In This Issue

• INFLUENCE

• ME-CENTERED RELIGION

• MORE INFORMATION...

INFLUENCE

There is an old adage that says, "Actions speak louder than words." And that is the truth. We call it "influence." The power one has to sway other people along certain courses of action because of his wealth, position, or ability. Influence, either for good or evil, follows in the wake of one's actions and not of what one says he will do or not do. One of the first places I fully came to be aware of this power was in the parent-child relationship. I would see parents warning their children not to smoke. In between their admonitions that smoking caused halitosis, hacking coughs, and lung cancer would be a puff from a cigarette and this feeble rebuke, "Now, don't do as I do but do as I tell you to do." Given man's propensity toward evil, I knew how far that advice went for the betterment of mankind.

What makes influence such a powerful tool is the fact that each of us possess it. There are people who watch us, who admire something about us, who imitate our actions. If put to its proper use, influence can be a great means of leading someone to obey Christ. Listen to Jesus, "For I have given you an example, that ye also should do as I have done to you" (Jno. 13:15). Jesus spoke of actions. Paul wrote, "Be ye imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ" (1 Cor. 11;1). Another apostle of Christ wrote of deeds, Peter said, "For hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow His steps" (1 Pet. 2:21). To follow anyone's footsteps, we must walk. The word "example" as used by Peter literally means "an under-writing." It refers to teaching children the alphabet. A copy of the letters of the alphabet would be distributed to each child. They would write underneath the example of the letter as it should be drawn, trying to reproduce it as closely as possible. We must pattern our lives after Jesus. We must do our best to live as He lived, "to be holy as He is holy." Thus, "by their fruits ye shall know them."

Influence Begins With The Heart: Only as we keep the seat of our intellect, emotions, and will unmixed with evil, can we expect to wield the silent power of influence for good. Solomon wrote, "Keep thy heart with all diligence; For out of it are the issues of life" (Prov. 4:23). In the ASV, "with all diligence" is footnoted "above all that thou guardest." We must see the necessity of keeping our heart right with God. We must see the danger in letting our thoughts aimlessly wander from sin to sin, of toying with its pleasures in our mind, of calculating our pursuit of it. We must heed the Lord, who was tempted like we are tempted, yet without sin, for He said, "For from within, out of the heart of men, evil thoughts proceed, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, covetings, wickednesses, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, railing, pride, foolishness: all these evil things proceed from within and defile the man" (Mk. 7:21-23).

Influence Is The Result Of Doing Good: If influence is sought for its own sake, then it is a matter of selfish pride and not an attempt to glorify God. The Pharisees were guilty of seeking their own glory above the glory of the Father.

They loved to spread their influence for the sake of spreading their influence (cf. Matt. 6:1-5). Jesus said, "Ye are the salt of the earth...Ye are the light of the world...so let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 5:13,14,16). The reason we do good works and influence others to do good works is not "to be seen of men." Rather, that being seen, others may understand that we serve God to glorify Him. We are the light of the world. We must penetrate the evil world and show forth the excellencies of Christ as surely as the light of a burning star pierces the darkness of night. We must preserve from corruption by giving life to people who are spiritually dying as surely as salt gives protection to meat that would decay and become rancid without it (cf. Phil. 2:15,16).

And above all things we must be steadfast, unmovable, constant in our endeavor to serve God. We cannot fellowship evil and expect our influence to be good. We must not fraternize with the enemy. Our teachings and deeds must be consistent. Surely we can see this in the life of Jesus. "He that is not with Me is against Me; and he that gathereth not with Me scattereth abroad" (Matt. 12:30).

- Chuck Durham via Gospel Power, Vol. 11, No. 40.

ME-CENTERED RELIGION

It has become increasingly fashionable to hear people protest organized or institutional religion in recent decades, as they have sought to invent their own religious systems, based on what they desire and think. This writer also finds much in current systems to protest, but for vastly different, biblical reasons. Their protests are grounded in their own selfish notions, and mine are based on the teaching of God’s Word. One main impetus giving rise to the community churches of recent decades has been the emphasis on selfish desires rather than the will of God. When human beings begin to view themselves as equal to God, they begin acting so by asserting their own will over His will and arrogating to themselves divine prerogatives. The importance of the individual truly has become the central organizing thread around which so much of the thinking and teaching of our time has clustered. For this reason there has been much discussion of “The Me Generation.”

Out of this emphasis on self, an entire “theology” has evolved, giving rise to me-centered religion. From beginning to end, however, such a religion is similar to those religions so often decried by “The Me Generation,” in its fundamental traits, to which we shall call attention in this article. Those traits form the basic tenets of the theology under girding this religion.

I am my own person; nobody tells me what to do.

Expressed in this assertion is the autonomy or independence of the individual from God and all others. Of course, such thinking runs into a brick wall when civil government is involved! To think that people can become so proud that they banish God from their concerns and lives in the thought that they are capable of directing their own course and that they are answerable to no one except self is the outrageous conclusion from this statement. Involved also is the idea of the authority of the individual, who views himself as supreme. He no longer is accountable to God, if there is a God. The Humanist Manifesto I and II from the last seventy years well express what has become dominant thinking with many. Many of this stripe believe that humans are the only “deity” involved in this world. Such thinking enthrones man and dethrones God. It is difficult to appeal to such thinking for self-denial, humility, lowliness, and trust in God (Mt. 16:24), or even for compassion, mercy, and kindness in human relations, when such arrogance prevails.

The entire record of divine revelation demonstrates man’s amenability to God. By reason of creation God has always had dominion over His creation. Initially, He directed Adam and Eve in their lives, though they soon manifested the spirit of self-sufficiency and autonomy that we hear condemned. Whenever human beings have obeyed the Lord, whether as individuals or as nations, they have benefited greatly. On the other hand disobedience to God has always brought troubles. The Christian belongs to God in a special sense, having been bought by Him for a price (1 Cor. 6:19-20). He is obligated to live to God’s glory in both body and spirit. Any doubters need to consult the inhabitants of Sodom, Jonah, or the nation of Israel to learn the value of seeking the guidance of God in their lives.

Be yourself.

Guided by the basic understanding of individual autonomy, legions have fallen victim to the appeal of one strain of modern psychiatry to live out their own individual dreams, to actualize their own potential in an effort to maximize their self-realization. The most important person is “you,” and the most significant culture is self-development along lines of one’s own choosing. Nothing that hinders the developing of self is allowable; all else become secondary.

Against this incorrigible spirit of self-determinism lies the demand of God for the alteration of self (Gal. 2:20). Only when the old self is crucified and the new self is formed in one’s life, according to the image of Jesus Christ, does one become spiritually useful to this world. To remain in the old mode of sinful living is to remain a spiritual drag and part of the world’s principal problem. The changes wrought by the Lord through the power of His Spirit-given Word produce a life that is both salt and light Mt. 5:13-16). Only in subordinating oneself to the will of Christ does one escape the slavery to sin that captures the old self (Rom. 6:10-18).

Your own self-realization is more important than any externally imposed creed. 

With the dominance of selfimbedded in the modern psyche, the groundwork is likewise laid for rejection of creeds (any religious idea or ideal that infringes upon what the individual desires or conflicts with it). The stubborn will of the individual becomes the impenetrable wall guarding the person against any Biblical concept of God or man. As the Gentiles rejected the idea of God, so have many today similarly repudiated Him. Lip service is too often the only service offered, and that until conscience no longer cries out for something more. No one knows you better than you do, and nobody thinks more highly of you that you do. Thus one reasons with himself into a stance of rejecting all that affords not the pleasure, contentment, or satisfaction that self demands. He then forms attitudes, speaks, and acts on the basis of what will promote his own self-realization (or self-actualization).

The value of the benevolent will of God should never be set aside. God has never spoken from whim but for man’s earthly and eternal good (Deut. 6:24). God’s own selfish pleasure has never been the motive behind the divine mind or plan, and man’s own selfish pleasure is always the motive that short-circuits the divine plan (Jas. 4:3; Mt. 6:24).

Express the deity (god) within you.

Though the materialist does not believe in any deity, he acts as if man is deity. He worships and serves the creature—both idols and self— rather than the Creator (Rom. 1:25). Others seem to think that the human being is somewhat divine, though they fail to believe in God in any genuine Biblical sense. The outcome of this endeavor is the defying of God and the deifying of man. The saddest reality of the present is that many live their lives as if there is no God. In doing so, they impede their own spiritual development and, to some degree, obstruct the salutary influence of the Bible.

Sources of me-centered thinking.

Every major stream has its tributaries; this “stream” of thought is no exceptions. Into it have flowed the influential contributions of many decades, thus gradually conditioning the minds of people for an acceptance of what once was unthinkable. What are these sources? 

Denominational creeds: They have fostered the idea that diversity of thought about God and His service is acceptable. They have also encouraged people to believe what they wish, making humans the final arbiters of what they choose.

New Age Thought/Eastern Religions: Being a hodgepodge of religious thought, it offers people something they want, encourages people’s autonomous view of themselves, and presents a view of humans as divine.

Secularism: Possibly its major contribution has been its “Don’t Worry—Be Happy” thinking.

Pluralism: This concept has become a major contributing stream in its stress on there being many paths to God.

Ecumenicalism: Recent decades have witnessed the merging of different religious bodies by the surrender of convictions and beliefs. In such a climate, it becomes acceptable to surrender God-required teaching to the preeminence of the individual.

Segmental Role of God: Too often God has been assigned His place in life, which has usually been some small part of life or some particular time in life, instead of the totality of one’s life. Such thinking motivates one to think of himself as superior to God.

It is easy to see the convergence of these varied sources into the stream of me-centered religion. How many of us have not been victimized to some extent by the thinking here reviewed. May all of us guard out hearts diligently, that we might subject ourselves to God. We must view ourselves as bondservants of Jesus Christ and even speak of ourselves in this way. What a difference between the way we have viewed such matters and the way Paul frequently spoke of himself!

- Bobby L. Graham, Bible Studies web page 

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