THE GIFT OF BIBLICAL RELATIVISM
Dear friends,
Please pray that I will grow “big ears”. Please pray for the Church of the Messiah - both for the people who call Messiah their church home, and for the ministries that we do together - that we will grow “big ears”. In other words, please pray that I will listen well, and that together we will listen well. Pray that I will listen to what is being said and done today, and then preach and lead in light of this. It is easy to miss what is going on today, and to talk and lead as if it was 10, 20, or 50 years ago.
I attended an uber-liberal seminary. Upon ordination I was an assistant at a large suburban church for three years. Then I went to serve 4 small, very rural churches. About a year or so into my ministry in these rural churches, the Holy Spirit convicted me of a painful truth. My preaching/leading was biblical, but I was still, in a sense, arguing against my uber-liberal profs and the many “soft-liberals” in my previous church. I was not actually preaching to (and leading) the mainly working class rural people in my new church. I was not listening to their questions, struggles and doubts. It is always humbling to be convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit. In Heaven I will probably find out that some faithful people in the church had been praying that the Lord would convict me, and that I would receive His conviction. By God’s grace, He did convict me, and by His grace, I received it, and began to change.
I mention all of this because of a sea change that has taken place in North America over the last few years. Up until very recently, many Canadians were moral relativists. Pastors and apologists would argue against moral relativism, showing how it was unbiblical, unwise, incoherent, and inconsistent. But today? Where have all the moral relativists gone? In North America today we are overwhelmed with fervent moral absolutists. Now is not the time to argue against moral relativism, now is the time to commend the gift of biblical relativism. A few points.
First, the Bible teaches that there are moral absolutes, but it does not teach moral absolutism. Another way to say this, is to say that the Bible teaches that there is black and white, but it does not teach that everything is black and white. There are other colours as well. For example, the Bible teaches that killing an innocent human being is wrong, and that stealing is wrong. These are moral absolutes. But the Bible does not talk about many, many things, such as speed limits, forms of government, or how many people can immigrate to your country. Moral absolutism is the drive to see more and more areas of life as black and white. The Bible, by having some moral absolutes, makes clear that moral absolutes exist. But by having very few moral absolutes, shows that moral absolutism is not true.
Second, the Bible has only a few moral absolutes and they seamlessly co-exist with a large realm of freedom. Galatians is a great case-study on this. There is the ringing phrase “For freedom Christ has set us free, stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1 ESV). The Gospel is an absolute truth, and this “relativizes'” such classic “cultural absolutes of worth” as the difference between people groups/nations, Pagan and Jew, male and female, and slave and free. The Gospel redeems us to begin to live an authentic human life. So we see a picture of God’s world where there are real moral absolutes coexisting with the deep and wide freedom that God intends for His children.
Third, just because a matter is not black and white does not mean that all views are equal. Some things really are matters of indifference, like what flavour of ice cream you like. Many matters in life are important, but rather than being a matter of moral absolutes, they are matters discerned on the sliding scale of wise to foolish. There are wiser forms of government than others. There are wiser ways of organizing a business than others. The difference is one of degree; this economic or social policy is wiser than the alternatives. Christians need to reject absolutism in these and other areas, but also to warn against relativism, so that people will seek wisdom and flee foolishness. If you read the Book of Proverbs you will see that wisdom requires: study, listening, questions, change, practise, instruction, rebuke, seeing beneath appearances - and may other matters, all in the context of knowing that the Triune God exists and has spoken. So while it is wrong to categorically condemn economic or policy analyses you disagree with (the absolutist stance), it is also wrong to believe that the differences between economic or policy analyses do not matter - we need to do the hard and patient work of discerning the wisest way forward.
Finally, forget “inclusion”, think “neighbour”. Often today the language of “inclusion” is used to demonize and exclude people. As a Christian, you should be sceptical about “inclusion” and its barely concealed, but growing, list of absolutes. Tragically, the quest for inclusion is often a journey into absolutism. Instead, you should see the “other” as your neighbour - and then seek to foster neighbourliness and “neighbourhoods.” No wise person seeks to force all their neighbours to think the same way, value the same things, or eat the same foods. But, as long as there is no evil being done by your neighbour, you should seek to be a good neighbour, looking out for each other, respecting each other, caring for each other, and letting each other be. The Bible tells you to care for your neighbours. It provides the resources to know true absolutes; fosters the lifelong search for wisdom; leaves a large sphere for freedom; and teaches you to see the “other” as your neighbour. Pray that you and I will be disciples of Jesus gripped by the Gospel, learning to live for God’s glory. Pray that you and I will be instruments of His peace, sharing the biblical wisdom of relativism, in a time of absolutism and the contention that it breeds.
George+