Was Paul a Good Christian?
April 26, 2005 Posted by Roger Overton
Over the past week I’ve been in quasi-dialogue with leaders from the church I just left. Have we gotten anywhere? Not really. The problem is that we haven’t even been talking about whether or not the church is in step with scripture; instead, we’ve been talking about how mean I am for claiming that what the church is doing doesn’t line up with scripture.
The questions I’ve asked, without answers, are 1) am I not allowed to compare the church with scripture? or 2) am I just not supposed to say anything if they don’t jive?
Christians today seem terrified of any sense of disunity or disagreement; hence the movement towards non-denominationalism. It seems that many would rather pretend that disagreements don’t exist than discuss them and truly tolerate one another. Or perhaps it’s just that doctrine really doesn’t matter, so our disagreements aren’t worth mentioning.
Our goal as Christians is to faithfully live out what God has revealed for us. In order to do this, we must study what He’s revealed (the Bible) and continually reform our thoughts, feelings, and actions to what God has put there for us. However, God didn’t just give us His Word and expect us to live it on our own; he gave us a community within which we can better understand and live out what He’s said. The Body of Christ, the church, has a responsibility within itself to be accountable to the Word of God, and a responsibility to stand against the philosophies of the world, taking every thought captive for Christ.
The first step for the Body of Christ to remain faithful to the Word is humility. We must accept that we could be wrong in our understanding of what it says, and therefore be open and willing to listen to those within the Body who find our understanding to be incorrect. A sure sign of a lack of humility is an unwillingness to listen to those who disagree. The next step should be obvious, read the Bible! We cannot faithfully follow Christ if we will not humble ourselves before the Word of God
Some Christians simply won’t do this; instead they accuse people who are critical of being judgmental (in a bad sense), arrogant, mean-spirited, selfish, etc. Apparently since I’ve said the church isn’t being faithful to scripture I don’t live “in the Spirit of Christ.” My response- did Paul?
I could point to places where Paul calls for discernment, or where he even names false teachers, but there’s one passage that really hits it home. In Galatians (2:11-14), Paul accuses Peter and Barnabas of hypocrisy. Did Paul question their salvation? their sincerity? their spiritual gifts? No, he simply said their actions didn’t line up with the truth of the gospel. Paul wrote that under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, so it’s hard to imagine him not living in the “Spirit of Christ.” If I have to choose a side here, I’m going to go with Paul.
By God’s Word and His Word alone may we hold each other accountable.
Related posts:
- The Purpose of Church Part I: What is It?
- “Saved” an Insider Christian Word?
- Interview With Glenn Lucke – Part One: Learning and Living the Christian Story
- ETS 2007: The Practice of Balanced Apologetics in Paul's Address in Acts 17 by H. Wayne House
- Book Review: Passing the Plate by Christian Smith and Michael Emerson
- The Purpose of Church Part II: What is it for?
Posted in Main Page, Roger's Posts, Theology
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April 26th, 2005 at 9:22 am
In the spirit of not being afraid of disunity or disagreement
. . .
The tough thing is this. Paul was an Apostle of Christ. His authority as a reliable interpreter of the Scripture flows from this fact.
It's hard to know how to read this post. Are the leaders of your old church denying the authority of Scripture? Or do they think they are correct in their interpretation and you are not? If that's the case, then they side with Paul as well. Unity is overemphasized, but, like tolerance, it is also a legitimate goal in its own right. (“Let them be as one as we are one,” though I won't say I'm siding with Jesus here b/c it implies you are not).
If both “sides” believe they are doing their best to follow Scripture, and neither claims to be apostles, I'm not sure what this post does other than cloak one side in biblical authority and describe the others as acting in bad faith.
Hard to go half-way with personal posts of this nature, imo. Either get into the substantive nature of the disputes and show how you are correct, or make the (rather obvious) point about siding with Paul on the question of disagreement without referencing the personal situation.
April 26th, 2005 at 11:16 am
Thanks Micah, I suppose I wasn't really clear. There are two points here. The first is that none of us have it all together, so if we're going to faithfully follow Christ we need to be humble enough to listen to one another. The second is that if we don't do that we end up where many Christians are at (including the leaders of this church)- Anyone who doesn't fit what we believe and says we're wrong is obviously wrong and therefore a bad person.
I give them the benefit of the doubt that they are trying to follow God's Word. If they are, and they refuse to listen to someone who disagrees, as they have, then they believe they're following it perfectly, and there's no chance I could be right. Either that, or they don't think a member of the church has the right to hold the church accountable to scripture. That's where the bit about Paul comes in. He held Peter and Barnabas accountable, judging them, not by his authority as an apostle, but by the authority of the gospel. We have a responsibility as Christians to hold each other accountable by that same authority. Instead, they've decided to question my character simply for claiming the'yre doing something wrong. They don't care what I have to say about what they're doing, that I would even claim they're wrong makes me a bad guy. For some reason I don't think Peter and Barabas responded to Paul that way. I suspect they were humble enough to at least listen to him.
April 26th, 2005 at 11:30 am
Ah, that does make it clearer. I think you are spot on. Thanks for the additional context!
April 26th, 2005 at 11:55 am
Man, I'm sorry that you had to go through all that. It's upsetting to me to read that they still won't have intelligent discourse over issues.
And it's sad to see them turn it around and do a bit of character assassination. Gee, what deja vu.
April 26th, 2005 at 12:48 pm
Roger, I think this is a really good post. Somewhere along the line, we (the people in this society) have started taking our opinions too personally. You're right that disagreements are taken as personal insults and discouraged as “mean.” I remember reading once about C.S. Lewis and all his fellow professors. They got together and disagreed about everything, but they were all great friends. They just didn't take attacks on their ideas personally. They were able to separate their self-worth from their ideas. I have no idea how we can get back to this, but I hope it's possible.
April 26th, 2005 at 7:03 pm
For those who know the church I'm talking about, the head pastor isn't guilty of what I've talked about here. I'll just say it was a couple of others in leadership. I met with the head pastor today and he was very willing to discuss the issues.
April 27th, 2005 at 1:40 am
I wonder if the way to get back to the tolerance and vigorous debate exhibited by CS Lewis and his buddies is to simply not waste our time with folks who are so overly sensitive and proud-beyond-question. Sure, we are to bear with the weaknesses of our fellow Christians, but at some point our putting up with foolishness actually promotes it and keeps us from truly productive Christian action. I applaud you Roger, and the Spirit of Christ you are exhibiting, not only in interacting with your church leadership, but in leaving the church altogether. -S. Wagner
April 27th, 2005 at 2:12 am
Thanks Steve. Of course, it's hard to “not waste our time” with people who act this way when they're in leadership at our churches. There comes a time when it is just casting pearls before swine. The difficulty is deciding when that time has come.
(I don't mean to call anyone a swine here, just using a Biblical metaphor for wasting time)
April 27th, 2005 at 12:01 pm
Brother, I'm really sorry about this. I pray for reconciliation, though I'm not sure what that would look like in this situation. I'm not the first person to make this statement, but humility is often grossly absent in our churches. (Is that a humble statement?) Stories such as what you've articulated make me sad. I'm really sorry that you've gone through this.
I think that it makes sense that people would take their beliefs personally. For all of us who are Christians, we have thrown our lot in with God's kingdom. It and our (limited) beliefs about the kingdom are the sources of our identity. If we feel some kind of threat is made upon that identity, we naturally become defensive. I'm not saying that this excuses anyone's actions, I'm just saying that it is what I observe about human behavior. Anyone familiar with the (in)famous Barth/Brunner debate knows how their friendship was ruined because of their disagreements regarding natural revelation. It probably would be beneficial for us all to learn to communicate and disagree better.
April 30th, 2005 at 7:38 pm
“It seems that many would rather pretend that disagreements don
May 2nd, 2005 at 2:18 am
Thanks guys.
It's important to remember in all of this that there is no perfect church. Where ever we go we will be dissapointed, this side of Judgement at least. Our responsbility it to be a light wherever we are, and sometimes that means finding a new place to be a light. Let's pray we can all be good representatives of Christ whereever we are.