Ironically, the feature of the creation that most
clearly reveals God is the human race, and it is with humans that we find it most
difficult to live in genuine peace and love. People are not always good, and thus
reflective of the character of God, so there is some reason for our difficulty in living
together. But even the brokenness of human life, wrenched almost beyond recognition from
it’s image bearing quality, there are still rifts in the clouds which let in glimpses
of sunlight and blue sky and speak of the limitless possibilities for goodness which
belong to creatures made in God’s image.
In the previous issue we began discussing the "life" or being side of a
Christian mind as it shows up in our relationship with people. We dealt there with two
aspects: love and humility. Love, or compassion, or brotherly kindness is a solemn
responsibility and a glorious possibility for those who have been touched by God’s
love and in whose hearts the Holy Spirit has begun to pour that divine love which was
incarnate in Jesus (Romans 5:5). The two great commandments of love to God and to our
neighbor are inseparable. We cannot love God if we do not love people. John makes the
point in these words, "If someone says ‘ I love God’ and hates his brother,
her is a liar; for the one who hates his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom
he has seen." (John 4:20) The inference is unavoidable, that all humans bear
God’s image, no matter how disfigured it may be.
We saw humility to be incumbent upon us for at least three reasons. We should be humble
because, unexpected as it may seem, God is humble. God humble? Jim Shire raises this
intriguing question in Discipleship of the Mind. The answer seems inescapable.
Surely no member of the Blessed Trinity can have a characteristic unshared by the others,
and surely, Christ is humble (Phil. 2:5-9). The thought of God’s humility is,
nonetheless, awe-inspiring.
Furthermore, we should be humble because we are finite, and God is infinite. And, finally,
we should be humble because we are sinners. We need to approach God with an ever-deepening
sense of weakness and inborn rebelliousness, and we need to be humbled and gentled in our
relation to others by the same attitude.
We come now to three other qualities of the Christian mind in its relation to other people
- godliness, patience and peace.
GODLINESS:
The Greek word for "godliness" is seldom used in the New Testament for
Christian faith and life. The reason is not hard to find, and it provides an interesting
sidelight on the way the Bible was written to take account of the prevalent culture at the
time of writing. In New Testament days, the word "godliness", perhaps best
translated by the English word "piety", was a familiar word in the Roman world.
It referred to service to the many heathen divinities and regularly carried moralistic way
of looking at human conduct. One needed to be good in order to earn the favor of the gods.
Acts 17:23 illustrates this usage. To avoid this interpretation of the word and emphasize
the unique stress on free grace that characterizes the Christian gospel, Paul speaks
commonly of faith and love as Christian characteristics rather than of piety.
However, in the Pastoral letters, where this misunderstanding would not be a problem, he
speaks often of godliness or piety as a characteristic to be sought by the Christian (1
Timothy 2:2 and 4:7-8, for instance). Here the word means a manner of life which
complements the reception of sound teaching (1 Timothy 6:3 and Titus 1:1). False teachers,
Paul says, have a form of piety, but it doesn’t change their lives. In fact, they
wrongly assume that this sort of piety is a way of selfish gain (2 Timothy 3:5; 1 Timothy
6:5-6). These passages offer a valuable confirmation of our general theme that a truly
Christian mind has two sides, an understanding side or intellectual side, and a living or
being side. Sound teaching, which affects the understanding, also issues a pious living.
The two are inseparable.
Godliness, which can probably safely be assumed to be a contraction for god-likeness, has
a good many sides as it shows itself in our relationships. One side certainly is that we
recognize in other people the image of God. C.S. Lewis speaks of this in these words,
"It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to
remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a
creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a
horror and a corruption such as you meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long, we
are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in
the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection
proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships,
all loves, all play, all politics. There are no "ordinary" people. You have
never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal,
and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals with whom we joke,
work, marry, snub, and exploit- immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. . . Next to the
Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses. If
he is your Christian neighbor he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ. .
. the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden" (The Weight of
Glory, p. 15). As parents, we need to respect our children because they bear the
image. This does not mean permissiveness, but it does mean seeking to draw out in each of
them the gifts God has given. As teachers, we need to respect our students. As neighbors,
we need to respect our neighbors.
Another side to the grace of godliness is the willingness to forgive. Colossians puts it
in this way, " . . . bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has
a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you" (3:13).
With that sort of precedent, who can protest the obligation to forgive? Does the
obligation to forgive extend even when forgiveness has not been requested? I suspect that
it does, provided, the requirement is held in creative tension with the Biblical command
to confront a brother or sister with an action of theirs which offends us. What about
forgiving an outsider who has wronged us? Here out Lord’s example gives us guidance.
He did not hesitate to call other, even Governor Pilate, to account for their actions, but
he forgave even if they would not acknowledge their guilt. "Father, forgive them, for
they know not what they do." Coming at the close of an earthly life that had known
uncounted unjustifiable offenses against him, this gives us the pattern we are about to
follow.
There is a corollary to this directive in the 1 Corinthians 13 description of love. Verse
5 says of love, " . . . it does not seek its own." The problem with forgiveness
is that we feel that something that is our own has been taken from us, and we want
vengeance and restitution. Vengeance we are instructed not to seek, because the offense to
God, to whom vengeance belongs, is so much greater than that against us. Restitution may
be available, but whether it is or not, we are to forgive because we are not to seek our
own, Seeking our own will crowd out seeking God’s kingdom and His righteousness, and
then how will the Lord be free to give us those things that we really need? It sounds a
little grim and unfair, doesn’t it, until we remember that this is what the mind of
Christ is like. We are called into "the fellowship of His sufferings," and that
is neither grim nor burdensome if we have taken His yoke nor burdensome if we have taken
His yoke upon us and are learning of Him.
One more aspect of piety is that it seeks the edification, or up building, of neighbor.
"Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to his edification. For even Christ
did not please Himself; but as it is written, ‘ The reproaches of those who
reproached thee fell upon me’" (Romans 15:2-3). 1 Corinthians adds,
"Knowledge makes me arrogant, but love edifies" (1 Corinthians 8:1). Free
enterprise meets its limits here. We have been conditioned to think that we are free to
seek our own benefit as hard as we can provided we do not do anything illegal. These
passages correct that assumption and say, instead, that we are to seek our neighbor’s
up-building or benefit. There is an element of caution here, however. The command is to
love our neighbor as we love ourselves. That presents us with a paradox, doesn’t it?
How are we to love our neighbor as much as, or at the same time as, we love ourselves?
Once again, our Lord’s example sheds light on the problem. He did not suffer and die
for us in order to hurt Himself. He had a goal in mind. "Who, for the joy set before
him had endured the cross, despising the shame" (Hebrews 12:2). He was after
something, but the way to achieve it was to seek our good first. Probably that is the way
we need to resolve our paradox. We need to seek our neighbor’s good first; our own
good will come along without fail. "All things are lawful, but not all things are
profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify. Let no one seek his own good,
but that of his neighbor" (1 Corinthians 10:23-24). This free enterprise is a
Christian context.
The corollary to this is being non-judgmental. 1 Corinthians, again, says that love
"does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in
unrighteousness." Now who, you say, would rejoice in unrighteousness? I find that I
would, especially on the highway. Every infraction of traffic regulations, however minor,
becomes an occasion for me to look down on the person committing it. The problem is that
this reaction is simply and oblique way of expressing my pride. I wouldn’t do that!
(And if I did, I would have a good reason for doing it!) And judgmentalism over traffic
malfeasance is surely the lightest of my judgmentalisms. We are all legalists - quick to
judge others and quick to exonerate ourselves. Piety, a day-by-day way of life that
recognizes God as the Creator and Redeemer, doesn’t do that.
Many other aspects of godliness could be explored, not the least of which could be the
quality of mercy. We, who have received the marvelous mercy of God, are called to a way of
live that is merciful. However, let us allow the mere mention to suffice at this point and
turn to another aspect of the Christian mind in its relation to others.
PATIENCE
Patience is another side of the lived-out Christian mind. The word can mean at least
two things: to put up with something we would prefer were changed, or to stick up to
something we would just as soon discontinue. The latter meaning is close to that of
"perseverance," and, as such, probably belongs under our consideration of the
Christian mind in its relation to itself. The former is clearly appropriate to the
immediate context. We need to be patient with other people.
The word "patience," or its cognates, is used with surprising frequency in the
New Testament. That is the justification for presenting it as an important aspect of the
Christian mind in its way of life. Two sides of its meaning come easily to mind. For one,
it means putting up with people when they don’t do, or do quickly and well, what we
think we have the right to expect of them. Parents and teachers commonly find it is hard
to be patient with their children or their students. Impatience is a special temptation
for anyone in authority. The most powerful incentive for and example of patience in all
such cases is, of course, our Lord Himself. Think of the patience with which God nursed
along His cantankerous people through forty years of their wandering in the desert, the
wild period of the judges, and the long, broken down years of the monarchy; until, His
patience ultimately exhausted, He carried them into captivity to Assyria and to Babylon.
And then after seventy years, He brought them back again and put up with their new forms
of idolatry until the advent of the Anointed One, Jesus Christ, in whom patience had its
perfect work. We fall easily into the attitude of harsh judgement on people who, after
receiving patience from God, could still persist in disobeying Him. We do this until it
occurs to us that we have not really done any better than they did. Then, perhaps we are
moved to new efforts to be patient with those under our authority.
Another side of the meaning of patience refers to being patient when we are mistreated by
those in authority over us. Peter says, "For what credit is there if, when you sin
and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and
suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God" (1 Peter 2:20).
Christians don’t suffer much for doing well in modern America, though the signs are
that such a day may not be far off. There are those among us, however, who have suffered
in this way. John Perkins tells in his book, With Justice for All, that when he had
been unlawfully arrested by the Mississippi State Patrol and tortured to a point near
death, the hardest thing for him to do was to forgive his persecutors. Many Christians in
the former Soviet Union, Cuba, South America and China have experienced similar
difficulties and learned patience. "Blessed are those who have been persecuted for
the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men
cast insults at you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on
account of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for so they
persecuted the prophets who were before you" (Matthew 5:10-12)
PEACEMAKING
Another of the Beatitudes of Matthew 5 says, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for
they shall be called the Sons of God" (vs. 9). Peacemaking is, for our present
purposes, a final aspect of the Christian mind as it works itself out in a Christian life
in relation to others.
Peacemaking is the consequence of possessing peace within oneself. "Thou wilt keep
him in perfect peace whose mind is staid on thee, because he trusteth in thee"
(Isaiah 26:3). Be anxious for nothing, but in everything let your requests be made known
to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts
and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7). Peacemakers are people who have
come to know the peace of God in their own hearts through his amazing grace.
In a culture of rapidly escalating violence where technological advances have increasingly
isolated individuals in loneliness they seem powerless to surmount, peacemaking is a
valuable quality indeed. In homes tortured by intergenerational conflict, in political and
social situations of increasing and seemingly unresolvable tensions, peacemaking is a very
precious commodity. Christians, who have only recently awakened to the possibility and
responsibility of taking part in social and political conflicts, will do well to ask God
for the wisdom to know how to enter the lists as peacemakers and not as those who further
exacerbate the differences.
The example here, as before, is the Lord Himself. The whole purpose of His coming was to
bring peace, peace with God and peace with neighbors. He did not do it in the strong-armed
political fashion. He did not try to get 51% of the vote and impose peace. He did not
overwhelm the tyrants and force them to provide peace. He died in weakness and thus
disarmed the forces of conflict in the heavens and on the earth. We are called to follow
him, sharing in His sufferings and learning that vulnerability can promote peacemaking.
(To be continued)
Editor: Al Greene
Alta Vista College
Alta Vista
1719 NE 50th Street
Seattle, Washington 98105
Phone: (206) 524-2262
Fax: (206) 524-1837
