what am I saying and why am I writing this? I’m writing this to clarify my thoughts and seek direction, and I am saying that while these things are not easy and that they are fraught with tension, that for the sake of the Gospel I am going to write a thread dealing with false teaching and certain heresies. You see, dear friends, it truly must be all for Jesus or nothing for Jesus – are we not bought with a price? The blood of the precious Lamb of God.

So the Lord willing, on this blog we'll continue with the Upper Room, The Last Battle, and now this new thread, which I'm calling Married to Jesus, Faithful to Him. Much love! Bob