Blessings connected
with being a Christian
When someone writes a great book, someone else usually comes
along and writes a summary of it. By this means what begins as a 500 page
effort is condensed down to a mere half page. The essential points and
qualities of the whole work are captured in a few words, yet the person who
reads the few words and thinks he understands the whole book is dreadfully misguided.
What the condensing does is rob the whole work of its splendour
– like reducing the mighty sun to a pin-prick of light, or drawing the Atlantic
ocean as a mere diagram on a sheet of paper.
The universe is full of such condensations produced by
In a similar way, a person once told me “I have read the
Bible” as if that was sufficient effort to absorb the entire book. The whole
infinite universe of the Creator’s wisdom, straight from His Mind, through the
mouths and pens of prophets and inspired souls, encapsulated into a few pages –
and this person was quite sure that he had “read” the Bible.
Let us look at the realities.
It is not possible for any individual or even the whole human
race combined to fully seek out or understand the things which God has made,
though that boast is often implied in some of the statements which come from
some people, especially in the world of science. DNA may have been discovered
and analysed, but there is a huge difference between
counting the nucleic acids and understanding the meaning of their sequences,
and even if that were accomplished there would still be the question of what
exactly are atoms, and why do they even exist as they do? What is energy? What
is time? How many dimensions are there? There is a vast difference between
mapping the planet and actually understanding the network of interdependencies.
Science may think it has worked out many things, but there is still an enormous
amount left undetected.
A simple illustration would be to imagine humans were only
as big as an average bacterium. Suppose God had placed Adam and Eve on a small
leaf of a plant 6000 years ago. The human race may have grown to its present
population but it would still be more or less confined to the same leaf. There
is still the garden to discover, then the hillside, then the other hills, the
country, the lakes, mountains and rivers, and finally the whole planet. Man the
bacterium might boast of his knowledge while he peers over the edge of the
leaf, but God is wiser than
This unfortunate habit by people, of condensing large things
and making them seem very small, has led to many problems. People who are
unaware of their own ignorance (in the better sense) are quick to make broad generalisations, forgetting their limited knowledge. One
cannot possibly understand the large simply by glimpsing the small, and
although generalisations are very useful, they can
also destroy.
For example the question of healing. The condensed view is so narrow the
book of Job is an embarrassing exception, because Job suffered great sickness,
for no apparent reason, despite keeping his side of the healing covenant in the
Law. He obeyed, therefore he should have been well, but he was sick, and God
did not tell him why. The broad view includes Job but brings no final solution
to the puzzle. If we keep to the narrow view we have no explanation for Job’s
sickness – but if we broaden our view we have to allow more of God’s
sovereignty in, which leaves us feeling ignorant and helpless before a God who
does what He pleases. Many people do not like to feel helpless and ignorant, so
they become dogmatic, and demand healing – thus overruling God’s sovereignty.
People who accept the broad view ask for healing but accept whatever happens
because they know God is in control no matter how things may look.
The large view needs the small, yet the small does not
faithfully reproduce the large because God is bigger than our understanding.
Health, Healing and Prosperity.
There is no doubt in my mind that God intends to give most
Christians good health. Health is what Jesus gave to all the sick
who came to him. God’s name is Ropheka,
which means the Healer. But healing is not as clear cut as some would like it
to be. Jesus healed to prove that he was the Messiah. He does not need to prove
this any more. His three year ministry set the seal on his identity and,
although healing is still available today, it is not so common. Why? God alone
knows. The proof of this however is clear to see - not all Christians are
healed when they become sick, and not all Christians are healthy. Many suffer
from many diseases and disabilities. Sickness is a fact of life, and Christians
are often cut down by it regardless of their faith, zeal or prayers. So the
small is not a full summary of the large. God heals, but the subject of healing
is much larger than the front seats in a church. Healing is broader and
fuller than a few people having their headaches cured, or their sore backs
eased of pain. Healing is part of the big picture, though it is also included
in the small.
The broad view of health and healing covers all human
frailties, all genetic disorders, recovery from death, restoration of all
things, the ultimate expansion of God’s everlasting kingdom, and whatever
fullness God has planned for that kingdom somewhere in the future. It is only
the small-mindedness of people which makes the difficulties seem impossible to
solve. Lack of understanding leads to false conclusions.
If we could all see things from the larger view, the expansive view, the broad,
wide aerial view from heaven which God alone has, we would not get so caught up
in the minutiae of questions.
Perhaps Jesus on the cross is the best example of this. To
many on-lookers Jesus was doomed, cursed and beyond help. Nobody survived
crucifixion (when it was carried out properly). Yet Jesus was about to turn the
cross into a healing power. The pain was about to become a river of life. Death
was about to become the elixir of eternal youth. The small view saw a man
suffering on a cross, but the large view saw a 4000 year sequence from the
first Adam to the second Adam, and during this time the preservation of a few
souls during a global flood, the rise and fall of empires, the slow
transformation of nations from scattered tribes, wars, droughts, earthquakes,
volcanic eruptions, inventions and progress, followed by more thousands of
years, the Dark Ages, the Reformation, the rise of modern city states, until
finally that suffering man on the cross became the returning King of Glory. And
even this summary is a very narrow view of something indescribably vast.
There was a man in
But the larger picture placed the man in God’s everlasting
kingdom at the day of resurrection, and the sickness he went through paled into
insignificance compared to the enormous weight of glory he was to be welcomed
into. God had obviously over-ruled and called the saint away from this Earth.
The fellowship should have accepted this. The healing had occurred, but after
the grave not before it.
So health and healing are two of the tiny words we use to summarise huge things. The third tiny word is prosperity.
I believe it is God’s will to give to most (but not all)
Christians, health, healing and prosperity, but there are always exceptions,
and we must never allow the exceptions to become the rule. And we must be very
careful about what we mean when we say “health”, “healing” and “prosperity”
because there are many shades to each of these colours.
The small view is pathetically shallow. If health and
healing means : no sickness all my life, even if I live 120 years, and if I
break a leg it will snap back to health 5 minutes later, then I will have
entered something like Edenic conditions before sin entered
the world. Or perhaps Jesus has returned? And can you imagine the rush to join
the church if this miraculous health happened to all Christians? And think of
the mess it would make of theology – people would be walking by “sight”, not by
faith; false Christians would be just as self-centred
as ever, and many people would use their God-given health as a tool to advance
their evil work as they went about in Satan’s kingdom.
Health, healing and prosperity had very little positive
impact on
Ten lepers were healed yet only one returned with thanks.
Health and healing are sometimes given, but they are never
the rule. The Church is sometimes blessed by health and healing, but this is
the exception, never the rule. The big picture cannot allow for that sort of
thing just yet.
Prosperity also means many different things. To the greedy and
covetous it means money and worldly goods. To the money-hungry Christian it
means receiving more than he or she gives – like exorbitant interest. It can
lead a Christian to gamble, and make prayers for lotto tickets or whatever. It
can draw the saints into commercial cults where they prey on their brothers and
sisters in order to make more money. God suddenly becomes the money-machine who
must be played, coaxed, pleaded with and pressured to shower the wealth down.
Prosperity of a kind was something Jesus always had, yet he
grew up in a poor neighbourhood and during his whole
public ministry he always depended on others for his support. This shows that
prosperity must be a larger thing than money or clothes, houses or goods.
Perhaps the meaning of “prosperity” expands to fill the whole universe, and the
tiny definition we sometimes have is the sort of thing a beggar might imagine
who, in his ignorance is only reflecting the state of his own heart? Why must
we measure prosperity in terms of things anyway? The beggar would consider a
three-course meal a great wealth, whereas a wealthy person would need a palace
to think of wealth. It is all relative.
So the small view always produces sin and ignorance,
frustration and anger. The small view is the binoculars held the wrong way
round. The narrow understanding is the Jewish leader who wouldn’t pick the corn
on a Sabbath in case it was considered “work”. The tiny definition excludes the
bigness of God and reduces His Great Heart down to a formula made of a handful
of words.
We must be very careful what we mean when we use the words
health, healing or prosperity. They are not small concepts.
…………………………………………………….
Another big three are the things which all Christians have
(or OUGHT TO have) in common: Love, Freedom and Equality.
I came across a Christian woman who had married then
divorced a Christian man only to marry another Christian man. I’m stressing
“Christian” because there are some who like to look for a loophole and say that
non-Christian marriages don’t count.
The woman was worried that she might be sinning, because the
only place in the whole Bible which allows for a person to re-marry is when the
other partner in the marriage has committed adultery (Matthew 19:9). There have
been many cases, in my knowledge, where Christians have been shunned or spoken
to unkindly over this issue, but what does the Bible say?
First, we are to love each other, regardless of what
we might think of another Christians conduct. If we are told to love our
enemies, how much more should we love our brethren? There is no room for
intolerance or rejection on our part, even though we may rightly feel disgust
or anger over what our brother or sister has done.
Second, we are called to walk in God’s sight as individuals.
This means that I am accountable to God for my life as an individual, just as
all other saints are accountable to God for their individual lives as
individuals. I cannot hide behind a group, and neither can any other saint. It
is as if God has only one human on the entire planet – you.
Certainly there is discipline in a healthy church, but there
is no warrant given for individual Christians to go about laying down the Law
when they see offences in other Christians. It is no saint’s job to be a
gossip, a judge, or a busybody.
The only time I would see a place for presenting a criticism
is indirectly through the preaching of the Word, and in the case of someone
actually asking me for my opinion. If I volunteer my thoughts I am stepping out
of my place and invading God’s territory.
So what is the correct approach?
Kindly, and lovingly present what the Bible says then back
off. I am not God, or an apostle. I am restricted to only one authority, the
Bible, and it is my ‘job’ to present what God says. If I am asked, I share what
God says, but if I am not asked I say nothing. I try to love, regardless of
what the other saint is doing.
As Paul said in Romans 12, some saints eat meat, some don’t.
It’s really none of my business what they do, and by the same token they ought
to leave me alone too.
This principle can be extended widely. There was a time when
many Christians thought slavery was supported by the Bible, but other
Christians thought otherwise. If I had lived 200 years ago I might have
defended slavery “from the Scriptures”. I could not do that today.
Some Christians march, fly or sail to war, believing God is
with them – others stay home believing that God does not support Christians in
uniform.
Some Christians go into politics – others refuse to.
Some Christians avoid church – others go every Sunday.
Some Christians prefer a Pastor – others prefer elders.
Some Christians go to movies – others are sure Satan rules
The list is extensive, and in every case it is none of my
business what another Christian thinks or does. To God they answer and to God
alone they must live.
So Christian love is (or ought to be) unconditional,
and as broad as God’s heart. Every erring child in His kingdom needs to know
they are accepted, and loved – otherwise they lose the incentive to keep
trying. God knows our ignorance and frailty, but he never gives up on us,
despite our shaky and often pathetic progress. In the same way a father
supports a child as it learns to ride a bicycle, and never abandons the child
when the first (or second, or third) crash happens. It takes time. God is
patient with his saints. He helps and supports, and picks up, and restarts, and
encourages, year after year. He loves us.
But look at the contrasts in the churches which God has to
‘live with’ so to speak: Some Christians revel in vegetarianism, some don’t.
Some fire missiles, some march for peace. Some smoke, some hate cigarettes.
Some drink, some will not touch a drop. Some marry and re-marry (and remarry
again), without a single twinge of the conscience. Some will never marry. Some
listen to rock music. Some prefer classical. Some gamble, some refuse to. Some
worship on Saturday, others prefer Sunday. Some practise
baptism, others don’t. Some have communion, some see no place for it. Some play
computer games excessively, others never play them. Some love the TV soaps,
others abhor the soaps. Some work hard, some are lazy. Some are evangelical,
some couldn’t care less. Some read the Bible every day, others almost never.
Some have hobbies, some refuse them as ‘distractions’.
There is huge variety in the Church, and a multitude of
personalities and lifestyles. But God loves all the saints and accepts all
their choices and the variety which follows. Many of these choices are a result
of ignorance, or sin, but it is not for me, or any other Christian to go about
‘correcting’ these saints unasked.
Freedom. This word is always open to abuse, so
before we look at what it means we ought to see what it does not mean. Freedom
does not mean the abandonment of God or His rules. Liberalism is not freedom. License
is not freedom. Obedience, as an act of choice, is the best form of freedom,
when that obedience is given to the Lord Jesus. True freedom is willing
submission to Jesus.
But having said this we know that Christians are free to act
and speak, dress and sing, work and play, in a wide
variety of ways within the limits laid down by God. It is a bit like swimming
between the flags – one can do all sorts of things in the water between the
flags but there is great danger in doing anything at all outside those flags.
For example, some Christian women like to wear make-up,
while others avoid it. Some Christian men are not bothered by their ‘scarecrow’
appearance, while other men are fastidious. Some Christians like loud music and
emotionalism, while other Christians prefer to be quiet and restrained. Some
Christians play sport on Sunday, others will not. Some tithe, others refuse to.
Some are generous, some are not. There are dozens of issues over which
Christians differ – in the areas of worship, dress, music, dance, the media,
politics, literature, art and so on. The Bible says Christians are free to
choose whatever lifestyle they want, with the only provision being the moral
law – they ought to ask themselves : is what I am
doing morally clean, free of obscenities, honest, true, etc? Is it free of
cruelty? Is it free of pride or snobbery? Is it kind to animals? Is it helpful?
Is it a good witness to other saints? i.e. Is it Christian?
Paul exercised his own personal freedom when he said he was
a Greek to the Greeks and a Jew to the Jews, in fact whatever the other
man was like, Paul was like him (without sinning). This shows a huge amount of
flexibility and adaptability. Paul knew how to change his manner/s to match
whoever he was trying to reach. His words, dress and interests were modified to
meet the lifestyle of the person he was witnessing to.
This highlights one of the big problems which most churches
have today. They are often very inflexible - unable to change in order to reach
the people outside their doors. Instead, they expect the lost to come in and
for them to change to match the church. This is like expecting a visitor
to a hospital to change his clothes, put on a white coat, wear a stethoscope,
and use medical jargon in a doctor’s conference. The lost or unchurched person usually has no wish to be like the Christians,
nor do they usually understand what Christians are talking about when they use
jargon like “propitiation” and “Eucharist” or “ecumenical”.
But ‘freedom’ is wider than simply making choices between
the flags. God has never barred the way for more than that, although He has
given warnings about what will happen of the flags are ignored. Christians are
in fact free to be whatever they like. They are free to do and say anything
they wish. God will discipline them if they choose to stray beyond the flags,
but He does not make it impossible. Adam and Eve were permitted to sin, but
they were warned about the consequences. Here is the perfect balance between
free will, responsibility and discipline. Discipline does not negate choice,
but discipline does confirm the fact that choice is available.
As Paul said “All things are lawful to me, but not all
things are expedient” 1Cor.6:12.
Equality. Why is it that, whenever
fellowships form, there are always some who take leadership roles, and others
who take less public or less obvious roles? These imbalances arise because of
differences in personality, attitude and gifting (talents) within the
fellowship. But in a fellowship where someone leads, there is a natural
tendency to regard that leader as more important than the people who prefer to
be listeners. Unfortunately, leaders often wear special clothes, badges, door
signs, or practise distinguishing ceremonies. They
give orders, or take on more responsibility than they ought to. The Bible says
all Christians are equal – in the sense that they are all of equal value to
God. Certainly some talents are more public than others, but since when did
gifts equal value? Does a parent love the talented piano-playing son more than
the hairdresser daughter? Does a parent love the singing child more than the
non-singing? Such bias would be unjust.
In the same way God has no favourites.
Gifted Christians are expected to serve just as much as less gifted, and Jesus
actually commanded Christians to place in leadership those who were “least
esteemed” among them. Luke 9:48. This turns leadership on its head! It is not
the loud, ‘charismatic’ person who should take the lead, but the humble, meek
person, who places God’s word above his own ability. Some leadership is simply
an expression of pride, or emulation, a desire to ‘call the shots’, and perhaps
to gain money.
Equality works on many levels. There should be equality
between men and women, adults and children, and children with children. The
oldest saint should not think of him or herself as any better than the youngest
new convert. The only difference between Christians is the distance down the
road we have all travelled. Some of us are just
beginning the journey, while others have walked for many years. The road is the
same under all our feet and we all share in the same everlasting kingdom when
this life is over. That is a kind of eternal equality too.
Footnotes:
The happiest Christians are those who have found no reason
to condemn themselves (Romans 14:22) They have escaped
the misery of self-condemnation because they love themselves. They love
themselves because they know God loves them, and that is more important
to them than worldly peer pressure, church peer pressure, or self-image
pressure. They know that the relationship they have with God is a good one.
They enjoy being themselves, and they live life according to their relationship
to God – not according to other people’s expectations or rules or customs.
Inner harmony is the greatest blessing in the Christian life, and it is also
the basis on which a Christian should live.
If I love God, I will also love myself. If I am made in
God’s image I must accept that I am the way I am because God made me this way.
If I love myself, I can have the confidence to love others. Without self-love
life can be miserable, but with self-love, I can enjoy being me, and better
demonstrate God working in my life.