If I profess with loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except that little point which the world and the Devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point. –Martin Luther…supposedly
What a dangerous little quote this is in our outrage culture. There are battles being waged every day. There are many “little point” and I can pick and choose among several. And if that little skirmish doesn’t satiate me on Monday I can rest assured that by Friday I’ll have a new slate of battles to take up.
Now part of the problem with this quote is that it likely wasn’t even said by Luther. It likely came from a 19th century novel written by Elizabeth Rundle Charles. It sounds like Luther. It’s not necessarily inconsistent with Luther. But it’s not directly from his pen.
Secondly, when Luther did talk this way he was talking about boldly standing for Christ on essential doctrines like justification by grace alone through faith alone. Of course he did at times turn secondary issues (like Lord’s Supper) into primary issues. He was bull-headed and that came out at times. But I wonder how many of our social media spats would have Luther shaking his head.
Regardless of Luther’s response I’m confident that the apostle Paul—or better yet the Holy Spirit who inspired the apostle Paul—wouldn’t be pleased. I’m convinced we’ve missed the boat on discernment. What is needed in our day and age is actual discernment but that word has been hi-jacked by those who show little evidence of actually having discernment.
I say this because to be truly discerning means that you know what battles are worth fighting. True discernment knows which “little points” are actually being attacked by the enemy and what is merely being fanned into flame by misery-induced demonic forces. This is what Paul prays for the church at Philippi.
In Philippi you’ve got @Euodia and @Syntyche battling it out over who knows what. And you can almost guarantee that both of them are confident that they are doing the Lord’s work. But in reality their a couple of deer who are going to get mauled by a lion because they’ve locked horns over something stupid and they’ve forgotten the actual battle that is taking place.
So Paul prays that their love would abound more and more and that it would be that discerning love that is grounded in real knowledge of who Jesus is. And he prays this so that they can approve what is vital. In other words stop fighting about stuff that isn’t essential and get about the business of advancing the gospel. (Philippians 1:9-11)
I don’t know all the answers when it comes to women in ministry, social justice, and a host of other things that has our attention these days. But I do know that the way we argue about these things says more about us than what we say in all of this.
True discernment would perhaps say it might not be the best time to hash out the role of women in the pulpit when we’ve (SBC) just been exposed and dragged through the mud with our own #metoo movement. Is that really something essential, right now? And is social media the place for that? Or would it not be wise for a denomination which believes deeply in local church autonomy to hash this out on a local church level while we in the big tent be about the task of getting the name of Jesus to the nations?
Ah yes, but someone is wrong on the internet! There is a breach in the wall and gospel fidelity (according to “Luther”) demands that we put all of our effort into this one particular doctrine in this one particular season.
But love takes a different tone. Love learns to shut up for a season—to be quick to listen and slow to speak. Love has a happy confidence in the sovereignty of God because love is intimately tied to hope. And love is patient. That means you don’t have to stamp out every spark that you see or correct every error. Discerning love says, “we’ll get there.”
This is why I say we need real discernment; discernment which learns to pick the right battles for the sake of love. I’m not the biggest fan of the old “preach the gospel and when necessary use words”, but I think we certainly would do well with less words and more humble listening.
(And I’m not blind to the irony of writing on our need for silence).
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