“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of
ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; who also hath made us able ministers
of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter
killeth, but the spirit giveth life.”
(Second Corinthians 3:5-6)
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| Dr. Rick Flanders |
Many organizations have and
maintain standards. Of course, over the
years churches in particular have preached and upheld certain standards of
belief and behavior. The concept of doctrinal
standards, creeds, and statements of faith in religion is normal and
expected. The idea of standards of
conduct for church leaders, church members, and the Christian way of life is
also generally accepted. The question is
not whether churches should have standards.
All religious movements and organizations do.
There is a problem today, however, over
the mess that has grown up over standards in conservative churches. There is a whole movement against the
standards fundamentalists have followed, and there is anotherone over whether
they should have standards at all. In
all the fussing on “both sides” of the standards issue, some very basic facts
are being lost. When Christian thinkers
come back to the basics, the truth about these matters becomes clear, and we
can clear up the mess! So let’s take a
constructive approach, and consider four important and indisputable facts.
1.
THE
ARGUMENTS OVER “STANDARDS” ARE REALLY ABOUT WHAT THE BIBLE TEACHES.
Somehow we have
forgotten that the standards Bible-believing churches have maintained over the
years were developed from the teachings of the Bible. Before anybody debated standards, preachers
and teachers in the churches were preaching that the Bible has things to say
against certain things and for certain things.
They preached that scripture condemns drinking and intoxication, speaks against
the lasciviousness of social dancing, advocates modest apparel, calls for personal
restraint, mandates sanctifying the body, and exhorts believers to stay away
from worldly amusements. That’s where we
started. Christians were living by the
Bible. They studied God’s Word to learn
how to live!
Do church
people today know that holiness in the Bible is separation from evil and to
God? Do they know that Christians are called
upon to live holy lives (check First Peter 1:13-16)? Scripture requires both ecclesiastical and
personal separation (see Second Corinthians 7:1 and Second Timothy 2:16-22). The children of light, according to Ephesians
5, must not do what the children of darkness are doing (verse 7), nor endorse
what they do (verse 11), nor even unnecessarily talk about what they do (verse
12). That’s what the Bible teaches! It’s separation, a concept that is
controversial today among critics of the standards. The Bible makes an issue of
clothing and the covering of the body from the beginning to the end (you can
see this first in Genesis 2:24-25 and 3:6-11 and 21, and follow it throughout
scripture). Scriptural promises (such as
Matthew 5:18 and 24:35) are the basis of believers insisting on the traditional
text behind the King James Version and rejecting the revised text followed by so
many of the new Bibles. Keeping the law
will not save anybody’s soul; but grace doesn’t mean that there aren’t any
rules, that the Lord has no opinions, or that saved people have no obligations
about how they behave. The “rules” or
standards that spiritual Christians followed and taught for years were not
arbitrary or based on tradition. They
came from Bible teaching.
The real issues
in the “standards” debates are questions like “Does the Bible have anything to
say about gender roles and distinction?”, “Is there Bible doctrine that would
motivate a Christian to abstain from using tobacco?”, “According to the
scriptures, does it matter what Bible a church uses?”, or, “What teaching of the
Bible would affect whether or not we go to the movies?” Many have believed that scripture does teach
things that apply directly to questions such as these. The real and legitimate discussions regarding
the standards are discussions about Biblical interpretation. They are not arguments
over whether or not certain old “standards” are still appropriate for our
day. They ask whether our spiritual
fathers were right or wrong about what they understood that the Bible said. Many of us think they were right! For example, reasonable people see that Christians
who dress modestly and appropriately for their gender are following scriptural
principles. These are not petty
squabbles over personal tastes. They are
serious issues about the revealed will of God.
No kidding!
2.
THE
“BOTTOM LINE” OF BIBLE TEACHING ON POINTS OF CHRISTIAN LIVING EVENTUALLY HAD TO
BE “STANDARDIZED.”
As conservative
churches grew and added to their ministries and staff, it was necessary for
them to set standards of life and belief for those who led and represented
them. These standards were actually applications
of the Bible teaching that had led those churches for years. In other words, although it normally takes
time for new church-members to arrive at the same conclusions about Christian
living which are followed by their teachers, when they joined the ministry
team, they had to follow standards that reflect the corporate viewpoint of the
ministry. When people takepositions of
responsibility in the ministry of the church, they are expected to uphold and
live by these standards even before they have come into total agreement with
all of them.Leaders are responsible to some degree for the behavior of those
who have joined the team! This is why the conclusions of the Bible teaching
were “standardized.”
What the New
Testament says about polluting oneself with idols (Acts 15:20 and 29, First
Corinthians 8 through 10, and Revelation 2:14 and 20) by eating the meat sold
at the pagan temple was applied to modern issues by setting the standard not to
attend movie theaters or night clubs or other places associated with sin. What the Bible teaches about gender
distinction (in places such as Genesis 1:27, Leviticus 18:22, Deuteronomy 22:5,
First Corinthians 11:1-16, First Timothy 2, and Revelation 9:8) led leaders to
call on co-workers and followers to dress with their gender in mind. Teaching and interpretation led to the
specific standards, when behavior necessarily had to be “standardized.”
Some standards
were also sometimes recommended to everyone up front, before they had a chance
to be supported with reason and scripture by the pastors and teachers. Bible teaching always leads to behavior
adjustment. Sometimes the conclusions or
“bottom line” of the teaching had to be stated at the beginning and came to be regarded
as a set of standards. Ordinarily
believers who are being instructed “to observe all things” that Jesus taught
(Matthew 28:20) will grow in knowledge over a period of time, and come to
correct conclusions only after a while.
But when the conclusions are “standardized” for workers up front, the
period of instruction and growth is not in the mix, and there can be problems. Certainly church workers can follow the rules
without really buying into them, and often this set-up has helped people
grow. Many adopted the standards from
their hearts, based on what they saw in the Bible, only after following them
for other reasons as they grew in grace.
This isn’t really a bad idea. The
man who smokes may save his own life by giving up tobacco because the preacher
told him to do it (Hebrews 13:17) well before he really understands why. However, standards must eventually be backed
by persuasion from scripture if they are to do the good they were supposed to
do. And before they are, there can be
misunderstanding and problems.
Such
standardizing necessarily took place in Christian schools. Students, as well as faculty and staff, were required
to follow Bible-based standards from the first day. In many cases, these rules were not
adequately defended or justified with scripture during the school year,
provoking some to wrath. The connection
between certain standards and God’s will and ways was not always made. But the standard-setting in the form of
rule-keeping was justified.
Note that the
setting of standards for God’s people to help them in their lives was done in
both the Old and the New Testaments.
Deuteronomy 4:5-8 teaches us that following standards can help us live
with more wisdom than we really have. Adopting
the rules will give us a head start on living wisely while we are growing in
grace and knowledge. Acts 15 records the
setting of standards for the benefit of the Gentile Christians, at the same
time that Legalism was rejected (notice especially verses 1, 5, 10-11,
19-29). Standard-setting is not
necessarily Legalism. Legalism requires
rule-keeping for salvation or spirituality.
Standards followed under the truth of God’s grace can really help
growing believers, as we can see in Acts 16:4-5. So standards are good, not bad, although they
cannot stand alone. They must be backed
by the Bible.
3.
PEOPLE
ON BOTH SIDES OF THESE ARGUMENTS FOCUSED TOO MUCH ON THE STANDARDS AND NOT ENOUGH
ON BIBLE TEACHING.
Critics of the
standards complain that the kind of Christianity they knew growing up was “all
about the rules.” They identify it with
Legalism, and sometimes make fun of having to keep a bunch of rules. Supporters of the standards zealously defend
the “old-time” expectations and taboos while sometimes neglecting to defend
them from the Bible. Both are wrong.
Christianity is
not just about rules. Rules and
guidelines have always been part of church and Christian living, but they have
served only as helps and props. The
Christian life is really about love!
“Beloved, let us love one another: for love
is of God: and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God
is love. In this was manifested the love
of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world,
that we might live through him. Herein
is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be
the propitiation for our sins. Beloved,
if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.”
(First
John 4:7-11; read also verse 12 through 5:3)
Christianity is
God’s love coming to us through Christ, and coming through us to others. See this also in John 15:9-12. The real thing is often lost by both pro- and
anti-standards people, and the rules become the big thing. They aren’t the big thing. According to Galatians 5:22-23,walking in the
Spirit keeps us within the boundaries of the rules (“against such there is no
law”). Those who are absolutely
surrendered to Christ observe higher ideals than those who just live by
rules. They live the way they do because
they love Jesus with all their hearts. Carnal
people who hate the rules can only see the rules, and resent them. Prideful and unspiritual people who keep the
rules also only see the rules, and miss seeing Jesus.Both kinds of Christians
are carnal.
Some folks who
complain the loudest about the old standards as they were enforced in their
families or churches are really hurting from the hypocrisy of their parents and
leaders, and not the effect of the rules.
Proud and harsh attitudes are not spiritual. Efforts to cover up inconsistencies in the
homes we grew up in were not the result of following the Bible. They were products of making the standards
the big thing and not making love for God the heart of the home. Making mean and harsh statements against
others isn’t spiritual either. Jesus
taught us not to judge others (remember Matthew 7:1-5). Yet the Bible does say that spiritual people,
while not judging people, should
judge things.
“But he that is spiritual judgeth all
things…”
(First
Corinthians 3:15)
We are to
discern from scripture what things are right and what things are wrong, from
God’s perspective. There is nothing
wrong with saying, “That’s wrong.” But
we are taught to love the erring brother and meekly hope to pull out the mote
from his eye, instead of scorning him and proudly holding up ourselves as
better (see Galatians 6:1-2). Much of
the heat in the arguing over standards is generated by carnal people engaged in
combat with other carnal people. Take a
look at Galatians 5:13-16.
4.
STANDARDS
APART FROM THE SPIRIT-FILLED LIFE ARE DANGEROUS, ALTHOUGH THEY CAN BE HELPFUL
IN CONNECTION WITH IT.
The Bible has
very many good things to say about keeping rules, while also warning us against
giving rule-keeping a role it should never have in the Christian life. We find this help in Second Corinthians
3:5-6:
“Our sufficiency is of God; who also hath
made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the
spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.”
The Law of God
expresses the opinions of God, and therefore is “holy, and just, and good”
(Romans 7:12). However a set of rules in
itself does not enable me to keep the rules.
“The law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin” (see Romans
7:13-24). In other words, the Law is
good, but not good enough to help me.
Just knowing what is right does not give me righteousness. But Jesus Christ came to give me His
righteousness. It is His righteousness
that saves me, and it is His righteousness that provides me with the Christian
life.
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”
(Read
Romans 7:22-8:4)
Those who are
in Christ have the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit is the key to living the
Christian life! We learn that our
sufficiency is in God alone, that Christian living only happens when we are
living by faith, relying on the Holy Spirit to provide the life of Christ! The rules set the standard for how we ought
to live, but they can’t get us to that standard. The standards describe for me what a spiritual
man looks like, but they do not make me spiritual. It is the Holy Spirit that does this. The letter of the law only can condemn us
when we fail, and the Bible says that it kills people. Standards without the Spirit are deadly. A revival that acquaints believers with the
ministry of the Spirit will liberate the unhappy believer and give him the
victory he wants and needs.
“Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the
Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the
Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the
Spirit of the Lord.”
(Second
Corinthians 3:17-18)
The devil got us into this mess
of looking at standards apart from the bigger picture. The rule for the Christian is, “What does the
Bible say?” And the Bible calls upon us
to conform to the will of a holy God.
Doing so will require self-denial and sacrifice, as Jesus told us. But the Bible tells us that the Christian
life is Christ’s life in us. Loving Him
and yielding to the influence and power of His Spirit within us is what causes
us to experience the abundant life He came for us to live. When we come back to these simple truths, we
will get out of the mess we are in, and get back to reaching our dark and lost world
for God! Revival will deliver us from
the standards mess! Those who rebel
against good standards must humble themselves and learn the reason for the
standards, which is love for Jesus Christ.
Others who have been killing those under them with the letter of the law
must go deeper than the rules, and learn to be filled with the Spirit!
Dr. Rick Flanders
Revival Ministries
