Omission by Commission

This past week, I've gotten two unique perspectives on Jesus' parable of the sheep and the goats. The first was a fairly typical approach - highlighting ways in which we should respond to the story by acting in certain ways towards the poor. He highlighted ways we could reach out to the hungry, the thirsty, the sick and those in prison.

The second was a bit different, shared with me by a retired pastor who had a great perspective on the story. He pointed out that the parable of the sheep and the goats was actually highlighting sins of omission versus sins of commission. Jesus, at a point in His ministry where He was giving some of His final instructions, focuses on things that we do not do rather than things that we do. Isn't it interesting that we often view these committed sins as the litmus test for holiness in our Christian lives and in the lives of others?

It got me thinking, if sins of omission were that important to Jesus, it seems to me that it must be important to Him what exactly we are filling our time with that prevents us from not doing what He asks us to. I went to a purely Kuyperian college that taught me to view all of life as spiritual (similar to the "new" ideas of Rob Bell). However, while I agree with that concept at its core, I've also seen the adverse effects of Christian laziness and apathy towards holiness that can come along with a Kuyperian worldview.

Once again, this seems to be an issue of people magnetizing themselves towards the extremes - either they focus on holiness so heavily that they view culture as somehow evil or they focus on the goodness of creation that they forget to focus on holiness. The common denominator to both, however, is they both bear the temptation to fill up their lives with things that hold them back from ministering to the hungry, thirsty, sick and those in prison. The holiness camp fears tainting their purity and the Kuyperian camp doesn't feel the constrictions of Biblical rules or regulations. Feeding the hungry, giving drinks to the thirsty, caring for the sick and visiting those in prison gets relegated to the Christian third way: liberals. Since both holiness folk and Kuyperian folk dislike the concept of theological liberalism, getting near the "least of these" is now given even more stigma.

Kuyperians, you want something to redeem in culture? Redeem serving the poor!