Honesty is always the best policy. Unfortunately, some people communicate truth without love and make this axiom look like error. He wasn’t like that. So I was a bit surprised when he spoke so forthrightly.
It was a beautiful October morning, and, as dutiful parents, we were helping our sons construct a hay maze for the fall festival. For some reason the boys had left, and we were finishing the construction by ourselves. Little did I realize that the Spirit of God was at work, giving the man a measure of holy boldness. Without an introduction he took the conversation from casual to deeply personal.
I had recently returned from a clergy renewal experience, and he said, “Pastor, your sabbatical came at the right time.” I didn’t have to wait long to find out what he meant.
“Before you left,” he said, “I thought you were my problem. While you were gone I discovered that I am my problem.” I was stunned by his honesty and thankful for his confession. He was revealing the inner journey of spiritual conviction that was leading him to freedom. He could have kept his discovery to himself, but he knew it would encourage me to see the working of the Holy Spirit behind the scenes. He was right.
To Be Better People
It appears that the church is facing the same dilemma as my frustrated friend. It’s easy to wander from principled Christian living into the wilderness of an outdated orthodoxy. The impotence is frightening.
Caught in the crosscurrents of consumerism and empiricism we have turned to surveys and social data in the search for better methods of reaching our communities. We have developed modalities based on negative caricatures of traditional Adventism. We have been taught—not so subtly—that the church is the problem, and that offending a sinner (consumer) is the unpardonable sin. This leaves us as parents, teachers, and preachers hampered in dealing with deep spiritual issues. We treat mortal diseases of the soul with the equivalent of over-the-counter medications. The emphasis on feeling good is killing us.
Adventism is not the problem. Our theology of sanctification is not the problem; nor is our unique lifestyle. We are groping for better methods when, as E. M. Bounds states, our great need is for “better men.” Paul echoes a similar sentiment when writing to the wayward Corinthians, asking: “Are you not acting like mere humans?” (1 Cor. 3:3). The inference is sobering.
John the Baptist’s message of repentance prepared the way for Jesus and the apostolic revival of the church. The same message will lay the foundation for the final presentation of the gospel. Admitting our seduction to the world is as difficult for us corporately as my parishioner’s journey to self-awareness was individually. Testing truth, for Adventists, tests (or probes) our willingness or refusal to experience the convicting power of the Holy Spirit as He illuminates sin in our lives.
The church’s strength is the power of God’s love in its midst. Nothing compromises that power as much as a wrong definition of love and cherished sin. No wonder Satan works so hard to keep the divine diagnosis from the patient. He knows the heavenly prescription will heal the soul.
Love restrains us from a careless presentation of truth that unnecessarily wounds, but it also prompts us to kindly share the truth that hurts, then heals. As David said: “Let a righteous man strike me—that is a kindness; let him rebuke me—that is oil on my head” (Ps. 141:5).
Fortunately for me and my parishioner, the Holy Spirit was active in my absence, still teaching the best method for growth, which is, according to the apostle Paul, “speaking the truth in love,” in order to “grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ” (Eph. 4:15).
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Ron Kelly is senior pastor at the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Cicero, Indiana. He is also Family ministries director for the Indiana Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. This article was published June 14, 2012.
