Jesus was concerned with this precision when he said that the smallest palaeographical bits of the Law would be accomplished (Matt 5:17-18). Even threats on Jesus’ life came down to his use of two words saying, “truly, truly before Abraham was born, I am” (John 8:58). He wasn’t saying he’s a divinized superhero, but saying in a precise way that any Jew would understand, that he was Yahweh, the true God of Israel (Exodus 3:14).
The history of the church has been marked by a pursuit of precision. Precision has been refined in the historic debates about the doctrine of Christ, or the Trinity, or justification by faith alone, or the nature of conversion.
More recently the 20th century saw the hard work of discerning the inerrancy of the Scriptures (Chicago Statement) and the relationship between men and women as equal, yet distinct and complementary in roles (Danvers).
Commit to staying on the line.
That’s the phrase that I picked up from the recent Simeon Trust workshop in Calgary. By “staying on the line” the idea is that you shouldn’t go above the line of Scripture by adding to it or making it say what it doesn’t. And you shouldn’t go below the line of the text, failing to say what the text does, emphasizing what Scripture emphasizes.
Commit to discerning between ideas and people.
Often we associate ideas with people to such an extent that the noble person with a wrong idea must be a villain, and the immoral person with ideas that succeed is treated like a hero.
This is not to say that there is no connection between what someone believes and their character. Character and conviction ought to be closely connected (cf. James 2:18). But we must also recognize that the deceitfulness of sin can make even a nice guy like Barnabas play the hypocrite and undermine the gospel (Gal. 2:13). Or on the flip side, even Judas was an apostle; Demas was on Paul’s team and then bailed on him.
Commit to discerning between ideas and styles of argument.
In Canada this is especially needed. In our stereotypical niceness, we can accept ideas that may be weak or false, simply because they are presented in a magnanimous way. Likewise, we can be prone to reject ideas if they are presented in a harsh way. This goes for Canadian Christians too.
A possible case study for this can be seen in the movement by some evangelical churches to have women as pastors, elders and overseers (for the TGCC position see section #3 of the Confessional Statement). For those churches, the limitations of 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1 and the prohibitions of 1 Timothy 2:12 are minimized (see #1). But they are minimized, not because they are exegetically deficient, but because they are viewed as somehow expressing a harsh argument. Now certainly some have argued in favour of biblical positions in harsh ways, but it doesn’t change the biblical position. Like getting a package in the mail, we have to get into the ideas apart from all the wrapping.
Still, for those who wish to make a case from the text of Scripture, they can feel like they’ve been pre-judged. They’re already wearing the villain’s hat in the B-Western before they start. When I talk with pastor friends who are thinking through these issues, one of the frustrations they have with their denominational leaders is that there is no willingness to discuss ideas.
The denominations aren’t wanting to do exegetical work in the Scriptures. Instead, the leaders have concluded that certain positions have a perception of having a negative style of argument, so their ideas are not worth discussing. The better way forward is to welcome open discourse with sound exegetical work. That way we can pursue precision as best as we can, while developing our discernment muscles and our godly conversation skills.
Resist the ‘Who Knows?’ Response.
When thorny issues and complex characters appear in our lives, we need to engage faithfully and truthfully. What we don’t want is to resign ourselves to know-nothing-ism and conclude that because things are less clear, they are utterly unknown. All of life is “seeing through a glass darkly” (1 Cor 13:12 KJV), but the Scriptures have been given to the church as without error and fully sufficient for what we need to know and the degrees of clarity we require to live in the world (See 2 Timothy 3:16-17).
If Christians give in to laziness and don’t aim at precision in spiritual discernment, then they will be like that anchor-less boat that Paul talked about, “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” (Eph 4:14). When we pursue precision we are not ignoring the waves, but are aiming to “hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful” (Heb 10:23).
The Hour of Precision
Yes. It is the hour of precision. But if we can practice being precise, using our discernment muscles and doing the hard work of drawing careful lines, we will stay faithful to our Lord. And we will do so as we walk in obedience to the truth that Jesus prayed for: “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17).
