God has Given More To Some Than To Others
“God has given more to some men (sic) than to others.” (Toon) “When men (sic) have Christ they not only have everything one needs, they have everything one can possibly have” (Erich? Haupt).
Back to Basics
Despite long being familiar with the above quotations, I have just come to realise they are in radical contradiction with each other. Why has it taken me over 30 years to question
“ God gives more to some men than to others? And how has submitting to this lie ensnared my life, and likely yours! I am praying this teaching prove to be as embarrassing to you as it has been to me (1 Cor 15:34). To help with context I need to expose my readers to my extreme working class background. My father, left fatherless at four, had to teach himself to read and write and my mother failed primary school! Neither of them was openly embarrassed by these life disadvantages. Whilst my proletarian origins have enabled me to effortlessly cross class divides, they have also imparted some ingrained sins. I am prejudiced towards dysfunctional people, disposed to “defending the indefensible” (quoting Donna), and can sometimes adopt a sinful superior attitude to those educated enough to “know better”. Paise God he is working simultaneously to heal me of these interrelated problems.
God Has Given More
English scholar Peter Toon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Toon) once said in my hearing, “God has given more to some men than to others.”. I gave great credence to his words, not primarily because they seemed self-evidently true, in relation to economic, intellectual, physical and relational giftings, after all, “(God) himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25), but for more academic reasons. Peter had been a research assistant of a famous Oxford scholar I much admired (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Lionel_Mascall), and was, unlike me, a highly competent linguist. It has taken me a long time to move out of the shadow of the intellectual giants the Lord placed in my earlier Christian life and to realise that intellectual genius is unconnected to spiritual stature. Paul critiques the human habit of mutual comparison, “when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.” (2 Cor 10:12). To step outside of this box of our own making we need a greater revelation of….JESUS.
ALL is Given
Paul asserts, “all things were created through him (Christ) and for him” (Col 1:16), and undermines the Corinthians favouritism, “let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, 23 and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.” (1 Cor 3:21-22). This might be hard to live by, but it is easy to understand. Whatever our Father has given to anyone, is ultimately a gift to his Son, and if his Son is in you, it is a gracious gift to/for your final glorification (Col 1:27). Paul’s testimony to Jesus leaves no room for comparisons, jealousy, envy, pride, or depression. “I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, that none of you may be puffed up in favour of one against another. 7 For who makes you so superior? What do you have that you didn’t receive? If, in fact, you did receive it, why do you boast as if you hadn’t received it? (1 Cor 4:6-7). To judge “according to the flesh” is a natural process prohibited by Scripture (2 Cor 5:16), and one which easily slides into the demonic wisdom (James 3:15) that stratifies humanity into those like/unlike us. With the coming of Jesus the power of eternity has broken into time so that “Christ is all and in all” and all old divisions are taken away (Eph 2:14; Col 3:11; Rev 22:13).
Beyond this World
In its visible divisions the Church unwittingly accepts the Darwinian idea that all organisms compete for resources but not all can succeed (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competitive_exclusion_principle). In preparing us for the “real world” our biological parents have Adamically imparted this as a brute fact of life. But Jesus lived before an all-provident Father of supernatural abundance, “(Jesus) looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves…and those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.” (Matt 6:41-44 cf. 6:32-33). In Christ’s world there can be no competition and no superior/inferior. The comparisons we make leading us to conclude, “God has given more to some men than others”, are illegitimate comparisons, the fruit of a Fallen world (2 Cor 5:16-17). Whoever has the “indescribable gift” of Jesus in them (2 Cor 9:15) is incomparable in him. This profound truth of our identity in the Lord (Eph 1:19; 3:8, 18-19) transports our perspective beyond the scale of reason or imagination. How mini-minded we are (2 Cor 13:5). Do you not realise that in the eternal/beatific vision, God will forever be seen as ever greater, and that this vision of ever escalating greatness will be reflected in you. Such a glorious perspective can be entered into even now (Rom 11:33-36). As in a mature marriage your ever-increasing appreciation of your spouse is immeasurable, so how we see the Church in her members (1 Cor 12:12) must be mysteriously wonderful beyond all comprehension. This is a profound mystery (Eph 5:32) dependent on the revelation of God’s Spirit (1 Cor 2:10).
Conclusion
A superior attitude is always a judgement from outside of Christ. “Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” (Rom 14:4). When the Spirit moves to create transparency in all our Church relationships, shame, cover up and fear will be abolished in the light of the gospel of Christ (Gen 3:6-8; 2 Tim 1:10). The results will be genuinely awesome (Luke 5:26; Acts 2:43). The day is coming as the Spirit calls (Isa 2:2-3; Acts 2:19ff.) when men and women with outstanding economic, educational, entrepreneurial, social, intellectual, artistic, creative, and political gifts partner as one, having “all things in common” (Acts 2:44; 4:32). This is how the mystery of the Beauty of Christ in his Body will finally be revealed in its comprehensive victory “to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms” (Eph 3:10). Such a glorious vision belongs to the whole people of God, now and forever. This not yet taken place in our midst because only gifts broken through the cross and raised by Christ (2 Cor 12:1-10) can be united as one, from the Head down (Eph 4:8ff.). Pray urgently for an outpouring of the enlightening “Spirit of wisdom and revelation” (Eph 1:17-18 cf. Zech 12:10) so that the Lord by his sovereign wisdom and power can unite the pieces of his glorious Body in love (Col 3:14). This has been God’s way in the past and must be in the future. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clapham_Sect; http://www.ethos.org.au/online-resources/blog/review-of-james-davison-hunter-to-change-the-world )