Saturday, February 26, 2022

World Walkers in the Word

When we take our contentious conversations like on race, gender, and politics onto Twitter, Facebook
and other social media, we can be forced into a two-dimensional mold, where slander and belligerence are rewarded, and where we’re taught (contrary to James 1:19) to be slow to hear, quick to speak, and quick to anger. As image-bearers of God we become little more than tribal mouthpieces against positions we want to try to eradicate.

We Christians, who are in the world but not of it, are nevertheless “world walkers” who navigate between its darkness and the light it’s been given. Our navigational beacon is described in Psalm 119:105 – “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” – This single verse sums up the hundreds of Scriptures that talk about light and darkness in the City of Man. The great 19th century preacher Charles Spurgeon graphically described the verse this way:

“We are walkers through the city of this world, and we are often called to go out into its darkness; let us never venture there without the light giving word, lest we slip with our feet. Each man should use the word of God personally, practically, and habitually, that he may see his way and see what lies in it. When darkness settles down upon all around me, the word of the Lord, like a flaming torch, reveals my way. Having no fixed lamps in eastern towns, in old time each passenger carried a lantern with him that he might not fall into the open sewer, or stumble over the heaps of ordure [dung] which defiled the road. This is a true picture of our path through this dark world: we should not know the way, or how to walk in it, if Scripture, like a blazing flambeau, did not reveal it. One of the most practical benefits of Holy Writ is guidance in the acts of daily life: it is not sent to astound us with its brilliance, but to guide us by its instruction. It is true the head needs illumination, but even more the feet need direction, else head and feet may both fall into a ditch. Happy is the man who personally appropriates God's word, and practically uses it as his comfort and counsellor, -- a lamp to his own feet.”

“And a light unto my path. It is a lamp by night, a light by day, and a delight at all times. David guided his own steps by it, and also saw the difficulties of his road by its beams. He who walks in darkness is sure, sooner or later, to stumble; while he who walks by the light of day, or by the lamp of night, stumbleth not, but keeps his uprightness. Ignorance is painful upon practical subjects; it breeds indecision and suspense, and these are uncomfortable: the word of God, by imparting heavenly knowledge, leads to decision, and when that is followed by determined resolution, as in this case, it brings with it great restfulness of heart.”

Wednesday, February 23, 2022

Don't Surrender the Theological High Ground

The past few years have been difficult for us all. The secular and evangelical world
as we know it has changed and is shifting at breakneck speed. The challenges are immense that face us all. God is doing things we never imagined. But rather than jointly pursuing the transcendent glory of God’s truth, linking arms with fellow believers, and standing together to defend the faith once delivered to all the saints, we’ve become small-minded, opinionated, prideful, and petty.

Cloaked in a façade of “theological disagreement” and convincing ourselves that we're “defending the truth,” evangelicalism has surrendered the theological high ground for the miry pits of a self-righteous argumentative spirit. Social media has become nothing more than the clothesline for the evangelical dirty laundry of our quarrels and back-biting, giving the lost world even more reasons to reject the Shepherd because of the behavior of his sheep.

We’ve abandoned godly intellectual discourse for spiteful attitudes reduced to name-calling and character-destroying tactics. We’ve sequestered ourselves into camps and cliques, demonstrating that divisiveness is of greater value than the unity for which our Lord prayed. We’ve thrown away the succulent fruit of humility, love, kindness, and peace, choosing instead to feast upon rotten imitations that feed our self-righteous individualism. We’ve erected walls and rifts within the family of God that only repentance and forgiveness can tear down.

Doctrine is always worth debating and truth worth defending. But over-spiritualizing our opinions leads to pettiness and has no place in the household of God. A wise person can always differentiate between petty arguments and worthy debates (Prov 10:19; 11:12; 17:27). Remember the instruction of Scripture to set aside our differences in order to work together for the sake of the gospel (2 Tim 2:23; 1 Cor 1:10; 11:18; Phil 1:27). Any church, ministry, or institution that abandons this command is not worthy of the name.

When those we used to call “friends” become our enemies, it’s time we reevaluate our personal walk with Christ, repent of our sin, seek God's forgiveness, and extend forgiveness to our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Please accept my most sincere apology and forgive me for any part I have ever played in this infighting. We are better than this, brothers and sisters. We have been delivered from the kingdom of darkness and placed into the kingdom of light—act like it.

Some of you will go on about your business, but to those with open ears, as a fellow-laborer, I implore you to abandon these petty strategies for the sake of the gospel. If we’re going to show ourselves to be fools, be fools for the sake of the cross!

 

by Dustin Benge
Associate Professor of Biblical Spirituality and Historical Theology
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary