Wisdom and Good Works

So the Old Testament books can feel a bit weird, right? On the one hand you have laws and commands in the Law, and on the other hand you have Proverbs where "wisdom" is described as something like "guidelines and principles", to reduce suffering and to have a "well-ordered" and blessed life. So how do we reconcile this? Does God care about obedience to specific commands, or does he want us to live a wise and well-ordered life? Is it about "doing good", or about "being wise" (or "living well")?

But Jesus took specific pains to break down the common oversimplifications of "doing good" and "being wise". It's not enough to just "not murder", there's a lot more to it, and then also, rich and well-off people have a difficult time "entering the kingdom of heaven". The Sermon on the Mount is probably the most centralized and complete picture of this "deconstruction". As an aside, Ecclesiastes also deconstructs the myth that the outcome of "being wise" means being rich, powerful, smart, or successful.

For the former ("doing good"), the Great Commandments (loving God, loving neighbor) are given as the foundation and basis of the Old Testament Law ("on these two commands hang all the Law and the Prophets"), but of course, they are not as easy to follow. How do I actually "love" someone, or seek another person's good?

And then for the latter ("being wise"), you have the "Kingdom of God", where everything seems backwards. The last are first, those who lose their life gain it, the poor are called "blessed", the wealthy are far from God, and those who know they are very sinful are somehow more righteous than the people outwardly following the Law very well. What kind of "wisdom" is this?

So true wisdom helps us to understand both how to do right and how to live, at the same time, in a practical and day-to-day way. Loving others and living well requires us to know and understand the people around us, and the circumstances we are in together. To make this more concrete, Paul spends a LOT of time establishing that interpersonal conflict is MUCH worse than most people realize. Over and over he tells Christians to "be of one mind", and that kindness, forgiving others, and "bearing one another's burdens" is the hallmark of "love", which "fulfils the law".

The "how" of all this is wisdom (or more specifically "godly" wisdom). Wisdom forces us to consider who a person is, what that person needs, what their circumstances are, and what would encourage or help that person. "What is going on in this person's life? What can I congratulate or comfort them about? Whoops, I lost my temper at this person, how should I apologize? How can I make it right?" These can be hard questions, so we ask God for wisdom in handling these kinds of circumstances. We also receive wisdom from reading and thinking about and understanding the Bible, and many times a specific incident will bring to mind a passage from scripture.

So perhaps one of the most striking revelations in the New Testament, is this extremely clear unity of wisdom and morality, of "doing good" and "doing/living well", to the glory of God.

Against "Virtue Ethics"

The journal First Things recently posted an article called "Protestants Need Virtue Ethics", where it argues for Protestants to work towards a general or consistent "virtue ethics", trying to determine what is virtuous in the modern age, and expressing concern over certain recent policies by the current administration.

On the one hand, as a Protestant, I do agree that we Protestants can often do more to consider how exactly we should live out our Christian faith. We have, at times, conflated "doing good" with "works righteousness".

However, this article seems to want to hash out a universal or generally applicable "virtue system", in the spirit of Aquinas, and I don't think that is a very sound foundation for such an endeavor. The book mentioned in this article, "Ethics Beyond Rules", appears to get stuck on this point, establishing the "problem" of "moral relativism", without considering his own use of the words "moral" or "absolute" or "relative".

Protestantism, at its best, highlights that many important things -- even such things as church governance or hierarchy -- can only be considered "good" in a cultural and/or historical context. Even the Old Testament Law itself contains many specific instructions and commands, that even the New Testament writers like Paul freely reimagine and reinterpret to best fit their own circumstance. Paul takes the instruction of "muzzling an ox treading out the grain", not to narrowly apply this command to other farming animals, but dives down into the *principle* of it, to resurface and argue for paying wages to those who preach the Word. That is a transformative way to apply God's law, and it gives us a model for seeking to apply it to our modern situation.

And what are these "principles"? Jesus says clearly that it's not the Ten Commandments, but rather the Great Commandments -- "loving God" and "loving neighbor" -- that establish the foundation for the Ten Commandments and all the rest of the moral law. Again, it's NOT that the Ten Commandments show us how to love, it's that love shows us how to properly keep the Ten Commandments. And indeed, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus expounds on murder and adultery to get to the underlying principles, to give us a proper and full understanding of each commandment.

And if we were still confused about the meaning of "love", the New Testament spends a lot of time making it clear. Kindness, patience, not keeping a record of wrong, humbleness, seeking the good of others... all of these paint a consistent and clear pictures of a "new virtue", one enabled by the Holy Spirit, which is repeatedly stated as "fulfilling the requirements of the Law." But it requires us to *seek out and know that which is outside ourself*. To extend the metaphor a bit, in order to do good in today's society, we need to *know and understand the society* well enough to love it best. In that sense there IS something "relative" about this kind of "moral" behavior. The PRINCIPLE is absolute and timeless, the APPLICATION of it is relative to the time and place of each Christian. So let's teach Christians how to "love", how to reach outside themselves, and thus live "virtuous" lives in the circumstances they find themselves in.

Beatitudes

One thing that really sticks out is that many of the lines have a "punchline". So it's clear that many of the people who were poor and powerless came to listen to him (and even to be fed by his miracles). So he says things like, "blessed are the poor..." and "blessed are those that hunger and thirst...", as thought he was giving a message about self-denial or the spiritual benefit of poverty or fasting.

In fact, I think there's evidence that the Pharisees spoke like this, judging by the rules about giving money set aside for parents (Matt 15:5) or how Jesus pointed out the widow who gave her last coins to the temple, right after saying that the Pharisees "devour widows’ houses" (Mark 12:40). They likely encouraged giving to the Temple as a "religious duty", as an act of worship to God. In other passages Jesus call out the Pharisees for receiving but never giving, forgetting the acts of charity and care for the poor.

But as he does so often, Jesus takes us from the "external" to the "internal", taking us away from mere outward facts or behavior, and to a deeper truth: "Blessed are the poor... *in spirit*" and "Blessed are those that hunger and thirst... *for righteousness*". It's not outward poverty that is a blessing, but a "humble and contrite heart" that God wants.

And if the above virtues are about the blessings of humbleness before God, Jesus also goes on to speak of other virtues, like being "merciful" and "peacemakers". These seem to be virtues expressed to *other people*.

Jesus goes on to cover other "moral teachings", and likely is directly correcting what that the Pharisees likely taught. Jesus again and again moves "sin" to what is inside of us, to our intentions, such as moving past the simple act of "murder" to the hate and resentment burning inside all of us. Sin and virtue are matters of the heart.

This is all very consistent with how Jesus speaks of the Great Commandments of "loving God" and "loving neighbor", which "fulfill the entire law". They are integral with the "kingdom of heaven" which Jesus mentions in the first verse, but of course also mentions many other times in his ministry. Jesus gives us a much more profound way to think of blessing and virtue and "good deeds".

And of course this whole sermon ends with this: "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock." It's not just trusting the content of these words, but trusting Jesus who speaks them. It's trusting Jesus who exemplifies all of these virtues in himself.

Infant Baptism

So for those that don't baptize infants, I think there's often a misunderstanding -- shoot, also even among those that do it -- about the outcome and expectations around infant baptism.

So here's a thought to ponder: is "becoming a Christian" the same thing as having one's sins forgiven before God? 

Or this: is the church a community of Christians, or is the church a community of those who have been been forgiven and redeemed by God? Is there a difference?

So I totally respect the simplicity and consistency of those who say that only those who make a credible profession of faith should be baptized. They are trying to strongly emphasize the importance of the act of consciously turning away from the world and following the way of Christ.

However, we live in a particular modern and rather individualistic mindset, compared to many Christian who lived in the past. The above way of seeing salvation and Christendom makes certain assumptions, and historically there have definitely be some different assumptions at work. We don't have to agree, but we should try to put ourselves in their shoes.

So here's the idea: historically, the concept of baptism, plus the concept of being part of a specific church congregation, plus the idea of being called "Christian", have been all very closely tied together. For many (arguably most?) of them, their identity as a Christian was basically synonymous with being part of a church, with being a member of a Christian community.

Kids are in worship, they learn from their Christian parents and from these Christian leaders and teachers, so even without their assent they are already called "Christians" by those around them and by those outside the church looking in. So in this context, you can think of baptism as merely saying, "yes, this child is part of this community". And in fact, many church traditions and denominations ALSO contain prayers or even confessional statements that look forward to this "presumption", as it were, that their children will one day strongly confess that which they were baptized into.

So okay, for a Bible passage that captures this idea, consider the description of the "kingdom of heaven" in the parable of the wheat and weeds (in Matthew 13). In this passage, a field is seeded with wheat, but also there's a bunch of weed seeds also. So as soon as it starts growing, the workers are like, "Oh man, look at all these weeds! Should we pull them up?" But the owner says (paraphrasing a bit), "No, at this stage, you might uproot the wheat accidentally. Let both grow together until the harvest, once they show their fruit, it will be easy to distinguish them." If God is the "owner" in this analogy, than we "workers" wait for God's harvest, and we don't start trying to pull out weeds before then. 

All it takes to be a member of a church, is to make an outward profession of faith and to be baptized. This is a really low bar for a "requirement", we KNOW that some people who say this don't understand what they're saying, or don't actually believe it. This is not fundamentally threatening to the church, and this is not fundamentally different from what happens in infant baptism. A Christian church should not be "weeding out" people -- even infants! -- who might one day end up "turning away" from the faith. Baptism and church membership are given generously, all alike are taught and cared for equally, until a person explicitly separates from the community, or is kicked out over egregious unrepentant sin (an example of that "fruit" mentioned before).

Whether you practice this or not, it should surely be helpful for mutual understanding, to know this context and reasoning.

What is "Satanic", anyhow?

I something called "Satanic" the other day, and at first dismissed it, but then it made me sit down and consider what "Satanic" actually meant, in a biblical sense. So the word "Satan" has it's origin in words like "oppose" and "accuse", and in Biblical literature it's especially the latter. Satan accuses Job, for example.

I'm not denying that there's a rich history, tradition, and even artistic output examining what the work of Satan consists of. Or consider Jesus' temptation in the wilderness, Satan is described as the "ruler of this age".

So I don't want to minimize or dismiss any of that, but I think it's still useful to say that the most consistent "Satanic activity" is that which opposes the kingdom of God (i.e. the church, with Jesus as the head), and in a related way, especially that which accuses Christians.

Why does Job start with Satan accusing Job of unrighteousness? Because there's a thematic link between what HE does, and what Job's friends do, when they say that Job's suffering are due to his sin or unrighteousness. Job's "friends" are just other accusers, doing what Satan does.

Or think of the serpent in the Garden of Eden. He tempts Eve, but he does it by accusing God of wrongdoing. Even the "evil spirits" in the New Testament directly oppose and accuse Jesus ("Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?").

Or consider how the Pharisees are called the "sons of Satan". The implication is that the Pharisees are called that, specifically because of the ways that they accuse Jesus, like being "from Satan" or that he violates the Sabbath, and so on. And ultimately they even have Jesus killed by falsely accusing him of sedition against Caesar.

The final example is also the best conclusion. In Revelations 12, Satan is thrown down, and the resulting song in heaven sings out, "For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down."

So for us, let this be a warning to us, never to become the accusers of our fellow Christians!

The Ten Commandments are NOT a guide for Christians

Westminster Shorter Catechism Q.14: "What is sin?"

"Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God."

Westminster Confession (excerpt from Ch 19): "[The law] continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness, [...] and was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai in ten commandments." 

WHY do we still have the Ten Commandments in our creeds? Why is it still thought of as some kind of summary of God's Law for Christians today?

Even the creeds in my own Presbyterian denomination (Westminster Confession & Catechism) tend to talk about sin as a violation of "God's law", as things that we might say, do, or think. Moreover, many of these creeds (including my own) also explicitly include the Ten Commandments in some way, as the core or encapsulation of God's law.

But these are both just plain incorrect. I'm not trying to "clickbait" you all, many pastors and Christians know and preach and live this already, even if they don't say it in exactly this way.

Sin is not about things we do, say, or think, but about intention, about the heart. It makes no difference what outward "good thing" we might do, it's still sin if done without love for others, or without love for God. That's why, "love God" and "love your neighbor" are called the "great commandments", and NOT the Ten Commandments, because they aren't specific, but rather general principles that works with the Holy Spirit in us, to produce actions pleasing to God. And it works the other way too, the Holy Spirit convicts us of how our actions fail to meet that standard, regardless of what the specific actions are.

So it's not that we ignore the command, "do not murder", but for one thing, it's covered by "love your neighbor", and for another, it doesn't NEARLY cover what pleases God. Only by filtering it through the Great Commandments does it then expand in scope, to cover stuff like insulting others or hating them in our heart.

And indeed, in the New Testament, were the Gentiles taught the Ten Commandments (or any other Mosaic Law) to guide their behavior? No! Even when these are mentioned, they are immediately de-emphasized. Paul's words about this form a good way to close this:

"Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,' and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law."

The Limitations of the Old Testament Law

I love reading the Old Testament, I deeply appreciate the wisdom of the Old Testament Law, but we should also speak clearly about the limitations of the Old Testament Law. 

The Law simply could not make humans good by itself. Even in the Old Testament, God judges the nation of Israel, and says basically, "Even the ways in which you keep the details of the Law (like sacrifices and offerings) are offensive to me, because at the same time you're taking bribes and mistreating the poor." How are you supposed to have detailed instructions in the Law about protecting the poor? Also in the Old Testament, there are passages like "love your neighbor as yourself", which are clearly trying to give underlying principles for obedience to the Law, but there was still something missing.

So that's why Romans says that the Law in "insufficient" in some fundamental way. Paul points out a bunch of Old Testament people who looked forward in faith to "something better". And then he says that Jesus was that "something better" -- A way of dealing with lawbreaking, AND a way to make people actually understand and follow the principles behind the Law (the combination of Jesus dying in the place of lawbreakers, and the Holy Spirit being part of salvation).

And even the imperfect OT Law couldn't be kept by the Israelites, and they were defeated and carried away in exile. And the New Testament very clearly does NOT look back to the Old Testament Law as the pinnacle of good behavior. The new Gentile converts were clearly not required to know it or follow it. Instead, they were told about the principles like, "love God, love your neighbor," which were expounded on, and also sometimes a letter writer would draw a principle from the Old Testament, but that's it.

Even in the Old Testament, the Law was just a starting point, there was SO MUCH history and teaching after, showing what God considered "good". Literally hundreds of years of accounts of moral or immoral behavior, past where the nation of Israel even exists, through the time of exile. So that's yet another reason we should not "freeze frame" the details of the Old Testament Law and call that the "ultimate standard of Christian morality".