Things That Matter Most . . . No. 9

HOLY WORLDLINESS AND UNHOLY RELIGIOSITY

Among the sayings attributed to our Lord in non-canonical literature, sometimes referred to as Agrapha, there is the one in Codex Bezae that has Jesus saying to a man that he sees working on the Sabbath: “Oh, man, if you know what you are doing, blessed are you; but if you know not what you are doing, cursed are you.”

This is probably a genuine saying of the Lord, for it is reflective of his attitude toward the religious systems of His time and consistent with the situational ethics that He taught. There were times when even He broke sabbatical regulations, and He dared to suggest that the doors of the kingdom might swing open to a worldly prostitute and slam shut to a religious Pharisee.

In any event the statement points to a truth that we consider vital to our time. Our “secular” pursuits may be our most holy endeavors, while our “spiritual” performances may be of little value in building the kingdom of God, yea they may even be unholy. The man Jesus saw working on the Sabbath was gathering wood, which was definitely against the Jewish law. Our Lord said he was blessed if he knew what he was doing. This must mean that if in this situation the man was placing human dignity above a religious ordinance he was justified in doing so, for Jesus had taught that the Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

Perhaps the man was gathering fire wood for a sick family or trying to make some extra money in order to meet his debts. Or it could have been that he was self-willed, defiant of authority, and irreverent toward the laws that were calculated to give discipline to his life. In that case he was cursed for his behavior, Jesus pointed out. It all depended on the intention of his heart.

Recently I read the account of the death of an aged brother. The writer observed that the man had not missed taking communion for 70 years, from the time he was immersed to the day of his death. By communion we may assume he has reference to the communion of the Lord’s Supper. This is of course an impressive accomplishment, and it surely must be some kind of a record.

Let us suppose that this good brother had missed the Lord’s Supper rather often, even scores of times during those 70 years. A few times he simply had to work in order to support his family; sometimes he sat with a dying neighbor who needed a friend to hold his hand; occasionally he stayed home to be with a sick member of the family. Perhaps there were still other reasons.

Would this make the brother’s life any less holy? Really now, is there any virtue in such a record as 70 years of communion-keeping? Is it possible that there were times when the man would have pleased God more had he been on some mission of mercy at that hour? Might not Jesus have said to him had He met him: “If you know what you are doing, blessed are you . . .”? Might a man be blessed for what he is doing even when he’s missing church?

During his reign King Hezekiah succeeded in restoring the passover to Israel’s fading religion. But the record says “They ate the passover otherwise than prescribed.” This Hezekiah realized, apparently being unable to institute all that the law specified. The king prayed about the deficiency: “The good Lord pardon everyone who sets his heart to seek God, the Lord the God of his fathers, even though not according to the sanctuary’s rules of cleanness.” (2 Chron. 30:18-19).

The Bible says that “The Lord heard Hezekiah, and healed the people.”

Here is an example in the Bible of a man knowingly doing less than the law required, and being blessed for so doing. But he knew what he was doing! The people were sincerely endeavoring to restore the spiritual fortunes of Israel, and because of this God gladly overlooked some infractions of the rules. Just as He did when David ate shewbread and when Jesus broke Sabbath rules.

Recently my wife and I were on an errand of mercy some miles from our home, checking on the welfare of a very ill woman. Our brethren were gathering on that Wednesday night, a congregation with which we were not acquainted, only a block or so away. As we ministered to this woman I found myself asking the question “Is it not more important to be here than there?” We had missed holy Wednesday night, but were we necessarily less holy because of it? Is there any real importance in the saints gathering two or three times a week to hear lectures? How about having a “scattering to minister” program every Wednesday night?

But one does not have to be ministering to the sick. How about such “secular” pursuits as serving as Boy Scout leader on Wednesday night? Or playing checkers with some of the senior citizens? Or taking a gang of kids on a fish fry? (and really be like Jesus!) The brother who drives a taxi on a Wednesday night, or one who stokes the furnace at the utility plant, may be doing more real good for humanity than the brother who, bashed with religiosity, spends that time listening to a sermon. Jesus might even have him stay home and read to his children that night, which appears to be far more holy than hauling them to another church service, which is boring to them if not to the father.

A man may so love the world that he just hasn’t the time to be running to church all time. That is holy worldliness. His “sacred desk” may be the biology lab, and may be every whit as holy as a pulpit. How foolish we are to encourage men to leave such pursuits in order “to enter the ministry”! The truth is that the classroom, laboratory, factory or office are places for an effective ministry, while the pulpit is surely ineffective. A professional minister recently remarked to a schoolteacher: “You are where the young people are. We’re not.” The world does not gather before pulpits to hear sermons.

Let us then refrain from committing that common fallacy of confusing the secular and the spiritual. The Christian has no “secular” pursuits, for all that he does is for the Lord and the world He loves. If he is a physician, he is in the Lord’s work. If he is a lawyer, he has entered the ministry just as much, and perhaps in many instances even more, as one who has “taken up preaching.” Some may enter the ministry by becoming evangelists, true; but others enter the ministry by becoming housewives, plumbers and carpenters. It is God’s world, and His community is to be busy making His world beautiful, intelligent, free of disease and heartache, and pleasurable. We make people like God by bringing them into the abundant life. This is our ministry, and this takes us into the world where the people are. We may not be of the world, but we are in it, and we are to love it like God does, and bless it by our labor of love, whatever it is. This is what it means to save people.

Religiosity, on the other hand, can be most unholy. It can kill a man’s spirit just as it crucified Christ. It places law above personality and the letter above spirit. It is institutional rather than personal. It preserves “the system” to the hurt of the cultivation of the soul. It curses the man who gathers wood on the Sabbath, for it can see only law, not the difference that situations make. It counts eternal life in terms of years, not in terms of depth and breadth. It is legal, not gracious.—the Editor