The Letters of the Bible
July 21, 2006 at 00:07 by Mike McQuaid
I want to clarify, as I post this, that don’t post these things to be “controversial”, as I’ve been accused of doing lately, but because my blog is a bit of a mental outpouring, and if I’ve offended anyone, I apologise, but I don’t claim anything I say to be correct or fact, simply opinions. Anyway…..
I had an interesting email conversation today, so I thought I’d paste some relevent bits, for thought and discussion. It was an email a friend sent me about the Judgement post from before, which a few people talked to me about, and I hope to indicate my thoughts and some of my intentions of the post. The quoted (>) parts are him, non quoted parts are me.
Enjoy!
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> I agree there is a tendency among some (? Many) to be legalistic. I also
> agree that I think this is because legalism is a lot easier than being
> sacrificial. As you say you can tick a box that says, “I’m not gay, I’m not
> sleeping with my girlfriend etc.” much more easily than we can tick a box
> to say, “I am loving my neighbour as myself”. This is basically the mistake
> of the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. They were so determined to be close to God
> (which is a good thing) that they invented rules to make sure they weren’t
> going anywhere near breaking God’s rules. In effect, they saw the speed
> limit was 40 miles an hour, so they told everyone to drive at 20 miles an
> hour just to make sure there was no chance God’s law could be broken!
That’s certainly what it feels like with some people today!
> Of course in the midst of all this they missed the very character of God.
> And that is exactly the problem: it is the character of God we are to
> emulate in all his holiness (e.g. 1 Peter 1:15-16). Every time we invent a
> rule for ourselves we are reducing God to a formula. The 10 Commandments
> are there to teach us about the character of God. In the Sermon on the
> Mount Jesus gives us an even deeper understanding of these laws, for
> example as he shows us adultery is a matter of internal thoughts not just
> external actions. The New Testament letters are concerned with the same
> standard of holiness. That is why Paul says to the Colossians that we are
> “being renewed in knowledge in the image of our creator” (3:10). In fact,
> he also says we shouldn’t be judged according to how well we do with
> certain rules (Colossians 2:16, 20-23).
> However, I also agree with a lot of Neil’s comments. When you accuse others
> of being judgemental you are yourself being judgemental! We are told to
> have a humble attitude towards one another, and particularly to those whom
> God has placed in authority above us (1 Peter 5:5). And we are also told to
> make sure we help each other to grow in godliness and keep from sin. This
> command comes from no less an authority than Jesus himself (see Matthew
> 18:15-20). So we need to learn to be thankful when people do care enough to
> challenge us on our attitudes and behaviour.
I’m not so much intending to point the figures at others, as I can equally
point them at myself, especially where I was a few years ago. I hope(d) that
the views expressed could be more of a “guys, lets sort this out” than
a “you’re all wrong”. My view on the keeping others from sin is that, yeh,
its great, but I don’t think people I hardly know are really that qualified
to comment. I have many close Christian friends who do and have tell me when
they think I’m going astray, and this, I belief, is perhaps what was
intended, to be from our friends and authority figures, e.g. our ministers,
but not just an excuse to jump in to saying things to people whose situation
you don’t understand.
I do agree that its nice that people care, however, sometimes this is
overshadowed and hard to see behind what can sometimes be quite insulting.
> (In fact if you go to www.dukestreetchurch.com you can download my sermon
> from last Sunday on that very passage if you want to get more of my
> thoughts!)
I’ll have a listen tonight, good idea, I’ve added the feed to my feed
reader 
> And the challenge for us all is to move beyond legalism to live in grace
> instead. This is the grace that teaches us to forgive as the Lord forgave
> us (Colossians 3:13), which sets us free from the rule of the law, and
> which teaches us to say “no” to all ungodliness (Titus 2:11-12). With the
> help of God’s Spirit we need to study God’s word to understand what it
> means to follow Jesus as Saviour and Lord and so to be conformed to His
> likeness. The Old Testament, the Gospels, the Letters speak with one voice
> on the character of God and what it means to be His holy people.
Amen! For me anyway, its sometimes hard to be hardline on ungodliness and
also not be legalistic, as the two frequently go hand in hand, but it’s
something I’ve been trying lately to do.
> I’m interested in your views about the New Testament letters being wise
> counsel but not authoritatively God’s word. I understand where you are
> coming from, but I wonder if you have ever thought about:
>
> 1. Why Peter and Paul introduce themselves as Apostles in almost all their
> letters (e.g. Romans 1:1, 1 Peter 1:1, in fact in all Paul’s letters apart
> from Philippians and the two to the Thessalonians)
To me, apostles are very important, as they received wisdom from God, both
through Christ and his Spirit, and this is used to indicate their authority.
> 2. What an Apostle is anyway, why did Jesus appoint them, and how this
> relates to the role of an Apostle? (e.g. Luke 6:12-16, Acts 1:15-26, 1
> Corinthians 15:8-9 , Ephesians 4:11, and Revelation 21:14)
Again, I think the Apostles were chosen to head the church and as the
ultra-ministers, as it will.
> 3. What do you make of Peter’s comments about Paul’s letters in 2 Peter
> 3:15-16?
“…Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him.” NIV
To me, this says that Paul was wise, and God gave him wisdom, but I think that
wisdom and words are different things. I’m sure God gives current ministry
wisdom too, but I think saying the letters are divinely influenced is a
different kettle of fish from saying they are the direct Word of God.
I think the letters are fantastic, and I respect them more than the words of
any other man, but to me, at the moment anyway, they are words of men,
influenced by God, but not words of God himself.
Posted in Christianity
The word you seek is `orthopraxy’ – literally, the business of making orthodox beliefs your practice.
I would say to go easy on judgement. If you see a fellow Christian doing something wrong, it may or may not be your place to correct them, as the Spirit leads; it’s easier to fall into judgementalism if you pass comment on something without actually approaching the folks concerned. And if you see non-Christians doing something you consider wrong, isn’t it easier just to say “this is not the way we would do it”, which conveys no judgementalism but rather leads into positive things we *do* believe in?
Colossians is good – I re-read the first two chapters last night and was struck by Paul’s zeal / enthusiasm – and I would also add Ephesians 4 and Philippians 2 as favoured model-lifestyle passages.
That’s a really good approach. I like the idea of “this is not the way I would do it”.
I find it pretty hard at all to judge non-Christians on what is “wrong”, as we have different moral codes.
Good
Actually I only learned the word `orthopraxy’ this week but it does hit a nail on the head very well.
It’s something I’ve been wondering an awful lot of late: being a Christian is not just about making moral statements (least of all, decrying other folks – that being judgementalist), but also includes specification of one’s own behaviour at all times – it’s like “so today you’re sounding off about something: are you doing so wisely, graciously, kindly, promoting peace?” (insert fruits-of-the-Spirit here).
There’s a book I’ve got somewhere, _Computers and Ethics in Society_, that you might find moderately interesting (if nothing else, because your OS, languages and development environments of choice will be gone in 10yrs’ time but sysadmin skills, security and ethics will remain always). Taught me about Kant, Utilitarian and some other kinds of moral systems, which I find useful for understanding how others approach moral choices. I’d go so far as to say I *accept* the fact that others have different moral codes, but it’s not like we’re seeking either to slag ‘em off nor to hope for some instanteous conversion; a conversation, a discussion, persuasion, friendship, lead gently in the right direction instead
I doubt my choice of Linux will have gone in 10 years, or C or vim
Gentoo probably will have, the UK rsync admin seems a bit lame
Sounds interesting book, I might check it out.
Well, I’ve seen RH come (v4.x) and go (fedora-v-RHEL) as a usable geek’s desktop OS of choice, gentoo came from left-field and then the author moved on, ubuntu has come from nowhere, napster has collapsed near-enough *twice*, … debian’s stuck around, though.
I live for the day when C is as out-moded as assembler today. That’s where it belongs. The corporate attitude of “C is here to stay” sucks.
Oh – it’s http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/019510756X/026-6800245-4278064 btw.