Christians’ Humility and Law Imposition
As Amanda has blogged about John Dickson‘s talk at the City Bible Forum this week, on the servant hood of Christ, I think I should also share what I have learnt.
The talk was around the incomprehensible act of Jesus in Philippians 2:5-11. While he was in the very nature of God in verse 6, and has been exalted to the highest place in verse 9, what has happened between these two verses — taking the nature of a servant (δοῦλος a slave) and being obedient to death on the cross — established the humility of Christianity. Christians practised humility, because our Lord, God and Saviour chose this way to bring forth the salvation.
Humility is indeed not something people do naturally. Nor is it about Chinese’s fake sense of humbleness (which many of us would be very familiar). It is about serving. It is about putting yourself under the others. It is about making yourself slave for other people’s needs, willingly.
Nor is humility about helping the poor, giving to the charity, taking care the needies, etc. The attitude is still important, as JD has emphasised during his talk. Help someone on the street does not necessarily make yourself subject to him. But Jesus, the creator of the universe, humbled himself before the lowly men, so he could serve them.
Near the end of the talk, JD moved to talk about how this Christian phenomenon was so different from the pagans — because they put other people’s interest first — and that contributed to the growth of Christianity in the first few centuries. It eventually led to the conversion of Constantine the Great, and then whole thing exploded as the Roman Empire expanded. However, as Christians inherited more power, Bishops set to high places, churches gained wealth, etc, the uniqueness of Christians’ humility faded. Instead of convincing people the truth with their act of service, Christian laws have been imposed on the land. There’s medieval. There’s crusade. There’s corruption of catholic church. When the minority becomes majority, it is just not the same anymore.
During question time, JD was asked whether Christians can participate in politics. He reckoned there’s nothing wrong with Christians in politics — but if humility of Christ is the model to follow, imposing Christian law onto people of other religions (or atheists) would be wrong.
On the way back to the office, I had a discussion with a colleague. JD’s conclusion is arguable. What about in the case of stem cell research? Christian politicians imposing their view and trying to set the law? Should Christians go out and fight the big fight to make sure those “anti-life” activities will never happen? Now it is getting a bit fuzzy.
Somehow I find it is necessary to keep the integrity of Christian belief, and being “pro-life” is one way to exercise it. At the same time, would these debates win anyone to Christ? Hardly.
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Playground is the personal weblog of Scott Yang, a Chinese-Australian Christian who works as a software developer in Sydney Australia.
Politics and policy is one thing, but action is quite another. Does the church in it’s “pro-life” stance offer alternatives to abortion and stem cell research or is legislation the only way? Do we establish support programmes for unwed mothers to uphold, train, and protect them – or do we, instead, condemn them and their families instead? Do we provide for research and support for treatments & therapy for people who suffer from crippling, degenerative diseases – or do we inform them that to commit suicide to escape their suffering is a sin, just as it is to use clinically dead human embryos to heal desperately sick, but still very much alive, people?
In our eagerness to enforce Christianity-and-law, have we undermined the integrity of Godly grace and compassion? Remember the pharisees who attacked Christ for healing a crippled woman on a Sabbath. God’s love is not be limited by the law He was forced to give us in our ignorance and rebelliousness – any more than a mother is to be disciplined because she doesn’t adhere to the 9 o’clock bedtime she sets for her kids.
And why do we imagine that it is our place to hold people against God’s law and find them lacking? Are we better than others? Has God raised us above our brothers & sisters – or perhaps even Christ Himself? Yet God paid the same price for every last one of us: Christ crucified on the cross. He also gave us all the same commands – to love Him, and to love one another.
Some may say – “look, I’m not a homosexual, I’m not a sex worker, I’m not a drug addict, I don’t smoke, drink, look at pornography – I’m not on welfare, I even give to charity.” But the trick is, is that we honestly couldn’t say that if we were put into the same position under the same circumstances as these “lost sheep” we wouldn’t turn out for better or worse. How can we qualitatively and quantitatively assess ourselves when we are, in fact, perhaps only fortunate in life? Statistically, we could have been born among the majority of the world’s population who live in poverty fighting desperately just to survive and to find something in life worth surviving for.
If we compare ourself to God’s standards, everyone of us would only get a single grade: F(ail). We’re only still enrolled because we are in a remedial class headed by the only one who got perfect grades, Christ… and this is the only lesson He wants us to take to heart: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11)
But what does He mean by a yoke? What yoke did God place on Christ – that, in turn, He would ask us to take upon ourselves? Perhaps instead of the saddles and stirrups and spurs and blinkers and whips required to tame wild beasts – we are now compelled and even obligated as foster children are to their adopted Father; Who, no pressure or anything, just happens to be the King of the world.