From Orthodoxy to Orthopraxis

By Martin Hannington
Originally published in the June Edition of Spirit and Word e-mag

The story of the rich young ruler is one I am sure we are all familiar with; along comes a devoutly religious young man who longs for the assurance of eternal life, he knows his Bible inside out and, like most young men of his day, would have committed the Torah to memory by his early teens. His question to Jesus is ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’. Jesus replies, “You shall not murder, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness, honour your father and your mother and, love your neighbour as yourself”. A smile breaks out on his face as he assures Jesus that he has done all these from his youth but the smile is soon to disappear as Jesus tells him one more thing to do; “sell all you have and give it to the poor”. With these words, the assurance of ‘eternal life’ seems less important and the young man walks off sad. We are left wondering what he will do, though we suspect he will do nothing.

If we were to bring this story into the 21st century and our rich young ruler was asking the same question of a good Evangelical Pastor, the conversation would, I believe, sound a little different. The devout young man would ask his question about assurance and our Evangelical Pastor would reel off a very different list – “You have to believe that you are a sinner deserving judgement, that Jesus is the Son of God and that God raised Jesus from the dead, that He shed His blood for the forgiveness of your sins – you will have to believe in Justification, Sanctification, Predestination, Evangelisation and the great Tribulation, you must believe in four spiritual laws, gifts of the Spirit, the Second Coming, The Body of Christ and that God has put me here to teach you all these things”.

Jesus was big on doing and, today, we are big on believing.

So, “what’s the point?”, you are asking. Simply this: Jesus spent more time telling people what they should ‘do’ rather than just what to ‘believe’ and, all too often, we major on belief and not lifestyle that leads to Christ-likeness. We, all too often, have weak followers because we teach people what to believe, rather than how to behave as a follower of Christ.

Spiritual Formation

The more I look at the life of Jesus, I am increasingly convinced that the focus of our discipleship has often been wrong. The church, in general, has made it’s focus more on right doctrine than right living.
When we over-emphasise doctrine, we end up concerned over people being able to talk the language of our church culture, it becomes more about getting the words right and making the right confession, than having the right heart and right lifestyle.

So much of our teaching implies that if you believe the right things, you’re ok, whereas Jesus seems more focused on the way we live and what we do. “…blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” Luke 11:28

The lifestyle of Jesus should set the agenda for discipleship and not just doctrine. Imagine how different things would be if Jesus was really the one we taught people to follow. What would things be like if we taught people to treat the poor as Jesus did, not judge as He did, forgive those who are out to crucify, and be resistant to cheap religion? What would it be like if people actually did Sermon on the Mount and we taught them how to live it and not just quote it?

Of course, I do believe there are foundational doctrines we must believe and that they are helpful in our being confident in God, but they must take us beyond the realm of information to transformation. I also understand that all action and no spiritual substance or relationship with God will lead to burnout and uninspired activity but, equally, learning without action will simply be the acquisition of knowledge.

From Information to Transformation

Our churches have to change from being ‘information centres’ to ‘transformation centres’. If we fail in the spiritual formation of the believer, we fail in every other area which is why Jesus said “go and make disciples”.

Discipleship’s goal is producing Christ-likeness in the followers of Jesus, seeing the believer embody the message and life of Jesus so that His life can be read in our lives. Let me also add that discipleship is not simply waiting for someone to take on your ‘spiritual formation’ or speak into your life; but also us taking initiative and finding those who will help us be better formed followers, we can see this in the life of Jesus’ disciples, when they asked Him to teach them how to pray.

Values and practice

Many churches have what they would consider their ‘core values’. These are things that are foundational to the life of the church and give it it’s particular flavour or emphasis.
A church could say its ‘core values’ are:

• Ministry of the Spirit
• Worship as a lifestyle
• Kingdom of God
• The church as a community
• House churches
• Faith in God’s Word
• Spiritual Authority
• Healing the Sick
• Gifts of the Spirit
• Generous giving
• Care or the Poor and widows
• Mission
• Prayer

A member of that church could look at these and say ‘yes, I believe these are right to be central’.  They could tick all the boxes but that is no guarantee that they will do anything about those values. Core values, by themselves, will not engage us in really living for Christ or demonstrating His life, they only seem to get our agreement and approval.

If we are to grow people we have to take them beyond values, into practice.  So, while we may have identified our ‘core values’, we need to also identify what are those ‘core practices’ which take people beyond what that believe, to what they do.

Here is a question for you. What core practises are you aware of existing in your church? Things you are not only taught to believe but also taught to practice in your daily walk with God.

Hebrew versus Greek

Much of the way we shape people’s thinking in Church has it’s roots in Greek thinking, which has been exported all over the world through the church, and, as we shall see, it has not always been helpful. The Biblical way of shaping people’s thinking is rooted in Hebrew thought, and has a lot more to do with practice.

A Hebraic way of teaching is you act your way into new thinking - that is the process of having to do a thing, will in turn affect the way you think. In the Church, we go about it the opposite way by hoping you will think your way into a new way of acting.

So much of the Western (Greek) approach is based on the assumption that a new way of thinking will lead to a new way of acting, and we know how well this works when we consider how many books we have read, sermons listened to, conferences attended, not to mention, religious TV, Cd’s and magazines we have digested. All these things are rooted in the kind of thinking that ‘learning equals change’.  If new thought presented through teaching equated change, we would all be glorified by now.

This does not mean the teaching we have is wrong and unnecessary, it is just not enough by itself.

Jesus gave His disciples assignments so that they would act their way into new thinking.  He involved them in all He did, be it feeding a multitude, preparing a Passover meal, healing the sick or proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom. The processing of having to do and think their way through the assignment is what brought about radical change. Jesus expected people to do what He said; not just agree with it or say they understood it.

In Greek thinking, and most church thinking, you have ‘got the life’ being spoken of if you ‘believe it’, whereas Hebraic thinking was you have ‘got the life’ when you are ‘doing it’.

Orthodoxy and Orthopraxis

Orthodoxy is to do with ‘right belief’ whereas orthopraxis is to do with ‘right practice’. Obviously, these two are meant to go hand-in-hand but, sadly, people can believe things they never get to practice. Healing is a good example, we believe God heals the sick but is it part of our practice?

But, let me press things a little bit further, many of us have things we sense we are called to. These things give us our sense of purpose in life and range from business to areas of ministry in the church. And, let me say, if you are serving God to see the advance of His Kingdom in the business world, or through education, nursing or even as a Dak Walla these are equally valid ways of serving God.

What then, as a follower of Christ, are your core practices?
What are those central things that give expression to your faith in Christ?
What are those things that express who you are and you must do to be true to your following of Christ?
Can you identify those things that will be part of your practice -things that you will commit yourself to doing, as an expression of your life in Christ?

Let me ask you to take time out and listen to your own heart and the voice of God and note those things that are essential for you to practice if you are to be true to yourself. Don’t worry if those things sound so grand and beyond where you are at now, this is the pull of the Spirit on your life which is to act as a spiritual compass.
Maybe you will discover there are things you once did that made you feel so alive but have stopped doing, then maybe now is the time to say your sorry to God for taking your eyes of what gave your life meaning and get back to doing those first works. (Rev 2:5)

Nothing is worse than not being true to who we are, and not putting into practice those things that give us a genuine sense of ‘being’. When we look at the life of Jesus, we see that He went about doing good and healing all oppressed of the devil (Acts 10:38); this was more than fulfilling His ministry, but an expression of His love for people. This was His practise; He could not be Himself without doing these and other things. All people you admire have core practices things, they have to do to be true to who they are from Ghandi to Mother Teresa, or Francis of Assisi to all those who cannot deny their convictions by loving, caring, giving, praying, being a blessing and putting God’s love into action.

You are the answer you have been waiting for

I recently asked my youngest son to finish the last point on a message I was bringing to the church. He nervously stepped up to speak it but it was only moments before he had everyone’s attention. He started to tell of something he had read where a man was telling a Christian friend how mad he was with all the hurt and pain in the world, and asked “where was God? Why does God do nothing?”. The friend turned and said to him, “Why don’t you ask God why He does nothing?”. The man paused for some time before replying, and said “I would, but I am scared He will say to me, ‘Why I am I doing nothing?’”.

I guess this, in some way, sums up what I mean between the difference between belief and practice – its one thing to believe that God cares and is involved in the world, and it’s another to incarnate that life through our actions. I guess that’s why James, the brother of Jesus, said “The very moment you separate body and spirit, you end up with a corpse. Separate faith and works and you get the same thing: a corpse” (Jas 2:26 The Message).
We must have good beliefs, but let’s make sure our lives and the lives of those we shape are able to do more than talk about what we believe but are putting those things it into practice.

All of us have a unique part to play in seeing Gods Kingdom extended, we know the things we want to see changed, and we know the things that stir our hearts. We may not all be well educated or well-off financially, but we know the things that trouble us, be they sickness or injustice, we know the kind of world God wants and we want, and we can all play our part in seeing change. In the words of a T-Shirt my elder son likes to wear, “we have to be the change we want to see”.  God sees you and me as the answer we are looking for, which means we turn belief into action and we , turn orthodoxy into orthopraxis.