God's Word and His Work: Practical Motivation or Obligatory Truth - a podcast by Jonathan Michael Jones

            As
a Christian and as a minister, I have found a common struggle with the
functionality of the church regarding how to handle biblical truth, i.e. should
the church handle God and his work as obligatory truth irrespective of how it
makes us look to an onlooking world or merely as practical motivation for moral
living? Questions like this arise, in my mind, from the disparate approaches we
see in local churches. Where some churches seemingly treat God’s work and his
word as merely motivational, others take his word quite literally and approach
his work as active and effective. The most common way this plays out in local
churches is by writing off those who have perhaps committed seemingly atrocious
acts at some point in their life no matter how far in the past they may be. As
unbiblical as it is, we tend to make excuses in feeble attempts to find their
unworthiness or disqualification from service in any way. Surely, there are
legitimate reasons for concern in some cases; yet, the church leans toward not
allowing people to serve rather than grace. If we teach that service is one of
the primary marks of a believer, how can we justify such a stance? There are
also those who fall in the middle. Many of any of these approaches, however,
seem to be unintentional.

Upon years of
observation, personal experience, and pontificating, I submit that, if we are
to be a people of genuine faith, God’s and his work should doubtlessly be
obligatory truth rather than mere practical motivation. Said another way, the
church must cease viewing grace and faith through the same grid as the world
but rather should function in a vastly disparate manner. Our faith in God
should cause us to live completely contrary lives to the world. Often, however,
the opposite is true: the church seemingly takes a faithless approach and views
God’s word and work merely as practical motivation rather than obligatory
truth. While this approach is likely subconscious, I suggest four primary ways
the church presently takes such an approach.

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