We were supposed to close on our new home tomorrow. As it stands we won’t be closing until the first week of July. Some silly rule about having to have 30 days of pay stubs to prove employment. Since I just started here, giving thirty days of pay stubs is impossible until the first week in July.
Grrrrr….
I understand the purpose of this regulation. It is a good thing that our banks and those involved in lending do their homework to verify employment and such. That’s a good thing. But there really ought to be alternative forms of documentation. What is happening in our case is that someone is just staring at the letter of a regulation and not considering the spirit of the thing. We could give them about any paper they need as a church that would verify my employment and the fact that it takes an awful lot to fire a pastor in a Baptist church.
For one particular FHA underwriter, thirty days of pay stubs equals thirty days of pay stubs and it cannot equal anything else. That’s what the regulation says and we can’t move on that. But in reality what thirty days of pay stubs ought to be is a means to verify employment and a steady flow of income. If you can do that sans pay stubs then it ought to work. But it’s not because this person is going by the letter of the regulation and not the spirit of the thing.
The Pharisees did the same thing with the Law. For them, do not work on the Sabbath equaled do not work on the Sabbath and it cannot equal anything else. But as Jesus says the Sabbath was made for man—not man for the Sabbath. And so it is foolish to wait until the end of the Sabbath to heal someone. Because Sabbath is a means of continually reminding us that God is in charge and that His Kingdom is coming to bring eternal rest. Healing a paralytic does that just as much as not picking up sticks.
As I reflect on this, I realize that it is not only Pharisees and FHA underwriters that follow the letter of laws and regulations instead of the spirit of the thing. It’s me too. I’ve got an idea in my head of how the world should be. Of how my children should act. Of what other professing believers ought to look like. I’m even a Pharisee with myself. And when they (or I) don’t match up to my letter I respond with my red stamp of disapproval just as fast as an FHA underwriter rejects a loan.
Of course regulations and such are in place for a reason. This is not an attempt to have some loose interpretation of what makes a disciple of Jesus. Nor is this saying that my children shouldn’t have certain expectations to meet. But what it does mean is that we no longer view people only through the letter but we view people through the lens of the Kingdom.
I’ll close with an example. There was a guy who I had the opportunity to lead to Jesus. This guy was rough. Super rough. He said things that’d make you cringe. And he’d do this even after coming to Jesus. But if you knew the guy before he came to Christ you’d celebrate how much the Lord had already done on redeeming his tongue.
If you didn’t know his story and all you heard was one of his slip-ups, then you might dismiss him. You might not go so far as to say “this guy can’t be a Christian” but you would likely assume that you were doing a bit better in sanctification than him. But in actuality what the Lord was doing in this man’s heart and life was phenomenal.
And that’s what I mean. Let us be a people that view others through the Spirit and not through the letter. The letter kills…it gives you a big disapproval stamp. But the Spirit…though often more unconventional than makes u comfortable…gives life.
