Orthopraxy
Part 5 of “Let the Text Speak”
There is a tension in Christian history between the importance of correct belief (orthodoxy) on the one hand and correct practice (orthopraxy) on the other. Any conflict between the two largely has to do with the influence of Hellenism in Christian thought, which essentially treated the faith as essentially a philosophy akin to the contemporaneous Neo-Platonism of the early centuries of the common era. The idea employed here, which is strongly present in virtually all forms of Western Christianity, is that correct belief is one of the most vital conditions for salvation, if not the sole condition. The whole discrepancy here has to do with a misunderstanding of the Hebrew word aman and by extension, its Greek counterpart pistis. Both of these words are better understood as relating to the English word trust as opposed to belief. It can also be understood as fidelity. The understanding that this has nothing to do with abstract belief can be seen even in the English language where being faithful isn’t an act of believing anything, but is about behavior as a response to trust. This can be seen when Paul speaks of God’s faithfulness.
What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? — Rom. 3:3
If it was about belief, the idea of God having faith wouldn’t make any sense. How could God believe or disbelieve something? Moreover, some translations butcher Mark 11:22 because they cannot fathom Jesus telling his disciples to have the faith of God. Many translations say faith in God or faith from God but neither one of these reflects the Greek which is simply, pistin theou. With theou being in the genitive, it is possessive and thus communicating that the faith that the apostles are to have is the same faith that God has. In other words, to have the faith of God is ultimately to behave as God behaves and to forgive others when they don’t deserve it, as God forgave us when we didn’t deserve it. This may seem like a stretch in interpretation, but read the whole passage and see what it leads up to.
As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God (lit. have the faith of God). Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” — Mk. 11:20–25
There are also countless examples from both testaments of scripture that correct behavior always trumps correct belief, but for the sake of not making this paper any longer than it needs to be, I will leave it up for those who have ears to hear to hear the teaching for themselves. We waste so much time as Christians so fixated on doctrine that we tragically miss out on the one thing scripture calls undefiled religion which is the mercy to the outsider through and through.
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. — Jas. 1:27
The beauty of that teaching is that you can see who truly lives this principle based on the fruit of their labor. There is a woman I know personally who lives the gospel teaching better than anyone I’ve ever met. To put it mildly, she has gone through more than one traumatic event during her life, and yet is the most loving and graceful person imaginable. A few years ago, she unexpectedly lost one of her children in a horrible way and not too long after that, had someone essentially try to ruin her career. He tried so hard to dig up dirt on her to ruin her reputation, and even brought her son’s death into his attacks. Luckily, she is someone who is well loved by her community so her attacker was quickly met with fierce pushback and rejection by an entire community. It got so overwhelming, that it was actually hurting his own personal life, and he eventually came around and apologized. What is striking is that not only did she accept his apology, she even invited him to dinner at her own household with her family. As a response to this unexpected gesture of mercy, he started weeping. Overcome with guilt, he said “I am so sorry, you didn’t deserve what I did to you.” Her response was badass. “You’re right. I didn’t deserve it. And I’m glad you see that now.” That is golden. She understood the meaning of forgiveness. Forgiveness doesn’t mean that you just forget what happened. It doesn’t mean that you excuse what happened. It means that your response to someone else’s evil is love. It’s that simple. She didn’t let him off the hook, but she responded with love and it was so powerful to him that he broke down in tears. That is the gospel at work. Here’s the thing. I know I disagree with her about theology. I know we don’t view the Bible the same way. But none of that matters. She lives according to this gospel. I still have work to do. I look up to her and her example. She is a living saint. It will ultimately be God who will judge her fruit, but it is difficult not to see good fruit born from her tree. It’s not that she’s a good person, as there is no such thing. But her fruit is good, and you will know them by their fruit.
So, anyways, that is essentially what I’ve learned in a nutshell. I could continue ad nauseum, but I don’t want to start repeating myself. It’s really easy for the Bible to become weaponized for people’s different ideologies. We see it right now with the conflict between Israel and Palestine. What The Bible as Literature has taught me is that scripture disagrees with all of us because it runs contrary to our sense of self preservation. It always points us to our neighbor, which is very uncomfortable and runs contrary to why people tend to be religious in the first place. Many people seek religion to find meaning in their own lives or give them answers to difficult existential questions. Scripture, as I have learned, does none of these things. It offers a very bleak, but unrelentingly honest view of humanity before planting the seeds of hope into escaping this conundrum by leaving the structures that we have erected and entering into common table fellowship under the aegis of the one scriptural God, breaking bread with our former enemies and showing mercy and compassion to those we used to abuse. In turn, we are also to show love to our abusers, not to enable them, but to heap coals upon their head via our forgiveness (Rom. 12:20). Then, like the man in the story I just told, the love shown to them by their victims will render guilt upon them so great that they will hopefully be sobered enough to see their error and repent. If they do not repent, God has the last say and will judge accordingly. Belief in precepts is easy. Showing authentic love towards those we’d rather not associate with is difficult. We will be judged by the latter. This is difficult to hear, but the message is for those with ears to hear. Let us be among the obedient sheep and not like the goats who go their own way. Let us be changed by the gospel and work out our salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that every new day is a brand new chance to repent and change our trajectory. Above all, act towards one another as one who has not only been forgiven, but as one who is called forgive as our Father in heaven forgave us. If we walk down that difficult, and narrow path, salvation waits for us on the other side. May all glory, honor, and dominion be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and may we listen to the Holy Spirit, who bears the teaching for us to serve our neighbor unlike the unholy spirits (false teachings) that call us to serve ourselves. May this scriptural God be praised and obeyed now and forever and unto the ages of ages, amen.
