We’ve all gotten bad advice from time to time. If you’re like me, most of the bad advice was free…and most of it from fellow 16-year-olds who didn’t have any more of an idea of what good advice was than I did. Some of that advice is just peer pressure…but that’s another email. I think a lot of people get their biblical advice that way. Catchy phrases that we think are Bible verses, misconceptions of forgiveness and what it means to be a Christian, and general “here’s what I would do” type suggestions from friends and co-workers that are based more on the human sense of right and wrong than a biblical sense of what it means to be holy. Well, I take that back…an eye for an eye is absolutely biblical, but only under Old Testament Law. And since most of us call ourselves Christians and aren’t wearing a tallit, then chances are good that we’re not really under Old Testament Law at the moment and need a better standard of “what we would do if it were us”.
But the main point I want to focus on today is the biblical advice we get from pop culture. We like to rationalize our behavior, and if we can find one more person to agree with what we do, then that must mean we’re ok. And if that second person is a celebrity, well then…all the better. We all know that celebrities are well-known for their always-correct opinions. I mean, they have to be right, right? Otherwise they wouldn’t be millionaires for being able to play a guitar, right? Because playing a guitar or knowing how to act in a movie certainly means you’re a biblical scholar, right?
I’ll cut to the chase on this one because this one’s prone to be a little long anyway, so let’s just jump in and get started. Miranda Lambert has a song out called “Heart Like Mine”. In her song, she sings about how much braver she is after her second drink and that her daddy cried after he saw her tattoo, and how she’s not the kind of girl that you’d bring home to mom. But the chorus of the song makes my skin crawl as she justifies herself by singing that she’d heard that Jesus drank wine. And just because Jesus drank wine means that He’ll be toasting her with a long-stemmed glass when she gets to Heaven. And why? Because “he’d understand a heart like mine”…and that’s where she’ll get no argument from me. Jesus fully understands the non-repentant, “I’m going to do it my way” heart. The country duo Big & Rich had a song with similar sentiments. And from a general standpoint of the temptations we face from this world every day, their song is a great portrayal. But then you get to lines like how he gets a little crazy trying to have a little fun, and he may be passed out on Friday night, but on Sunday morning he’ll be passing the collection plate. And yeah, we all stumble. None of us are perfect…not even me. But you have to be trying harder than the song makes it sound.
Romans 6 makes it clear that while Grace saves us, and Grace is a wonderful thing, we’re not supposed to just keep on sinning so that we can get more that Grace. It’s not a situation where you keep pulling your back so you can get another prescription of the “good stuff” from the doctor. Grace is not a treatment. Grace is a cure. And if you’ve been cured, then you don’t suffer the disease anymore. Romans 6:1-4 1 What shall we say then? Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase? 2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life. Put another way…like I said, Grace isn’t a treatment, it’s a cure.
You’ve been raised into the likeness of Christ. And you might not want to hear that you should die to your old wants and desires…but that doesn’t stop it from being the truth. 1 Peter 4 talks about walking the path that Christ walked. 3 For the time that has passed was sufficient for you to do what the non-Christians desire. You lived then in debauchery, evil desires, drunkenness, carousing, drinking bouts, and wanton idolatries. 4 So they are astonished when you do not rush with them into the same flood of wickedness, and they vilify you. 5 They will face a reckoning before Jesus Christ who stands ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 Now it was for this very purpose that the gospel was preached to those who are now dead, so that though they were judged in the flesh by human standards they may live spiritually by God’s standards. Put another way…”hey, let’s go out Friday after work and get good and drunk!!” Ummm, no thanks. I’m a Christian, and I don’t go to bars to get drunk anymore. I’m setting an example for my kids and those around me, and while drinking alcohol isn’t a sin in and of itself, drinking it to excess is, and it opens the door to decisions I may regret when I can’t think straight. Plus, there might be a Christian that isn’t sure about the whole “drinking” thing and my public drinking might cause my brother to stumble. So since it’s not all about me anymore, but about Christ living in me (because I’ve died to myself, you see), I’m going to pass. Y’all have fun and be safe, but my time for that sort of thing is passed.
Raise your hand if you thought that I sounded a little corny just then. Yeah…my hand’s up, too. You know whose hand isn’t up? The hand with the nail scars. Those hands aren’t raised. Because Romans 14 makes it clear that it’s not up to the mature in their faith to tell the others to “get over it”…it’s up to the mature to sacrifice their wants and desires for the betterment of others. You know what you should want more than a good time? The spiritual uplifting of your Christian family. 20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. For although all things are clean, it is wrong to cause anyone to stumble by what you eat. 21 It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything that causes your brother to stumble. So, yes, the mature Christian may realize that all things are clean, but if they cause someone to stumble, then it’s unclean BECAUSE it made them stumble. Just like everything else in Christianity, it’s all about humility and submission. The first shall be last and the last shall be first. That’s not about standing in line at the pearly gates. That’s about submitting yourselves to others as Christ did. In 1 Corinthians 8:1-13, Paul is talking about food sacrificed to idols – and this is the passage I equate to a lot of practices that some see as acceptable. He tells the church at Corinth that while some may eat the sacrificed meat with a clear conscience, other can’t. And if the ones that can’t are caused to stumble because of the ones that are…then it’s the ones that are who are responsible. Their “knowledge” (as Paul calls it) that it is not meat that makes a person unclean is great, but it causes a weaker brother to stumble…and that’s not great. Verse 13 “Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.” We’re supposed to have that sort of resolve, but I know I don’t have it…I’m trying to, though. Growing up my mom and my aunt were very close, and most things we did it was like 3 kids instead of me and 2 cousins. Explains why I have an only child personality with a sense of oldest child superiority and my cousin (who is actually the older of 2 sisters) has a middle child complex. But I’m digressing. The point is that growing up I was told “Don’t do that. They’ll see you doing it, and they’ll try it. And they’re not old enough to do it yet,” more times than I care to admit. Made me FURIOUS growing up! “Well I AM old enough! So Why can’t I?!” Drove me crazy, but when it comes to spiritual brothers and sisters, it’s the attitude we’re to have.
Listen for the Whisper that tells you that even though it might be a catchy tune with some cute phrases, they’re not necessarily scriptural. Christianity is submission. It’s submission to God, to Jesus Christ, and to others. “Going to church” doesn’t excuse how you act. “Changing how you act” excuses how you act. I feel quite certain that Jesus would have rather spent his days growing old and telling stories on the front porch to the multitudes. But it wasn’t parables that saved us. It was His choosing to die for you that saved you. And regardless of what some song on the radio might try to have you believe…if you’re not dying to yourself, you’re not doing it right. It’s not about keeping on keeping on with the way you always were…it’s about keeping on keeping on trying to be the Christian you’re supposed to be. And partying like there’s no God every Friday night and then praying like there’s no tomorrow every Sunday isn’t the Christian you should be striving to be. And when it gets down to it, it’s not about Jesus understanding a heart like ours, anyway…it’s about US understanding a heart like His.
~Dwayne
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