The younger one said to his father, "Father, GIVE me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them. -- Luke 15: 12 (NIV)
But he answered his father, "Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never GAVE me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. -- Luke 15 29 (NIV)
Both sons had the same entitlement mentality but only the prodigal was honest about it. The other son felt the same but was playing the part of the good son. This spirit is in the body of Christ today too. It is the spirit of playing church. The spirit that stays and works the land but resents the ministry secretly. They feel the need to be better rewarded for their efforts. They want to be seen next to the Father but deep down inside they are harboring feelings contrary to Him.
Far too many churches are falling into the spirit of the other son. Everything becomes a pretense. The worship becomes a show where the worship of worship takes over for the worship of God. The Word of God is brought forth intellectually but is missing the power of the Spirit of God to convict the hardened heart. This is how people who claim to be men of God can fall for things such as the seeker friendly church strategy. This is the notion that the Gospel is no longer sufficient enough to reach today's culture. God did not ask for us to create purpose-driven, emergent sheep. When the spirit that runs your church believes more in the machinations and logic of man than it does in the power of God -- that is when the seeker-friendly mentality starts to makes sense. It is what Paul referred to as high sounding nonsense which comes from human thinking. Like the whitewashed tombs that Jesus spoke about the outside is pretty and attracts many but the inside is filled with dead man's bones. God rebuked Israel more than once for this. The Prophet Amos speaking for God:
"I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! -- Amos 5: 21-24 (NIV)
The other son brought his father offerings and sacrifices every day but in his heart he did not. In our churches the spirit of the other son can make a grand spectacle of the offerings it makes unto God yet be farther away from Him than the prodigal. Because ultimately the worst thing for the spirit of the other son is that he does not realize that he is also prodigal. He also lost. In many ways -- he is more lost than his prodigal brother.
And that beloved is the real danger of the spirit of the other son in the modern church. The other son never was able to see where he was wrong. He felt he was right. He had a sense of self-righteousness about him that the father was unable to reason with. The words of the father no longer mattered to him. Similarly, churches can get to this point as well. They start to think that as long as they say Jesus enough their motivation must be pure. They can defend apostasy by claiming to do it all for Jesus. When called on it they become self-righteous. They feel that they had provided such great service -- how dare someone question them. Jesus warned us about this:
But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is! -- Matthew 6: 23 (NLT)
That is a frightening thought. That we can convince ourselves over a period of time that the utter darkness we are walking in is somehow light. That the worldly systems we are supporting are somehow all for Jesus. That the compromises we make in the Gospel are somehow working to advance the kingdom. Remember that Jesus said there would be people who come to Him on the last day and they will be very confused. They will say that they cast demons out in His name. They will say that they performed many miracles in His name. Jesus will tell them all that He never knew them! What a sobering thought today for us all. That we could spend our entire lives thinking we are serving God only to find out at the end that we didn't even know Him.
The spirit of the prodigal and the spirit of the other son are alive and well. The prodigal church is more interested in power and money than the true things of God. It professes Christ but bows down to idolatrous altars. The church with the spirit of the other son however is more insidious and subtle. It appears far more righteous than the church of the prodigal. It says the right things. It preaches the right things. It may have great worship with excellent musicians and professionally trained singers. It looks beautiful from the outside. But it is a whitewashed tomb where people come to play church every week. It compromises the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It may not do so blatantly -- it may be one small compromise at a time. It embraces high sounding nonsense based on human thinking such as the seeker-friendly model of church growth. And realize this today -- it may very well be successful! The standards and measurement for success are human based of course. It may have grandiose altar calls and excellent attendance and tithing numbers. It may have its own television show and see thousands of people each week. NONE of that of course matters to God. But the other son sees the work as being more important than the condition of his heart. The other son church uses the success as its defense from criticism. Remember though, wide is the road that leads to destruction and narrow is the gate that leads to eternal life. The Bible says it is God's will for us to test everything. Be wary of the spirits that can affect our walks and our church. I saw a tweet this week that was calling for people to never be critical of another pastor or church because we "are all on the same team." I respectfully disagree. When the actual family of Jesus was trying to reach Him and He was told -- this was His response:
Jesus asked, "Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?" Then he pointed to his disciples and said, "Look, these are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother!" -- Matthew 12: 48-50 (NLT)
I am not on the same team of someone who is not doing the will of the father. I am not on the same team as someone who compromises the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Guard yourself carefully beloved. Not everyone who says "Lord Lord" will be entering the Kingdom of Heaven, but only those that do the true will of the Father.
Reverend Anthony Wade -- April 25, 2012
