157. Bible Questions: Should Christians strive for excellence in all things?

Episode 157:  Bible Questions:  Should Christians strive for excellence in all things?

Sometimes teachers have to ask questions.

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The students aren't asking questions to challenge them, to consider things. They accept as facts today. We're going to look at one of those. Should Christians strive for excellence in all things. When I asked that question to my students, I get a dull sort of doll. Look to them. The answer is so obvious in a word, my students are driven. I teach in a classical Christian school. Most of these kids grew up in Christian families, and many of them already claimed to be followers of Jesus. They've been told by their parents because I've told my kids this school sharpening their minds is their job.

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So focus on it and do it well. Here's some evidence that they're listening a few years back in our little school with maybe 40 juniors and seniors. We had three students get perfect scores on the sat exam. That's pretty unusual since out of every 10,000 students who take it only seven, get a perfect score yet with maybe 30 students taking it. We got three. The students in my school come by this drivenness. Naturally. They got it from their parents and their teachers and their parents and teachers got it from their culture. It is an A-plus excellence driven world out there, a world where C minus outcomes just don't cut it to do our best is the standard.

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And to be the best is the goal. And anything less is simply not to make the grade. When it comes to excellence. I like to give adults a little quiz here. It is true or false. I'd be okay with the following statements. We've reviewed your job performance and you are a C minus employee, honey. After 25 years of marriage, you've been a steady C minus wife, or how about this? You're the best C minus mommy in the whole wide world, or Hey bill, our foursome could use a consistency minus golfer. Like you I'd suggest if you answered false to most or all of those, you are driven to Excel.

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And if you are, you're probably living life at a sprint. Those scripture teaches. We are finite and required to make choices, hard ones. Most of us don't live life. That way, as we've learned in the word pictures podcast to be a Christian means to go all in and faith in Jesus as Messiah and Lord in John 10, which we looked at in episode 1 0 4, Jesus makes the statement when you've gone all in on me as your shepherd, no one can rip you from my hand there in John and, and other places were told once all in on Jesus, Satan, can't rip you away.

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Whether or not you can walk away is a different question that my students sometimes have. And we may address in a future Bible questions. Satan, can't rip you away, but I've heard and witnessed how he can push us in the direction of an extreme, how you can take God's gifts, like study vocation, sex, food, and drink and twist them, or push us to a destructive extreme. I believe that's spot on the truth is we are finite sooner or later. We wake up to that reality that we must live with limitations and living with limitations means a life of difficult choices.

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With limited time and energy. We cannot do our best in every pursuit. Almost certainly we can't be the best in any pursuit. The current eyes are 7 billion to one. My students need to learn as do their parents and teachers. We cannot get an a plus on every subject we take, because most sincere followers of Jesus I've known don't embrace our limitations and make those difficult choices very well. We live life sprint, and sometimes we're almost neurotic. By the time I get my eighth grade students, they've taken logic. This is a little intimidating.

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They remind me of it. Occasionally when I say something that doesn't make sense, but when it comes to excellence, most of these smarty pants, students have embraced their own illogical conclusion that regarding excellence in academics, sports music, and the arts and in their future, their relationships and careers. And so I unpacked for them in the form of a syllogism, their defective argument, a syllogism is a fancy word for a deductive argument. It's made up of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion that follows it's assumed those premises are accurate.

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So therefore the conclusion is accurate. Are you ready for this? Here? It is. The major premise. Jesus is to be the pattern for his followers in all things. The minor premise, Jesus did all things well. That conclusion, therefore, followers of Jesus are to do all things well. There it is. And excellence in a deductive argument. It sounds pretty clear. Cut. Doesn't it. But is the major and minor premise accurate? Let's take a look. First. The major premise Jesus is the pattern for his followers in all things, is he, as a boy, I watched my mother.

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So she'd unfold, a crinkly yellow paper and pin it tightly to the cloth on the kitchen table. Then she'd work her scissors down the lines of the pattern. I can still hear the snip, snip, snip of her scissors. Now I ask you can a believer unfold the character of Jesus from scripture pin, those actions and attitudes of Jesus over lives and cut precisely along those lines. As a young believer, I would have answered that question with a resounding yes. Yes. I'd read the book in his steps and it's theme modernized in the, what would Jesus do? Bumper sticker popular during my teenage years, both of these seem to capture in a phrase the heart of first Peter 2 21, 4, 2.

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This you've been called for Christ also suffered for you leaving you an example so that you would follow in his steps. Snip, snip, snip. I also pondered the words of Jesus who told me through the gospel writer, Luke, that an apprentice when fully taught is just like his teacher. Then in the new Testament, we were given the term Christian, which later early means little anointed ones. Yeah, a little Christ. And from that I believed we were called to be spitting images of Jesus in both word and attitude. So for me, the major premise was clearly demonstrated. Jesus is the pattern for his followers in all things.

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And if I'm his follower, I need to cut along those same lines as Jesus. But every student has report card time. And as I neared my 30th anniversary of following Jesus, it was pretty evident. My little spiritual home-ec project, wasn't turning out so great, but nowhere near the lines of the pattern of Jesus and neither had those around me. So turning back to the scriptures, I kept finding passages that Jesus was a pattern that I could not duplicate at a number of critical points. And here they are. Jesus had neither a sin nature nor sin, except for one agonizing moment at the cross, when the sin of the world was laid on him, Jesus had intimate unbroken fellowship with the father.

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Jesus was continually being filled with the holy spirit as evidenced by the lavish fruit of the spirit in his life. Jesus evidenced all the spiritual gifts and possess them. I'm inherently as God's son and the perfect man and a fifth difference was Jesus had a crystal clear mission for his life not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom. For many I, as his follower have none of those things perfectly though, for decades, I've been very committed to Jesus. I knew I couldn't cut along those same pattern lines, forget it. But at the same time, I couldn't turn in my spiritual scissors and walk away just because of my consistently lousy outcomes.

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I also found verses that, make it clear that though I'll know, never cut along the lines of the pattern of Jesus perfectly I can learn. And I'm expected to learn to cut along those same holy lines with ever increasing scripture vibrates with teaching. That is a follower of Jesus. I have a new nature and I can walk in it. It tells me I have a restored ABA father relationship with God. It tells me that while I don't have all the spiritual gifts, God's placed me into a local body of believers who do have all the gifts and together as a functioning community, we can become the fullness of Jesus.

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That's in Ephesians four and it tells me I can give God and keep giving God the keys to the compartments of my life in biblical terms to have a fullness of the spirit by continually being filled with the spirit of God, scripture teaches, I must cut along the pattern of Jesus, but I can't do it on my own, but I can cut closer with his help in logic. The major premise fails. It is not accurate. Next let's look at the minor premise. Jesus did all things well. Did Jesus do all things well in Mark's gospel, he reports this reaction from those who followed Jesus.

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They were utterly astonished saying he has done all things well, that's mark 7 37. What Jesus did. He did a plus. Well, but did Jesus do all things? I mean, all my students things or their parents things or their teachers, things, Jesus didn't have a home or a high mileage donkey to maintain Jesus. Didn't have a 60 hour a week job. Plus a two hour daily commute. Jesus didn't have a wife to care for. And any married believer will agree with Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians, that being married means dividing your energies and devotions.

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Jesus didn't have kids. And those who say living with the disciples was like having kids obviously never had kids. Jesus, didn't get up at three in the morning to help Peter throw up or changes sheets or haul 12 disciples to 12 different soccer fields for twice a day practices. Jesus did not do all our things that we in this driven world feel compelled to do. The minor premise fails. He dropped some of the courses which were driven to achieve our a pluses. Now stop with me and think for a moment, Jesus, the perfect man intimate with the father filled with the spirit and utterly focused on his clarity and mission chose to drop some of the courses that occupied the bulk of our time.

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How can you, and I believe we can get a plus on the courses that matter to God and get a pluses in our mini electives. On top of that followers of Jesus do not do all things well. We're finite people and we must live with limitations and limitations means life is full of difficult choices. Let me ask you a penetrating question whose report card really matters. Is it acceptable to be a C minus Christian in this A-plus world? Well, that depends on which report card matters. If our priority is the world's report card, then C minuses or F's or drop courses simply are unacceptable.

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But if our priority is God's report card C minuses or F's or drop courses on some subjects are not only acceptable. They're essential scripture teaches when ABA father reads our report cards. He's looking that we're doing our human best in word and deed to his glory, undergirded by the helper, his holy spirit in all his things he's assigned us to do both as individuals and as communities of believers in local churches, may I propose a better logical syllogism to manage our lives in this high velocity excellence driven culture.

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How about this major premise? Jesus can teach us to do all his things. Minor premise, Jesus teaches all his things. Well, conclusion Jesus can teach us to do all his things well, which leads to an obvious question. What are God's things? What are those core courses God wants his followers to do? Well? I think I can give you a hand on an answer to that question and I'll do it in our next Bible questions.

E154:  Bible Questions:  Am I my brother’s keeper? 

 Am I, my brother's keeper. That's not exactly how my students asked that question. They ask it this way. Am I responsible for the wellbeing of other people? Or do other people have the right to speak into my life? When I'm doing something they believe is not appropriate? That phrase am I? My brother's keeper comes out of Genesis four. Cain said that to God after murdering his brother, Abel God said, where's your brother, Abel. And Cain's response. Am I my brother's keeper? Since when am I responsible for my brother's wellbeing? Do we have responsibility for others in our world? And if we do, why and who are we responsible for?

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And how should we do it? I'm going to answer the why with one word, cue Creek. Look it up on Wikipedia. Q U E C R E E K. On July 24th, 2002 18 men went down into the que Creek. Mine nine went one direction and nine went the other about three hours

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Later. Their drill punched through,

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Into an abandoned unreported mine. Approximately 50 million gallons of water began to pour into the cute Creek. Mine I'll leave the story for your reading. I promise it will be spellbinding and worth. Every moment. Within a few hours,

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Water was pouring out of the portal. 400

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Feet above them. Nine of the miners made it out, but the other nine, the Q Creek nine were trapped 400 feet below within those frantic first few moments. The que Creek nine miners did three things. They scribbled notes to their families. They prayed. And then they wrote themselves together. That was their decision. We will all be rescued together or we'll die as brothers in this watery grave. Four days later, the miracle of Q Creek happened. Read about it. That's the word picture that I hope will stick with you. The Bible teaches our creator roped us together in communities in Genesis chapter two, after making the first man, God made a shocking statement.

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This creation is incomplete. It's not good for this man to be alone. So God created a mate and mating. They had families. Those families gathered in communities and became groups of people. John Don said, no, man is an island entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent. A part of the main. We are connected to our brother scriptures, littered with brothers keepers, doctrine and examples, but there's none more powerful than Joshua chapter seven. We looked at this and episode 46, the children of Israel have taken the city of Jericho in the promised land.

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They move on to the next little town, but they get their butts kicked Joshua and the leaders come back seeking before God. What happened? God tells them somebody is taken. What I said is hands-off in the city of Jericho that somebody was Aiken. One guy who took a purple cloth and a small bit of silver and gold from Jericho, which God had said is to be devoted to me completely as an offering in what follows, we learn the principle I sin you suffer the sin of Aiken. One guy had tremendous consequences on his family, on soldiers, families killed in battle who became widows and orphans on the courage of the nation of Israel.

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And on the reputation of God, scribble this statement down in your soul. When I sin you suffer. And it's alternative when I do something glorious, you gain why? Because we're roped together. We don't need the Bible to teach us this common sense tells us this. My sister-in-law is the great niece of the Capone family. Yes, that Capone family Al Capone, because he was kind of a cool gangster. And in our movies, that's not such a bad deal. It's actually a good, great party conversation starter. I'm related to someone related to the Capones, but that would change if she was the great niece of ADA Hitler, that's true of communities.

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Would you like to, to say your hometown was our switch? It's true of professions. It's not an accident that stock traders are the number two most despised professions in America. Why probably a lot of that will be laid at the feet of it. This man, Bernie Maydoff the man <inaudible> for a $64 billion Ponzi scheme. And speaking

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Of stock, we use the word stereotype

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To talk about the stock value of entire people. Groups, stereotypes are general beliefs about a category of people based on a small sampling of behavior. Someone of a certain people group acts stupid or screws up and the reputation of the whole group suffers or on the other hand, someone in that people group does something glorious and the entire group stock goes up. I believe it's. Self-evident when I, as a husband of a wife, a father of a family, a teacher in my school, a pastor in my church, a citizen of my city do something harmful or shameful others suffer.

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And when I do something amazing, their stock goes up. Why God roped us together. Now we come to my students about who am I responsible for and how do I do it? That's a trickier, but the Bible gives us some traction on that too. The first principle is discernment. We need to ask ourselves, which kind of brother is, this? Is this a brother in the human family or a brother in Christ, a follower of Jesus. The apostle Paul in the new Testament tells us to treat them differently. I recently heard a testimony of a Christian. He was 28 and had hardly darkened the doorstep of a church.

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He and his live in girlfriend visited his sister, a committed Christian. She and her husband, who is in the ministry, rolled out the red carpet and put fresh sheets on their bed. They were reflecting the apostle Paul's words in the new Testament. Don't expect nonbelievers to act like believers. Don't expect people without wings to fly. I'm guessing they may have had a different decision that day. If that brother or his girlfriend claimed to be a follower of Christ. There's also discernment in timing and teachability in Proverbs 26, Solomon gives one verse back to back Proverbs nuggets of wisdom.

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He says, make sure to point out the foolishness of someone so that they don't continue that foolishness. But in the very next verse, he says, don't point out foolishness to someone who doesn't want to hear it. He'll just hate you. Did you catch that? Be your brother's keeper to someone who will hear it so that they will make wiser choices, but save your breath to someone you discern doesn't want to hear it at all. It will just make them angry. Teachability and timing is an important part of being our brother's keeper. And so his attitude, Paul and Peter in the new Testament, give us guidance on this near the end of Paul's letter to the Galatians grace relations, which we looked at an episode 1 29.

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Paul says this. If someone is making bad choices, reach out to that person, then help set their choices, right? Like setting a broken bone in a spirit of gentleness and humility as you're setting that bone communicate, Hey, this could have happened to me too. I want to help you get better and promise me, you'll help me on my next life. Fracture Peter, in his first letter at the back of your new Testament, chapter three writes, whenever you talk about the wise practices of faith, do it with a spirit of gentleness and reverence. Reverence means value based.

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Ah, you are precious. That should be our attitude when we are our brother's keeper. And then there's Jesus. Isaiah describes the coming Messiah. Jesus, this way as he's his brother's keeper bruise reads, he will not break off and smoldering wicks. He will not put out as he guides people toward doing the right thing. And speaking of Jesus, Jesus throws a flag on being our brother's keeper. If we don't do it with discernment, with the attitude of gentleness and humility and in the spirit of Jesus, he was surrounded by people who saw all of life in black and white and took it upon themselves to be the behavior police.

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They were called Pharisees and they did great damage to people and to the reputation of God. And since I'm on the subject of right and wrong, black and white, I often get questions from my students on gray areas. Those are behaviors for us and our brothers that aren't so clear cut is right and wrong in this broken world. Does the Bible give us any help navigating through those gray areas? It absolutely does. And we'll look at that in our next Bible questions.