Live as though you had none

 In our epistle reading from 1 Corinthians from Sunday, Paul tells the Corinthians "from now on, let those who have wives live as though they did not, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away."

That's one of those Biblical passages that we have to ask ourselves what it means in practice.  It's nice and all to hear it read out on a Sunday morning, but what does it mean in practice?  Well, Jonah's your guy for working that out.  Jonah, the most reluctant prophet in the Bible. In most of the Bible, most of the prophets are, in effect, reluctant.  Most of them don't want to do the job that they're being asked to do. But for most of those prophets, it's because they don't feel up to the challenge, they feel the mantle is too heavy, they believe that the call is above their station, or they're not good at speaking, whatever. But Jonah declines his role because he would rather not see his calling be successful.  God threatens to kill off the people of Nineveh unless they are turned away from their sins, and Jonah is happy for that to happen, therefore Jonah runs away from the call and sails as far away from his destination as possible.  You know the rest of the story from here - man gets swallowed by big fish, man ends up in fish belly for three days, man ends up back at Nineveh anyway.  

Jonah is so useful because we get to look at that reading from 1 Corinthians through his lens.  Why doesn't Jonah want the people of Nineveh to be spared destruction? Because Jonah himself doesn't like them very much. Not because God doesn't.  God apparently loves them enough to send a prophet to warn them of their own destruction.  But Jonah would be happy if they all died. They're enemies of Jonah's people, after all, so Jonah would be fine if they all went away tomorrow.  God disagreed.  Which is why God went to all the effort of dragging Jonah all around the middle east - so he would give the message to Nineveh, they would repent, and be spared. Which they were.

Jonah was angry that his message had been heard - Angry enough to die!  So he spoke out in anger against God, railing against him for his mercy.  And the bitter pill that Jonah had to swallow is that God's grace applies to everyone, whether you like them or not.

Not really that bitter of a pill, right?  Well, yes and no.  The thing is, we can believe that it would be almost comically outlandish for Jonah to want to change God's word that his mercy would not apply to people Jonah doesn't like, but we, by and large, are fine with the opposite.  That is, by and large, we're fine with changing the word of God not against those we don't like, but in favor of those that we do.  It seems quite boring and commonplace by now that someone would have a very fancy new revelation about their faith, ethics, and so on, based on someone that they like entering into conflict with the word of God. It is almost always well-meaning Christian people, in the pews on Sunday morning, who will make the statement 'surely, you don't have to go to church to be a Christian, right?' And you all know full well that it isn't a coincidence that their own children aren't going to church.  This isn't a dispassionate, removed and disinterested statement - rather, it's the opposite of Jonah. You're changing the word of God not to be against someone you don't like, but rather to be in favor or who you do.  It's almost never a matter of people consulting the scriptures, doing a deep dive in the Greek and Hebrew, working out what it is that God truly says about meeting on the Sabbath, then arriving at the conclusion that God doesn't really care.  Then their kids stop going to church . Almost always, it's the other way round - your kids stop going to church, so you try to find some reason that God wouldn't really mind it.

But if Jonah is true, which it is, then Jonah's story is going to cut both ways - that is, if the grace of God applies to everyone, even the people you don't like, then the law of God is going to apply even to the people that you do like.  And this puts you in a predicament that you weren't expecting, doesn't it? You're fine, we all are, with the idea that the grace of God applies to everyone, whether you like them or not. Jonah is rightly held up as an example of a prophet not to be.  He should have been sufficiently motivated to speak the truth to the human beings of Nineveh, and resisted only because he didn't like them. But we almost balk at the idea, the notion that God's law doesn't stop applying to people just because we like them.  That is, the ten commandments apply no matter if you want them to or not.  The ten commandments of God apply whether you want them to or not.  The laws and edicts of God, the ethics of the scriptures apply to even the people that you like.  And if you want the grace of God not to apply to people you dislike, and the law of God not to apply to people you like, you're drifting very close to idolatry.  Idolatry that tells you that God, the god of your making anyway, looks to you for morality. God will happily change what is true, what is right, what is good, in order to suit the people you like, and not the people you don't.  

But you're not an idolater.  You're a Christian.  And as a Christian, you have to know that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. There is no shadow of turning with him.  Heaven and Earth may pass away, but his words will never pass away.  So how do you walk the line? Jesus tells you how to do it.  He shows you in the Gospel reading.  He is walking along the shores of the sea of Galilee, telling people 'the kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent, and believe in the Gospel.'  

That's it. And that works whether you like the person or not, whether they are downtrodden or hard hearted.  It works whether they are the elite of the elite, or a nobody of nobodies. Whether they are a confident Pharisee or a groveling tax collector.  Repent, and believe in the Gospel.  God's grace applies to everyone - Repent and BELIEVE IN THE GOSPEL.  God's law applies to everyone - REPENT and believe in the Gospel.  In many ways, part of the reason we have such a hard time working this out is because we forget what Jesus actually says.  He comes to speak law and Gospel - the law to trouble the confident conscience, and the gospel to bind up the wounded soul.  Repent and believe in the Gospel.  If you go and preach that, then it doesn't matter if it's a close friend, or a bitter enemy, it gets across the point: God desires all people to be saved, and to come to a knowledge of the truth.  

Law and Gospel - thanks to CFW Walther.

Repent and believe in the Gospel. That way, it takes you right out of the picture, the love of God doesn't depend on you liking the person, and the law of God doesn't depend on them being your enemy. It's the same message regardless.  Repent and believe in the Gospel.