“You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us[? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: ‘God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.’
“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” (James 4:1-10 NIV)
Recently I was told of a student who has decided they can’t believe in God because they can’t agree with what the Bible says. This is quite common. People often say, “I can’t believe in a God who would…,” fill in the blank. It might regard allowing evil in the world, allowing a young child to suffer from cancer and die, demanding perfection, restricting our freedoms to live how we want, etc.
There are also others who believe in God, and often follow Him, but only on their own terms. And to make it easier, they create their own image of God and attribute to Him traits and beliefs with which they are comfortable and in agreement. If we are honest, most of us fall into this category.
I came to follow the Lord with a bias against the work of the Holy Spirit. When I was in high school, my girlfriend and I made fun of the “holy rollers” at the Pentecostal church across the street from her house. They were ridiculous in our minds. After becoming a Christian, I became involved in a campus ministry where the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit (i.e., speaking in tongues, healing, prophecy) were viewed as being 1st Century phenomenon, but were replaced by the New Testament. Later, I went to a seminary that taught the same thing. For years, I accepted and held to this view. But the more I read the Scriptures and meditated upon them, the more my rationale was challenged. Yet, I continued to resist because it was not what I wanted to believe. The miraculous gifts of the Spirit made me uncomfortable and I had seen many abhorrent distortions of their use.
As I look at so many controversial issues within the Church and the numerous doctrinal divides, I am convinced we are where we are because of what James says—we want what we want rather than submit to what God says. So we take a verse or passage of Scripture that is seemingly in line with what we believe and build our views around it. For years I built my belief regarding the gifts of the Spirit around I Corinthians 13:9-10. “Completeness,” I was taught, refers to the New Testament; thus, no need existed for the gifts of the Spirit. It sounds so ridiculous as I type it in light of all the references to the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures, but I wanted God to be a certain way and so I made Him that way based on my view of the Bible.
This is done over and over by many who love the Lord, but who struggle with submitting to Him in areas in which they just don’t agree with Him or are just not comfortable with His point of view. Thus, as Paul tells Timothy, we gather around us those who tell us, reinforce, what we already believe or want to believe (II Timothy 4:3). And, like me, they are very sincere, but their desires lead them into error of what the Lord really teaches.
Years ago I began to see that one must interpret Scripture as a whole. Many doctrines and beliefs are formulated around one verse or passage. Doing this leaves us open to error because it fails to take into consideration the context of the passage and the possibility that other Scriptures say something different. That’s what I finally concluded about my views on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Taking the Scriptures as a whole changed my view even though it went against what I preferred.
Today, consider what views you hold on pre-destination, eternal security, homosexuality, Jesus as the only way to God, alcohol consumption, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, among others. Are they truly based on your comprehensive reading and study of the Scriptures, or are they based on what you would like to believe and what you are personally comfortable with? James’ command is to submit to God. That means your will and your desires. If they do not fit with the Lord’s, guess who needs to have a change of heart and mind?
© Jim Musser 2015
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