Christian Living
Dear W.,
Here is a quick note about sacrifice, especially fasting. We must be careful not to fall into an error which has always weakened the true principle of sacrifice. Almost from its beginning the Christian faith was infiltrated by a form of corruption from Greek philosophy: the teaching that the material world is base and inferior to the spiritual world. You may remember, for example, that Socrates, when he heard of his death sentence, was not grieved, but rather eager to leave his lumpish and impure body and enter the blessed state of the spirit world (Phaedo?).Once this thought was accepted and mixed with legitimate scriptural teachings about self denial, a spurious sanctity replaced true spirituality. Paul mentions those among the Colossians who would, "lead you away with philosophy and vain deceit". The core of their teachings, he said, "have indeed an appearance of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and harsh treatment of the body, not in a certain honor - to the satisfaction of the flesh" (Col.2:23).
The church did not listen to the apostle. In the course of time the idea that material is evil and spirit is good produced a line of hermits, column sitters, tomb dwellers, processions of flagellants, self-mutilaters, etc. The principle behind all of it was: (1) absolute self denial, especially starving and abusing the body, was seen by God as good. And (2) the more one denies the material, the more one becomes spiritual. Neither of these ideas is correct according to scripture. Rather, the old adage has prevailed: ascetics starve the body but feed the flesh.
The Reformation overturned much of the excesses, but this is an illness from which we have never, unfortunately, fully recovered. Does fasting or abstinence have spiritual value Yes. Does it make one more spiritual? No. Please show me any scripture for such a thought. Rather, Paul reminds us that in the latter times those who apostatize will accept teachings from demons, "forbidding to marry and abstaining from meats". (I Tim.4:1,2). The idea that you can do something to your body to make yourself more sanctified is really demonic. The Eastern religions demand it. And it does, in fact, give one a certain kind of soul power, but nothing of true value before God. We have a perfect right to eat and to marry. If we forego the right to eat in order to supplicate God urgently, He notices it. In the case of demon possession, the most extreme examples (and only these) require both prayer and fasting to prevail in a spiritual warfare against a powerful foe. One has more focus and therefore more power in prayer. But it does not put one in a more elevated status before God. In all cases the abstention is for a purpose, not an end in itself. Paul tells the husband and wife they may deny themselves conjugal pleasure for a season in order to devote themselves to prayer (I Cor.7:5). The Lord Jesus informs us very gently that a person may make himself a eunuch for the kingdom's sake; and he will be honored for so doing (Matt.19:10-12).
But even in this example the goal is to have more time for the gospel, without having to take care of a wife. The body is entitled to "a certain honor". We may be asked to give it up entirely for his name's sake. But we should never do something bad to it in the hope of drawing closer to God thereby.
Two passages from the gospels help me understand what should be our attitude toward self denial and sacrifice. Matthew, Mark, and Luke each record our Lord's response to the query, "Why do we (John's disciples) and the Pharisees fast often, but thy disciples fast not?" Jesus' answer, "Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? But days will come when the bridegroom will have been taken away from them, then they will fast" (Matt.9:14,15) - this definitely applies to us. But it is a different kind of fasting; it is the fasting of mourning. This is a little difficult to put in words, brother. A Christian should be living under an overweening inner sense: My Lord is not here. "His life was taken from the earth" (Acts 8:33). The One I love is gone. A person in the sensation of mourning has an inner sense that eating and drinking, i.e. carrying on as usual, is unfitting. What our Lord was describing is an attitude. After the death of a loved one, life goes on everywhere as always. But not for the bereaved one! Everything is different. Nothing is the same. The birds should not be singing. My feeling , now that the bridegroom has been taken away, is: I do not want to indulge myself here in the scene of his rejection and murder. It is too easy to lose this sense of loss and the estrangement which bereavement brings - especially in these times of plenty. I believe this particular kind of fasting is well pleasing to our Father.
The second passage, from Luke 9, is also especially instructive for Christians who live in situations which tolerate rather than persecute believers. "And he said to them all, If anyone will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me; for whosoever shall desire to save his life shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake, he shall save it." Our Lord gave his disciples this ultimatum fully conscious of two things. First, no one would naturally make this kind of sacrifice. Everyone would, in any case, "..desire to save his life". Second, he was certain that these disciples had been "drawn" to him by the Father(Jn.6:44).
They believed on him and loved him. Each one of them had been wrought upon by God and actually would be willing to, "..lose his life for my sake".
"Deny himself". Love delights in sacrificing on behalf of the loved one. It is the emotion which overrules the instinct for self preservation and self aggrandizement. Love strips itself. Jonathan loved David and, "...stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle". But he didn't do the one thing which was most necessary, and it cost him his life. He didn't join David in the lowly path of reproach and rejection. When the Pharisees assailed our Lord for allowing his disciples to pluck ears of corn on the Sabbath, Jesus' answer was, "Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him,". This did not include Jonathan. Hence we have the adage: "Jonathan gave David everything but his shoes".
I think this is why the Lord Jesus added, "..take up his cross daily and follow me". We should remember that although in God's eyes the cross was the place where Satan was judged and our sins put away, to the world it was the place of contempt and shame. In addition to crucifying the condemned person, the Romans required him to bear his cross to the destination as a mark of shame. They did this to our Savior; and he, "for the joy set before him", willingly "endured the cross, despising the shame"(Heb.12:2). Even in this country, though nominally Christian, we should be targets for the taunts and scorn of the world - if we are testifying to it that it is at enmity to God, under judgment, unable to save itself, and in need of a Savior. If we are faithful to the rejected Lord, we will certainly be "bearing his reproach" (Heb.13:13).
Honestly speaking, this is sacrifice, because we all would naturally shrink from disdain and dishonor. Certainly not overnight will we lose our esteem for the praise or admiration of men, or the honors of this world. I think I have daydreamed many times, like Walter Mitty, of putting my back to the post and facing the firing squad for the testimony of Jesus. And church history astonishes us with how many examples there are of normal people who, when the trial called for the ultimate sacrifice, were given grace by God to give up their lives. But to "daily" live under the opprobrium and shunning, the mockery and refusal, being called "religious", "goody-goody", etc! One's name isn't entered into the rolls for that. That little word, "daily" makes the difference and proves that Jesus was not simply referring to dying. There is a good bit of truth to the proverb: it is easier to die as a martyr than live as a witness. But, because the principle is the same, the New Testament uses the same for word for both.
Paul "beseeched" the church in Rome to (1) "present your bodies a living sacrifice" and to (2) "be not conformed to this world". The first can only be accomplished by the Attractive power of the Loved One to whom we are attached. It is the motive for the self denial of Luke 9. The second can only be lived out through the Sanctifying power of the Loved One who has been "taken away". This is the spiritual fasting of Matthew 9.
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