Is Your Church Sound?

In his book Things Unseen, Mark Buchanan writes about our constant craving:

I saw this close-up … when my children first got to that age when the essence of Christmas becomes The Day of Getting. There were mounds of gifts beneath our tree, and our son led the way in that favorite childhood (and, more subtly, adult) game, How Many Are for Me? But the telling moment came Christmas morning when the gifts were handed out. The children ripped through them, shredding and scattering the wrappings like jungle plants before a well-wielded machete…When the ransacking was finished, my son, standing amid a tumultuous sea of boxes and bright crumpled paper and exotic trappings, asked plaintively, “Is this all there is?“[i]

This craving, which may appear harmless, is actually hazardous.  Paul reveals the danger of such desires in in a trio of letters called the “pastoral” letters.  These letters are addressed to “pastors” named Timothy and Titus whom Paul had commissioned over a few specific congregations.[ii]  A survey of the correspondence shows that these churches were perishing from spiritual poisons.  This becomes clear through Paul’s frequent use of the word “sound.”  The word means “healthy.”  The patient charts for these congregations shows that Paul is deeply concerned about their soundness.  For example, Paul writes of people who are teaching things “contrary to sound doctrine” (1 Tim. 1:10).  He urges Timothy to follow the “sound words” that Paul taught him (2 Tim. 1:13).  Paul  petitions elders to be able to teach “sound doctrine” and to refute those who contradict it (Tit. 1:9).  What most concerns Paul about these saints is their soundness.  We can surmise that he writes so often about health because this is the very quality most endangered among them.

And Paul diagnoses the source of their sickness.  Some of the symptoms are the result of common causes.  For example, Paul warns of those who are “lovers of self,” “abusive,” “unholy,” “heartless,” “brutal,” “swollen with conceit,” and “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Tim. 3:2-4).  You don’t need an M. D. to understand how heartlessness or hedonism could lead to spiritual disease in a Christian community.

But Paul also points to a cause rarely acknowledged by even the best Christian medics.  Paul identifies something as harmful which many view as harmless:

• “Therefore an overseer must…not [be] a lover of money…” (1 Tim. 3:3 ESV)
• “Deacons likewise must…not [be] greedy for dishonest gain…” (1 Tim. 3:8 ESV)
• “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils” (1 Tim. 6:10 ESV)
• “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.  For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money…” (2 Tim. 3:1-2 ESV)
• “For an overseer…must not be…greedy for gain” (Tit. 1:7 ESV)

Paul believes the wealth of the church is one of the largest threats to the health of the church.  Paul thinks that finances greatly impact fitness.  Some of the greatest spiritual diseases in our lives will stem from the misuse of money, the craving for cash and the desire for dough.

Jesus points to this same malady in his sermon from the mount.  He warns listeners not to “lay up for yourselves treasures on earth” (Matt. 6:19 ESV).  He states that it is impossible to serve God while also serving money (Matt. 6:24).  He cautions against our obsession with commodities like clothing and chow (Matt. 6:25-34).

We can have correct creeds.  We may perform worship wonderfully.  Our rituals may be the best of any religion.  Yet even with these we can be unsound.  Even with these we can be unwell.  The wealth of the church is one of the largest threats to the health of the church.