Jesus We Talk About Passive Or Zealous?
Dear Thomas,
I think your observation in question ten is correct. In that question you stated, “In comparing worshippers of a variety of the world’s belief systems, including Christianity, I notice that some are extremely zealous while others are quite laissez-faire. The laissez-faire person does not seem to hurt anyone.
However, more people have been killed by zealots of religion trying to proselytize or maintain religious purity in themselves or others than from any other cause. Why would a reasonable person want to become part of a belief system that has the makings of bigotry and hate? Doesn’t Christianity, like other belief systems, see it as an us versus them’ world?
To address your question, I first would need to know something about the Christians you are classifying as either zealous or laissez-faire. Certainly, there are those who are neither. Though approximately one-third of the world’s population declares itself Christian, a wide range of involvement exists among its adherents, ranging from total zealotry to complete passivity.
We have all seen street-corner preachers with a variety of strong messages. And I can imagine others that say they are Christian just because they were baptized as children. This is true in other belief systems as well. For example, many Buddhists only passively consider the ways of the Buddha as relevant, and many declared Muslims fail to pray five times a day or give alms.
Where any particular people stand in the spectrum of fervor within their religious beliefs depends upon their understanding of the meaning, purpose, and importance of their beliefs to themselves and others. The expressions of those understanding are translated into actions that are visible to others.
Within the human experience, a desire to find truth and transfer that truth to others has always existed. It relates to those age-old questions we all ask. How did we get here?
Is there any purpose in being here? What will be the end of us? There is also an emptiness in the heart of man that searches for meaning and connectedness within the reality of a broken world. Religions give voice to the cause of this emptiness and the imperfections and insecurities within that brokenness.
As seen through recorded history, varieties of religious belief systems have searched for meaning and spiritual connectedness that give a voice to the why of our imperfections and insecurities.
Christianity identifies the cause and the effect of our imperfections and insecurities as stemming from an outside force called Satan, who is responsible for the disconnect between mankind and his Creator.
It also identifies a Creator God who wants to reconnect with His creation as I have expressed in my response to some of your other questions.
Generally speaking, man inherently desires a connection with something separate from, greater than, and beyond himself. We see people the world over espousing belief systems that honor a transcendent, be that God, gods, or non-god life forces, and cycles.
Biblical history through the generations has concluded that there is indeed a transcendent, personally involved Creator God that gives life its physical and cognitive existence and affords it meaning.
Without this transcendent God, Solomon looked at the fleeting abundance of temporal life and concluded in Ecclesiastes 12:8, “Meaningless! Meaningless! Everything is meaningless!”
Religion does not make any sense if our current physical reality is all there is if there is nothing more than matter and space, which in turn boils down to nothing more than mathematics.
If that is true, then we humans, as atheists assert, are merely like all other living organisms that just eat, secrete, reproduce, and finally die. Religion, however, postulates a reality beyond biology and physical reality.
Religion is a bridge from pure physical reality to an ultimate reality, a reality that includes and validates a connection to a transcendent God or gods, thus giving meaning and purpose to life beyond our present physical reality.
The presence of a deity in the world’s variety of theological belief systems presents many paths in searching for meaning and understanding.
And when a person thinks they have found a path to the transcendent, he or she often joins others. Religions, whether oral traditions, Hinduism, Buddhism, philosophical Taoism, Confucianism, Judaism, Islam, or Christianity, all try to bridge the gap they sense between the temporal and the transcendent.
It is most often a one-way bridge of man to God. In its view of the transcendent or ultimate reality, each belief system offers a way to explain the way things are and gives believers a form of belief to resolve the issues of man’s inner sense of brokenness, meaninglessness, and disconnectedness. Many also promise a better or different life after death.
Zealotry, in the way that we are using the word, as opposed to being passionately committed usually stems from the coercive promotion or the destructive protection of a belief system.
History has seen and continues to show the consequences of such behavior. On the other end of the spectrum, passivity comes from those who see their belief system as not much more than a way to live in the context of the social, political, economic, and physical environment around them.
Many academics have concluded that all these paths are not much more than mythological beliefs that provide a framework for meaning.
According to those who hold this view, if you stir the pot of all religious belief systems, you will come out with the understanding that religion is little more than cultural institutions that pattern society in their interactions with one another and supposed superhuman beings or gods.
Such beliefs have cultural value, it is thought, in that they hold a society together. However, in this scientific age we live in, others feel we should be smarter and not use the crutch of believing in superhuman beings or gods.
Yes, you do see both extremes, passivity and zealotry, and everything in between. Christianity itself has never been immune to those extremes. The question is why.
The answer lies, I think, in a misunderstanding of the nature of the relationship between God and man. At the heart of the issue is a misunderstanding that redemption is all about our performance.
It is the mistaken belief that the whole process of redemption is about man—what he thinks, what he does, how he relates, and how he performs It is the concept that we can gain salvation through good deeds and righteous living as it may be defined.
It is the mistaken understanding that redemption is about the sins we have avoided and all the good deeds we have accomplished.
It is the mistaken understanding that if we live life rightly, the transcendent will reward us. Thus, we remain at the center of our universe. Our behavior determines our destiny.
Therefore, if I am at the center of my universe, then it is up to me to find meaning, connectedness, and healing. It is up to me to identify what are bad deeds or good deeds.
Thus, I launch my search, and in the process of my search, I look for a religious group that helps me determine the difference and one that helps heal my apparent brokenness.
Some conclude that all belief systems, including Christianity, accomplish this, creating the potential for passivity. Others conclude that there is only one way, only their belief system, creating the potential for zealotry.
And if there is only one way, how close to the center line of perfect belief and performance within the belief system does a person have to live?
If the redemptive quality can be lost when the center point of perfect belief and performance is not adhered to, how important is it that we enlighten, encourage, or even force others to a correct understanding and practice, lest they be lost? What must I do? can easily move to zealotry.
Let’s imagine a diagram that visually expresses this wide range of belief systems. It could be shown as an arched line at the top of the page with God written above it. Below the arch, we could draw a big Vÿ-like funnel.
Then imagine a line right down the middle of the V Call this line the center line of the belief system, as established by creeds, statements of beliefs, and practices that reveal the clearest understanding about the nature and character of God within the belief system.
Too far outside that center line would be those who worship a false god and adopt false concepts concerning the methods of obtaining the belief system’s redemptive qualities.
In other words, if a person doesn’t believe right or act on those beliefs correctly, his or her redemption is at risk. Outside the Would be no real belief in or authentic worship of God, meaning no basis for legitimate internal guidance for ethical and moral living, as understood by the belief system.
Once we have decided to follow a certain belief system for its redemptive qualities, we must decide how liberally or conservatively we must adhere to the proclamations of the belief.
If we were to draw a horizontal line representing the minimum standards of belief and character necessary to maintain those redemptive qualities within the belief system, where should that line be?
If we put the horizontal line too high, if we are too liberal, we run the risk of diluting the beliefs to the point of laissez-faire and thus lose the redemptive qualities of the belief system.
If we put the horizontal line too low, near the bottom of the V, becoming too restrictive and conservative, we run the risk of becoming legalistic, exclusionary, rigid, and judgmental, leading to zealotry and again missing the redemptive qualities of the belief system. Thus, there are risks at putting the horizontal line too high or too low.
If performance determines destiny, then this also begs the question as to where this horizontal line should be placed. Are the performance requirements so great that passion wanes to passivity or by self-will moves toward zealotry?
Each person in the context of his particular belief system, even in Christianity or within a Christian church, must discover what that belief system says about God within the context of his or her own redemption.
Within Christianity as well as in other belief systems, much debate has always raged over the topic of works versus grace. Is the focus on what man does?
Is there a conceptual trap where the whole issue of redemption is more about the beliefs and activity of man than about the activity of God? It is as if the how of our belief system is more important than the who.
I am absolutely convinced that it is only in the discovery of the who that the show has any relevance at all. God does not look and judge as humans do at the how of external behavior or performance.
He looks at the response, our willingness to open our lives to God as revealed in Jesus Christ, the who through which God does His good and perfect work in us.
Romans 12:2 says, “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.”
God is the author of our salvation and redemption; it is He who makes men holy (Heb. 2:10-11). Through the Holy Spirit, God is the doer. He is always active in our rescue. As He has said in His Word.
In John 15:5-6, Jesus promotes the same thought, saying, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me, you can do nothing.
If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers.” John 14:6 clearly declares of Jesus, “I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.” And also in John, the Bible says, “No one can come to me [Jesus] unless the Father [through the working of the Holy Spirit] draws him” (John 6:43).
It is easy to see that it is God who comes and continues to come to man. It is not a one-way bridge to enable man to search for God. God always takes the initiative: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in” (Rev. 3:20). All of Scripture reveals a God who is in pursuit of man, not man finding God through his searching (see Job 11:7; Gen. 3:9).
It is God who reveals Himself to man. It is God, through Jesus Christ, who draws all men to Himself (John 12:32). It is the Holy Spirit who prays for us (Rom. 8:26), and it is Christ who intercedes for us (Rom. 8:34).
Our faith does not rest on man’s wisdom but on God’s power (1 Cor. 2:5). As a result, through the work of the Holy Spirit in us, “and we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Cor. 3:18).
Man’s broken relationship with his Creator and his longing for purpose, meaning, and connectedness can drive the choice toward performance-based religiosity.
With Christianity, however, the Holy Spirit prompts us to balance zealotry and passivity. The basic goal of salvation is a restored relationship that brings about a recreation, of a new person in Christ. It is like the potter and clay analogy found in Jeremiah 18:16.
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel.
But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.”
To find purpose, meaning, and connectedness in your life, you must diminish your sense of self. Having Jesus Christ “in you” and being “in Christ” requires a daily dying of self and submission to that enlivened Spirit of God within (John 12:25).
It is that life-changing experience that the apostle Paul expressed when he was describing his response to Jesus on the Damascus road, “What shall I do, Lord?” (Acts 22:10).
Let God, the potter, do His perfect work in you. Open the door of your heart and invite the presence of God into your life. Then as you continually respond to His calling and allow the Holy Spirit to work in and through you, you will be changed and find the redemption, healing, and connectedness that all human hearts desire. Viewed from this interaction of a personal relationship, religion hardly seems like an appropriate word to describe it.
There is nothing that we can do to add to what God, through Jesus Christ and the activity of the Holy Spirit, hasn’t already done and will continue to do for us. That is why Jesus said in the Beatitudes of Matthew 5, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” referring to those who recognize that no amount of performance can correct their condition of brokenness.
“Blessed are those who mourn.” These are the ones who give a heartfelt admission and confession of their condition. He also said, “Blessed are the meek,” which encompasses those who acknowledge God’s sovereign authority expressed in graciousness and love, the very nature of His being.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” refers to those who willingly, anxiously, and openly allow the Spirit of God to change and heal them from the inside out.
“Blessed are the merciful,” Jesus said when He was talking about those who, through the progressive process developed in the first four beatitudes, reflect God’s graciousness through love-based care and concern for others.
The Beatitudes continue with their astounding insights. “Blessed are the peacemakers” talks about those who continue the process of healing through a spirit of reconciliation.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness” describes those who come into conflict with a world that resents all aspects of an upright, godly life rooted in Jesus Christ.
This is the juxtaposition of “my performance determines my destiny” and “God, through Jesus Christ and by the working of the Holy Spirit, determines my destiny.”
And finally, we come to the last beatitude, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.”
These are the ones who have willingly and consciously allowed God to come into their lives by way of the Holy Spirit, who remain steadfast to that coming and experience that Sabbath rest (see Heb. 4:9). They also experience the peace that passes all understanding (see Phil. 4:7) and the fruits of the Spirit expressed in Galatians 5:22-23.
The good news of the gospel is that salvation is all His doing—not our doing—and is offered as a gift to us. That is why the Christian does not live in a manner just to qualify for salvation and participate in God’s rescue plan.
There is no salvation through good works. However, the Christian certainly does have the opportunity to understand, open up to, and live in a way that shows gratitude and appreciation for our salvation, which is a gift freely granted to us by and through Jesus’ doing and dying.
This is the ultimate good, neither zealous nor laissez-faire. I don’t think I could describe this ultimate good any better than the apostle Paul did in 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13. And now I will show you the most excellent way.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have no love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.
When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.
Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.
It is my prayer that you always see God wooing, encouraging, coaching, guiding, loving, and lighting the pathway to neither passivity nor zealotry.
But rather to see God working out an inner transformation of righteousness in your life by the “in Christ” Spirit that He graciously wants to give you.
Your friend,
Matt