Dallas Willard is often credited with popularizing the concept of spiritual formation. Instead of leaving spiritual growth as merely something to shoot for in a general way (go to church, read your Bible and pray), spiritual formation suggests specific goals with specific steps to reach these goals. For example, the ultimate goal of evangelism is not simply helping another person “get saved” in order to go to heaven when they die, but rather to “make disciples by baptizing them and then teaching them to obey all things he had commanded the apostles” (Matthew 28:19-20). Thus, as followers of Jesus, they are taught obedience to all that he taught, the path to becoming more and more like him.
The idea of having different commitment levels for different “types” of Christians with different expectations from God is nowhere to be found in the Bible. The clergy/laity distinction of commitment is a human invention, and a very bad one from multiple vantage points. Paul, as an apostle and disciple maker, would describe the path of spiritual formation as imitating him as he imitated Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1). Spiritual formation has as its goal becoming more and more like Jesus in this life as a part of his spiritual kingdom, and according to what we term his “model prayer,” his kingdom is where God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10). Seen correctly, being a Christ follower involves radical and continuing life change.
Consumer Christianity
Willard frequently calls current evangelical Christianity consumer Christianity. This is a much-downgraded version of true Christianity which could be described as “having your cake and eating it too.” In other words, once you “get saved,” then you can basically carry on your life focused on this world with its entertainment and materialism with little spiritual change, yet remain assured of going to heaven and avoiding hell at death.
This seriously misguided concept is enhanced by the also popular view of “once saved, always saved,” an odd remaining remnant (Perseverance of the Saints) of a generally rejected TULIP system of Calvinism. The foundation of the “P” is based on the previous four elements of the system which are now discounted by most evangelicals. (I have a chapter on Calvinism in my book, “Prepared to Answer,” available from Illumination Publishers). Consumer Christianity is in truth little more than spiritual fire insurance. It is not about life change through striving to become like Jesus as our model, and as a result, truly enjoying what he calls the “abundant life” (John 10:10).
Willard notes that the term “Christian” is found only three times in the New Testament and left undefined at that. On the other hand, the term “disciple” is found many times and is quite well described and defined. Consumer Christianity is an invention of a materialistic Western World, especially the American part of it. True Christianity is characterized by being a disciple, meaning one who follows Jesus with the express purpose of learning his ways and imitating him as a person and adopting his ways by putting them into practice.
The Basis of the Contrast
You will have to read Willard’s books to more fully understand and appreciate these concepts, but in a footnote (which is far more than a footnote), he makes a statement about the famous “Twelve Step” program of Alcoholics Anonymous, lists the full version of the steps, followed by a most profound statement regarding “how utterly superficial the consumer Christianity of our day is.” He than ends his footnote comments thusly: “Imagine, by contrast, being a member of a Church or local assembly of Christians where these 12 steps were applied without specific reference to alcohol.” Indeed! Were this to actually happen, we would reach a high-water mark of spiritual formation where implementing Jesus’ words in the Great Commission would become reality rather than simply wishful thinking.
He introduces the steps with this comment: “Because the famous 12 steps of A.A. are more talked about outside A.A. than actually studied themselves, it will be useful here to fully state them:” (Please read them slowly and carefully, putting your “besetting” sin in the place of alcohol as needed. It will prove to be a very valuable meditation time.)
- We admitted we were powerless over alcohol; that our lives had become unmanageable.
- Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
- Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
- Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
- Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
- Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
- Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
- Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
- Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
- Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
- Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
- Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
From Alcoholics Anonymous, 3d ed., New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1976, pp. 59–69.
Read again Willard’s ending comments in the footnote. “Compared to this, one sees how utterly superficial the consumer Christianity of our day is. Imagine, by contrast, being a member of a Church or local assembly of Christians where these 12 steps were applied without specific reference to alcohol.”
Willard, Dallas. The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God (p. 437). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
A Sad Late Addition
After writing what is now called Part One of this article, something much more current popped into my mind (and heart). Reading again that little adage regarding acting yourself into a better way of thinking rather than vice versa jogged my memory and took me back to an experience of just over a year ago. Our church group had started a series that strongly recommended getting away by yourself for a couple of days to do some guided spiritual contemplation. Although I have gone on numerous personal spiritual retreats through the years, I wasn’t as excited about this one as I wish I had been, but I followed the directions. Thankfully, I rented a hotel room in an area that was very near a sports stadium and right behind the hotel was a huge empty parking lot, which became my prayer walk hangout. I love taking prayer walks in solitary places, so this part of the retreat was a very welcome one.
As I recall, we had a little booklet to guide us through some spiritual exercises, and one of those exercises had us reading a Bible passage and selecting a key word or key words to focus on which needed to find a deeper lodging place in our minds and hearts. I don’t recall the passage, but I chose the word “joy” on which to focus. Being joyful (joy-filled) is not easy for me. I tend to let circumstances rather than spiritual realities affect my emotions too much. As I thought about joy, I realized that I often act more joyful around others than I actually feel inside. I don’t believe that this necessarily represents hypocrisy, as I implied in Part One, but is a matter of obedience to God. We can hardly encourage others as they need to be encouraged if we are down in the dumps.
This line of thinking led me to remember that little adage, a true and practical one. “It is easier to act yourself into a better way of feeling than to feel yourself into a better way of acting.” Since I’ve already addressed this, I will proceed with the rest of the story. After our personal retreats, we were encouraged to take some memento from our retreat setting or later make one to remind us of what we had learned and committed ourselves to put into action. I came home and designed a page to be printed and hung on my office wall. Since my word of meditation was “joy,” I wrote myself a reminder at the top of the page, followed by the little adage about how actions should guide feelings and not the reverse.
In other words, I was reminding myself to demonstrate joy outwardly around others. I actually think I do this reasonably well in any public setting or when around others, with one exception. When I am alone with my wife, I often let down my guard and allow my negative feelings to come out through the pores of my skin if not actually shown on my face, and sometimes they do show in my actions. As I mentioned earlier also, I am an emotionally based person who tends to have depressive feelings. I can wake up on a given morning in a down mood and have no idea why. My prayer times usually help it to dissipate, thankfully, although sometimes that doesn’t occur. My best option in that case is to either talk to Theresa or call someone else or to just go somewhere and engage in conversation with anyone, even strangers. These approaches help me get “out of myself,” which is a good thing.
The thought that hit me a day or two after writing what is now Part One of the article is that I allow myself to “let down” around my wife although I don’t when around others, even strangers. I suspect most of us do something similar. In our homes, our real selves come out. We sometimes justify that reality in positive ways. Maybe we say, “It’s good to be home where I can just be myself.” Well, for the follower of Jesus, that all depends on what being yourself means – how it manifests itself. The question to ask yourself is whether you are more in a giving mode to others than to those whom you love the most? If we put on our “happy face” in public, but put on a different face at home, have we thought about the implications of that?
It would mean that we limit our Christian spirit, our spirituality, to some locations and some times, but not display it all of the time. Is that what you think Jesus did – turned his spirituality on and off? Worse, it would mean that we were more loving and giving to others than to the one we say we love the most, our spouse (and perhaps our children also if they live with us). That thought pierced my heart quite directly.
Most of the time when I am in a down mood, I try hard to not show that to Theresa. But I am mostly shielding her from my negative feelings by acting relatively nice, yet not showing her true Christian joy. Before you start coming up with justification for just being “yourself” behind closed doors, take a look at these passages.
Romans 14:17 – For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,
Romans 15:13 – May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Galatians 5:22 – But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
James 1:2 – Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,
Philippians 4:4 – Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 – Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
The first two decisions described in the first part of this article were radical to the Nth degree at the time I made them over half a century ago. They changed the course of my life and the course of my eternity. This third decision is one I made very recently – a decision to not just be joyful in all circumstances as the Bible directs, but to give my wife my best every day in every way I can. No excuses, no justification, just obedience to God out of love for him and love for my wife. We just celebrated 60 years of marriage on January 30, 2025. It has been a wonderful marriage, one which prompted me to write a book about it a few years ago entitled, “Fairy Tales Do Come True.” That said, (and said thankfully), my wife has contributed more to it than I have, which brings tears to my eyes as I write this. But it is not too late to repent and obey what is printed and hanging in a picture frame just above my head in my office right now. JOY: remember and respond – show it! My dearest Theresa, a better husband is coming your way. NOW!
The old hymn has a popular stanza that puts it this way: “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” It is obvious, of course, that the more we trust, the more likely we are to obey. But I definitely disagree with the song’s conclusion that there is no other way aside from first trusting, which leads to obeying. I disagree for two reasons.
One, the Bible doesn’t agree. While the concept of trust and obey is also biblical, obey and trust is as well. Here are a few passages that bear this out.
Mark 1:15
“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
John 7:17
“Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.”
John 8:31-32
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
In all three passages, obedience precedes real faith. Obedience to God is never optional if we are to please him. Our feelings about the matter are not the deciding factor – ever! This is not to say that our heart-driven emotions are not important, for they are very important. But even when our emotions are leading us away from obedience to the will of God, our intellect must override them, and we can rest assured that God will then help our hearts get in the right place. I can think of so many times when I did not want to do what I knew God wanted me to do and yet I did it, only to find out that my emotions were then grateful that I had obeyed. I have often begun obeying by confessing to God that my heart wasn’t in it and to please help it change as I embarked on the path of obedience. He has honored that request countless times.
Is it possible to obey for wrong reasons and our hearts not then change? Yes, and I think Jesus’ condemnations of the Pharisees show that it is possible. “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (Matthew 15:8). He called them hypocrites, play actors, showing how hard their hearts had become. Paul explained why when he taught that a person can become so controlled by Satan that their “consciences have been seared as with a hot iron” (1 Timothy 4:2). Thankfully for those of us trying to follow Jesus, it would take a lot for us to slip low enough for long enough into Satan’s control to reach such a point of hardness of heart.
All of us need to recognize and embrace the principle that Jesus expressed in those three passages quoted earlier. We don’t just do the right things when we feel like it; we do the right things whether we feel like it or not, and then trust God to help us with getting our feelings to a better place. I recall hearing an old adage years ago that immediately rang true with me. “It is easier to act yourself into a better way of feeling that to feel yourself into a better way of acting.” Amen to that! For an emotionally based person like me who tends toward the depressive side, if I allowed myself to act the way I often feel (to begin with), I wouldn’t have been blessed so abundantly by God as I have. For sure, I would not have recently celebrated a 60-year marriage anniversary to a woman who still thinks I am awesome.
Thankfully, I learned early in our marriage to obey and trust, and two of those occasions radically changed the course of my entire life. Almost unbelievably, I was actually seriously angry about these decisions I decided to make. They are stories worth telling. (NOTE: A few days after writing this article, a light bulb went off in my mind bringing another realization to the surface, a scary one that brought me to repentance. I will fashion it into a Part Two extension of this article.)
Decision One – Church and Money
When we got married at the ripe old ages of 22 and 21 (both barely), our differences religiously could have destroyed us. Theresa loved church and I hated church. She had a childlike love for Jesus that made church attendance highly desirable. I was raised in a little church (described in other writing) that turned me off to all things spiritual. I wanted nothing to do with church. Yet, I wanted to marry Theresa so much that I agreed to attend church with her, at least occasionally. Since we were raised in different types of churches, we entered marriage with a plan to alternate between attending our two different denominations. At the beginning of our marriage, I didn’t hold up my end of the bargain and she rarely persuaded me to attend church. After some months, I started going with her occasionally. Once at “her” church, I heard what I believed to be false doctrine and said I would never attend her church again, and didn’t. So she said she would go with me to “my” (using that term very loosely) church, and she did.
When at church services (about once every three weeks), I hated being there. If the preacher preached on hell, I was miserable because I knew I was going there. If he preached on heaven, I was miserable because I knew I was not going there. I couldn’t wait to get out of that building and away from those people and only found joy when the final dismissal prayer “Amen” was heard. And no, I am not exaggerating in the least. It is embarrassing to admit how hardened I was spiritually at the time, but the truth is the truth.
The first time I became really angry at the preacher and his sermon was when he preached about money – church contributions. His assertions were outlandish (to me at least)! He said that although the New Testament didn’t say specifically that we should give a tithe (one-tenth) of our income (gross, not net, by the way), if the Jews under an inferior covenant before Christ came gave that much and more, how could we give less? My blood pressure shot up immediately upon hearing that, although I realized very reluctantly that his logic made sense.
Then that crazy character started talking about our need to pledge a weekly amount that we would faithfully give, and then asked us to fill out a pledge card to that effect. I’m grateful I had a strong heart (physically at least) or I might have had a heart attack. Me give a tenth of our income, and fill out a pledge card promising to do it? Had the dude lost his mind? Then he calmly and confidently said that all of us believed in pledging. I was thinking to myself about some radically strong disagreement to that statement, no doubt laced with some choice words that could never have been expressed in public. He then explained what he meant by speaking of our belief in pledging, noting that we had agreed to pay a house note or rental amount or a monthly amount on a car loan or the amount owed on a type of credit card (very different from our credit cards today, but similar). Again, I could not argue with his logic, as much as I hated it. I was out of that building in a heartbeat when the final Amen came.
Once at home, it got worse. My wife, coming from her church background, was quite familiar and quite comfortable with both parts of that sermon. Her church mailed out envelopes to place their contributions in and deposit in the contribution trays passed each Sunday at church. I had never in my life heard of such a thing. Now she wanted us to start giving a tithe of our gross incomes and fill out that dreaded pledge card stating as much. I’m sure this led to one of our early marriage battles, and we had many. Putting two young, immature spoiled brats together in marriage couldn’t have resulted in less. As I’ve said (and written) often, a great sexual relationship saved us from perhaps nearly killing one another (only a slight exaggeration).
Shockingly, I agreed to do what she asked. The clincher for the agreement was something I haven’t mentioned yet, the preacher’s use of a certain verse spoken by Jesus. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). As the preacher man explained the passage, he said that most people miss the point by making a logical assumption and reversing what Jesus actually had said. They assume that he said, “For where your hearts are, there your treasure will be also.” Of course, there is a lot of truth to that statement too, which is why people mistakenly assume that is what he said. But the preacher affirmed that if we put our money into something, our hearts will follow the money. Of course, he was applying it to church contributions.
This observation hit me as another one of his preposterous assertions, but my problem was that Matthew 6:21 did say it in what I too initially thought was reverse order. Although I had no fondness for the Bible, to put it mildly, my mother had somehow even in our negative church setting drilled into my brain that the Bible was the inspired word of God. I’ve never doubted it, from then until now. That verse was why I agreed with Theresa to start giving a tithe and to even write the pledged amount on one of those dratted little cards. I had no faith that my heart would follow my treasure, but I was ticked off enough to decide to put it to the test and show the preacher wrong.
Well, that story has a funny ending. We’ve never quit giving a tithe of our income (usually more) except for a brief period of a few months while in ministry training school when our income was very, very limited. Then another preacher where we were then living preached a similar sermon and we started back tithing. We’ve not stopped since. How has it all panned out for us? Unbelievably! I have some of the wildest stories you could imagine of how God has given us money in the most unusual and unexpected ways. I should write a book about just those occasions.
Grudgingly, even angrily, certainly faithlessly, I started down a road that has led to results that are unbelievable and undeniable at the same time. Once I put my treasure on the line, God did exactly what Jesus promised. When I hear of church members giving little or nothing financially, I feel sorry for them. They have allowed their lack of faith to block their obedience, and hence have missed receiving the many blessings promised in passages like 2 Corinthians 8 & 9, blessings that I have not just enjoyed, but reveled in as my faith soared (and often, my bank account too). I would be afraid not to give generously.
Decision Two – Church and Commitment
This story will be shorter, but even more amazing. This preacher I am describing made me mad on many occasions with his preaching. I would never have believed in the early days with him that he would become one of my best friends and, aside from my wife, the most spiritually influential person in my life. After the whole story came together, I used to describe him as the only man in the state of Louisiana who could have gotten to me spiritually. I was that far gone.
He had three prominent themes in his preaching: evangelistic outreach, God is able, and total commitment to Christ. The combination of the last two were what raised my ire and my resistance to his messages. As described in one of my first books, “The Victory of Surrender,” (still the crowd favorite) – I was deathly afraid of speaking in public. The first time I was “tricked” into leading a closing prayer at a church service, I was so terrified that my voice was like that of a woman in its pitch and embarrassing beyond description. Read the book; that’s just the tip of that particular “fear” iceberg.
Richard, the preacher, had become a bit more tolerable by the time my second story occurred, but I still hated his insistence that God was fully able to enable us to do anything we were called to do in his service. I had said “no” many times to various invitations to serve in some way that I knew I couldn’t do. One Sunday morning after a “God is able” sermon, I had had enough. After it was over, in anger I cornered one of our deacons, a man I still remember well after all of these decades. His name was Robbie Mitchell and he was a man of great faith and great sensitivity and wisdom.
I remember exactly where we were standing in the hall of that church building. I said something to this effect: “Robbie, I’m sick and tired of hearing this stuff about everything being possible with God and him enabling me to do anything I’m asked to do in his service. I flat-out don’t believe it! I’m sick and tired of hearing it and so for one full year, I will not say no to anything I am asked to do, but if it doesn’t work the way Richard is preaching it, I promise to walk out that door and never attend another church service for the rest of my life!” Robbie smiled gently and said, “Sounds like a good plan to me.” Well, I must conclude by saying it’s been a really long year!
Although I don’t mention it often, I have mentioned publicly a number of times through the years that I don’t vote. I recently received a letter from a good friend who has a hard time with me over my position and urged me to rethink it. I promised him and others on a broader basis that I was going to write an article on the topic, and here it is.
As a young person growing up in Louisiana (then a very strongly Democratic leaning state), everyone in my family voted, as did most everyone else I knew. I remember hitting the voting age myself and how much I was looking forward to voting. I was a senior in college when I cast my first presidential vote – for Barry Goldwater in 1964. He carried six states, of which mine was one, the beginning of the turn toward being a Republican state when it came to electing presidents. I remember how immersed I was in that election. I literally had dreams about America going down the tubes unless Barry was elected. I should mention that I was about as far from God at the time as a young person could get.
I remember that many of my relatives and friends of my parents were divided in which political party they favored. But the big difference between then and now is that they could differ and even make jokes and laugh about those differences. For one to say that they were Republican and the other to say that they were Democrat was about like one saying that they were Baptist and the other saying that they were Methodist. Differences, yes. A call to arms, no.
Run the clock forward to our move to Dallas at the end of 2014. In the process of getting new driver’s licenses and other necessary documentation changes, my wife said she wanted to register to vote. I had stopped voting by then, but cheerfully drove her to the place of registration and played games on my phone while she registered. I have never tried to persuade anyone, including my wife, not to vote. I am not writing this article for the purpose of trying to persuade anyone who reads it not to vote. I am just trying to explain carefully, using biblical principles, why I choose to exercise my rights as an American citizen NOT to vote.
Loss of Influence
When we moved to Dallas this time (4th time for me), I was a part-time ministry staff member and still teaching quite a bit. (Now I have been put out to pasture as far as speaking!) Politics had become an increasingly heated topic, and I knew that both the nation and the church were pretty evenly split on party preference. If I publicly identified with either party, I would lose some influence with those on the other side of the political aisle. My spiritual influence is far too important to me to do that. That is one reason why I don’t vote and make that fact known. Influence. Spiritual influence.
The responses to this have been very interesting. Some get emotionally worked up and tell me that I should be voting and fulfilling my “God-given duty!” Wow, just where is that duty described in the Bible? Others would confine it to my duty as an American citizen, but some of those also get worked up about it. I often tell them that they are likely assuming that I am a reasonably intelligent person, and as such, I would vote as they do. But I go on to tell them that if they knew I was going to vote opposite them, in effect cancelling out their vote, they would be glad that I didn’t vote!
Effects on Fellow Disciples
Seeing what getting strongly emotionally involved in politics does to my fellow Christians deserves its own subheading. In the 2016 election, we started reaching the boiling point when Donald and Hillary squared off. I did make the statement in a sermon that one side was saying that the other candidate should be in prison, while the other side was saying that the other candidate should be in a rubber room somewhere. It was quite the atmosphere. Social media comments, from professed Christians, were shocking to me. I finally “defriended” one of my Facebook friends, a very dear personal friend, because he simply refused to contain himself in print. I spoke to one of our mutual friends, who was actually on the same side politically as the defriended, who had done the same. You know what I am talking about, right? Social media can be a very encouraging tool, and it can be a tool of the devil. In the political realm, it is most often the latter.
In my next subpoint, I will attempt to explain why these effects are taking place and hopefully say something helpful. I understand that I am treading on a controversial path, but I am not hesitant to do so if it seems like help is needed. My last book would make that point for me, “The Bible and Women: How Did I Miss So Much?” I believe that topic and the political topic often involve righteousness or a lack thereof.
I understand that present politics is more complicated than I’ve ever seen in my nearly 82 years of life. On the Democratic side, until very recently, you had a candidate who obviously had an age-related issue mentally. Yet, if you believed in the platform issues of the party, what to do? That issue has been settled at least to some degree and yet many of the Democratic persuasion are not too happy with the new candidate. So, in that case, as one of my relatives sometimes said after voting for his party when not liking the candidate, “I held my nose and voted for…!”
We have a similar situation with the Republican party, in that some strongly hold to the platform issues of the party, but don’t like the candidate. Others love the candidate, although I don’t understand that myself, for a number of reasons. But calm down and remember that I ain’t voting or supporting either side. Yet the dilemma is there for those who like the platform and not the candidate. In both parties, millions will vote for their party while “holding their nose” regarding the specific candidate.
But as I dip my toe into the waters of even mentioning the two parties by name, I know that some of you reading this already have elevated blood pressures. That is a second reason why I don’t vote. If it makes those who claim allegiance to Christ react like that, I don’t want to have anything to do with voting. But now, let’s get to the Bible, the Word of Almighty God.
What I Can Know About Satan
The final two subpoints need some careful explaining. A part of my reason for choosing not to vote concerns what I can know about Satan and what I cannot know about God. I know that Satan is a liar and a deceiver, and an absolute master at both. His intent is to divide, destroy and kill. You already know that if you know much about the Bible at all. I don’t need to quote the verses. These facts about him are undisputed by Bible believing people. Paul did say in 2 Corinthians 2:11 that “we are not unaware of his schemes,” referring to Satan. And what was the context? One of trying to make sure brothers and sisters in Christ were not divided. The battle plan of “divide and conquer” was not initially devised by some general on the battlefield. It belongs to Satan. He is constantly devising ways to divide marriages, families, groups of all types, nations and the entire world. He has done a hell of a job, I must say.
He also divides church families and does that astoundingly well – throughout history. He has done it over doctrines, spiritual and non-spiritual practices, leaders, spiritual terminology and this list could go on. In recent years, he added another weapon to his arsenal like never before – politics. I am trying hard to obey this passage and its principles: “Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer” (2 Timothy 2:3-4). For that reason, I don’t profess to totally understand what I am about to illustrate here, so bear with me. I simply am not going to get pulled into civilian affairs far enough to understand the nuances of politicized issues.
But here is what I observed during our last election. There were people for and against wearing masks during the Covid pandemic, and there were people for and against being vaccinated for protection against contracting Covid. I don’t know how such a situation developed and what one’s political leaning had to do with it, and I don’t care. I was just shocked that such things could even be connected to politics in the first place.
I have gone “under the knife” for several surgeries in recent years. In every case, all of the medical personnel wore masks for my protection. I know enough about medical history to know that this wasn’t always the case, and it wasn’t that long ago historically when the transmission of germs causing disease wasn’t understood much at all. Doctors would go from one patient to another without ever washing their hands. Thankfully, someone figured out that germs are transmissible and have learned the various ways that certain types of diseases are transmitted.
But somehow the wearing of masks became a political matter, which affected me and others like me. You see, my wife of nearly 60 years has COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). She has fought off pneumonia seven times, once in the hospital for over a week. We both have managed to avoid getting Covid. But at age 80, if she gets some sort of serious lung disease, she very likely won’t make it. When we first started back trying to attend church assemblies after the pandemic subsided a bit, most were wearing masks, but those with politically related “Non-mask” convictions (I suppose?) were present also in their designated seating to one side. So here’s what I was thinking. The non-mask people valued their political stance more than the health of people like my wife. Whatever you may think about my observations here, I know what Satan thinks. He is a divider with a capital D.
Then we have the vaccine divide. I remember polio vaccine first being made available. We gladly stood in long lines to eat that little sugar cube with that pink or purple liquid on it. I knew people who died from polio. I was often in high school classes with a girl in an iron lung because of polio. Even back in the late 1950’s, they figured out a way to patch her into the class via a phone line. Her dad was an elder in a local Church of Christ, and her uncle was one of the most famous biblical scholars in that group and in the religious world in general. Oh yes, we were anxious to eat that little sugar cube.
My granddad died at age 30 with a disease that is no longer a threat in the US because of vaccinations against it which became widely available after his death. The 100th anniversary of his death is this coming December 9th. My mother was three years old when he died. One of my uncles was a few months old. My grandmother raised four children through the depression, leaving her and her children emotionally scarred for life. One of those scarred children raised me and left me with some of my own scars. You want to talk vaccinations with me? I have plenty of thoughts about it.
I have often traveled to parts of the world to preach and teach which required various types of vaccinations to enter the country. I used to keep a yellow folded document to show the types and dates of all the shots I took to be able to preach the gospel in those countries. What should I have done? Say, “If you insist on me getting those shots, then you can just stay lost!”
You see, in the past, this stuff wasn’t an issue, certainly not politically. It is possible that some must avoid shots purely for possible health reasons (potential reactions). Although I might not see it as you do in those cases, that is not my issue. My issue is how politics has somehow divided us over things that no one could have possibly imagined a few short years ago. So, does Satan know his stuff? You bet he does. Division, division and more division. This point really is just an illustration of my second subheading – what politics does to people, even those who profess Christ.
As a segue to the next point about not being able to figure out what God is doing, let’s look at another aspect of Satan’s work. He deceives us about ourselves, about our own sins. In a little book of mine (“God, Are We Good?”) written during the pandemic, I examined all of the ways we can sin (words, thoughts, motives, actions, not doing and being what we could do and be). I quoted one theologian who guessed at the number of sins a mature adult might commit in a lifetime, even if they were trying not to. It was predictably a very large number. If Satan can deceive each of us time and time again in order to get us to sin in many different ways, how can you be sure he hasn’t deceived you about your political views? After all, the other half of the population differs from you and both sides have highly intelligent people in them. If Satan is trying to destroy the world, how can you be sure you have all the right views and are not being used by Satan to accomplish purposes you cannot fathom? That leads to the next point quite naturally.
What I Cannot Know About God
Although Satan is far more intelligent than any of us humans, he doesn’t hold a candle to God. Therefore, I can learn more and understand more of Satan’s purposes than I can of God’s. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9).
One thing I do know about God is that he is in control of all the nations. Read the following.
Psalm 22:27-28
27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, 28 for dominion belongs to the LORD and he rules over the nations.
Psalm 33:10-11
10 The LORD foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. 11 But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.
Isaiah 40:22-23
22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. 23 He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
Isaiah 40:15
15 Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.
When you look through the Old Testament, especially the prophets, you find many nations mentioned by name and what God said he was going to do to them and with them. They had no idea. Like our nation and all of the nations of the world right now, their finest and brightest intellectuals were planning and plotting the directions they believed their nations should follow. God was sitting up there (wherever “there” is) and saying, “O yeah? Watch this!” Then he did exactly what he wanted, when he wanted, any way that he wanted, to anyone he wanted, and all of the rulers of the nations and their citizens could do nothing about hindering his plans. Nothing about that has changed from that day until this one. To think otherwise is illustrative of the foolishness of mankind, which the Bible affirms over and over and over. Humans think they are so smart and well informed, but compared to God and his purposes, they are abysmally stupid. We cannot know what God’s plans are for any nation, including our own. Period.
That said, I do know that he will ultimately bring nations down because of their sins. He is astonishingly patient, but nations reach a point in their sinfulness that he takes them out. He always has and always will. The verses quoted above say it plainly. A very interesting verse to me is Genesis 15:16: “In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” Here God is talking to Abraham about the promise to build a great nation of his descendants and give them a land to inhabit. But he informs Abraham that it will be about four hundred years from then because the Amorite nation hadn’t reached the point of the necessity of being destroyed. So yes, God is patient, but he knows exactly when he is going to destroy any given nation. He knows exactly when he is going to take America down, and he is going to. How could he not, given our constant descent into worse and worse sinfulness at an almost inconceivable rate?
When I was a young preacher, an older preacher named Richard Rogers often made a rather shocking statement. He said, “If God doesn’t punish America for their sins, he is going to owe an apology to Sodom and Gomorrah!” I have repeated that statement many times. However, although it is a clever sounding statement, God can do whatever he wants and knows is best and will never owe anyone an apology. But when I first repeated it fifty plus years ago, I was even then shocked at how fast our nation was departing from biblical principles into the dark night of sin’s degradation. At that point, I could not have envisioned where we are now in sin’s degradation. The sins of a nation are like a snowball going down a hill, getting bigger and going faster as it goes.
When I was yet a young minister, I also heard another quotation, this one about what would most likely bring on the fall of our nation. It involved an immense study of civilizations historically and what their progression of sin in one particular area was like. This study was done by an Oxford social anthropologist named J.D. Unwin, who published his findings in a book entitled, “Sex and Culture.” Although it was more than 600 pages long, Unwin said it was only a summary of his research and that it would have taken seven volumes to fully report all of his findings.
His book was published in 1934 and can be downloaded as a PDF file from the internet. In his book, Unwin examined the data from 86 societies and civilizations to see if there was a relationship between sexual freedom and the flourishing of cultures. It is important to note that Unwin was not a believer. He was not writing from a religious perspective at all, but purely as a social anthropologist researcher. A good summary article can be found at: https://www.kirkdurston.com/blog/unwin
The quotation I heard from Unwin’s findings was that all of these nations fell when their sexual morality (lack thereof) reached the stage that many sexual acts condemned by the Bible were accepted as normal. Although I have not read the long book, other articles I have read about it supported the concept that all sexual activity apart from that between a man and woman married to each other was a part of what led to the downfall of nations, and the more flagrant such activity became, the more certain it was that the nation was nearing its end. The fact that a highly acclaimed non-believer through massive research came to the same conclusions that a Bible believer would imagine to be the case is absolutely astounding! The Bible was not wrong in Proverbs 14:34, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin condemns any people.”
Sin at a certain point destroys a nation and sexual sins will play a big role in that destruction, based on Unwin’s research and the history of the 86 nations he researched. The level of sexual sins America has now reached, including many different types of sexual sins, suggests strongly that we are nearing our end as a nation. Sex was created by God and is a beautiful thing – in one setting and one setting only – between a man and a woman married to one another. All other sexual activity is degrading God’s design. I have no question that America is nearing its end, and sexual sins are not the only reason I say that. Satan is a liar and the father of lies, and our nation has reached a point that a popular dictionary (Oxford) labeled the word, “post-truth” as the word of the year in 2016. America is filled with every sin mentioned in the Bible, and the majority of our populace doesn’t even consider most of these as sins, as they have become so widely accepted.
So yes, I believe our nation is nearing its end, and though it is a personal opinion, if true, no human being can know when and how it will occur. God is God and unpredictable. His ways are not our ways and not discernible to us. For example, and this is a most pertinent example in my argument, God has used pagan leaders of nations as his servants – to inflict horrible punishment on his own people. Plus, he has also used pagan leaders of nations as his servants – to bless his own people. You and I cannot know how God is going to use any leader to accomplish his purposes, nor can you know what his purposes are. Let’s look at two of God’s OT “servants.”
Jeremiah 25:9
“I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,” declares the LORD, “and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting ruin.”
Nebuchadnezzar was going to be used as God’s servant to punish his own people, and when you read the details of what that destruction was going to include, it was indeed punishment of the most horrific kind. God will not hide his just nature in a corner for you or for our nation, although his incredible patience sometimes makes you think he has. Judgment always comes when repentance doesn’t. And sin can reach the point where repentance is simply too late to avoid the consequences of sin. On a corporate level, you can look at the people of Noah’s day. No doubt people were banging on the side of the ark as the water rose, begging for entrance. No doubt parents were holding up their babies, begging Noah to at least take them. The answer was no —they had sinned away the day of grace.
On an individual level, the same result can occur. Take a look at Esau’s case.
Hebrews 12:16-17
See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. 17 Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done.
On the other side of the coin, pagan rulers also served as God’s servants, blessing the people of God in quite unexpected and amazing ways.
Ezra 1:1-3
In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing: 2 “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: “ ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. 3 Any of his people among you may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the LORD, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with them.
As you continue to read this passage, Cyrus was beyond kind to the people of God, offering them gifts and protection as they traveled back to their homeland to rebuild in preparation for the ultimate coming of the Messiah. The Jews of that day must have been shocked at what happened. The Jews who were destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar’s armies would not have believed in advance that they, the very people of God, would be so harshly treated at the hands of their God.
All of this should illustrate the opening point of this section about God’s utter unpredictability. I can know a lot more about Satan’s purposes and schemes than I can about God’s. How God might choose to use an American president is only a guess. Could he use one of either party for his purposes to bless us? Yes. Could he use one of either party to severely discipline US inhabitants? Yes. Can you or I know who and how any of these answers might play out any more than those of history could know in their nations? No.
Bottom line, God knows exactly what he is going to do in and with America, and he ain’t telling. But some of you have it all figured out, do you? HaHaHaHaHaHaHa! Thanks for the laugh. I needed one about now. This is heavy stuff to me. The only thing I can think to do about the whole arena of politics is what God clearly said to do, and here that is.
Titus 3:1-2
Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, 2 to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone.
1 Timothy 2:1-3
I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people – 2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior,
You have the choice to vote or not vote. You don’t need anyone’s permission to vote and I don’t need anyone’s permission nor forgiveness for not voting. And I am not. My only hope in these troubled times is God and I am confident that earnest, urgent prayers will weigh far more heavily than my vote might. End of story. Cheers!
As I have written elsewhere, I believe scripture is best viewed as a guide that leads us Christ, rather than as a rulebook to be uncritically applied to any and every context. I also am convinced that even the best of Christian traditions is full of failures and missteps. I believe that one of the core strengths of Christianity is the ability to change and adapt to ever-changing situations. If I am correct in these assumptions, then what do we do with this passage from Paul?
Now I exhort you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all say the same thing and there not be divisions among you, and that you be made complete in the same mind and with the same purpose. (1 Corinthians 1:10, LEB)
How can Paul say that we ought to all say “the same thing” and have no divisions if Christianity is able to tolerate and even thrive with differences? How can both be true? Does this passage prohibit variations of doctrine and practice in Christianity? As always, we should start with an exposition of the scripture in its context.
First, let’s take a look at the context of 1 Corinthians 1:10. First Corinthians is a letter, a letter to a specific church, addressing specific problems in that church. Paul does mention things that perhaps ought to be taken in an objective or universal way, but when this happens it is incidental to the purpose of the book. The purpose is to address particular subjective problems in the Corinthian church, and this is how we ought to read it. Another aspect of reading First Corinthians as a letter is the acknowledgement that we are reading one side of the conversation, not both sides. In the NAB study Bible, it offers this description of 1 Corinthians and the problems Paul is addressing therein:
While Paul was in Ephesus on his third journey (1 Cor. 16:8; Acts 19:1-20), he received disquieting news about Corinth. The community there was displaying open factionalism, as certain members were identifying themselves exclusively with individual Christian leaders and interpreting Christian teaching as a superior wisdom for the initiated few (1:10, 4-21)… In the celebration of the Eucharist certain members discriminated against others, drank too freely at the agape, or fellowship, meal, and denied Christian social courtesies to the poor among the membership. (Notes on 1 Cor 11:17-22, NAB)
So, the reason for Paul’s statement that the Corinthian church “agree with another” is about division through following various personalities instead of uniting around discipleship to Christ. Ironically, taking this statement in a woodenly literal fashion leads us to do exactly the opposite of what Paul is insisting upon. When we must literally “agree on everything” we inevitably end up gathering around one leader’s interpretation of Jesus’ words rather than moving towards Jesus as a community with our different strengths and weaknesses.
Paul speaks to this same issue later in 1 Corinthians when he talks about food sacrificed to idols in chapter eight. When it comes to eating the food in the meat market, Paul does not say that everyone must “agree” on whether eating meat sacrificed to idols is good or bad. Rather, he brings it back to the question of whether one is putting themselves first or last, if the optics of eating food sacrificed to idols will lead someone else to sin (1 Cor 8:4-13).
Later, he speaks to the importance of prioritizing love above being right. (1 Cor. 10:23-33). Paul lays out his own position that everything in the meat market can be eaten without raising questions of conscience (10:25), but he then says that if someone brings up that the meat was offered in sacrifice don’t eat it for the sake of the other person’s conscience (10:28-29).
In 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, Paul states that he considers the differences of those he interacts with and tailors his way of behaving to each situation. The statement “Agree on everything” then cannot be made to fit everyone into certain personalities, leanings, or uniformity. Unity is not the same thing as uniformity to Paul! And in 9:24-27, Paul uses sports images to talk about self-renunciation, and disciplining himself to consider the needs of others before himself. Paul’s self-discipline is always others-centered, always for the sake of others and putting himself last.
In all this, it is the Corinthians’ self-centeredness that, in Paul’s view, makes them overconfident about their own salvation (I Cor 10:1-13). Paul then brings his point back to how wide the “permissiveness” of the law is for Christians (10:23), but reminds them that everyone should seek his brother’s good.
In other words, the law of love is a better guide to Christian conduct than universal laws that are binding on all Christians for all time. Thus, the goal of unity from 1 Corinthians 1:10 is unity-in-diversity rather than uniformity as we all aim towards the image of Christ.
