This article was circling around about a month ago. One of my students asked me to respond to it.
I totally agree that you can make anything into legalism. As soon as you think you can earn your salvation, something is wrong. “All of our righteousness is like filthy rags.” (Isa. 64:6).
I also agree that it is wrong to seek the kingdom of God for some kind of fame or YOLO experience. That is not what being radical and missional is about. It’s about enduring hardship and perseverance for the kingdom of God. We shouldn’t think about giving a year of service to work of God but a lifetime. Plus, there is nothing glamorous about serving the least in the world and sharing your faith with the lost. But that is building the kingdom and it’s worth everything.
With that said, I disagree with a lot of his comments. He balances his whole argument one two passages. First, he uses 1 Thess 4:11“aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you.” I think we need to think about the context with this scripture is written. Paul was serving the Thessalonians, started a small church, and was forced away from some intense persecution. (Acts 17:1-10). Paul was advising the church to win over their neighbors in this time of great hardship through their quiet, peaceful existence. Paul was setting up a missional strategy for a persecuted church that may be applicable for the Middle Eastern and Chinese church. If Paul was trying to communicate what Bradley was interpreting him to say, Paul would have said, “Run. Get out of Thessalonica. Go start a gated community outside the city.” If Bradley’s interpretation that living a quiet, peaceful lifestyle was meant for all Christians, he would have never felt the need to go preach to Thessalonica in the first place. Paul modeled and preached radical, missional living.
The second argument is that we are only called to love God and love our neighbors (Matt. 22:36-40). But we need to make sure that we don’t interpret the word “love” according to our own cultural values rather than God’s principles. This is the same issue we see when people say Christians are against love when they are against homosexuality. We start defining what love is in our own terms. Jesus said love is giving up your life for your friends (John 15:13). He told his disciple we need to take up our cross and follow him (Luke 9:23). The life Jesus called us to live is radical and missional. The love Jesus called us to have is radical and missional. It’s not about having a cozy, affluent existence.
We also cannot interpret our neighbors in our own terms. The story of the Good Samaritan shows that our neighbor is the outcast and the suffering. In our global community, there are few that are out of reach of our influence as the affluent Americans. There are few people in the world who we can’t call neighbors. There are 160 million orphans living in extreme poverty today; we can and should do something. We need to care for the least of these as mandated by Christ. Our own cities are broken and following apart; we can and should do something. I think what is unique about cities that for the first time in history more people live in cities than anywhere else. The Church needs to be at the forefront of seeing their renewal. But anyone’s call to serve the poor and marginalized in rural or suburban areas are just as important.
Bradley says that many are leaving the Church because its setting standards to high. I disagree. I think people are leaving the Church because they are receiving a watered down gospel that says its okay to live lives just like everybody else accept you need to go to church on Sundays. The “being good” of the boomer generation still holds the most ground. Back in the middle ages it was the Christians who would run to the city to care for those dying of plague. They lost their lives for it, but the Church grew immensely. The Church seems to be growing the most where people are giving their lives to mission of God.
Even if Bradley is right and more people are leaving the faith because of the supposed “new legalism” I would argue that it is the rich young rulers, the father buriers (Matt 8:21), and those that are unwilling to hate all else are the ones walking away. Jesus turned away more disciples than we like to think about because of the high cost of discipleship. We should not be surprised when people count the cost and walk away as well.
Bradley is also just trading one supposed legalism for another. He is pretty much saying if I am a nice guy and keep my head low, I am okay. That will not earn your way to heaven either. Following Jesus is about faithfulness. If God is calling you to live quietly in the suburbs, be faithful (There a huge needs in the ‘burbs especially since it is receiving a huge influx of the poor).
If you find someone you want to spend a lifetime doing God’s mission with, get married. God can use you married or single. If you want to have kids, have kids and train them to follow Christ. Admittedly, raising kids is time consuming and makes doing other aspects of kingdom work harder, but it can be helpful as well. If you want to not have kids and give as much of your excess time and resources to help orphans, that is also honorable. But it doesn’t mean someone else isn’t following Jesus by having kids and raising them either.
I think the key thing is being faithful. Are you doing what you want to do because it is comfortable, or are you willing to sacrifice for the kingdom of God and follow Jesus?
