Our Search For Relevance

There is seldom a day that goes by when we are not bombarded with methods and ideas about how we can better convey the gospel to the lost world around us. We constantly see new Bible translations that are easier to read, and the ways that we communicate are under continual scrutiny as we endeavor to become more “sensitive” to those who have no knowledge of God, or His Word.


While it cannot be denied that communicating the gospel more effectively is beneficial, we must be discerning as to how we go about doing this. We live in a day where “diverse and strange teachings (Heb. 13:9)” have crept into the church and are seemingly drawn from every conceivable source – even sources that are anything but biblical. Things like divine healing, miraculous occurrences, authenticity of Old Testament accounts and even the authority of the Bible itself is questioned by many who claim to be Christians. Some have gone so far as to completely eliminate many words, such as sin, judgment and repentance from our religious vocabulary.

In this religious climate where “relevance” and “social acceptance” seem to be the goal of many Christians, how should we handle the Word of God? What do we say to those who are not Christians, and in what ways do we relate to them?

In conversations and various religious writings we are continually told that Christians are guilty of using religious terms and ideas that are above those who do not know Jesus Christ, and that those terms need to be replaced with something that they will more readily understand. Is that really our problem? With biblical illiteracy a major problem among professing Christians it is very difficult to believe that the biggest problem we face is talking above what people understand, especially when we consider the fact that Christians with the biblical knowledge to do such a thing are few and far between. When we consider the life and ministry of Jesus, do we really see such a concern with making the gospel palatable to the people of the world? Did Jesus ever compromise so that people around Him would listen to the doctrines of God?



Then the disciples came and said to him, "Why do you speak to them in parables?" And he answered them, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: "You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.” But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. -Matt. 13:10-17



As we consider the purpose of parables in the teaching of Jesus, it becomes evident that His priority was not to teach the revelation of God in a way that would be appealing, or even understandable, to everyone. In fact, His purpose was to drive away those who did not really have a willing heart, and to draw those who earnestly wanted to know the truth of God. We read in verse 15, “For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed…” The fact that we must deal with is that many just do not want to know the truths of the Kingdom of God. They are content to walk in the darkness of the world. Jesus understood this reality and taught accordingly. He did not spend great amounts of His time trying to convince people of things they would not understand anyway, and did not really care to understand. He understood the message the Apostle Paul would later relay to the church in Corinth. “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned (1 Cor. 2:14).”

Jesus did not spend His ministry on earth “convincing” people of the work of God as much as He spent it “investing” in them. In verse 12 He shows this desire to invest in those with an interest in serving God when He says, “For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

The economy of God’s Kingdom does not function on monetary funds, but on truth. It is subject to the truth that is revealed through Jesus Christ about the character of our King. Much like the economy of the world today, it is much easier for those who already have money to invest. Those who do not have sufficient funds must save what little they have in case of an emergency. Jesus spent His time on earth investing in those who were willing to invest themselves in the work and the truth of God. Jesus used parables to teach those whose hearts were willing to seek God’s truth above all else. This is why He taught, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you (Matt. 6:33).” When our hearts are open to what God is revealing through His Word and by His Spirit we will continue to see His investment in us, but if our eyes are closed, our ears do not hear, and our hearts are not willing to invest in His Kingdom we will not see or understand the power of God at work in and around us. God’s truth must come first, because it is the currency of His Kingdom, and it will lead us into a deeper relationship with our King. Oswald Chambers teaches the extent to which we must seek the truth of God:



“Our Lord teaches that the one great secret of the spiritual life is concentration on God and His purposes. We talk a lot about consecration, but it ends in sentimentalism because there is nothing definite about it. Consecration ought to mean the definite yielding of ourselves over as saved souls to Jesus and concentrating on that…God can do what He likes with the man or woman who is abandoned to Him. God saves us and sanctifies us, then He expects us to concentrate on Him in every circumstance we are in…At the bar of common sense Jesus Christ’s statements are those of a fool, but bring them to the bar of faith and the Word of God, and you begin to find with awestruck spirit that they are the words of God.”



If we understand these words of Jesus, and the teaching of Scripture, we see that the reason people of the world do not understand Scripture has much less to do with our lack of clarity and much more to do with the fact that they are not seeking the truth of God. They are looking to the world and all of its knowledge and ideas to find an understanding of life. They are looking every conceivable place except the source of all truth and knowledge – God. We should have no reason to wonder why the world cannot understand spiritual truth given to us by God. We have no need to “rethink” how we package the gospel, or the words we use to convey it because the Holy Spirit has not been allowed the opportunity to work in the hearts of those with whom we deal. If the Holy Spirit is at work and they are seeking God’s truth then we simply need to allow God to work. “When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of you Father speaking through you (Matt. 10:19, 20).” Martyn Lloyd-Jones speaks to this issue:



“Is it not tragic? Is this what is keeping people from Christ? Do you think that people two hundred years ago knew anything more about justification and sanctification than they do today? Were those the common terms of a thousand years ago? Is that the difficulty? No, it is the heart of man, it is the evil that is in him. It is not a question of language, it is not a question of terminology, yet we pin our faith to this.”



In our search for “relevance” in our modern world we have placed our faith in many things. We look to marketing agencies, and cultural trends. Many have placed their faith in sociological studies and statistics. From the pages of Holy Scripture comes the truth that¸”The Lord is with you while you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you (2 Chron. 15:2).” The purpose of the parables of Jesus Christ was relevance. Not relevance to a sinful culture, or to those who wanted an easy way out of the lives with which they had become accustomed. The purpose was to invest in those who were willing to seek God. Jesus taught in parables so that the “mysteries” of the Kingdom of God would become relevant to any and all who desired to know them. As we look at the parables of the Kingdom we must remember that as we earnestly seek the truth of God, He will reveal Himself to us in ways we have never known.

Passing On Our Curses

In Scripture names were given with a purpose.  When given by God they described the work that He intended to do in the lives of those whom He used for His purposes.  The children of Hosea and Gomer were used by God to show the transgression of the people of Israel.  Not only was their mother an adulterous woman (some translations say a woman of "whoredom"), but the consequences of her unfaithful lifestyle were passed onto her children.  This is evident by the names they were given (see Hosea 1:3-8).  Gomer seemed to be willing to live a lifestyle that gave no consideration to the legacy and consequences she might have been passing on to the next generation.

I wonder if we are not guilty of this in the church today.  It seems like we are very willing to compromise the Word of God and don't really even need a good reason or explanation to do so.  We know what it says about specific things and just ignore it.  What does that say about our faith?  Or, more importantly, about our view of God? 

We have become willing to compromise our reliance on God's power to the point that we could accurately say that we have turned our backs on Him.  Rather than relying on the power of God the church relies on business models, church growth programs, meetings and brainstorming sessions, and whatever idea we believe might "sell our product."  We even go so far as to cancel worship services and prayer meetings to go into the community and do good works for those of the world in hopes that we can bribe them into listening to the gospel someday. The problem is that none of this is portrayed in Scripture.  It all comes from the mind of man.

The problem with all of this (besides the obvious issue that our relationship with God is compromised because we are idolizing the mind of man) is that we are passing on a curse to future generations.  Like the children of Hosea, the church is being given a name that gives little hope for a vital relationship with God in the future.  When our focus is not spiritual, but on good works and material things then the next generation of the church will become focused on all those things.  Rather than being the church of God (or the church focused on God) we become the "community church" (which is rightly name when the focus is not on God).  I am not saying that we forget about the great commission.  We are all called to win the lost.  But to what do we win them?  Community service organizations?

It seems that in all of the meetings and brainstorming that we have we forget about one great truth.  It's God's church!  It is not our responsibility to organize or administrate it.  We are simply to seek God's will and submit to it.  The church is a far cry from seeking, much less submitting to anything other than our own ideas based on cultural whims.  We are doing everything in our power to pass on a curse. 

Sometimes it seems like the only hope that remains for the coming generations is that even in spite of the circumstances that were passed on to them God can still redeem.  He can still call the willing heart back to Him.  God can overcome the curses passed on from one generation to the next, but only God can.  But He shouldn't always have to.  It would be far better for the next generation if the curse of a church that has committed "whoredom" with the idols of the world had turned back to God before the consequences of her sin were passed on in the first place.