Articles
What Pattern Will You Accept?
(February Theme: Authority... In Church Organization)
A preacher was having a study with a man about salvation, the church, all of the common topics. As the preacher comfortably answered every question scripturally the man struggled to find more arguments. Finally, exasperated, the man exclaimed, “But, it’s just too simple, there has to be more to it than that!”
This man’s problem is one that many have today. It was not that he didn’t understand God’s will on these things. It was that it just wasn’t enough for him. He was so influenced by the complex and carnal patterns of the religious world that he couldn’t accept how straightforward and simple God’s pattern was. By his reasoning, it just wasn’t enough to be effective.
When people think this way about God’s pattern it is ultimately because they have a carnal (or “natural”) mindset instead of a spiritual one. “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.” (1 Cor. 2:14). How do I inhabit a spiritual mindset? The answer, contextually, is to intently search the mind of God that He has revealed in His word! How weak is the faith which thinks that Scripture is not enough (2 Tim. 3:16; cf. Rom. 1:16; 1 Cor. 2:2)!
God’s pattern has always been enough — from the beginning to now (Heb. 8:5). Are we willing to accept that pattern and follow it? If yes, that means we’re immediately and unapologetically abandoning every unscriptural method (or “pattern”) that has become commonplace in much of the religious world. On the other hand, it means we are unquestioningly doing things God’s way no matter how “simple” it seems.
A Word of Caution
“For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach… But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it.”
(Deut. 30:11-14)
God has always given us a choice. Since the beginning, God has allowed man the choice to follow His pattern or follow one of his own making. In the end, no soul will be pardoned with the excuse, “But there was no other way.” Never is the circumstance so bleak that the only course of action is rebellion (1 Cor. 10:13; Eph. 6:11, 13).
God has made His way clear. Not to rehash recent thoughts, but God’s will is both expressly and clearly communicated (Eph. 5:17; 1 Cor. 2:10-16). Sometimes people say or think, “We need to find a way to spruce up activity in the church.” Without meaning to or saying it out loud, what this implies is that God’s pattern is too convoluted to follow precisely or that it’s not enough to be effective. The failure (inactivity, ineffectiveness, inability) does not lie on the Word but on those who haven’t made this their only pattern.
More could be said, but the point is simple… Trust God’s ONE pattern and don’t entertain any other (cf. Gal. 1:6ff).
