Unity at the Expense of Truth?

shamgarHere’s the quote:

“Beware of those who point out what everyone else is doing wrong rather than point people to Christ. We will never come into the unity of doctrine. We are called to the unity of the Faith. If they believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, the Holy Son of the Most High God, then they are with us, not against us.”

This is coming from Lisa Bevere, who seems pretty solid and what she’s saying here is definitely on point in that she’s repeating what it says in Mark 9:40 and Titus 3:9  But there are some who might want to take her words  and twist them into an admonishment to never speak up in the face of something that is fundamentally wrong.

On The View there was a segment where the guest, Ann Coulter” was talking about illegal immigration. Raven, one of the regulars on the The View, responded by saying that she was taught that if you can’t say something nice, you shouldn’t say anything at all.” The problem with Raven’s rhetoric is that it prioritizes a person’s emotions over what is true and just. Your innocence is defined by your actions and not by your emotions. While the manner in which justice is administered can be debated, your guilt is not something that is adjusted according to your passion.

Here’s what I’m thinking…

Can you imagine what a guy’s life would be like if he attended a Bible study lead by Theodore Roosevelt, King David, Shamgar and Jackie Robinson?

There’s a lot of guys I could potentially choose from, but I went with these guys because of the way their lives leave no room for doubt as far as what it means to have convictions as opposed to opinions, number one. Number two, because they were all very familiar with the Truth of God and not just some edited facts about God. And finally, because they lived out the biblical definition of what it means to be a man.

You could debate all three of those reasons, I suppose, but it’s the last one that really resonates with me because I think the reason a lot of disputes and debates have the momentum and influence that they do is because the Substance of God’s Word has been replaced with one’s “perspective” on God’s Word.

That’s not the way a godly man thinks.

If you took Lisa’s quote and asked King David’s opinion, he would look at you like you’ve got monkeys flying out of your nose. Nathan would never have gotten in David’s grill if he was interested in unity at the expense of Truth (2 Sam 12). That’s not being judgmental or even divisive. That’s being wise.

If you took it to Teddy, consider the way he stood up to the political machinations of his day, the way in which be broke up the trusts and the monopolies. Combine that with the way in which evinced Scripture in his writings and even in the philosophical foundations upon which he based policy and you have yet another epic human being looking at you as though you’re out of your mind.

There’s not much about Shamgar in the book of Judges, but anyone who saved Israel in the context of a single round of combat that pitted him against 600 Philistines with an oxgoad would be all too familiar with the lame and bogus results of a lackadaisical approach to doctrine / discipline. Shamgar’s exploits are to be processed not only in the context of what it must’ve looked like to defeat 600 combatants (Jud 3:31) with a stick but also because there weren’t any swords in Israel at the time (Jud 5:8). That’s what happens when you insist that there are no enemies and no need to identify false doctrine.

And Jackie Robinson…He’s someone I’m just now becoming familiar with. There’s more to his story than what the movie “42” documents. His ability to maintain a calm demeanor in the face of outrageous racial slurs and even death threats was based on his faith and not just his desire to see the color barrier broken in Major League Baseball. A lot of those racial slurs were coming from people in the South who could quote the Scripture that describes how Christ died for humanity out of one corner of their mouth, while simultaneously insisting that certain ethnic groups didn’t qualify as human.

All of these guys reeked of excellence. They were physical, they were spiritual, they were professional – they were everything that you would aspire to in the context of authentic masculinity. And much of what drove them was an enthusiastic willingness to submit and subordinate themselves to the Absolute of God’s Wisdom, Power and Grace as documented in His Word. They didn’t look for loopholes that catered to the lesser version of themselves or compromises that maintained a “comfortable” environment at the expense of a healthy community.

And that’s the difference between reading God’s Word and studying it… It’s the difference between being a male and being a man…

And that’s the difference between living and existing.

Trash can ending…extended thirty second note combo between the toms and the kick…dramatic round of quarter note triplets on snare and… BAM!

Thank you! Good night!

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