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Being a Real Christian – Part 4

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In Romans Chapters 3-5, Paul discusses how justification is by faith rather than works. The concept of salvation by faith is mentioned many times in the New Testament, particularly in Paul’s writing and the Gospel of John. But the question which arises from this concept is, are works or obedience still required of us? Are we free to do whatever we want to?

As much as different Christian sects have tried to streamline answers to this question, I actually find that the New Testament gives at least two different perspectives. First, let’s look at how the Apostle James approaches this dilemma.

“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you senseless person, that faith apart from works is barren? Was not our ancestor Abraham justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was brought to completion by the works” (James 2:14-22).

I think James is saying that faith can only exist when you are acting in obedience to God. He uses the obedience of Abraham to illustrate this. The point is not that you can “earn” your salvation by doing certain works. Rather, the idea is that you are saved by faith, but you have to follow God’s commandments in order for that faith to be genuine faith. But it is important to consider exactly what the faith that James speaks of entails. In James’s epistle, the only references to Christ are on two occasions when James refers to Jesus as Lord. Thus, the “faith” that James refers to, which is dead without works, seems to simply be a claim of faith in the Divinity of Christ. Contrast that with Paul’s epistle to the Romans, in which the whole epistle is centered on what Christ accomplished for humanity through His death and resurrection. Thus, Paul’s references to “faith” encompass a lot more than James’s references to faith alone.

Getting back to the question of, if we’re justified by faith, does it matter what we do, take a look at Paul’s answer to that question in Romans.

“What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:1-11).

This is quite a different perspective from what James wrote. James’s answer had a very practical nature, highlighting the obedience of Abraham and Rahab to show that in order to have true faith you must do works in obedience to God.

In contrast to that practical explanation, Paul’s explanation is rather mystical, speaking of being joined with Christ in His death and resurrection and thus dying to sin and being raised to a new life where sin cannot dominate us. It is a very transformative message, and what Paul says is that we should consider ourselves to be vivified with Christ and free from sin’s dominion. What Paul implies in Chapters 7 and 8 is that believing in this transformation, rather than self-motivation to change one’s ways, is necessary to truly experiencing freedom from sin’s power. The next article takes a look at this in more detail.

Being a Real Christian – Part 3

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In Romans 3:23-25, Paul reaches the conclusion that “since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith.”

Remember that back in Romans 2:6-7, Paul wrote that “[God] will repay according to each one’s deeds: to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.”

Also 2:14-16: “When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them on the day when, according to my gospel, God, through Jesus Christ, will judge the secret thoughts of all.”

In Chapter 2, Paul is very much indicating that it is possible to be saved on the basis of works. It is true that all have sinned (3:23), but Jesus died for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2). Also note 1 John 1:7, “If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” Also consider Hebrews 10:26, “If we willfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.”

The idea I see from Romans 2, 1st John, and Hebrews is that as long as people are not persisting in sin against the conviction of their conscience, they have forgiveness of their sins through Christ’s atonement. Romans 2 indicates that this principle applies to both Jews (who I think, in our day, are people associated with Christianity), and Greeks/Gentiles (who, I think, are everybody else you encounter today).

So, then, why be a believer? Well, notice that in Romans 3:23-25, quoted at the top of this article, Paul writes that those who have faith in Christ are justified by grace as a gift. This faith puts a person in a unique state. The forgiveness described in Romans 2, 1st John, and Hebrews is contingent on pursuing good works and following one’s conscience. However, the justification described in Romans 3 is a gift by grace, meaning that it is not merited by one’s performance. This unique state of justification cannot be attained by works given that all have sinned. The fact that this is not attained by works is described by Paul in Romans Chapters 3-5.

Now, what I am about to mention next is not widely taught among Christians, but I believe we’ll see later in Romans that the faith which brings a person into this unique state is a specific faith that goes beyond the baseline faith required to join the body of Christ. I think Romans 6-8 illustrates this, and we’ll look at that next time.

Being a Real Christian – Part 2

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The Book of Romans is one of the most analyzed books of the New Testament. It has much material that is central to Christian teaching, so one’s interpretation of this book has much bearing on what Christianity means for that person.

So, let’s start with Romans 1.

Verses 5-7: “We have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name, including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, to all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints.”

These passages appear to establish the epistle as one written to a Christian audience. However, later in Chapter 1 Paul describes people who do not appear to be Christians.

Verses 18-23, 28-32: “Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles. Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip.”

In this passage Paul seems to single out people who worship idols or nature. What is noticeable when reading the Bible is that in the ancient world, Christians and Jews viewed pagans as participating in an immoral culture that separated them from the Scripture-based religious community. However, if we look at the world today, we may find non-Christians who don’t seem to have the evil characteristics described above. Basically, I think in the ancient world, pagans were viewed by Christians the same way that Hollywood is viewed by conservative American Christians today. Preachers speak of such people as a group, focusing on some characteristics prevalent in their lifestyles from a top-down view. They may paraphrase the passage above when talking about Hollywood and swap the word “idols” with “money” or “self-glorification” and then list all those sins at the end. But, that doesn’t mean that every individual movie star must be evil. I think in Romans 1, Paul was making top-down observations of the pagan culture in his day, and he saw a lot of immoral behavior and attitudes which he wrote about. However, that doesn’t mean that every non-Christian in the world must be evil.

Moving on to Romans 2, Paul criticizes the “churchgoers” of his day for casting judgment on the “worldly” people around them, but not actually practicing what they preach. Paul references “Jews” and “Greeks” a lot. I think that in Paul’s writing, the modern equivalent of “Jews” are those associated with Christianity, and “Greeks/Gentiles” are everybody else you meet today. In the first century, Christianity was viewed more like an interpretation of Judaism, rather than a separate religion as is perceived today.

What Paul writes in Romans 2 is that, regardless of whether someone is associated with the Church or not, if the person does not live according to Biblical commandments, he or she will be judged no differently than someone who doesn’t claim adherence to the faith. Also, notice what Paul writes in verses 10-15:

“There will be anguish and distress for everyone who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality. All who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but the doers of the law who will be justified. When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them.”

In essence, I think this is saying that Gentiles (or today, those outside the Christian religion) can be rewarded when judged if they sought to live according to their conscience, which by nature has God’s law written on it.

So, the message of Romans 2 is clearly judgment based on works regardless of what you believe or what religion you associate with. Now, here’s the thing. When we move on to Chapters 3-8, Paul writes some things that seem to contradict everything he said in the first two chapters. There have been many attempts by theologians to make sense of the contrasts. You may wonder why I am bothering to try to address the matter myself. I’ve asked myself that as well, However, I have come to realize that my personal beliefs on this dilemma are connected to central elements of my faith, so addressing these issues is a part of evangelism rather than an attempt to wade into controversy.

Being a Real Christian – Part 1

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Unless otherwise noted, Scriptural quotations in this series are from the New Revised Standard Version.

You have probably heard a lot of Christians state that we need to “walk the walk” and not just “talk the talk.” I hear that a lot of people claim to believe certain things about God or Jesus, and maybe they also go to church, but they are not perceived as putting their faith into practice.
So, then, what exactly does it mean to put your faith into practice and be a real Christian? Well, depending on who you ask, you will probably get one or more of the following answers:

1. Engaging in evangelism
2. Charitable work
3. Devotional practices (such as prayer or meditation)
4. Staying pure of certain vices
5. Loving your neighbor as yourself
6. Being forgiving and patient
7. Separating yourself from immoral company
8. Not getting obsessed with material things.
9. Going to church

Some of you may have the experience I am about to describe. You go to church every week (among a congregation of, say, one hundred people), and hear sermons about what real Christian living involves. You think about your life and decide that you need to make some changes to be a more faithful Christian. You know that it’s going to be hard to change some things – that some lifestyle changes would cause anxiety or be difficult to get in the habit of, but while you’re at church hearing the message, you are probably not thinking about those difficulties too much. You decide that you’re going to somehow make yourself follow through with what you need to do.

Well, by the time you were back in church the next week, did anything in your life change? If your honest answer is no, you’re in good company. That was probably the case for at least ninety-eight out of the hundred people in church last week. Maybe you were trying to change, or maybe once you got back in your normal routine, you didn’t worry about changing anymore, until you heard the message again the next Sunday.
However, one person in the congregation actually succeeded at making those changes. Not only that, he has managed to stick with it for six months already. One Sunday, he gave a testimony of the changes he made. He talked about how hard it was to resist temptation and to get over the fear of doing what’s right, but refused to let fear or temptation stop him. So you think, if he did it, I can do it too. You may try a little harder after that, but did you get the desired results?

You may be thinking, “Well, that one guy can know that he is saved. He can read the Bible and feel good knowing that he’s doing what he needs to.” The rest of you may be finding some Scriptures that hit a little too close to home.

So, here’s the question I want to talk about in this series: Does the Bible have a redemptive message for the ninety-nine other folks? We often hear that God loves those people, and they can be comforted knowing that He is ready to forgive them as soon as they repent. But, what about those of us who can’t identify our sins as isolated acts that can be counted on our fingers? Is there a special message for such people, who can’t seem to change themselves, that can actually give them present assurance of salvation being what they are right now?

I believe there is such a message for these people, if they have come to believe certain things about the power of Christ’s death and resurrection in their lives. I find this message in Paul’s writing in Romans, which is what I will talk about in the rest of the series.

Denominations – Part 2

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In the last post I discussed the reasons for issues with denominationalism but also the reasons why divisions among Christian perennially exist. There are two questions I want to discuss in this article: First, are denominations necessary, and second, how should we view and interact with Christians of different denominations?

To address the first question of whether denominations are necessary, I would say that denominations are necessary in order for church to be a spiritually meaningful experience. I know that sounds like an odd statement. We usually think of denominations as stimulating division among Christians rather than spiritual unity among them, but here’s why I made that statement. Without denominations, church teaching would have to be extremely basic in order to present messages that everybody could agree with. People would not be able to receive guidance on deep issues of life because many in the church would not be able to accept whatever answer was given.

Now, sometimes, what appear to be difference in doctrine are really just two perspectives on the same truth. But I don’t believe that this “multiple perspectives” approach is a universal solution to doctrinal differences. Some doctrines really are definitively true or false. It is admittedly difficult, though, to know if that is the case. That brings us to the next points: What is the cost of being wrong? What are the spiritual consequences of holding erroneous doctrines? Can we operate in a ministry with Christians who hold doctrines that we deem unbiblical?

To answer these questions, I think we need to think about what faith is. Some people seem to have the idea that faith is a correct understanding of facts regarding who Jesus is, what His death and resurrection means, how we are saved, and how we should carry out our lives. A common reasoning is that even if you claim to believe in Jesus, if you have faulty ideas about what He taught, then you believe in a different Jesus than the true Christ. Now, the idea of a “false christ” is in the Bible, but I think it gets applied too broadly.

Here are some passages that deal with the topic of faith. These are from the New Living Translation:

Romans 10:17 – “So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ.”

Romans 10:10 – “For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.”

Romans 4:18-21 – “Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping—believing that he would become the father of many nations. For God had said to him, ‘That’s how many descendants you will have!’ And Abraham’s faith did not weaken, even though, at about 100 years of age, he figured his body was as good as dead—and so was Sarah’s womb. Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises.”

Hebrews 11:1 – “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.”

Hebrews 12:1-2 – “Let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.”

The first verse on the list shows that faith comes from hearing the truth about God, and the rest of the verses show that faith is a response demonstrating trust in the truth revealed to us. As the last Scripture showed, the ability to respond in this way and actually “run the race” is a work that God himself has to initiate and complete in us.

These passages do not say anything about our intellectual comprehension of facts. Now, it’s reasonable to assume that somebody who has faith in their heart will not have an intellectual understanding that bears no resemblance to the truth whatsoever. Their mental perceptions should reflect, to a degree, what they believe in their heart. But these mental perceptions are not what define their faith. This is illustrated by the passage about Abraham. It said that there was “no reason for hope.” Abraham figured in his mind that “his body was as good as dead-and so was Sarah’s womb.” Beneath this reasoning in his mind, he was nevertheless “convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises.”

So, Abraham responded in faith even though his mind didn’t have all the details worked out yet. Hebrews 11:1 conveys the same idea.

I assume that all of you who are reading this believe in computers. But you probably do not understand everything about how computers work. If you were asked to explain how you think computers work, you would probably give a lot of wrong information. But the fact that you are acting upon belief in computers by using one right now shows that you do believe in them.

I also think about what Jesus said in Matthew 18:1-4 – “The disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?’ Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them. Then he said, ‘I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me. But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large millstone tied around your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea.’”

This passages illustrates both a virtue and a weakness of children. The virtue of children is that if they are taught the truth, they can trust and respond to it without their minds getting in the way. They don’t have the mental capacity to grasp subtle theological nuances, yet Jesus used the faith of children to illustrate faith that sets people on a path toward the Kingdom of Heaven. This strongly indicates to me that faith is not contingent on a perfect comprehension of facts.

However, this passage also reveals a weakness of children. Just as they can be easily led into the truth, they can also be easily led away from the truth. This is where their intellectual immaturity is a problem. Children need to eventually grow up and develop the ability to think and reason for themselves so that their faith can find a firm rooting and their minds can guard them against deception. Likewise, even though our starting point has to be child-like faith and obedience, we should not aim to remain in this state. We should strive to grow into a mature comprehension of Biblical truth.

Jesus taught, “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7, Luke 11:9). We should not worry that by seeking a fuller understanding of truth, we will be lead away instead. Jesus assures us that if we persist in search of truth, we will eventually discover what we need to know. And as our knowledge grows, we can refute damaging doctrines if they arise.

The idea I have been working toward in this article is that when we see people whose words and actions demonstrate that they are responding in trust to what they hear from Scripture, we have evidence that God has instilled faith in their hearts, and we should not sever spiritual fellowship with them even if we perceive that they have some erroneous ideas about the Bible.

But if that is the right attitude, why does the Bible have so many stern warnings to avoid spiritual fellowship with teachers of false doctrine? Here’s my take on that:

For one thing, we do not have the full teaching of the apostles. In fact, Paul alludes to other letters he wrote, and other things he told the churches, that Biblical historians have been unable to retrieve. Furthermore, the cultural context of the Biblical writings is different in many ways from the culture we live in today. For these two reasons, our understanding when we read the Scriptures is much more limited than the understanding of the immediate audience who heard the apostles preach long ago. Furthermore, the apostles were given a special anointing from God. They were anointed by God to go out and preach new truths about God that were not fully revealed before (Paul called them “mysteries” or “secrets”). Preachers today are not given this commission by God. The role of ministers today is not to reveal new truth about God, but rather to relay what has already been said.

When the Apostles preached, the audience was confronted by the Holy Spirit with power so strong, and a clarity of revelation so obvious, that there was virtually no room for well-intentioned disagreement with what was taught. In those circumstances, somebody who denied the teaching of the apostles was conscious denying the Holy Spirit and demonstrating the antithesis of faith. This, I believe, is why the Bible is so stern about false doctrine and deviation from the apostolic teachings. We don’t have the same fullness and clarity of revelation today, and we live in a very different cultural and spiritual environment, so we should not hold today’s Christians to the same doctrinal standards of the apostles’ immediate audience.

When evaluating the severity of doctrines I disagree with today, the biggest question on my mind is not the absolute value of the error (which is something we cannot determine) but rather, what do people’s attitudes reveal about what is in their spirit. If they profess faith in the teachings of Christ and their lives show evidence of response to Him, I do not see any reason why they should be shunned because of some mental misperceptions.

Let me know what you think about all of this,
Samuel

Do We Really Need Denominations?

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                Many Christians today (including myself) have growing discomfort with denominationalism. It’s troubling that Christians portray themselves as having the greatest truths that the world needs to hear; yet, from the viewpoint of outsiders, Christians appear to be a very divided group. And if you go from a Baptist church to a Charismatic church, it could almost feel like walking into a new religion that believes in the same God. Denominationalism can also fuel a sense of arrogance and narrow-mindedness that is also unappealing to observers.

So, in light of these issues, the ecumenical movement (which seeks to put denominationalism aside and unite Christians of all types) seems to make a lot of sense. But, objectors to this movement have a reasonable concern: The New Testament is loaded with stern warnings to steer clear of false doctrines and false teachers. This is why many Christians who are sure that they know the truth on various matters sometimes feel a need to wall themselves in with other Christians who believe the same way. And thus denominations form.

The interesting thing is that many of these warnings about false doctrines come from the writing of Paul. Yet, Paul himself denounced factions with the church in his letter to the Corinthians:

“I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose. For some members of Chloe’s household have told me about your quarrels, my dear brothers and sisters. Some of you are saying, ‘I am a follower of Paul.” Others are saying, ‘I follow Apollos,’ or “I follow Peter’ or “I follow only Christ.’ Has Christ been divided into factions? Was I, Paul, crucified for you? Were any of you baptized in the name of Paul? Of course not!” (1 Cor. 1:10-13).

Paul makes this exhortation of unity among different Christians, but in other parts of his writing, he shows no tolerance for false doctrine. So what should we make of this?

Every now and then in the saga of church history, a growing number of Christians just get really fed up with the arguing among Christians. So, they decide to just set aside all the “human theories” that have pervaded the church and simply teach what the Bible says. But the problem they tend to encounter is that the Bible itself isn’t always as clear as they thought.

In the Protestant Reformation in the 16th-17th centuries, the first reformers such as Martin Luther resolved to trust in the Bible as the sole, sufficient Word of God, instead of relying on the traditions of the Catholic Church. What ended up happening, though, was that the reformers couldn’t agree on what the Word of God really said. For example, John Calvin thought the Bible taught predestination, while Jacobius Arminius thought the Bible taught free will, and these doctrines were seen as fundamental enough to warrant separate movements.

By the 1800s, a large group of Christians in America were fed up with the arguing among Protestants, so they formed a movement called the Disciples of Christ. Their goal was to discard all manmade creeds and theologies invented by Protestants and stick to what they thought were simple truths of the Bible. But they too fragmented within a few generations because their members had disagreements on what the Bible itself actually said.

In the early 1900, the Pentecostal movement began. They believed that in order to correctly interpret the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit must guide you through the Bible. Thus, they saw the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment as the solution to doctrinal dilemmas. But, a century later, Pentecostalism has also divided into many groups, each claiming that the Holy Spirit gave them their doctrines.

What I find interesting, is that in the Scripture quoted above, Paul put the people who say, “I follow Christ” in the same group as the people who claim to follow specific church leaders. I think that church history proves Paul’s statement to be correct.

What many ecumenical Christians say is, “Why can’t we just look beyond our (relatively) minor differences and find common ground with each other?” That sounds like good advice, but unfortunately it’s hard to implement because it’s difficult to determine what qualifies as a “minor difference” when it’s the Word of God that we’re dealing with. Furthermore, many Christians apply what I call “slippery-slope” assumptions about doctrinal errors. They admit that a particular misunderstanding (in and of itself) is not so bad, but they assert that the error inevitably leads to other, more serious errors, and thus, teachers of the “small” error must be shunned to prevent serious false teaching.  If we apply this kind of slippery-slope logic, not even the slightest deviation can be tolerated because it sets off a chain reaction of other errors. But is this really the way that God wants us to look at each other? Is there a better way to look at each other’s beliefs?  I think there is. This post is getting pretty long, so I’ll resume this topic in a new post shortly.

Is Modern Christian Music Unholy?

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Modern genres of music, such as pop, rock, techno, etc. are sometimes accused of having an unholy character, even if the lyrics are explicitly Christian. In Romans Chapter 1, the Apostle Paul describes the problem of taking pieces of nature (which may portray something of God to an extent) and portraying God as being confined to it. I think a similar principle can be applied to music and the character of God.

Some claim that traditional hymns have a soothing, relaxing character that creates a Godly atmosphere, whereas a lot of modern music has a character that stimulates aggression and rebellion. I respect the convictions of the opponents of contemporary Christian music. I certainly would not want to entice people to listen to it if they really believe that it is immoral. However, Paul writes in Romans 14 that if people can do things in honest thanks toward God, then they need not be bound by the convictions of others.

We know that God is love (1 John 4:8). The character of some traditional hymns does reflect something of the loving character of God. But, God’s love doesn’t always work the same way as emotional human love thinks it should. Music conveys emotions in the relative, human sense rather than the absolute sense in which God exists. God sometimes operates in ways that do not appear so warm and fuzzy (even though He has a redemptive goal in everything He does), for we do not live in a perfect world where everybody gets along. If we are to imitate the character of God to the best that we know how, on our end it takes strength and power, not only emotional love, to resist temptation. Sometimes, living according to Biblical principles feels like a life of rebellion against the world system’s immoral influences. Jesus says in Matthew 10:34, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.  For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;  and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.”

In Ephesians 6:12, Paul writes that “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” In 1 Timothy 6:12, Paul says to “fight the good fight of faith.” I think it takes powerful sounding music to portray the spiritual warfare that believers are in, and I find that some kinds of Christian rock music fits that subject well.

What modern pop music often conveys to me is a mood of excitement and energy. How are these moods incompatible with our Christian lives? We are new spiritual creations with a heart that takes delight in things that are noble and pure, but the Bible indicates that this is not the case for everybody. In Romans 1: 28-31, after describing how people were committing idolatry by worshiping nature instead of God, Paul wrote,

“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers,  backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful;”

Opponents of contemporary Christian music often point out that the secular rock and pop music industries are dominated by the types of people on that list above. But that doesn’t mean that there is any inherent connection between the music and the immoral activities of those people. The problem is that those people have “debased minds,” as Paul put it, so they can hardly find pleasure outside of immorality. So they personally associated exciting, energetic music with immorality because that is what they’re passionate about. But we who know Christ are not like that. We don’t have to associate energetic music with sinful passions. We know where true joy comes from.

I’m interested to hear your thoughts about different styles of music.