I guess this means I am becoming a seminary nerd, but if so that's all right I suppose. I came across a quote which I think is absolutely profound and fantastic in the midst of my Intro to Church History I homework. It is a quote from Tertullian (the same guy that wrote the beautiful letter pertaining to Christian marriage), and it is very applicable to today's world. The quote is this:
But our Christ hath surnamed Himself Truth, not Custom.
Concise and simple, yet FULL of meaning, and not easy to wrap one's head around. Tertullian wrote this in the context of what he was seeing in terms of the early church beginning to compromise and make concessions to the culture. I won't get into the specifics of all of what he was referring to (both because those specific concessions are not necessarily relevant to understanding that quote, and also because I don't have anywhere near the expertise to comment intelligently on their finer points anyway!), but the context alone and his reason for making that statement are relevant to the world today, the church, the individual believer.
There is a tension that I think all believers experience at some point between faithfully living up to the original message of Christ, and seeking to be contemporary in doing that. I know from experience I have found it difficult sometimes to reconcile the two, to clearly see whether taking a particular action is in fact faithful to the gospel, or a concession to what is traditionally acceptable. To this struggle I am now reminded that our Christ is Truth, not Custom. His message today is what it was 2,000 years ago, His standard holiness. Period. Not holiness, with 21st century exceptions. That is not to say the task is easy, or that Truth always equates to "hard". It is just a sobering reminder that we should first look to Christ and His Word for wisdom, not culture or even church tradition.
No comments:
Post a Comment