On What Matters, What Doesn't Matter, and What is of Infinite Importance

Musing on God's Values--Part 1

I am not entirely sure how to preface this ambitious post (or set of posts, rather), nor exactly how it will accomplish what I mean for it to without a chance of alienating anyone. But these thoughts have been brewing for years and I feel it is time to organize them--and to share them despite my frailty, inexperience, and my inability to live up to God's holy standards in even a small way on my own. I just pray they will encourage you and challenge you, as they have me.
Perhaps I will illustrate my thoughts through a comparison chart (something that became invaluable in my teaching class a year ago): this is what I find throughout Scripture concerning God's values on some topics often discussed without clear distinctions.

Matters                         Doesn't Matter                       Matters Infinitely

1.Obedience               Routine rule-following           Understanding why one obeys
2.Love in kindness      Love in hollow words            Love in sacrifice
3.Friendship                Membership                         Fellowship
4.Actions                    Appearance (to an extent)     Attitude
5.Stability                   Seniority--or superiority         Service
6.Justice                     Pleading not guilty                  Mercy
7.Purity                      Pride                                     Passion for holiness

Ok. So there are 7 comparisons (I had to reach the Biblical number of completeness) for us to consider. I hope you are following me but if you aren't, I understand. I threw a lot of words out there that may seem the same or may seem completely contradictory. Depending on your spiritual background, you may instinctively agree or subconsciously deny the accuracy of the chart before you get the chance to stop yourself. But, let's just take a minute and envision scenes that could encompass the words and phrases I have compared...Do you have anything in your mind? Well, we are going to go one by one and evaluate the similarities and differences in each group of three.                              

1.
1. If your parents handed you a family handbook when you were born and told you all of the household policies you were to abide by, that would be a little odd, don't you think? It would mean that the handbook would need to be followed to the letter to retain any standing in the family or in the affections of your parents. But, they didn't do that. As a baby, they gave you love first..love and discipline and nourishment which firmly yet graciously encouraged you to obey them and be strengthened as a result. The handbook would provide no lasting motivation to please and satisfy your parents, but their devotion and affection would provide the motivation in abundance. Which leads to the third one...infinitely valuable to God is our understanding of obedience to Him and to others in authority. We should see why we obey (out of deep love, respect, and safety) in order to reorganize our life around His desires and commands.

This principle is borne out in Scripture; each of the following verses display the value of sincere obedience, the deadness of rule following by rote, and the ultimate value of understanding the reasons why we obey our Heavenly Master (emphasis mine).

Colossians 3:22
Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.

Hebrews 11:8
By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.

1 Samuel 15:22
Samuel said, “Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.

Deuteronomy 30:1-3
“So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind in all nations where the Lord your God has banished you, 2 and you return to the Lord your God and obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons, 3 then the Lord your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you."

In all of these passages it is clear that God's standards for obedience are more than those perhaps our bosses or parents would have. He wants us to obey His commands though we may not know exactly the purpose of our obedience. But that does not mean we should be unaware of the reason for our obedience; we obey because God's very character requires it, His holiness demands our worship and reverence, and His justice and grace render it ridiculous that we would ever question His motives is asking us to complete something for Him. We are to remember His wisdom and His reasons for commanding us. Yes, we must obey Him. No, rule-following for pride's sake means nothing. But, ultimately, we must obey out of our understanding of who God truly is.

2.2. The value God places on love is perhaps the greatest no-brainer I could discuss. But I do believe that despite the abundance of teaching on Christian love, whether for God or others, there is some confusion about how that love is shown. The stories in the Bible I could use to illustrate this are simply too many to mention here, so I will name a few: Ruth and her sacrifice for her mother-in-law Naomi, Jacob and his sacrificial service for his wife Rachel, the woman who anointed Jesus's feet sacrificing her money to worship the Savior, Joseph showing kindness and care to the brothers who sold him into slavery, and the list goes on and on. Of course the greatest lover is Jesus Christ himself, giving his life for those whose sins nailed Him to a cross. Do you notice a pattern here?..you're right if you saw that almost every case involves a significant sacrifice that reveals a love already present. So what does the Bible have to say about God's view of love?

Exodus 21:4-6 

"If his master gives him a wife, and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall go out alone. But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife and my children; I will not go out as a free man,’ then his master shall bring him to God, then he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him permanently."

Proverbs 17:17

A friend loves at all times, And a brother is born for adversity.

Micah 7:18-19

"Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity

And passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession?

He does not retain His anger forever,

Because He delights in unchanging love.

He will again have compassion on us;

He will tread our iniquities under foot.

Yes, You will cast all their sins

Into the depths of the sea."

Romans 12:9

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.

John 13:34-35

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

John 15:13

Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,...bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

These verses are so clear I need hardly comment on them. But look at the noble slave who for love of his family bows in front of his master to go through severe pain, bondage, and endless work! He does not say "I love my wife and children well enough, but I just cannot give up something as dear to me as my freedom": no, he proves his love by his sacrifice. In Micah 7, how is God able to pardon the sin of His people? He "treads their iniquities under foot"; but their sins, though they are cast "into the sea" and away from themselves, must still fall on another for God is holy and just. In Isaiah 53:5-6, we find the substitute. Upon Jesus Christ the Messiah, God heaps the sin of all men everywhere, "wounding" and "bruising" His righteous Son as He "lays upon Him the iniquity of us all". Even loving without hypocrisy requires a sacrifice--we must deny ourselves, our selfishness, and the evil nature within us to simply be kind and caring toward each other. In every case, the Scripture reveals that love may be spoken but is always to be proved in kindness and sacrifice. Love always means cost, ultimate love means ultimate cost.

3.
3. So we have reached the third grouping--perhaps one of the more challenging to explain. Let me start off by saying that every one of these words--friendship, membership, and fellowship--have taken on multiple and misleading meanings in our culture. We have 600 "friends" on facebook while we struggle to hang onto our 4 true friends in life because we are simply too busy. We are not too busy to pretend names on a screen are our friends, but we are too busy to truly create lasting and meaningful friendships with the people around us. This is the kind of friendship that God places a very high value on in His word.

Now let's look at the word membership. When we were 5, it meant those snobby girls were members of a club that we couldn't be part of..those bullies thought they were so cool because they were members and no scrawny or nerdy guys would ever make the cut. In fact, it might have meant something similar when we were 15. But, now it means anything from AARP to the Humane Society, the NRA to your local church. So what does it mean to be a member of something? Do you get special rights that you rub in the faces of those less fortunate? Do you get a tax write-off or scholarship or any other cool perk that justifies you scrawling your name on an email list and bringing fruit punch to the next get-together? Maybe that's really what we all think. We're humans after all, driven by an innate selfishness and pride that is pointless to deny and almost always at work in us. But, I think there is much more at the heart of membership in the eyes of Christians in churches..and to fail to recognize that would be gravely unjust. Membership often also implies commitment, loyalty, service, and passion: others may be visitors, but you're there to stay. You put your cause on your nametag, you wear your society banner on your sleeve. At the heart of membership is the need for us to establish identity and significance. But I would rather put that particular understanding of membership under the heading of fellowship which I will discuss next. Membership--as I am using in my comparison chart--is exclusivity and the claiming of territory and wealth, as it is in most of the secular world.

So, you may be asking what is fellowship? What makes it different than Christian friendship? Is it just another word for membership that you happen to like better? Those are all very reasonable questions. In three respective paragraphs, I will answer each one, asking that the Spirit of God will help me show His Word in the proper light.

To answer the first question, I will turn to a site that has already compiled the information in a much more succinct way than I could have. On GotQuestions.org, I have learned many things from the Word of God: here is a q-and-a article I found particularly helpful when trying to understand fellowship.

                         "Question: "What is koinonia [the Greek word for fellowship]?"

                         Answer: Koinonia is a Greek word that occurs 20 times in the Bible. Koinonia’s primary meaning is “fellowship, sharing in common, communion.” The first occurrence of koinonia is Acts 2:42, “They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” Christian fellowship is a key aspect of the Christian life. Believers in Christ are to come together in love, faith, and encouragement. That is the essence of koinonia...

                        Koinonia is being in agreement with one another, being united in purpose, and serving alongside each other (Philippians 2:1-2) . Our koinonia with each other is based on our common koinonia with Jesus Christ. First John 1:6-7, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

                       A powerful example of what koinonia should look like can be found in a study of the phrase “one another” in the Bible. Scripture commands us to be devoted to one another (Romans 12:10), honor one another (Romans 12:10), live in harmony with one another (Romans 12:16; 1 Peter 3:8), accept one another (Romans 15:7), serve one another in love (Galatians 5:13), be kind and compassionate to one another (Ephesians 4:32), admonish one another (Colossians 3:16), encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11; Hebrews 3:13), spur one another on toward love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24), offer hospitality (1 Peter 4:9), and love one another (1 Peter 1:22; 1 John 3:11; 3:23; 4:7; 4:11-12). That is what true biblical koinonia should look like" (http://www.gotquestions.org/koinonia.html#ixzz2WWijXCSP, S. Michael Houdmann).

Now that we have an idea of fellowship, how do we see that it is distinguished from Christian friendship? Well, in this case, we are going to try to use simple logic. Is it possible that we are going to build lasting friendships with every saved person in the world today? No. Is it realistic that we will even form close friendships with every saved person in our town? No. Is it helpful to try to create meaningful daily friendships between two clashing personalities who do not enjoy or appreciate (in some measure) the same activities and interests? Not necessarily, no. Then there is already a clear distinction between fellowship and friendship. The Lord expects us to offer a hand of fellowship to every believer--to honor them, pray for them, treat them with kindness, encourage them in their service, offer them a home and food if they require it, suffer with them, rejoice with them, serve them, and even correct them in the ways of God. I can have fellowship with an individual whom I would not call a close friend. A conversation with him or her may even be exactly what God uses to reach my heart through His Spirit. In Hebrews 10:19-25, the writer exhorts the Christians to "hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful" and to "consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near." Right next to the writer's charge to be faithful to the Lord is his charge to be in active fellowship, to immerse ourselves in a community that worships, serves, and proclaims the good news until He comes back for us. Our fellowship is indeed a vastly important thing to God.

Lastly we must make the distinction between membership and fellowship. In no way am I knocking those churches which call people in their congregations members, nor am I discounting the value of membership in meaningful organizations. Despite my background in a group of Christians that disapprove of the idea of membership for various reasons, I have found that the poisonous idea of superiority and exclusivity can seep in without it as well. What I am suggesting is that our relations with one another as Christians are not to be formally binding through nametags, ballots, and lists as much as they should be emotionally and socially binding in honest, enjoyable, practical friendship..and most importantly, spiritually binding in supportive, instructive, and loving fellowship.