3RD AND DONE: The 3rd General Rule

This is my final post in the series on the basic doctrines of the CME Church.

There’s an old challenge in Christianity.  We ask, “If you were put on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” 

If you keep the 3 General Rules of Methodism there will be enough evidence to convict you.

It is expected of all who desire to continue in these Societies that they should continue to evidence their desire of salvation…

People who follow Jesus live differently from people who don’t.  We say “No” to things Scripture calls wrong, even when other people say, “I don’t see what’s wrong with that” (General Rule #1).  We do good to others, especially but not exclusively to other Christians; and we do good even when it isn’t rewarded, appreciated, or permitted by law or custom (General Rule #2).

Thirdly, by attending on all the ordinances of God such as:
    The Public Worship of God
    The ministry of the Word, either read or expounded.
    The Supper of the Lord.
    Family and private prayer.
    Searching the Scriptures, and
    Fasting or abstinence.

An ordinance is a specific act of worship, often with an accompanying set of specific procedures and restrictions. 

The Public Worship of God.  You can worship God all by yourself (and you should) but if your worship is about God and not about you (and what’s comfortable or convenient) then you will also regularly worship God in a fellowship of believers. 

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. (Hebrews 10: 23-25)

You can’t hide the evidence of your faith if you leave a

 bunch of witnesses.

The ministry of the Word, either read or expounded.  Worship can take many valid forms, including times with nothing but music and prayer. But, without preaching and teaching, praise alone becomes empty entertainment.  Worship moves us; and the ministry of the Word prepares us to do what we’re moved to accomplish.

You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;

so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3: 14-17)        

Those who minister the Word of God need courage and understanding.

Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.  For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. (2 Timothy 4: 2-4)

The Supper of the Lord. Holy Communion is one of two rituals that Jesus ordered the church to perform. (The other is baptism.)  At the Last Supper Jesus told the disciples to “do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22: 19).

Paul warned the Corinthian church against taking the Lord’s Supper lightly.  Communion isn’t a snack or an empty ritual.

Liturgies change and vary, but “as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 11: 26-27).

Family and private prayer.  Jesus prayed alone (Luke 5: 16).  He used “a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart” (Luke 18: 1).  Jesus explicitly explained how we should and should not pray, even going so far as to recite a prayer we can use as a model  (Matthew 6:5-13).   It’s pretty clear that God wants us to pray, often, regularly---as Paul says--- “without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

Prayer is a dialogue with God, and marriage is the picture of relationship with God, so it’s not surprising that Scripture links prayer and family. 

Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered. (1 Peter 3:7)

Searching the Scriptures.  The preacher must diligently study the Bible to show himself/ herself to be an approved and right divider of the Word, but guess what?  Every Christian has the same obligation to study the Bible.  Yep, every Christian. You, too.

The Bereans sat under the masterful teaching of the Apostle Paul, but they didn’t stop learning when Paul ended a lesson.

           

You can sit under the most qualified and sincere Bible teachers in history, but if you don’t consistently spend your time individually studying God’s Word, you will drift into error.  Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. (Acts 17: 11)

In the gospels, the Sadducees came the most progressive school of theology in Judaea.

Jesus said to them [the Sadducees], “Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not understand the Scriptures or the power of God? (Mark 12: 24)

If you only know what your preacher has told you, you don’t know nearly enough.  Open your own Bible on your own time and become “more noble-minded.”

Fasting or abstinence.  Fasting means giving up the necessary act of eating for a while, and using all the time that you would have spent finding food, preparing food, consuming food, etc. to pray, read, meditate, and serve others.

Jesus practiced, endorsed, and taught fasting.

“Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward in full.  But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you  (Matthew 6: 16-18).

Jesus’ teaching recalls Isaiah’s detailed instructions for fasting (Isaiah 58). 

Abstinence means saying “No” to anything to which you usually say “Yes.”  You can abstain from social media, television, dessert, sex (1 Corinthians 7:3-5), anything you can do and like to do. 

Abstinence or fasting, searching the scriptures, family and private prayer, the Supper of the Lord, the ministry of the Word, and the public worship of God are ordinances delivered to us by God.  Keeping these ordinances is the 3^rd General Rule of Methodism.

By themselves, keeping the General Rules doesn’t save you. Salvation comes from a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.   The General Rules explain how the world will know that you desire salvation.  If you do good, avoid evil, and keep the ordinances of God you’ll leave enough physical evidence for them to convict you of being a Christian. 

Without evidence, they have to let you go.  So, the finals words of the General Rules state:

These are the General Rules of our Societies; all which we are taught of God to observe, even in His written Word, which is the only rule, and the sufficient rule, both of our faith and practice.  And all these we know His Spirit writes on all truly awakened hearts.   If there be any among us who observe them not, who habitually break any of them, let it be known unto them who watch over that soul, as they who must give an account. We will admonish him of the error of his ways; we will bear with him for a season; but, if then he repents not, he hath no more place among us; we have delivered our own souls.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama; executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO); and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves

#Awordtothewise

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

DO-GOODER: The 2nd General Rule

The 2nd General Rule of the Methodist Societies

Secondly, by doing good, by being in every kind merciful after their power as they have opportunity, doing good of every possible sort, and, as far as possible, to all men.
    To their bodies, of the ability which God giveth; by giving food to the hungry; by clothing the naked, by visiting or helping them that are sick or in prison.
    To their souls, by instructing, reproving, or exhorting all that we have any intercourse with; trampling under foot that enthusiastic doctrine that "We are not to do good unless our hearts be free to do it."
    By doing good especially to them that are of the household of faith, or groaning so to be; employing them preferably to others; buying one of another; helping one other in business, and so much the more because the world will love its own, and them only.
   By all possible diligence and frugality, that the gospel be not blamed. By running with patience the race set before them, denying themselves and taking up their cross daily; submitting to bear the reproach of Christ; to bear the filth and off-scouring of the world; and looking that men should say all manner of evil of them for the Lord's sake.

Let’s begin with an assumption. I assume that every Christian knows that he/ she is supposed to help people.

…

Well, now I’m thinking about that…

Let me begin with a statement:  Every Christian is supposed to help people.

The apostle John said, “Whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?”  (1 John 3: 17) And for when you respond that, “I LOVE everybody,” John adds, “My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” (verse 18)

We worship in spirit and in truth (John 4: )  but we love in DEED and in truth.   In the 2nd General Rule of Methodism, John Wesley put it like this:

It is therefore, expected of all who continue therein that they shall continue to evidence their desire of salvation,…secondly, by doing good, by being in every kind merciful after their power as they have opportunity, doing good of every possible sort, and, as far as possible, to all men.

In other words,

Technically, this is a popular misquotation, but it does accurately reflect Wesley's sentiments.

In John 6: 1-14, Jesus fed people because their bodies needed food and they weren’t in a place to provide food for themselves.  But in John 6: 22-59, when those same people showed up looking for more free food, Jesus didn’t feed them.  He preached to them about the bread of life.    Sometimes there’s a need of the body.  Sometimes there’s a need of the soul.

And sometimes your body is tired, your soul is exhausted, and you don’t feel like helping anybody.

The good news is that it’s O.K.  to not feel like helping people.  The other good news is that you have to help anyway.  Jesus fed 5,000+ hungry people even though the people had found Him while He was trying to take a few days off to rest and grieve for His cousin who’d just been beheaded (Matthew 14: 10-13).

We must, as the General Rule states, “[trample] under foot that enthusiastic doctrine that "We are not to do good unless our hearts be free to do it."   

During His earthly ministry, Jesus gave priority to helping His people, the Jews (Matthew 10: 5, 6) because in that time, Israel was the household of faith.  But Jesus healed the children of foreigners in pagan cities (Matthew 15: 24-28).  He evangelized immorally living women in Samaria (John 4).  Jesus helped officers of the heathen military that was occupying His nation and oppressing His people (Luke 7: 1-10). 

As a spiritual family, Christians ought to give priority to each other.  But, like our Lord, we don’t use religious or cultural preference as an excuse to turn our backs on Mormons, Muslims, Hindhus, Sikhs, Atheists, conservatives, liberals, Blacks, Whites, Latinos, Asians, Middle Easterners, Africans, rich, poor, straights, gays, or whomever we have power and opportunity to do good.

Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith (Galatians 6:10).

Doing good is exhausting.  It always has been.  “But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary in doing good” (2 Thessalonians 3: 13).  

Do good anyway. 

Doing good is inconvenient and expensive.  It always has been. 

Jesus said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?”

Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.” (John 6: 5-7)

Do good anyway.

The calling to Christian good-doing requires what Wesley called, “all possible diligence and frugality.”  In the law, God commanded Israel to leave the gleaning of their fields (Leviticus 19; 23: 22) for the poor in their communities.  The practice of gleaning meant that a hard-working Jewish farm had to budget for less than 100% of his harvest. 

The principle of gleaning is:  You can’t help all the people you can if you spend all the money you make.

We aren’t generous when we’re broke.  Hence, the need for “diligence and frugality.” Roughly translated, that means working hard and being cheap.

The surrounding culture tells us to consume and accumulate, but Christians are called to transcend the influence of culture and to be DIFFERENT.  

In a sermon called, “The Use of Money,” John Wesley offered these 3 simple rules:  “Having, First, gained all you can, and, Secondly saved all you can, Then give all you can."

Does that sound crazy?  Does that sound radical or un-American?  Are you thinking, “Graves, it doesn’t take all that?”

Then you’ll love the last part of this General Rule.  Christians do good “by denying themselves and taking up their cross daily; submitting to bear the reproach of Christ; to bear the filth and off-scouring of the world.”

Well, if that sounds crazy, remember whom Wesley got it from.

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” (Matthew 16: 24)

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves

#Awordtothewise

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

DO NO EVIL OR DO NO HARM?

 

from The General Rules of the "United Societies" organized by Mr. Wesley in 1739

There is only one condition previously required of those who desire admission into these societies, a "desire to flee from the wrath to come, and to be saved from their sins."  But wherever this is really fixed in the soul, it will be shown by its fruits. It is therefore, expected of all who continue therein that they shall continue to evidence their desire of salvation,

First, by doing no harm, by avoiding evil of every kind, especially that which is most generally practiced

In general, the first rule of living like you believe in Jesus is to DO NO HARM. 

But how do you live through this messed-up existence without doing harm?   The answer is: by avoiding evil of every kind, especially that which is most generally practiced.   That’s what the rule says. You avoid doing harm by not doing evil. The rule does NOT say that you avoid doing evil by not doing harm.

Yeah.  Read that again: . You avoid doing harm by not doing evil. NOT: you avoid doing evil by not doing harm.

 

In other words, ALL EVIL IS HARMFUL BUT NOT ALL HARM IS EVIL.

And that’s pretty much the opposite of how our culture thinks about morality. Like, if Person A tells Person B, “It’s wrong for you to have sex with person C because you and they are not a married man and woman.” 

Person A might respond, “It’s not wrong.  We’re not hurting anybody.” 

“Not hurting anybody” is society’s basic standard for moral rightness.  Our cultural principle is: if it doesn’t hurt anybody it can’t be wrong.

In the opening chapters of the Bible, God told our first parents to not eat from a certain tree.  God warned them that eating from the tree would bring harm in the form of death.  The serpent’s argument was “You will not surely die.” (Genesis 3: 4).  In other words, nobody will get hurt.  And if there is no harm, the serpent reasoned, there can be no evil. 

Two problems with the cultural/ serpentine standard. (1)  Harm isn’t always immediate or obvious; and (2) Harm is alwass subjective. What hurts always depends on how people feel.

The Biblical standard, and therefore, the Christian standard, (1) Accepts that harm may happen in the short term, the long term, or the eternal term; and (2) Defines evil, also known as sin, objectively defined as disobedience to God.

 

From God’s perspective, the problem in Eden wasn’t that Adam and Eve would feel immediate pain but that Adam and Evil would disobey God.  Disobeying God is sin.  Sin is evil. And all evil, all sin, is inherently harmful even if you don’t immediately drop dead from doing it.  Adam and Eve didn’t immediately drop dead from eating the forbidden truth.  Cultural/ serpentine morality would shout, “See.  They weren’t hurting anybody.”  But the wages of their sin lead to all the harm that has ever happened on the planet.  ALL EVIL IS HARMFUL.

Sin provokes God’s judgment and condemnation.   “You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness.”  (Habakukk 1:13)   

And yes, the grace of God in Jesus Christ offers deliverance from the judgment and condemnation through forgiveness. But forgiveness requires repentance.  Repentance requires confessing that your action were sinful, which means confessing that what you did was “evil”  even if you weren’t hurting anybody.  Grace saves us from the harm of judgment by dealing with the evil of sin.

A fundamental principle of Christian grace is that all evil is harmful. 

But not all harm is evil.

When you sin and a loving friend rebukes you, the rebuke may hurt, but the your friend’s rebuke isn’t evil because God commands, “You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him.”  (Leviticus 19: 17)

When a child does wrong and her loving father spanks her, the child experiences physical and emotional pain.  It hurts, but it’s right because “He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly.” ( Proverbs 13:24)

When God punished Cain for murdering his brother the sentence of exile and stigma caused social, personal, emotional, and perhaps physical pain.  But God’s response was just and merciful. God hurt Cain but God didn’t sin, because all harm isn’t evil.

But some harm is.  When Cain killed Abel, it was a violation of God’s command.  Cain hurt his brother in a way that WAS evil.  The legacy of that hurtful and evil act echoed through Cain’s descendants and led to the second murder, five generations later (Genesis 5: 23, 24).  Evil always ultimately causes harm.

Now, here’s the takeaway.  We can’t control whether or not we do harm, we can only choose whether or not to do evil.  So when you’re uncertain what to do, stop trying to figure which choice will be less hurtful and decide which choice is Biblically RIGHT.  Ask yourself, “Which choice is right in God’s eyes?”

In Psalm 19, King David realized he couldn’t control the unforeseeable damage from his actions. “Who can understand his errors?” David asked. 

He concluded that on his own he couldn’t avoid the tendency to unconsciously do harm.  So he shifted from his criteria to God’s. 

Cleanse me from secret faults.

Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins. 

Let them not have dominion over me.

Then I shall be blameless, 

And I shall be innocent of great transgression. (verses 12, 13)

Instead of choosing our best estimate of what will do the least harm, we must follow our clearest understanding of what is right in God’s eyes.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

Be acceptable in Your sight,

O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. (Psalm 19: 14)

Choose to obey God and trust Him to make all things work together for good.  Choose to strive against the impulse to socially acceptable sin that crouches at our doors.  Choose to avoid evil of every kind, especially that which is most generally practiced

Actually, that’s the only real choice we have.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves

#Awordtothewise

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield

Taking the Lord's Name in Vain (Blogging the General Rules)

The First General Rule states:

It is therefore, expected of all who continue therein that they shall continue to evidence their desire of salvation, first, by doing no harm, by avoiding evil of every kind, especially that which is most generally practiced, such as The taking of the Name of God in vain

The first evil which is most generally practiced on Wesley’s list is The taking of the Name of God in vain. 

This happens to be #3 on God’s top 10 list of thou shalt nots (Exodus 20; Deuteronomy 5).  But it’s so common now (so generally practiced) that most of us don’t even flinch.   Christians do it, too.

When we exclaim, “Jesus!  Good Lawd! OMG, ”we use God’s name with grammatical irreverence.  When we use His name as an adverb for the degree of damn, as an interjection to express our emotion, or as an expletive or filler word to demonstrate our lack of vocabulary and imagination, it’s disrespectful and grammatically incorrect.

There’s also conversational vanity. 

“A son honors his father, And a servant his master. If then I am the Father, Where is My honor? And if I am a Master, Where is My reverence?” Says the Lord of hosts to you priests who despise My name.

Yet you say, “In what way have we despised Your name?” (Malachi 1:6)

God is real and He hears our prayers (Psalm 65: 2).  When you yell, “Jesus Christ,” the actual living Jesus Christ hears you.  Being God transcendent and omnipresent, He can handle all of the prayers in the universe all at once; but ----- you ever have somebody call your name and after you stop what you’re doing and leave where you are to respond they say, “Oh.  Nothing”?    You know how irritating that is?  Now multiply that by 7 ½ billion.  

God is real.  If you’re going to call Him, have something to say.  Just basic conversational courtesy.

It’s common to take the name of God in vain grammatically conversationally and deceptively. 

The 9^th Commandment is  “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor;” (Exodus 20:16) or, as we often paraphrase, “Thou shalt not LIE.”

Now check this out.

The Hebrew word translated vain or in vain in the 3^rd Commandments (Exodus 20:7; Deuteronomy 5:11) is the same word rendered false in the 9^th Commandment.

To take the name of the Lord in vain is to lie ---- and put your lie on God.  It’s to be so vain that you speak for God what God hasn’t spoken.

When you declare and decree and prophesy that sowing a $200 seed in your service, or ordering the anointed bottle of holy water with the Dasani label scraped off, or liking and sharing that picture of stacks of $100 bills with a photo-shopped White Jesus in the background will force God to give them a blessing---- you are taking God’s name in vain.

And the Lord said to me, “The prophets prophesy lies in My name. I have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them; they prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart.” (Jeremiah 14:14)

How many times do you have to NOT receive what they declared and decreed before you stop replying, “I receive that, in Jesus name”?  

And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’—when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has NOT spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him. (Deuteronomy 18: 21-22)

Make up motivational stories if you want to, but leave Jesus’ name out of it.

Grammatically

Conversationally

Deceptively

And (last one) relationally.

I am a child of God.  I am a follower of Jesus Christ.  I’m a servant of the Lord, indwelled by the Holy Spirit.  I wear the Lord’s name as a token of identity, purpose, and spiritual authority. 

But, I have these little quirks, these habits, these tendencies to do the evil that I don’t want to do.  I have a sin nature.  You do, too.  But, if I’m going to call myself by His name  then I can’t let what comes naturally define me.  I’m supposed to be a different.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2 Corinthians 5: 17)

So, I struggle.  I wage an internal war against my flesh.  And if I fall, I don’t use His name as an excuse.   No.  His name on my life compels me to  humble myself, and pray and seek His face, and turn from my wicked ways (2 Chronicles 7: 14)

We can’t just go, “Mmm.  Nobody’s perfect” It would be dishonoring the Name we bear.  We would be like the people Isaiah and Jesus confronted.

These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ” (Matthew 15: 1-3, 7-9, referencing Isaiah 29: 13)

We can’t do that.   I know everybody else does.  But we can’t.  Not if His name means as much as it should.

 ---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com  

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter  @AndersonTGraves  

#Awordtothewise

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

The Abominable Sinner Man, aka The First General Rule

The lovable, abominable snowman

The foundational doctrine of the MethodisT church includes John Wesley’s 3 General Rules.  The First General Rule states:

It is therefore, expected of all who continue therein that they shall continue to evidence their desire of salvation,  First, by doing no harm, by avoiding evil of every kind, especially that which is most generally practiced…

After that there’s a list of evils, but before we get into Wesley’s list,  take a moment and consider an implied term in the General Rule: the word abomination. 

An abomination is basically a sin that really, really pisses God off.

In the book of Leviticus all of the following are official “Abominations to the Lord your God.”:

-          Eating shellfish (Leviticus 11

-          Marrying two sisters at the same time (18: 18)

-          Adultery (18: 20)

-          Child sacrifice (18: 21)

-          Homosexuality (18: 22)

-          Bestiality (18: 23)

In the book of Deuteronomy, abominable refers to:

-          Sacrificing a blemished animal (Deuteronomy 7: 25)

-          Cross-dressing (22: 5)

-          Giving money made from prostitution as an offering to God (23:18). I’m not sure if that applies to money from stripping or owning a strip club, but I’d think so.  Sorry, Nevada and Atlanta churches.

-          Being a 1^st and 3^rd husband to the same woman (24: 1-4)

-          Cheating people in business (25: 13-16)

-          And, more than any other sin, Deuteronomy labels idolatry as an abomination. (Deuteronomy 12: 31; 13:14; 17: 2-4; 27: 15; 29: 17)

From eating shellfish to having sex with a goat:  that’s a pretty wide range of abominableness.   But the list gets even more diverse.

In Proverbs 16, Solomon lists 6 or 7 abominations that God HATES:

-          A proud look

-          A lying tongue,

-          Hands that shed innocent blood,

-          A heart that devises wicked plans,

-          Feet that are swift in running to evil,

-          A false witness who speaks lies,

-          And one who sows discord among brethren. (verses 16-19)

Throughout Proverbs, also Solomon abominizes

-          Dishonest business practices (11:1; 20: 10, 23)

-          People with wicked minds (8: 7; 11: 20; 15: 26; 29: 27)

-          Religion use to cover up wickedess (15:8, 9; 21:27; 28: 9)

-          Leaders who break the law (16: 12)

-          Injustice (17: 15)

Almost every Old Testament book has its own, different list of abominations.  No specific act makes every single list.  

Here’s the common theme:

When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations.  (Deuteronomy 18: 9)

Abominations are the evil most generally practiced by the nations/ culture that surrounds us.

As the Holy Spirt spoke to each Biblical author, writing in their respective cultural eras, God pointed out the most popular and common sins of their day and summed up His feeling about them in a word:  ABOMINATION.

An abomination is a sin that particularly pisses God off, not because the act is extraordinary but because it is so very normal.

Abominations are the evil that is most generally practiced by the nations/ culture that surrounds us.

Few people will ever commit one of the extreme, shockingly heinous crimes that make for good movies and doctoral dissertations.  Statistically, those sins aren’t a threat to the spiritual health of an entire nation.    But when we accept injustice and corrupt leadership as normal it means that something is collectively wrong with us. 

When we say, “Everybody lies,” “Everybody sells themselves out one way or another,” and “Who cares who or what you sleep with?”  it means that those sins are culturally normal, socially acceptable.  They are most generally practiced.

That’s why the list changes over time.  God wasn’t trying to provide a definitive registry of the worst sins in all times and places.  God was telling His people in their specific contexts, “I know that ‘everybody’s doing it,’ but that doesn’t mean you can do it.”

As Jesus said, “What is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” (Luke 16: 15)

The people of God’s kingdom are supposed to learn moral behavior from Scripture.  We are specifically not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. 

The Lord calls us to be different from the un-redeemed culture that surround us.

That was why shellfish and sacrifices made the early abomination lists.  The rules for ritual cleanliness created a constant, physically observable cultural distinction between the people of God and everybody else.

God created a system in which His people couldn’t obey God and blend in to the culture around them because the Lord wants us to be different.

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2: 9)

Sometimes we try to justify our sin by saying, “I may do _____ but at least I’m not a_____ .” 

Well, good for you that you’re not a terrorist, drug addict, dope dealer, serial killer, or whatever extreme sin you put in the second blank.   But it’s the first blank that God wants you to deal with because when you or I do the things that are O.K. with everyone except God, we are effectively telling God that everyone else has more sense than Him.

And that --- greatly upsets God.  He thinks it’s downright abominable.

We are called to look around and honestly catalog the sins that are most generally practiced, the common evils that seem so relatively harmless, victimless, and stigma-less.  Which of those sins are attractive to you?  No.  Not the sins you hate to see others practice.  What are the sins YOU’d like to practice?

Make your list and across the top write: ABOMINATIONS.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

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