The Temptation to Solve Everyone’s Problems

Luke 4.6-8 And he [Satan] said to him [Jesus], “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to.  If you worship me, it will all be yours.”
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”

Yesterday and today we returned to re|knew the blog of Woodland Hills Church pastor Greg Boyd. I am so grateful for the input Greg has had in my own life. Click the title below to read this at source.

How the Church is Tempted to “Do Good”

The previous post spoke of God’s call to the church to be resident aliens: a holy, distinct people who are set apart and peculiar when compared to the patterns of the world. The holiness of God’s kingdom is cruciform love, which constitutes our distinct witness to the world. Preserving this holiness and resisting the Devil’s temptation to do good according the patterns of the world is ongoing. When we succumb to Satan’s temptation it only reduces the kingdom of God to another version of the kingdoms of the world.

We are not to be ignorant of this temptation and how it lures us in. Therefore, it is helpful to understand how Jesus himself was tempted to do “good.” The Devil tempted Jesus by offering him all the kingdoms of the world without having to go to the cross (Luke 4:6-8). In essence, the Devil was offering him the very thing he came to get, for Jesus came for the people of the world, and people are always subjects of some kingdom or other. To rule the people, all Jesus had to do was submit to the “god of this age” and leave him in place as its ruling authority.

Without having to suffer and die, Jesus could have immediately taken a position as the functional lord of all these kingdoms. Jesus could have quickly overpowered evil in all societies. He could have immediately alleviated much, if not all, suffering and created a kingdom of the world that enacted perfect law, order, and justice. Not only this, he would have thereby fulfilled all Israel’s expectations of what a messiah was supposed to be.

The Devil’s temptation would not have been a genuine temptation for Jesus unless there was a lot of “good” wrapped up in it. The same is true for us today. However, if Jesus would have taken the course of action offered by Satan, Jesus’ rule would have been part of Satan’s system of domination, which currently runs the world.

Jesus refused this “good” approach. He did not come to make the kingdom of the world a new and improved version of itself. He came to transform “the kingdom of the world” into “the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah” and thereby establish the rule of God.

As tempting as it was, Jesus was not going to allow the radical distinctiveness of the kingdom of God to be co-opted by the demonically ruled kingdom of the world—even if the immediate results were “good.” John Howard Yoder once wrote: “The cross is not a detour or a hurdle on the way to the kingdom. It is the kingdom come.” Sacrificial love, therefore, isn’t simply an effective way to make the world a better place, it is the “set apart” kingdom of God on earth! When one obeys God and loves as Christ loves in a kingdom-of-the-world context, it always looks like this.

This is why everything hangs on not allowing it to become co-opted by immediate, obvious, and self-serving kingdom-of-the-world methods, however good the immediate consequences may appear.

—Adapted from The Myth of a Christian Nation, pages 73-75.

 

Living as an Alien in this World

Romans 12.2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

II Timothy 2.4 No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer.

I Peter 2.11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.

Philippians 3.20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Today and tomorrow we’re returning to re|knew the blog of Minneapolis pastor and author Greg Boyd. Although Greg has some views on some subjects with which others might disagree, readers shouldn’t let that invalidate his entire ministry. Click the title below to read at source.

Being a Resident Alien

In the midst of the political turmoil our country is experiencing, the church is called to play an important role. We sit between the revelation of the love of God on the cross and the full manifestation of the kingdom of God on earth. God wants to work with us and in us to grow his kingdom. He longs for a people who minister on earth in the way that Jesus ministered when he walked the earth.

The enemy that confronted Jesus in his earthly ministry continues to confront the “body of Christ” today. Though God’s archenemy was in principle defeated on the cross, this victory is not yet fully manifest.

Even after the resurrection, Satan is still the god of this age, the ruler of the power of the air, and the one who opposes the advancement of God’s kingdom. The world is still “enemy-occupied territory.” The “pattern of this world” is still demonically structured, and so we must still resist being conformed to it (Rom 12:2).

We who have Christ being formed within us are no more at home in this present world system than Jesus himself was, and so our attitude toward the present world system must be the same as his. His kingdom was not of this world, and we who are part of this kingdom must never forget that we are not of his world either (see John 17:16).

Therefore, we are not to let ourselves get overly entangled in “civilian affairs” (2 Tim 2:4). Instead we are to see ourselves as aliens and exiles in a foreign country (1 Peter 2:11). Whatever country we may naturally belong to, we are to remember always that our real citizenship is in heaven (Phil 3:20).

Whatever opinions we have about how to solve society’s problems—even in the midst of great turmoil about huge political questions—we are to remember always that we cannot serve two masters (Luke 16:13). Our allegiance can never be to any version of the kingdom-of-the-world. We are to see ourselves as “resident aliens.” We are in the world, but are not of the world any more than Jesus was of the world.

We must march to the beat of a different drummer. Preserving this “alien status” is not an addendum to our calling as kingdom-of-God citizens. The way we advance the kingdom of God is by being the unique kingdom of God in contrast to the kingdom of the world.

We are to be a “holy” people (2 Cor 6:17), consecrated and set apart. We trivialize this profound biblical teaching if we associate holiness with fighting political battles according to the patterns of this world. We are called to be Christlike, living in outrageous, self-sacrifical love in the midst of those who do not.

If you make this your life aspiration, you will certainly be peculiar (about as peculiar as a Messiah dying on a cursed tree!). You will be, in fact, a “resident alien.”

—Adapted from The Myth of a Christian Nation, pages 69-71