Engaging in Controversy Can Eat You Alive

Mike Leake

someone is wrong_zpsncnzkixrYou’ve likely seen the picture above. It’s humorous because even though we all realize engaging in online debate typically does little to persuade others, we still do it. This is not new.

In the late 1700s a fellow minister informed John Newton that he was going to engage another minister in a theological disagreement. Newton’s response, now titled On Controversy, encourages this minister to check his own heart when engaging in controversy. Newton admits that “it seems a laudable service to defend the faith once delivered to the saints”. But he also recognizes a significant danger in this enterprise. As Newton says, “we find but very few writers of controversy who have not been manifestly hurt by it.”

I could make a similar observation as Newton. Early in my blogging “career” I would have been found in some of those discernment ministry circles. I listened to Derek Webb’s Wedding Dress this morning and it stirred up in me some of the same affection which I had when I heard it twenty years ago. This line in particular is stirring: 

Cause money cannot buy
A husband’s jealous eye.,
When you have knowingly
Deceived his wife.

I have always been passionate about the church being people of integrity and walking in truth. And I’ve battled this call upon my own life as well. Newton has been a constant aid for me (this On Controversy letter in particular). I have watched as some of these warnings have consumed others—and I’ve seen the temptations bubble up within my own heart.

Newton’s Warning

Here is why Newton says “writers of controversy” are at a dangerous precipice:

  1. The temptation to grow in a sense of their own importance.

Controversy generates traffic. Flamethrowers and smoking dragons get attention on Twitter. But they often provide far more heat than light. When you engage in controversy and you get all this attention it can be a real temptation to think that you are more important than you actually are.

2. The temptation to imbibe an angry contentious spirit

Public anger seems to double rather than dissipate. The devil can easily put angry ideas within our mind, they can latch onto our disordered desires for anger, and then we can find a community ready to congratulate us. I have seen people who were once balanced, rational, gracious, and encouraging become absolutely overwhelmed by an angry spirit.

3. The temptation to insensibly withdraw attention from important matters to focus on secondary

There are things which will nurture our souls and will encourage the souls around us. These are often thrown to the side as we focus upon one particular area of truth or controversy. We can be consumed by our pet doctrines or our own causes.

This is why Newton called entering into controversy an honorable but dangerous task. He prayed that if this young man did enter into controversy that he would earnestly watch over his own soul. He further warned:

“it may become your own cause, and awaken in you those tempers which are inconsistent with true peace of mind, and will surely obstruct communion with God.”

I am taking this warning to heart. Fifteen years ago I was fighting for things like Calvinism and wanting to see pragmatism die within the church. The words of Newton tempered me. And I’m at a different place now. But I find that same impulse rising up within me when it comes to issues of justice and protecting the vulnerable. It’s a bit different battle, I think, but the temptations are the same. I need the words of Newton still today. Especially his call to “be upon your guard against admitting anything personal into the debate”.

Whatever side of any controversy you find yourself on these words of Newton are fitting and should be heeded:

If we act in a wrong spirit, we shall bring little glory to God, do little good to our fellow creatures, and procure neither honor nor comfort to ourselves. If you can be content with showing your wit, and gaining the laugh on your side, you have an easy task; but I hope you have a far nobler aim, and that, sensible of the solemn importance of gospel truths, and the compassion due to the souls of men, you would rather be a means of removing prejudices in a single instance, than obtain the empty applause of thousands. Go forth, therefore, in the name and strength of the Lord of hosts, speaking the truth in love; and may he give you a witness in many hearts that you are taught of God, and favored with the unction of his Holy Spirit.

May the glory of God be our aim at all times.

Review of Live No Lies by @JohnMarkComer

Mike Leake

9780525653134When I was a college student I was involved with a group of other students engaging our community with the gospel. Our vision was simple. Adopt a block. Go back every week and ask if we can pray for them. Share the love of Jesus as we are able.

On one occasion, I met a man who was of a different faith. As chance would have it, I had just studied on that particular religion in my world religion class. I was primed to engage. But the Spirit, I believe, stopped me dead in my tracks and just gave me one question to ask the man. “Do you have peace?”

I ended up praying that he wouldn’t sleep until he had peace. God answered my prayer. He didn’t sleep for a few days and eventually we were able to share with him the peace that Jesus gives. I share that story because I think the question I asked that man on that day would be a good one for any of us (even professed followers of Jesus). Do you have peace? Is the life you are living one that is marked by peace or something else?

John Mark Comer has written Live No Lies, because he too has noticed that we are not a people marked by peace. Comer believes he knows the problem. As he writes, “the world, the flesh, and the devil are alive and well; and aided by our skepticism, they are wreaking havoc in our souls and society.” (xxii)

For centuries Christians have identified the world, the flesh, and the devil as the great enemies to our soul. Live No Lies is a reinterpretation of these ancient categories for our contemporary society. Comer’s translation of those categories looks like this:

3-enemies

The book is then divided into these three categories. How has the devil given us deceptive ideas? How does our flesh with it’s disordered desires interact with these ideas? And how does our society normalize these wrong ideas about reality?

The Devil

Each section also has a helpful “step sheet” which can be used to summarize the main thoughts of each part. Comer summarizes part 1 (the devil) this way:

The devil’s goal is to first isolate us, then implant in our minds deceitful ideas that play to our disordered desires, which we feel comfortable with because they are normalized by the status quo of our society. Specifically, he lies about who God is, who we are, and what the good life is, with an aim to undermine our trust in God’s love and wisdom. His intent is to get us to seize autonomy from God and redefine good and evil for ourselves, thereby leading to the ruin of our souls and society. (99)

The way to combat this goal, says Comer, is to engage in quiet prayer and Scripture reading.This sounds overly simplistic, but he is correct. It is simple, not simplistic. This was the way of Jesus and it has been the way of the church for many centuries.

Comer is certainly correct that the preferred tactic of our real enemy is to implant deceitful ideas into our minds. We see this from Genesis 3 onward. It is important to see how these ideas move from our minds to our hearts, as well. Ideas are always intending to land in the heart.

I appreciate that Comer puts a great deal of focus on ideas. I think he is correct that as we’ve dismissed the idea of the devil we’ve sort of adopted the notion that ideas are neutral and innocent. Telling someone to watch what goes into their minds, feels like Pharisaical advice from days gone by. But what if it isn’t? What if we would be far healthier and happier if we had a steady stream of truth going into our minds instead of devilish ideas?

The Flesh

When the devil gives a devilish thought it finds a ready home in the unredeemed heart fueled by disordered desires. Sadly, there is often a ready home in the remaining corruption within believers as well. Comer summarizes this section thusly:

The devil’s deceitful ideas are not random; they appeal to our disordered desires, or what the New Testament writers call the flesh. The flesh is our animal side, the primal, instinctual drives of self-gratification and self-preservation. The solution is not to white-knuckle our way through but to live by the Spirit via practices that enable us to draw on the power of God to live in freedom. (189)

One of the best things that Comer brings out in this section is the older idea, lost in our time, that “our strongest desires are not actually our deepest desires” (121). These deeper desires are “often sabotaged by the stronger surface-level desires of our flesh” (122).

Comer does a great job of showing how if we allow these stronger desires to win we end up shackled by our own impulse for freedom. His chapter on the law of returns may be worth the price of the book. It’s a helpful reminder that actions have consequences. I think our society gets this when it comes to things like finances, health, etc. but we seem to not connect this with what it means to follow our desires. I appreciate Comer’s work in this area. Choice eventually forms character. And as Comer says, “Character is destiny” (166).

The solution is to live by the Spirit. Here, the author encourages spiritual disciplines such as fasting and confession. These are things which reshape our disordered desires and help us keep in step with the Spirit. The section on fasting may be one of the best explanations and encouragement to fast that I have read.

The World

We not only have devilish thoughts which connected to our disordered desires but we have an entire society ready to celebrate us on our foolish plunge into ruin. Comer summarizes our final enemy this way:

The devil’s deceptive ideas get as far as they do because they appeal to our flesh’s animal cravings. But these in turn find a home in our bodies through the echo chamber of the world, which allows us to assuage any guilt or shame and live as we please. As a result, evil is often labeled good, and good, evil; and the soul and society devolve into a reign of anarchy via the loss of a moral and spiritual true north. In such an exilic moment, the church as a counter-anti-culture has the potential to not only survive but also to flourish as a creative minority, loving the host culture from the margins. (243)

Comer does a great job of showing why believers cannot be at home in the world. But he also does a great job of showing how this should fuel our mission instead of leading to discouragement. I think he is spot on when he says this:

Right and Left are no longer two opposing sides that keep each other in balance; they are two rival religions locked in holy war with zealots fighting it out online and, increasingly, on the streets of cities like Portland or the halls of DC. (214-15)

The world is a polarized echo-chamber. Christians cannot afford to be swept up into this way of thinking. We are called to be a remnant—to gather with our church and be different from the world (both on the right and the left).

Conclusion

Comer’s book is certainly thought-provoking. Knowing his majority audience, Comer is bold in some places. The context in which he ministers is not going to appreciate some of what Comer says about what he believes to be a biblical sexual ethic. There are also places where some of his readers (perhaps in a more Bible Belt environment) may not think Comer went far enough.

Personally, I think he strikes a good balance and his overall thesis is worthy of consideration. It is helpful to consider what devilish thoughts may have crept in? Where am I being exposed to lies? And how are these attaching to my disordered desires? I also found myself thinking about my surroundings a bit more. Which devilish ideas would have a ready home in the “world” around me? Both on my social media “world” and the real world in which I live.

His chapter on “law of returns” was particularly helpful and challenging for me. I’m 40 and thinking through many things in life. It helped me to think about how I’m investing in my children and family and church and society. It encouraged me to put rhythms in my life to nurture some things and mortify others. This alone will mean that this book was beneficial to me personally.

This is a book I would recommend. You can purchase here.

How is Repentance Connected to Good News

Mike Leake

photo-1529692236671-f1f6cf9683baYou are given a plate as you enter the buffet line. Your friend had been raving about how wonderful this buffet was, and he finally talked you into coming. To be honest, you’re not very pleased with the selection. The selection is horrible, the meat looks only a step above a Carl Buddig ham sandwich, and the mashed potatoes are clearly from a cheap box of instant taters. But you dutifully fill up your plate—hoping that the drinks will help you was down this poor excuse for a buffet.

Just as you begin to sit down you notice a little room off to the side with a long line protruding from it. You have a little space left on you plate, so you step in that line in the hopes that you’ll be able to scooch over your soggy mac and get a little slice of edible pie or something. As you get closer to this buffet you realize that the meat is prime, the sides are delightful, and the vegetables look shockingly edible.

But you’ve only got a little spot left on your tray. What do you do? Do you double down and decide to just eat your “chicken that tastes like wood”, do you try to just pile the good stuff over top of the nasty, or do you ditch the whole tray and start fresh?

If you decide to dump the tray entirely you’ve engaged in what the Bible calls repentance. In the above scenario the decision seems obvious. And it seems obvious because there is something missing, emotionally, in the story. You aren’t dedicated to your pig slop in the above scenario. You realize that the mashed potatoes are boxed taters, you aren’t duped into thinking they are luxurious. The world, our flesh, and the devil are far more tricksy. But I share that above scenario to help Mark 1:14-15 make sense.

14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

We don’t tend to think of repentance as good news. But here Jesus is “proclaiming the gospel of God” and it seems that the context of this proclamation is that “the kingdom of God is at hand” and the only fitting response to this good news is to repent and believe that good news. We tend to think of repentance as the stuff of bitter battles and sorrowful and shame-filled stand-offs. But good news is actually what causes us to drop our slop bucket and stand in the line for the good stuff.

I’ve said before that I think the Puritan, Thomas Watson, might have gotten it backwards when he said, “until sin be bitter Christ will not be sweet.” I wonder if the beauty of the gospel is that the sweetness of Christ is what exposes the emptiness of sin.

When Jesus says that “the kingdom of God is at hand” you really only have three options.

1. Pit your kingdom against his

2. Try to add his kingdom to our own

3. Allow his kingdom to replace ours.

This is why Jesus says what he does about repentance and believing the gospel. By gospel he doesn’t mean the quite the same thing that Paul meant in 1 Corinthians 15. It would be a bit odd for Jesus to tell people to trust in his death and resurrection when those events have not yet happened. Instead what Jesus is calling people to do is to trust in the goodness of God’s kingdom, and entrust themselves to Jesus as the King of that kingdom. He is calling people to turn away from their own kingdom and replace it with His kingdom.

Drop your stank food entirely, grab a new plate, and feast upon the delicacies of Christ. That is the call of Mark 1:14-15. And we see this illustrated in the next passage. The calling of the first disciples is an apt illustration of what it means to “repent and believe the gospel.” It looks like “and immediately they left their nets and followed him”. They could have told him to buzz off. They could have attempted to add Jesus to their fishing business. But the beauty, as well as the demand, of Christ does not allow for these options.

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Photo source: here

When the Spirit Casts Jesus Out

Mike Leake

photo-1517513161821-807b5cb427fb

I will tell of the decree:The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. 8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. 9 You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” –Psalm 2:7-9

At Jesus’ baptism the Spirit descends upon Him and the Father proclaims, “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.” It’s obvious that in this declaration there is a call back to Psalm 2.

So what happens immediately following this inauguration? Psalm 2 would seem to indicate that the Son of God will take up sword and begin his quest of kicking tail. But it’s not. The shift in Mark is jarring, sadly broken up by our section divisions.

“The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.” –Mark 1:12

The word for “drove him out” is ekballo. It’s a word that is most typically used by Mark of Jesus driving out a demon. When you’re a bouncer and you need to remove some cat who doesn’t belong, you’d use ekballo to say you bounced him out on his head. Matthew and Luke use a different word (anago). It’s less jarring. It has the Spirit leading—or guiding by the hand—into the wilderness. Mark uses a word that would bring to mind a whip instead of wooing word. 

At this point commentaries and sermons tend to get caught up on the dynamic between the Spirit and the Son. Did the Son not want to go and so had to be driven? Of course not, but that’s getting sidetracked from what Mark is actually telling us.

Jesus’ baptism is a moment of glory. Then the Spirit enters in, like a bouncer, and throws Jesus out into the wilderness. It’s almost as if the Spirit is saying, “The Son doesn’t belong in this locale (pointing to glorious things) but in that (pointing to the place of the jackals and all things barren).

That is what Mark is doing here. But why? Why is he doing something a little different than both Matthew and Luke. I would propose that part of the reason is because Mark’s audience is largely Roman and they have a certain glory-bent that would grab ahold of this beloved Son and make him a warrior king instead of a Suffering Servant.

Mark’s whole gospel is driving to one beautiful declaration, “truly this man was the Son of God!” But what kind of Son of God is he? Mark labors for sixteen chapters to show us that he is the kind of Son of God who will choose a cross over a crown, spittle over splendor, pain over pomp.

Don’t mistake Mark’s message, though. Jesus does belong in glory. But the Spirit drives him out into the wilderness (fully in accordance with His own pleasure) because this is where humanity has placed themselves. We are “where the wild things are”. Therefore he must conquer our enemy in the wilderness.

I remember being taught that the safest place to be was smack dab in the center of God’s will. I understand the sentiment, but I don’t think the wilderness is every the safest place. But it’s a necessary place. Just as Mrs. Beaver said of Aslan, “he isn’t safe but he is good.” Yeah, obedience to the Spirit probably isn’t the safest but it’s the goodest (sic).

It’s also worth noting that the Spirit never abandoned Jesus while in the desert. “Angles were ministering to him” is what Mark says. He wants us to know that Jesus—though thrust into the darkness by the Spirit—was not abandoned by the Spirit. In the same way the Spirit will always go with us into these darkest places where we are following the footsteps of Jesus.

The Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness so that Christ could drive the wild out of the wilderness. He is redeeming all the broken things. That means us. He makes all things new—not by coercion but through suffering. He crushes the head of the serpent (dashes him to pieces) through a bloody cross and not a bloody sword. It is the Suffering Servant who rules the nations.

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Photo source: here