The perception of Christians in Western culture these days is growing increasingly negative, in large part because we are seen as focused on telling other people what to do and what not to do. Regrettably, that view has some truth to it. Regrettably, but not surprisingly; after all, we don’t cease to be sinners just because we start going to church. Even the most Christlike people I have ever known were simul iustus et peccator, in Luther’s phrase, simultaneously saint and sinner. The redeeming work of Jesus in our lives by the power of his Holy Spirit is the deepest reality of our hearts, but the reality of the sin in our hearts is very deep as well.
One of the effects of our sin is a proclivity to read our Bibles the wrong way ’round. As I’ve said before, the imperatives of Scripture are there to tell us how God wants us to live toward others (and, before that, toward him), but our pride and selfishness want to use them to demand things of others instead. In Ephesians 5, for instance, writing about marriage,
Paul’s comments about women are addressed to women, and his words about men are addressed to men. Much of the misuse of this passage has arisen because we like reading it the other way around. We want it to be about what we deserve to get from our spouse. Thus, for instance, generations of men have read verse 22 as if it said, “Husbands, your wives are supposed to submit to you as to the Lord.” Newsflash: it doesn’t.
We focus on what our spouse is supposed to do for us, but that’s not what this passage is about. . . . Paul doesn’t say, “Boss each other around in reverence for Christ.” He gives each of us our own marching orders. It’s for each one of us to take care of our own responsibilities; if we’re married, it’s for each of us to love and serve our spouse as God calls us to do, and let God and our spouse work on our spouse.
The interpretive principle here is simple: read your own mail. I need to read God’s word for what he’s calling out of me, not for what others are supposed to do, and you should say the same. Under-standing Scripture means standing under it, seeing its authority as running from God to us rather than something for us to wield over other people. (This is why James says those of us in the church who teach incur a greater judgment. Preaching and teaching the word of God are only legitimate if we do so in the authority of God under which we ourselves are standing even as we speak; this is the prophetic aspect of ministry, as the call is to say, “Thus says the Lord.” If we dare to do that, all our details might not be right—we are imperfect, limited beings—but our hearts had better be.)
Having said that, we need to go deeper. When people in the church use Scripture as a tool to command and coerce others, it’s easy to denounce that as legalism and call it a day, but that’s not the real story. While legalism is a constant temptation for the church, the issue here is that we want to claim what we think we deserve. The commitment to read our own mail requires us to set those claims aside—to put them in the Lord’s hands and let go.
This is deeply countercultural in the contemporary West, which is dominated by rights language. We frame almost everything in terms of rights—what are my rights, what are your rights, what are their rights, whose rights are more important, and so on. This is why so many people are refusing so vehemently to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and to wear masks, because they understand the issue in terms of their personal rights and are determined to protect those rights. (Which makes me wonder if any of these recusants supported Obamacare, and if the intensity of those who did not might be due in part to its passage and implementation.)
We are lovers of justice, trained and conditioned to stand up for our rights; in the US, we have been taught that this is what being an American is all about. Is it any surprise that we read this mindset back into the Scriptures? After all, the whole idea of human rights is rooted in the Bible, in its insistence on the equal value of every human being and its statements as to the proper purposes of human governments. Doesn’t that mean God wants me to get my rights and defend my rights?
No. No, it doesn’t. It means that part of being a good citizen is to work to defend the rights of others. There is no scriptural warrant for insisting on our own rights. In the Scriptures, “right” is an adjective, never a noun. The word of God makes it clear, in various ways and from multiple angles, that he wants us to leave our results and our rewards in his hands. He wants us to focus on what he has given us to do and how he has called us to live toward himself and others, and trust him for whatever may come. As T. S. Eliot put it (in a different but analogous context),
For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.