I can remember like it was yesterday sitting in a Carrow Restaurant booth with Jack Exum during a break in the Tahoe Family Encampment talking about being and doing. Jack was adamant, “All my life, I’ve taught ‘do,do,do.’ Now I realize we can’t do until we become.” Jack’s point, which he drove home with much fervor, was it is in becoming like Jesus that we are empowered and inspired to do something (some act of ministry) for Jesus.
At that time, I agreed.
Today, not so much.
It seems as if Jesus’ approach is that in doing, his disciples become more like him. Think about John 13 and the familiar episode of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet. Jesus is seated at a table with men who’ve followed him for three years – men who haven’t paid attention and are still fuzzy about who Jesus really is. In fact, one of the men seated at the table has already made up his mind to betray Jesus. And so, with all power in heaven and on earth at his disposal, Jesus washes their feet. At the end of the scene, Jesus closes with this powerful insight: “I have set you an example that you should do as I done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them” (John 13.15-17). This scene is axiomatic of Jesus’ way of instructing/inspiring his disciples, i.e. he inspires them by his example and then informs them to do exactly what he did.
And that is how discipleship grows. Faith might come by hearing but discipleship is grown by doing!
Emphasizing becoming to the exclusion of doing is a false dichotomy that doesn’t square with Jesus’ own teaching. In fact, it is in doing that we become more and more like him.
“Many evangelicals practice a dangerous doctrinal dualism that springs out of the classic distinction between being and doing. Proponents of this theory teach that being is more important than doing and propose that being must go before doing. They teach that you need to build a deeper relationship with Christ before you can effectively minister for him. This dualism has a serious deleterious effect on Christians, because it slows their progress toward Christ-likeness by setting up a false growth process.
Though they rightly warn against doing ministry without an inner commitment to Christ, these people have missed the fact that Christ taught that being and doing are interrelated and feed off each other. As one cynic put it, ‘Try being without doing.’ Christ gave his disciples small bits of information and then had them try it out. Then he would dispense more information and allow them to practice that.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking, ‘I must study and meditate for a couple of years before I engage in service.’ Study and meditation should take place in the context of the pressures and challenges of ministry. In fact, one cannot become Christ-like without becoming active in ministry from the beginning of Christian experience. Being that does not include doing does not exist” (Bill Hull, The Disciple-Making Church, p. 165).
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Please keep in your prayers Greg, Lisa, Caroline and Abigail Minton. Dr. Edward Cooper (Greg’s brother-in-law) and his two daughters, Catie and Libby, were killed in a plane crash Saturday en route to Fayetteville for the Arkansas-Auburn basketball game. The memorial service will be at the Hot Springs Convention Center on Thursday at 2:00 p.m.
I guess my only question is, “Does doing always make us more like Jesus?” I’ve known Christians who do, do, do ,but who don’t look much like Jesus in their everyday lives. I think the heart makes all the difference. I think it is possible to do without being , but we can’t really be more like Jesus without doing because Jesus went about doing good.
Shirley, you make a great point. I guess my point Sunday was trying to bring the pendulum back in balance. I think our “grace to the exclusion of works” overreaction has left us thinking spiritual maturity is something the Holy Spirit does in me without my cooperation. Granted, our heritage’s history is filled with an imbalance of “works to the exclusion of grace” but I think James (and Jesus) strike a great balance that we should teach and model, i.e. our becoming is often predicated on our doing.
I totally agree with you Jim. The being and doing go together like love an truth. If you have love, but no truth the end result is not good. By the same token, if you have truth and no love the end result is legalism which destroys. There MUST be a balnance of love and truth to be effective in the kingdom of God. Being and doing grow together in Christ-likeness. Ed