Let me suggest that we take more seriously a couple of passages that we don’t talk about very much–
(1 Cor. 2:14-16) The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment: 16 “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
(Rom. 12:2) Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.
The passage in Romans 12 seems to say that a mature Christian will respond to God’s will with approval. It will not only make sense, it will seem good to us. We’ll read with joy!
This certainly suggests a subjective, but very important, hermeneutical principle: if a mature Christian finds that an interpretation of the Bible violates his sense of right and wrong, it’s probably a bad interpretation.
In 1 Corinthians, Paul says that only someone who possesses the Spirit can understand spiritual teachings. Someone with the Spirit “makes judgments” about the scripture. Again, the idea seems to be that a mature Christian should be able to distinguish right and wrong, good and bad–testing theories and arguments by an innate sense of the truth given by the Spirit.
Now, at first (and second) glance, this is a very difficult concept because Christians disagree about so many things. So let’s add one more spiritual truth to the mix–
(Heb. 8:10) “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
This passage quotes Jeremiah 24’s prophesy regarding the Messianic age. He declares that book learning about God is not good enough. God tried that, and the people’s hearts were still too far from God. Therefore, under the new covenant, God will write his will directly on our hearts.
This tells us several things. Among them is the nature of God’s laws. You see, God has never written on my heart anything much about instrumental music or how often to take the Lord’s Supper. And so, I don’t think these are the kind of laws that God is talking about.
Rather, the law I see written on the hearts of the mature Christians I know (and my heart, to a lesser extent) is love. I’ve seen people changed through knowing Jesus in ways that cannot be explained naturalistically. God, through his Spirit, supernaturally changes his people–if they’ll yield to his efforts.
Thus, we learn that our hearts and minds judge God’s will truly if we are attuned to the Spirit’s promptings. And the Spirit prompts us about the big issues–the things that really matter–
(Gal. 5:6b) The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
(Rom. 14:17-18) For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18 because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.
(Gal. 5:22-23) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
(Rom. 13:8-10) Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
(James 1:27) Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
(Matt. 7:12) “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”
We try to complicate things too much. It was never meant to be hard to understand. What does God really want from us? What are the true marks of the church?
(John 13:34-35) “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
If are hearts are trained to love–our brothers and sisters in Christ and a lost and hurting world–then we can make true judgments–we can discern God’s will.
Now this should tell us a lot about what isn’t all that important to God! God isn’t Rules. God is Love.
Now, obviously enough, I’m talking about saved people! But the number one command to the saved is to live a life of love–making a difference. And God has equipped us to do just this by giving us of himself through his Spirit.
We sneer at those who say, “Let your conscience be your guide,” but for a mature Christian, there’s a lot of truth in the saying.
There’s even more truth in the idea of the Christian community making judgments as a body. After all, God has given all his people the Spirit. Of course, we don’t operate by majority vote, because some Christians are still immature. Rather, we allow those of the greatest maturity–those filled with the Spirit–to lead the church in discerning God’s will.
“Filled with the Spirit” doesn’t mean educated in the Bible. Rather, it means filled with the fruit of the Spirit. You can easily tell who these people are, of course.
This is not to deny the value of an education in the scripture. Rather, the point is that a man or woman who doesn’t walk in step with the Spirit has no business leading the church in discovering God’s will. Pick leaders who know how to love and be peacemakers, and God will bless your study together.
