Depth or Kitsch?

/ japfth

Intro: For some time now, I have been studying Matthew’s gospel especially and comparing it to John’s letters. Matthew focuses mainly upon the pattern of promise and fulfillment. The Old Testament promised the coming Savior-Messiah, and Christ was and is the Savior-Messiah. Again and again, Jesus demonstrates that He was and is the hinge of history. To give just three examples:

22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
    and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). (Matthew 1:22-23, ESV)

And the following:

4 and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:

6 “‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
    are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
    who will shepherd my people Israel.’” (Matthew 2:4-6, ESV)

And the following:

17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:17-20, ESV)

Promise and fulfillment, again and again and again.

And John, arguably Jesus’s closest friend, has recurring themes of Christology, too—namely, that God’s people should be wise. He tells us to “test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (1 John 4:1, ESV). He tells us that “whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error” (1 John 4:6b, ESV).

And most folks know Jesus’s almost-last words to Peter: “Feed my sheep” (John 21:17b, ESV).

John’s themes are consistent: Jesus as the hinge of history and Jesus as wisdom incarnate.

Encouragement: Since Christ is wisdom; since Christ is the fulfillment of OT prophecies; and since wisdom is to be sought and inculcated, are not shepherds to feed the flock of God? Is not the church to be a place of wisdom and depth? Is it not clear in Scripture, that shepherds are to feed/shepherd the flock of God (1 Peter 5:2)? Feed, not pimp. Feed. That requires depth. Spiritual nutrition, not Skittles.

Because we’re in an unspeakably shallow time in the West, where “worshiptainment” is the pattern, and depth is scoffed at, God’s people need to be known by their spiritual maturity and discernment, not their aping and mimicry of pop culture. In this holiday season, what opportunities we have to celebrate the grace and wisdom of God via depth rather than settling for kitsch.

2 thoughts on “Depth or Kitsch?”

  1. So, this topic is the theme of a couple of paragraphs I wrote yesterday for an assignment. It follows some given assignment parameters (word limit, etc.), but it flows with what you communicated above.

    This passage (2 John 9-11) contains a very strong warning against showing hospitality to false teachers. Just like similar warnings in the previous letter, John writes “about those who are trying to deceive you” (1 John 2:26). According to this passage, those deceivers “do not have God” (2 John 9). In other words, their teaching is false, and the Spirit is not with them as teachers or prophets. In other passages, Scripture warns believers to exercise discernment and check what they are being taught. John goes beyond issuing a caution to instructing believers to turn away the deceivers. When a false teacher arrives, believers are not to “receive him into [their] house or give him any greeting for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works” (10-11). For people called to show hospitality, that is a serious injunction.

    John’s words ring true today as well as there are many “teachers” who are leading believers away from the truth. Whether it is the LGBTQ+ agenda or denying the Old Testament as applicable Scripture for Christians, false teachers are everywhere we turn, both outside and inside the church. It also seems that, at the same time, discernment has waned. The question we must as of each teacher we listen to is, according to John, does he or she “abide in the teaching of Christ” (9). Again, as John wrote in his first epistle, we are to “test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (1 John 4:1). So we test every teaching we hear by Scripture and the Spirit and, if found to be false, we distance ourselves from the false teacher.

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