Exploring the Issue of Group Uniformity In Practice (Part IV)
I want to be honest with you about my perspective on the issues of church discipline, written standards and uniformity. I do not have definite answers to many questions that are raised. I have been wrestling with these questions for years. My desire is to respect history and tradition, but also to ultimately better understand more clearly God’s Word on the matter and to be able to make application in real life situations.
On one end of the spectrum we hear those that say (not necessarily in our circles) that our only duty is to love. For example, I just came across this quote on social media where the discussion was about a mainline denomination’s struggle over the issue of homosexuality and related issues. One person posted the following:
“Just love. Get off the fence and love. How can you go wrong? If someone else is sinning in their choice of lifestyle, God will decide, you don’t have to. It’s very freeing, those words of Jesus. Remember when the crowd brought the adulterous woman before Jesus? He sent them all away, not their job to judge or punish, his alone. Just love, and take care of the speck in your eye.”
Another posted:
“…just live, love and welcome like Jesus. He, after all, is the Word of God. The two commandments he left us with will solve this problem quite nicely — love. Can you actually turn away someone you are commanded to love. I don’t get it.”
My point is not to discuss the issue they were referring to, but to point out that there is a growing belief among believers that our only duty is to love, not judge.
On the other end of the spectrum, it would seem to me that there are and have been environments and situations in some “plain” churches that border on spiritual abuse in the standards that are required, but even more so in the way violations of the standards are approached both in attitude and practice.
I want to share in this series some of the rationale used in the Anabaptist/Brethren community in the past for the necessity of standards of lifestyle (either written or otherwise). I feel compelled to do so, because I am not sure how much awareness there is of our history, particularly in the younger generations. I do want to be clear that not every group in the Anabaptist/Brethren community has had identical viewpoints on these issue, either in the past or now. Also, some of the viewpoints have obviously changed with the passing of time.
I also would direct you back to Adam Lehigh’s comments on Part II of this series. He identifies two broad categories on the concept of uniformity and then asks some important questions. I know there are some of you who read this blog that would have some input and questions. I encourage you to share your thoughts.
DSJ
One thought on “Exploring the Issue of Group Uniformity In Practice (Part IV)”
We came out of a mainstream church about 20 years ago where the teaching was heavily focused on God’s love. It is true that God loves. His love is greater than any other. But that is not His only defining characteristic. I believe our walk with Him suffers when we opt to cherry-pick the characteristics of God that we like the most to define or know Him by. God is loving but among other characteristics, God is also holy and righteous.
It has been said that if God was not both merciful and righteous, Christ would not have needed to come to earth to be man’s savior. If God was only merciful, He could have forgiven man’s sin without paying the price of His son. If God was only righteous, no man could be saved.
Jesus teaches us something in both the story of the woman caught in adultery and in the case of the speck in the eye. Sometimes we might hear the first part of His message as “don’t judge”. But was Jesus teaching not to judge? Did he tell the accusers not to stone the adulterous woman? No. He told them to first look at their own lives and then let he who is righteous cast the first stone. After the accusers went away, Jesus didn’t “Just live, love and welcome” the woman. He told the woman to go and sin no more.
Likewise in the case of the speck in the eye, the lesson is not simply to love the person with the speck in their eye. Rather, it is two-fold. First, to examine our own eyes. We cannot see clearly and judge righteously until the specks are removed from our own eyes. Secondly, once the specks are removed from our eyes, we can see clearly to help remove the specks from the eyes of others.
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