Evaluating 40 Days of Community

[*NOTE: Quotes from the 40 Days of Community Workbook are blockquoted.]

"We're Commissioned to Reach Out Together...By Building Friendships."

"Be friendly with everyone. Don't be proud and feel that you are smarter than others. Make friends with ordinary people" (Rom 12:16, CEV).

The NASB reads: "Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation." In other words, do not be proud such that you disassociate from the lowly; do not be self-righteous. This is not saying that we should not act like we have the truth. Indeed, if we know Christ, we have the truth. And we need to show the unbelieving that what they are trusting in is a lie. But it is something that we give to others in service to their spiritual needs.

"Become friends with God; he's already a friend with you" (2 Cor 5:20b, MSB).

The Message puts an unscriptural twist on this passage. 2Cor 5:20 in the NASB reads: "Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." Does this passage speak of friendship? Is admonishing someone to be reconciled to God the same as telling them that He's already a friend to them (even if they don't reconcile to Him... ie. repent)? To tell an unbeliever that God is already a friend with them is very misleading, especially when John 3:36 (NASB) states: "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." Should we tell someone living in disbelief and disobedience to Christ that God is already a friend to them when the Bible says that God's wrath abides on them? Here is the crux: if God is already their friend, then why do they need to turn from their sin?

...and so he became friends with those who needed to become friends with God.

Rather, He became the doctor to those who where sick and in need of a healer. Are you friends with your doctor? I don't know about you, but I don't always want to go to my doctor. He's always trying to convince me that I need to live heathier or to take my medication or to go under the surgical knife for the saving of my life. His primary motivation is not friendship or else he would avoid telling me anything that might cause me to dislike him. Yet, in fact, this is true friendship--a friend cares for your well-being. Yet, Jesus seems to avoid this terminology (but you will have to look to a literal interpretation to see this), perhaps because it is easy to misinterpret. He doesn't command us to be friends with our neighbour, but to love our neighbour. Love doesn't just try to make someone feel good; the kind of love God speaks of is that love that accepts them no matter who they are or where they have been but it must show them their need for medical attention. One who truly loves knows that giving someone the shirt off their back or a hot meal or a cold glass of water will only last a short time, but the Word of God will feed them and satisfy forever. Both the physical and the spiritual needs are met with one aim: to remove any hindrance to hearing the most necessary Word which brings life.

Rick quotes from Matthew 9:10-13 in The Message, but I would encourage you to read it in the NASB (or similar). Verse 10 says that while Jesus was reclining, many tax collectors and sinners came. They came to Him. These were the ones who knew they needed a doctor, and knew that Jesus was a good doctor. The following statements from The Message "I'm after mercy, not religion. I'm here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders" are not true to the text. Jesus said "I desire mercy, not sacrifice, for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners." Eugene Peterson turns sacrifice into religion, but the former speaks more convictingly to us since we don't like to think we are religious. Is Jesus referring to the insiders (those who are already believers) when He says the righteous, or those who think they are righteous and don't realize they are sinners? Are not we all sinners? No one is righteous, no not one? Is there anyone righteous without Christ? Beware of The Message.

"I do this to get the gospel to them and also for the blessing I myself receive when I see them come to Christ" (1 Cor 9:21-23, LB).

This seems to make Paul's motivations to be self-centered--that he might receive a blessing. Not so! In the NASB, Paul says in 1 Cor 9:23: "...so that I may become a fellow partaker of it." But what is it? Well, the answer is clear in the first part of this verse: it is the gospel. Paul says in 1 Cor 9:16 (NASB): "...for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel."

When Jesus began talking to the woman at the well (John 4:4-26), he searched for common ground rather than condemning her.

Jesus didn't need to search for common ground--we all have physical appetites; thirst and hunger. He simply related the natural to the spiritual...and He did so very quickly. He didn't condemn her because she didn't refuse to believe the gospel; He was in the process of explaining it to her. In the same way, we don't open conversation with people with "You are going to Hell!" First, show them their need. Unless they see their true need for Christ, their attachment will be simply to gain some sort of worldly benefit.