Bob Hamp

“So can you teach us how to do these things without all the Jesus stuff”? 

A non-believing group made this request of a friend recently.  He, like me, is in a helping profession.  Knowing He is on staff at a christian church, this group was interested in help, just not in Jesus.  

The answer to this question poses a significant problem. But the question is important.  Let me be the first to say that sometimes help offered; a glass of cold water, a meal, solid, sound advice, can be an expression of the heart of God.  God helps people in need, and He does so without expectation of payment.

The real question I want to process has more to do with the underlying idea of the “Jesus stuff”.  For years I was a “christian counselor”, I practiced in a town with a number of “christian businessmen”.  The christian world is filled with those who would hold themselves up as “christian” whatevers.   

I remember one of my psych professors saying that anyone who told you they were a “christian counselor” was actually neither.  I thought that was rather a cynical position, however I also understand the thought.  Let’s explore.

To be a christian professional these days typically means this:  I hold to a certain set of values (at least publicly) and attend an organization, or set of organizations which also hold to and train people in these values.  If I am a christian counselor, I not only hold to Judeo-christian values, but I may even use Biblical language in my counsel.  Is it possible to do all of the above, and still not be be doing WJWD? 

I regularly meet with people to discuss their search for an appropriate education in the counseling field.  The first area of this discussion is the importance of realizing that “christian language” may not reflect a truly biblical worldview.

Jesus did not come to teach people to apply principles.  

He did not come to improve our morals.

He did not come to help us be better people.

He did not come to show us how to apply God’s rules to our day to day lives.

Jesus approached the world with a simple message, and often not the one we have thought.  Here it is…

The realm of Heaven, the home of all power and health, and rightness has come among men again.  If you change the way you see, and what your attention is on, you can enter into this realm, and it can enter into you.  

Where and when the realm of God has dominion, things are made right. Sickness goes away.  Hearts are made more like God’s; generous, and considerate. Our position in the universe is restored to us and we are no longer under the rule of destructive forces.

Here is the dilemma.  If we apply right principles, without the presence of God, we are simply living by our own sufficiency, the very thing Jesus came to free us from.  

Applying principles while we hold God at arms length?

Doing the best we can without God?

These things sound suspiciously like the very thing Adam and Eve did right after their cosmic collapse.

The answer to the question, “can we teach people to do what we do without the Jesus stuff”, may be very telling as to whether or not we are actually applying Jesus ministry to our lives and professions, or whether we are simply doing the best we can without God.  If we can teach people to do what we do without Jesus, then we may need to re-examine what we teach.  

The things you do…do they:

…include the knowledge of, and the importance of interacting with an invisible realm?

…rely on the ultimate empowerment of God, or could you accomplish the same things without Him?

…recognize that the good that flows out of your life begins in God Himself and flows to you before flowing from you?

…connect people to the sufficiency of humanity, or to the insufficiency of man and the power of the cross to overcome man’s insufficiency?

…encourage people to do things for God, or to do things from God?

Are the principles you teach consistent with the unusual principles of the Kingdom (Dying is living, giving is receiving, serving is leading, the inner man is more important than the outward performance,  weakness is strength, the least is the greatest) or are they consistent with the principles of the visible world (strength is strength, performance is the goal, achieve at all costs, strive, try harder…).  

Before we sign people up for God’s Moral Improvement Plan, and profess that we are Christian Business-people, we must first closely examine the underlying belief system and worldview of the One upon whom we intend to build our approach.  

Ultimately, If we can teach people to do what we do without the “Jesus Stuff”  we cannot call it a “Christian” anything.