I used to belong to The One True Church, but as good as that may sound, it was actually better than that. The One True Church was its informal name, the formal one being The One and Only True Church. Yes, we were that good!
Well, anyway, before I go on, let me clarify that it might not have been the same The One and Only True Church that you’re thinking of. No, it was a new one and it started in my lifetime, which is particularly interesting, since knowing that, we also claimed to have started in Acts Chapter 2. And if you had asked us why we had to start over, the best we could figure is that things had somehow petered out. But thank God that we had the presence of mind to see that somebody needed to get busy and restore it all!
And yes, we had spun off from another One True Church who also had the same trouble explaining their line of succession, or the lack thereof. But they weren’t really the One True Church, we understood, but were simply deceiving themselves in thinking they were. We knew it because they weren’t doing what we were doing, and you had to be doing what we were doing or you couldn’t be the One True Church.
And we kept improving what we were doing year by year, which was also really interesting, because had we been our own competitor, we could have argued that, since we hadn’t been doing the new-and-improved things already, we simply could not have been the One True Church—and certainly not the One and Only True Church. Apparently, that’s a fair argument if you are already the One True Church, but not if you’re not.
You see, we were the New Testament Church. No, excuse me! We were THE New Testament Church—there being no other! And we were the best. And none other could compare. And our leaders were the best, too, except the ones who weren’t, of course but they didn’t count—which is also interesting, since we were frequently treated to sermons about the bad leaders in the Many False Churches, and how it was a proof that those churches were not of God. But thank God that our own bad leaders could be no such proof against us! And isn’t it cool how that works?
It was tenuous, but that’s the way we spun it as we were making a name for ourselves—in the name of God, of course! God never told us we were The One and Only True Church, of course. No, we told ourselves that—quite like so many of the other churches were doing, and do to this day.
And I think there’s a certain predisposition that a lot of people have—a bent in this direction—a moral bias that makes it very attractive to belong to one of The One and Only True Churches. I had that disposition even when I was a child and was going to a Non One True Church, who never described themselves as elite. I distinctly remember thinking at an early age that our Non One True Church was most certainly better than the other Non One True Churches in our city! And that was without even having visited most of them!
And where did that come from? What kind of hubris is that???
Oh, my!
I was already predisposed to that sort of hubris, even in my elementary school years. And what if I were not alone in that? What if Dan Gilbert was right when he said,
If you’re like most people, then like most people, you don’t know you’re like most people.
Dan Gilbert. Stumbling on Happiness
What if they were like me? And what if I were like them? And what if most of us thought we were better than everybody else, whether we’d say it out loud or not—and whether we codified that sentiment into our official church doctrine or not?
What if this is a thing that a great many people have in common, whether down at First Basbyterian or Grace Luthodist or even over at the headquarters of the Demublicans or the Republicrats? What it it’s a trait of this world and worldly people bring it into the church with them, just as they bring it into everything else?
What if most people just tend to be like that? What if we’re no different from the ancients who disobeyed when God told them to spread out:
Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
Genesis 11:4. NIV
What if we are generally the sort who are suckered by this sort of campaign—who are drawn into it and can’t resist the appeal of it? What if we have a competitive streak, and have never matured to the point where we’ve embraced the fact that life, in God’s eyes, it simply not a competition, even if the World says it is?
I do think that the Bible calls us to decouple from that hubris, and to learn a better way. And for the record, here’s a quick stab at a prooftext for that point—though I could make quite an extensive case for it:
6 With what shall I come before the Lord
Micah 6:6-8. NIV
and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
We could argue all day about the propriety of building sanctuaries and towers and institutions , and how much is too much—but let’s cut to the chase and ask the more important question of whether we are indeed acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God, as it says in Verse 8.
I think that this one verse (and there are others!) quickly cuts us all down to size and exposes our pride. I think that we can rightly infer from this one verse that if we are not doing these things, then the rest of our religious activity is in vain when all is said and done.
And to this, many will begrudgingly admit something like:
“OK, fine! I’ll work harder on justice and mercy and humility.”
And they’ll sigh, and their face will fall, for they are rich in other things—sorta like this “rich young ruler” who came face to face with Jesus and had occasion to learn what Jesus required of him:
At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
Mark 10:22. NIV
And they’re like Cain, who was indeed willing to go to the trouble to make the sacrifice God required, but to do it only outwardly, and without a willing heart. And in his heart, there was hatred and jealousy there, which didn’t leave much room for justice and mercy and humility, though it left enough to make a show of being pious for a time—but when he was called out on it, that’s when the murder that was in his heart came out in his deeds.
And let me pause to point out that Cain’s face also fell when God confronted him with the deficits of his heart:
but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.
Genesis 4:5. NIV
(I’ll discuss the face-falling bit a little later in this post.)
Now, back to the business about making a show—I think this still plays out today. Is it not fairly famous language in the churches that too many people are “just going through the motions”? Of course, it is! And there’s plenty of talk about the common “lack of commitment” and such. And it’s so easy to look disappointedly on the lackluster involvement of others without ever stopping to wonder whether someone with a better point of view might rightly be looking on us with the same disappointment! That is to say, suppose that Dan Gilbert is right, and that we ourselves are like most people:
If you’re like most people, then like most people, you don’t know you’re like most people.
Dan Gilbert. Stumbling on Happiness.
We have the first and second greatest commandments written permanently into the record:
He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Luke 10:27. NIV
But really, how much time do we spend examining ourselves to see whether we are obeying this? (And there are several directives in the scriptures that believers should be doing this sort of self-examination!) I’ve been paying attention to this question for several years now, and I don’t see where the churches are giving it adequate attention. I think it is highly neglected—wantonly and sinfully so. It’s like so very many are not at churchfor this wholehearted purpose at all, but are much more allured by baser motives, like making a name for themselves, for example, or some other less-strenuous endeavors.
Some may think it outrageous of me, but I’ll tell you that I think that most churches are designed to accommodate people like this. Whether it’s by way of wandering unawares from the straight-and-narrow, or whether it’s by sinister premeditation, I’m not sure it matters so much, as the resulting state of compromise is roughly the same. They seem to be designed to accommodate the cognitive/moral miser, who simply doesn’t want to “spend” much on examining things and on improving his or her behavior. But like Cain (before the murder), they keep going through the motions, giving unacceptable sacrifices to God.
I spent many years of my life doing exactly that. And even though I have indeed made many improvements in my 58 years, I am surely still doing the same thing somehow or other! Surely, I have yet to examine something or other in my character—in my habits—even as I continue to notice some of what’s wrong with other people, and even as vestiges of my grumpy, disapproving self tend to tisk-tisk at the habitual failures of others.
And I don’t think this is easy business, this justice/mercy/humility standard of God. I think it’s messy business by its very nature, with plenty of failures to be dealt with. And even so—even though we are not flawless, and will never attain to perfection in this life—God still makes judgments about how we did.
And thank God that he is the judge, and not me, for I don’t have the wisdom to weigh out how a man should be judged for eternity. Sure, I can easily reason that a Hitler should go to the Lake of Fire, but what about a Jack, who, while being clearly not as wicked, surely has some of the same faults? Weighing this out (honestly, rationally, and responsibly) is simply not an easy matter—and I know this because I’ve spent considerable time pondering it! And yet I have full confidence that God will know what to make of me—and you, and everybody else.
But I also have full confidence that we will in fact be judged for everything we’ve said and done. And many (understandably) would rather ignore that fact—and go to churches (One True or not!) that help them do it. They do not want to obey the directive in this next verse:
Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.
Romans 11:22. NIV
In other words, what if we are like all those other people whom God will cut off because they are have fallen from the way of life he designed for mankind? What if I am like that? And you? And the people at your church?
That is certainly a possibility. But one doesn’t hear this talked about very often. And even in the One and Only True Churches that do happen to be more disposed to the (scriptural) idea that God does indeed require certain things for eternal life, there will always be the tendency of the members to place their confidence not in living according to the Way, the Truth, and the Life, but in “belonging to the church”, as if God will be impressed with that:
“OK, so you’ve committed the sins on this list, and it says here that you spent a lot of years just going through the motions, but fortunately, it also says here that you were a member of one of The One and Only True Churches, so I’ve gotta say that that outweigh the rest!”
From Jack’s imagination about what an imaginary God might say.
The fact of the matter is that all your heart and all your mind and all your soul and all your strength is a pretty tall order. And this is the very thing that the cognitive/moral miser, by his very disposition, wants to avoid—just like Cain wanted to avoid it. But look what happened to him. As it regards walking justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly before God, he unjustly murdered his brother, shunned a merciful talk that God had with him, and defied God to go off and live a selfish life elsewhere.
And what if we are like Cain more than we think we are?
That would be bad! But it is not our only choice, for Abel, who was also not perfect, was not like Cain. And this is not my own assessment, but God’s! And I think this proves that there is hope for us—that we have a say in the matter. There is some quality of the heart that God is looking for. And it can be quite puzzling to us—even as we see King David being approved of by God, even after his many egregious sins—including murder, I should add!
And if you were one of the ones who thought that judging a man’s life was easy work when I mentioned it earlier in this post, what do you say now?
I think that when a person is confronted with the truth about these things—about what we are like, and about what God requires of us, it’s going to affect their mood. It made Cain mad, and you could see it on his face. And it made that rich young ruler sad, and you could see that on his face, too. And I’ve seen similar anger and sadness on the faces (and read it in the tone) of a great many people over the years, as these things have come up in discussion.
And what if we are like those people, not fully willing to give up everything we have and to embrace our humble place under the rule of God?
That would be personally tragic. Right? And the proper response to that would be to humble ourselves and change our minds (which is what “repent” means), and to learn how to love justice and mercy and humility alike.
But suppose a person doesn’t want to do those things.
What can he do in his time on this Earth if he is not willing to love God with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength, but is willing to go through the motions somewhat, in order to keep fooling himself about God’s judgment?
Well, he can compare himself to others, and take pride that he himself is special—or that his camp is a special camp. And he can find temporary refuge in his camp from a God who is already on record as having said that every human eventually has a time of reckoning with God.
Cain was “a vagabond and a wanderer on the Earth”, whatever that meant. And this is interesting considering that he built cities where people could collect. So I’m not sure it meant that he was a loner. Nor am I sure it meant that he was literally a transient person, for surely he would have dwelt in his cities, at least for a time. And so, I suspect it is a reference somehow to his defiant disposition with respect to his accountability to God.
And apparently, he wanted to gather large numbers of people around him as an alternative way of life, which seems quite similar in some ways to the people at Babel gathering together to build that tower and to make a name for themselves, rather than to spread out as God had commanded. And it is similarl, too, to having a church that gathers together for purposes other than loving God with all their hearts, minds, souls, and strengths—whether that’s what they call it or not.
When I was in The One and Only True Church, many of us did indeed try harder than most, it seems to me. That is, we went through more motions—and went through them better—than the church down the street. This is true, but we so needed that church down the street to provide the dark backdrop against which our efforts would seem to make us the light of the world. We had to compare ourselves to them in order to keep feeling good about ourselves, because that’s how that particular form of self-deceit works:
If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load.
Galatians 6:3-5. NIV
We might have been carrying more of the load than was the church down the street, but we still weren’t carrying the whole load of Christ—and I can prove it by this very verse! That is, we were not obeying this very verse, for we were: 1) deceiving ourselves, and 2) comparing ourselves with someone else, and 3) not carrying the whole of our own load, and 4) not fully testing our own actions, either. And I was in it for 17 years before I began to figure some of this out. And even though I left it eventually, and did not join any other, I can still be falling into this very trap at home. (I do have Christian fellowship now, by the way—at least as good as any I ever had at church.)
The fact of the matter is that if we’re supposed to love God with all that we are, that’s a very demanding way of life. And if a guy doesn’t want to do that, he’s going to get mad or sad about it if you point that out. And I think that a lot of the churches exist as they do as a means to separating themselves from others who might just point out some of their deficits—or whose fellowship might just bring those differences awkwardly to the forefront. Much better, then, to keep a distance and criticize from afar, without having to hear the reciprocating criticisms from the other camp.
So in some ways, the modern church world is like a land that’s dotted with Towers of Babel, or Cities of Cain, each keeping itself somewhat separate, not only from each other, but from God.
And I really want to avoid such sin to God’s satisfaction. But I realize that I swim at my own risk, for I could get it wrong (just as so many others do). I aim to have the same attitude about it that Paul did when he wrote:
2 Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. 3 I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. 4 My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.
1 Corinthians 4:2-5. NIV
Paul considered it a “must” that he had to prove faithful to the requirements of God. It was not optional or negotiable; it was a must. He was adamant that he wanted praise from God, and he was not interested in receiving it from men, or from himself, or from The One and Only True Church.
It was the same Paul who wrote the following—which seems so utterly relevant to this discussion about whether a man will submit his own will to God or not:
For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
2 Timothy 3-4. NIV
Be sure to notice both the defiance and waywardness in this passage, along with the tactic of gathering others together to agree, even after shunning the very counsel of God himself. And I just have to wonder, “How much am I like that?”
It’s because we do not learn to examine ourselves that Dan Gilbert’s observation about us is so surprising:
If you’re like most people, then like most people, you don’t know you’re like most people.
Dan Gilbert. Stumbling on Happiness
Funny that it’s not a stretch for most of us to see what’s wrong with the next guy—and his church—but that it’s such a huge stretch for most of us to figure out that we might just be quite like that guy ourselves!
