Don't Mind the Rules; Mind the Mind

In our youth group Bible study in Romans we have recently covered chapters 12 and 13. Chapter 12 has one paragraph in it with 29 imperatives (verbs that tell us what to do). In chapter 13, we are told to submit to our governing authorities.

This can start to feel overwhelming - so many commands! So many rules! I thought we were set from the the law (Rom 6)!

And then throw in the mix that we should not submit to our governing authorities if doing so would cause us to violate God's will.

So we discussed with the youth how it is possible to take on all these commands and live them, plus how to know how to handle the "exceptions."

If we try to treat all of this as a list of commands like a law, we will end up in the exact same place as the Pharisees were in (and, sadly, it's a place where too many in the modern Christians find themselves today).

What Scripture really wants us to do is to understand God's mind on the matters of life, to know what He thinks about things, and to learn to think the same way. And then ... live according to God's mind on the matter. We don't obey rules - we obey a living God. If we try to accumulate rule after rule, then we'll eventually bog down and likely fall into legalism. The rules serve the purpose of revealing the mind of God. That's what we need to obey.

Learn the mind of God more than accumulating rules. Learning His mind means studying His revelation and developing a relationship with Him. But the more you learn the mind of God, the less you need to worry about rules and the more you can say, "The entire law of my life can be summed up in two commands: Love the Lord my God with all of my heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. In this, the entire law of my life is contained."

Olympic gods

In 1 Corinthians 9:25, the Apostle Paul compares the fading crown of the athletes in his day with the imperishable crowns that believers receive in eternal life. The original readers of this letter knew exactly what he was referring to.

The city of Corinth was the location of the Isthmian Games, which were held the year before and the year after the Olympic Games in that era. The "perishable crown" was a wreath made of celery, of all things, which of course would fade away very quickly. That was the only tangible reward - no gold medal, no endorsement contract. A celery wreath. The athletes would train for months to compete at the highest levels, and one in each sport would earn this wreath that would fade and wither within days.

The Games were infused with paganism. Before each event, the athletes would dedicate themselves to the gods, or to a specific god, to seek their favor and give them honor.

Today, as we watch the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, I have been struck by how much more brazen athletes are becoming about praising themselves and lifting themselves up. Gone is the ethic of competing for country and the humility of amateur athletes. Now, there is no shame in grandstanding and applauding oneself.

In effect, the self-glorifying athletes are replacing the pagans gods with themselves. It's really no different - except that the pagan god they honor with their sport is not a mythical character. Rather, it is a creating being. Although different in form, the end result is basically the same.

Paul says in the previous verse of 1 Cor 9, "Do you not know that all the runners in a stadium compete, but only one receives the prize? So run to win. " But not for a perishable wreath or for one's own glory. Rather, for the crown that never fades - the glory of the Lord shared with us.

"Knowledge" and "epi-knowledge"

In last week's message, I mentioned the difference in 2 Peter 1:3-11 between "knowledge" in terms of facts (v. 6) and "knowledge" in terms of deep, relational knowledge (vv. 2, 3, 8). In Greek, the first word is gnosis and the second is epignosis - "knowledge" and "epi-knowledge." ("Epi" is a Greek prefix that means "upon" or "over.) In English, we just have the one word "knowledge", but several other languages make a distinction. For example, in Spanish, the words are saber and conocer. It's the difference between knowing facts about Christ, and knowing Christ personally.

There are a few cases when the words are somewhat interchangeable in Scripture, but most of the time, there's an important difference.

For example, Rom 1:18 describes people who fail to have "epi-knowledge" of God - they failed to know Him personally as God, not just failed to know facts about God. In Rom 3:20, the Old Testament Law didn't just bring us the factual knowledge about sin, but the experiential knowledge of sin - a big difference!

Paul prays in Eph 1:17 that his readers would grow in their epi-knowledge of Christ (not just their book knowledge), and in Col 1:9, he prays that the Colossians would have epi-knowledge of God's will. How much more amazing is experiential knowledge of God's will compared to factual knowledge of God's will! In the next verse, he prays for epi-knowledge of God Himself.

Other passages that speak of this epi-knowledge are: Rom 10:2; Eph 4:13; Phi 1:9; Col 2:2; 3:10; 1 Tim 2:4; 2 Tim 2:25; 3:7; Titus 1:1; Phm 1:6; Heb 10:26; 2 Pet 1:2, 3, 8; 2:20.

When we open our Bibles to study, we can settle for less by just looking for knowledge - facts, names, theological ideas, events, and attributes of God. Those are good and important things to know. But you can't "epi-know" a theological idea! Far greater is for us to open our Bibles looking for epi-knowledge of the Author - to get to know Him at a deeper and deeper level. Bible Study is really God-study - getting to know Him relationally and experientially.

Peter calls for both kinds of knowledge in 2 Pet 1:3-11 because both are important. But clearly, epi-knowledge is the star of the show! He prays for it in v. 2, it's how our faith begins in v. 3, and it's the goal of our spiritual growth in v. 8.

Be What You Want the Church to Become

I have been digging through my files and searching the web trying to find out who said this first: "Be what you want the church to become." I cannot find it, but I know at least that I'm not the one who made it up. I wish I had.

What a simple principle! Those in the church want the church to become something more, something greater, something better: purer, kinder, better at reaching out, more aware of those on the fringe, more involved, stronger at teaching. No matter if your present view of the church is strongly positive or strongly negative, we want the church to be better.

So, be that. That's pretty simple. You want the church to be better at meeting the needs of the poor, then meet the needs of the poor! You want the church to be more prayerful, then pray more!

Remember that the church is not a building or an organization - it is a gathering of people. Therefore, the only way for the gathering to become something more, the people need to become something more.

Don't wait for a program. Don't expect the leadership to be the only source of ideas and efforts. Be what you want the church to become. Certainly, there are certain things that should be checked with the leadership, first, but you don't need permission (or a program) to become more evangelistic, for example. You don't need permission (or a program) to become more familiar with what the Bible says.

It's easy to complain and find fault. It's hard to bring change. But the simplest, easiest, most effective way for the church to become something greater is for the people to choose to be what they want the church to become. (This goes for the leadership, too!)