While being distracted by a number of battles – all of them which I believed to be valid, and still do so believe – I came to Spurgeon’s exposition of ‘One Thing Needful’, from Jesus’ words to Martha (Luke 10:42). A number of issues had just risen to the surface in media-land, one of them being Julia Baird’s claim that complementarianism (the belief that men and women have different roles) leads to domestic violence. It was not so much a denunciation of domestic violence in church life – such behaviour deserves to be denounced – but the diagnosis of the problem. If one was opposed to women pastors, that meant one was supporting domestic violence. All very clever, in a foolish kind of way.
It is apparently of no interest to Julia Baird that in Geneva in the sixteenth century, church discipline was often instituted against men guilty of mistreating their wives. There was even one bizarre case of a butcher attacking his wife with the head of a dead goat. About 13% of all suspensions from the Lord’s Supper were to do with sexual sins, and it is informative that men were censured at a slightly higher rate than women. Be that as it may, today, in some church circles, the pressing need of the hour is that we respond to Ms Baird’s claim in some way or another, either by repudiation or by concession.
It is all rather reminiscent of the World Council of Churches in 1968 when it officially adopted a slogan which had been well-worn in liberal circles: ‘The world sets the agenda’. Without wanting to endorse irrelevance, one does tire of the world announcing some issue of social justice, and the church then responding, often simply repeating the mantra, like trained seals. The danger is that we may eventually become side-tracked from what should take first place in our lives.
When the sinful woman weeps at Jesus’ feet, the Lord announces: ‘Your sins are forgiven’ (Luke 7:48). When Nicodemus comes to ask Jesus some questions, Jesus cuts him off with His statement that ‘You must be born again’ (John 3:3). Paul wrote to the Corinthians that he was determined to know nothing among them except Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor.2:2). When Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost, he carefully explained to his hearers that the man Jesus was in fact Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36). Then he went on to explain how through Christ, repentance, faith and baptism would mean that one’s sins were forgiven (Acts 2:38).
Proportion plays a part in all this. When the Good Samaritan came across the beaten-up Jew, he saw that his immediate need was for physical help and comfort. It would have been inappropriate – even unchristian – to have simply placed a gospel tract in his pocket. John Wesley famously told his evangelists: ‘You have nothing to do but to save souls. Therefore spend and be spent in this work.’ Such a sentiment did not prevent Wesley from becoming involved in the campaign against slavery. It has been said that it is braver to stamp on the corns of a live giant than to cut off the head of a dead one. We need to make sure we are reflecting God’s priorities, and not simply being media-driven. Not far off death, Paul exhorted Timothy: ‘Preach the Word’ (2 Tim.4:2). He was not reducing the Bible’s message to three words, but he was saying that we need to centre on its message in the right proportion.