Do our values line up with, supercede, or ignore God’s values, as given in Scripture? Do we ascribe the same value weight to activities as does God? "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matt. 6:22-23, NIV). A faulty value system misaligns life—something like the shirt of life being buttoned up by the wrong holes. It doesn’t fit. Giving martyr status to suicide bombers killing civilians is such a “misvalue.”
Values lead to the kind of church we attend, where we give money, whether we give money, our clothing style, the car we drive and the home in which we live. Lifestyles are clusters of values. The abortion debate is about value priority: the woman or the fetus. AIDS is about the value of sex, typically. Often the divorcer is valuing freedom, an exciting new partner and “the pursuit of happiness” above marriage vows.
As we read scripture, we’re washed by the water of the Word (Eph. 5:26), so as not to be encrusted by the world’s values. We can realign to, resist, reject or repudiate God’s values. We notice skewed values generally in personal extremes or compulsiveness or in lopsided spending or time involvement. Even good things can become bad when overdone. The Word of God can change our worldview, which is essentially our value grid (even when our perceptions are in the “physical” realm). “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (Heb. 4:12). When we neglect the Word, the world’s values gain on us.
"Not everyone who says to me, `Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, `Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, `I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'” (Matt. 7:21-23). As John Gerstner points out, they were trying to get credit for doing evil, so skewed were their values. But we cannot skew God. With some frequency evildoers believe themselves good. A man on a porch pondered, unable to remember the last time he’d sinned. An older man who couldn’t stand it any more reminded him that he was shacking up with a woman.
A young pregnant woman I met last week was positive that she was going to heaven. Why? Because she was saved and believed in God. A policeman walked up and began conversing. That afternoon she had been arraigned in court for brawling with another woman, and was anticipating with some eagerness round two. When I reminded her that she was pregnant, it was almost as if I’d mentioned that she had a good shirt on. It was no problem. She didn’t attend church and had no plans to go. Values.
We praise efficiency, youth, beauty, wealth, risk and extremes, technology, pleasure (sex, travel, alcohol, spas, music, entertainment ), freedom, and independence. A Christian from India once judged Americans: if you say it, you think you’ve done it. The saying it should be done suffices for the doing. I find this personally true at times.
Let me respectfully mention church attendance, which is a good (Heb. 10:24-25). I spend a lot of time trying to get people to go to church. But if the pastor leans on people to spend the majority of their free hours and days at church, this is a good value gone awry, to the detriment of children, marriages, and ultimately to the church herself. National Christians can have different values. I spent three months with a French mission to industrial workers. They valued dialogue, expression, eating, the contest of ideas, working together for the lost, love, identifying with and serving the poor and powerless. The Ugandan church values prayer—Friday all-night prayer meetings are commonplace—singing, teaching, harmony, learning, evangelism, testifying, visiting and caring for the sick and visitors.
White Christians value Sunday School, offerings, buildings, missions and missionaries, eating, evangelism, friendships, propriety in worship, eating, teaching, a bigger church, and wellbeing. Sunday School may be higher on the local church hierarchy of values than sending famine relief or seeing that widows in the church are nurtured. Giving to retirement may be more religiously observed than giving to missions. Many black Christians value being of one mind, koinoia, emotional expression and catharsis, talking about God’s providence, eating, a power choir, holding office, faithfulness in coming to church, gospel preaching and singing, eating, wellbeing and prosperity.
I listened to a black Gospel station last month and heard “If God’s been good, groove with me.” “Give Him hand praise … a foot praise.” “If you wanna be used, put your hands together.” God’s goodness should lead to things like telling those in darkness about Him, not just grooving. The worship service is not the arena of our major service to God—that would be outside the church walls. “God can use me anywhere and any time.” True. But will we resist? We can actually use praise as a way of getting around missions and other types of obedience. We can elevate enthusiasm—getting excited about God—far above serving God in practical ways. Picking on black power choirs, I think God lays more importance upon a missionary going to a remote village in Uzbekistan to introduce them to Jesus Christ, then upon a traveling, swaying and rippin’ church choir—the kind getting everybody up inside the first four bars. Maybe we should esteem missions more than choir music. “Go into all the world with a power choir?” But cross cultural missions is so far behind the power choir it may never catch up.
George Barna provides the values of born again evangelists vs. born again non-evangelists: evangelists (vs. non-evangelists) believe that the Bible “is totally true in all of its teachings” (77% vs. 57%) and “every word of the Bible is true and can be trusted.” (81% vs. 61%). Yet the following behaviors are about equal in these two groups (levels not stated): heavy debt, personal addictions, looking at pornography, getting drunk, getting psychic advice, and committing adultery1. So a higher view of Scripture hasn’t impacted evangelists’ morality in these moral areas. Personal values—pleasure in particular—outweigh the biblical value of self-control and holiness and major transformations in sanctification are needed to align lifestyle with Word. Values have not dropped from head to heart to hand.
Have we minored on majors and majored on minors? We can have a false sense of accomplishment if we hit all our priorities and expect rich blessings from God, but miss what God values most. Our values can become so skewed that God judges them. Idolatry is misreckoned values--elevating to supreme importance what is of secondary, or less, importance--usurping the Creator with something of His creation. Even in face of reality, we still can cling to them—"Our fathers possessed nothing but false gods, worthless idols that did them no good. Do men make their own gods? Yes, but they are not gods!" (Jer 16:19b-20). "Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, `This is what the LORD says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.' 12 But they will reply, `It's no use. We will continue with our own plans; each of us will follow the stubbornness of his evil heart.' " (Jer. 18:11-12). When God’s values are overlaid upon our own, how do they align? When they judge us, will we throw up our hands and say “It’s no use!” or will we realign our values by God’s Spirit and our resolve?
1 “George Barna, “49 Million Born Again Adults Shared Their Faith in Jesus in the Past Year,” www.barna.org/cgi-bin/PagePressRelease.asp?Press ReleaseID=147&Reference=F, accessed 10/16/03.
African Americans have unique cultural strength. They focus upon relationships. At a recent meeting five black and three white clergy had a good-natured theological free-for-all about Christians and alcohol. At 1 PM, the customary close, two whites left, while the black pastors stayed for another half hour of fellowship. After 12:00 Sunday, most whites have concluded with worship. Blacks may trickle out at 1:30 PM, to return later.
The custom of standing and greeting in the morning church service, breaking the social surface tension, is illustrative. Whites may greet for 40 seconds, or on warm and sunny days, 60 seconds. Only the wildly gregarious venture a few feet away from their seat. At Love Fellowship, the music starts and all the women hug all the men, and anyone ambulatory hits the aisles. After 5 minutes, even white folks are warming up. You’ve shown more public affection than in the last six months, and your “smile muscles” ache.
A black pastor called me when I left Inner City Ministries and no longer had an office. He gave me one in his church. Just after our home was burglarized, he called (as did our pastor) to offer help . He leads an inner-city congregation whose sanctuary floods 2-3 times a year. Pastor Johnson once accompanied me into a housing project, fearing I’d be jumped.
Another strength of the African American church is her thankfulness. Whites don’t publicly thank God for waking them up. Probably two-thirds of public prayers by blacks include this. No matter what happened last week, the black believer is going to thank God (and maybe “get happy”) for getting through it. There will likely be an upbeat “power choir.” We’re concerned that we hit the E flat, and they’re concerned that they flat-out hit 85 decibels.
African Americans are encouragers. No matter how amateur a singer on Sunday morning, the song may crash, but it won’t burn. The audience quietly weaves background accompaniment, calling out encouragement, and when finished, the singer will think that she is Alicia Keys or he is Usher Raymond. You simply cannot fail. It’s impossible. African Americans generally don’t have low self-esteem probably because others are so supportive. Once I taught on marriage in the Caribbean. They were appreciative, but not demonstrative, and I thought that I’d failed. The problem was that African Americans had previously spoiled me with appreciation.
I’ve also noticed that, in general, African Americans will accept criticism, as long as it is accurate. They will accept it from one another, and from outsiders. Particularly will Black Christians accept admonition if clearly based on the Bible. They will agree with the truth against themselves, when such a situation exists.
By many measures, blacks have better spiritual disciplines. They pray more, read the Bible more, attend church more. They can smell heresy and bad doctrine and are generally more theologically conservative. Whites can be edified by these cultural assets. Reading E flats is good, too.
Few are the opportunities to feel “the mannishness of man” (Francis Schaeffer’s term). It possesses me rarely enough--after some sweaty hours with a chain saw or splitting maul, or after lifting weights. Then I jokingly warn my wife of my coming—“I’m feeling the mannishness of man!” It’s hard to feel manly at a keyboard. Car manufacturers are increasingly pitching big horsepower to the male ego, starved to demonstrate maleness. My focus isn’t upon ego, but upon “mannishness.”
Perhaps my greatest fear in becoming a Christian was embracing a feminized, almost effeminate church culture. Perhaps being raised by my mother contributed to this fear. What I experienced was friendly religion without power and male virility. What I was asked to sing was too often Romantic 19th century hymns. Personally I have trouble singing “I come to the garden alone, while the dew…”. I gravitated to real Christian men—Scout leaders, and Rev. Bill Hillegonds, our chaplain at Hope College--a man of godly passion and decisiveness. He didn’t see a Christ with perfect long hair and beatific countenance. Jesus was a muscular carpenter—without power tools he had to have been muscular. Over the years the denomination of which I was then a part became increasingly feminized. It began with female elders, then pastors, and finally denominational leaders, which is contrary to 1 Timothy 2:12. Churches are increasingly pastored or co-pastored by women. I don’t question their spirituality, but their role (1 Tim. 3:2, “husband of one wife”).
Many Christian bookstores seem to be, in part, feminized repositories of gift-shop irrelevance that few men would consider. I love my wife and delight in her femininity. But I don’t want a church characterized by femininity. While I find no biblical evidence that women are natively the more godly gender (cf. Eccles. 7:28), could they grow to be more sensitive and obedient to God’s voice? Women may outnumber men at prayer meetings because they are married! Some women don’t work outside the home and have more leisure to pursue the means of grace. Sixty-eight percent of short-term missions trips taken through this ministry have been taken by women. Women may simply do more church work.
How can a man be a manly Christian? Among the metaphors for the Christian life is that of soldier. (Of course, now we have women firing bullets for us.) Paul wrote to Timothy:
You, then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others. Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. (2 Tim. 2:1-3, NIV)
A Christian man’s strength comes by God’s grace. He must steer the family, if he has one, make the final decisions affecting many aspects of family life, while supporting wife, children and even parents. He is to be concerned also with God’s Kingdom, discipling other men. He is to endure hardship--not embrace comfort. How many soldiers do you see who are physically out-of-shape? They are trim and hardened. The Kingdom of God requires Spirit-control and self-control. The Kingdom of Darkness is arrayed against the Kingdom of Light. The Ring Trilogy has tapped into our subliminal understanding of the world as battleground—a spiritual battle requiring brave and protecting men. Why brave and protecting men? Because of wicked and exploiting men (and women). Have you read of the rape in of Darfur1? The capture of 12,000 children of northern Uganda for soldiers and sex slaves2? There are 27 million slaves today--more than were stolen from Africa in 400 years3. In Kenya there are 45 women with HIV aged 15-24 to every 10 men4. The rule of law and superior force is all that keeps any country from the same exploitation of the weak by stronger men. We need also men who are willing to stand against cultural forces bent upon corrupting their children and accept the flack. It's touch to censor music and movies, if you've tried it.
How does a Christian man of courage act? Defend the family as between a man and woman; refuse to spend what you don’t have; teach your sons what a man does and how to work, and your daughters how a man treats a lady; teach your family to love God; keep your word; admit your failures; adequately support your family; make the tough and unappreciated calls; keep yourself pure; take on the strongholds of the devil that God places upon your heart. Where are the strongholds of Satan?--the inner city, the gay community, materialism, sexual exploitation, abortion, thievery, cults and many others. Take one on. Consider enduring the hardship of the mission fields of the world—short-term and long- term--wherein are 1.75 billion who are unevangelized. There are 1.27 billion Muslims and 841 million Hindus5. Men should not expect the single women to go to the hardest places, although they go willingly6.
Paul put it to Christian men: “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love.” (1 Cor. 16:13-14). Be a man, be courageous, but show love, just as did the God-man Christ, who never flinched before sinners or Satan, and who never stopped loving. God made two genders, and wants it kept that way (cf. Dt. 22:5; Rom. 1:26-27). I want a planet here, as Donald Cole put it, “Men are men, and women are glad of it!”7 Christ is a man’s Man. In Him, you will not be bound and your house spoiled (Mt. 12:29), and you will assault the beaches of darkness.
Jim Sutherland Ph.D.
1“Amnesty Condemns Sudan Rapes,” http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/africa/07/19/sudan.rapes.reut/index.html accessed 7/20/2004
2“Unicef Highlights ‘Forgotten’ Tragedy of Child Soldiers in Uganda” http://allafrica.com/stories/200407190895.html accessed 7/20/2004
3“21st-Century Slaves,” by Andrew Cockburn http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0309/feature1/index.html accessed 7/23/2004
4UNAIDS 2004 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic, Pt. II, Exec. Summary
5David Barrett and Todd Johnson, “Annual Statistical Table on Global Mission:2004,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Jan. 2004, p. 25
6I’m grateful for what single ladies are doing on the mission fields—such as Earlene Voss of Christar, who has given her life to reach Muslim women.
7Heard on an “Open Line” radio program on Moody Radio
These are slide decks in the Microsoft PowerPoint format that are available to view online or download for use according to a Creative Commons License. All decks were created and research done by Dr. Jim Sutherland, unless otherwise noted. Work of others is presented here with permission. Please contact us if you find any technical issues or have any questions about the material presented. Below is a sampling from each category of slide deck, click "Read More ..." to see more decks in that category.
Below are articles, teaching on various topics, by Jim Sutherland, Phd. Permission is granted to copy, print, and distribute, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
Topics are listed to the left. Below are some of the articles for viewing:
The commands of Christ are the foundation for Christian discipleship, according to Matthew 28:20. Since knowing the truth sets a Christian free (John 8:32), each command liberates a follower a little more, through obedience.
Here are 9 of Christ's commands (other papers on His commands are planned). Feel free to use these in your discipleship.
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