I’m wondering if we haven’t placed “what will work” above “what is right,” in many cases. Admittedly, I’m still thinking about turning the other cheek from last week’s discussion, though I think this intrusion on our belief system occurs in other places.
What it comes down to is this: people say, “That can’t be right because it just won’t work in the real world.” Be it turning the other cheek, be it lending without expecting anything in return, be it trusting in God for our financial security, be it trusting in God for our physical safety, all of it can be shown to “not work.”
Here are some things in the Bible that could be said not to work:
- God’s promises to Abraham. Have you ever noticed that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob spent their lives living in tents? That their descendants ended up spending over 400 years in slavery? Those promises to Abraham were a nice theological device, but from a pragmatic standpoint, they didn’t work all that well.
- The faithfulness of God’s prophets. What did being true to God get most of the prophets? Ridicule. Scorn, Rejection. Imprisonment. Death. Undeniably, faithfulness “doesn’t work.”
- Jesus’ ministry. Jesus couldn’t keep a group of followers together for long. The few he had fought frequently among themselves and scattered when he needed them most. And he ended up dying on a cross. That certainly didn’t work well.
- “The Jesus Way.” For centuries, Jesus’ followers were beaten, imprisoned and killed. Centuries. Hundreds of years. Dozens of decades. Does anybody really believe that turning the other cheek, loving enemies, etc., has any practical place in a violent world? It doesn’t make sense.
Tell Gideon about the effectiveness of torches and pitchers as weapons. Talk to Joshua about trumpets as weapons and Jehoshaphat about using singers as the shock troops for your army. Talk to Peter about using prayer to get someone out of jail.
When we bow down before pragmatism instead of bowing down before God, we compromise our beliefs time and again.
Tim,
i think you’re absolutely right. If we have to believe it will work before we do it, much of biblical history wouldn’t have happened at all.
But on the matter of whether or not pacifism “works”–the best Yoder book i’ve read so far is called “What Would You Do?”, and the entire middle section of the book is just testimony of pacifism in practice that worked. i’d say there’s over a dozen accounts he includes. And he also cites a couple sources of books that are nothing but collections of such accounts.
–guy
Well said, Tim. I have thought about this quite a bit. We live in a deeply pragmatic culture…if it works today, great, but if it doesn’t work tomorrow, toss it away and do something else. This mindset infringes upon our churches, and to the degree that we allow it, I believe it is to our detriment. If we lose integrity…doing the right thing, regardless of internal or external pressures, including pragmatism…then our spirituality is compromised.
As it relates to pacifism, I have had a different thought…I believe that Jesus calls us to be peacemakers, rather than pacifists. Being a peacemaker is not “to keep peace at all costs” — in order to make peace, we may have to battle some along the way…it may be easy to ignore conflict by being a pacifist, but a peacemaker is going to allow the Lord to use conflict to reach the goal of lasting peace. The servants of the Lord were peacemakers, Peter and John (Acts 3-4), Paul and Silas (Acts 16) for example.
Blessings, Don
When people respond to an instruction or teaching of scripture by saying “that just won’t work in the real world” they reveal just how much in need of being converted they really are. What people, and sadly some Christians, fail to realize is that the biblical story declares our “real world” as broken, flawed, and darkened. In response, the biblical story is calling us back to the ideal world God created and is redeeming us to. So while it may appear that certain instructions and teachings of scripture will not work in our world, the biblical story interjects rather sharply saying “it works in the world (life) God is calling us to live in Christ.”
May we have the faith to believe that God knows what is best even when it makes little sense to us!
Grace and Peace,
K. Rex Butts
Tim – I agree with Don “If we lose integrity…doing the right thing, regardless of internal or external pressures, including pragmatism…then our spirituality is compromised.” — Our argument against anything (including pacifism) is suspect if we argue solely from “it just isn’t practical” — We need to start with “what is right” and then use God’s promise of wisdom to find ways to make it work. That said — and on the other had — we can’t be sure our answer is right just because it seems as impractical as the items you cite from the Bible. Whether it is impratical or practical has little to do with the rightnesss of something — however it seems we should always look for practical ways to do what is right.
God Bless
Charlie
I meant to say “On the other hand …”
I have to admit that I struggle with this from time to time.
Tim,
Perhaps i’m shooting down the evidence i mentioned in my last comment, but i was listening to religious talk radio this morning and was reminded of your post. The topic was pro-life position in view of the push for embryonic stem cell research. The guest was some medical research scientist. The entirety of her comments were about how embryonic stem cell research has not worked out in clinical trials and the few adult stem cell trials have worked out very well. It also reminded me how i hear on such radio shows a lot about how statistically gay marriage and divorce work out horribly for children especially in later life.
Aren’t such arguments taking as granted the very premise you’re challenging? Hypothetically, if statistics showed that abortion, divorce, gay marriage, etc. had all sort of excellent benefits, should that sway us to give up our positions on these issues? If not, then why should the opposite sway us to maintain our positions? i don’t think we find this sort of utilitarian analysis used by godly people in the Bible, do we?
–guy
Dear Tim,
I appreciate your challenging the flock of God to reconsider the Lord’s leading his people. In essence, that is the long and short of it, isn’t it? So many “leaders” in the church today are weighing in on what is “practical” or “successful” for the local congregation, rather than on what is required by the Lord. Might the real question here be: “Do we trust God?” As I have been doing ministry for many years now, that is the singular question that I have to ask myself every day. Do I, as an evangelist, really trust God? And I will tell you, from a pragmatic point of view, it looks as if the ground is about to give way. Fortunately, in one manner or another, God has always seen us through. Thanks for your sparking our interest. I hope you light a fire.
Living big in Jesus,
Keith