The more I continue to teach children in Sunday school, the more God has allowed me to grow to help break down and simplify what He has taught us through His word. Breaking down the overly large words and theologies so that even a child can understand is somewhat challenging but has been very important in being able to see clearer the pitfalls adults have with following Christ. Why? Well I’ve found over and over again that for the older age groups, we tend to overcomplicate things to the point where these simple truths can be missed completely and as such, they no longer resonate with us. Just think about it, if a child could understand God’s truth and be conscious to live it out, how shameful is it that as adults, we ourselves struggle with accepting and applying these truths even though we think ourselves to be wiser and more seasoned in the faith? Our supposed years of wisdom may actually become more detrimental than you think.
And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 18:2-4 (ESV)
To have full trust and humble submission in faith to the Lord as simple as a child’s is what most of us adults forget when we overcomplicate our view of theology and practice of God’s truth in our lives. We make excuses to justify ourselves and we use our theological and external knowledge to defend our pride. All this leads to a lack of focus on what’s most important… God and our whole love and worship of Him for those who are saved by His blood. Now I’m not trying to dissuade anyone from learning God’s word in-depth because that’s what we should be doing to get a greater understanding of how magnificent God truly is. Learning God’s word in a deeper manner will allow us to better know what we need to do to live a life pleasing to the Lord. But in the same instance, if we are too fixated on only certain details that (if we were honest) may align more with our human biases, we will forget to see God in ALL His attributes and the full spectrum of what we should be in Christ.
Let’s make something clear, simplifying your view of God’s word doesn’t mean taking God’s word out of context. Literalization of God’s word without understanding its context will lead you on a path completely opposite of where you should be going to have a true walk with the Lord. When I say simplify your view of God’s word, I mean take God’s word in its context, and then break it down to see God’s full attributes shine in them. It means not getting lost in the smallest details but bringing it all back to the greater focus, which at the end should always be loving and worshipping God first, loving others above ourselves and lastly cutting out our own selfishness altogether.
I recently went through a lesson regarding the 6th commandment “You shall not murder” and how biblically, unrighteous anger is judged in the same weight as murder (Matthew 5:21-22). The children learnt that sin starts from the heart (Matthew 15:19) and when you keep that anger/resentment inside, it will grow and affect the way you think and react to others. They learnt that despite being treated unfairly or in a hurtful manner that we are told to still love people who hurt us (Luke 6:27-28) because that is how Jesus loved people despite them mistreating Him including every single one of us in our sins. We were all created equally in God’s image so an unloving reaction towards others is putting more value on yourself than the next person (just like murder). At the end of the day, people mistreating us should never dictate how we react to them if we are focused on loving God and loving others the way Christ loves us. Simple enough right?
Well, even the most seasoned of us can get angry/annoyed and easily fall into the trap of this sin (I can be the first to admit that). But it is when we try to justify our sin using our so called “theological knowledge” that gets us into trouble. I’ve had my share of having to diffuse the anger or annoyances of Christian adults who were so focused on how they were treated wrongly or unfairly that they either tried to biblically or externally justify their stance in unrighteous anger or kept mulling over their mistreatment to the point where they were allowing that to grow and affect the way they looked at others. Once it starts, it’s poisonous and it spreads. When I taught this lesson to my students and asked them whether they mostly show a righteous or unrighteous anger towards others when they react to people mistreating them, they were very quick and wise to say “we definitely react in an unrighteous anger”. These children could admit to that. Yet as adults, we find ways to try and justify ourselves from a biblical or external standpoint which is merely trying to cover our selfish sins. We focus on the theology that works in our favour while disregarding all the other aspects of what God wishes us to be. Simply put it, we put ourselves above loving God first and loving others above ourselves.
Now remember when I said that knowing more biblical theology is a good thing to have a better appreciation of the Lord and better walk in a manner to please Him? Well it can also be a double edge sword if used incorrectly or if it isn’t practiced. There are those with a greater knowledge of biblical theology who are just as stubborn or even more so when it comes to protecting their sins or themselves using theological means. The fine balance between knowledge and practice can topple very quickly when one does not realize that they are using biblical theology as a shield for the very thing they are suppose to be fighting against. The enemy is first in us. We are to look at the sins we need to battle within ourselves first and this can be easily missed for those who can biblically justify what they believe to be godly conduct to dress their sins. We need to remind ourselves regarding checking ourselves just as Paul had to remind Titus about having believers under his care check themselves with regards to their attitudes.
Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Titus 3:1-5 (ESV)
Bottom line is that we cannot just look at our actions and situations through a single facet because God is multifaceted. Christians are to take into account ALL aspects of what Christ wishes us to become in Him. When we don’t take everything God teaches us through his word in its entirety and allow ourselves to only zero in on what suits us during the moment, we forget to assess our own sinfulness and will miss the learning opportunity to sin less and be more like Christ. When we overcomplicate our analysis of theology to the point where we completely forget the fundamentals of who God is and who we are suppose to be in Christ, we negatively affect the way we display Christ to others. I pray that God’s children would truly reflect on the need to constantly checking ourselves on a daily and moment by moment basis regarding the sins we do; being conscious and asking God to forgive us which also means making that effort to submit ourselves to the Holy Spirit to truly change what we need to change. It all starts with the heart and mind. For Christians, we need to be able to humbly submit and realize this so we can continue to grow in our love for God and others.
