faith for faith

With the ferocity for which it is argued, it is not difficult to surmise that the matter of Christian Giving is not a light one. And more often than not, when the subject is brought up in Christian circles, Christian Giving is synonymous with the tithe, i.e. ten percent of one’s pre-taxed income given to one’s local church. It is a principle that has been with many churches for a long time, and as such it has been one that has become foundational and nearly irrefutable. Many churches have been so enamored with the tithe that it has become to them as unquestionable as the deity of Christ, his virgin birth, the Trinity, etc. Therefore, when questions are raised which offer the slightest hint of opposition to the antiquated ordinance, the church arms itself as it would against heresy and casts the labels of rebellious and liberal upon those who would seek to understand Christian Giving in a different manner.

And as such, it matters very little that opposition against the principle of the tithe is brought with the desire for biblical fidelity, for it is to them foundational and irrefutable. Therefore, for those who seek to establish a biblical pattern of Christian Giving with their own lives that is not necessarily opposed to tithing (that is, not opposed to tithing for the sake of being opposed to tithing without Scriptural warrant) but is desirous to live lives that accord with God’s Word in all matters of life including giving, the battle is for them an uphill one. For it is not (in many cases) a matter of “Let us search the Scriptures for understanding,” but it is rather a matter of “Why do you break the traditions of the elders?” And as such, one might quote and discern Scripture till he blue is in the face, and yet he will gain little ground in the battle for common understanding.

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I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit–just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call–one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift (Eph. 4:1-7).

When we think upon the writings of Paul compared to our own context, it is interesting to think about those whom he is addressing. He is not writing to the First Baptist Church of Ephesus or to the Ephesus Presbyterian Church or to the Reformed Church of Ephesus, but he is writing to the church at Ephesus. And what exactly does the apostle mean when he says that he is writing to the church at Ephesus? He explains this at the beginning of his letter: “To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus” (v. 1:1). Therefore, his letter (shockingly) is intended for all who are in Christ in Ephesus–who have been bought with his blood and who share in the Blessing of his Spirit.

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I had the pleasure of listening to John Piper sermon this past weekend, and in it he made the statement that spiritual gifts are stewarded grace. Though I cannot exactly remember the context in which it was spoken, the statement stuck with me, and it has since caused me to think upon the gifts of God in a deeper way than I had before.

What immediately comes to mind from the declaration, “Spiritual gifts are stewarded grace,” is the parable of the talents from Matthew 25. There Christ gives a parable concerning his Return and the ensuing Judgment (sounds Amillennial to me;)), and he likens it to three men who were all entrusted with a sum of money by their master. One man was given five measures of currency, another two, and a third one. The master went on a journey, and the first two men took their five and two measures of currency and immediately went and traded that currency so as to double that which their master had entrusted them. The third, however, did nothing with the one measure he was given, burying it in the ground and hiding it.

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[Repost from 4/6/2006] Every morning I do the same thing: I get home from work, put on a pot of coffee, grab my bible, and step out onto my back patio to read the chapter of Proverbs that corresponds to the date. Every morning my dachshund Lucy does the same thing: she comes down the stairs, greets me, wags her tail violently, and lays down by the back glass door to watch me while I read my morning Proverb.

Lucy is a very affectionate dog. She loves attention from anyone and is quick to jump and to lie on the lap of whoever is sitting down, whether he is willing or not. She spreads her doggy love to everyone in the room without discrimination (even if they say she’s fat) and is quite content on being the center of attention, that is, until I step out of the house onto the back patio. Suddenly it is as if everyone else in the room disappears and I am the only one left. She quietly moves over to the door, positions herself at the best angle to watch me, lies down, and lets out an occasional whimper.

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“Calvinism is not the Gospel.” I must admit that it is rather bold of me to contradict the quote of so great a man as Charles Spurgeon, especially granting that I myself unabashedly hold to what are known as the “Five Points of Calvinism.” I do profess to believe that each of those points are biblical, even that one from which many who call themselves “four-pointers” shy, viz. limited atonement–a doctrine upon which I have written quite extensively (see On Particular Redemption).

However, the reason that I am making such a statement is not so much based upon a disagreement with Spurgeon and his sympathizers, but is more of a reaction to an attitude of many that seems to have come about from it. For it is one thing to say, “Calvinism is the Gospel,” and mean by it that Calvinism is the proper understanding of what God has accomplished for men through his Son Jesus Christ, and it is another to say, “Calvinism is the Gospel,” and by that declaration attack every Christian that does not hold to Calvinism as defined by Dordt. For the former is a humble and mature assent to God’s revelation of himself in Scripture, and the latter is a proud and immature conquest to quell every non-Calvinist dissenter. The former comes from a heart-felt realization of unmerited grace received and creates in a person a heart of mercy and love, and the latter comes solely from an intellectual understanding of God’s revelation and creates in a person a heart of arrogance and disunity. The former understands the Gospel; the latter, despite theological precision, misunderstands the Gospel.

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We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up (Rm. 15:1,2).

As God has ordained it, his church is comprised of many people of many varying strengths and degrees of faith (cf. Rm. 12:3). And in spite of these variances, God has ordained that his church be one Body, united for the sake of his glory. And as such, the attainment of unity in the church for the sake of God’s glory must come through love and longsuffering, for the church at present remains in a fallen world and will, because of the variance within it, contain those who fail.

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What is speaking the truth in love? It is a question that I seem to ask to myself incessantly, for there are many who take offense to many of the things that I write and speak, and there are many who claim that I do not write and speak in love. It is a question that judges me whenever I hear of the offenses and the hostilities that some of my writings raise, and it is one that causes to me to examine every topic that I address and every word that I use to address them. It is a question that haunts my soul and my very purpose for existence, and one that causes me to question the very path that I have walked thus far. And being such a reoccurring question, I have addressed it before in my soul and in my writings and will likely address it for the rest of my life.

What then is speaking the truth in love? If you were to take a random survey of people in our country, you would likely receive a host of different answers. If you were to ask the question of a person of a postmodern persuasion, you would likely get an answer similar to, “Speaking the truth in love is not speaking at all, for truth is relative to the individual, and to force one’s opinion of truth upon another is offensive and intolerant and therefore unloving.” If you were to ask it of another, you might get the answer, “Speaking the truth in love is sharing what is true in such a way that it presents one’s view of truth as an opinion thereby making compliance to it optional and thus making it inoffensive.” If you were to ask it of one who professes to be a Christian, you might get an answer like, “Speaking the truth in love is sharing the truth of God’s Word in a way that is not judgmental and that withholds matters that might offend a person and turn them away from a church or the Faith.”

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I do not encounter this often in real life, but in the advent of “fake life,” of the world of blogs and Facebook, I seem to encounter this often, namely the use of strong and despicable rhetoric to propagate or tear down everything from politicians to the saving of some squirrel in the hills of eastern Mongolia. All people believe in and fight for something, and, for some reason, the internet brings out the worst of it. And this is not to say that people should not have strong convictions or that there are not causes to fight for, however, many people will say things on the internet that they would never say in real life. And for some odd reason, many of us feel as though the internet is a safe haven for us to express our passions and thoughts and that when things are said on the internet, those words somehow “do not count” or affect people. This, of course, is not true and is ridiculous, for things said anywhere, whether in person or on the internet, truly do count and truly do affect people.

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Dear Reader,

It has been almost a year since I began writing at faithforfaith.org, and this post is the 200th in that time that began on October 1, 2008. I have written much in that time and have shared much that has been on my heart, and yet I have not been as transparent as I ought to have been in my writings. The fact is that though I have been saved by grace and have been made holy by Christ, my life is far from a picture of holiness. And while few would likely expect me to use this medium as a display of my shortcomings, I feel that it is my duty to be open about who I am so that, one, I might not boast in the façade of holiness that is erected by my writings, and, two, so that I might be humbled at the revelation of my failures. Therefore, this post is one of my failures and weaknesses, so that in all things I might be reckoned truthful and that Christ alone might receive the glory. Soli Deo gloria.

Confession 1: I am an Prideful Man
Though a casual reading of the Scriptures would reveal that God has accomplished all things so that no man might boast (cf. Rm. 3:27; Eph. 2:8), my heart is often inclined to boasting in myself. In spite of what I know to be true, namely that God ordains and controls all things so that he might get the glory in all things, I have at times fallen and wallowed in my self-centeredness and have boasted in that which I have no right to boast. And though I believe that I have come far in this regard from that time when God first called me to himself, I am often reminded by my own desire to be known and heard that I have far to go in humility. I confess that even at the times when my heart’s desire is to honor Christ, I have slipped into hoarding a slice of that glory for myself, and in that I am ashamed.

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Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin (Rm. 14:20-23).

Having been raised in a traditional and oftentimes legalistic Southern Baptist setting, I have heard time and time again the verses referenced above used to prohibit the practice of almost anything under the sun. Most often, the verses of the apostle are used as an argument against the drinking of alcohol, but their uses have extended to such matters as watching R-rated movies, listening to secular music, and anything that any particular soul might view as unclean. For this reason many in the church have done precisely what the Pharisees of old had done, namely they have placed around the law a hedge that would act as a safety buffer to prevent them from doing anything that might make a brother stumble. And while such a practice can certainly be done in a godly and loving manner, more often than not those who construct such hedges around the law seek to impose those hedges on everyone in the church, thereby making themselves legalists and enforcers of a law that is not God’s law.

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