When Jesus was brought before the authorities before His crucifixion, he was accused of many things. After many charges were brought against Him, we learn in Matthew 26:62-3 that the high priest (Caiphas) said, "'Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?' But Jesus remained silent." Later, we find in Matthew 27:12-14, "But when He was accused by the chief priests and elders, He gave no answer. Then Pilate said to Him, 'Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?' But He gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed." This refusal to answer the charges against Him was actually a fulfillment of prophecy. In Isaiah 53-7, it was foretold: "He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet he opened not His mouth."
Certainly we learn at an early age to defend ourselves and our actions, chiefly to avoid punishment for our misdeeds. It becomes almost reflexive that when we are accused of something, we seek to either deny it or explain our actions. Later, as we grow older, we are often less concerned about punishment than we are about damage to our reputations. We are very concerned about what others think about us, and feel that we must speak up when we are accused of impropriety or labelled as having undesirable qualities.
If we are unfortunate enough to be charged with a crime of which we are innocent, then in our legal system it behooves us to mount a defense to avoid serious penalties. With simple criticisms, however, we must listen and decide if they have merit. To always deny criticism can actually be unhealthy and stunt our spiritual growth. We may be able to learn from valid assessments of our shortcomings by objective friends. In fact, if you are always denying any and all criticism, you run the risk of moving from defending to defensive.
In my book, Suriviving the Suffering, I detail two categories of suffering I call Pruning and Spirtual Warfare. Pruning is that process whereby God seeks to remove those parts of us that are not Christ-like, and it is an occasionally painful process that leads us to be more fruitful. It generally involves revealing truths about us that we must accept. We must not resist God's work in this matter, and oftentimes one of the things that must be pruned is our pride. We must not defend ourselves against God.
Spirtual Warfare, on the other hand, is an attack by Satan, and it usually involve lies about ourselves. We may be the victims of libel or slander. Satan seeks to instill doubt in ourselves and our relationship to God. We may be influenced to doubt our salvation or our worthiness. Under such pressure, we may erroneously accept responsibility for our suffering.
In another form of suffering, Christian Persecution, individuals may be charged with crimes or accused of wrongdoing purely because of their Christian beliefs and sharing the Gospel. Fortunately, this is really not a part of life here in America. We may have to endure cultural abuses, but is is rare that anyone in this country will truly suffer purely because they are a Christian.
The word reputation comes from the Latin "re-" (to do again) and "putare" which means to consider, to evaluate, to reckon. (Compute comes from the same root.) Our reputation is that which others see as they reconsider us and reevaluate us. It is the rare person that at one time or another does not have someone attack their reputation. And one of the things that we must decide is whether or not we should respond. I would submit that the answer is not always "yes."
Obviously, as Christians, we should always be prepared to defend our faith. Peter tells us in I Peter 3:15-17, "...always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with a gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil." When God's reputation is at stake, we must speak up.
If it is our reputation that is in question, I think there are two useful questions to ask ourselves. One is, will defending myself make any difference? Some people will always think things about us that we would not wish, but it may be a huge waste of time and energy to try and change their opinions by simple words. Many will have their minds made up, and all the attempts to change them will be for naught. Sometimes, the best you can hope for is that time, prayer, and good behavior on your part will reveal to them their misconception. A second useful question to ask is whether or not you are defending yourself out of necessity or out of pride. Our prideful self-image does not always need to be defended. Humility does not always have to set the record straight.
When Christ was accused, He did not need to speak. He was not going to change the minds of the Jewish leaders or Pilate, and in fact was not supposed to do so. He had a mission to complete for the Lord, and that was to die for us that we might join Him in eternal life. God's plan for Him was more important than correcting the accusers or establishing His good name.
There is one final interesting note. The Latin word "putare" coincidentally also means to "prune." (I am not making this up.) It would seem that the meanings of "putare" to consider, to evaluate, to reckon are reconciled with pruning in so far as that when we evaluate things, we prune away the unnecessary things that obscure the accurate picture. It is hoped that when people assess our reputation, they are doing it accurately, considering what they know of us to be true and not just swallowing gossip. Just as we occasionally need to be pruned by valid criticism, the people who offer it must prune the unnecessary and irrelevant to make a real and useful contribution to the edifice of our reputation. We should accept valid criticism and defend our reptutation from the invalid, up to a point. However, we have more important things to do in our life for the Lord. We can spend more time running around trying to put patches on our reputation than we can living the Christian life and letting His light shine through the holes.
No comments:
Post a Comment