Misapplying the Word
Recently I've been noticing a rather curious trend in evangelical preaching. In sound Bible-based often rousing sermons where the word of God has been thoroughly expounded in context with appropriate reference to Jesus and his work on the cross, when it comes to applying the passage in question to the lives of the hearers, a number of preachers have been resorting to challenging us in the same areas in the same ways. These challenges are, more often than not, concerned with what you do with your time and what you do with your money, and they normally go something like this:
Think about how you spend your time. Do you spend hours each day sitting in front of the box? Are your hours being whittled away by World of Warcraft or mindless internet searching? Do you spend more time on your make-up than reading your Bible or praying? Perhaps you need to give up some of these things so you can spend more time immersing yourself in the Word, helping out at church or meeting up with that non-Christian friend to talk to them about Jesus.
Or think about how you're spending your money. Are you exercising good stewardship of what God has given you? Are you using it to support the work of gospel ministry or is it going towards storing up your earthly treasure? Are you more excited about getting that new pair of shoes or the latest gadget than seeing children in Nairobi going to Sunday school? Can you do without that daily cappucino?
On the one hand, we all struggle in both these areas, and it is worth evaluating how we are making the most of both our time and our money. It is also well worth considering whether our use of these resources is an accurate reflection of our passion for God, and whether we need to address this spiritual lack before we can address any practical ones.
But on the other hand, applications like these reveal a fatal error: they reduce our godliness or commitment to the gospel to almost Pharisaical quantities. They cause us to ask, “How much time am I spending praying/reading the Bible/serving in my church? How much money am I setting aside to give to the work of God's kingdom? Is this much enough? Is this much too much?” We need to remember it's not about quantity; God will not be pleased with more if it creates sin in other areas of your life—for example, if your zeal for running the Sunday school impinges on your relationship with your spouse, or your extreme generosity robs your children of their dinner. Living your life according to God's word is about obedience, which springs from love, not duty. The quality of our relationship with our heavenly Father is more deserving of scrutiny than our diaries and bank accounts.
Furthermore, such applications are a little one-sided in focus. Yes, some of us really do need to get up off the couch or from in front of the computer, and take stock of how we are spending our time. Some of us need to question whether we should be spending less on things we've always thoughtlessly consumed—whether it be coffee, cosmetics or CDs. But not everyone is the same. Just as not everyone is a coffee-drinker or a World of Warcraft player, not everyone stumbles in the same way. Whereas some people need to be told to switch the TV off, some need to be told to sit down and watch some because they need to relax and not be so busy. Whereas some people need to be rebuked for their obsession with fashion, others need to be told not to feel so guilty about buying a new dress. It's a matter of balancing Colossians 4:5 (“Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time”) with Psalm 46:10 (“Be still, and know that I am God”), Matthew 6:19-20 (“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.”) with 1 Timothy 4:4 (“For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving”).
At times it can be hard to work out how a particular passage applies to our individual circumstances. At times it can be tricky to identify the particular areas of sin and areas of godliness we need to work on. This is why we need preachers to construct an appropriate framework to help us think through how to live the Christian life in the circumstances God has given us—preachers who are aware of the full spectrum of struggles and compromises that make up the spiritual lives of their parishioners—preachers who will take the time to challenge their listeners with helpful and relevant applications without laying on them the blanket charge of too much coffee-drinking.