We have been spending time in this series working through deconstruction. What I mean by deconstruction is that something happens that causes us to reconsider our Christian beliefs. I would like to remind us from the first lesson that we should always be rechecking our beliefs in light of the scriptures to make sure that we are believing what God said and not merely what someone taught us. But there appears to be areas where faith has been particularly shaken among God’s people. In the prior two lessons we looked experience and doubt as areas that can cause our faith to be shaken. If you missed those lessons, I encourage you to listen to those as those will help build a foundation for faith in your life. As I mentioned in our prior lessons, this series should not be seen as an attack on those who are struggling with their faith. Rather, this series comes from my heart because I am deeply concerned to see so many people who I know, who are friends, and who I care about walking away from Jesus, from the faith, and from the revealed truths in God’s word. So it is my hope that this series will be a resource to you if you are walking through a time of deconstruction or if you have already moved from away from the faith. Our lesson today is called Deconstructing Authority. This will need to be a two part lesson because there are so many areas to address where authority has been a cause of difficulty for those who grew up in the pews or are questioning scriptural authority.
Does It Matter?
I do not want to begin with an preconceived start points. I do not want to make any assumptions as we begin. Let’s all start together at the same place, on the ground floor, and then build our understanding of authority together, floor by floor. So let’s begin together on the ground. Does it matter? Does it matter what we do? Does it matter how we live our lives? Does it matter how we worship? Can we live how we want to live? Can we do what we want to do? Can we worship how ever we want to worship? To state these questions another way: do I have to consult God for what I do?
I think the answer to these questions is self-evident. But let’s walk through it to make sure that we agree on this. If we can do whatever we want to do, then why did God give us his revelation in the word of God? The scriptures should be very short. The scriptures would say: “I love you so do whatever you want.” But this is not what the scriptures say. But if I can do whatever I want to do, then I can steal from, harm, and murder other people and still be right with God. I do not believe anyone would agree with this. God did not tell us to do whatever you want to do and he will be fine with that. Rather, God repeatedly teaches that you must not do whatever you want to do to be in relationship with him.
“If you love me, you will keep my commands.” (John 14:15 CSB)
Jesus answered, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. The one who doesn’t love me will not keep my words. The word that you hear is not mine but is from the Father who sent me.” (John 14:23-24 CSB)
So it does matter what we do. It does matter how we live our lives. It does matter how we worship. We cannot come together and kill each other and call it worshiping God. It does matter how we worship. It does matter what we do. We cannot worship however we want. We cannot live however we want. We cannot do whatever we want and say that we are worshiping God, loving Jesus, or serving him.
Since It Matters, Then How Can We Know the Standards?
Feelings?
Presently, our world defines the standards of right and wrong by feelings. How we feel dictates what we do. If we do not feel like stopping at a red light, we run the red light. If we do not feel like doing the work we are paid for, then we do not do the work we are paid for. If I feel like hitting you, then I hit you. The present morality is feelings. You do what feels right to you. You follow your truth. When we talk about “your truth” and “my truth” in this world, what we really are referring to are feelings. This is how I feel about the situation. That is my truth. That is how you feel about the situation and that is your truth. Feelings equal truth today.
But I hope that if we think about it for very long, then we can recognize that having our own standards leads to chaos. If feelings are the standard, then there is no standard because everyone feels differently about things. One person feels like killing a person and another person disagrees. Who is right if feelings are the standard? This is the same problem when it comes to approaching God. It matters what we do. It matters how we worship. We agreed on that moments ago. But feelings cannot be the standard for what we do before God. Feelings cannot be the standard for how we worship. The reason why is the same as in society. There is no standard if feelings are the standard because we are all going to feel differently about what to do for God. We are all going to have different feelings about how to worship God. We are all going to have different feelings on what God asks us to do. Feelings are an unhelpful standard. Further, feelings are unhelpful because our own feelings change. Even if we all decided to agree that your feelings are the standard, the problem will be that your feelings about things change. One day you feel one way and another day you feel differently. Even within ourselves, feelings are a terrible standard because they are constantly moving and changing.
I would also like to observe that feelings being the moral standard before God leads to societal destruction. If you read the book of Judges you will read a repeated declaration about the way their society operated. The moral motto was this: everyone did what was right in their own eyes (cf. Judges 17:6; 21:25). When you read the book of Judges, you will see people harming each other and killing each other. The innocent are being killed. Women and children are being abused and oppressed. It is a horrible time in Israel’s history. Doing what is right to you will always lead to the harm and abuse of others. This is why God explicitly commanded the people not to follow after their own heart and to not do what is right in their own eyes (cf. Numbers 15:39; Deuteronomy 12:8). The end is destruction.
Motives?
So if we agree that feelings cannot be the standard for living before God, then what about motives? Presently, this is the Christian standard in the religious world. As long as we have a heart for God, then what we do is acceptable to God. This is one reason why we have so many different denominations and different religious Christian traditions. We just say that everyone is right and everyone is acceptable because everyone has a heart for God and that is all that matters. But have you ever noticed in your life that even when you have the best of motives you can still do something wrong? Have you ever tried to fix something only to completely break it? You had the right motives but the outcome was still wrong. Have you ever tried to help someone only to make things worse? You had the right motives but the outcome was still wrong. Have you done something with the right motives toward your spouse only to have offended your spouse? You thought this was good but it turned out not to be good. The scriptures also point out that motives are insufficient as the means of coming to God for the same reason. There can still be wrong outcomes. Let me show this principle in a couple of places.
I want us to consider the instructions of Samuel to King Saul. Saul was told to completely destroy everything regarding the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15:1-3). Nothing was to be spared or kept. However, when Saul returns from battle, he kept some of the best of the plunder in order to sacrifices them to the Lord (1 Samuel 15:21). I want us to pay attention to what God thought about this as Samuel gives his answer to Saul for keeping these things for worship.
And Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king.” (1 Samuel 15:22-23 ESV)
Samuel says that God has great joy in you doing what he said, not you doing what you want for your worship. Samuel says that it is better to obey than to give sacrifices. It is better to listen than to offer up your form of worship. Now notice how Samuel frames this. Samuel calls what Saul did “rebellion,” “presumption,” and “rejection of the word of the Lord.” Saul was attempting to worship God by sparing some things from destruction. But the Lord just wanted him to listen and do what he was told. To do anything else is rebellion, arrogance, and rejection of God’s word. Friends, there is a lot of presumption and arrogance going on when it comes to how people look at God. We think we can decide how to worship. We think we can decide what is right. We think we can decide how to live. Jesus taught this same problem in the Sermon on the Mount.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name?’ Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers!’” (Matthew 7:21-23 CSB)
This is truly an astounding example that Jesus gives. He speaks of people who clearly have the right heart. Jesus does not condemn them for their bad motives. Jesus taught the sin of wrong motives in the prior paragraph (cf. Matthew 7:15-20). But now Jesus describes people who appear to have the right motives and seem to be serving him. They are doing his works and are stunned to be excluded from the kingdom. Why are they excluded? Notice that Jesus does not say that you had the wrong motives. No, the motives are fine. The problem is that they did not do the will of the Father. Jesus calls them “lawbreakers” or “workers of lawlessness.” They did not follow what God said to do. Jesus said that his worshipers will worship him in spirit and in truth, not just merely in spirit (cf. John 4:21-24).
False Principle
One of the common objections is argue that if God did expressly prohibit something, then it is acceptable. This is called the “normative principle of worship.” This has become a very popular view in the religious world. The other view is called the “regulative principle of worship.” This means that all of life is regulated by scriptures and that everything we do is to be obedient to the scriptures. Sometimes people will say that it is a “church of Christ” thing to say that we must have authority for all that we do in life. This is not some American Restoration movement novelty. Such characterizations are completely incorrect. This is the most common way people have approached the scriptures in history. John Calvin said, “God disapproves of all modes of worship not expressly sanctioned by his Word” (The Necessity of Reforming the Church). The Second London Baptist Confession of 1689 states, “The acceptable way of worshiping the true God, is instituted by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will, that he may not be worshiped according to the imagination and devices of men, nor the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representations, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scriptures.” I am quoting these things only to show that this is not some “church of Christ” thing. Historically, people approached the scriptures looking for God’s permission. Seeking authority from the scriptures is not a new thing but an old thing that goes back to the word of God itself. Moses was told to do everything according to the pattern the Lord gave him (cf. Exodus 25-40). The Lord told Moses to do things as he said (Exodus 25-31) and then Moses did what the Lord told him (Exodus 35-40).
The idea that something is acceptable if God did not expressly prohibit it flies in the face of Jesus’ own words. No one defended themselves to Jesus by saying, “The law doesn’t say we can’t.” Jesus proclaimed that the greatest command was the love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Jesus then proclaimed that the second greatest command was the love your neighbor as yourself. Everything else in God’s law fits into these two categories. Jesus did not give a list of “do not do this.” Jesus said “do this” and that will exclude everything else. If it was not loving God with all your heart and loving your neighbor as yourself, then it was considered prohibited.
Any other system doesn’t not prohibit much of anything. For example: why can’t we have hot dogs and Dr. Pepper for the Lord’s Supper memorial? We will just remember Jesus’ body with an all beef hot dog and we will remember his blood of the covenant with Dr. Pepper. Why not? Nothing in the scriptures says we can’t! So why not? It does not take long to realize that a principle of prohibition only is not going to prohibit much anything. God did not tell Saul to not save a few things for him as an sacrifice of love to him. God told Saul to not leave anything of the Amalekites. That command excluded the possibility of anything else. Something was prohibited because there was not positive authority given for it. We will come back to this in more detail, Lord willing, in next week’s lesson. So I invite you back so we that we explore this particular point more carefully.
God’s Clearly Revealed Standard
In conclusion, this all goes back to where we started. If we love Jesus, we will do what he says. There are many examples of people who have the right intentions but did not do what God said and are condemned in the scriptures. The problem goes all the way back to Cain’s offering. The only standard that works must be that we do what God has told us to do. It does matter what we do. It does matter how we live. It does matter how we worship. The standard is not our feelings. The standard is not our motives. The standard is carefully finding and doing what God said to do. The question for our lives is not, “Is this a good idea?” The question for our worship is not, “Is this something that I want to do?” The question for our lives is, “Is this what God said to do?” We should be able to explain all that we do in our lives and in our worship with biblical authority.