Bubble, Bubble – Toil and Trouble?

Therefore, be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.  Matthew 5:48 (CJB)

Today’s edition was authored by Ian Hodge

Perfect – In his TW article, “Theological Abuse” (January 22, 2012) , Skip closed the door on a false notion about perfection.  He concluded that to be perfect was “progressing toward godliness.”  I want to explore that concept a little further.

In an evangelical church service one morning the children were introduced to a new song that had them singing about God as Lord of creation.  The song mentioned birds and trees, the sun, moon and skies,  and finished with the sea creatures.  At which time, the children were encouraged to shout loudly, “Bubble, Bubble, Bubble, Bubble.”  Not content with the children making this cacophony, the pastor had the adults stand and sing the same ditty, making the same request that they too shout “Bubble, Bubble, Bubble, Bubble.”  One member in the church was even “threatened” to be pulled out the front because he refused to join in this activity.  Clearly, this was an important activity for this pastor.

If the question is asked, however, what did the children learn from this song, there would be similar answers.  “About God as creator.”  But is that what the children remember?  Does shouting “Bubble, Bubble, Bubble, Bubble” help them remember great theological truths, or is this merely entertainment?  And what does this have anything at all to do with the idea of perfection?

Now a superficial reading of the Bible can easily lead to the notion that when you are commanded to be perfect (teleios)  it means you must be totally sinless. While it is certainly true that you should strive to lead lives in perfect obedience to God, the idea of perfection in the Bible is intimately connected to the idea of maturity. And this is what our text means when it asks you to be perfect.  You are being invited to be mature.

Maturity means, among other things, making right judgments. For the followers of the Messiah, this means making right judgments about how God wants them to live, that is, by applying God-given principles into a myriad of situations.  And those principles, or instructions, are primarily found in the first five books of the Bible.

Is there any wonder we have a crisis in our culture?  When children are taught to shout mindless mantras such as “Bubble, Bubble, Bubble, Bubble” and are never instructed in how to make right judgments according to Torah, something is wrong.  Radically wrong.  I call the problem “Bubble theology.”

And what did the adults learn who also were pressured into the mantra of  “Bubble theology”?  Did they gain any movement towards maturity by shouting, “Bubble, Bubble, Bubble, Bubble”?  Unlikely.

Educationally, this illustration is a bad example of how to teach.  What was taught?  That the significance of the concept of the lordship of Christ is not to be dwelt upon so that the mindless “bubble, bubble, bubble, bubble” can be shouted with enthusiasm? That in the end, “Bubble theology” is the concluding thought of the lordship of Christ? That life is full of opportunities to shout mindless repetitions at the top of the voice? How will the children know what to learn? Unfortunately, the message has been lost in the noise.  In this case, adapting McLuhan, the noise is the message.

The requirement to be perfect, that is to be mature, is an expectation upon all. Too often the contemporary Christian message is reduced to concepts such as this: If you have a problem, take Yeshua as the universal Pain Reliever; if you cannot get enjoyment in life, then Yeshua can become the Great Aphrodisiac, bound to bring pleasure to life if taken in sufficient quantities. If Yeshua is offered as the great Heavenly Aspirin rather than the one who deals with sin and its consequences, then we have an explanation as to why there is so much trouble in the world today. Psychology takes precedence over sin and salvation. Man’s feelings take priority over certain fundamental facts relating to the Fall, sin, and what God has done to satisfy the requirements of the law. Rather than a restoration of God’s absolute moral values, there is a tendency to substitute “feeling good”, as if “feeling bad” is somehow man’s real problem. Treating symptoms rather than causes, however, is not the way to make sick people better.

It is the lack of maturity in the Christian church that is the cause of the deep-seated malaise not just in the lives of individuals but also in broad culture of the nations of this world. Where Biblical principles once governed men in many areas, now anything goes except the laws that God has given us. Where the ability of men and women once existed to take the Word of God and apply it in areas such as education, economics, politics, business, law and philosophy, now such an application does not exist because the followers of the Messiah are incapable of doing it. In other words, we have immature Christianity and immature Christians.

But as I consider these words of the Messiah – to be mature, as my father in heaven is mature – I have to keep asking myself.  Am I growing in maturity, better able to make judgments according to Torah today than I could previously?  Or am I caught in my own deceptive web of “Bubble theology”, where there is a lot of noise and little maturity?

And you?  Are you maturing – making better judgments according to Torah – or also caught up in your version of “Bubble theology”?

Topical Index:  Matthew 5:48, perfect, teleios, Ian Hodge