The Dead End of Oversimplification

During an English class in high school, "KISS" was a principle regularly emphasised:  "Keep It Simple, Stupid!"  It was a funny reminder of our purpose in writing, to clearly and concisely communicate imagery and ideas to a reader.  We were taught to "keep the main thing the main thing" without seeing writing as an opportunity to show how intelligent or clever we were.  For all the great benefits of simplicity, however, we must be aware of the risk of oversimplification.  Stripping away the paint from a framed canvas does not leave a viewer with the impression the painter intended.  Oversimplification can lead to improper emphasis, misunderstandings and even worse--a smug contentment of knowledge founded upon ignorance.  In biblical and spiritual matters the dangers of oversimplification are very real.

I have heard it said there are always "two sides to a story" but the truth reaches beyond this assertion:  there is his story, her story, what I think after hearing the stories, and the reality only God knows.  Man has been designed by God with limits of understanding, memory and powers of observation.  We must be aware of our filters, bias and opinions which colour our interpretations of what we hear and see.  Perhaps due to our limitations, we regularly embrace an "either or" mentality, to stuff entire people into boxes where they are labelled generally under one banner:  Boomer, Millennial, feminist, vegan, Christian, gay, hipster, social-justice warrior, etc.  The reality is when we actually take the time to know, understand and walk in love towards each other the boundaries we erect to contain a person to our surprise are knocked down.

This is also true concerning the Bible and our understanding of it.  A great disservice is done to new believers to oversimplify terms in an attempt to be relevant or to show how simple things are.  Nothing about life is simple.  Take any hobby you have embraced and it will not take long before the depth to where it leads becomes overwhelming.  I used to enjoy 10-pin bowling for fun, and after I took it as a university course my eyes were opened to a whole new world of systems, equipment, oil patterns and ball-drilling placements I never imagined.  I grew to realise what passed as a winning score with friends at a birthday party was an embarrassment as a league average.  The concept of knocking over 10 pins grouped together by rolling a ball is very simple, but being able to do it over and over consistently with changing conditions over two lanes under pressure is not easy at all.

The Gospel is simple enough for a child to understand and receive it joyfully, but it is complex and challenging to walk in the light of it every day.  Christians are called to embrace theology, the study of the nature of God and doctrinal beliefs from scripture.  Oversimplifying words like "justification" or "sanctification" can strip them of meaning and significance to those who would greatly benefit from learning those definitions.  Careful observation of the Bible will provoke all kinds of questions which, if answered from the scripture, will be most fruitful to cause believers to grow to maturity.  Even for questions we can answer it is good to remember there remains more to explain and understand than what we currently know.  In our answering questions and considering the explanations of others we must remain vigilant to avoid the pitfall of oversimplification, to content ourselves with a sliver of truth and tout it as most important when there is more to know, believe and walk in.

A humble perspective and a teachable heart is vital to our spiritual growth and maturity.  Oversimplification of a text and interpretation is a dead end which leads to us cutting ourselves off from new avenues and applications to God's truth.  Limiting the meaning of a passage to only what we currently understand can strangle the life out of it.  The truth God reveals in His word does not shift and change, but our ability to recognise and connect it to our own lives and situations ought to expand.  Thus as we grow in wisdom and understanding instead of being proud of how much we know we will be humbled by how much we have yet to learn.

The Insight of Personal Application

During a conversation yesterday I received a good reminder I needed.  We need reminders because no matter how well we know something or are familiar with it, it can slip our mind--like the pin number to use a credit card.  When the contactless payment was permitted to reduce people touching the keypad, for months I did not have to enter my pin.  After this season finished, however, I entered a pin incorrectly because I had forgotten the correct order of the numbers.  I was able to use the card in the end but it caused a delay for myself, the cashier, and other customers to have to input the code again.  The implications of forgetting spiritual truth is far more costly than an extra 30 seconds to enter a code because the consequences can be far reaching, even for all eternity.

I was reminded of the importance to apply the things we read in the Bible (especially passages some call "stories") personally to our own lives.  We can be so caught up in the practical aspects of the historical events we can miss the spiritual and personal application.  Even simple, seemingly insignificant actions and statements can be most insightful.  Today I had such a moment after I finished washing my car.  For whatever reason, after I parked the car and went to close the garage door, I took a quick look back upon the now clean car.  I was reminded of Lot's wife who looked back to Sodom.  Whilst I know God commanded Lot and his family to leave Sodom and not look back, she did so and became a pillar of salt.

I asked myself:  why did I just look back?  I did not have a ready answer and needed to think it over.  I looked back because I like seeing a job done and there was satisfaction in seeing a dirty, dusty car become clean and shiny.  Lot's wife disobeyed God when she looked back on Sodom, and we are not expressly told from scripture why she did so.  The reality was she was looking back upon her city which was under God's judgment, and she was swiftly judged as well.  Lot's wife was never provided the opportunity to examine her heart and repent of sin, but praise the LORD we are.  There is nothing inherently sinful in looking back, but we should take the opportunity to examine our motives for looking back.  Was it pride in a job well done?  Was it a feeling of accomplishment, of superiority over others?  Was the sinful motivation to disobey God found in me in that fleeting look?

Moving beyond looking back to a city or a car, what about looking back to our past?  It is obvious there are aspects of our past which longing to return to or taking pride in would be sinful.  We have all looked back to past experiences in our lives for good or ill, and God has been gracious not to strike us down until now.  But it doesn't mean we should mistake His patient, gracious and longsuffering nature and assume looking back for us does not lead us to sin.  When we turn our eyes to Jesus, following Him in faith, we have a future which is far more glorious than the memories which fade.  To remember Lot's wife is to take heed of our own hearts, lest we disobey God by looking to the wrong things.  I do not know the heart of Lot's wife, but through personal application of scripture God provides insight and action for me to take today.

The Warning of Laish

An odd thing happened to me this morning.  After waking up I recalled to mind an incident which took place a long time ago at work.  I was a foreman in the dockyards and was doing my rounds toward the end of the day to check on the progress of the crew on board.  One of the spaces where work was supposed to be happening was dark, so I investigated further.  I caught my crew doing one of the cardinal sins of workers:  lying down for a nap on the job.  The one in charge was a bit sheepish and laughed it off when I confronted them.  The next day when my fellow foreman and I wrote them up with a formal warning, it was a different story.  The subordinate worker signed the form without hesitation, but the lead man would not:  he attempted to deflect, blame, made excuses and eventually broke down in tears.  It was a stunning scene of someone being called to account for bad behaviour, and he refused to accept it.

While memories of this scene swirled in my head, I sat down to read through Judges 18.  In the passage, five men from Dan traveled around the country looking for a place to settle down.  Having received the blessing of God from their Levite friend, Judges 18:7 says, "So the five men departed and went to Laish. They saw the people who were there, how they dwelt safely, in the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure. There were no rulers in the land who might put them to shame for anything. They were far from the Sidonians, and they had no ties with anyone."  Laish was just the soft target the spies from Dan were looking for.  They observed the people of Laish dwelt safely because of their isolation from others.  The men of Dan noticed there was no ruler or magistrate in the land "who might put them to shame for anything."  The people were careless, self-absorbed and clueless about the real danger they faced.  The consequences of isolation from leadership in Laish remind me of David's negligence to challenge his son Adonijah for folly in his youth in the first bit of 1 Kings 1:6:  "And his father had not rebuked him at any time by saying, "Why have you done so?"  A loving rebuke and searching question while he was young might have saved him from trouble when he was grown.

The tragic overthrow of the people of Laish and the folly of Adonijah are examples why godly leadership is important.  A good leader must at times say hard things people will not appreciate or agree with and take actions to arrest the attention of others for constructive purposes and necessary reformation.  One good ruler in Laish might have put off the spies from Dan from their plans to attack and take the city, even as a shepherd or sheepdog deters a pack of hungry wolves.  It is important to point out that a magistrate (from the KJV) was not a king but answered to a governor or king and served as rule on behalf of their sovereign.  The magistrate did not exist to be served any more than the sheepdog is served by the sheep.  The sheepdog serves the shepherd and at times makes the sheep uncomfortable by darting around, stimulating the prey instinct to flee when the dominant sheep would rather settle down to graze.  People can live in their own little world (magistrates, shepherds and dogs included!) and begin to live carelessly:  sleeping more, working less, drinking more, caring about God or others less, forgetting we serve a God who called and ordained us to do good.  Because He loves us He corrects us, we ought to take His correction to heart.  To drift to a place we cannot hear the voice of our Good Shepherd ultimately results in the demise of our fruitfulness and lives.

A church, a family and a person can become a Laish:  isolated, secure and careless, a place where uncomfortable truths are avoided, where recognised God-fearing leadership is scarce, where no one is willing to do anything that could potentially provoke a sense of shame--even when it is the loving thing to do.  This hits me in so many areas of my life as a child of God, dad, church leader and friend.  It speaks to my duty to be led by the Holy Spirit in taking the lead in love and gladly receiving rebuke and correction from others whether I think I need it or not.  It is a warning against me becoming a Laish in any area of my life, for the destruction of the city is a stark example of what awaits those who answer to no one.  We in the Body of Christ the church all must answer to Jesus and give account of our stewardship, and how good it is to respond in obedience to His guidance rather than being secure in complacency without help.

God is Good!

"So Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and lived in the house of Micah. ¹³ Then Micah said, "Now I know that the LORD will be good to me, since I have a Levite as priest!"

Judges 17:12-13

The season of the judges in Israel is well-described as a time when everyone did what was right in their own eyes.  Without a godly king to govern people in the ways of God, the children of Israel plunged into idolatry.  Micah was a Hebrew whose house was full of idols, and at one stage even consecrated one of his own sons to be his priest.  When a wandering Levite came looking for a place, Micah was pleased to offer him the position in his home.  He was convinced God would certainly be good to him since he installed a "real" Levite as priest.  Micah hoped to score points with God when his shrines and idolatrous devotion were completely abominable according to God's word.

The mentality of Micah is a surprisingly common perspective today.  People work to please God motivated by the hope of receiving blessing for themselves or to avoid divine retribution.  Years ago I found a man in front of my house picking through flowers to find three specimens of the preferred shape and colour to offer to his deity, Brahma.  Why?  So Brahma would do him good.  I recall the moment well when a person selling their house buried a statue of St. Joseph in the yard, believing it would help the sale be profitable and smooth.  Like Micah's idols which were blind, deaf, dumb and lifeless, that statue would have been better suited as a paperweight, doorstop or a decoration than to place any hope of blessing from it.

There are people who do not believe in God who are willing to receive good from Him should He exist, yet the disciple of Jesus has a different view of God from Micah altogether.  We do not try to please God so He will be good to us, but seek to please Him because He is good.  The motive to obey God of those born again by faith in Jesus Christ begins with who God is and our relationship to Him as His beloved children.  Our actions to do good are in light of and in response to what God has already done in demonstrating His love for us.  It is the love of Christ that compels us to reciprocate with thanksgiving and gratitude for choosing us, suffering for us and adopting us as His own.  It is never in doubt God will do us good because He is good.

The relationship of a child of God to our Father in heaven is far greater than seeking good from Him but viewing Him as the greatest good who was, is and will ever be.  John 1:16 says of Jesus, "And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace."  God graciously created us and gave us life, and through Jesus Christ we have been born again by faith and received eternal life.  God's love for us is not based upon our good performance:  it springs from His goodness and grace.  Those who do things in the hope God will do them good do not understand who God is as revealed in His word.  God is good and of His fullness we have received, and grace for grace.