The Most Important Christian Discipline

Somebody asked me the other day what I thought the most important Christian discipline was.  I actually kind of hate that sort of question because faith isn't about tips and tricks, nor going through a handy list of "things to do".  You can be technically good at a lot of things that look holy and still not be very faithful.  Thus the injunction in Matthew, Chapter 6 where Jesus says, "When you fast and pray, do not...(etc.)".  Nevertheless I want to honor the question, so here you go.

I think the most valuable Christian discipline a normal person can pursue is one suggested by Martin Luther in response to the commandment about bearing false witness.  As part of following this commandment he urged people to explain the actions of their neighbors in the kindest possible way.  Whatever your neighbors do or say, interpret it in the most charitable way possible and react accordingly.

This seems easy, but it actually requires you to exercise most of the major faith muscles.  It involves forgiveness, reaching out to understand and care about others, sacrificing oneself and one's prerogatives, abandoning the "holier than thou" and "my way or the highway" attitudes, sharing Good News instead of bad, viewing others with graceful eyes, and trusting in God and the people around you.  Just doing this one thing you learn to do just about everything needed to witness the life of faith.

Conversely failing to do this thing reveals a lack of trust, a willingness to promote oneself at the expense of others, a tendency to regard one's own opinion and outlook as the definition of "right" and "good", failure to recognize that God has made us important and beautiful, grasping at that importance and beauty through other means, defining others by their shortcomings, holding grudges, and making the world worse by bringing it down to the lowest possible definition.

How you interpret, explain, and witness about your neighbors' actions says far more about you than it does about them.  It reveals the core of your faith and your relationship with God in a way that no amount of fasting or church attendance (or any other discipline) can change.  The litmus test isn't whether you're right about your neighbors or faith or anything else.  None of us is ever completely right.  The test is what you'll do  in your not-right state.

Will you continue to be graceful to others, pouring as much love, understanding, and forgiveness into your relationships as possible, binding people together despite their shortcomings and differences?  Or do you prefer to define people by those shortcomings and differences, explain things in the worst way possible, and drive folks apart?

In the very next chapter of Matthew, in verses 7: 1-2, we read:

7 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

It doesn't say we're never to judge anything.  It says the way we judge other people (i.e. talk about and interpret their actions) is also the way God will judge us.

I don't know about you, but I'm thinking charitable is the way to go here.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)