Blind Man's Fancy

“Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.  But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called ‘Today,’ so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.  For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end” (Hebrews 3.12-14).

Thanks to a young brother in our church I’ve been drawn to this text for a week.  Thanks to the Spirit I have been drawn to a more hopeful and helpful interpretation of this text.

One thing is clear about this text is that Christian assurance is a community project.  One of the fundamental means of our assurance of salvation in perseverance in the gospel is the (local) church.  Every one of us is responsible to every one else of us (Rom 12.5).  That  fact hasn’t changed in my mind, but the application of it in the biblical community has.

Before now my sense of the text was one that created a Christian police-state.  Like elementary school nuns, each of us wields our rulers so as to snap everyone else into submission.  We see to that none of us has an evil, unbelieving by constantly pointing out how close someone is to sin and how quickly they should flee it.  ”Watch out for this!”  ”Watch out for that!” “You dare not step that way; in fact, I’d be careful of stepping anywhere because you just may fall away from the living God!”  Before long, our whole energy is spent terrified of the ubiquitous evil, unbelieving heart rather than assured of Christ.  We grow spiritually paralyzed and unfruitful.

I am not suggesting there is no place for exhortation or warning in biblical community.   There are sins to flee and flee we must.  When a brother or sister eyes the precipice of apostasy we must warn them and command their return with all spiritual force.

But it seems like the normal, day-to-day remedy against the evil, unbelieving heart is encouragement (v13).  The way we guard one another from an evil, unbelieving heart is not necessarily, but certainly not always, scaring each other away from sin.  Rather, we encourage one another toward Christ of whom we’ve become partakers (v14).  The hardening, deceiving effects of sin are powerless in light of the gospel and what God has done to make us part of Jesus.

The word translated “encourage” combines two Greek words: para (alongside) and kaleo (call).  It carries a far more positive tone than that of “warn.”  Taking care of our brothers such that they avoid an evil, unbelieving heart is not hollering from distance, “Hey, you’d better not do that!” or “Hey, don’t go there!”  Helping our sisters from sin’s hardening and deceiving effects is not sitting in the stands telling them where not to run.  It means coming alongside them, sharing in the same call of God to Christ.  It means coming alongside, holding up the precious value of Jesus so that we’re overcome by his glory rather than abject fear.

Imagine explaining someone directions to your house by telling them where they’re not supposed to turn.  Would they ever be quite sure they’re on the right road?  Would they ever have confidence that they’ll get to the right destination?  Holding fast the beginning our assurance firm until the end (v14) isn’t gauged by how much sin we’re always avoiding.  In fact, organizing our life around not sinning will most often lead to prideful, self-righteousness.

The measure of our assurance is gauged by how precious Christ is to us.  For example, assume a Christian brother is addicted to pornography and we don’t want to ruin his marriage. We could, and probably should, warn him from any practical avenues to it.  We could, and should, say, “Stop doing this or you’ll lose it all.”  But, it’s not that easy. He must be thrilled by a greater beauty than the centerfold.  His heart must be won to another “model.”  So, we come alongside him and say, “Stare at your wife.  Contemplate what God has done to unite you two.  Consider that she still puts up with you.  Consider that she is the one who has been with you through hell and back, while that airbrushed fantasy doesn’t care that you exist.  Consider this woman who has given you everything.”  Stopping the sin doesn’t necessarily stop the hardening of the heart.  But, contemplating grace does.

In contemplating Christ and his beauty our hearts are necessarily softened.  I am far more helped away from an evil, unbelieving heart by being “called” again and again to Christ and the gospel.  God has made us partakers of Christ and what better deterrent from sin than to see God’s glory in the face of Christ (2 Cor 4.4-6).  Yes, I should be warned early and often, but that warning must come through the whispers of my brothers rather than a megaphone from the sidelines.

As our gaze is constantly fixed more and more on Jesus, we find entangling sin coming unraveled from our feet (Heb 12.1-2).  We lay aside our sin by focusing our attention on our Christ, of whom God has made us partakers.  The ultimate reason we avoid sin is not because how bad it is, but because how great Christ is (Rom 6.20-22).

So before we feel the urge to call out and announce a brother’s sin in the name of keeping him from an apostate heart, let us first come alongside and help his gaze Godward. Rather than sit in the bleachers telling him where not to run, let’s enter the race beside him so that he not get distracted from Jesus.  Compel him to what God has done in Christ for sinners, sinners just like us.  We are sons, not slaves.  And Christ is a faithful Son over God’s house, whose house we are (Heb 3.6)!  In light of that, how can we harden our hearts?

You know that guy who always has an answer for every question, explanation for every situation, provocation for every dispute, and/or recollection for every story?  Whatever the setting, this guy always has something to say and assumes it’s everyone’s privilege to hear it.  His answer always better.  His explanation always more astute.  His experience always more dramatic.  He’s impatient when others are talking, but expects undivided attention when waxing eloquent on the topic at hand.  You know that guy.  I am that guy trying to be was that guy.

Due to our sinful rebellion against God we lost peace on all fronts.  We lost peace with God, peace with each other and peace within ourselves.  James 1.26 puts the latter on display.  What we think doesn’t often jive with what we are, which doesn’t always jive with what we say.  Our minds, hearts and tongues are at odds with each other such that we can convince others with our tongues of something that is not true of our hearts.  We can even deceive our hearts into feeling what our mind manipulates through our mouths.

Perhaps the most hellish upshot of our inner war is the way in which we use our tongues to appear “religious” without actually having to be “religious.”  And by “religious,” James suggests the particular form of Christianity (not religion in the general sense of any and all faith traditions).  Even worse, we’re not lying about our religion, but sincerely think we are religious because we can talk a sophisticated religious game.  James is not confronting those who lie about being religious, but who “honestly” substitute religious tongue-wagging for “pure and undefiled religion” (v27).

James, the consummate pastor with a keen sense of what it means to actually apply the gospel, makes several things quite clear:

1.  One’s Christianity (“religion”) is directly related to how one uses his/her tongue (cf. Jas 3.1-12).  Jesus taught us the substance of our regular conversations is what most thrills or fills our hearts (Mt 12.34).  So despite what we may think about ourselves, we reveal who we are by what regularly rolls off the tongue.

2.  Bridling the tongue is a mark of Christian (“religious”) maturity (cf. Jas 3.2).  By “bridling,” of course, James employed an equestrian metaphor and is used only here and in 3.2 in all the NT.  As a bit in a horse’s mouth controls his direction and behavior, so the tongue controls our direction and behavior (cf. Jas 3.3).  Bridling the tongue doesn’t necessarily mean restraining it (although it might), but controlling it.  We bridle the tongue when we refuse to use it (Jas 1.19) and when we use it carefully and gracefully (Eph 4.29).

3.  Not bridling the tongue is to deceive one’s heart.  What’s the connection between an unbridled tongue and a deceived heart?  When I’m merely spouting off how religious I think I am, I’m convincing my heart that I’m far more religious than I really am.  James contrasted religion-in-word-only with “pure and undefiled religion” in 1.27.  The more I talk a good religious (or Christian maturity) game, the less inclined I am to actually serve the cause of Christianity in mercy and holiness.  My Christianity is shaped mainly by reputation than actual devotion.

For example, those of us who enjoyed Happy Days growing up remember that we never saw the Fonz actually fight anyone.  Yet, everyone was afraid to fight him.  He talked a mean enough game that no one challenged him to any actual fisticuffs.

Likewise, if I think I’m religious I will convince you I’m religious without having to actually get my hands dirty with widows, orphans or practical holiness.  In so doing I deceive my heart into feeling religious without any substantial evidence that I really am.  And James teaches that anyone like that observes a worthless Christianity.  There is no Christianity-in-word-only.

Allow me to ponder a few pastoral applications of my own:

1.  Don’t just talk about forgiveness.  Forgive.   Don’t go on about forgiveness to make people think you’re a forgiving person in order to avoid being held accountable to actually forgiving your enemy.  Our mouths can deceive our hearts into thinking we’ve forgiven when we really haven’t.  Go and  actually forgive your enemy.

2.  Don’t just talk about prayer.  Pray.  Don’t talk a good game about prayer to make people think you’re a praying person in order to avoid being held accountable to actually praying.  Develop a reputation for prayer by the mouths of others, not by your own.

3.  Don’t just talk about evangelism.  Evangelize.  Don’t talk about a love for and necessity to evangelize such that people think you’re a faithful evangelist when you’re really not.

4.  Don’t just talk about grace and mercy.  Extend grace and mercy.  Don’t talk about God’s grace and mercy such that people think you’re a gracious and merciful person without having to actually confront the grudge(s) you’re nursing.

5.  Don’t just talk about love.  Love.  Don’t talk about how much we need to love each other because of how much God has loved us such that people think you’re a loving person and don’t confront any hatred germinating in the heart.

6.  Don’t just talk about encouragement.  Encourage.  Don’t boast about the value of encouragement so that people think you’re an encouraging person without being held accountable to actually making a phone call or writing a note.

The list goes on and on.  That’s enough on my plate for now, I say, I say.

A blessed man is one enduring trial, because after being approved he will receive the crown of life promised to those who love him [God]. . . . We consider blessed those who endured.” (James 1.12 5.11a)

The church’s happy heroes are those who endure trial.

“Trial” (peirasmos) could just as easily be translated “testing” or “temptation.”  Be it God’s faith-refining tests, Satan’s faith-threatening temptations or the world’s faith-stretching trials James “refers to any difficulty in life that may threaten our faithfulness to Christ: physical illness, financial reversal, the death of a loved one” (Douglas Moo, The Letter of James, PNTC: 70).  ”James wording suggests that he is not thinking of any particular trial, but of the nature of essence of ‘trial’” (ibid).

And certainly James means more by “endure” than merely “outlast” or “survive.”  Biblical endurance means one maintains his faith and love for Jesus though everything and everyone would have him abandon his Lord (cf. Mt 10.22, Mk 13.13).  In James 5.11, James appealed to Job for an example of one who endured.  Therefore, biblical endurance confesses, “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him” (Job 13.15).

Endurance or perseverance does not say, “I’m going to beat this thing” or “This will only make me stronger.” God-rewarded endurance says, “Though this thing beat me, I will not leave my Lord.”  Crowned perseverance says, “Though stripped of all my strength, I will still boast in the strength of my God.”  Our Jesus will be just as, and even more, worthy of our praise though the world be stripped out from under us.

Whatever it is, wherever it is, whenever it is that would strain worship, the church’s happy heroes are those who endure it and gladly rejoice in Christ.  Again and again and again, they endure and love Jesus all the more (cf. 1 Pt 6-9).  They have scars that have healed over by the balm of the gospel.

Of course, James’s perspective is a long-term one.  Christian perseverance is one with a view towards the crown of life bestowed in the last day who refused to love any god but God.  Those who love God persevere in and for God, with a view to being crowned in the last day by God.   By “crown,” James probably envisioned the race winner’s ivy wreath (1 Cor 9.25).  And “of life” probably defines what that crown is (i.e. “the crown, which is life”).  Therefore, the Christian is one who has endured to the end, giving Christ his due with their last breath, and thereby crowned with eternal life.

Ergo:

1.  In a church age addicted to celebrity, let us be reminded that the kingdom is not built on one-trick ponies.  We love the latest, greatest, slicked up personality whose image is sharp, ministry large and campuses multiple.  Let us remember that the kingdom of Christ advances on the back of anonymous, gospel-wrinkled men and women.

We should learn more from that silver-haired, antiquated pastor who has endured a lifetime of trial and still loves the ministry.  We should rejoice in the widow with her gentle handshake as she leaves the Sunday gathering, whose heart remains faithful to Bridegroom Jesus.  Rather than being wowed by the latest video from our mussed-hair ministerial hero, let us be wowed by the brother who gets wounded by wolves everyday at the factory and remains energized by the gospel.  Let us be as eager to hear from our sister who suffers a wayward daughter and still hopes all the more in Christ as we would our hipster online heroes.

2.  In a church age suffering gospel anemia, let us be reminded that endurance is part and parcel of the gospel.  There is no believing of the gospel, receiving of Christ, following him that is not marked by lifelong perseverance (1 Cor 15.1-3; cf. Mt 10.22; Mk 13.13).  Responding to the gospel is not a one-time decision anymore than saying “I do” is a one-time declaration.  By declaring “I do” at our wedding we devote our lives to one spouse, living wholly and solely for the well-being of another.  I don’t say “I do” and then go about living as though “I don’t.”  In declaring “I do” on my wedding day, I’m inaugurating the beginning of ten thousand more days saying “I do.”  Likewise, repentance from sin and faith in Christ are are not assured by a checkmark on a card, but proven after a lifetime of faithful obedience.  In repenting and believing, I’m launching, by God’s grace, a new lifestyle marked by the lordship of Christ.

That’s what James means by “being approved” by God.  We don’t endure trials so that God will approve us, but our endurance is God’s way of proving who are truly his (Mt 7.24-27).  The evidence of salvation is not found in how one begins in faith, but how one ends in faith.  Jesus taught us that there are many who seemingly start well in faith  but who don’t end well (Lk 8.4-15).  They start with all pomp and praise, but simply fizzle out.  Those who don’t finish well are not be considered God’s, but only those who “hold [the word] fast, and bear fruit with perseverance” (Lk 8.15).

New, fresh faith is certainly exciting and often the focus of many churches.  In fact, virtually every denominational survey I get asks about new members, conversions and baptism.  Never have they asked about perseverance.  No survey has asked, “Among those who lost jobs last year, how many remain faithful in the life of the church?” I’ve never had a survey ask, “Among those who buried a spouse last year, how many are using their mourning to instruct younger women?”  I’ve never had a survey ask, “Of those you’ve baptized in the last ten years, how many remain faithful to their baptismal confession?”  If we’re honest, we care far more about fast starts than slow finishes.

But let us be faithful with the gospel because Jesus loved his own “to the end” (Jn 13.1).  We should celebrate new faith (Lk 15.7, 10), but not as an end in itself.  We celebrate new faith praying to see it wrinkled, scarred up and weathered in years to come.