Despising God’s Word Might Not Mean What You Think It Does

Mike Leake 1 Comment

“Whoever despises the word brings destruction on himself, but he who reveres the commandment will be rewarded.” –Proverbs 13:13

When I hear the word despise I think of my response to broccoli. I use synonyms like hatred, revulsion, intense anger towards, etc. And, yes, I feel that strongly about broccoli. If given the option between losing a finger and eating broccoli I’d very strongly consider how much I’d be impacted by the loss of a phalange.

So when I think of someone despising the Word of God I think of one who has heated disagreement with God’s Word. I picture one who argues and rails against biblical truth. But the word despise doesn’t only mean loathing or hating something. It also means contempt. And contempt is “the feeling that a person or a thing is beneath consideration, worthless, or deserving scorn”. That’s not how I feel about broccoli, that’s how I feel about a show like Basketball Wives LA. I’ve never watched the show, I’ve never thought of watching the show, but can tell from what little exposure I’ve had to the thing that it’s a bunch of meaningless drivel that I wouldn’t consider giving an ounce of my time to. I don’t hate the thing. I just couldn’t care about it.

And that is how many people view the Bible. Sadly, even professing believers. We show contempt for the Word of God anytime we consider it beneath consideration on a particular topic to which it speaks. Those last four words are critical. You aren’t despising the Word if you don’t consult it to decide who to start on your fantasy football team. But you might be despising the Word if you’re battling anger, broken relationships, racism, politics, or a host of other things which the Bible actually does speak about.

I’ll be even more specific and say one area where I find myself prone to “despise” God’s Word is in the area of depression. I’ve spoken in the past about my struggles with “the black dog”. I’ve shared what it’s like when the lights go out and also warned about the dangerous pit of uniqueness. When the lights turn off in my brain I can easily feel as if my situation is unique. I can feel as if I’ve fallen deeper in the pit than anyone in the history of humanity. And I can also treat the Word as if it doesn’t speak to my situation. In the midst of darkness I’ll swallow the lie that God’s Word is irrelevant to my present plight. And when this happens I’m set in for a longer season.

The Proverbs tell me what happens when I despise God’s Word; namely, I bring destruction upon myself. What this tells me is that whenever I dismiss God’s Word as irrelevant what I’m doing is signing my own death warrant. This is why what I try to do is get in the Word, put myself under faithful preaching of the Word, read solid books, etc. even if I don’t feel a single thing or if it makes my darkened thinking angry instead of healed. I know that the means for my healing is the Word. This, I believe, is what it means in those moments to “revere” the Word. And it never fails to reward me.

Revering the Word and despising the Word has less to do with our emotional feelings towards the Word and more to do with the way we interact with God’s Word in our life. Am I surrendering and placing myself under it’s authority even when I don’t feel like it? If so I likely revere the Word. Am I quickly dismissing His Word as irrelevant and unconcerned with my situation? If so I’m likely one who secretly despises God’s Word.

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Review of Supernatural Power For Everyday People by @JaredCWilson

Mike Leake

Let’s imagine a guy who is a shared friend of many of your friends. He’s a great dude. Much of his life is about helping others. But he’s also not afraid to call you out if you’re doing something stupid. And he cannot shut up about Jesus. He’s constantly pointing to Christ with everything he does. But here is the thing about your friend. He’s a little bit of a mystery. There is much debate among your friends about where he works and what he actually does for a living. Also there are some gifts that he’s given amongst your friends that none of you are really sure if they came from him or not. Truth be told he’s a bit nebulous. Part of this is because anytime you really focus attention on him or try to get to know him he just points it all back to Jesus.

So if you were to write a book about this friend what would be the topic? Would you be honoring this friend if you spent all your time trying to unravel all the mysterious stuff? Would it be helpful to expend all your energy attempting to really explain all the gifts that he has given? Or to spill hundreds of pages of ink on unraveling the mystery of what he does for a career? That wouldn’t be honoring him, would it? Instead you’d most honor your friend by talking about all the amazing stuff he has done in your life. But the real key to honoring your friend would be to talk about his best friend; namely, Jesus.

This is why I absolutely love Jared Wilson’s latest book on the Spirit: Supernatural Power For Everyday People. Jared doesn’t get lost in the weeds of writing about tertiary debates concerning the work of the Spirit. Instead he spends his time showing us how the Spirit actually transforms us daily. This book isn’t about tapping into the Spirit’s power as if he is some passive power source. It’s about the powerful Spirit, given to us by a powerful Christ, doing real work in our hearts. This is more a book about looking at what the Spirit is doing instead of banging us over the head with what the Spirit could be doing. As such it is wildly encouraging.

When you buy a book by Jared Wilson you know you are going to get something that is focused on Jesus and the finished gospel. This book is no different. Even though the principle topic is the work of the Spirit, Wilson continues his unashamed Christ-centeredness.

Two things really impacted me in this book. First, there is a focus all throughout about living by the work of the Spirit instead of by the power of the flesh. Jared Wilson is one of my favorite authors because of his propensity to take ordinary truths and say them in such a way that it catches my attention. This happened repeatedly throughout the book. I realized ways in which I’ve neglected walking in the Spirit and have relied on my own flesh. Truths that I’ve heard a million times and things I readily know about myself, but the Lord used Jared’s writing skills to help me think of things in a new way.

Secondly, his chapter on Break Free From the Drama was incredibly helpful. If you had me read the Table of Contents and then pick a chapter that I thought would be the most helpful I doubt this chapter would have made the list. Maybe it has more to do with my present situation than anything else, but I loved this chapter. It helped me have a renewed appreciation for the local church and the people God has placed in my life. I particularly liked this statement:

If I have no choice but to pick a culture to ‘sin with,’ I’m going to pick the one that is warring with that sin, holding me accountable for that sin—perhaps even disciplining me for it—and constantly pointing me to the Jesus who forgives my sin, taking it to the cross to kill it. We all have to choose who we’re going to sin with. Why not choose the church? (Wilson, 143)

Man, I love that as a picture of the local church. The book is filled with great sentences and paragraphs just like that one. I’m convinced that if you read this book you’ll have a greater understanding of the Holy Spirit. You might not be able to untangle all the theological knots surrounding pneumatology but by the grace of God you’ll have a strengthened relationship with the Spirit and you’ll marvel at Christ as your Helper shines the spotlight on His finished work.

You can purchase Supernatural Power For Everyday People here.

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Read This! 09.13.18

Mike Leake

The Idol of Idolatry

I love this post by Lore Ferguson. It’s a point that I’ll attempt to make in my book on idolatry (if I ever get the time to write the thing).

Suicide, Depression, and Pastors: One Way Church Members Can Help

This is true.

The First Two Minutes Matter Most

I appreciate this challenge.

How Can I Be More Like You?

I’m someone who stinks at small talk, so the pointed and specific questions here were helpful.

Don’t Use Prophet, Priest, and King as a Modern Leadership Typology

Amen.

A Baseball Dream 30 Years in the Making Washed Away

What a sad story.

5 Marks of a Stinky Sermon

I’ve preached a few tired sermons for sure.

Your Church’s Leadership Structure May Not Be the Problem

Lots of truth here.

Not all of us know the exact time when we became Christians. Derek Thomas shares why that’s okay:

William Carey and the Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel

John Rasmussen 1 Comment

You have perhaps heard the story of William Carey being shut down by one Dr. Harvey concerning his passion for world missions. Harvey replied to Carey’s passionate plea with cold theology: “Young man, if God wants to save the heathen, he’ll do it without your help or mine.” Dr. Harvey was expressing hyper-Calvinism, the idea that since God is sovereign, there is no need to evangelize. In other words, God doesn’t use means to accomplish his will. Carey disagreed. He understood God’s sovereignty but also understood Jesus’ commands in the Great Commission. God uses means. So Carey obeyed.

I thought a bit of William Carey when I read through the recently released statement on Social Justice and the Gospel. Though there is much in the statement I agree with, and I certainly wouldn’t consider myself a “social justice warrior”, there are still a few reasons I will not sign the document. In fact, I see three massive problems with the statement.

The Good

Though a few spots may be worded better, a great deal of this statement is on point. The initial doctrinal affirmations are standard for an Evangelical statement. There is even much good in the specific sections dealing with social issues, such as sexuality, race and complementarianism. Things such as the affirmation of the image of God in all people equally, the affirmation of God designed roles in marriage and church, and the affirmation of God’s design for marriage are absolutely necessary for Christians.

The Bad…

But, even with these great affirmations, there are three small statements in the denials that keep me from putting my name to this. The first is found in the denial under section 6:

“We Deny that anything else, whether works to be performed or opinions to be held, can be added to the gospel without perverting it into another gospel. This also means that implications and applications of the gospel, such as the obligation to live justly in the world, though legitimate and important in their own right, are not definitional components of the gospel.”

Now hear me loud and clear: Social justice is not the Gospel. However, this doesn’t mean that you can separate the Gospel’s implications and applications so easily. What is odd about this is the fact that John MacArthur is one of the major signers. Having spent years writing books and preaching about how you can’t separate obedience to the commands of God from the Gospel, as if they were merely optional, I would think he would reject this idea. No, obedience to Christ is not the Gospel, but where there is no obedience to Christ, there is no Gospel.

My problem with this statement is the fact that it minimizes the power and effect of the Gospel. The Gospel actually accomplishes God’s will, and if it doesn’t do that in His people, it isn’t the Gospel. Perhaps the writers did not intend this, but it seems that this denial almost makes obedience to commands to live justly optional. Paul would disagree. James would disagree. John would disagree. Peter would disagree. Jesus would disagree. They may not be definitional (as in, they are the things that you believe to be justified), but they are certainly necessary workings of the Gospel.

My second problem is with the denial in section 8:

“We Deny that political or social activism should be viewed as integral components of the gospel or primary to the mission of the church. Though believers can and should utilize all lawful means that God has providentially established to have some effect on the laws of a society, we deny that these activities are either evidence of saving faith or constitute a central part of the church’s mission given to her by Jesus Christ, her head. We deny that laws or regulations possess any inherent power to change sinful hearts.”

Let the record show, I agree with the last statement wholeheartedly. I also agree that, just as I said with section 6, that these matters are not definitional (which I’m reading that into “integral” here) of the Gospel. But as far as being “primary to the mission of the Church”, that’s hogwash. Unless you don’t think that Jesus truly expected us to love our neighbor as ourselves, and unless you cannot honestly pray “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”, then you must disagree with this. God is just, and we must be as well.

As far as whether or not these acts evidence saving faith, I would qualify my disagreement. Living in rural, backwoods, nowhere Missouri, where there are next to no (though a few) African Americans, I’m not given much opportunity for boots on the ground engagement on these issues. Biblical faithfulness isn’t simply engagement on any and every social issue, but on those which directly confront us. James doesn’t tell people to go seek the poor to show their faith, but tells them that when they are confronted with the poor and do nothing when they are able to do something, that is when their faith is being falsified. Right now we are being confronted with this issue of social justice, like it or not.

Furthermore, even if we disagree with the plight that is brought to us (for instance you may say “African Americans don’t have it that bad in this country” or “Women are just speaking up for attention, they’re not actually being sexually abused”), it is our obligation to hear the matter and judge rightly. If we dismiss these claims, such as charges of sexual abuse against a pastor, then we are showing partiality if we don’t even hear the charges, let alone if we hear them and don’t do justice.

Finally, my last problem comes in the denial of section 14. This section is long, and I agree with most of it, so I will single out the statement I find irresponsible:

“And we emphatically deny that lectures on social issues (or activism aimed at reshaping the wider culture) are as vital to the life and health of the church as the preaching of the gospel and the exposition of Scripture.”

I want to be especially clear on this last point: If you are engaged in the faithful exposition of Scripture, you will naturally find yourself “lecturing” on social issues. Our senior pastor is currently preaching through the minor prophets. There is a great deal of “social lectures” in the minor prophets. In fact, that is one of the things Israel is often condemned for – not being socially just! Now, if you’re going to get in the pulpit and show a slide show about why you should vote “no” on prop C, then I agree with this statement. But if you are faithfully expositing the Scriptures, then you will necessarily find yourself addressing these issues, because they matter to God, and He spoke of how He expected them to be dealt with in His word.

Conclusion:

So why did I start this with the story of William Carey? Because I think the same thing is happening here. It seems to me (though I could be wrong, as I have been many times before), that this is a sort of “hyper-Calvinism” that says “Young man, if God wants to change the heathen or save them from oppression, he’ll do it without your help or mine”. I know you could point to many places in the statement that seem to say otherwise, but the overall feel of this statement is that our response to these situations is a matter of optional obedience, and not important to the display of God’s glory in the Gospel. I pray that this is not the attitude the church takes this year.

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