Following Jesus Involves Committing to a Local Church

I meet lots of people who tell me they are Christians but are not interested in the church.  I want to make the point that following Jesus involves committing to a local church.  There are lots of ways this point could be made, but I will focus on just one simple flow of thought here.

First, Jesus once asked a helpful question, "Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I tell you?"*  This is a good question.  If Jesus is lord (a fundamental confession for the Christian) then we are his subjects, we are to worship him and do what he says.  This is not a burden, it is our joy.

By his Spirit, Jesus tells us "to consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near."**  Jesus is lord, and he tells us not to neglect meeting together with God's people.  How can we say we are following him if we unrepentantly ignore this command?

Some consider themselves to have done this because they have believing family members or friends that they spend time with.  But by his Spirit, Jesus also tells us, "Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.  Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you."*** 

If we are Christians, then we confess Jesus as lord.  If we confess him as lord, we are to do the things he says.  He says not to neglect meeting together with God's people, to stir each other up to love and to encourage each other.  He also says to submit to and obey leaders who watch over your soul.  These leaders are pastors of churches.  Which ones are you submitting to?  Is it clear to them?






*Luke 6:46 
**Hebrews 10:24-25
***Hebrews 13:17

Getting Specific about Community

In my last post called Clique or Community I talked about embracing the beauty of the other.  I made some general applications to marriage and the local church, and wanted to chase those applications a little further this week.  Before getting to that, I want to first take a minute to show that this kind of approach to others comes from the nature of God himself.  So first a theological foundation, and then some pretty specific applications.

The idea of being united with people who are different from you is beautiful because it is an expression of the nature and character of God.  God himself is perfect and cannot be improved upon.  You could say that the nature and character of God embody the best of all possible situations.  God is good and he is the standard of goodness.  There is no other standard to compare him or anything else to.  In other words, it is not possible for things to be better than they are with God.  But why do I say that being united with diverse people is an expression of God's nature? Well, God is one.  And that one God eternally exists as three distinct persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  The Father is fully God.  The Son is fully God.  The Holy Spirit is fully God.  And, the Father is not the Son.  The Son is not the Spirit.  The Spirit is not the Father.  Here you have something of a mystery, but what we can see clearly is unity and diversity held together in perfect harmony.  God is not more one than three.  And he is not more three than one.  He is one God.  He is three persons.  Neither side of this equation diminishes the other.  So what all this means for the topic at hand is that in the most perfect situation possible (the nature of God) you have perfect unity existing alongside perfect difference.  You don't have uniformity, you have unity.  This being the case, God sets up community life down here in a way that we are shaped by unity with the other.  Thus, the examples last week from marriage and the church.  So let me chase those applications down the trail a bit further.

1.  We should be laboring and praying for unity among different denominations within the Christian church.  This unity should be sought along the lines of the truth.  I am not advocating a kind of lame group hug where we pretend we don't disagree on important issues.  The church in our day needs more truth and more conviction about the truth than most of us have ever even smelled in a church.  However, we also need incredible humility to see the strengths of our brothers and sisters who are different from us.  Imagine a single church with the intellectual rigor of the presbyterians, the zealous affections of the charismatics, and the fervent mission practice of the baptists.  We miss the beauty of the diversity when we act like the strengths of our own denomination are truly the best and the others just don't get it.  We miss the beauty of the unity when we divide up into our separate camps with suspicion of one another.  Pride will keep us apart as we focus on our own strengths and everyone else's weaknesses.  Love would bind us together in humility, as we consider the strengths of others and the weaknesses of ourselves.

2. We miss these things when we form culture based ministries and churches.  Baptists are surprisingly adept at this.  We have skateboarder churches, artist churches, cowboy churches, and even country churches for those who are country but not cowboy.  We have been doing it within our churches, and we are now gunning it into the fractured future of the church.  We have divided up internally for years along lines of age in our "traditional" and "contemporary" services.  We are now starting whole different churches for everyone under the sun.  Next is the church for rodeo clowns who prefer pop country music to bluegrass or more classic country and who jump over the fence with their left leg first instead of their right.  "None of those nasty right leggers in this fellowship!"  We should grieve over the disunity we are sowing into the church, which is supposed to be made up of different people united in Christ alone.  "For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free--and all were made to drink of one Spirit."

3. We do it in marriage as well.  She is upset that he isn't more sensitive.  He is upset that she isn't stronger.  We forget that she is his glory and he is her strength.  She wishes that he payed more attention to details of their life.  He wishes she payed more attention to the big picture.  And so resentment grows.  Again, this happens because we think it is better if others are just like us.  Why?  Because we are proud and we think our gifts and our strengths are the best ones.  But love would have us consider others as more significant than ourselves, and learn from them in the perfect unity of love.  

4. Homosexual "marriage" is the institutionalization of this.  It is a turning away from the other to someone just like you.  It is uniformity rather than unity in diversity.  It may seem new and thrilling and different, but at the end of the day when the buzz fades it is a clique instead of a community.  It is peanut butter and peanut butter instead of peanut butter and chocolate. 

5. Racism is a classic example of missing this.  We see people who are different from us and either from fear, hatred, greed, or whatever else, we resist them.  We marginalize, oppress, abuse, exclude, and separate.  The lines of separation grow deeper and we all lose out on the cultural richness of the other as we shrivel in our fearful pride.  Love would compel us out towards the other to labor through the misconceptions and cultural barriers to increasing laughter, understanding, and riches.

Let me conclude by clarifying a few things I am not saying.  

1. I am not saying that all religions are true.  It is love that will bind us together in our differences and love rejoices in the truth.  If it doesn't rejoice in the truth, it is not love.  All religions and views of where we came from, what went wrong, and how it is going to be fixed are different.  The different religions are contradictory and cannot all be true.  This is evident to anyone who looks deeply into them.  

2. I am not saying that all interpretations of the truth are accurate.  When someone says something, they mean some specific thing, and not anything that their words can be twisted to communicate.  Anyone who has sought to understand another human being truly understands this.  The Scriptures are no different.  They mean something, and language is functional enough that we can come to discover what that meaning is.  There are disagreements because of our biases and confusion.  The more we listen to each other and talk through different biases, the closer we will get to the truth, provided that we love and therefore actually rejoice in the truth.  If not, we will remain awash in what we wish it to say in order to justify some other end we truly have.

3. I am not saying that every opinion is equally valid.  Many opinions are wrong and should be humbly submitted to correction.  If you disagree with me on this, then you actually agree with me.  Think about it.  The problem most of us have here is that we nod our head, and go on our way assuming that it is other people's opinions that are wrong and should be submitted to correction to mine.  This is where humbly living in community with people that are not like us bears so much fruit.   We commit to love people who see differently than we do, and over time we come to realize that they may be on to something.  This corrects our faulty opinions, humbles us, and grows us to see more of the beauty of truth and goodness.  

4. There is a dividing line.  That dividing line is truth and lies; goodness and evil.  Lies and evil do not represent diversity to be learned from and embraced, but rather enemies to be resisted.  Understanding where to draw the lines is crucial, drawing them is even more crucial.  People unlike me help me to do this better.

Clique or Community

People that are like me are the easiest to be around.  They tend to reinforce my biases and assumptions because they share most of them.  People that are different than me are harder to be around because they challenge my assumptions.  They have a different angle on life.  My view broadens when I am around people that don't think like me, that look at things from a different angle, that have different strengths than I do.   I am not talking about issues of truth, those are fixed and provide the necessary bond of unity.  But I am talking about cultural preferences, strengths, gifts, etc.

Phillip Yancey sees these two paths as the difference between a club and community.  He says, "we often surround ourselves with the people we most want to live with, thus forming a club or clique, not a community.  Anyone can form a club; it takes grace, shared vision, and hard work to form a community."*  While genuine community does take much more grace and effort, it brings with it so much more benefit.  Cliquishness shrivels the soul and promotes self-righteousness in the boundary markers of the clique.  Community stretches the soul and challenges our assumptions about how right we are in so many of our preferences and judgments.  

You see this play out in marriage.  Two people come together who are different from each other.  They are a man and a woman, and so they deal with things and think about things differently.  They also come from different families and so they bring certain biases and assumptions about what is normal to the relationship.  These are good things.  As the years increase, and the couple faces different issues together, they learn that the other does not always share their deeply help ideas and preferences.  They can either come to despise those differences, and slowly drift apart; or they can come to delight in them and slowly stretch each other to a higher vista.  This new and higher vista is then passed on to the children who will likely one day take it into their own marriages and go through the same process.  Where it is delighted in and embraced, this results in a process of generational maturity.

You also see it play out in the church.  There is a trend to build clique churches around certain shared cultural assumptions.  This is easier up front, but it will result in a narrow church over time.  As people reinforce one anothers' shared assumptions, those will grow deeper into the life of the community.  The way the "inside" of the community will increasingly be defined by default will include the shared cultural assumptions of the culture the group is built around.  Those who don't hold those cultural assumptions will increasingly be seen as "outsiders."  The more this happens, the more the group becomes rooted in the kind of legalism that led Peter to withdraw from the Gentiles during lunch.  Paul didn't think this was a small issue, but got in his face to show him that his conduct was out of step with the gospel.  Why?  Because part of the good news of the gospel is that the boundary of the community is Christ alone.  That is it.  If you are in Christ by faith you are a full member of his body, cultural differences and all.  And the Bible tells us that God purposely builds this community from different types of members, all united by one Spirit.  If everyone were an eye, how would the body hear?  If everyone were a foot, how would the body think? 

So this is a challenge to value the beauty of the other.  This takes humility and grace.  It takes time for understanding.  It takes commitment to be together.  And it has glorious results. 

*Quoted in Total Truth by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, 111

Shame Off You

There is an enemy who wants you to live in shame.  There is an enemy who delights in your shame.  His goal is to keep you chained up with it.

And he is clever.  So he doesn't tell you plainly this is what he is doing.  He just offers you ways of escape that he knows will keep you chained to it.

Shame comes from your conscience.  You know what is right and wrong.  When you do wrong, you feel it.  Sometimes you can't sleep because of it.  Sometimes old wrongs come back up into your mind to plague you.  You feel like you can't be totally honest with anyone about who you are and what you have done.  You worry that someone will find out.

Your enemy offers ways out: 

1. Justify your wrongs.  Adopt arguments that what you know is wrong really isn't.  Then feel enlightened that you have silenced that silly conscience with the shining light of reason.  Just don't examine those reasons too closely, and keep doing those things if you can.  You are truly a champion, you don't really do bad things, you are a defender of rights.  When that conscience speaks up in a quiet moment,  just stuff it back down, surely it is wrong. 

2. Glory in your shame.  Shout it from the rooftops and from hashtags.  Announce to yourself and the world that you are proud of what your conscience smites you for.  That will silence that silly conscience.  That will stuff that bothersome shame.  Surely feelings of shame are part of some warped collective consciousness, or some antiquated thing you were taught.  Just don't think about that too long.  Don't entertain other possibilities.  Don't imagine your conscience is a divine guide to goodness.  Why would a divine guide to goodness ever want you to feel bad about yourself.  Only people who do bad things should feel bad about it.  Surely I don't do bad things.

These are dead ends.  They will not silence your conscience.  They will not cover your shame.  They will keep you locked down in it until the day you die and go to answer to the one who gave you your conscience.  At best they will blunt the voice of your conscience so that it becomes merely a faint nagging feeling in the back of your heart.  But there is a Friend who wants you to be free from shame.  There is a Friend who delights in removing your shame forever and giving you the glorious gift of a truly clean conscience.  

He offers a way out.

1. An atoning sacrifice.  A true Friend came and acknowledged the depth of your wrongdoing and shame.  He looked into the darkest corners of your heart, knew what you have done and desired, and then he looked you in the face and told you he loves you.  And then he asked you to see how much he loves you, and he took the blame for all your wrongdoing on himself.  He took all your shame like a coat and put it on and went out into public with it where he was mocked, spit on, and killed for what you had done.  He took it all into the grave, left it there, and rose to new life.

2. Faith and repentance.  He says this is yours if you believe him.  Your shame and guilt can be gone, and your conscience can be delightfully clean, as clean as if you had never done a thing wrong.  You don't have to slay your conscience in order to silence the shame.  The shame has been owned and worn, punished, and is dead.  We come to experience this through repentance from our wrongdoing.  This means admitting it, all the way down to the bottom, throwing away all the excuses and self-justifications for why it really wasn't that bad in your circumstances, and calling evil what it is, even when you find it in yourself.  And then you turn away from it, telling God you hate it and don't want it anymore, and asking for his help to be free from it.  Faith and repentance:  Admit your wrongs, tell God sorry, believe that he loves you still, and that Jesus wore all your shame and there is none left for you, and then walk in freedom and gladness.

This is not a dead end.  This is the path to eternal life and joy.  Jesus will cover your shame and give you a clean conscience.  Repent and believe, and be saved.

Panegyris

Last weekend we went to a folk music festival in the forest.
As we walked up a dirt trail through the trees outside of Pagosa Springs we were greeted by a lively doe and her spotted fawn.  They saw us from a distance and ran over to the hill beside us to watch us climb the trail.  It was a good welcome.  

We knew we were getting close when we could hear the picking of stringed instruments and singing.  The trail ended in a large camp full of smiling people sitting around campfires playing music together.  We made our way to the entrance tent.  The lists were checked and the bracelets put on our right arms by a smiling helper in an almost formal welcome ceremony.

We wandered through the open glade towards the sound of the main music stage, moving through another narrow passage where we were asked to leave behind any drinks from the outside, only to be presented freely with clean water on the inside.  Once inside we saw a smiling friend, his eyes wide with excitement as he showed us around.  Dancing over here, shelter over there, kids playing freely down here, good beer under that tent, food up there.

The music was amazing, fun, and full of energy.  The highlight was the Oh Hellos, who had nine people on stage with band members running and jumping around throughout their long set.  Music from a fiddle complemented an accordion, a banjo mixed with two drum kits, and all the varied instruments blended together to lift us all out of our chairs dancing.  The raucous set ended with the whole band lined up humming the tune of Come Thou Fount in beautiful, haunting harmony.  The whole experience echoed for me the climax of the Silver Chair when Jill finally came out of the underworld right into the middle of an all-night Narnian forest festival under the moon, during the first snow, with music and dancing and a complex game of throwing perfectly timed snowballs between dancers.

Being part of this festival reminded me of the unique beauty of festal joy.  It is what we Christians aim for Sunday after Sunday in what could be called Resurrection-Fest; where we gather to sing, worship, hear about, and eat and drink in celebration of the death of death in the death of Christ, and life into the ages through his resurrection.  And then with all of this still ringing in my heart, I happened to read that we "have come to mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel."  Mysteriously, in Christ, we are already there with the angels in panegyris, in "festal gathering."  Soon all this darkness will be shaken loose and we will open our eyes and find ourselves, like Jill, in the middle of the greatest festival the world has ever known.  We will have dumped out our tepid water, and will be welcomed to drink deeply from the river of life forever.  There everlasting joy will crown our heads in the presence of the Chief Musician.

*Image credit: Folk West, http://www.folkwest.com/#!home/zoom/mainPage/i01mcc

Excitement, Butterflies, and Church Membership

I get excited about stuff.  The world is full of things to be interested in and excited about.  This summer I got excited about teaching one of my sons to play the guitar, and that excitement carried us through several weeks of spontaneous lessons.  Maybe you are like me in that getting excited about things is great for awhile, but it doesn't seem to have sustaining power.  Now I am trying to figure out how to schedule time to do lessons regularly, to commit to it, so that even on weeks when neither of us are excited about it, we do it anyway.  I know that in the long run, this will lead to the most reward for him in playing the guitar.  I have years and years of deep enjoyment from the guitar that came from excitement turning into commitment, leading to enjoyment and more excitement.

Marriage is this way too.  Romantic love is one of the most exciting things in the world, and it can sustain lots of activity, time, and devotion for a long time.  But even the butterflies of romantic love fly away some mornings, some winters.  Marriage is a way for the excitement to lead to commitment that lays the groundwork for years of deep enjoyment and more excitement.

A Christian's relationship with a church is this way too.  It is fun to get excited about a certain ministry, a certain type of preaching or mission, a certain group of people, or whatever.  And that excitement is good.  And that excitement is meant to lead to commitment to that local church, even when it doesn't feel exciting, even when it gets costly at times.  This is why we practice what we call church membership at Gospel Church.  To our culture it can feel overly formal and strange.  It can feel like an inauthentic element of true community.  But we believe that a solid, formal commitment to a specific community of people will in the long run lead to a deeper level of true community and enjoyment in that community.  Membership is an act of giving yourself to a community of Christians.  It is an act of committing to stay through seasons when the excitement wanes, to push through difficulties with people so that in the long run true community, deep connection, and seasons of great excitment sprout up.  If excitement is a butterfly, commitment is building the butterfly a home to return to year after year.

Our Houses Smell

Have you ever noticed how most peoples' homes have a distinct smell?  You smell it when you walk in the door, and often on their clothes when you see them around.  Sometimes it can even come back home on something you loaned to them.  The strange thing is, I don't think my home has a distinct smell.  I mean, I suspect that it must, but I don't notice one.  Maybe when I come home from vacation I notice a faint something when I first open the door, but it goes away quickly.  Isn't it strange that we can be oblivious to something so intimately associated with us, when it is so obvious to everyone else?

We are the same way about sin.  Your sins are obvious to me, but I can be strikingly oblivious to my own.  And I suspect it works the same way for you.  Part of it is that we are so accustomed to our own sins that we have stopped noticing them.  Another part of it surely has to do with pride.  I think I have good reasons for my sins; I have come up with justifications for why they are actually virtues.  I'm not sinfully angry, I am righteously indignant.  I'm not proud, I am just honest about my many strengths.  I am not envious, I just see clearly how wrong everyone else is with their money.  I am not self-righteous, I just like to talk about my goodness to set a good example.  I am not lazy, I just know how to rest better than others.  I am not lustful, I just admire beauty in all forms.  I am not a drunkard, I just like to have a good time.  I am not an idolater, I just embrace all spiritual paths.  You get the idea, you know how it works.

And even though our sins are obvious to each other, we don't like to point them out.  We tell ourselves it's because we are nice.  Maybe we have tried hinting at them, but the person was too thick to listen.  After all, our wall of justifications is pretty thick.  We have been working on it for quite some time. 

At times we have gone beyond hinting and pointed out the sins of others quite plainly.  Often this happens because we are in close proximity with them, and their sins began to encroach on our happiness.  Something had to be done.  This happens in marriage, doesn't it?  Eventually we get quite bold in pointing out the sins of our spouse that bother us the most.  This is a painful process, but with lots of grace and love it can help us become better people.  The problem is that when we do it this way, we are not acting in love for the other person, we are acting primarily in our own self-interest.  Your sin bothers me, so I am going to tell you about it.  If we really want to hurt the person we won't tell them at all, we will tell others.  We might couch it as a "prayer request" or a "concern."

But there is a better way.
It begins with each of us admitting to God, to ourselves, and to each other that we need to hear about our sin; that we tend to be blind to our own deepest and most persistent faults.  It begins with admitting that we need others to point out our sin to us so that we can see it, confess it, and fight against it.  And the best way for this to happen is not when you have had enough of me and can't stand it anymore.  It best done because you love me and you know that my sin is my great enemy.

This will happen more as I welcome it from you, and you from me.  It will happen when we humbly invite each other in to point out our sin in love.  No one does that.  But we can. 

We will become increasingly open to this as we grow to delight in getting rid of sin and growing in love.  We will become open to this as we come to believe that continuing in sin is worse than the shame we experience from having it exposed.  And we will be enabled to face that shame the more we believe that Jesus' death is sufficient to take all our guilt and shame away.  It will happen as we learn to rest more fully in our justification in Jesus' death on the cross alone.  The more we believe that his death fully justifies us for every sin, all the way down to the bottom, the more we will be ready to kick down our walls of self-justification and stop trying to excuse our own crap.  The more we believe and rest in him, the more free we will feel to not only let our sin be exposed, but to ask for it to be.

This kind of thing is best invited instead of pushed.  The best way to start down this path is by asking others to confront us about our sin.  What might God do if we started trying this?  

The Only Thing I Really Have to Say

All these posts, and I really only have one thing to say. God created this world as a paradise of life and joy in the presence of his divine glory.  We decimated that paradise by refusing to be thankful to him or to love him and others like we know we should. We made ourselves his enemies. But God has looked on the sadness, brokenness, evil, and hopelessness of our hearts and our world, and has determined to fix it in his grace. The Divine Jesus entered into our world and took our evil and suffering onto himself, and died in our place. Leaving our condemned sin in the grave, he rose from the dead, beginning a new world of love and joy and glorious reconciliation with God. The old, beautiful, broken world is rotting, and soon he will do away with it and everyone clinging to it, so that he can make everything new again. He welcomes us all to be reborn into this new world of love. This happens as we see this beauty, believe it, and turn loose of our rebellion to embrace Jesus.

Classroom and Community

I picked up this idea somewhere listening to Jeff Vanderstilt.

"Teaching them all that I have commanded you," can be done in a classroom.
But that is not what Jesus said.
"Teaching them to observe all that I commanded you," has to be done in life together.

I am confident that classroom teaching is valuable.
I am also confident it is not enough.

God, let us love you in word and in deed together, with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Planned Parenthood, Abortion, and Love

"Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth."
1 Cor. 13:6

"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world."   James 1:27

"Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.  For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.  But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light.  Therefore it says,
       'Awake, O sleeper,
       and arise from the dead,
       and Christ will shine on you.'"                Ephesians 5:11-14


My main hope and goal is not ending abortion.  My main message is one of glory and hope and eternal life through the crucifixion of Jesus Christ for sinners like me and you who repent and believe for the forgiveness of their sins.  It is one of joy to the world because God is fixing this broken world full of evil (including me!) through the resurrection of his Son to a new creation.  This world will be restored to light and beauty through a transformation in the hearts of people as they trust in Christ and are born again to a living hope.  It will ultimately happen when Christ comes back to make all things right and establish a perfect world forever.  In that new world, there will be no murder, no hatred, no anger, no greed, no pride, no war, no dismembering and negotiating over torn parts of babies, just love.  This is not my message. I received it from Jesus.

In the meantime, God calls followers of Christ to live lives of love; lives that begin to foreshadow that coming glorious new world of love.  And love does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.  Dismembering and selling little babies is wrong and we cannot rejoice in it, even if it gives a woman (and her husband) more life choices.  These little babies have been abandoned and given over by their parents to dismemberment, and pure religion is to visit them in their trouble.  What do orphans and widows have in common?  The ones who are supposed to protect them are not there to protect them.  Someone needs to stand with them when they are in trouble, when they are in danger.  Love compels us to stand with the babies and with their moms, especially when the moms are in trouble because they have been abandoned by their husbands and fathers.  Someone needs to protect these babies, and someone needs to protect the mothers who are preyed upon at their most vulnerable and fearful moment by a corporation ready to haggle over best prices for baby parts. 

Dismembering and selling babies is an unfruitful work of darkness. It is unfruitful because it is cutting off fruit before it can fully ripen and tearing it to pieces.  It is darkness because it is the murder of little human beings.  This kind of darkness should have the light of truth shone on it.  That is what recent videos of interviews with Planned Parenthood leaders have done again.  They have forced us to think about what is being done.  Have you watched them?  Will you please?  I will make it easy for you to find them, though they are not easy to watch.  They will make you feel bad.  They will cause your laughter to turn to mourning.

Both of the summary videos, plus a link to the unedited full version of at least one can be found here.  Even more recently, they have released the beginning of a documentary summarizing the findings here.

There are a lot of questions about what the interviews truly reveal, and a formal investigation by the proper authorities would be fitting, but so far I have been able to discern a few things quite clearly from watching the videos.

1. Abortion is not merely about clumps of cells
A few brief moments of the videos will make this very plain.  One of the main arguments supporters of abortion make is that a clump of cells is not a human.  The argument really hinges here.  Even though science clearly demonstrates that human life begins at conception, this piece of information is fiercely hidden behind a pile of human rights talk in order to make abortion somehow seem like the just thing to do.  But what is crystal clear is that the people in the videos are not haggling over clumps of cells.  Rather, they are discussing internal organs, legs, skulls, brains, etc.  And they are casually discussing the best techniques for ripping the baby to pieces while keeping these pieces intact.  These are little humans with little heads and little toes and little kidneys.  If you have never been through a pregnancy, I would encourage you to sign up for an email update for pregnant moms that teaches you week by week the development of your baby.  One good example is here.  Maybe you are not as scientifically informed as the average mom who has carefully and delightedly read over these regularly.

2. The lack of compassion in these Planned Parenthood representatives is staggering 
The way the people in the videos discuss the best technique to remove a baby's head intact while eating and drinking wine is staggering.  It seems surreal.  In the latest video, the first installment of the documentary, a former volunteer discusses how she blacked out the first time she took tweezers to separate out mutilated baby parts.  This is a more fitting reaction.

3. It is hard to see the price negotiations as merely about covering shipping and handling costs
While all the representatives do clearly express that they are not allowed to sell baby parts, and that they are not doing so; several things make these words ring quite hollow.  If you were wanting to be careful to have the cost only cover basic expenses, why would you haggle over the price?  Why would you be worried about who throws out a figure first in order to win the negotiation?  Why would you need to check into what other people are selling them for in order to make sure you are not selling them too cheap?  All you would need to do is calculate shipping and handling costs.   No negotiations necessary.  You would not want to joke about getting a fancy car as a result of the sales.  Mrs. Nucatola (in the first video released) talked about PP being happy to go beyond breaking-even on the sales, you know, if there is a way to do that that seems reasonable.  How is that anything other than selling baby parts?  If you were trying to be careful to ensure that funds only covered shipping and handling, how would you talk about pricing with someone?  Would there be any negotiating necessary?  

These videos shine a bright light on the abortion industry.  The proper aim of shining this light is to expose the unfruitful works of darkness.  It is not merely to score political points, it is not to war against others in the culture, it is not to ruin someone's day or vindicate your cause.  It is to shine the light of truth and let love reign.  The ultimate aim is to expose the wickedness so that Christ can shine on it and babies can be saved and all those involved in abortion can repent and be forgiven and enjoy eternal life in the new creation that will be saturated completely in love.  

Awake O sleeper,
and rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.

Imagine Mission

Imagine that God called you to be a foreign missionary, and that it was clear to you that this is what he wanted you to do.  You sold your home, obtained travel documents, said goodbye to friends and family, and moved to a foreign culture that didn't know about Jesus.  

Now imagine the first week of your life there.  You wake up, brush your teeth, and look out the window.  What do you do?  Consider it.  List a few things out loud.  Use your imagination.


Your list might include things like:

1. Go introduce myself to the neighbors
       -maybe bring a gift with me

2. Plan to spend enough time with people that I get to deeper conversations about life that will naturally bring up issues of sin and suffering and discontent with the world, which relate clearly to God's work in the gospel.

3.  Find public places and activities to get involved with to meet more people.

4.  Go to work everyday and talk to people you encounter there about Jesus.

5.  Spend devoted and serious time in prayer for God to give opportunities to tell others the gospel.

6.  Maybe even find people in public places who are interested to talk, and tell them about Jesus.

7.  Invite people over for meals and cultural events to get to know them and serve them and talk to them about Jesus.

8.  Look for practical ways to serve my neighbors and city.

9.  Encourage others who know Jesus to get together with me in these activities.

Some of these things might be uncomfortable.  But, you are bringing the message of reconciliation with heaven, so you figure it is worth some discomfort.

Now imagine that several people hear the great news about Jesus and decide to follow him with you.  What would you guys do together?  Really, think about it.  List a few things out loud.



Your list might include things like:

1. Eat together

2. Pray together

3. Make music together

4.  Study God's word together

5.  Work through struggles and sins openly and honestly together

6.  Appoint elders and deacons

7.  Do the first list together


Now imagine one last thing with me.  Imagine that Jesus called you to be a missionary in your own neighborhood and city.  Imagine that he left his people on earth to show other people how to follow him.  Imagine that he gave the leaders of the church to equip the everyday Christians to do the work of ministry in everyday life.  Imagine that he entrusted to all of his people the ministry of reconciling the world to God through speaking the good news of the gospel and inviting others to repent and believe for their salvation too.

Imagine it was day one.  You wake up, brush your teeth, and look out the window.  What do you do?  Consider it.  List a few things out loud.  
Use your imagination...

Things Evangelicals Think: Only God's Kindness Leads to Repentance

We are back to another installment in the series: things evangelicals think.  I love evangelicals, I am one, and I love people who make these mistakes.  I myself have made many of these mistakes, including this one.  So in some ways, you can consider this as a retraction.  Also, there are surely other mistakes evangelicals make that I am currently making without knowing it.  I hope someone will write a blog  post about it to point it out.

This one has been floating around the internet quite a bit lately for several different reasons, so I thought it would be a good one to talk about.  It is usually stated as, "it is God's kindness that leads us to repentance."  The implication is that kindness is the sole means God uses to bring about repentance.  It is often quoted in response to someone who has spoken (or written) a hard word, to remind them that God instead uses kindness to bring about repentance.  It is important to note that it is this specific use and understanding of this idea that I am objecting to.

Before moving on, it must be emphatically stated that all we have in Christ is the result of God's grace and mercy towards us.  Our salvation is founded first to last on the rock of God's mercy, and we have no other hope.  And further, in the practical living of the Christian life, God's kindness is incredibly powerful to lead to repentance.  His smiling, forgiving face has tremendous power to melt our resistance to him.  My point here today is that sometimes, in his grace and mercy, God afflicts us.  Sometimes he warns, rebukes, instructs, and disciplines us to bring us to repentance.  So while this is all done in mercy, it is too narrow to answer warnings, rebukes, and instructions by suggesting that they are out of place because only God's kindness leads to repentance.

The idea comes from a verse in Romans 2:4, which says in part, "God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?"  As always, context is important.  Two immediate clues let us know something more is going on in this snippet.  They are (1) the question mark that ends it, and (2) the phrase "is meant to."  We might add the lack of the words "it is" to begin the statement.  Let's look at these things one at a time to see how the common use of these words often results in a misunderstanding.

1. First, the question mark.  The fact that it doesn't seem to belong means we don't have the complete sentence.  Let's get Romans 2:3-5 in front of us now.  

Do you suppose, O man--you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself--that you will escape the judgment of God?  Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?  But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.

What now becomes clear is that this statement is a rebuke to those who presume upon God's kindness by thinking God's patience means he isn't going to judge their sin.  They should have known that his kindness and patience was designed to lead them to repentance.  In this case, that wasn't happening. His kindness was instead leading them to presumption.  

2. Second, the phrase "is meant to."

God's kindness is meant to lead us to repentance.  Turning away from our sin is the proper response to God's patience with us.  Sometimes instead, we presume upon it.  

3. Third, the lack of the phrase "it is."

The reason we often add "it is" to the start of this is to narrow the point.  When we say, "don't you know it is God's kindness that leads to repentance," we are implying that his kindness alone does this, as opposed to his rebukes, judgments, warnings, etc.  But this is not at all the point of the saying in its context.  What should jump off the page before our eyes is that the whole thing is a rebuke and warning.  "Do you suppose you will escape the judgement of God?"  "You are storing up wrath for yourself..." etc.  God's kindness was supposed to lead them to repentance.  They instead presumed upon it and thought it made them free to stay in their sin.  So Paul rebuked and warned them.  Why?  I suppose to lead them to repentance.  Because sometimes God's admonitions lead to repentance.  Isn't that the goal of all the warnings in the book of Hebrews, for example?  It seems that Paul's rebuke of Peter in Galatia worked like this.  Peter seems to have repented.  I can imagine someone taking Paul aside after he publicly rebuked Peter and saying "Paul, don't you remember that it is the kindness of God that leads to repentance?"  I suspect Paul would have patiently asked them to go read the verse again.

God's patience and kindness are meant to lead to repentance.  When they don't, rebuke may be necessary, though it too should be characterized with patience.  But lets stop quoting Romans 2:4 at each other as though it means that the wounds of a friend are not faithful.




*Image credit: http://www.brokenfollower.com/one-defense-righteousness/

Truth in Love

I love truth and knowledge and wisdom.  

In the Spirit I love them because I want to love God with all my mind, and the truth shows me more about him and his ways.
In the Spirit I love them because I love righteousness and want to understand it more fully.
In the Spirit I love them because God sanctifies us by his truth, and I want to be completely devoted to God and his glory.
In the Spirit I love them because I love to delight in them with others, knowing that God's word is a light to our path, leading us in pleasant places.
In the Spirit I love them because they are so beautiful in their arrangement and pleasant in themselves.  
In the Spirit I love them because I hate lies and how they attempt to distort reality and blind us.
In the Spirit I love them because Jesus is the Truth and his Spirit is the Spirit of truth, and the Father is the God of truth.

But,

In the flesh I love them because I love being able to be right.
In the flesh I love them because I love a massive distraction from sacrificially loving God and people.
In the flesh I love them because they can be a means of personal gain.
In the flesh I love them because knowing stuff makes me feel good about myself.

This knowledge fills me up like a balloon waiting to be popped, but truth-in-love fills me up like a fountain waiting to overflow.  I want all my desire for truth to be undergirded by love for God and love for others.  

I delight in the truth that because I am justified in Christ I don't have to try to prove myself to be right.  
I delight in the truth that God has sacrificially loved me first, and is teaching me to be like him.
I delight in the truth that no amount of personal gain I can secure for myself can match the gain God has promised to me in Christ in the resurrection.  
I delight in the truth that my feeling good about myself doesn't depend on how much I know, but on how fully I am known and loved by God in Christ.

This truth is for all, to be freely received by turning from the lies and daring to believe it.

I May Not Have _____, But At Least I Have ________.

Americans are some of the most secure people in the history of the world.  We have a powerful military, strong police forces, houses with solid locks and alarm systems, we have powerful weapons to defend ourselves, and a system designed to keep these things from turning against us if we pay attention.  

We have storehouses of food and supplies, emergency responders in case something threatens our abundance, and rooms or closets full of food in our homes.

We have advanced medicine and doctors specialized and trained to cure sickness and alleviate suffering.  We are constantly working on cures for everything under the sun, and we have household remedies for almost any imaginable ailment that are actually quite helpful.  

We could go on.

But Americans have a crippling sense of insecurity.  Despite all of this, we don't feel confident within our hearts.  Many feel vulnerable and scared.  We struggle with anxiety.

And those who don't struggle with anxiety often paper over their insecurity with a false show of bluster.  We lack confidence and so we over-do it with exercise, with intellectual pursuits, with social climbing, with career, with money, with religion, with sex, with whatever we think will fix our problems.  And some even come to feel quite secure in these things for a time, despising the insecure and boasting in their own confidence success, strength, etc.

Where do you put your confidence?  What is your boast?  Is it your physical achievements?  Your career?  Your religious practice?  I may not have _________, but at least I have more ___________ than others.

All such boasting is foolish and evil.

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.  But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.  And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."*

Where is it written?  In Jeremiah 9.

Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth.  For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.

There is one appropriate place for your confidence and boast.  It is in God and in his mercy towards you in Christ.  Some of you will read this and think I am saying it is in your religious practice.  This is a deadly mistake.  Your spirituality, your morality, your religious practice are useless places to put your confidence and boast.  They will not hold up on the day of accounting.  Furthermore, putting your confidence in these things will make you a terrible person to be around, constantly trying to prove how spiritual, how moral, or how religious you are.

Deep down you know that you are not safe, that your own resources are not enough.  Deep down you know that you don't really add up.  If you have convinced yourself that this isn't true, then you need to be humbled, and you will be eventually.  

But Jesus offers good news for those who will lay down their vain boasting in their own resources.  He says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.  Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.  Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied..."

Jesus is the only safe boast, he is the only true shelter in this storm.  You were made to rest in him.  When your boast and confidence are in him, you can be truly confident because he is mighty enough to keep you, and he is merciful enough to love you forever in spite of the worst in you.  And when you are this safe in him (even if in danger from every side) you can be humble and confident at the same time.  

The only way to get here is to repent of confidence in our strengths.  It is one thing to repent of our weaknesses, the things we know are deplorable in us.  Coming to Jesus involves repenting of confidence even in our best, even in what is most commendable about us.  It doesn't mean not using our gifts and strengths, it just means not putting our confidence in them.  And when we repent like this, our gifts are free to be what they were made for, our strength finds its proper place, and our confidence is unshakable.  

What glorious freedom there is in Jesus.

*1 Cor. 1

Sexual Rebellion, Sexual Confusion, Sexual Truth

As Christians in a world full of sexual rebellion both inside and outside the church, we have a lot to reflect on.

1.  Maybe we have shriveled marriage, forgetting to be amazed by the profound mystery in which God makes a man and a woman into one new person by means of their public vows and physical consummation, for the purposes of companionship, raising children, and enacting the ultimate Marriage.  Maybe we have shriveled it into a personalized, silly, public expression of warm romantic feelings in whatever form the couple may choose.  It is no wonder that everyone with warm romantic feelings wants to know why they can't play too.

2. Maybe we have communicated that God only cares about the inside, and not the outside of a person.  We have not clearly and joyfully rejoiced in and talked about the goodness of created stuff and the hope of the resurrection of the body.  We forget that the Bible has commands for our hands as well as our hearts.  We close our eyes tight when we feel a spiritual wind blowing, and try to block out the world in which Jesus took on flesh.  It is no wonder that a man who feels like a woman on the inside should try to force his outside into that mold.

3.  Maybe we have failed to stand in happy wonder at the reality of the Trinity.  We have chosen to talk to and about Jesus as though he is the only member of the Godhead, and so we have failed to communicate the inherent beauty of unity and diversity together in perfect harmony.  We have failed to talk about the glory of the reality that the center of all things is a God who is three totally distinct persons, perfectly united together in love as one God.  It is no wonder that people forget to glory in the diversity and unity of men and women making up marriage.

4. Maybe we got embarrassed about the truth that men are made to be manly and women are made to be womanly.  Maybe we started hedging on hard boundaries between them, feeling like it was mean or unfair to rejoice in different roles given to each of them.  We decided that whether someone is a man or a woman has no bearing on whether they should lead a family or a church.  It is no wonder we now can't tell whether it has any bearing on whether they should be married.

5.  Maybe gaggles of 'evangelical' husbands have long been spiritual versions of Bruce Jenner, failing to be the leading men God called them to be, instead treating their wives like their mothers to whom they go for permission and instruction.  It is no wonder men in our world don't want to be men, and women lose interest.

6.  Maybe we stopped talking about the beginning, and how God made everything according to its kind and for its purpose.  Maybe we got embarrassed about creation as we bowed before our priests in white lab-robes.  Maybe we started asking if Adam and Eve are even real people.  And so maybe we stopped talking about the beauty of the way people are created by God and forgot that marriage is not a human construct but a divine pattern and gift.  It is no wonder that people think marriage, gender, and family are things we invented and therefore things we are fully free to re-invent.

7.  Maybe we have not really been experiencing and talking about the offer of reconciliation and salvation for everyone in Christ.  Maybe it got easier to just try to be really nice or really cool and hope people stumble to conversion on their own.  It is no wonder that people are looking everywhere they can to find something to satisfy, something to make their life make sense, something to save them.

Since increasing sexual immorality and confusion are an element of the judgment of God upon a people, our first instinct should be repentance.  This is not to say we shouldn't speak hard truths in love to our homosexual and transgendered friends.  The whole point is that we haven't been speaking or delighting in the truth sufficiently.  Repentance from that looks like speaking and loving the truth on a whole host of related issues, recognizing that if the room is dark, there may be something wrong with the light.  And when we speak, we should make sure we speak out of bold love rather than fear, insecurity about our world, or as a smokescreen for our own failings in these regards.  My life has contained sexual rebellion and confusion.  It is because of this that I delight in sexual truth and in Christ who redeems sinners and shows us a more excellent way.  May God be merciful to us.

Things Evangelicals Think: Jesus Is Hoping To Be Your Lord

If you missed the last post introducing this series on things evangelicals think, you can get the main idea back here.  It includes my trying to be clear that I love evangelicals and the movement, and consider myself part of it.  So these posts are an exercise in taking the plank out of our collective evangelical eye.

Today we are going to think about Jesus and his lordship.  We often talk about Jesus' reign as though the kingdom of God is a heavenly democracy.  Jesus is running for the office of Lord of the universe hoping to get enough votes to win, though he has a backup plan of rapturing his voters out if things get western down here.  

And usually, it is more individualistic than that.  We talk like Jesus is not so much interested in running for Lord of the universe, truly he would be satisfied just to be Lord of your heart.  You hold all the cards, all eyes eagerly wait, and heaven holds its breath to see what the computer will read after you step out from behind the voting booth curtain.  Did Jesus win?

But this gets it all backwards, because Jesus is not hoping to be your Lord.  Jesus is the Lord of lords.  The question is whether or not you will acknowledge that reality and bow to him now willingly under his mercy, or later when he comes to consummate his kingdom with armies of angels in his wake.

Jesus is not outside your life, hat in hand, hoping that you will accept his campaign for Lord.  He is not running for the title of Lord, needing your vote.  His Lordship is not in question.  God has demonstrated it by raising him from the dead.  Even though we are all born under the kingdom of darkness, Jesus has been given authority even over the ruler of that realm.  He has bound him and is plundering him, bringing about his kingdom of love and righteousness and joy.

Remember what he said after his resurrection?  "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations..." (Mt. 28:18-19a).  All authority belongs to Jesus, all nations are to be discipled to observe all that he has commanded.  Jesus commands the nations.  It is worth noting that Jesus doesn't say, "I am hoping for all authority on earth, go therefore and campaign for me, glad-handing and asking people if they would consider letting me save them and tell them what to do, if they find me to be nice enough."

Or remember when Paul writes about the power of God "that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.  And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all" (Eph. 1:20-23).  It does not say that he is being offered to all as a lord, but that all things have been put under his feet who has been placed far above all rule and authority, power and dominion.  He is over all in this current age, and in the age to come.

But what about Romans 10:9?  Doesn't this teach that Jesus wants you to believe in him as the Lord?  In a way.  I am afraid the common idea is something like the picture of Santa's sleigh at the end of the movie Elf.  If enough people believe that Santa is real, then his sleigh will be able to fly out of Central Park.  We just need an adorable Zoey to bat her eyelashes and sing carols to stir up our sentiment enough to get Jesus' lordship off the ground.  

But what does Romans 10:9 say?  It says that "if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."  Notice it doesn't say that if you confess him to be Lord, then he will become Lord.  This is about how we are rescued from our rebellion.  We are rescued when we openly acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus over all, and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead.  Jesus is Lord, and at the heart of our sin is a refusal to submit to his authority.  "The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead" (Acts 17:30-31).

As the Lord, he is mercifully offering the nations terms of reconciliation and eternal life, despite our cosmic rebellion against his lordship.  His terms are simple: faith and repentance.  If you will trust in him, look to his sacrifice for the forgiveness of your rebellion in sin, turn from your rebellion, and bow your knees in repentance, you will be welcomed freely into his kingdom.  In light of your track record, this is amazingly merciful.

Jesus is sitting on his throne in heaven, and you are in rebellion against him by nature.  He is willing to take you as one of his subjects on his terms, and he went to incredible lengths to open the way for you.  He has become one of us.  He has suffered and died on a cross as a substitute for sin.  This Lord, this King, this Sovereign is the one who came to die.  He came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.  

So the offer stands today; repent and believe and be welcomed into the kingdom of God not only as a servant, but as a son, adopted into the family, delighted in, loved, rejoiced over, and given eternal joyous life in this sovereign King.  

Jesus is the Lord, and his kingdom is coming.  It will not be stopped.  It is not up for a vote.  The goal of the Father is that "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:10-11).  This does not establish his lordship, it is the outworking of it.

Do you see how the Bible presents to you a merciful Lord and not a pandering candidate?  Do you see how this shows you to be a rebel in need of bowing before the sovereignty and steadfast love of Christ, rather than a guy in charge of whether Jesus will be his Lord or not, deciding whether he wants a more abundant life by voting for Jesus to sit on a throne in his heart?  God is incredibly gracious and merciful.  His throne is a throne of grace.  And it is a throne of grace.

Things Evangelicals Think: All Sins Are the Same

I love Evangelicalism.

  

The word evangelical initially meant something like "gospel-believing," from the Greek word for gospel: euangelion.  The movement within Protestant Christianity known as evangelicalism has become significantly watered down, such that we have come up with a new term to mean what evangelical was supposed to mean.  We now say something like "gospel-centered."  A little less poetic, but it makes the point.

But despite the glorious etymology and strong beginning, the good things about evangelicalism can be a bit hard to keep in mind since it is really easy to pick on.  It is like a kid that grew up with a good heart, but somewhere along the way took on an overly sentimental, cheesy demeanor.  When he realized that this was making him some friends, he started mass-marketing it; writing books about beef flavored raman of the heart, talking like Stuart Smalley, getting committed to sparkle motion choreography, and turning the stories that form the backbone of the glorious Christian heritage into silly songs acted out by vegetables.  

Anyway, part of what keeps things the way they are is bad thinking.  If studying philosophy has taught me anything, it has taught me that ideas have massive consequences for all of life and culture.  So I plan for this to be the first post in a series called: Things Evangelicals Think.  The goal of the series is to point out things evangelicals have made up over the years that the Bible doesn't teach.  The goal is not to score points by making fun of an easy target, but to take the plank out of our collective evangelical eye.

So, to begin, the Bible never says that all sins are the same in God's eyes.

I suspect we think it says that because James says, "For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.  For he who said, 'Do not commit adultery,' also said, 'Do not murder.'  If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law." (Js. 2:10-11)

Calvin helps us here, "At the first view, this sentence (in James) seems hard to some, as though the Apostle countenanced the paradox of the Stoics, which makes all sins equal...but it is evident from the context that no such thing entered into his mind."

How is it evident from the context?  I think James' main point is that all sin is a violation of the royal law to love your neighbor as yourself.  He made that point a few verses before.  If you steal from someone, it is because you are not loving them.  You are wanting your gain at their expense.  Murder has the same problem.  I want my purposes at your (greater) expense.  Love is the opposite, love says I want your good, even at my expense.  Love is the main thing, and so every sin is a transgression of love, a failure to love, and love is the goal.  Therefore if we fail to love through stealing, we are guilty of the whole law, which is ultimately a bunch of different iterations of how to love God and others.

But this doesn't mean that every failure to love is of equal severity.  Jesus teaches us this in several places.  Consider John 19:11, where Jesus is answering Pilate.  He says, "You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above.  Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin."  

*Gasp*  Jesus, didn't you know all sins are the same, no one is greater than another!

Or, remember Matthew 23:23 when Jesus was talking to the Pharisees and he told them, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness.  These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others."

Apparently there are weightier matters of the law, and less weighty matters of the law.  He says the same when he warns about those who relax even the least of the commandments.  Consider also the Mosaic distinction between sins of ignorance, which have their own specific sacrifice, and sins of a high hand, for which there does not seem to be a sacrifice.  

So, what is the big deal?  The big deal is that if we all really believed that all sins are the same, then we would admit no distinction between stealing a candy bar and carrying out genocide.  While it is true that the seed of murder is anger, and the seed of adultery is lust, this does not mean they are of equal severity.  Committing adultery with someone in your heart is very serious.  Committing adultery with someone in your heart and your bed is even more serious.  

Thinking biblically about this might also help us to not be so tangled up when rebuked for talking about homosexuality as a sin.  After all, didn't you say a cross word to your wife yesterday, and isn't that of equal severity?  Yes, I did.  And it is more evil than I generally care to admit.  And no, it isn't of equal severity as homosexual acts.  We all sin.  We are all transgressors.  We should all be humble.  We all have hope only in Christ's perfect righteousness accounted to us by faith.  But we shouldn't throw away all sense of proportion with regard to sin.  There are greater sins, weightier matters of the law, and least commandments.