What is the result of learning? The theorists tell us it is change. If you learn something, you have added it to yourself and change has resulted; you are different.
What is the result of learning about the Lord Jesus? The scriptures tell us it is to change us into new creatures, from bearing the image of the earthy to bearing the image of the heavenly.
Some learning degrades us. It would be better if we had not learned some things, better if we could unlearn them, forget them; but somehow those are the things which stick in our minds when other items we wish to learn, retain and be improved by, slip in at one ear and out the other.
Learning about the Lord Jesus exalts us, lifts our minds above the earthly level, raises our eyes to heavenly sights, opens our ears to heavenly wisdom and our hearts to heavenly love. But learning demands a response, a reaction.
He said “Repent” – and so often the word is only related to remorse. I want to relate it to an invitation to “re-think” because that is the first response. Men struggle on in the dark, blindly experimenting in ignorance and experiencing final frustration and disillusionment. The Lord is revealed to them as the One who can teach them the secret of living a balanced life; He invites them to look again at their situation, re-assess its values and opportunities and re-think their lives. Think about themselves in the light of the knowledge now given as they learn of Him, and seeing themselves for the first time as they really are, to ACT.
Then He said “Follow Me” – men left their boats and nets, their desks, their homes, aye and their families too because they knew there was no one else worth following.
They followed Him as He preached and did His bidding, launching a boat, catching fish, marshalling crowds, sharing the burden of the cross, but not knowing the way He led and not understanding what He was doing. So they followed Him to Gethsemane and fell asleep and awoke to flee in horror at His arrest because they did not understand.
Some people define a Christian as one who follows Christ but the definition is too narrow and superficial. How near does one walk who follows His Lord? Near enough to reach out and touch, far enough behind to be only able to discern Him vaguely in the distance. The latter is too dangerous, the gap needs to widen only just a little and the follower is lost, the leader out of sight. The former sounds better, but it is not good enough.
Following is not enough; it is the right start, it is imperative that we follow to learn the way, that we follow to avoid the dangers, that we follow to know the direction. But some may simply be content all their lives to follow because then they never need to make decisions, never need to think for themselves. These are those who never grow up,never mature. Learning to think is a difficult task and the vast majority never learn to think. They simply respond to stimuli. They are cold so they seek warmth, they are warm so they seek cooler conditions, they eat, they drink, they marry, they have children but they never think. They do as they are told without question, they believe what they are told without reason.
The official party line is their security. They can only quote what others have said or written. They follow blindly Rabbi Hillel, Karl Marx, St. Augustine,Edward Heath, Pope Paul, Joseph Smith, John Thomas, Robert Roberts, Charles Darwin, Donny Osmond, Richard Nixon, A.J. Ayer, Mao Tse Tung, as an unsecure child tied to its mother’s apron strings finds a sense of security. Very necessary in childhood that we respect others of wider experience and deeper wisdom but we’ve got to grow up.
Paul complained bitterly of those undeveloped souls who could only feed on milk when they ought to have been on strong meat. They hadn’t grown up. Growing up is a painful process, physically and spiritually and full of unknown problems. But it does not mean rejection of what has been learnt. In fact if the parent and teacher has taught truth, then the learner will be confirmed in the truth by experience. The child tied to its mother’s apron strings, the learner content to sit for ever at the feet of the teacher will never grow up to understand the truth and practical value of what had been learnt previously.
“Behold,I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves” (Matt.10:16). Would it not have been wiser, to have kept them with Him and out of harms way? Indeed not. How would they have known the truth of the Good News if they had not stood up against the wolves? Doubtless they’d enjoyed standing in His shadow as the wolves attacked Him with questions – but now they’d to go out alone. The value of “following” had now to be tested. Some followed closely in fine weather, in the sunshine of popularity in that first year, but dropped back and back, further and further as the cold winds of opposition blew.
Re-think is the first step; follow is the next; but eventually what then?
Grow up; come to the full stature of manhood; accept the responsibilities of being Christ-ones. We never cease learning; we never cease following, though the time comes when we are called to be totally committed to living the Christian way, making our own decisions by using what we have learned instead of simply blindly following the official party line. It is easier, of course, less of a strain, less risk, to follow a party line. It means I don’t have to think and weigh pro and con and draw conclusions. “My country, right or wrong” – “Yours not to reason why …”
It must be a significant fact of the first magnitude that as a community we have never had an official party line. I suppose the B.A.S.F. is as near to one as any one may suggest, but when a candidate for baptism makes a confession of faith have they signed on the dotted line? All matters of doctrine, belief and practice are discussed and considered from the Word of God as their inspired source and it is a matter of a miracle that thousands of people each one reading, praying and thinking can come to agreement without anyone “officially” dictating interpretations.
It is a great risk and we have doubtless suffered as a consequence when some have gone away because they have drawn different conclusions but it is far better that each individual should be individually responsible to re-think, follow and commit him/herself to the Lord rather than parrot-wise repeat at second hand other people’s ideas.
Actually to revert (very briefly I promise you) to another favourite theme of mine, this was the state of Israel from Joshua to Samuel before any king had been appointed to dictate how others should behave, when every man (and woman) had to learn from their teachers, the Levites, and do what they SAW was right. Israel foolishly gave up this God given privilege of freedom of the individual so they could be like the nations who were exploited at the whims and fancies of their rulers. May we never be so foolish as to appoint a human king over us but everyone of us as individuals accept the responsibility of our liberty in Christ.
In Matthew 5-7 we are given a most provoking insight into the character of the Christ-one, full of challenges to THINK and RE-THINK, learn, follow and then fully commit oneself to the One who spoke with authority and not as other human leaders.
How the Lord shatters our fond illusions of refuge in an unthinking acceptance of even God’s Word without allowing it to alter our lives. “Ye have heard … ye have heard … ye have heard … ye have heard … ye have heard .. ” five times he hammers at the door of our comfortable complacency. Of course we have heard, they had heard, generations of God’s people have HEARD. And not only heard, but were able to repeat God’s Word. But to what end? Instead of being evangelical extroverts proclaiming the power of God’s blessing on their lives so that all the nations could know, wonder and desire to share, they became inward, looking despisers of those God wanted enlightening, vicious backbiters, destructive, ruthless to any who did not agree with them.
“Thou shalt not kill”
“Thou shalt not commit adultery”
“Thou shalt not forswear thyself”
“An eye for an eye”
“Thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy”
– were all accepted nominally, superficially, but rejected blatantly by their very mis-use, and nullified because they were implemented in a mechanical unthinking fashion.
“Thou shalt not kill – unless it appears to be in a good cause”
“Thou shalt not kill – no, not physically perhaps, but you may ruin a brother’s good name, kill his enthusiasm and spread malicious gossip about him”
“Thou shalt not commit adultery – unless you’re hard hearted and treat men and women as goods and chattels as do the Gentiles and conveniently forget that from the beginning it was not so.
“Thou shalt not forswear thyself – unless it is to your advantage to commit perjury.
“An eye for an eye – gives one scope to get one’s own back”
“Thou shalt love thy neighbour – especially if he’s rich and influential”
What good had “learning” done in the case in which men argued round their responsibilities and failed to think how these principles could serve as stepping stones from a rigid application of law to an enlightened, divinely guided, initiative.
In Matthew 6:19-2 3 this situation is summed up in two ways as (a) related to an adult awareness of priorities and (b) a need to allow the true light to enlighten one’s thinking.
The immature person, like the baby and the young child, is only aware of himself and his own desires and cannot ‘see’ matters in perspective. In the light of these verses consider the following example:
1 Kings 18:17,18 Ahab misjudged Elijah because he hadn’t got the right priorities and his eyes distorted his view of Ellijah.
John 8:18,52 Similarly the Lord’s enemies’ outlook was based on their inability to apply the scriptures and identify him correctly.
Rev.3:17,18 The Laodicean view of themselves was not related to reality and their knowledge of Divine standards had not been given practical value in their experience.
2 Kings 3:7 Though a relatively “good king, Jehoshaphat never saw the danger and foolishness of not recognising Ahab.
But in contrast:
2 Kings 6:17 The young man who doubtness “knew” about God’s protecting present but didn’t appreciate it until he “saw” it – still an indication of immaturity as the Lord Himself pointed out to Thomas. They are blessed who believe because they sea but more blessed are they who still believe even when they are not granted the privilege of seeing.
And lastly:
Hebrews 11:27 The nature understanding and outlook of Moses who endured “seeing Him who is invisible”
What have we learned about the Christian life from reading the Gospels this year, last year, long time, ever?
Are we still pre-occupied for ourselves with continually digging up the foundations to see if they’re still there; or are we now happily building on the foundations a spiritual temple in which our Father may be worshiped and His Son honoured in our privileged liberty of maturity in Christ, rather than an immature, tied to the apron strings, lack of understanding childishness?
The Solution