The title of this week's lesson, Lesson 9, in the Study Guide is Following the Master: Discipleship in Action.
For the past few weeks I've been more comfortable with the themes, directions, and conclusions brought out by the Study Guide. When I began to go through this week's lesson I didn't suspect anything to be different. But... I don't go through these lessons to complain or be critical, but my discomfort-o-meter needle went into the yellow and orange zones again.
What possibly could I find problematic with the theme of service as a part of discipleship? Isn't this what I believe discipleship is really about? Isn't the lesson finally coming around to what I believe about discipleship? Yes, but... I think the lesson takes it too far and seems to place the emphasis in the wrong place.
Most of us, I believe, are quite familiar with the concept of legalism. It is commonly understood as attempting to gain merit with God through obedience to His commandments, particularly the ones that begin, "Don't." It leads to a religion of avoidance of sin in order to achieve some sort of perfection.
Is it possible to go the other way? Can there be a legalism of "Do's?" Can the good fruits, the results, of salvation be mistaken for salvation itself? Or turned into a way of obtaining merit, or somehow proving that a person is a true disciple? Can acts of service become legalism? I think this is why my discomfort-o-meter jumped up this week. I found statements and questions in this week's lesson that together, could easily lead to this kind of legalism.
Adventists (or any other Christian) that tend to minimize the commandments in favor of emphasizing action, might inadvertently fall into this kind of legalism. Those that emphasize doing good and social action over strict commandment-keeping might be in danger here. Instead of falling into pride for their good commandment-keeping, they might fall into pride for all the compassion, love, and mercy that they show. Both ditches are just as bad. I'm speaking to myself here too, because I very much fall into the service side of the equation.
Some specifics that raised my discomfort this week follow.
In Sunday's lesson, the final paragraph ends, "Inspired by Jesus, she began her service immediately upon recovery." The implication made by this statement is that Peter's mother-in-law's call to action was the healing. While that may be true, the application seems to stretch the story in order to make this point. I find it much more likely that because she now felt well, she went about doing what culture and society expected her to do; what she would have been doing anyway had she not been ill. Why does Luke, in particular, note the immediacy? I think it simply has to do with Luke wanting to show to his readers that her recovery was indeed immediate and complete. I don't think it had anything to do with service, per se. When the detail of the story is stretched, one can get the wrong impression that a true disciple must immediately jump into service action after becoming saved. This seems to ignore the whole point of the earlier lesson where teaching and training as emphasized as necessary preparation...
In Monday's lesson, the "lesson," according to the Study Guide, from the story of the paralytic lowered from the roof is the actions of the friends and how they pushed aside and scaled all obstacles to help their friend receive healing. Is Luke's point in including this story to show future disciples that they too, must do all they can to overcome obstacles? Or is this once again trying to make a major point about an incidental detail? My reading of the passage (Luke 5:17-26) seems to show to me that the point of this passage is that salvation (healing, forgiveness) comes to those who believe. This story appears to illustrate how those that are physically paralyzed are much easier to restore to complete health (physically and spiritually) than are those who are paralyzed spiritually. In the overall flow of Luke's accounts, this story serves to show Jesus as God by forgiving sin. It seems to be less about the people than about Jesus.
Tuesday and Wednesday appear to share a similar theme: persecution and hardships. This is where my discomfort-o-meter really triggered. Tuesday's final paragraph reads:
The important point to remember is that following Jesus will cost us big, one way or another. If it does not, then perhaps something is wrong. Maybe we are deceiving ourselves. In the end, we must realize that our witness and life of discipleship, of discipleship in action, can lead to dissension and division among even those to whom we are the closest. It does not always have to be that way, but Jesus wants us to realize that it can, and not to be surprised by it when it does.
Even the last sentence, though bringing a bit of perspective on the whole thing, still retains the assumption that a disciple of Christ will experience persecution and hardships. Wednesday's lesson ends with the following questions:
In other words, what could it cost us here, in this life, to be actively involved in discipleship? What changes do you need to make in order to be truly a disciple of Christ?
Again, the assumption seems to be that discipleship must involve sacrifice and cost. And if a disciple isn't experiencing them, then something is wrong and changes must be made. How is this different from ascetics or individuals that go around beating themselves? If I'm not receiving persecution from the community around me, or if I'm not having difficulties with at least some of my family, must I go out and deliberately do and say things that offend them so that they will persecute me? Is there a difference between observations about what can happen, and turning that into almost a command and a test of discipleship?
In many parts of the world, yes, Christ's disciples do face persecution and hardship. But in many other places, particularly in the United States, most do not. Does that mean we aren't doing enough, or we aren't doing the right things? I don't think so. Jesus was speaking to disciples at a time when following Him would lead directly to persecution. If Jesus spoke to us today, in North America, I have a feeling He would state it much more in terms of possibility rather than immediate certainty.
Finally in Thursday's lesson the final paragraph reads:
Again, as we can see, discipleship is action. Those who become disciples are those who obey, who do the things that Jesus commanded. With these words, Jesus utterly destroys any notion that salvation is purely an intellectual assent to certain doctrinal truths. Though that is certainly part of what it means to be a disciple, it does not end there. Disciples are those who follow Jesus, and we follow Jesus by obeying Him—and we obey Him, not in order to be saved, but because we already are saved, in Him.
I first have an issue with the sentence, "Jesus utterly destroys any notion that salvation is purely an intellectual assent to certain doctrinal truths." The impression I get from this statement is that there is in fact a place for doctrine in salvation. What happened to salvation by faith through grace alone?!
Now going back to the paragraph as a whole, what did Jesus command and what does it mean to obey it? 1 John 3:23-24; 1 John 5:1-5; John 13:34; John 14:15-24; and Romans 13:9 make pretty clear what Jesus' command is. When 1 John 5 says that God's children keep His commandment, it is in the context of what came before: 1 John 3. When John 14 talks about keeping Jesus' commandment, it is in the context of what came before: John 13. Paul, in Romans 13, agrees with John's formulation of Jesus' commandment.
To wrap things up this week, I am once again somewhat disappointed with what I got out of the Study Guide. I got the impression that in order to be a true disciple, one must do certain, specific things. I don't accept the (implied) need for all disciples to experience persecution and hardships.
I don't think Jesus' disciples are supposed to go around looking for things they can do. I think that Jesus' disciples are simply to live the lives that God has given them, in places God has placed them, and relate in a loving, accepting, and forgiving manner with all the people that God has placed in their circles. I do agree that love will show itself in action. But to concentrate on action makes the deeds and the service more important than love. It makes service into an idol. It turns service into legalism. And I cannot go along with that. I must watch myself that I don't fall into that trap.
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