One of the most interesting aspects of modern American Christianity is our desire for new commands. Scripture gives us all the information we will ever have about what God wants us to do, but we are not satisfied. We want something new, something catchy, something that makes us feel better than scripture makes us feel.
So, we make new commands. Wherever you look, there are people with catchy, marketable, and clever commands for you to follow. Remember WWJD? The idea was that it was a great way to get people to "be like Jesus," which has to be biblical, right? So, we just tell them to ask "what would Jesus do" in each situation. Two obvious problems arise. First, we know very little about what Jesus did in His day and nothing at all about almost anything that He would do today. We have very little information about the life of Christ. The gospels cover a very limited time and deal with very limited issues. The result, of course, is that WWJD becomes a method of getting people to "guess" what Jesus would do or, even worse, take orders from some other person (something, by the way, that Jesus would never have done).
Second, we are not Jesus. He is God. I am not. I cannot do what Jesus actually did do. I cannot multiply loaves and fish to feed the hungry. I cannot walk across water to get from A to B. I cannot calm a distraught parent by raising her child from the dead. I cannot take a whip to people who misuse property that I think is special. I cannot give people new names. I cannot tell a Samaritan woman all the things she ever did. I am not Jesus.
Asking WWJD, as it turns out, is useless as a guide for Christians, although it was fun and people made money on books and bracelets.
The newest thing today seems to be "passion." We are all being told that the key to the Christian life is "passion." We are to be "passionate" about our singing and about Jesus and about service and about giving money and all the other things we are told to do. Our "passion" is to be expressed in loud music and loud witnessing and loud gatherings and loud evangelism. Go on-line and look at videos from Passion Conferences for a taste, if you have not already come across this movement.
Trouble is, the Bible never suggests anything of this at all. The Bible talks about peace and quietness and gentleness and calm. The Bible says that we are to be gentle even with those who oppose us. 2 Tim. 2:24-26. The Bible says our ambition should be to live quiet lives. 1 Thess. 4:10-12; 1 Tim. 2:1-3.
The Bible says we are not to be passionate at all. We are to put to death the passions we have. Col 3:5. We are warned against teachers who will seek to please our passions. 2 Tim. 4:3.
So, the "passion" movement rests, as so many things do, on the attempt to come up with something new to replace scripture, but in such a way that it will not seem to do so. Paul never had what he, or we, would call a passion for Christ. He loved Jesus. He served Jesus. He feared Jesus. He preached Jesus. He lived his life and died his death for Jesus. He did not do this because of passion, but because Jesus was his king.
The Passion Movement, as such, is an attempt to get people to feel a certain way, just as WWJD was an attempt to get them to feel a different way, in order to control their lives. The Christian life is not about how passionate we are, but about how we love and obey Christ. He is our King. He is not seeking your passion. He wants your life.
So, we make new commands. Wherever you look, there are people with catchy, marketable, and clever commands for you to follow. Remember WWJD? The idea was that it was a great way to get people to "be like Jesus," which has to be biblical, right? So, we just tell them to ask "what would Jesus do" in each situation. Two obvious problems arise. First, we know very little about what Jesus did in His day and nothing at all about almost anything that He would do today. We have very little information about the life of Christ. The gospels cover a very limited time and deal with very limited issues. The result, of course, is that WWJD becomes a method of getting people to "guess" what Jesus would do or, even worse, take orders from some other person (something, by the way, that Jesus would never have done).
Second, we are not Jesus. He is God. I am not. I cannot do what Jesus actually did do. I cannot multiply loaves and fish to feed the hungry. I cannot walk across water to get from A to B. I cannot calm a distraught parent by raising her child from the dead. I cannot take a whip to people who misuse property that I think is special. I cannot give people new names. I cannot tell a Samaritan woman all the things she ever did. I am not Jesus.
Asking WWJD, as it turns out, is useless as a guide for Christians, although it was fun and people made money on books and bracelets.
The newest thing today seems to be "passion." We are all being told that the key to the Christian life is "passion." We are to be "passionate" about our singing and about Jesus and about service and about giving money and all the other things we are told to do. Our "passion" is to be expressed in loud music and loud witnessing and loud gatherings and loud evangelism. Go on-line and look at videos from Passion Conferences for a taste, if you have not already come across this movement.
Trouble is, the Bible never suggests anything of this at all. The Bible talks about peace and quietness and gentleness and calm. The Bible says that we are to be gentle even with those who oppose us. 2 Tim. 2:24-26. The Bible says our ambition should be to live quiet lives. 1 Thess. 4:10-12; 1 Tim. 2:1-3.
The Bible says we are not to be passionate at all. We are to put to death the passions we have. Col 3:5. We are warned against teachers who will seek to please our passions. 2 Tim. 4:3.
So, the "passion" movement rests, as so many things do, on the attempt to come up with something new to replace scripture, but in such a way that it will not seem to do so. Paul never had what he, or we, would call a passion for Christ. He loved Jesus. He served Jesus. He feared Jesus. He preached Jesus. He lived his life and died his death for Jesus. He did not do this because of passion, but because Jesus was his king.
The Passion Movement, as such, is an attempt to get people to feel a certain way, just as WWJD was an attempt to get them to feel a different way, in order to control their lives. The Christian life is not about how passionate we are, but about how we love and obey Christ. He is our King. He is not seeking your passion. He wants your life.
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