Believe and Behave?

From Pastor Stephen

Today we have so many messages being crammed down our throats. We hear that to be a good citizen we must do this or don’t do that. All are asked to conform to the standards imposed upon us from our illustrious leaders and the pressure from our peers.

Believers often approach Christianity with the same expectation. They just want to know what acceptable behavior for a Christian is. They desire to hear the lists of do’s and don’ts. Conformity to those lists, for some, make up the soul of the Christian life.

Jeff Christopherson in the book, The Kingdom Matrix, addresses this topic. Let me share what Jeff writes.

“As a social ethic, there is nothing wrong with ‘believe and behave.’ It may have its place beautifully inscribed on our courtrooms and classrooms and sacred restrooms. But as an agent of change, conformation only diagnoses the disease without providing a path to health.”

“We are told from our sacred institutions that to be Christ-like is to act more loving, more kind, more patient. We readily agree, who can argue with that? So, we believe and behave and go about doing our best in acting more loving, more kind, and more patient. By mid-Sunday afternoon, after we have fought our way out of the sacred parking lot, waited for an eternity for our lunch with the sacred crowd at Cracker Barrel, and watched our favorite football team get pulverized by the enemy-we do not feel too loving or kind or patient. We feel irritable. We haven’t even made it to Monday and our peppy Galatians 5:22-23 sermon has already worn off like the healthy sloshing of Old Spice we lathered on just before church.”

“The only change we’ve experienced is a new and greater intensity of discouragement in the pit of our stomach. But wait just a minute. Were we told to act more loving, or to be more loving?’ Are we to act more patient and kind, or be more patient and kind? Hmmm. The former seems like the work of human will. The latter sounds like the work of the Spirit. The former is conforming to the patterns of our brand. The latter is becoming transformed by the renewing of our minds.”

“Neither the old lifeless legalism of ‘believe and behave,’ nor the cool, funky, hipper versions of a more open-minded conformation can produce the inner change that advances the Kingdom of God an inch. We may be marching in a straight line, but we will be following a different Commander.”

When you think about that James said we are to be doers of the word and not merely hearers, and when you combine that with Romans 12:2’s admonition to no longer conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…is it not correct to understand Christianity in terms of being “be-ers” of the Word and not actors only? That will demand the transformative work of the Holy Spirit in each of us. Let’s pray for each other concerning this in the challenging times we are living.

Bro. Stephen