Buhfai Tham

Sometimes you read or hear something that moves you deeply, but you wonder if it’s really true. I guess a lot of us Americans have become skeptical and jaded by the hype of deceptively spun stories. That’s why when I heard the story I am about to share with you, I had to discover for myself first whether something so beautiful and convicting could really be true. Once I knew the facts, I could not keep it to myself and had to pass it along to you.

To quickly familiarize you with the background of the story that touched me so deeply, it concerns a part of northeast India called Mizoram. In 1894 there were two Scottish missionaries that entered the remote, landlocked, hilly and heavily forested area to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The people living there were an animistic people who had no written language and had never heard of the Gospel. So, the two missionaries developed an alphabet for them and translated parts of the Bible into their language in order to tell them the Good News of Jesus Christ. Today, the people they reached are called the “Mizo,” and the language they speak is known by the same name.

From the work of the two missionaries in 1894 there came one Mizo convert to Christianity that year. Not until five years later, in 1899, were the first two converts baptized from the area. But, by the time other missionaries arrived a few years later in the town of Lunglei, they found 125 believers already there. As the missionaries collectively worked together the result was that most of the Mizo people were converted to Christ within 50 years.

Those early missionaries taught their new converts the need to continue the work of proclaiming the Gospel. Even to this day, Mizo missionaries teach new converts about the importance of evangelizing others. In fact, one of the first two converts baptized by those early missionaries, Khuma, became the first Mizo evangelist of that part of India. He was reported to have gone from house to house with this simple invitation: “Come, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Today, Mizo Christians still consider the task of proclaiming the Gospel to the world their own personal responsibility. (That should really be the mindset of all believers in Jesus Christ.) What makes this story so amazing to me, though, is that the Mizo people financially support their OWN missionaries and evangelists from their OWN resources. That’s an amazing detail when you realize the poverty of the people in Mizo and the incredible generosity they model in missions. To get a feel for the true condition of this part of the world, listen to the words of Rev. Zosangliana Colney, leader of the Mizoram Presbyterian Church. He says that, "Mizoram state is the most backward state in India. And we are the poorest of the poor, but still we can raise funds for the ministry of the Lord." Just so you know, the average income of a person in Mizo is $300 per year, less than one dollar per day.

How is it possible that people of such meager means and simple living conditions could ever raise support for the cause of missions? The answer is found in a beautiful phrase that when I first heard it and understood what it meant, moved me deeply in my spirit. It is—"Buhfai Tham." Please, don’t forget that phrase! Even though it means nothing to you at this moment, you’ll soon understand why it is so important.

“Buhfai Tham” simply means a "handful of rice." However, this simple phrase explains the generosity of the Mizo people and their commitment to the cause of missions. Because rice is the main staple of their daily meals, families in the churches of Mizo set aside a “handful of rice” at every meal. When each family collects enough rice they donate it to their local church, which in turn sells it at the market to generate income. In this way they are able to financially support the cause of missions and the spread of the Gospel.

In 1914 when they first began this way of giving to missions they received from the sale of the rice the equivalent of $1.50 in U.S. currency. By the calendar year 2010, they were collecting and selling enough rice to raise the equivalent of $1.5 million dollars and were supporting 1,800 missionaries with their “handfuls of rice.”

In addition, over the years since the “Buhfai Tham” offering was first introduced, the people continued giving creatively by bringing not just rice but portions of their home grown vegetables, firewood, and other resources (all in addition to the tithes they give to their churches). These, too, are sold at the market to further the spread of the Gospel and the planting of churches in India and beyond.

In other words, the task of proclaiming the Gospel became such a central part of the Mizo people’s identity that they were willing to make sacrifices to advance the Gospel in spite of their own poverty. They heard the missionary call in the Great Commission and accepted it as their own personal calling from God. Let me remind you again, even today this area is among the poorest places on the face of the earth. That’s what makes this story so amazingly miraculous and beautiful to me. It also makes it extremely convicting, as well!

One of the leaders in the church in Mizoram said, “There are many ways of serving the Lord. Some people do great things. Some people are great preachers. Some people contribute lots and lots of money. But when we talk about this 'handful of rice,' it is very humble. The service is done in the corner of the kitchen where nobody sees, but God knows and he blesses it.”

A church member involved in the “Buhfai Tham” offerings said, "It is not our richness or our poverty that make us serve the Lord, but our willingness. So we Mizo people say, 'As long as we have something to eat every day, we have something to give to God every day.'"

WOW! What a testimony of commitment to Jesus Christ and the mission He left to His church.

Conversely, we live in the most prosperous nation on the face of the earth! We think nothing of dropping $50 to $100 for an evening with the family at a nice local restaurant, a ballgame or a movie. The fact is, we have more money invested in one or two of our electronic gadgets than many of the people in Mizo will make in income in five, ten or more years. We sometimes spend exorbitant amounts chasing our kids and grandkids from place to place for various “important” events, but too often we can’t find any money to give to the primary cause God left us on earth to accomplish.

When thinking about the “willingness” of the Mizo people to give a “handful of rice,” I think we’d all have to agree that many of us spend way too much time and resources trying to impress people we hardly know with things we don’t really need for reasons we don’t even understand. I mean, if you lived in Mizo today you’d be grateful for a roof over your head, clothes on your back, the rice you had in your storage containers, and you’d be giving a portion of that away to help others hear about Jesus.

How is it that people who have virtually nothing can demonstrate such generosity in advancing the Gospel when those of us who live in the “land of plenty” can’t seem to eek out even a little for the cause most dear to the heart of God? Could it be that we really don’t believe that Jesus is the only way to Heaven and consequently don’t think it’s important to get the message to the ends of the earth? Or, might it be that we have become so self-absorbed that the only people we think about are ourselves? Maybe we just don’t think Jesus meant what He said to us when He left the command to make disciples of all the nations of the earth (Matthew 28:19-20).

I actually don’t know the reason so many Christians give so little to the cause of world missions, but I know for me and my house we will sacrifice for what Jesus called His church to accomplish: The Great Commission! My heart has been stirred to action by the people of Mizo and their “Buhfai Tham” offerings. How about you? Would you take a “handful of your resources” and give them back to God to help our church take the Gospel to places like Mizoram?

Resurrection Hope

A father and son were traveling down a country road one afternoon in the springtime when a bee suddenly flew into the car window. Being deathly allergic to bee stings, the boy began to panic as the bee buzzed all around the inside of the car. Seeing the horror on his child’s face, the father reached out and caught the bee in his hand. Soon, he opened his hand and the bee began to buzz around again. The boy went back into panic mode. It was then that the father reached over to his son, and opened his hand showing him the stinger still in his palm. “Relax, son,” the father said, “I took the sting, the bee can’t hurt you anymore.”

That story makes me think of the blessed promise God has given to us all through His Son, Jesus Christ. He assures us that “death” cannot hurt us anymore because He has taken the “sting” out of it for us. Listen to how the Holy Spirit worded this truth through the Apostle Paul, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” (1 Corinthians 15:55-57 NET)

Over my nearly forty years of pastoral ministry I have been called to help on many occasions when families were in crisis because a loved one was critically ill and very near death. Even after all these years of experiencing these things with heartbroken families, it has never gotten easier for me. The pain that comes from the death of someone’s family member still feels like it did the first time I was called as a new pastor to tell a man his wife had passed away tragically one night while he was at work. I still choke back tears when I see the pain in the faces of the ones who are saying “goodbye” to their dearest on earth. Truthfully, I long for the day when death will be no more and it will be totally “destroyed” so it can never touch the lives of any person ever again.

If you stop and think about it, it really shouldn’t be a wonder to any of us why we celebrate weekly the remembrance of Christ’s sacrifice and the reality of His resurrection. It is our hope (cf. 1 Cor. 15:19) and our help! These momentous works of Christ (His death, burial and resurrection) assure us that our family members are not gone forever. We are sustained by these truths, knowing that we will one day meet on Heaven’s shore in the land where we will never be subject to sin or death again. This Good News we call the Gospel helps us know by faith what God has prepared for all His children. It reminds us that though the unpleasantness of death has visited our family, the grave will not hold our loved ones for long. Why? Because Jesus conquered the grave, and so will the bodies of our deceased family members at Christ’s coming! I cannot imagine what it would be like to face death without the strength and hope that comes through our Savior Who gave His life for us so that we might live with Him eternally.

On many occasions through these years I’ve told grieving and hurting families something that I heard when I was a young minister: “We don’t live by explanations. We live by promises!” If you’ve been through a crisis at any time in your life I think you can probably identify with the sentiment of those two statements. The truth is, there are many things in this life we will never understand and we will never be able to explain. The death of a loved one is one of those conundrums that shakes us to the very core of our being. Why did he/she have to die so soon? Why did the disease progress so quickly when others lived for many years with the same illness? What could possibly be the purpose of a person so young being taken when he/she had so much life before them? Why, when we prayed so diligently for our loved one to be healed, did it not happen? Why couldn’t God have called our loved one home after I arrived to be with him/her rather than just before I got there? The questions of this nature could go on ad infinitum! There are just so many things we can’t understand because our perspective is so terribly limited by our humanity.

What we have to do during our moments of crisis while we are living in the “land of the dying” is hold onto the promises of God that sustain us when explanations aren’t enough or not forthcoming. Because of the death and resurrection of Jesus we have the promise that our loved ones are with Him immediately after their deaths! We have the promise that the grave cannot hold their bodies when Christ comes the second time! We have the promise of a future glorified body like His resurrected one! We have the promise of understanding God’s perfect will in matters that confuse us now! We have the promise of a future reunion when we’ll never have to say “goodbye” to our loved ones again! We have the promise that our family member will never be touched by the cruel and sometimes evil things that exist in this world! We have the promise of His sustaining grace to help us until we meet again on that “heavenly shore!”

Do you see the difference between the two previous paragraphs: the one filled with “question marks” and the other with “exclamation points?” If you didn’t already sense the difference, let me explain to you the contrast between them. Dwelling on questions serves only to deepen our pain, while focusing on promises brings us peace in the midst of our turmoil. And, if it were not for the death and resurrection of Jesus there would be no promises to hold onto in the times of crisis...or any other time for that matter!

Occasionally I’ll hear a person tell me that he or she is an atheist. Upon hearing those words I immediately feel sorrow for them because they have no promises on which to lean or to steady themselves when the earth is shaking beneath their feet. They have no hope of gathering on Heaven’s peaceful shore where happy reunions occur. They have no promise of explanations for things that will never be understood in this life. To the “unbelievers,” life seems to be little more than a matter of happenstance or fate. There is no eternal comfort you can offer them or help that can be rendered through God’s promises. Their lives are one big gamble and for them it’s just “bad luck” that things turned out the way they did...or so they think.

Thank God that we as followers of Jesus don’t have to live that way! We know the cross of Christ is God’s way of paying the penalty for our sins. And the empty tomb? Well, that’s God’s way of saying to us; “Relax, dear son or daughter, I took the sting of death for you and it can’t hurt you anymore.”

Discipleship to Christ

"The heart of true discipleship is a settled intent to become like Jesus. A disciple is like the man who in his joy went and sold all he had in order to buy the field with the great treasure (Matthew 13:44). Disciples gladly rearrange everything in their lives around Jesus because of a firm persuasion that He is everything they want." --Del Fehsenfeld III

The greatest pursuit in life is the pursuit of Jesus' mastery of our lives! It's not that we are pursuing Him in HOPES of "being saved." It is that we are pursuing Him BECAUSE we "are saved" and desire that our lives be lived under His mastery. The less we understand about what Christ has done for us, the less we desire Him to be Lord over every part of our lives.

Discipleship to Christ is not about "addition" (adding Christ to our lives to escape Hell), but "submission" to Him (yielding every part of ourselves to Him). It might even be possible to say it's an "addiction" to Jesus! All we want is for Him to be pleased and glorified through every part of our lives. Disciples "rearrange" every aspect of their lives around HIM, HIS priorities and HIS purposes!

Making the Commission Great Again!

Some time ago I read a provocative quote about cross-cultural missions that piqued my curiosity and got me to reading the author's words more carefully. He wrote, “Churches who continuously indoctrinate their people with ‘your mission field is right where you are’ without simultaneously challenging the congregation to follow Christ into cross-cultural missionary service are effectively splashing an ice-bucket challenge on the global, ethnē-centered words of the Great Commission.”  

To be honest, my first reaction to these words was negative, and I almost put them aside without any further consideration. The reason I felt this way is because I didn’t read carefully enough his entire statement at first. So, just in case you are about to put away this article before finishing it, let me note that the author of this quote did not deny the necessity of teaching people that the “mission field is right where you are.” What he said is that if we do this without ALSO challenging people “to follow Christ into cross-cultural missionary service” we are “splashing an ice-bucket challenge on the global, ethnē-centered words of the Great Commission.”

What he is trying to help us realize is that the Great Commission is not an either/or proposition when it comes to evangelizing our world. He’s not asking us to forget the mission field where we live. He’s asking us to remember that it’s not the ONLY mission field that needs to be evangelized with the Gospel. He wants us to understand that our responsibility as Christ’s witnesses is both in our own neighborhood (“Jerusalem”), as well as to the “ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8)...and all parts in between.

I think when we say, “Your mission field is right next door” and/or “across the street,” we are saying it with the best of intentions in a sincere effort to motivate people. We want them to see the potential harvest of lost souls that are all around them (at least, that’s my motivation); and let’s be honest, too often we haven’t done a very good job at reaching those within our own sphere of influence. However, the danger in primarily making the mission field about “wherever you happen to be right now” is the potentially crippling effect it can have on the church fulfilling the global call of the Great Commission. Just from my observation as a pastor for more than 30 years, I think we in the American church are dangerously close to turning a worldwide message of hope into a truncated, provincial one.  

God’s mission is not just about our present location at this particular moment. It is also about showing the love of Christ through the preaching of the Gospel to every man, woman, boy and girl wherever they may be found on this planet.The responsibility for taking this message to all those people in our own community and the farthest reaches of the earth is that of the church (you and me). We should even be willing to make ourselves available to be that cross-cultural missionary if God so chooses to call us to that specific task. Even if He doesn’t ask us to leave our place of birth to head to a distant land, it is still our responsibility to help others go that have been called by partnering with them to make the global reach of the Gospel a possibility.

In the early days of the New Testament church, the new believers all wanted to stay around Jerusalem. Jesus intervened and broadened their geographic perspective and enabled them to see that the Gospel had to be carried to “Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Yes, it started where they were, but it didn’t end there! They were to be involved both in the process of making disciples at home and abroad as part of the Great Commission of Christ.

I think we have to be careful when talking about Christ’s commission that we don’t stamp out the “burning embers” in local churches for the cause of worldwide missions. Sure, you can “serve Christ anywhere,” “there are lots of people right here that need the Gospel,” and “moving overseas doesn't necessarily make you a missionary.” However, we have to balance our appeal for local outreach with the regular reminder about the global outreach of the Gospel so that we don’t inadvertently dismiss the clarion call given to the church to make disciples among all the nations of the earth (Matthew 28:19-20; Mark 16:15).

The fact is that where we cannot go cross-culturally to take Christ’s love, we have to be willing to help those that can go in our stead! We should even encourage our children and grandchildren to make themselves available as God’s instruments to carry His glorious Good News to those that have never heard of Christ and “sit in darkness” (Luke 1:79). Making disciples of Christ from every ethnic group of people throughout the whole world has always been and still is the work of the church!

As we celebrate the work of cross-cultural missions during the month of September, we should make our best effort to hear from the missionary guests each Sunday evening of the month. We need to be reminded that while we are seeking to reach out through our own networks of people God has placed around us, there is a great need for the Gospel where people have little or no opportunity to network with anyone that can bring them the Gospel. Think about that for a moment and then put yourself in their place!

Throughout these coming weeks, we should also be seeking and asking God to show us how we can financially partner with our missionaries through our Faith-Promise missions program to enable our church to continue reaching to the “ends of the earth” with the only message that can truly change people’s lives. Faith-Promise giving has always been the primary way we support cross-cultural ministry and church planting. God has blessed our church through our missionary endeavors, as well as those that have given to missions through our church.

It’s time to make the commission (Matthew 28:19-20) great again in our church, and in each of our lives. It’s time we reached out to those around us while reaching out to others in distant lands...at the same time.

The Importance of the Local Church

Acts 20:6-11

A Biblical Definition: A local church is a group of baptized believers who are committed to meeting together each week under the guidance of scripturally appointed leaders to worship God through Jesus Christ, to be exhorted from the Word of God, to observe the Lord's Supper, and to build up one another, who then "scatter" from the assembly to spread the Gospel to their families, neighborhoods, cities and the nations.

The following points are necessary for a group to be considered a church:

1. People must give evidence that they are believers—that they trust Jesus Christ as Savior. The New Testament makes it clear that we are adopted into the family of God through faith (John 1:12, 13). The early church knows nothing of an unregenerate membership (Acts 2:41).
2. Believers must be baptized in obedience to Christ to become members of the local church. The prescribed method of making disciples in Matthew 28:19 is, "baptizing…and teaching them."
3. Believers must regularly assemble  in community where they have committed themselves to one another and to the mission of God through their assembly. People meeting occasionally cannot rightly be called a local church because there are essential activities of the church which lose their meaning when not done corporately. Therefore, Hebrews 10:25 commands us not to neglect to meet together.
4. Central to the gatherings of a local church is the matter of worship: singing, praying, serving, preaching, etc. The church is destined to live to the praise of God's glory (Ephesians 1:6, 12, 14); Therefore, it would contradict our new spiritual nature not to assemble to…worship (Acts 2:47; Romans 15:6, 7).
5. Church gatherings must include exhortation from the Word of God. We were born again through the living and abiding Word of God (1 Peter 1:23); and our life in Christ is preserved not by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). Pastors are  the provision God has made for feeding his sheep (2 Timothy 4:2; 1 Peter 5:2). A local church always strives to teach and preach the Word of God faithfully in its gatherings.
6. In conjunction with worship and exhortation from scripture, a gathering of believers must also celebrate the Lord's Supper in order to be the church. We are commanded to do this "in remembrance" of Christ (Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:24). Baptism and communion are the two divinely prescribed ordinances given by Christ to the church.
7. As part of regular gatherings believers are commanded to encourage, strengthen, edify and serve one another within the body of Christ. The purpose of our gifting by Christ (1 Corinthians 12:4-6; Romans 12:6) is that we might minister to "one another" within the church (1 Peter 4:10). The local church is not a place where we tolerate one another while we sit in rows trying to avoid as much contact with other members as possible. It is a place where we build authentic and transparent relationships with other members of God's family so we can better share with them the love of Christ and fellowship with each other.
8. There must be commitment to the mission of God as it is defined in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20)  and the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:37-40). The church does not exist solely for its own benefit, but to be a representative of Christ in this world bringing the saving knowledge of Christ to others. As people leave the assembly they are to embark on the mission to be witnesses of Christ through all their networks of friends, family, co-workers and neighbors. They are committed as a member of the local church to bring  the sweet fragrance of Christ's love and forgiveness to as many people as possible so that they might join them in giving glory to God in His church and in daily life.
9. Finally, all of these things must take place with the guidance of duly appointed leaders. Paul appointed elders/pastors in all the churches (Acts 14:23), he gave instruction about the qualifications of deacons and elders/pastors in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, and he said that Christ had given pastor-teachers to the church to equip the saints for ministry (Ephesians 4:1, 12). These gifted men must be present in the gathering in order for it to be considered a church…something historic Christianity (in addition to scripture) has always affirmed.

From this we can see that the Bible does not define the church as a free-flowing, self-directed spiritual experience determined and guided by individual Christians acting independently of others.

The New Testament references to the local church are always about specific groups of people in specific ministry locations who are organized, rooted and committed to serving the Lord and one another in order to bring glory to God.

Within the structure of the early New Testament church were things like oversight and care from ordained officers (pastors/deacons), participation in baptism and the Lord’s supper, weekly Lord’s Day gatherings with the public reading and preaching of Scripture (1 Timothy 4:13), singing, prayers, mutual care among members, generous giving, members serving the body of Christ through their giftedness (1 Peter 4:10), discipline, loving deeds of mercy and justice, etc., etc.

Evidence for this kind of orderly community is found in the fact that the number of believers was known (Acts 1:15, 2:41, 4:4), rolls were kept (1 Timothy 5:9), servants were selected (Acts 6:2-5), discipline was practiced (1 Corinthians 5:12-13), worship was corporate (1 Corinthians 14:23), and pastors/shepherds knew for whom they were responsible (Hebrews 13:17).

Mark Dever, in his book Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, writes, "Church membership is our opportunity to grasp hold of each other in responsibility and love. By identifying ourselves with a particular church, we let the pastors and other members of that local church know that we intend to be committed in attendance, giving, prayer, and service. We allow fellow believers to have great expectations of us in these areas, and we make it known that we are the responsibility of this local church. We assure the church of our commitment to Christ in serving with them, and we call for their commitment to serve and encourage as well."

In a similar fashion to the way the Bible establishes the government to oversee our citizenship to the nation, it establishes the local church to oversee our discipleship to Christ. Therefore, you cannot grow to your fullest potential in Christ apart from a community of believers in a local church.

John Piper observes that, "In the New Testament to be excluded from the local church was to be excluded from Christ." That’s how important the local church was to believers and how important it should be to us.

From these facts, we can conclude that the work of the church is not about individually tailored services, self-fulfillment, self-actualization, or some grandiose social project. The church is called to prepare people for eternity!

Many people talk about wanting a God-centered church so long as God is man-centered or me-centered. The church isn't to be a gathering of consumer-oriented believers looking to have their own needs met first. It's to be a gathering of crucified saints selflessly looking to put the needs of others before their own (Romans 12:10; Philippians 2:3). When we make the choice to attend church primarily on the basis of whether or not it will benefit us personally, while giving little or no thought to how we might bless others by being present, we lack a fundamental understanding of what it means to share life together in community.

The gathering of believers is to be the place where we can love one another (1 John 4:12), encourage one another (Hebrews 3:13), “spur” one another to love and good works (Hebrews 10:24), serve one another (Galatians 5:13), instruct one another (Romans 15:14), honor one another (Romans 12:10), and be kind and compassionate to one another (Ephesians 4:32), along with the many additional "one another" instructions in the New Testament.

In the process of belonging to a local church, it's important that we remember that it is made up of imperfect, flawed and deeply broken people, all in need of God's healing truth and power. In Love in Hard Places, D.A. Carson suggests that ideally the church is not comprised of natural “friends” but rather “natural enemies.”

"What binds us together is not common education, common race, common income levels, common politics, common nationality, common accents, common jobs, or anything of the sort. Christians come together, not because they form a natural collocation, but because they have been saved by Jesus Christ and owe him a common allegiance. In the light of this common allegiance, in light of the fact that they have all been loved by Jesus himself, they commit themselves to doing what he says – and he commands them to love one another. In this light, they are a band of natural enemies who love one another for Jesus’ sake."

Being a local church means fighting against homogeneity (e.g., reaching one target audience alone) and cultivating diversity as much as possible, even if this makes people feel uncomfortable.

• It means prioritizing the values of church membership and tithing, even if it turns people off.
• It means volunteering to serve so that every member has an active part within the local church.
• It means sticking around even when the church goes through peaks and valleys.
• It means building a tight-knit community but not an insular one, engaging the community and sending out members on mission with Christ to spread the Good News.
• It means bearing with one another in non-essential matters, but not shying away from discipline when a member drifts from the essential matters of the faith.
• It means preaching the truth with love, even when the culture around us disapproves of what the scripture teaches.

Again, there are no perfect churches, but the scriptural evidence shows that Paul didn't give up on the imperfect ones. The church at Corinth is a prime example of his vision for seeing a broken church returned to the beauty God intended. What had basically become a band of misfits Paul envisioned becoming  again the radiant bride for the coming Christ (Ephesians 5:25-32). From the evidence in the epistles written to them, we learn that they were a dysfunctional mess with factions, harshness, divisions, adultery, lawsuits, divorce, elitism, classism, and neglect of the poor, to name just some of their issues. The famous chapter on "love" (1 Corinthians 13) was actually written less as inspiration and more as a rebuke, because each “love” attribute was something the Corinthians desperately needed to practice. Because of their carnality they had trampled on the ideal of what God intended the church to be—an infectious community of prayer, truth, love, and mission (Acts 2:42-47).

Sadly, many people are increasingly becoming unfaithful to the local church…Christ's bride. Statistics show that a person who was faithful to church two or three decades ago attended three times a week: Sunday morning, Sunday evening and a mid-week service.  Now statistics tell us that a person is considered faithful if he/she attends a worship service three times a month.  Think of the damage that does to the overall cause of the body of Christ in ministering to the sacred community of believers, as well as in fulfilling the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20).

The fact is, people are religious by nature, but many people are choosing to be religious about things other than God's church. Too many Christians have taken up marathons, triathlons, cycling, boating, fishing, etc., in  place of church life and the mission of God. They are faithful to their tee times and always honor their commitments to ball games, amusements, recreation and travel, but the local church service is only a distant afterthought.

These types of things and many more like them have become the new religion of many believers. So let me ask, how much money do you spend on your favorite hobby? How many services do you miss from the gatherings of believers each week or month, when you are not providentially hindered (work, illness, etc.)? We're all investing our lives in something because we are all basically religious people by divine design. The only question is whether or not we are investing properly in the place God commands…the local church (Hebrews 10:24-25).

Countercultural Christianity

1 John 1:8-10

Jennifer Knapp was a contemporary Christian music artist who had been away from the music scene for several years when she did an interview about her self-imposed hiatus and her new album she had just recorded at the time. During the discussion with the host of the program she made a statement that I think many Evangelical Christians probably believe, but really needs some countercultural biblical analysis.

In the interview she discussed her long-term relationship with her lesbian partner. Though she didn’t share any identifying details about the other woman, what caught my attention during her interview was how she sought to justify her behavior. While answering a question posed to her about her homosexuality, she stated that if her conduct was sinful (and she believed it was not), that it should not be viewed as any worse than any other sins. From her perspective, things such as being overweight, speeding, gossipping, etc., would all be equally wrong before God because “all sins are equal with God.”

This same general argument was used recently by the well-known country singer Dolly Parton in an interview she did with Billboard. She was asked this question, “Dollywood attracts lots of church groups, but it has also become a draw for the LGBT community. What does that say about you?” She replied, “It’s a place for entertainment, a place for all families, period...But as far as the Christians, if people want to pass judgment, they’re already sinning. The sin of judging is just as bad as any other sin they might say somebody else is committing...”

Is it really true that “all sins are equal with God" and that "judging is just as bad as any other sin?”

Please understand that my purpose in this discussion is not to excuse any sin or to make less of any offense against a holy God. However, if the above assumptions are true, then shouldn't we be teaching our children that disobeying parental instructions is just as bad as killing a friend? Going one mile over the speed limit is just as bad as taking illegal drugs? And, overeating is just as heinous as an Islamic terrorist blowing up innocent people?

I think most would agree that at least in practical/temporal terms we don’t view all sin as being equal. Even in the criminal justice system there are varying degrees of penalties for varying levels of offenses. Is it really true that God’s system of justice makes no distinctions in the sins we commit?

The “all sins are equal” mantra is one that I think has arisen partly because people want to excuse their sins and shift the focus away from themselves. However, it is also the result of the misinterpretation (and/or intentional misuse) of some key scripture passages.

For instance, Matthew 5:27-28 says, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” At first glance it appears that the text treats lust and the act of adultery equally, but is that what we should take away from the passage? Practically speaking, there is a difference in degree of violation between lusting after someone and committing the act of adultery. I know from many years of dealing with people that the act of adultery usually results in far worse consequences than lust alone (though lust can certainly lead to adultery). Then what does this passage mean, if the two sins are not “equal before God?”

It is not that lust and adultery are equal in degree of violation, but that they are both violations of the same commandment (the seventh commandment). In a similar fashion, hatred is not equal in degree of violation to murder (Matthew 5:21-22; 1 John 3:15), but both are violations of the sixth commandment. Any violation, whether of the “letter of the law” (acts of adultery/murder) or the “spirit of the law” (lust/hatred), makes you guilty before God. In other words, all sins are equally against God, but not all sins are equal in the degree of violation and/or consequences.

Even in 1 John 3:15 where John speaks unambiguously about the sin of hatred, I think we have to assume there is still some distinction to be made in degree of violation between hatred and murder. While both belong to the same sphere of “death,” they are not equal in harm caused. Prolific author, Warren Wiersbe, says it well, “This does not mean, of course, that hatred in the heart does the same amount of damage, or involves the same degree of guilt, as actual murder. Your neighbor would rather you hate him than kill him! But in God’s sight, hatred is the moral equivalent of murder, and if left unbridled it leads to murder.” (Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible Exposition Commentary (1 Jn 3:13). Wheaton, III.: Victor Books.) I think many can agree that hatred is the “moral equivalent” of murder in God’s sight, but we certainly wouldn’t punish it to the same degree that we would murder. If this is true then it stands to reason that the two sins are not equal in every way, though they are both violations of God’s law and deserving of punishment.

A similar line of thinking is followed in James 2:10, “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.” James is teaching that no matter how small the violation of God’s law may seem to you, it still makes the person guilty before God. God’s law is viewed as a unit and any violation makes the person a sinner.

Bible scholar and commentator John MacArthur writes, “Although all sins are not equally damaging or heinous, they all shatter that unity [of the law] and render men transgressors, much like hitting a window with a hammer at only one point will shatter and destroy the whole window.” (MacArthur, J. J. (1997, c1997). The MacArthur Study Bible (electronic ed.) (Jas 2:10). Nashville: Word Pub.) He further comments that being “guilty of all” is not to be understood “in the sense of having violated every command, but in the sense of having violated the law’s unity. One transgression makes fulfilling the law’s most basic commands—to love God perfectly and to love one’s neighbor as oneself—impossible.” A similar thought is conveyed by author T.D. Lea, “The Bible does not say all sins are equal. Stealing a candy bar is not the same as committing adultery. Thinking about murder is not as bad as committing the act. Every sin does bring guilt. It takes only a single sin to make a person a sinner. No act of obedience can compensate for acts of disobedience.” (Lea, T. D. (1999). Vol. 10: Hebrews, James. Holman New Testament Commentary; Holman Reference (284). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers)

What I’m trying to demonstrate is that you cannot necessarily argue that “all sin is equal with God.” It’s not really accurate to say that going one mile over the speed limit is equally as egregious as committing a murder. Both are sins against God and deserving of punishment, but they certainly don’t result in the same degree of “damage,” “guilt,” and/or punishment.

Even more telling for this discussion is the fact that numerous scriptures indicate that not “all sins are equal with God.” The following texts are hard to explain, if they are teaching the “all sins are equal” doctrine.

1. When Christ was before Pilate He said that Israel had committed a worse sin by rejecting Him. “Jesus answered, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.” (John 19:11...emphasis mine)
2. Sins in the Old Testament were not all punished to the same degree. Under the Mosaic law, a thief paid restitution; an occult practitioner was cut off from Israel; one who committed adultery or a homosexual act was put to death (cf., Exodus 22 & Leviticus 20).
3. Some sins in the Old Testament were labeled as abominations to God, which meant they were especially damaging violations (e.g. Leviticus 18:22; Deuteronomy 7:25; 23:18; Isaiah 41:24, etc.).
4. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai and saw the people worshipping a “golden calf,” he said they had sinned a “great sin.” (Exodus 32:30) If all sins are equal, then there are no “great” sins.
5. Solomon listed seven specific sins that he said were notably egregious to God (Proverbs 6:16-19).
6. God spoke through the prophet Ezekiel to Samaria and Jerusalem to indicate that though Samaria’s sins were appalling, Jerusalem was “more corrupt” (Ezekiel 23:11), indicating that some sins bring greater guilt and result in greater damage.
7. Jesus said that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit was more consequential than blasphemy against the Father or Himself (Matthew 12:31).
8. The scriptures seem to indicate that there will be varying degrees of punishment in Hell, reflecting the severity of the offenses committed (Luke 12:47-48).
9. At times Christ distinguished the sins of the Pharisees as greater than the sins of others. For instance, He said that they would strain out a gnat while swallowing a camel (Matthew 23:24). He also said they would receive “greater condemnation” (Luke 20:46-47). To me, that is a statement that makes no sense, if all sins are equal with God.
10. If all sins are equal then it seems difficult to understand how there can be parts of the law that are “weightier” (Matthew 23:23) than other parts. If all sins are equal with God then all parts of the law should be equal in weight.
11. God classifies unforgiveness as an especially offensive sin, elevating it above other sins in some passages (Matthew 6:14-15; 18:23-35).
12. Paul says that immorality is a worse sin than others because it is “against” the body while other sins are “outside the body” (1 Corinthians 6:18).
13. Jesus rebuked some of the cities where He had done His mighty works and warned them that it would be “more tolerable for the land of Sodom” (Matthew 10:15; 11:24) than for them. Certainly this implies that some sins are worse than others, if for no other reason than the fact that greater opportunities result in greater culpability.
14. Jesus said that before you can help your brother remove the speck from his eye, you first have to remove the mote from your own eye (Matthew 7:3). Christ is making some kind of distinction between two sins of varying degree.
15. If all sins are equal then why does the author of Hebrews ask, “Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10:29...emphasis mine). Clearly, the writer believes some sins deserve “worse punishment” than others.
16. Peter indicates that at least a greater knowledge of spiritual things affects the severity of a person’s sins. “For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.” (2 Peter 2:20-21...emphasis mine).
17. John the apostle distinguished between sins that didn’t lead to death and “sin” that brought death without remedy. (1 John 5:16-17).

It’s impossible in light of the aforementioned scriptures to argue, as Jennifer Knapp, Dolly Parton and so many others do, that “all sins are equal to God.” We at least have to acknowledge that there are varying degrees of offenses, as well as consequences, that result.

Actually, telling people that “all sins are equal to God” not only undermines their understanding of the seriousness of certain sins, it also diminishes their understanding of the character of God. God is just and justice itself would seem to indicate that not “all sins are equal.”

Having said that, I also agree with Dr. Billy Graham when he said, “It is always difficult and dangerous to attempt to list sins according to their degree of seriousness. In one sense, all sins are equal in that they all separate us from God...At the same time, it seems obvious that some sins are worse than others in both motivation and effects, and should be judged accordingly. Stealing a loaf of bread is vastly different than exterminating a million people…”

I don’t want anyone to think that I am trying to categorize sins so that we might excuse some of them while decrying the evil of others. That was the error some first-century Rabbis made. Neither am I in agreement with the Catholic doctrine that distinguishes between venial sins (those that do not separate you from God) and mortal sins (those that separate you from God). The Bible teaches that all sin is against God and offensive to Him. Any sin, no matter its degree of violation, separates the sinner from God. And, all sin is deserving of God’s divine wrath. That’s why Jesus had to come. There are none of us that are guiltless before God (Romans 3:23) and only the sinless One, Jesus Christ, could pay our sin penalty.

Stop following the cultural mantra that “all sins are equal to God.” The fact is, some sins are clearly worse than other sins and we should be willing to acknowledge that truth. However, don’t make the mistake of thinking that your sins aren’t that bad and surely God will “overlook” them, either. “Sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4) and all sin results in separation from God (Romans 6:23).

We need to learn how to think biblically, which will almost always be countercultural thinking. Listen carefully to what people are saying and find out what the scripture says before you begin quoting them. All sins are not equal, though all sins separate a person from God.

Application:

1. Don’t let yourself forget the price Jesus paid for our sins to remove our guilt and claim us as His own.
2. Don’t let yourself excuse sin in your own life, but deal with it in repentance and confession quickly  (1 John 1:9; Proverbs 28:13).
3. Don’t let yourself be silenced by those looking to equalize all sins in order to shift the focus from their own sin.