This was close to home. The Michigan Militia consists of ordinary-looking people in all the everyday walks of life. Some of them work in the same offices, even the same departments as brothers and sisters in our area. One of the people detained as being vitally linked to the Oklahoma City bombing works at the University of Michigan and was recognizable to a brother who had attended there. Who would have thought there could be such rage lurking behind the ordinary faces of average people.
We’ve seen it before, however, when, in 1967, we drove through streets ravaged by riots that shook Detroit. We’d known the area for years; traveled through it to school and work. Where did the people come from who had looted, burned and destroyed? They were the same people who had ridden the bus with us or waited quietly for the traffic light to change; yet when law broke down, the daily order was seen as nothing but a veneer.
A veneer of civilization
World War II ended 50 years ago and the ceremonies serve to recall the horrors of the death camps amid everything else involved in that global conflagration. Again we are forcefully reminded that the civilized behavior upon which stable life relies is but a veneer. What is frightening is realizing the atrocities were not the work of one man or a handful; they depended upon the active participation of thousands and the complicity of millions. Does such vicious conduct lie in the soul of so many?
We read of Rwanda and Yugoslavia. What were they like before the tribal hatreds poured over into the headlines? They were ordered places where Tutsis and Hutus lived in an accepted relationship, where Muslims, Croats and Serbs were neighbors in productive communities. Does such anarchy lie below the surface in the hearts of all mankind?
Paul’s experience
In the apostle’s case, once the eyes of his understanding were opened, he was appalled at his old self. In his former days, he was confident he was “a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes” (Rom. 2:19-20 NKJV). While he made his boast in God, confident he knew God’s will, to him the Gentiles followed the fashion of the day, being guided by the sensuality of their mythology. They had disobedience as their father (note “you walked” Eph. 2:2).
But once he could see clearly, he realized he had been no better. “Also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others [i.e. the Gentiles]” (v.3). He deluded himself into thinking he was serving God when he had been fulfilling the dictates of his human instincts. By so following that which was natural, wrath was his father and he its child. In writing Titus, he makes the same point: “For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another” (Tit. 3:3).
To his Jewish associates, Paul (or Saul as he was known then) no doubt appeared highly disciplined in following the regimen of Jewish customs “being exceeding zealous for the traditions of my fathers.” He would have supported welfare for Jewish widows, tithed with all diligence, respected his elders and done all things necessary to advance in Judaism beyond many of his contemporaries (Gal. 1:14). The veneer looked good but inside there was greed, malice, envy and hatred. Inside, the flesh reigned.
We can empathize
Part of Paul’s problem is he was victimized by a common reaction that comes from defining religion in terms of rules. Once a man has kept the rules, he tends to feel he has done all that is necessary and relaxes from keeping the principles of God. “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” rules of dress, vocabulary, reading materials, “These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh” (Col. 2:21-23).
Many of us know the phenomenon from personal experience. We exact of ourselves a certain regimen only to find in dismay all we have produced is an outer man who looks good to others, but inside us anger seethes, jealousy broods and hatred is building up.
We can examine ourselves
The great benefit of reflective Bible reading is that, with prayer, we can be led to see our inner man. This is vital because we are involved in a process in which the whole man is to be changed. God intends that our understanding be enlightened (a mental change), the character be made Christ-like (a moral change) and the body be immortalized (a physical change). The final step will only be experienced if, in the days of our mortality, the first two steps are realized.
None of us wants to be denied immortality because all we have is a veneer of discipleship. Now is the time to sort out our motives and to “work out our salvation in fear and trembling.” There is thus great value in self-examination that should be ongoing and is brought to a special focus at the breaking of bread. Each of us understands the biblical perspective that one of our greatest challenges lies within for, “the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9).
A veneer not enough
A veneer of civilization is much better than anarchy and any association with Christ is surely better than having none. But the Master is ultimately not interested in a conversion that is skin-deep. He wants the whole man. That’s why the apostle admonished:
“Put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:22-24).
He is not talking here about our bodies but about our conduct, our minds. This involves our intellect, thoughts, motives, attitudes, speech and actions — the whole person, not just a veneer. The Lord will reject a veneer, He will only accept what is true all the way through. No wonder we sing the praise: “Now to Him who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy…be glory and majesty…Amen” (Jude 24-25).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One