by Barry Newton

It must be a rude awakening when members of a congregation who were probably celebrating their freedom that “all things are permissible for me” and who seemingly were confident of their own spirituality suddenly discover their flight feathers being clipped by an apostle’s pen. But it appears that at least part of the letter of 1 Corinthians may have served this purpose.

Based upon what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10, it is not too hard to reasonably reconstruct with a good measure of probability what some members of the church at Corinth were thinking. It probably went something like: I have been baptized into Christ. I am being spiritually fed by Christ. My spiritual health is outstanding and secure!

Contrary to such thinking, Paul argued that just because someone has been baptized and is even feasting on true spiritual nourishment proves nothing about that individual’s spiritual health. What? Alarm bells might go off in some heads today just as they may have sounded back then. But in fact, Paul’s actual teaching goes beyond my bland summary paraphrase to even assert that being nourished by Christ proves nothing about your spiritual health before God!

To teach this lesson, Paul retold an Old Testament story. Paul reminded them that all of Israel had experienced a baptism into Moses when Israel had crossed the Red Sea. Furthermore, all of the Israelites had even been nourished by Christ himself! Yet, and this is where the clap of thunder rolls in, God was not pleased with most of them as seen by the fact that He strewed their bodies throughout the desert. Their spiritual standing was far from secure.

As important as it is to start the journey by being baptized and to be sustained by feasting on spiritual nourishment from Christ, something can still be lacking! Israel had failed to faithfully live out the message they had received; their actions were blatantly rebellious.

Paul’s point must have smashed home to the Corinthians as a rude awakening. Just because they had become Christians and were being nourished by Christ proved nothing about their spiritual health. More was required. To be pleasing to God and to avoid falling, the Corinthian Christians could not afford to flaunt grace while living out lives estranged to the message. They had to live in accordance with God’s message. Not everything is truly permissible. Sin is still unacceptable.

Yes, Christ’s blood has the power to forgive all sin. Yes, we can not merit God’s forgiveness. Yes, those in Christ have been released from the condemnation of sin. But if we allow the apostle to speak for himself, these truths do not relinquish us from the responsibility of being careful that we do not fall. Grace teaches us to say, “No” to ungodliness and to pursue godly living. Titus 2:11-12

Since 1 Corinthians 10 is directed to Christians, we need to make sure we have learned the lesson as well. The individual who is spiritually healthy, has not only entered Christ and feasts upon spiritual nourishment, but also lives out God’s message through his life.

Paul’s next words in 1 Corthians 10 are comforting. God is faithful when we are tempted by not allowing us to face more than what we can handle.

(When Tolerance, Affirmation and Inclusion Become Everything)

by Barry Newton

"How could those who were claiming to follow God do such a thing?" Such musings have often been associated with reflections on the history of the Crusades or how the majority of Christendom within Germany simply went along with Hitler. Closer to home, we find ourselves shaking our heads in disbelief at the previous racist policies of certain Christian universities.

It is easy from our vantage point beyond the cultural pull which created those events to proclaim, "such things should never have happened!" Although we would be right for saying so, such pious observations are not enough.

If we grasp the lessons of history, the more responsible position is to ask, "what cultural currents are seeking to drag us down through paths of darkness?" Is our sense of right any better attuned to God's ways than those previously caught in culture's undertow? The good news is it can be if we so choose.

Turn on prime-time TV. What constant drumbeats do you hear regarding how people ought to live? Much of the postmodern spirit driving our age is organized around exalting tolerance, affirmation and inclusion. These sound like good values, perhaps even Christian values. Instead of being hateful and mean-spirited, is not tolerance the high road? Instead of caustic derogatory attacks, is not affirmation the right path? Is not the equality of inclusion a more noble way than the discriminatory policies of exclusion? Such questions can easily represent how the prophets of our age might present their case. How should those who claim to follow God respond?

My previous dualistic questions obfuscate several items, but most importantly they obscure our need to answer the question, "What is the highest value we should be pursuing?" The postmodernists would answer: In the absence of any absolute truth, the best any of us can strive for would be to accept and affirm the personal validity of each other's ideas and lifestyles. There you have it - tolerance, affirmation and inclusion all wrapped up together. The package is then gift-wrapped with a bow claiming, "this is what it means to be a loving person."

On the other hand, those who faithfully follow God have an entirely different answer to what is most important. Because God has revealed truth to us, the disciple responds that the highest value entails loving God with all of one's being (Matt. 22:36-38). This includes obeying God (1 John 5:3).

Unfortunately humanity has not loved and obeyed God as it ought. The cross of Christ proclaims that Jesus' death was required to atone for our sinful actions, words and lifestyles. Fortunately, those who will rely upon Christ through obeying the gospel can become a part of God's redeemed, saved and holy community.

What does all of this mean? Everything is not equally valid. Everyone is not included in God's community. There should be remorse for wrongs, not affirmation. God is calling everyone to repent. The good news is that God has made the salvific blood of Christ available to all of humanity.

If tolerance, affirmation and inclusion are not the ultimate values, in some manner does this mean that the path of loving and obeying God justifies mean-spiritedness? Never! To obey God includes seeking the well-being of others in the same way you seek your own well-being (Matt. 22:39). Thus, if loving someone might require confronting that individual with his or her sinfulness, such truth should be presented in love, not caustically (Eph. 4:15).

To avoid looking like foolish 21st century Christians who were swept away in the undertow of our secular culture, we need to proclaim Christ crucified and its corollaries. The necessity of Jesus' death upon the cross on our behalf testifies that God does not tolerate sinfulness, that those outside of Christ stand condemned and are excluded from fellowship with God, and that everyone is in need of transformation. The message of Christ crucified undermines the driving secular values of postmodernism.

The tide is powerful. God, however, is greater. Those who profess to follow God need to be in step with God, not drifting with the world. Will we do any better in living for God than some who have gone before us?

by Barry Newton

Does it frustrate you when the word of God falls on deaf ears? Have you ever been exasperated that someone was refusing to obey God because that individual had embraced a false interpretation of history? None of this is new. Two divergent understandings which clashed about 580 B.C. provide us with a wonderful learning opportunity.

How Some Within Judah Apparently Viewed Things:

Throughout her history, Judah had experienced various periods of prosperity. During much of this time, an assortment of gods and goddess had been worshiped to varying degrees. The people associated their well-being at a particular moment with the gods that they were concurrently worshipping.

Then about 630 B.C., Josiah grated against their beliefs by officially eliminating their gods so that only Yahweh would be worshipped. But after he died in battle, his son reinstated their various gods.

The party came to a disastrous end in 597 B.C. as the Babylonians finally breached the walls of Jerusalem. Jerusalem's fall had been a horrific one. Due to the siege of the city a famine had ensued which had even led some parents to eat their children.

To avoid further wrath from Babylon, some of the Jews had decided to flee to Egypt for safety. Longing to return to the security and well-being they had known years earlier, they pursued the various gods and goddesses whom they believed had provided that security.

How God and His Prophets Saw Things:

Throughout Judah's history, God had sent His prophets warning His people that punishment awaited them if they insisted on serving and relying upon other gods. In His mercy and kindness, God did not immediately bring disaster upon them but provided them with ample and repeated opportunities to repent.

About 630 B.C., Josiah responded to the LORD and removed the idols from the land. Although Josiah might have reestablished the true worship of the one God, it seems as though many people did not take it to heart (Jer. 3:6-7,10). When Josiah died, his son reopened the flood gates to idolatry.

God warned that severe repercussions would ensue if they persisted in rebellion. Finally the day of the LORD descended upon Jerusalem as the Babylonians crushed her. The glory of the city rose in smoke. The temple was destroyed. Judah had been destroyed.

Since God was in control, He told the people to accept the yoke of the Babylonians and remain in the land because Nebuchadnezzar would not be permitted to further hurt them. Instead, they rebelled once again by running away to Egypt where they insisted upon worshiping false gods.

The Clash:

"Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: 'You have seen all the calamity that I have brought on Jerusalem and on all the cities of Judah; and behold, this day they [are] a desolation, and no one dwells in them, because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke Me to anger, in that they went to burn incense to serve other gods whom they did not know, they nor you nor your fathers. ... why are you ... provoking me to anger with the works of your hands, burning sacrifices to other gods in Egypt?" (Jer. 44:2-3,7,8 NKJV).

"[As for] the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you! But we will certainly do whatever has gone out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For [then] we had plenty of food, were well-off, and saw no trouble. But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine" (Jer. 44:16-18 NKJV).

Observations:

• This article will probably not be read by those who need it most.

• Just because things are going well for someone does not provide any proof that he or she is right with God (Luke 12:16-21; 16:19-25).

• It is not uncommon for people to fail to recognize the true source of their blessings (Hos. 2:8; Deut. 8:7-18; Matt. 6:30-33).

• A person's belief about what takes care of him or her can lead that individual to love and serve the object of those beliefs (Jer. 44:16-18; Hos. 2:5).

• A person's interpretation can powerfully shape how decisions are made in the present (Matt. 12:22-28; Jer. 44:18).

• If someone's beliefs or values are false, the truth might be dismissed as nonsense (Gen. 19:14; Luke 16:14, 31; 2 Cor. 4:3-4).

• Because of the foregoing observations, a tremendous need exists for people to embrace the message of scripture allowing it to shape what they believe and how they interpret this world.

by Barry Newton

Within those early years of the church Paul wrote, "We preach Christ crucified" (1 Cor. 1:23). But there is so much more to this story then just the historical fact that Jesus was crucified.

It is one thing for whirlwind events to have wrapped up Jesus in such a manner that he found Himself being nailed to a cross. It is quite another to grasp that our Messiah lived each day under the constant awareness of His impending grisly death and that He chose to continue to follow the path which would bring Him to the sound of a hammer ringing on a nail to pierce His flesh. Yet, this is the unmistakable message of the New Testament.

Living in an era when Jesus' travels would probably have taken Him past victims of crucifixion, Jesus clearly understood what it meant to be crucified. He also was fully aware that He would be lifted up. In John 3, which was presumably toward the start of His ministry, Jesus announced to Nicodemus that, "Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up" (John 3:14). Toward the end of His ministry Jesus said, "if I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to Myself" (John 12:32). John wrote that Jesus said this in order to indicate how He was going to die (John 12:33). Similarly, when Jesus throughout His ministry called people to pick up their crosses and follow Him, He demonstrated that He knew how He would die (Luke 9:23; 14:27).

Perhaps we could gain a new appreciation for Jesus' life and discover a greater commitment to our Lord if we were to contemplate what it would have been like to have awaken each day realizing crucifixion would envelope us. Remember when Satan came to Jesus in the wilderness offering him the allegiance of all the kingdoms of the world (Luke 4:5-7)? There within His grasp was part of His goal without the pain of the cross. All nations would recognize Him. But the price involved worshiping Satan. Jesus chose faithfulness to God and the nails rather than the easy, unfaithful short-cut. Do the words, "no man can serve two masters" take on added significance when we hear that phrase echoing from one who lived in the shadow of the cross? Remember the legions of angels which He knew were at His disposal to rescue Him (Matt. 26:53). And yet, He resolutely walked toward that suffering announcing, "No one takes My life from Me. Rather, I lay it down of Myself" (John 10:18).

The path of faithfulness which would take Him to the cross reduced Him to tears and deep anguish (Heb. 5:7; Luke 22:42,44). Yet, it was out of His love for our best interest that He chose the piercing of His hands and feet (Eph. 5:2; 1 John 3:16 Mark 10:45). His life was wrapped up in serving us through the cross (Mark 10:45).

Jesus did not choose the nails so that Christians today could glibly retain sinful habits, nurse grudges or harbor bitterness toward their enemies. He did not willingly choose that gruesome suffering so that the depth of Christian commitment might be a shallow afterthought reserved for one day a week. The cross was at the center of His life and it is to be at the center of ours. "He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and was raised again on their behalf" (2 Cor. 5:15). May we as God’s people continue to grow into His image.

by Barry Newton

No, I have not seen the movie. But if the previews on television are any faithful indication of the movie, we probably all have a fairly good guess of at least part of the story line. A small boy does a good deed to three people who are told to pay the kindness they received forward to three others. I assume that through this manner a geometric avalanche of love and kindness cascades through the city and perhaps even beyond.

In contrast to such ethical rudders as “give’em what they deserve,” this movie will probably release a breath of fresh air into what is generally a stifling cinematic landscape. Sure it is a powerful idea, but is treating people with love regardless of whether they deserve it so very novel?

To the twelve disciples who without any merit on their part had been endowed with the powers of the Spirit to heal the body and banish demons, Jesus instructed, “Freely you have received, freely give.” Matthew 10:8 The disciples were to pay forward the fruit of the blessings they had received.

While we were still enemies, God poured out His love toward us through Christ. God actively pursued our welfare even though we did not deserve it. And so, through His grace God has raised us up out of death to seat us with Christ. And now that we have been transformed and clothed with Christ, what are we to do? Instead of repaying evil with evil, we are to pay forward His love and grace by overcoming evil with good. We are to love our enemies and do good to those who would desire to use and mistreat us.

If the message of the movie “Pay It Forward” is what I suspect it is, perhaps we will find work colleagues and others commenting about this wonderfully new and radical idea which could infuse our world with some positive social transformation. What a tremendous opportunity we will have to tell them of God's love and how God wants His people to pay forward His love. Best of all, we are not limited to three times!