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When I think back on my days at seminary,
one of the things that comes to mind is the interesting
conversations that took place there. From discussions in
classrooms, to conversations in study groups, to conversations
over a cup of coffee somewhere, I remember engaging in lots and
lots of interesting conversations. Along with teaching us the
foundations and basics of Christian faith, another role of
seminary—the professors and administrators there—was to
challenge the beliefs we held dear as we came to seminary.
Clearly one purpose of seminary was to challenge our ability to
state what we believed and, more than that, our ability to
articulate why we believed it. Consequently, lots and lots of
interesting conversations at seminary, many of which come to
mind today as related topics surface.
In reflecting this week on the
subject of judging others and my suggestion today, stated in the
title—“test everything”—one such conversation came to mind. The
general topic was around the charismatic movement—that movement
in churches in the late 60’s and early 70’s and still a hot
topic in the mid-80’s of my seminary days. The specific
conversation began to focus, as it so often does with that
topic, on the issue of speaking in tongues and the
interpretation of tongues. One of my classmates shared her
recent experience at a church in the Austin area where that
practice—someone speaking in tongues and someone else
interpreting it—had taken place. I had had just a few
experiences with that in various settings and I shared about
those experiences. Without belittling the practice, I simply
shared that what I heard in those few experiences was
“interpretations” that were very general and remarkably
similar—a kind of “Thus says the Lord,” followed by general (and
similar) words about “you are my people whom I love and are
called by my name,” etc. Now, by the time that conversation
took place we had completed our courses in the Biblical
languages—Hebrew and Greek. So I went on to say that my
questions about that practice and my experiences witnessing it
made me want to memorize the 23rd Psalm in Hebrew,
attend one of those services, recite the 23rd Psalm
in Hebrew and see what kind of interpretation I got.
Again...not wanting to belittle the experience but having some
questions about it. I thought it was in interesting
proposition. My classmate, however, was shocked. “You can’t do
that,” she said. “Why not?” I replied. “Because that would be
testing the Spirit and we shouldn’t do that.” “Really? Doesn’t
it say somewhere in the Bible to do that very thing, to ‘test
the spirits and see if they are from God?” And, while this
person placed high importance on what Scripture says, she wasn’t
willing to go there in this particular instance. “Well, I still
think that would be wrong,” she said, and we left it at that.
By the way, I never actually
did that. It wasn’t that critical of an issue to me at that
time. But, I still think it’s an interesting proposition.
Different time, different place…maybe!
More relevant for the moment, I
believe, is the challenge to our thinking about judging others.
Are we to judge others at all? Are we to make any judgments
about lifestyles or life philosophies? Clearly, I believe we
are—that’s been a central point in this series(!)—with this even
more important point, that we first take a humbling close look
at ourselves. First that. Always. And then, when judgments
are needed, the standards to apply in those judgments are the
standards of Scripture. And finally for today, the admonition
to test everything. Rather than “anything goes,” it’s
“test everything.” Nothing is exempt from the testing
application of Scripture. Test everything. Trust me on this
one—God can handle it. Christian faith can stand up under the
scrutiny. I believe God wants our questions and our
doubts because He has answers for them. And He knows there are
a lot of whacky philosophies out there, a lot of hurtful
lifestyles being promoted and He wants to protect us from all of
that. So put it to the test. Question it. Study it closely.
Reflect on it. Look at it from a variety of sides and angles.
Place it under the light of microscopic examination. Pray about
it. Test everything. And then make your best informed judgment
as to whether or not it is from God and according to His will.
There are some hindrances to
our effectively testing everything. One is knowing the
standards by which we’re judging something. What is the
baseline by which we’re surveying the merit of some philosophy
or lifestyle? As we suggested last week, the standards come
from Scripture and the teachings of the church about the
Scriptures—that is to say, our creeds and confessions. How well
do you know them? To what extent are you familiar with them in
order to apply them to whatever it is you’re evaluating? In
order to evaluate and eventually make sound judgments about some
philosophy for life, or some religious doctrine, one has to have
a good grasp of the standards one is comparing them to.
Otherwise it is “anything goes.”
I recently finished a biography
of Albert Einstein. I didn’t understand much of it, but I did
find it interesting. Einstein, of course, is one of the more
fascinating figures of the 20th century. One of the
things I learned about Einstein—and found quite interesting—is
that he wasn’t particularly good at the math of physics. To be
sure, he was better at it than most everyone else, but it wasn’t
his particular strength. Most of his theories developed in his
mind and not in a laboratory somewhere. He would observe
something in life, begin to think about it and out of that would
come some great theories. He was a great thinker, arguably the
greatest thinker of our time. But he wasn’t the greatest at
math. Usually he would enlist the aid of a friend or colleague
who was better at the math—someone to check out his theories or
his math work applied to one of his theories. Always
there was the required math work. That was the baseline, the
standard against which all theories had to be tested, even the
theories of Albert Einstein.
Einstein spent
most of the last half of his life trying to develop a unified
field theory. I have no idea what that means, but, according to
the author, Walter Isaacson, it was Einstein’s “white whale
which he pursued not with the demonic drive of Ahab but the
dutiful serenity of Ishmael.” Einstein thought about unified
field theory a lot. And he developed hundreds of theories about
it. But none of them stood the test of the math. Not just any
ol’ theory was adequate—even from the mind of Albert Einstein.
It had to stand up to the examination of the math.
Scripture—and the teachings and
confessions of the Church about Scripture—are the “math” to be
applied to the judgments we must make about the various
philosophies we will be confronted with in life. And our
ability to make good judgments will be directly proportional to
how well we know the standards. Know what you believe and, even
more importantly, why you believe it. Without that we are
ill-equipped to make sound judgments. Consequently, our
knowledge—or lack of it—about the standards of faith can be a
challenging hindrance in making judgments. Know what you
believe and why you believe it. Test...examine...everything.
Then, a second hindrance to our
making proper and appropriate judgments brings us full circle
back to the beginning. The first thing to place under the
microscopic light of examination is ourselves. Too quickly we
test the philosophies of others and leave our own unanalyzed.
Test what you believe. Examine your own actions against the
standards of faith. Always there is that.
Let’s close out this series on
judging others with a quick review. Are we to judge others, to
bring judgments to the various philosophies and lifestyles we
will run into as we reach out to those in our neighborhoods and
community? Yes we are. But always with these important
cautions:
1) Before addressing the speck in your
neighbor’s eye, deal with the plank in your own eye. This was
so important to Jesus that he used hyperbole to make the point.
Deal with the plank in your own eye before worrying about
the speck in your neighbor’s eye. Start in humility
folks. Check your attitude.
2) The standards are not relative (a little
Einstein humor there!), but rather absolute and are found in the
Bible—God’s instruction manual for life. Consult it often and,
always, humbly.
3) Everything is up for examination and
judgment. Nothing is exempt. Someone you respect dishes out
some philosophy for life? Examine it. Somewhere in your life
lies a long held but unexamined aspect of faith? Examine it.
Know not only what you believe, but why you believe it. Test
everything.
4) Always, always, always with love,
gentleness and respect. Hate the sin, love the sinner. Reject
the philosophy, not the philosopher. The goal is not to bring
condemnation, but healing. Your role is not that of condemning
judge, but rather that of healing doctor. Always, always,
always bring the role of healing doctor to any judgments you are
called to make in life. |
