As always, the article is below, and the audio edition is available here or on the Church Reset podcast (links in sidebar).
As you may have noticed in my recent material, there has been yet another dustup in the churches of Christ over alcohol.
To be honest, I’m quite sick of talking about alcohol itself, and I don’t feel the debates over oinos and shekar and all the other related points are worthwhile anymore. It just is what it is, and minds are made up.
These controversies reveal three much more significant underlying issues
First, their approach leaves no room for wisdom
In response to the alcohol discussion, I saw a couple of posts along the lines of, “If you think drinking isn’t a sin, why not just get up in the pulpit with a beer to show that you can?”
Well, first of all, most preachers don’t take a drink to the pulpit, save for maybe a sip of water for a scratchy throat, so that’s a weird suggestion.
But second, that could become an obvious stumbling block in the moment, which would be a sin unto itself (Romans 14:21).
And third, what do you think “all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable” means (1 Corinthians 10:23)? God wants us to use our brains.
It’s not a matter of “If it’s a sin, don’t do it, and if it’s not—go for it!” There are things that we are technically within our rights to do, but that doesn’t mean we should. How do we know the difference? We have to use wisdom. Sometimes we have to go beyond just reciting proof texts.
But that’s the problem with these guys’ approach: it’s not only that everything is black and white. It’s that everything has to be black and white, or else.
There is no room for “I wouldn’t, and I don’t think you should, but I can’t make you.” No room for “Sure, you CAN. But what choice would best honor God?” Everything is law.
But why do you think the New Testament doesn’t have a Leviticus? Why does it lack a clear enumeration of its rules like what we find in the Old Testament? Wouldn’t it have been easier for God to just spell it all out for us in one place like that?
Galatians 3:23-25 tells us that the Law was a tutor, or schoolmaster, to lead us to Christ. The idea is that we were meant to outgrow it. That doesn’t mean you outgrow obedience and holy living. It means you get to the point of doing it by instinct rather than by consulting a checklist. You’re not supposed to be calling Mom and Dad asking what you can and can’t do at 42 years old.
And when you outgrow the tutor, you can start going beyond proof texts and develop the wisdom to live by principles. Wise Christian living includes all the proof texts, of course. But it goes beyond that into “trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:10).
We have to practice a Christianity that requires us to turn our brains on, meditate on the text and the principles it gives us, pray for guidance, and seek out not just what we have to do, but also what we ought to do.
Otherwise, what we produce are a bunch of script-memorizing people who think their duty to God is fulfilled by checking a list of boxes.
Second, their approach mandates spiritual immaturity.
This approach that refuses to allow for any gray area presents itself as the mature version of Christianity, but in reality it is a result of immaturity.
Once again, little children need everything spelled out for them. Older children can learn to live by principles. They generally know what they should do before having to ask, because their parents have used their time together to hone the children’s sense of right and wrong.
According to the Scriptures, this kind of discernment is spiritual maturity. “But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil” (Hebrews 5:14).
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus showed exactly how we should use discernment, but also how the Pharisees had missed it in their immaturity. The Pharisees treated the Law like a checklist, but Jesus showed them how to engage their hearts to meet the spirit of the Law and not just the letter.
“You have heard it was said… but I say unto you…” He wasn’t changing the laws or adding to them. He was explaining the spirit of those laws that they missed because they were focused on checking boxes. It’s clear Jesus wanted them to use their brains instead of just referring to a cheat sheet of dos and don’ts.
How immaturity plays out
Thus, you end up with people constantly asking “Is it a sin?” and “But can you BIND that?” Not everything has to be a command that we’re seeking to bind. We’re allowed to teach principles and use wisdom to discern what is good, better, and best when it comes to applying those principles.
This approach is why we at Focus Press get so much pushback on pushing the importance of marriage and children, the advantages of homeschooling over public education, the good of moms staying at home, and so forth.
We are not binding any of these things. We are teaching that the Scriptural principles involved indicate these are better choices than others. There’s not just a right and a wrong, conversation over. There’s a good, a better, and a best, and it’s up to Christians to help each other work those out—even if we’re going to disagree sometimes.
Refusing to entertain such discussions and returning to Law just keeps us from developing the maturity God desires us to have. You end up with people who can recite, but not reason.
Third, their approach is based in fear rather than the joy and liberty found in Christ.
In Romans 8:15, Paul wrote, “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’”
The approach these guys take to the Bible absolutely creates a spirit of slavery that leads to fear. That’s why I wrote a whole book on Christian assurance—because so many who have grown up in the churches of Christ have a paralyzing fear. When everything is an essential issue, and every teaching is life or death, it’s no wonder people live in constant doubt.
What if they’ve misunderstood something? Then they’re a devil-loving, truth-hating false teacher. What if they’re doing something wrong and don’t even know it? Then they’re unrepentant and hell-bound, because grace doesn’t really cover anything.
What a horrible way to live. When Christians are constantly under the burden of doubt and unable to experience the joy of the Christian life because of an approach to the text that insists there is no room for difference of understanding on even non-Gospel issues, we must say that the fruit is rotten.
If Christianity is supposed to bring a peace that passes understanding, and yet most people under a system of teaching don’t have any peace because they’re not arrogant enough to say for sure that they’re going to get a 100 on heaven’s doctrinal entrance exam, then the system needs to be scrapped.
Rethink the system
Wisdom isn’t allowed. Maturity is discouraged. Fear abounds.
This is no way to live the Christian life.
Building out an alternative is well beyond the scope of this article, but it has to be a system that gives Christians the grace and freedom to make use of wisdom, knowing full well that sometimes doing so will end up in people coming to different conclusions. They’ll answer to God for them, and you’ll answer to God for you (Romans 14:10).
Yes, some things do cross a line and break fellowship. But it can’t be everything.
We can’t treat the Bible as a script to be memorized and mastered. Treat it as a treasure map that gets you closer and closer to God the more you internalize it and practice it. Then, you can treat your Christian brothers and sisters as fellow travelers who are on the same journey, even if they take a mildly different route from time to time.
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For more on recent controversies, check out this week’s Think Deeper Podcast here
