May 29, 2020
By Michael Spearl
Modern culture has altered the way many Christians live their faith. Christianity has been removed from many of our social structures, sometimes politely, sometimes with disdain. It’s true. Mentioning the name of Jesus in a public forum usually brings some funny looks at a minimum, other times a quick rebuke. Christians are expected to keep their beliefs private. The name of Jesus is no longer allowed in public venues. Popular culture says that because He was exclusive, His name is no longer acceptable, and Christians are often viewed negatively. One hears words like intolerant and judgmental when Christianity is mentioned in public. Yet, we know that Jesus embodies love and we love Him in return for transforming us from the inside out. We love Jesus with great passion, and we want to share His gospel message with others. We see that the church has declined in popularity and as followers of Jesus, we sometimes wonder why our gospel message is a hard sell.
One big issue I have with the Christian world is that it is obsessed with production and member satisfaction. Yet, for Jesus, it was obedience, not mega-sized congregations. He was concerned about the few, the small, the overlooked, the people who were marginalized by society. He had a soft spot for the outsider, and He honored children and women; He was never about religion; religion teaches people to try harder to gain God’s approval; Jesus never taught religion.
One thing I can say for sure is that Jesus is all about life. He said plainly, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). The full life Jesus mentioned is an abundant life that is far better than any life focused on wealth or popularity or about living a balanced life. Please, don’t ever ask me to read a book that promotes living a balanced life. After a chapter or two, I’ll most likely toss the book into the recycle bin. Why? Because Jesus never taught us to live a balanced life. Jesus taught us to live a “full life.”
Uh oh. What are you talking about Pastor Michael? Listen, most Christians are looking for more out of life and they’ve read the words of Jesus when He said, “I am the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6), but their problem is this: they only look at the middle word of what Jesus said. They care about truth, which is important, but Jesus never wanted us to neglect His way or His life. Christians argue over doctrine; they insist that believing their doctrinal interpretations will yield the right life. That is also what the Pharisees taught in Jesus’ day. But it doesn’t matter how many sermons you’ve listened to or how much Bible knowledge you have—none of that leads to life transformation. Life transformation does not happen because of the Bible knowledge a person has. Rather, life transformation is an experience. Jesus didn’t come only to teach us His truths; He also came to show us how to live His way.
If you want to live the life that Jesus said you could have, then the way you walk matters…a lot. You need to adopt His ways. His life wasn’t a set of doctrines or a list of rules to be followed. His life was direct and uninhibited, sincere; it was non-institutional. Following the ways of Jesus without all the trappings of religion will make your life better than anything you’ve ever dreamed.
Let me say it again. The way you live your life matters; it mattered to Jesus. One day an expert in the religiouslaw asked Jesus: “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus answered with the parable of the Good Samaritan. The usual message we are taught from this parable is that we need to be like the Good Samaritan. In Jesus’ day the Good Samaritan story was a shocking story because the Samaritan was considered to be a bad guy; he was despised and rejected by the religious Jews. The almost-dead guy along the road was a Jewish person whom the despised Samaritan helped. Now put this parable into our cultural setting. If Jesus were telling this parable to a Christian audience today in the United States, the Samaritan might be an unkempt drug addict, homeless person, or maybe an atheist. You are not the Samaritan. The person who brings goodness and healing to a broken, almost-dead guy is the person most Christians would least expect. In the parable, you are the broken, almost-dead guy. Jesus was making a point about how we interact with non-believers. If the despised addict/atheist could do something good and honorable, how much more should we, who are called out of this world to be conformed to His image, be perceived as promoting love to our neighbor. Besides believing the truth, love must take deep root within us; we need to live out that love.
I doubt that Jesus would have named His parable the Good Samaritan. His parable was a countercultural tsunami that pointed the finger at the hypocrites hiding behind their religion. The world sees what we do. Whether we like it or not, we are walking, talking advertisements for Jesus. What message do you promote? Is your life a reflection of our culture’s morality or the Way of Jesus?
In a Barna OmniPoll dated August 2015, 91% of US adults and 76% of practicing Christians responded by saying that the best way to find yourself is by looking within. An astounding 84% of US adults and 67% of practicing Christians said that the highest goal in life is to enjoy life.1 It’s easy to conclude from the data and our own experiences that our culture has a me-first focus. Sadly, this self-ism has become a de facto religion and far too many Christians have confused comfortable living with following Jesus. In that same OmniPoll, 31% of US adults and only 40% of practicing Christians felt that their faith was countercultural—yet they overwhelmingly felt their faith was a force for good.2 The data tells me that modern Christianity is moving in the direction of our culture’s morality. Hopefully, this trend will reverse—but for that to happen, the Church, those who follow Jesus, must learn to live His way.
I have one more verse, often quoted, to consider. It comes from a story in Luke chapter four, early in His ministry when Jesus taught a loose woman that: “true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks” (John 4: 23). I know, you’ve read this verse many times. But the “truth” in this verse is far more than doctrine. The word “truth” (aletheia in the Greek) connotes truth, not simply spoken, but truth in reality, truth with sincerity. In the ancient Greek world, aletheia was synonymous with reality. This is why I prefer to substitute truth-being for truth in John 4:23. Jesus directs us to worship Him in truth-being. His life represented the truth. Truth-being was how He lived. Worship in truth-being is when your life is on display demonstrating not only love for God with passion, with words of joy and adoration, but more important, worshiping in truth-being is living His way. True worship allows His commands to penetrate your motives and your values and become the priority in your life. Worship in truth-being is when your faith becomes synonymous with reality. This is the fundamental starting point for a follower of Jesus to disciple others in a society that no longer appreciates the name of Jesus. Only when you worship Him in truth-being can your life be full. And when your life is full, people will take notice and see the reality of your faith and then you will have many opportunities to share His gospel message.
1. “The End of Absolutes: America’s New Moral Code,” Barna, May 25, 2016, https://www.barna.com/research/ the-end-of-absolutes-americas-new-moral-code/
2. David Kinnaman, Gabe Lyons, Good Faith: Being a Christian When Society Thinks You’re Irrelevant and Extreme (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 2017), 76
