February 25, 2024
John Ortberg writes:
Conforming to boundary markers too often substitutes for authentic transformation. The church I grew up in had its boundary markers. A prideful or resentful pastor could have kept his job, but if ever the pastor was caught smoking a cigarette, he would’ve been fired. Not because anyone in the church actually thought smoking a worse sin than pride or resentment, but because smoking defined who was in our subculture and who wasn’t—it was a boundary marker. As I was growing up, having a “quiet time” became a boundary marker, a measure of spiritual growth…If someone had asked me about my spiritual life, I would immediately think, “Have I been having a regular and lengthy quiet time?” My initial thought was not, “Am I growing more loving toward God and toward people?” Boundary markers change from culture to culture, but the dynamic remains the same. If people do not experience authentic transformation, then their faith will deteriorate into a search for the boundary markers that masquerade as evidence of a changed life.
In our passage this week (Luke 10: The Good Samaritan), various religious folks have markers for who is in and who is out, what marks good religious behaviour and what doesn’t. Jesus cuts across it all. All the rules, all the boundaries. He gets us back to first principles and the primary markers – the love of God that is synonymous with unrestrictive love of neighbour. In the parable that means inclusion of the ‘other’ and hospitality toward strangers. If that’s not happening we have not scratched the surface of faith. As Jesus says elsewhere, “By their fruit you will know them” (Matt 7v20). The fruit being alluded to in that passage is not the spectacular signs or traits of religious activity, it is the fruit of their lives; the fruit of the Spirit. It is the 1001 micro habits that nurture love, joy, peace, patience, kindness etc.
I am taking a wedding on Saturday. And as is common, we will read from 1 Corinthians 13 – the wonderful passage about love. When all is said and done; when all our religious activities and good deeds are weighed, the key question will be, “Is there love?” Let us never lose sight that the greatest command is love. May we be a community who continue to grow in learning to love.
Julian Holdsworth
BSBC Pastor