First, God is deeply concerned about our hearts. We often seem to think that only our thoughts and actions matter and our feelings are out of our control. Orthodoxy, right doctrine, matters. Orthopraxy, right behavior, matters. Orthopathos, right feeling, matters. The opposite error, however, is still error. Our hearts matter, but they are not the only thing that matters.
The spirit of Romanticism, following in the footsteps of gnosticism, has encouraged us to believe that our internal, invisible being is all that matters, that the physical realm does not. This shows up in the church when we dress down for corporate worship, when we build ugly but practical places of worship, when treat the Lord’s Supper as a time consuming ritual of little import. All of which flies directly in the face of the plain teaching of the Bible.
God gave explicit instructions for the clothes that the priests who came before Him were to wear, describing that they were “for beauty and for glory” (Exodus 28:2.) One can certainly argue that this was only for the priest and only for the Old Testament. What one can’t argue, however, is that God doesn’t care, that all that matters to Him is the heart of those who come into His presence. Nor does this mean that a certain level of formality in our clothing is necessary to come into His presence. It does mean, however, that forms matter to God. That Paul instructed husbands to have their wives cover their heads in I Corinthians 11 says the same thing, even if, as some argue, head coverings are no longer required. (See last week’s podcast for a discussion on that question.)
The same basic principle applies to our places of worship. God’s instructions for the tabernacle, and later for the temple were neither vague nor sloppy. Both were ornate works of art. Again one could argue that such is in the Old Testament, remembering Jesus’ answer to the woman at the well, that God seeks those who will worship Him in Spirit and in truth. Fair enough, but again, one can’t argue that God doesn’t care about forms.
The same is true with respect to the Lord’s Supper. The instructions of Jesus were not merely that from time to time we ought to meditate on His work for us. Rather He said, “This do in remembrance of me” (Luke 22: 19). “This” is actual eating and drinking, actual bread and wine. Here one cannot slip away on the basis of this being in the Old Testament. One cannot argue that this is in our past.
It is a good thing to be gracious to those who have been influenced by romanticism. It is a bad thing to, thinking of it as graciousness, practice romanticism. God has made us not souls in bodies but souls and bodies. Jesus didn’t die for just our souls but for our souls and our bodies. God’s commands do not touch on just our souls but on our souls and our bodies. Anytime we are tempted to facilely dismiss any of God’s commands we are in a dangerous place. God cares about all that we are, and commands that all that we are be in submission to all He has commanded.
Absolutely true. Kind Regards