The Devouring Dance
I have found that a getting older does not necessarily equate into maturity and experience does not necessarily equate in learning, but one must be intentional and humble to truly learn and mature. It was not long ago that I was in my twenties and although I was aware I had much to learn I acted as though I had most things figured out. God had a great work of humility in store for me that He has begun working on over the past few years. One of the things I struggled with as I look back now seems to be a much larger problem facing Christians today, and as we see in Galatians 5, we have faced since the days of Paul in the first century.
Gal. 5:13-17 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
Too much of my twenties were spent with me biting (either verbally or in my mind) at other followers of Jesus because of how they said or did things different than I. At times I would notice and address actual sin in the lives of others or ways people might be choosing other than God’s desire, be it intentionally or unintentionally. However, too often my thoughts, judgments, and/or verbal jabs were centered more on how someone went about or wanted to do something different than how I would have. My focus was not a matter of another’s sin that should be dealt with but about styles, personalities, or decisions that were theirs to make and not mine. What I have found is in many of these situations, as I look back it has caused some sort of devouring of the relationship even when my thoughts were never shared.
One of my focuses for this new year is to not to focus my attention on how others go about doing the things that they do and decisions they make (which many times results in criticism, judgment, and looking down upon on my part). Now if something is sinful, or another has given you a role in regard to accountability or counsel, or a decision is not theirs to make that is clearly a different situation. It is the job of a follower of Jesus to be truthful about sin and it is important for people to not be robbed of opportunities to make their own choices and grow through them. Now I do not only want to go half way and simply avoiding those things that are not profitable. I also desire to replace that with speaking truth in areas that God has given me the opportunity to speak into, seek to encourage others, and mend wounds that I know of that have been caused by my biting.
What is tremendously sad to me is that I am fully aware that I am not just one odd duck, it is almost like at times the church can produce these type of ugly ducklings of which I have been guilty. The real scary part is what happens when we look at what is being lost as result of our petty, arrogant, and many times ignorant words and deeds in regard to biting and wounding each other. What if Christians took all the time they spend complaining about, arguing about, judging, and consequently hurting (devouring) each other and instead focused it on what is true and right? Let me be clear, I know maybe the majority of this type of biting comes through a situation where good intentions have gone off course in some way. Many times it is a result of someone believing that they can live in this type of grey area in ministering to others or decision-making, but what they do not realize is there is no grey and their good intentions have been pushing forward darkness. Other times it is based on assumptions of what others are doing or saying and our assumptions about their intentions. Other times it is a result of wanting to see better occur and allowing our pride to get in the way so that we think we have the right to tell others what decisions they should make although we were never entrusted with the responsibility to make those decisions (and most the time don’t know half of the details involved either). Other times it is purely stylistic, personality driven, or expecting others to have learned from experiences that they have yet to have.
So what if we were to stop biting at each other for those types of things and save accountability for sin issues? Would we instead focus our attention on telling those who are not following Jesus about sin, grace, repentance, and the gift of God? Would we focus our attention on encouraging all that is good and true in each other instead of finding faults? Would we focus our energies in serving our communities? Would we fix our eyes on all the lies that our destroying our communities and extend grace and direct others toward truth? Would we instead see those whom, although good intentioned, are embracing the lie of the grey and not able to see they are in fact battling for the dark and help them redirect their good intentions to battle for the light? Would we instead better allow people to see Jesus because we are united in what matters because we have stopped bickering about all the things that do not?
Maybe these are just the confusing ramblings of a guy growing up a bit, but just maybe God desires you to walk more in the spirit and less in the flesh just as I know He desires for me. One thing I do know from this passage, it is not from God when we bite or beat up each other for things that are not clearly opposed to God’s desire. We would each be doing better before we let our thoughts, words, or actions be taken captive by our flesh to ask, “Is this really a Spirit matter? Is this clearly opposed to scripture in some way? Are my thoughts, words, or actions truly going to be devouring (tearing apart) or lifting up and encouraging?”. We are all journeying through this crazy adventure of life, let’s keep our focus and attention on what really matters and not get distracted and tripped up on all that does not. Trust me from my own real life experiences; choosing God’s way always turns out better. Choosing to show you are right, better, fix it, etc. is just not worth it in the end.
