Shine More Light, Generate Less Heat

Romans 14:4 "Who are you to judge the servant of another. To his own master he stands or falls and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand."

One of my favorite authors and speakers is Ravi Zacharias. I have heard him often say when entering a debate or presenting a lecture that it is his desire, "to shine more light on the topic and not to generate more heat." I wholeheartedly agree with this position when discussing difficult and emotional topics. Too many times "we" fall into the trap of making our disagreements personal and about personalities rather than focusing on the issues of the topic itself. When this happens we have begun to lose perspective and will find it difficult to truly listen and learn from others concerning issues of great importance. There still rings a lot of truth in the saying, you can disagree without being disagreeable.

I personally take to heart the words of Paul in Romans 14:4. The caution he gave then is still applicable for us today. We all need to take great care in judging other servants of God. As Paul goes on to say in verse 12, each of us will give an account to God for our actions. We often tread on dangerous ground when we begin to judge the motives of others without fully understanding all of the variables in their thoughts and actions. So how do we challenge one another in a way that is honoring to God but allows for honest disagreement?

First, there has to be a sincere desire to seek the truth. Truth is not subjective and truth is not based upon sincerity. Atheist are very sincere in their beliefs, but they are still sincerely wrong. And this also applies to Christians. Sincere belief in a position or practice does not make it true or right. All of our thoughts and actions are subject to scrunity based upon the Truth of Scripture. If someone sincerely says, God told me it was okay not to forgive my father for what he did to me.", we know that this cannot be true and must be challenged from a spirit of love and concern to help another believer.

Second, Paul gives us another admonition or exhortation later in verse 19 of Romans 14. He states, "So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another." Our goal when discussing opposing views with Christian brothers and sisters is not to win the debate, but to bring peace which comes when our desire is to build up one another. Our discussions should not be seen as a competition but rather as another opportunity for us to develop a greater level of unity within the body of Christ. For an excellent look at this go to David Roger's post entitled, End-Vision.

Third, we must be willing to allow for multiple expressions of truth. For example, when studying CPMs, one of the elements common in all CPMs is that of house or cell churches. Well, not exactly. We in our region have a CPM taking place among the K'ekchi' of Guatemala. And although it is true that their church planting practices begins in a house, they quickly move into a building as the local body grows. It's just that they have figured out how to do this rapidly and without outside resources. So when we teach CPM principles we do not say that your work has to be in a house. The truth is that we want the Gospel to spread through a people group as rapidly as possible. How this is done can vary from people group to people group.

Fourth, we need to stand on biblical principles when we attempt to challenge the positions and actions of others. Now, I'm not talking about challenging another brother or sister caught up in sin. But how do we determine what is the right thing to do or what is the wrong thing to do when discussing missions strategies? Our first point of reference must be Scripture. If Scripture seems to be silent on a topic then we must be sure that our answer or position still is not contrary to other Scriptural principles. This is why in this blog and in our training we do the best we know how to do to tie everything to Scripture. Not proof texting mind you, but genuinely applying Scriptural truth and principles to our efforts.

Lastly, we must all continue to learn what it means to show grace. When I read the Gospels, I have often wondered if Jesus ever paused and just shook His head when one of the disciples would say something contrary to what Jesus had just taught. Or when they asked what seems to be a really dumb question. Jesus exhibited a tremendous amount of grace and patience as He trained and disciple His group of 12. We need to learn how to do the same as we debate and discuss important issues of the day. I will admit this one is not easy for me but I hope that I am learning.

I am writing this post to give all of us, including myself, a reminder that no one of us is the guardian of all truth. We are all on a pilgrimage of learning and changing, as we seek to be more like Jesus every day. So it is truly my desire that as we continue our discussions on this blog and on other blogs that we will practice being thermostats and not thermometers. That we will show one another a great amount of grace when we say something off the wall. And that we will not be too quick to judge, but seek to understand.

Missions is a highly emotional subject. I can not tell you the number of times I've seen tears roll down a person's cheek as the expressed disagreement with something we have said. Many of us are passionate about what we do and we frustrate easily when others can't see the world exactly like we do. I truly believe in my heart that we will see changes that will impact the lostness of this world at even greater levels when we all learn how to shine more light on our discussions and generate less heat.