The difference between a right perspective and a wrong one is rarely a matter of data. It can happen that way. I may think I need a snowblower because I believe Fort Wayne averages 212 inches of snow annually. It does not. Not even close.
More often, but still not that often, the difference between a right perspective and a wrong one could be a matter of logic. I may think that my cat is a dog because I know that all dogs are four legged animals. And that my cat is a four legged anima. Therefore, my cat is a dog. The premises are true. The conclusion does not follow.
I suggest that the most common reason we end up with a wrong perspective, however, is we lack courage. I can’t, I admit, give you data to prove this. I cannot produce an iron-clad syllogism. But I still believe it’s true. While sin’s impact on our senses may lead us to misread data and its impact on our minds may lead us to reason poorly, its impact on our hearts is the real culprit. We choose what we want to believe on the basis of how it impacts our lives.
In our day, the most widely practiced hermeneutic among professing believers runs something like this- whatever this Scripture is saying, it cannot be saying I am wrong, that I have sin in me. Premise 1 of all our syllogisms is “I don’t have to change.” We may be willing to wrestle with the text, but as soon as the referee pounds the mat twice we call time out.
It isn’t, however, just the Bible. Whatever issue we may be discussing or debating, we are prone to choose the one where we come out looking the best. The postmoderns are quite right, that most of our discourse is not about the dispassionate pursuit of truth, but the secret pursuit of power. A groveling, lickspittle “power” to be sure.
Whether we call it “winsome” Christianity, third way-ism or cultural engagement, we are fools to believe we are wiser than Jesus. He promises us that as we follow Him we should expect the hatred of the world. Jesus commands of us that we consider the cost, and then take up our cross. We forget that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than it is for the Bible to fit through the Overton window.
Love for the world is hatred toward God. Public approval is just as merciless a task master as mammon. We have but one Lord, and He will not share our loyalty with another. Courage calls us to follow Jesus. It calls us to follow the truth. Courage commands us to immovably proclaim that Jesus and the truth are one and the same. The fear of man is a snare. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. May the Lord grant us the courage to be hated, in the confidence that we are beloved.
As always, you provide the most thought provoking messages, thank you. I needed to hear this line: “May the Lord grant us the courage to be hated, in the confidence that we are beloved.”