SHEPHERD OF THE VALLEY LUTHERAN CHURCH, ELCA
  • Home
  • Preschool
    • Site
  • Blog
  • Calendar
  • Contact

Faith is Not Behavior Control

1/28/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Greetings! After an early-January hiatus, we’re back!
 
In the interim, I had a reminder how terribly churches have messed up people’s lives by turning faith into behavior control. This often happens at a young age, when we tell children, “Be good, because that’s what God wants.” Or even worse, we say, “Be good, or God will be angry…” Somehow “good” is always defined as what we want the child to do in that particular moment, so God becomes leverage to get them to obey us.
 
There are several problems with this:
 
1. We don’t end up teaching people about God as much as we end up teaching people about our morality, will, or power to enforce same.
 
2. God becomes a negative influence on people’s lives. They have to worry about pleasing God to avoid negative consequences. (In reality, this isn’t about God at all. We want them to worry about pleasing us and we’re willing to sell out God in order to get them to do so.)
 
3. Nobody is perfect. Inevitably the same people who hear that God only loves them when they’re good will end up doing something not good, thus God will not love them.
 
4. Our definitions of “good” are hopelessly inadequate. It’s presumptuous to even think we can fulfill complete goodness. Sure, we can sit still for 45 minutes in Sunday school, but can we create a perfect relationship with our neighbors or solve problems like world hunger or racism? Saying, “Be good for God”, we lower the bar of goodness so low that it doesn’t resemble God’s goodness anymore.

Picture
We do all of this in the name of getting someone to behave like we wish in a given moment. The effects last far beyond that moment, though. I know many adults who are quietly terrified that their lives don’t measure up and that God will condemn them to an eternity of punishment because they aren’t perfect.
 
Whenever your mind is tempted to say, “God can’t love me because I don’t measure up,” remember that God doesn’t work that way. None of us measure up. If that’s the standard, we all fail.
 
God loves us. That’s the common denominator that allows us to celebrate the good things and deal with the imperfections of life. Because God loves us, we can see ourselves and each other as beautiful even when we’re imperfect. Because God loves us, we can define ourselves and the world as more than the sum of our mistakes.
 
The voice inside that says, “God can’t love imperfect people,” comes not from the Spirit, but from people who want to use faith as a means to control your behavior. This is wrong. All faith schemes based on worry or fear fall terribly short. “Fear” of the Lord may be the beginning of wisdom, but it is not the purpose of wisdom. Nor is that kind of “fear” really what’s being talked about there.
 
Instead trust in the Lord lets us admit we’re not perfect while assuring us that our imperfections are not the center of the universe, nor of our relationship with it. We can exhale, stop worrying so much about ourselves and a wrathful God, and start worrying about how we’re called to care about and serve each other in these times.

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017

    Categories

    All
    Children's Message
    Events
    Newsletters
    Pastor Dave
    Sermons

Office Hours
Mon-Thu 9:00-1:00, Fri 9:00-12:00
​3100 S Five Mile, Boise, Idaho 83709
Phone: (208) 362-1112
​
Sign up for our newsletter
  • Home
  • Preschool
    • Site
  • Blog
  • Calendar
  • Contact