Keep it simple!

Lately, Bruce Winter has been working on a theory that people like to make things more complex than they really need to be.

Now he's not suggesting some things aren’t tricky. Nuclear physics for example. It looks pretty hard; or learning Swahili; the finer workings of the human eye. Things like these are inherently complex and the natural forte of brainwave types.

But what about the gospel? Is it inherently complex? Bruce doesn't think it is!

In Acts 20, Paul sums it up like this: “I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.” That, in essence, was his message: repentance and faith. Turn away from sin and trust in Jesus.

That’s the message which revolutionised the entire Roman world following the death and resurrection of Jesus. And it needs to be our message, our focus as well. We’re not at liberty to change it.

But a focus like that can be easily lost. We’ve all seen that. When churches replace the gospel with something else: social action, formal religion, self esteem, conforming to rules or other people’s expectations.

My observation in evangelical circles is that it happens most often when peripheral things, or matters of opinion, replace what’s central. When inordinate amounts of time are consumed by bureaucratic clutter or people wanting to push their own barrows and there’s no time left for the gospel.

It’s our tendency toward the complex and the intellectual. Wanting to win that argument and prove our position. Even when it can’t be proved. Even when it doesn’t matter.

No wonder we’re warned, to avoid having foolish and stupid arguments with each other, quarrels about words. That kind of stuff is always hurtful and divisive.

There are better and more strategic ways to use our time. Like having sensible, measured, intelligent arguments, not with each other but with our non Christian friends and contacts. A bit like Paul in Acts 17, reasoning and proving and explaining the case for Jesus. Demolishing strongholds of unbelief.

Sometimes that will mean taking people on at a fairly high level. When they are clever and their thinking is fixed in stubborn opposition to the truth about Jesus. But mostly people have more basic objections. That’s my experience at least. And the simpler we can answer those objections the better.

Jesus, of course, was the master of this, teaching the most profound things by talking about sheep or a banquet or a bloke bashed up on the side of the road. He knew how to keep things simple without ever being simplistic.

Apparently JC Ryle, the famous Bishop of Liverpool, was like that too. I remember reading somewhere that he always did a thorough edit of his sermon before he preached with a primary concern in his mind: how can I make this clearer, plainer, easier to understand?

And he applied the same principle to living the Christian life: “Let us aim at greater simplicity in our own personal religion”. He said, “Let Christ and His Person be the sun of our system, and let the main desire of our souls be to live the life of faith in Him, and daily know Him better.”

In other words, Keep it Simple.

References: Acts 17:1-3; 20:21, 2 Corinthians 10:4-5, 2 Timothy 2:23.

Bruce Winter, our guest blogger, is an elder at Coffs Harbour Presbyterian Church and all round nice guy!