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Think Like a Christian,
Talk Like a Christian, Pt. 1:
Mental Attitudes
Presenter: Larry Kirkpatrick
Location: Mentone Seventh-day Adventist Church, California, USA
Delivery: 2006-11-25
Publication: Last GenerationTheology.org 2006-11-25 18:37Z
Type: Sermon
URL: http://www.lastgenerationtheology.org/lgt/doc/mis/txtx/kir-talk1.php
God is love. He who is Love made man. He gave man a brain and attached a mouth to it. Man chose to rebel but the mouth was still attached. And when he repents and returns to God, along comes his mouth into God’s church. If I am going to represent the God of love who gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him might not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16), then what will it take for me to learn to talk like a Christian?
According to the Bible, there will eventually stand on the earth a group of believers, or, if you will, a last generation. This last generation will have perfect consonance, perfect harmony and agreement, between what is happening beneath their forehead and what is happening at their lips. Notice this from Revelation 14:1-5:
And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with Him an hundred forty and four thousand, having His Father’s name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.
Notice, the Father’s name where? In the forehead. That is, the Father’s character reproduced in us, and then notice that no guile is found in the mouth of God’s faithful in the last generation. Again we ask, What will it take to learn to talk as the Bible portrays the last generation?
Let’s establish this connection between our thoughts and our words. Consider Matthew 12:35, 36:
A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
Jesus teaches that a good man has a good treasure of the heart, and that from that good treasure he brings forth good things. Likewise, an evil person brings forth from out of the abundance of his evil treasure. Both kinds of people bring forth from out of themselves and into the world. Jesus echoes the pattern in Genesis 1-5: like reproduces like.
He says it again:
A good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh (Luke 6:43-45).
Every tree is known by its fruit. As Christians we claim that our lives are samples of changed people accomplished by Christ. How then is our fruit?
Jesus Himself says that our words are an index to our heart, either vindicating or condemning us. Our words present the character of our thoughts. They do this accurately. We may talk much or but little, yet how we communicate with each other reveals the true measure of our experience.
Jesus said that “those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart” (Matthew 15:18). In short, what comes out is linked to the inside. Sometimes one will complain about the filth that comes out of Hollywood. Sitting back in his living room, having just been disgusted by the DVD that he rented or bought, he decries the moral lowness of the film. But he is really part of the filth of Hollywood. He buys its DVDs, he rents them, he is the end-user, he is on the receiving end of its ethical instruction. The tentacles extend right into his living room. Hollywood is there too.
Likewise, the words that proceed forth and come out of our heart show without fail what is in our heart. In this sense, your mouth cannot lie. It tells more about your character than you have realized. That which comes out of the heart defiles the man.
James adds, “If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain” (James 1:26). Empty religion refuses to bridle the mouth. Ironically then, it turns out to be mostly talk and very little action. There is enough talk to pass oneself off—superficially—as religious. But the refusal to bridle the mouth is a refusal to exercise self-control. In the early church the premium was placed on right doing.
How serious is unchristian speaking? “The hasty, reckless use of the faculty of speech lies at the foundation of nearly all the church troubles that exist. Evilspeaking should be dealt with as a misdemeanor that is subject to church trial and separation from church membership if persisted in; for the church cannot be set in order in any other way” (Ellen G. White, The Voice in Speech and Song, p. 31).
And all of this goes much further. This is not only about talk, but about all of our communications, whether spoken or written, whether face-to-face or by cell phone or e-mail or instant message. In every mode of communication, how will the Christian interact with others?
In this series of messages, we want to equip you with an understanding of how to think like a Christian, how to define destructive talk and separation talk, how to employ some easy to use “rules of engagement” for interacting with others.
Humility
Let’s focus now on the “think like a Christian part.” Specifically, let’s start with humility. In 1 Peter 5:5 we are instructed “be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.”
What is humility? To be humble means to be lowly rather than exalted. To manifest humility is to take a very restrained, moderate view of one’s importance, of one’s capabilities, wisdom, and fallibility. The believer who is clothed with humility will not view himself as supremely important. No one is indispensable in God’s scheme of things. While urgently desiring that not even one be lost, God is not dependent upon any one person or worker to accomplish His purposes. If men refuse to work with Him, He will pass over those who are unavailable to Him, extending the privilege to others.
When it comes to capabilities, the humble person will have a functional recognition that he is personally liable to misunderstand others, that he may need to double-check his perceptions, and that he himself needs to exercise care in communication. He will realize that he can easily misunderstand others, and that he himself is quite capable of communicating in a way that can be misunderstood.
(By functional recognition, we mean not just an incidental recognition forgotten after it is uttered. Functional recognition means that in the very flow of communicating with others we will remember our fallibility, our capacity to misunderstand or misrepresent others or miscommunicate our intended message. We won’t forget this even as we are face-to-face with others, or as we prepare to press “send” on an e-mail.)
We clothe our entire bodies, all the parts that are appropriate to be covered. To be clothed with humility is to make humility the rule in everything that we do. There are several statements about humility in the Proverbs, among them this from 18:12: “Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honour is humility.”
There is an order, a progression in our behavior. It is continuous. There is no stopping place and no rewind button. Before destruction there is a haughty spirit, and the person becomes habituated in a haughty attitude and his behavior comes to reflect it continually. Likewise, before honor there is humility. Before greatness there is an awareness of what one is, what one has been prone to, what one would be except for the gospel. Our carefully nurtured tendencies to become high and lifted up must be given up. Any Addictions to self-importance must be discovered and surrendered to the Great Physician.
By indulging a willful failure to cultivate humility, everything else fails in the Christian experience. There are really only two possible outcomes for us—the two outlined in 18:12. Either we end in destruction, or we end in honor. Either we will receive the mark of the beast, a selfish character facsimile of Satan, or we will receive the seal of God, the unselfish character facsimile of Jesus. We will end as villains or conquerors. No matter where we have come from or how low we have sunk, what is the truth?
God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up (James 4:6-10).
Do you need grace? You have to humble yourself to get it. When you find that you are on the verge of saying something that might be destructive concerning someone else, stop in your tracks. Spiritual opportunity is at hand. Choose to submit to God, choose to resist the devil. Drawing near to God is not something that comes automatically. You have to fight your way through to it. Look at the description. Cleanse your hands, purify your hearts, be afflicted, and mourn, and weep. If you humble yourself, God will lift you up. Before honor is humility.
A person clothed in humility will speak words of humility. He will be slow to think he is fitted to judge others. He will communicate with others gently.
A Healthy Sense of Non-Deity
Here we come to one item especially important for us that does not hold for Christ. Christ is God, He is one of the three persons who constitute the one divine being of the Godhead. But when it comes to us, we each need to maintain a healthy sense of non-deity. We are not God. We are creatures. The moment we forget this, we may be assured that we have placed ourselves in line to be reminded of it.
But, you say, no one you know is walking around in the church claiming to be God. True. But there are many ways to put oneself in the place of God. For example, when you place yourself in the role of the Holy Spirit to others, you have lost your sense of non-deity. You are putting yourself in God’s place and that actually makes you an antichrist.
When a person prescribes for others, telling them what God wants them to do or requires them to do, when he goes beyond the teachings of inspiration and beyond the authority vested in him by the church, he is putting himself in a place that he is not designed for. What is more unhealthy than for a created being to be placed in the position of deity? When one comes to you and says you should vote this way, or that God is judging you, or that your heart is not right with God, be careful.
As a minister of several years experience, when I speak from the pulpit, I address the congregation. I speak in verities and certainties. But my office does not make me infallible. When counseling people individually, I keep a recognition of my humanity, my lack of all data, all knowledge, all wisdom. So in those settings, I often use qualifiers. “It seems to me that the Lord may be moving in this way.” “The evidences suggest that Heaven may be granting you this spiritual gift.’
There are people out there who will settle for nothing less than a Moses. They are looking for spiritual leaders who present themselves as having a red phone, a straight line to Heaven and to God’s ear. There are Christian denominations in which if you do not claim to have been called by God via an audible voice, you are hardly considered legitimate.
Don’t misunderstand me. I believe that God does use these means—an audible voice, a dream, a vision, a providential happening, a miracle—to communicate with us. But these are not the only biblical paradigms. God came to Elijah with a strong wind, an earthquake, and a fire. But it was the still, small voice by which He addressed him (1 Kings 19:11, 12). Jesus spoke of man’s interaction with the Holy Spirit being like wind blowing through a tree (John 3:8). Luke wrote his gospel by a careful research process (Luke 1:1-4). God answered Daniel’s prayer via an angelic visitation (Daniel 9:20-27), and the heartfelt desire of the Ethiopian eunuch for a clarified understanding by sending Philip to give him a Bible study (Acts 8:26-40). God works in many ways. I am as wary of people who are too ready to be led as I am of people who are too ready to lead. Don’t forget, in the final analysis, you are personally responsible. God gave you a conscience, a mind, a will, an intellect, opportunity to be a distinct person made in God’s image.
How much faith do we have, how healthy is our sense of non-deity, when we are prone to prescribe for others? God is still on His throne, the Holy Spirit has lost none of His potency, and we are not left to rely only upon the counsel of fallible men.
The ultimate example of someone who has lost his sense of non-deity, of course, is Lucifer. He become completely devoted to the idea of “Worship me,” and then bent his communication skills to that, misusing them.
The person who keeps in himself a healthy sense of non-deity will realize that he is not all-knowing, and that his use of reason is not automatically perfect and logical. He will be slow to prescribe on behalf of the Holy Spirit for others, recognizing that the Holy Spirit is God, and that He communicates directly with the heart of every individual. Consequently, his speech will be careful rather than hasty.
Beware the Judgmental Spirit
How does the Christian think? One thing is for certain; he is not to be judgmental of others. But what do we mean when we speak of being judgmental? Does the Bible prohibit people from making moral judgments of any kind? If someone says that adultery is wrong they are being judgmental. But the Ten Commandments urge us: “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Clearly, far from prohibiting moral judgment, the Bible urges us to exercise moral judgment. It isn’t wrong to judge rapists or child molestors as having committed evil acts. By every biblical measure, they have committed them. The judgmentalism that Jesus is concerned with is the passing of judgment on another person’s thoughts and motives—which we cannot read.
Consider one of the most well known Bible texts on this topic, Matthew 7:1-5.
Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
This teaching by Jesus is about how we think. In the absence of an ability to read the heart of another, in the absence of absolute knowledge, is it fair to judge their thoughts? Shall a person made in God’s image be considered an offender even when a definite knowledge of his thoughts and motives is impossible? From His first words on the topic, Jesus points out the recipricosity of such judgments. “With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” This is the golden rule put into practice.
Another central concern is hypocracy. We are prone to make large issues of smaller matters while in our own case there are glaring inconsistencies. We are fallible already, but if our own spiritual life is distorted, then are we not even more likely to misjudge others?
Often overlooked is that this teaching includes in itself the hope and even necessity of removal of offense. But the only way one can truly help another is when the helper is able to see clearly. The key idea is removal of offense—a redemptive line. Judging not that we be not judged is having mercy toward others in order that we might come into clarity ourselves and be able to help them draw close to God and to each other again.
So many things that we say are purely judgmental—they partake purely of speculation on our part, or exaggeration of the facts available to us. Do we want to be treated this way? The Spirit that God would have underlying all our interactions with others is found here: “Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and show mercy and compassions every man to his brother: And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart” (Zechariah 7:9, 10).
Here is unambiguous prohibition against imagining evil against your brother in your heart. When you think and speak going beyond the facts that you are sure of in a matter, when you fill in the missing gaps even just a little bit, you yourself become the source of condemnation of another. Then it is you who are imagining evil against your brother. God help us to speak more carefully than we ever have before. Reputations, hearts, are on the line. Blood-bought souls for whom Jesus died have been maligned—sometimes by we ourselves. Such things ought not to be.
Conclusion
Can God win the great controversy between good and evil on our watch if we church members, we representatives of Jesus Christ, fail to manifest to the world the behavior of converted people? Will we go on thinking, talking, and even fighting, as if there were no such thing as conversion?
This is an important topic. Former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said something this year that is true even for the church: “Every living creature, whether a biological organism or a nation, must do two things to survive: identify the threats to its existence and develop the capacities to thwart those threats” (2006-08-14 Address to the Israeli Knesset). Destructive talk and separation talk, because thoughts and feelings are encouraged and strengthened as we give them utterance, are a threat to our existence as Christians. If the Bible identifies these threats clearly, our next business is in developing the capacities to thwart them.
Today we noted the direct connection between thoughts and words. We paused to consider necessary attitude cautions in humility, remembering that we are not deity, and the dangers of judgmentalism. By exercising caution so that the wrong attitudes don’t predominate and the right ones do, we begin to create the right mental attitudes so that we can think like Christians and begin to talk like them. Next week we delve into what is destructive talk and what is separation talk, and offer practical insights for changing how we speak. LGT
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