As the following graphic shows, thinking of our faith in terms of good and bad as well as right and wrong makes for some intriguing possibilities.
It’s possible to have wrong faith that’s bad; as well as a wrong faith that’s good; and right faith that’s bad; and of course, right faith that’s good.
What I think people are saying when they say, “it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as . . .” is that they are tired of seeing bad faith in action. Especially when it comes from those who claim to have the right faith. They are not impressed by Christians who hurl obscenities at women as they walk into abortion clinics, or Buddhist parents who kick their son out of the house when he tells them he has decided to become a Christian, or radical Muslims who are willing to kill in order to make a point.
What I hear them saying is, “I would rather be in a relationship with someone who has the wrong faith, but has a good attitude about it, than someone whose right faith isn’t accompanied by goodness.”
If that’s really what they’re getting at, then I have to agree. Although Id like to revise their statement to say: “What you believe is not nearly as important to me as is whether or not you are sincerely seeking the truth.” On a long enough timeline, the quality of our faith will eventually influence its content. Bad faith always leads to wrong faith, even when its starting point is right. Good faith, as I’ve described it in Part 2, will lead wrong faith continually closer to the Truth. That’s why it’s better to have wrong faith that’s good, than a right faith that’s bad. The more good faith we have, the more Truth we will find.
If the Truth we’re searching for were elusive, this might not be the case. Good faith pointed in the wrong direction can’t help us find truth that isn’t there or doesn’t want to be found. But if the gospel story is to be believed, then not only is the Truth out there, but the Truth we seek wants to be found. In fact, the Truth looking for us! If we have good faith, and if there really is Truth to be found, then good faith will lead us to it, or at the very least, it will put us in a place where the Truth can find us. As philosopher Peter Kreeft says: “An honest atheist in search of truth will find it; a dishonest Christian won’t.” Good faith leads to right faith; bad faith will only lead us away from it. If this is true, then as we think about the issue of clarifying and deepening our faith and helping others do the same, our first priority should be to make sure we are cultivating a good, honest, open, sincere faith that longs for a greater and deeper understanding of the Truth.
Churches wanting to reach people who say, “It doesn’t matter what you believe….” with the good news of Jesus Christ must become incubators of good faith. This will always be a challenge (Please don’t say it’s an impossibility!). A friend told me early on in my ministry: “Church people aren’t interested in the truth, they just want their present beliefs and convictions to be affirmed regardless of whether they are right or wrong.” And all of Israel’s prophets said, “Amen.”
I guess I’m an idealist. I believe it’s possible for a church to have some firm convictions about the absolute issues of life and at the same time be free to ask questions about those convictions, to nudge them, to test them, to give emerging generations the space to examine them on their own, without feeling coerced by the preceding generations to affirm them.
A church that hopes to gain a hearing from its neighbors is not a church that says, “We have all the answers, and we’re certain all our answers are right.” Rather, it’s a church that says, “This is a safe place to ask dangerous questions. This is a safe place to seek the truth. This is a safe place to practice good faith.”
In a culture where more and more people are regarding institutional Christianity with greater skepticism and disdain, the biggest obstacle impeding the spread of the gospel is not Atheism, Buddhism, Humanism, or even Harry Potterism. No, Christianity’s biggest obstacle is bad Christianity. It’s Christians with bad faith. (Thanks again to Brian McLaren for this line.) I don’t care how right our faith is, if it’s not accompanied by goodness, then ultimately it’s wrong.
If we want to see our neighbors become Christ-followers, we need to spend less time obsessing about right faith, and more time demonstrating good faith. We need to spend less energy trying to correct the wrong faith of others, and more energy affirming the good faith we see in them, believing that wherever good faith goes, right faith is sure to follow. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t share our beliefs and convictions with those with whom we disagree. It means we need to make sure our claims to be “right” are always nestled in good faith. Which also means that we must be willing to learn something from those we’re trying to teach.
By cultivating good faith in ourselves, our families, and our churches, we not only become better neighbors, but also better disciples, which hopefully means we will have a better chance of persuading our neighbors that the one we follow is the one to follow.
It seems appropriate to wrap this up with a proof-text:
If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.
If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (The Message)
Telling Stories, Asking Questions, Learning Lessons
I got spanked once for saying goodness trumps rightness every time. I think I was misinterpretted. You have stated more clearly what I meant. Good faith eventually leads to right faith.
Although it sounds like I am pitting good and right against each other, what I am really saying is that they are not the same thing – and goodness more relfects Jesus than rightness.
Yes, Jesus was right, but always in a good way.
Thanks for this great post today, Wade. It clears up a lot of the questions I had in reading Parts I & II and gives me lots of great things to think about in talking with people around me and in how I act around everyone I know and meet.
And, I really liked how your post built up to the excellent conclusion and proof text.
Again, thanks!
I think Fajita showed how tough this is to put into words and is a pretty eloquent guy! Most ACU grads are. Thanks for wrestling through it Wade. You are the source of much fodder these days…
Well said! Though I still hesitate to use the word “faith” in this discussion, faith being used as referring to our doctrinal positions (right faith, wrong faith, if I am following you), I think you are absolutely right in your conclusions.
You nailed it here…..
“A church that hopes to gain a hearing from its neighbors….. is a church that says, “This is a safe place to ask dangerous questions. This is a safe place to seek the truth. This is a safe place to practice good faith.””
On the faith thing (any help here would be welcomed and appreciated), faith is trust, surrender, giving myself over to, conviction, etc. It seems when referring to our rightness or wrongness on doctrinal issues as wrong faith or right faith, we are stripping faith of its intended meaning. We are throwing our sole response to the grace of God back upon our understanding of Scripture, if we equate faith with “what” we believe. Our whole discussion here is trying to verbalize just the opposite, that a right relationship with God is not based upon a complete understanding of Scripture but more on a surrendered, open heart that will learn whatever God would have us learn. This may be nitpicking, but I don’t think so.
I had it drilled into me at preaching school that faith was not the act of believing but the “thing believed”, the Christian doctrine. Everytime I read the word faith, that communicated to me doctrine. If I were going to be saved, my response to God’s grace meant to get my doctrine right. (Eph 2:8-9) Has this been part of our problem that brought us here to this discussion? I sure think so.
Oh well, enough about that. I am getting the big picture here, Wade, and I think you are right on. Now, how to move our churches onto that path is going to be a challenging discussion as well. I would appreciate some discussion on that. Keep it up, brother!
Well…imagine my surprise when I see you quoting Peter Kreeft! I think someone left a comment about this whole thing being a continuum — that would really be helpful for us to remember. Rather than viewing faith as a fixed thing — or that heretical belief that Brad had drilled into him that faith is the “thing believed” — it would be helpful for us all to see this as a dynamic process. That’s why I think a discussion of “set theory” might be in order. Maybe you already have that in mind.
Brad–I’m using “faith” here as broadly as possible. As in a “system of belief.” The faith I’m talking about in these posts is not just Christian faith, but all kinds of faith. In order to navigate the world we have to exercise faith of some kind. We have to put our trust in some unprovable beliefs in order to function. In this sense, our faith-system can be accurate or inaccurate to one degree or another.
John and others–there is a limitation to the diagrams and the good/bad/right/wrong language. The continuum/journey idea has to be maintained. I thought about softening the edges of my language by putting gooder/badder/righter/wronger on the graphic . . .
Wade – Thanks. I understand your use and get your meaning and I’m good with it. It’s just my passion is stoked with this kind of stuff. In 15 years of preaching I’ve come across way too many people who call Jesus the Christ but who haven’t got one ounce of faith in their heart. I worry for those folks and want to spare them the surprise when they stand before the Lord counting on their doctrine to get them through the pearly turnstile.
Last night I kept thinking about this series. How much of what we talked about fits here!
How do we allow ourselves to keep the center of our beliefs but be open to change?
How do we keep from being blind to what God wants us to see because we are holding on too strong to what we “think” God wants us to see.
We have an answer to those questions here.
I don’t know what it would take but, I think this series should be made available at the Church. Its something we need to think about as a congregation.
This is not going to settle well with those who seek to defend “absolute truth” or even “timeless propositional statements.” I ate lunch with an Episcopalian friend yesterday and he told me that his wife survived (the church) by going to an Episcopal church that said, “It’s ok to ask questions. We are a safe place. We don’t have all the answers but try to bring goodness to the world.” I hope more churches will take that type of attitude.
All this talk about FAITH reminds me of the quote I saw hanging on Jack Lewis’s wall in Memphis:
“Faith is NOT believing in what God can do, Faith IS KNOWING what God WILL do.”
I know that does not put an end to the discussion about what faith is or how it works, but that quote impacted my thinking deeply.
Thanks again Wade for this wonderful series.
Your brother,
DU
I never used the word “continuum”! I just asked, “Is it wise to add another dimension; one of time?” Faith does grow, in my experience – often in directions you don’t expect!
And I’d never spank Fajita. Good and right are both important. But what good is done if I’m right but I don’t do anything good? That’s the question I’ve been asking myself recently, and a lot of you have forced me to phrase it that way. It sounds vaguely scriptural.
So far, I am not really crazy about my answer.
Wade…I appreciate the thoughts and especially enjoy the dialogue that is created. You mentioned the word SAFE a few times, and from my experience that is what many pre-Christians are longing to have; a place (and more aptly, a people) within which they can ask questions and be allowed to flex their brain and heart muscles.
It has been my experience that most Christians do not feel SAFE asking challenging questions among the community of faith, which I think ultimately leads to a lot of dissonance in their lives. They either live with it or “get out of Dodge.”
It seems that many people enter into a conversation or relationship, not simply seeking cognitive answers, but genuinely wanting a SAFE place to live. Thanks, again, for stimulating thought.
Hey Wade,
Thank you for the clarification. I agree that the biggest hindrance to Chrisitianity in this and any generation is bad Christianity. Church genuinely should be a safe place to explore the greater questions. There should not be any doctrine too sacred for examination. I think the biggest point made was that future generations need “the space to examine them on their own, without feeling coerced by the preceding generations to affirm them.” Faith by proxy is not faith, neither is doctrine by proxy real doctrine. In an environment of honest seeking, I agree that a church needs to be a safe place to come to your own conclusion and conviction.
I agree with your basic contention that more time should be spent on the quality of our faith instead of the content, but there are some problems with the argument presented.
The prooftext contains a thought, “So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.” that is not expressed in any other translation I own (about 20), and is not in the Greek. This sentence, more than the others in the prooftext supports the claim “What you believe is not nearly as important to me as is whether or not you are sincerely seeking the truth.”
I still contend that quality and content are equally important. In agreement with your thoughts, the present church environment emphsizes content and how content differs from church to church instead of the quality of faith. The needed focus on quality is lost amidst ‘useless arguments over words’.
Good column, Wade. As always, I appreciate your thoughts.
Great post, Wade! Jesus told us that people would receive the gospel in different ways! Couldn’t help but think of the Parable of the Sower in Matt. 13. Here’s a few questions for ya…
(1) Do you think people with Wrong-Bad Faith would even be willing to discuss their beliefs…even in a “safe” church? (2) I know it’s difficult for people with Right-Bad Faith to come around to Right-Good Faith. How should our churches react to them? I have heard that we should STRIKE DOWN the “nay-sayers”, but I’ve also heard that church should be a “safe place” for everyone to discuss! What do you think?
Wade (& fellow commenters) –
I was the one who used the word “continuum” in my comment to Part II last time, as follows:
“The graphs are very useful in delineating your main points, but I find life is not nearly so simple, but much more complex than that. It seems to me that both content and quality measures are really on a continuum, rather than simple “squares” – one way or the other.”
But, Wade, you addressed my thoughts (and questions) on that very well in your comment 6 above, that:
“The continuum/journey idea has to be maintained. I thought about softening the edges of my language by putting gooder/badder/righter/wronger on the graphic . . . ”
I especially like your choice of words – “gooder” – “badder” – “righter” – “wronger”. Somehow they have a nice ring to them and pretty much sum up some a lot of people I know, even (maybe, especially) in the brotherhood. You know – as in “I bet I’m a lot RIGHTER than you are!”
Then, there is the “classific” one – “I bet I’m TWICE as humble as you are!”
Seriously – while I see faith as ever growing and changing in my life, I definitely believe there is a core there that never changes. Maybe that “core” I’m talking about isn’t faith, but I don’t know how else to describe it. It is the essence of what I understand (believe – have faith in) God to be in being God.
I suppose I’m trying to say that the core thing is that God doesn’t change at all. It is we who change, but we should ever strive to become more like that CORE thing that God is and calls us to be.
In other words – we should experience an ever expanding vision of God and faith in God, while at the same time trying to be more like the never changing God.
Wade,
I see much of the same things you say here in what you spoke about at the Pepperdine lectures. In seeking a good faith, we are seeking to change our brand image from negative to positive. Pre and post-Christians will feel more safe about our “product” (though I don’t like using that language, it seems fitting!) and be more inclined to take a look at it.
Franklin–great questions. I want to keep showing good faith to those with what I’ve called “bad” faith. Many things can happen over the course of a lifetime to cause a person with closed faith to open up. I want to burn as few bridges as possible.
At the same time, I want to concentrate on those who have good faith, not matter how “wrong” I may think it is. They are the ones who are most open to the conversation.
Wade,
Not just a right post but a good one.
I’ve had this piece in my submissions file for three years and have come to an issue where it can fit well. Getting ready to begin an issue of Wineskins about following the living Christ and not just the Christ who lived.
Can we discuss bringing this piece over to Wineskins for that issue? I appreciate all the dialogue that you have generated and can tell the piece is hitting a nerve.
gt