Battle Within

This afternoon I was reading in Psalm 24.  There are a lot of passages that I really love.  My sons will tell you that when we were meeting regularly in Bible study just about every week I would tell them that we were looking at one of my favorite verses in the Bible.  It became a joke to them.  Psalm 24 is not one of them.  It is one of those passages I do not like very much.

Specifically I do not like 3 – 4.  Why?  I do not know about you, but that sure does not describe me.  As hard as I try I cannot maintain that standard.  No matter how much I pray, study, beseech the Lord for strength, my flesh seems to eventually, read daily, get the better of me.  The older I get, the more I understand Paul in Romans 7:15 – 24.

The good news follows hard on the heels of that passage, Romans 7:25 – 8:1.  In Christ I am not condemned for the failing of my flesh.  I still, like Paul have to battle, not only my flesh but the one who is trying to devour me, 1 Peter 5:8.  But the hope and the glory is that the victory is not in my ability to deal with my sin but Christ’s.

I got there through Psalm 24.  I guess it is not such a bad passage after all.

Common Sense

In a Sunday school class a few years back I opened a book, not the Bible, in front of the class to a page somewhere in the middle and read a sentence about halfway down the right page.  I then asked the class what the sentence meant.

After a stunned silence the consensus was that there was no way they could answer the question?  So I asked them what data they needed to enable them to answer.  They quickly came up with a list something like this:

• What book is that?
• Who wrote it?
• What is it about?
• When was it written?
• What is the purpose of the book?
• Where does this sentence fit into the flow of the book?
• What is the context of the sentence?

Interesting…

I have been in a lot of Bible studies and Sunday school classes that approach the Bible the way I presented the other book.  So the questions becomes if I need to know those things about any other book in order to grasp what the author is saying in a book other than the Bible, why is the Bible any different?  How can I understand or apply what is written in a verse of the Bible if I do not know the answers to the questions which the class identified as crucial to understanding?

Bible Study is not some mysterious deal.  It is simply applying what you already know how to do, that is find out what something means in a book, to the Bible.  Just like other books you read or study, you may encounter words or concepts which are new to you.  What do you do then?  You look up the definitions of terms with which you are not familiar.  You look for a short description of the concepts of which you are not familiar.  It is not hard.  Just common sense.

Confront Sin

When it comes to Scripture we tend to be selectively obedient.  That is especially so when it comes to confronting people about their sin or a leader who has drifted into heresy.  Most of us do not like conflict.  We avoid it, some of us at all costs.  We use the notion of tolerance or coexistence to deflect scriptural admonition to engage.  Or, like me, we are cowardly, not wanting to endure the imagined or inevitable pain associated with entering into the fray.  Sometimes we use the wise counsel of others, who hold to various positions listed above, to avoid the requirement to confront.

The problem is when sin or heresy is not confronted it grows, festers, metastasizes, and kills.

I will not share details and in fact they are altered.  But I have been aware of and engaged in confrontation of a heresy for the past few years.  I was asked some time ago to present material that was designed to counter the false teaching that had permeated some part of a ministry.  It was thought and I was counseled to not confront the issue directly.  It was a mistake.  The problem has not been resolved and those who have carried the banner against the error have been discredited and pushed aside.  Those who subscribe to the false teaching persist and have solidified their power.  The leadership of the ministry  as a whole seems unwilling or unable to deal with the issue.  Recently, a person who has not been engaged in this process confronted one of those who has been deeply engaged and pushed aside for their trouble and chided them for not doing more.  It was a bit like telling Romney he was responsible to convince Obama he should support the repeal of Obamacare.

Dancing around the counsel of the Holy Spirit never works.  Matthew 18:15 – 17 is pretty clear.  Paul, confronted Peter directly in front of others as he shared in Galatians 2:11 – 14.  Christ turned the moneychanger’s tables over in the temple, Matthew 21:12.  Most of Paul’s letters are dealing directly with errors of doctrine or practice in the Church.  We are not expected to allow error or sin to go unchallenged in our midst.  It denigrates the Body of Christ.  We, I am to engage.