Balance Old Testament Commands with New Testament Freedom
Psalm 15 opens with one essential question, phrased in two ways, that most everyone asks, either out loud or to themselves. In this Psalm, David asks God, “What must I do to live with you?”
The next four verses give us the answer. Actually, it’s a series of answers, a list of twelve things we must do if we are to live with God. Here they are:
Walk Blamelessly: we should live a life above reproach.
Be Righteous: we should do what is right in all things.
Speak Truth: we must say what is true, not from a technical standpoint, but from our heart.
Don’t Slander: we shouldn’t tell lies about other people.
Don’t Do Wrong: we shouldn’t hurt others, not physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually.
Don’t Slur: our words should not insult or speak poorly of others.
Despise the Vile: we should oppose evil in every form.
Honor Those Who Fear God: we should respect God-fearing people and implicitly follow their example.
Keep Promises: regardless of the cost, we should do what we say we will do.
Don’t Change Our Mind: we shouldn’t waffle with our words or what we decide.
Lend to Those in Need: we should loan money to those in need and do so without interest.
Don’t Accept Bribes: we shouldn’t allow others to improperly influence us in how we treat innocent people.
These are the twelve things we must do to live with God. Is this, then, the answer? True, the list contains admirable traits that we should all pursue, but I hope God doesn’t hold us to this.
Why? Because we can’t. We’re going to fall short at one time or another. We could miss the mark every day. Each of us. You, me, everyone.
A Better Way to Live with God
The Old Testament commands weigh us down, begging for a better solution. The New Testament offers us a better way. His name is Jesus. He is the light of the world that gives life (John 8:12). All we need to do is follow him (Matthew 9:9), and then we can live with God.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
I’m preparing to go to Church #1. The enemy harasses me. I don’t want to go. I now understand why the non-regular church attender can so easily stay home despite their best intentions.
The living room recliner and television remote are much more inviting and much less threatening.
Consider these two church discussion questions:
1. Welcoming visitors starts before they arrive.
What can you do to make it easy for them to show up?
2. A personal invitation is the most effective way to encourage people to visit your church.
What specific things can you do to invite people to visit?
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Through Jesus We Become His Priests and His Temple, Which Should Change Everything
In the Old Testament the people go to the temple to encounter God. The priests help them in this. They act as a liaison between them and God.
In many ways we still do this today. We go to church to encounter God. We look for our ministers to help us in our quest, to act as a liaison between us and God.
But this is a wrong perspective. We cling to the Old Testament practice and largely forget how Jesus fulfilled it. Peter helps us understand this in his first letter.
He says we are living stones built into a spiritual temple, prepared for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus (1 Peter 2:5; also see Ephesians 2:22).
Yet from our perspective of going to church to encounter God, this verse is confounding. It turns what we do upside down, and that’s the point. Jesus came to turn the old ways upside down and make something new for us.
We need to embrace this. We need to change our perspectives.
Living Stones
As living stones our actions matter. We live for Jesus. We live to honor him, praise him, and glorify him. We live to tell others about him through our actions and even through our words. Our faith is alive, and our actions must show it.
Spiritual Temple
As living stones we become part of the construction of his spiritual temple. And if we are part of his temple, we don’t need to go to church to meet him because, as his temple, we are already there and can experience him at any time.
Holy Priesthood
As living stones we are being made into a holy priesthood. If we are truly priests through what Jesus did for us, then we don’t need ministers to point us to God, explain him to us, and assist us in encountering him.
God is preparing us to do that for ourselves as his holy priests.
Spiritual Sacrifices
As living stones and holy priests, serving God in his spiritual temple, we offer to him a spiritual sacrifice. This spiritual sacrifice negates the need for many of the animal sacrifices and offerings we read about in the Old Testament.
This thinking is so countercultural to the way most Christians live today that it bears careful contemplation. Through Jesus we can do things in a new way.
We are living stones built into a spiritual temple, being prepared for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices.
Read more about this in Peter’s thought-provoking book, Jesus’s Broken Church, available in e-book, audiobook, paperback, and hardcover.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Nathan Takes a Wise Approach When Confronting David about His Sins
King David, a man after God’s own heart, is far from perfect. After the Bathsheba affair and the subsequent murder of her husband at the hand of scheming David, God wants to deal with David and restore him to right relationship.
This story provides an example of how to confront someone.
The Prophet Nathan Confronts David
God sends his prophet Nathan to confront David. This is not an assignment I would want: to go tell the king, who as the power to summarily kill me, that he’s a filthy sinner.
Nathan could have marched up to David’s throne, pointed an accusatory finger, and yelled, “You’re a sinner, and you’re going to hell.” I don’t think this would have gone over well.
Instead Nathan takes an indirect approach. He tells David a story. If this tactic sounds familiar, Jesus does the same thing, teaching the people through parables, which give folks an identifiable tale with an underlying spiritual truth.
Nathan’s story begins with “There were two men…” One is rich and one is poor. One is greedy and one is righteous. The greedy one steels from the poor one and…
King David Responds
King David can’t contain himself. He pronounces judgement, void of mercy, on the wealthy, greedy man.
Then Nathan drives his point to the heart of David. “You are that man.”
David feels conviction. He simply says, “I have sinned.”
His road to restoration begins. But David’s repentance doesn’t absolve him of the consequences. He will still face punishment. Though God is merciful, he is also just. The two go together.
Though the child of his adultery dies, David and Bathsheba later have another son. His name is Solomon and he succeeds David as king.
I wonder how events might have unfolded had Nathan not began his meeting with David by sharing a story.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
Do you ever ask God to protect you from evil? You can. It’s biblical. It’s part of my morning routine, and based on what I’m about to share, I want to be more intentional about making this request each day.
There are two key prayers in the Bible that offer scriptural support for asking God to deliver us from evil.
The Lord’s Prayer
What we commonly refer to as the Lord’s Prayer—because it came from Jesus, our Lord—we should more appropriately call the disciple’s prayer—because it’s for his disciples, and for us.
This stands as the most significant prayer in the Bible. First, because Jesus taught it. Second, because he gave it to us as a model to follow.
Consider the line in Matthew 6:13 from this prayer. In most translations, it says “deliver us from the evil one,” or simply “deliver us from evil.” Some versions use the word rescue, save, or free, but deliver is the most common translation.
Jesus gave us this prayer is a model to use, so we should follow it and pray that he will deliver us from evil.
The Prayer of Jabez
Another biblical prayer that I find significant is the lesser-known prayer of Jabez. (There’s even a book written about it.) Aside from the Lord’s Prayer, I call Jabez’s prayer my favorite prayer in the Bible.
Why is this? Because after Jabez prays, Scripture records God’s response. It says that God granted his request.
This means that God accepted Jabez’s petition and answered his prayer. Oh, how this encourages me when I pray.
One line in Jabez’s prayer is that God would “keep me from evil” 1 Chronicles 4:10). Though some translations use the word harm or pain instead of evil, most say evil.
Two Prayers to Deliver Us from Evil
It should be enough that Jesus tells us to ask God to deliver us from evil. But the Bible gives us a second example through Jabez, along with God’s confirmation that he answered Jabez’s prayer when he asked for the same thing.
This should encourage us that when we ask God to keep and deliver us from evil, he will do just that.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
With our journey of visiting fifty-two churches over, I can reflect more on the complete experience. Today, I’ll add to my thoughts about Church #52.
This church offers two services. They call the first one blended, combining traditional and contemporary elements, whereas the second one is promoted as contemporary.
Both are mislabeled. The church has two misrepresented services.
Church #4 successfully combined traditional and contemporary elements into their service.
Though this church makes the same claim for their first service, it comes off more as a traditional service with a contemporary element awkwardly tacked on the end. For me it was too little, too late.
I also found their second service mislabeled. It was less contemporary and more so “safe.” A friend who attends this church flinched at my description of safe. She also knew I was right.
I suspect what we saw was not so much an effort to provide a contemporary service, but an effort to connect with unchurched visitors while not offending members clinging to the past.
To be correct, they need to either relabel their two services—calling the first one traditional and the second one blended, would be more accurate—or they need to do a major overhaul of each.
Change is in order, with the first option likely appeasing members, whereas the second option would be more effective at connecting with the unchurched.
My wife and I visited a different Christian Church every Sunday for a year. This is our story. Get your copy of 52 Churches today, available in ebook, paperback, hardcover, and audiobook.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
The Bible Should Inform Our Actions, Not Justify Our Habits
Christianity has its traditions and religious practices. We often persist in them with unexamined acceptance. And if we do question our behaviors, we can often find a verse in the Bible to justify them. But that doesn’t make them right.
The Lens of Scripture
We need to interpret the Bible through the lens of Scripture and not from the perspective of our own practices. The Bible is the starting point, not the ending.
When we begin with what we do today and work backwards, looking to the Bible for support, we will usually find it, but we may be in error.
Consider the following.
Church Attendance
The Bible says to not give up meeting together (Hebrews 10:25). Most people interpret this as a command to go to church. That’s not what the verse says. This command is a call to Christian community.
The point of this verse is that we shouldn’t attempt to live our faith in isolation.
Communion
Another area is our practice of communion. We even read the Bible when we partake. This makes us wrongly conclude that our celebration of communion is biblical. It’s not.
The context of communion is at home with family, not as part of a church service. We’re doing communion wrong.
Sermon
Why do we have a sermon every Sunday at church? Because it’s in the Bible, right? Yet biblical preaching is to those outside the church.
You’ve heard the phrase, “preaching to the choir,” which is understood as the futility of telling people the things they already know. Yet preaching to the choir is effectively what we do at most churches every Sunday. P
reaching is for people outside the church.
Worship Music
Why does a significant portion of our Sunday service include music? While singing to God is prevalent throughout the Bible, it’s interesting to note that nowhere in the New Testament is the use of musical instruments mentioned.
Does this mean our singing to God should be a capella? It’s worth considering.
And the idea of having a worship leader is also an anathema to the biblical narrative. When we gather together we should all be prepared to share and to participate, which might include leading the group in a song.
Sunday School
The justification for Sunday School—aside from tradition and “that’s the way we’ve always done it”—often comes from the Old Testament verses to train up a child (Proverbs 22:6) and teach your children (Deuteronomy 11:19 and Deuteronomy 6:6-8).
But who’s to do this training? The parents. Delegating this critical job to the church is lazy parenting.
Though there is some basis for the Sunday offering, we’ve co-opted it into something it wasn’t meant to be. Paul’s instruction to take up a collection each week was for the express purpose of giving money to those in need (1 Corinthians 16:1-2).
How much of a church’s weekly offering goes to that?
Church Buildings
Though the Old Testament had their Temple and the Jewish people added synagogues, the New Testament followers of Jesus met in homes and sought to connect with others in public spaces.
The idea of building churches didn’t occur until a few centuries later. Church facilities cost a lot of money and take a lot of time, distracting us from what is more important.
Paid Staff
The concept of professional, paid clergy also didn’t occur until a couple centuries after the early church started. Peter tells us that we are all priests (1 Peter 2:5, 9), and Paul tells us that we should minister to each other (1 Corinthians 14:26).
When we pay staff to do what we’re supposed to be doing ourselves, we’re subjugating our responsibility and acting with laziness. Paul set a great example, often paying his own way on his missionary journeys. Today’s ministers should consider this. Seriously.
Read the Bible
Prior posts have touched on these subjects in greater detail. They might be worth considering as you contemplate the above items. We persist in these practices out of habit and under the assumption that the Bible commands us to do so.
We conclude this because we read the Bible wearing blinders, focusing our attention on our practices and seeking to find them supported in the Bible.
It’s time we reexamine everything we do through the lens of Scripture and make needed changes. And if we do, it will be a game-changer.
Read more about this in Peter’s thought-provoking book, Jesus’s Broken Church, available in e-book, audiobook, paperback, and hardcover.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
When Leaders Have Absolute Power They Can Commit Terrible Atrocities
In the early days of the nation of Israel, a time under its first king, we witness a bad transition of leadership. King Saul abuses his power and shows his lack of trust in God.
David Anointed King
God wants him gone, replacing him with the shepherd David.
God directs Samuel to anoint David as king, but David doesn’t immediately assume the throne. He must wait.
Saul, acting in a manner we might describe as bipolar, alternates between loving David and hating him, between allowing David to live and hunting him down.
Once when fleeing for his life, the priest Ahimelek, assuming David is on the King’s business, aids David.
David escapes. All is good—for a time.
King Saul Abuses His Power
Furious and paranoid, Saul accuses everyone of conspiracy. Doeg snitches on Ahimelek, and Saul orders the priest’s execution, along with his whole family.
Doeg carries out the order, not only killing Ahimelek and his family, but also slaughtering all of the priests in the area, along with the entire town.
Saul abuses his power as king to order the unjust execution of one of God’s priests and family. Doeg, acting under the king’s authority, abuses his power and annihilates an entire town.
As king, Saul has supreme rule. He has absolute power and he misuses it absolutely.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
With our journey of visiting fifty-two churches over, I can reflect more on the complete experience. Today, I’ll add to my thoughts about Church #51.
This mega church does so many things right. Though I don’t want to go to a large church, this one really draws me. Of all the churches we’ve visited, this one appeals to me far more than any other.
If I were searching for a new church to attend, I’d give this one serious consideration.
This church also has a Sunday evening meeting, which allows for more intentional connections, as well as small groups. These two options offer to counteract my reluctance to go to a large church.
However, I won’t come back twelve times to see how my faith grows, as our tour guide suggested. If I did, I’m sure I’d just keep coming, having formed a comfortable habit after three months.
This would be an easy church for me to slide into. I’d feel comfortable, and surely my faith would grow. But I know that with so many people who attend this church it would be hard to consistently see the same people each week.
That would make it hard to form friendships, even if my faith grows.
My wife and I visited a different Christian Church every Sunday for a year. This is our story. Get your copy of 52 Churches today, available in ebook, paperback, hardcover, and audiobook.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
For the most part, the church of today is an institution. Institutions require structure and leadership; self-perpetuation is essential—regardless of cost. For an institution to work, it needs paid staff.
That’s why local pastors receive a salary: to keep the institution of church functioning and viable. To pay your minister follows the Old Testament model of church.
But we don’t live in the Old Testament or under its covenant. We live in the New Testament and under its covenant—at least in theory.
In the New Testament, we (that is, those who follow Jesus) are his church. Each one of us is a priest (that is, a minister) to care for one another. We should not have to pay someone to do what we’re already supposed to be doing.
Further, our bodies are God’s temple. We don’t need to go to a building to go to church; we take church with us. In short, the institution of church is over—at least in theory. Without a physical building or an institution to maintain, there is no need to pay someone to run the whole mess.
However, there seems to be one exception to this idea of no compensation. In his letter to the people in Corinth, Paul builds a case to pay preachers. But he’s not talking about the folks who run local churches. He’s talking about those who go around telling others about Jesus.
Today, we might call these people evangelists or missionaries. Based on Paul’s teaching it’s right to pay them.
Yet once Paul builds his case to appropriately pay missionaries, he points to an even better way: for missionaries to earn their own money and not require outside support.
Paul often covers his expenses and those who travel with him by working his trade; he is a tentmaker.
Springing from this is the idea of a tentmaker-minister, someone who pays their own way as they care for others.
So if you are part of an institution and want it to perpetuate, then buy a building, hire staff, and pay your minister their due.
However, if you want to pursue a different path, as seen in the New Testament, take the church with you wherever you go and help others wherever you can, paying your own way as you do.
Read more about this in Peter’s thought-provoking book, Jesus’s Broken Church, available in e-book, audiobook, paperback, and hardcover.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
