Doing the Right Things, the Right Way
Pastor Dave Monreal, Lead Pastor
“The nature of sin is not immorality and wrongdoing, but the nature of self-realization which leads us to say, “I am my own god.” This nature may exhibit itself in proper morality or in improper immorality, but it always has a common basis—my claim to my right to myself. When our Lord faced either people with all the forces of evil in them, or people who were clean-living, moral, and upright, He paid no attention to the moral degradation of one, nor any attention to the moral attainment of the other. He looked at something we do not see, namely, the nature of man (see John 2:25).”
Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest. October 5
| At its best, the church is a foretaste of heaven. At its worst, it is a foretaste of someplace else. Chambers here makes a startling observation; sin may manifest itself in improper immorality or in proper morality! When we think of sin we typically think in terms of sins of commission or sins of omission. When we violate a command or precept of Scripture, we have committed a sin. When we do not do something that we ought to do we have sinned by omitting a God-given obligation. But sin is seen not only in the external action but the internal motivation of the heart. In other words, we may say that an action is “good” but if we were able to observe the motivation of the heart, we might see that it was sinfully motivated. This is why evaluating sin is difficult and often we are blinded from seeing the sin in our own hearts. Even worse, we can justify our bad behavior because what we believe what we are fighting for is good. We think that the greater good justifies using means that are in themselves sinful. I knew of a pastor who was viciously criticized for not caring about youth (he was the senior pastor, they had a youth pastor), performed music too loud which was probably true (he played his instrument before the evening service), and wasn’t good with that “vision thing.” Over the course of months people started gossiping, building an opposing faction, and undermining his ministry. Almost any comment was allowed because it was “true” in the eyes of the critics. This not only took its toll on him; his wife and children felt the brunt of it. He was hounded and harassed until he finally quit. I wish this were an isolated incident or a work of fiction, but I have seen it many times over my years in ministry. Why do people feel justified in saying such vicious, mean-spirited, unkind things? Because they believe they are right, and they believe they are fighting for God. When the pastor finally left, they felt vindicated and justified in everything they had done. But we have to do the right things in the right way with the right motives if we want to please God. God is not only concerned with our words but HOW we say our words. He is concerned with our heart motivation. Sometimes the words we have to say are hard words. But do we say them with love and a desire to seek the good of the other person? Even words that may momentarily wound, if said with kindness, will ultimately bring healing. We have bought into the lie that we need to “fight fire with fire.” We feel justified in “getting back at someone” or “putting someone in his place” because what we spoke was truth. If it was truth, but it was not said in the right way with the right motivation, it is not pleasing to God. |
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