Yesterday, we made this observation: “In a real way, to decide for yourself that you can make your own rules when the community has already established certain specific rules is to violate community.”
What do we do when someone in the community makes up their own rules? How do we respond when someone among the people of God appears to ignore the will of the other people?
Let’s consider the possibilities. Let’s assume that this person does not act this way out of ignorance, because that difficulty would be easily repaired with proper education.
Perhaps this member of the community has stumbled across a new situation, a case that looks like the standard rule fits, but it really doesn’t at all. It happens every day – one principle that normally works just fine comes into conflict with another principle. How do you choose? Which principle trumps the other? If these principles are in conflict (and sometimes they are), how do we resolve the principles of correctness, inclusiveness, justice, love, mercy, righteousness, simplicity, truth, and unity? I’ve put them in alphabetical order, but how ought we to prioritize them? Should the individual attempt this on their own, or wouldn’t it be more prudent to work this out in a community of discernment (Acts 15)? These situations also reveal the real need for communication on both sides. Individuals should consider discussing the issue with their peers not just for the sake of gathering wisdom, but also that other people might understand that these individuals see themselves to be working with something that they perceive to not be the typical case. On the other hand, God requires his people to go to one who has violated the norms of the community and hold them accountable if they discover that such a person has really violated those norms (Matthew 5, 18).
Perhaps the person who breaks the norm is serving as a prophet within the community. They believe that they are speaking God’s truth to God’s people. It may be that the community has drifted away from the story of God, and as it has drifted, it has begun to do things which are not consistent with the workings of the heavenly kingdom. It is not living out the kingdom story. In this case, the change of behavior shouldn’t be a well-kept secret, but should be a statement clear in its reasoning and its call to return to scripture and to the tradition of God’s people. It should be honest in its attempts to rediscover the truthful behavior of the people of God. This is a place where Jesus lived much of his life – yet we need to remember that we’re not Jesus, are we? This is not first century Judea, is it? The issues of establishing a counterculture in the midst of an imperial culture aren’t the same, are they?
Or, it could be that the incautious soul forgets or becomes lax about the choices that have been made among the people of God. What this person needs is accountability from his or her people. The people of God, or someone within that community, needs to recall this person to community behavior with a kingdom spirit. And, unless one has a rebellious spirit, such a one will submit to their accountability to the people of God. On one hand, such a person does not seem to carry the guilt that the rebellious might, yet frequently such a callous disregard for communal thinking is just as destructive to the well-being, the peace, the shalom, of the community.
On the other hand, the rebel spirit resists the call to submission and to community altogether. This rascal resents accountability. Perhaps they care more about their own needs and desires than the purposes of the people who make up the body of Christ. Or, perhaps they care more about getting their way than others. More than a few control freaks have a spirit destructive to community (isn’t this how we perceive some of the Pharisees to have been?). They might deny it, but they frequently behave as if they, and not Jesus, functioned as the head of the body.
This fourth possibility, that of rebellion against the people of God, leads us back to the question, “What do we do when someone in the community makes up their own rules?” Think about this, and we will discuss this difficult possibility more tomorrow.
In the meantime, live among God’s people by showing grace and living in peace,
Ron
