Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 166 | Love Your Neighbor Over Your Religion?

Episode Date: September 23, 2019

A recent quote circulating online says, “The only clear line I draw these days is this: When my religion tries to come between me and my neighbor, I will choose my neighbor. Jesus never commanded me to love my religion.” How does this reflect the progressive Christianity trend happening in our church and our culture?

Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Monday. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. So there was a quote that was circulating on Instagram that a bunch of you messaged me that was posted by a popular author whom a lot of Christian women I know follow and have been reading for a long time. I personally haven't, but I know a lot of Christian women love her. It wasn't a quote by her. It was a quote by Barbara Brown Taylor. She is an Episcopalian priest. She is the author of lots of books. including holy envy from which this quote that I'm about to read comes. The quote is, the only clear line I draw these days is this. When my religion tries to come between me and my neighbor, I will choose my neighbor. Jesus never commanded me to love my religion. So you've got a lot of women sharing this saying,

yes, this is so right. This is exactly how I feel. Jesus never told me that I needed to love my religion. So I am going to live my life by this quote. we're going to talk about why this is not only nonsensical, but also unbiblical from our Christian perspective. Barbara Brown-Taylor, like I said, she's an Episcopalian priest. She's written several other books. She has known, if you can't tell from this quote, for kind of stretching the bounds of theological Christianity until it almost, until it almost looks like a universalist worldview

in which everyone worships the same God, but different gods at the same time. one ends up in the same place so it's fine. You can believe whatever you want to believe as long as how you are acting falls under her definition or some kind of subjective and simultaneously objective definition of loving. I don't want to do a deep dive into Barbara Brown Taylor in her book because I just don't think it's worth it. I just want to dive into how this quote reflects something that is going on, not just in our culture, but particularly in the church. I don't really want to decontextualize it, but I do think that by itself, it kind of symbolizes a trend that's been going on, and it represents the essential problem with progressive Christianity, which we've

talked about so many times. And I don't mean progressive from a political point of view, but a theological point of view in this context. The essential problem with progressive Christianity is that it is far more concerned with acquiescence to other people than obedience to God. So the essential problem with progressive Christianity is that it is far more concerned with acquiescence to other people than obedience to God. And that is represented in this quote. It would much rather appease others, appease modern culture, appeal to current trends than obey God. And let me read that quote again. The only clear line I draw these days is this.

When my religion tries to come between me and my neighbor, I will choose my neighbor. Jesus never commanded me to love my. religion. Let's take a second to think about this because if we're not careful, if we're not analytical, we may just take something like this to be good because it sounds good. That is the responsibility of thinking Christians today to look at quotes that sound like they might be truth, sound like they might be biblical, and weigh them against our perfect standard, which is the word of God. Matthew 1016, Jesus tells us that we are to be innocent as doves and wise as serpent. So we need to using our minds to discern. Romans 12 says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed

by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Our tools for discernment are found in God himself, as we know, and in his words, as we've already said. Proverbs 1-7 says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Some other verses say the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. 2 Timothy 316 through 17 says all scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training and righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. So using the wisdom from the Lord and the truth that he has revealed to us in scripture, let us consider the validity of this statement by first doing something

very important, and that is defining the terms. That is what we always need to do, is to define terms because when you are contending, particularly with people of the social justice variety, they may say things that sound just and right and good and even godly without really saying what they actually mean. And so it's our job to take a step back to pause and to think for just a second, okay, what is this quote actually saying? Let's try to break it down. So first, let's define religion. according to the Bible, since she does identify as a Christian, religion is often used as a pejorative or as a synonym to legalism or rule following. So what she seems to be saying is that she will stop following the rules when those rules get in the way of loving her neighbor. But the Christian

definition of religion is not actually just rule following. Here's what James 127 says religion is according to the Lord. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows and their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world. The Christian religion is one of love, of compassion for the downtrodden, one of holiness, and separateness and light in the midst of a dark world, all empowered, of course, by the Holy Spirit through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. So the question is, if this is the Christian, religion defined by the Christian text, which we have already established is breathed out by God and is sufficient for our instruction. Why would we ever have to let go of this in order to love

our neighbor? Any neighbor. So she says she is drawing a clear line between her religion, which she professes to be Christianity in loving her neighbor, which makes me question what she believes her religion is. Was it not God himself who commands Israel and Leviticus to love? their neighbor as themselves? Was it not Jesus in the New Testament that reiterates this, the necessity of following this command? So in what scenario as a Christian would you have to forsake your Christian religion in order to love your neighbor? Well, to consider that, I think that we need to define love according to the Bible. Here is how the Bible defines it in 1st Corinthians 13. Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It is not arrogant or

rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. So again, I ask, as a Christian, in what scenario would you find yourself needing to sacrifice, compromise, or give up your religion in order to love your neighbor? This is not a rhetorical question. I actually have the answer for you. You will sacrifice your faith in the name of love when you allow the second greatest commandment to supersede the first. So let me repeat that. You will sacrifice your faith in the name of love when you allow the second greatest

commandment to supersede the first. Let me explain. In Matthew 22, Jesus has asked what the greatest commandment is. He answers, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. What this quote reflects, what Taylor's quote reflects, is the belief in the ability and even the necessity to love your neighbor

without loving God. But according to the Christian ethic, that just doesn't work because if you first believe in the first and greatest command to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and with all your strength, you will love how he tells us to love. You will love self-sacrificially. You will love without compromise. Loving in this way is only possible if you follow the first command to love the Lord your God with your whole being. If you love God with your whole being, you will also love his law. You will also love his ways.

You will hate what he calls sin. You will have a desire for your neighbor to not just be taken care of, but to know the truth that will set them free, which is that Jesus is the way, the truth, the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through him. If you love the Lord your God with all your heart, your mind, your soul, and your strength, you will take on his definition of love, which is not simply tolerance and acceptance and celebration of what he calls sin, but self-sacrificial service to others without compromising on what the Bible says is righteous and good. In all-consuming love for God means a love for his character and a love for his commands. His character and his commands are perfect. They are holy.

They are good. They are righteous. They are unchanging no matter what's happening in culture. That means that we defer to how God defines religion and how God defines love. That means that these two will never get in the way of one another. We will never have to set down religion for love if we are walking in congruence to who God is and what he commands. This quote reflects a flippancy about obedience to Christ and the prioritization of appeasing others over pleasing the Lord. It says that you will only follow God and walk in his ways until it offends your neighbor, until it infringes upon your neighbor's lifestyle, until it maybe drives an awkward wedge between your neighbor, and then you are going to have to compromise.

I'm just not sure that that is the self-denial, the taking up of the cross that Jesus has asked his followers to do. We are to be not only hospitable and kind to our neighbor, but we're also not to ignore what he says is good and right and true, and we are to share the gospel with them. That is the difference between being a light in the world and being friends with the world. Christians are not called to be friends with the world. They are called to be salt and light in a flavorless and dark world, but we are not called to make a friendship with the world. James 4.4 says this, do you not know? that friendship with the world is enmity with God. Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world

makes himself an enemy of God. So Christians, all of us left, right, and center are guilty of making friendship with the world. We want to be liked. We don't want to be called bigots. We want to fit in. We don't want people to think that we're too Christian or too religious or that we actually believe the whole Bible, that no, we just believe the easy part. So we celebrate things that we shouldn't celebrate. We dress ways that we shouldn't dress. We use words that we shouldn't use. We watch shows that we shouldn't watch. We tolerate sin in ourselves and we celebrate it in others. And we convince ourselves that we're just being kind and that maybe being that that version of tolerance will lead people to Jesus. And I think we all know that we're kidding ourselves.

The Bible is very clear that seeking camaraderie with the world is putting ourselves in opposition to the God of the universe. I don't want to be in opposition to the God of the universe. In fact, that's exactly why I claim Jesus as my Savior to be reconciled to God, to escape the wrath of God that I fully deserve because of my sin. Wouldn't we rather be not liked by the people in this world than condemned by an eternal God? That should be a really easy question for all of us.

Unfortunately, it's not. The answer to that question for so many who identify as Christians and, probably has been true for every Christian, maybe at some point in their walk with Christ, is no. The answer to that is no, they would rather be liked by the world than they would rather be liked by the world than be an obedience to God. Whether or not many professed Christians would say it out loud, some would truly rather be accepted by non-Christians than be in alignment with God's word. Some would rather be seen as inclusive to the secular world than a good and faithful servant to the Lord. And this quote that I have seen hundreds and hundreds of people share,

of not thousands of people share, is indicative of this reality that we're living in right now. We know how this kind of mentality manifests itself in a professed Christian's life. It manifests itself in the picking apart of scripture until all that's left is verses about love and grace. But without the rest of the Bible, without context, a verses about love and grace in isolation become malleable to our personal interpretations and definitions. So when they read that God is love, for example, instead of looking at the entirety of the canon to inform us of what that love is according to God, one of goodness and justice and wrath and mercy and holiness and forgiveness, they inform themselves of what love is based on their

own experiences. A subjective experiential definition of love is always going to be much flimsyer, much more fragile than God's definition of love because of our own sinful human nature. When we define it, when we define love, it's going to mean to ignore sin. When we define love, it will give into culture's demands. When we define love, it's going to be whatever is convenient for us and helps us to avoid awkwardness or tension where we might actually have to disagree with someone's lifestyle. Grace will be redefined to mean tolerating and even glorifying sin. That's what happens when you pick apart the Bible and you only take the parts you like, even the parts you like start to mean

something that they don't actually mean. And yet, these are not the biblical definitions of love and grace. They have nothing to do with accepting sin and everything to do with forgiveness of and repentance from sin. People talk about a lot Jesus dining and hanging out with prostitutes and tax collectors, but rarely do they call to mind Jesus' sole purpose in his interactions with them, to call them away from and to free them from the bonds of transgression. This is a hallmark of progressive Christianity, which we've talked about so much, the emphasis on worldly definitions of love, which obscure the importance of salvation and the gospel and focus instead on worldly standards for inclusion,

intolerance, and acceptance. This is typical of what is called liberation theology. We've also talked about that on this podcast as well, which is the theology that undergirds liberal Christianity holds to the idea that the main purpose of Christianity is social justice or cosmic justice as we like to refer to it or liberating people from the chains of oppression,

aka poverty or marginalization or discrimination. They see this as much more important than sharing the gospel and typically believe that calling people to repentance and salvation in Christ is totally unnecessary. The roots of liberation theology are in 19th century, Latin America. It's made its way to the United States it did in the early 20th century. It's kind of ebbed and flowed, coming

gone since then. James Cohn was the father of what is called black liberation theology, which is actually very popular today. It's a Marxist theology or Marxist ideology that manifests itself in a lot of different ways in the evangelical church today. It essentially believed, it's evolved since then, but essentially believed that black people and secondarily all oppressed people are God's chosen people and that God is concerned only with demolishing earthly system. of oppression like white supremacy and even capitalism. That's what the ideology holds. James Cohn may have been Christian in name,

but he is quoted saying that his religion is really just one of liberation. So any religion that agrees with his ideas of liberation, such as Islam, for example, the kind of Islam that Malcolm X represented, he's okay with that. He's on board with that too. That is something that he has quoted saying. Fun fact, James Cohn actually had a huge influence. on the people that had an influence on Barack Obama.

So if you're wondering, part of why Marxism has become so popular in the past 10 years, that is part of the reason. You can see all of this reflected in the theology of a lot of people today, seeing Jesus not as a propitiation for our sins, but as a social justice warrior who is not at all concerned with sexual immorality, who is not at all concerned with our behavior or covetousness or idolatry. He instead, they would say, is only concerned with all the isms, with racism, with sexism, with homophobia, with Islamophobia.

Those are the kind of things that apparently their Jesus is exclusively concerned with. He is only interested in deconstructing systems of unfair power. That is why typically when people move to the left politically, they also move to the left theologically. And unfortunately, usually, not always, but usually that ends with the minimizing of the work on the cross to be some kind of social justice metaphor rather than the power of God for those who believe. That is not to say that people on the right don't have their own theological issues and misunderstandings because they certainly do, but because this quote in particular kind of

reflects a lot of what we see in liberation theology, this emphasis on the horizontal rather than the vertical and the sacrifice of the vertical for the horizontal. It just typically is something that is a part of progressive Christianity. When you kind of can pick and choose what you want from the Bible and say, okay, as long as I have some kind of worldview that doesn't make other people feel awkward or make other people feel uncomfortable or tense, that's the worldview that I am going to go with. Unfortunately, that is not the gospel. Unfortunately, that is not Christianity. If we look at the book of Acts, for example, the gospel that was being preached by the apostles, is not just one that made people uncomfortable, but made people angry, made people want to stone them,

drove them out of their cities, put them in jail. Is that really the kind of gospel that we see that is being perpetuated by someone who claims to be a priest herself, who is ordained, and who other people who profess to be Christians should be sharing, one that says, okay, as soon as this gets awkward, I'm going to give it up. As soon as this offends someone, I'm not going to talk about this anymore. I don't think so. We already know the power of Christ is offensive to both the Jew and the Greek. It's a stumbling block.

It's a point of confusion. It's a point of disagreement. it. And so if we are not comfortable with sometimes being put in situations to where we have to stand up for something that we know is going to offend someone else, that we have to speak truth into someone's life or lifestyle, speaking the truth in love and gently, of course, with the desire that they know Christ, not in a way to just condemn and judge to pretend like we are perfect, if we are not okay with that, then I think that we have to do what Jesus asks us to do in the Gospels, which is to count the cost. Are you ready? Are we ready? Are we ready?

to give up our life for the sake of the gospel. I think that's a question that we all have to ask ourselves. Are we okay with that? Because that's what Jesus is demanding. I love that quote by C.S. Lewis that I can't repeat from memory, but just paraphrasing that Jesus doesn't ask for some of us or a part of our heart or a part of our lives, but he claims all of us completely.

And of course, we know that sanctification happens over a lifetime. We know that it's not overnight that immediately we have the perfect theology I was thinking of the other day of some stupid stuff that I used to believe theologically when I was in high school and you grow and you become holy or through the power of the Holy Spirit and we've become better at this stuff, discerning what is true from what is not true, loving our neighbor in a way that doesn't compromise. All of that can come over time so I don't want it to seem like I have it all figured out because I certainly don't. But that should be our goal.

And it starts with being able to take things that sound good and are popular and are being shared by people we respect and lining them up to God's word. because when you do that, when you do that, it really, it helps you. I mean, that's what I think it's Proverbs 3, 5, through 6 says, to lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make your path straight. That's our best bet that we have when we are going up against the culture that constantly feeds us things that sound holy and righteous, but are unequivocally not. It's also why we lean on a passage like Ephesian 6 that reminds us that we're not against

flesh and blood, but we're actually against spiritual authorities. we're against a completely unseen realm. And in order to contend with unseen lies or deceptive that is coming honestly from the pit of hell, we have to be equipped with the power of the Holy Spirit and the full armor of God. And so that's always my goal. That's my goal in these Monday podcast episodes is to take something that we are hearing a lot of or an idea that we're hearing a lot of and weigh it against the truth of God because

I don't have any insight for you. I don't have any wisdom for you. I don't have any knowledge to share. but God's word does. And what I love about being a Christian, someone who really likes things to be black and white, even though I realize that so much, it isn't always black and white.

But I like objective standards. And I love that I have a standard for what I believe, that I don't have to just make up, I don't have to make up some reasoning about how I feel or I don't have to have ever shifting qualifications for my morality, but I can always go back to God's word and I can correct the things I think, the things I say, the things I do, the things I read against God's perfect standard. And that is what we are called to do.

And I am so thankful. I'm so grateful for how gracious God has been and providing us with His word that we don't have to wonder, that we don't have to wade in confusion. And of course, not everything is explicitly or verbatim in the Bible, but it is our guide. It is a lamp into our feet, a light into our path. and we have to use it when we are up against culture, even Christian culture today, unfortunately. Okay, that's really all I have on that. I do just want to give you, some of you have been asking about my baby girl and how she's doing and how it is being a mom. I am almost 12 weeks in. We are almost 12

weeks in and it's awesome. I love it. People keep asking me if we're getting sleep. Some nights, yes. Some nights we are getting sleep. She's doing pretty well. But some nights we are not. But it's okay. It's all worth it. Is it hard to balance, you know, work and being a mom and all of that? Yes. It can be difficult sometimes. But gosh, I would do it a thousand times over. I love being a mom. It's what I've always wanted to be. It's what I've always wanted to do since I was little. I never even had a second thought about whether or not I wanted to be a mom. And I'm telling you it is even better than you would ever expect. I was talking to someone last weekend who is pregnant and she was scared. She's having a baby girl and she was scared

about having her and what it's like being a working mom and balancing it all and do you know what you're doing? Well, no, but you figure it out and you do learn the balance. And I just want to tell every pregnant person. Like I wish, I could just make this my mission in life to tell every pregnant person, oh my gosh, I'm so excited for you. I'm so excited for you. So if you're pregnant right now. I am so excited for you. Being a mom is awesome. It's not the end-all be-all because we know that only Christ satisfies us and our purpose in life is not to just be, only be a wife and a mom, but it is to be a follower of Christ and that can look different for everyone, whether you are, whether you're single, whether you are a mom, whether you're married, whatever. But I am

extremely thankful for the opportunity and the blessing that I have to parent her. She's like starting to try to make noises that kind of sound a little more like words. Obviously, she's not really talking. And that's just been so fun. We have nonsensical conversations all day. And I could just stare at her. Do you all know what I'm talking about? Those of you who are parents, I could just stare at her all day long and be totally content. Unfortunately, there are other responsibilities that I have. but she is she's awesome it's my husband and i are just smitten we're like completely over the moon about it and i just i don't want to like be rushing the stages or anything because i actually do like the newborn stage people keep saying oh the newborn stage is not that great i actually like it but

something i am excited about is being able to teach her being able to read to her and her actually understand and comprehend i do read to her but it's like those little crinkly books that say like two spotted cows, moo, moo. I mean, I think I've read that book to her like a million times. I'm excited for her to actually be able to understand things of substance, to teach her how to read something that my mom and my grandmother, who lived with us, did from an early age, was teach me how to read when I was really young. And since then, I've always loved to read and I've always love to write. And I think it really helped me verbally as well. So I'm just excited to be able to pass that down to her, share that with her. And I know my mom's going to be a big help in that

too. My mom and grandmother were both teachers, so they're really good at that. I didn't necessarily get the teaching gene, so I might not be as good at it as my mom was. But I'm just excited to share that with her and to share those experiences with her. The thing that she's obsessed with right now that has nothing to do with my teaching whatsoever is the fan. I had no idea that babies were obsessed with fans. She will just stare at the fan all day. If I turn the light on and I turn the fan on a little bit, it's like a pacifier. Like she will sit there for, I would say sometimes, it kind of depends. It depends on if she's in her bouncer or not. She'll sit there for 30 to 45 minutes just staring at the fan. I have no idea what it is about it. But I heard that this

is a thing the babies do. So that has been nice. I haven't had to spend any money on toys or anything like that that's her current obsession. I know in every stage they kind of have different things that they're interested in. One thing that encouraged me, I actually had the privilege of meeting Nikki Haley last weekend and she was telling me, and maybe this will be an encouragement to you too, she was telling me that every stage is fun and that you can look forward to every stage and to not be sad when they leave a certain stage because the next stage is just as fun or more fun. And that was really encouraging to me because it's easy to be sad when they leave the newborn stage when, you know, they get too big for their newborn diapers and you have to switch

into like three to six month clothes. That's what we're about to do right now. And it's hard. It can be hard to let go. When you look back at old pictures, you're like, I swear she was never that small. She was never that vulnerable. But it's good. And I think it is really important for us. My parents were always really good at that. And I hope that I'm good at it too is celebrating each stage and not constantly saying, you know, I miss when you were a baby or I miss when you were smaller because it is such a blessing to be able to see our kids grow. I remember, you always hear parents say like, oh, my daughter's never going to leave the house or like, she's never going to get married. She's not going to date or anything like that. But I haven't

had that feeling yet. Like, I am really excited for her to experience life as hard and difficult and sometimes backward as this culture is. Like, I'm really excited for her to grow up. I'm really excited for her to know things. One thing that I've prayed before. she was born is that she would be wise. That's what I pray for her. I pray that she would have wisdom. And gosh, that is missing in this world. I pray that she would be wise. I pray that she would have discernment. I pray that she would know good from evil. And of course, we know the source of all of those things, as we've already said on this podcast episode, is the fear of the Lord. And so that goes hand in hand. I pray that she would fear the Lord all the days of her life, that she would love the Lord,

her God, with all her heart, mind, soul, and strength, and that she would be wise from a very young age, that she would be able to discern what is right and what is wrong. So many of us, you know, struggle with that throughout our lives. And if we look at the world today, there's so much foolishness and so much backwardness. And I just hope that she's able, she's able to tell the difference. I think that's all that I have today. Just wanted to give you that brief updates. And I hope that you have a great rest of your Monday. And I'll see you back here on Wednesday.