Recently, there was an article circulating around Facebook concerning
how many parents accept the diagnosis of their children as having ADHD and are
allowing “medical professionals” to drug their children in order to subdue
them. The article condemned this
practice and a few Christians had reposted it with additional comments
concerning the discipline of our children in accordance with God’s will being
the cure. In one instance, a comment was
made that essentially said that the commenter sort of agreed with the poster’s remarks
concerning discipline, but that HER children were the EXCEPTION to the rule and
that they HAD to have drugs to subdue their “ADHD.”
Now, this brief article is not meant to address that particular occurrence
only, but rather to address an overall attitude that is found not only in the
world, but in the Lord’s church as well; the attitude that we are somehow the
exception to the rule, and therefore the rule does not apply to us. Oftentimes, even Christians act as though God
simply was not smart enough nor experienced enough to have foreseen their
particular circumstances in this life, and they therefore decide that God’s
laws or commandments do not apply to them…and the rest of Christendom just
couldn’t possibly understand their circumstances because they are so “unique.”
Consider a few instances in which many Christians claim to be the “exception”
to the rule (this is a brief list…there are many more); Christians are
commanded not to forsake the assembly (Hebrews 10:24-25), but many respond with
“but I HAVE to work…therefore my forsaking is the exception”; Christians are
told to avoid evil companions because they corrupt good morals (1 Corinthians
15:33), but many respond that they are the ones who are STRONG enough to be
around such people and not be harmed; Christ commanded that we do our good
works for the proper reasons and not to do them before men, but many Christians
write about their “good deeds” on Facebook and claim that they are simply doing
it to be a “good example” to others or to raise some sort of awareness;
Christians are commanded to enact discipline in the church (1 Cor. 5, Titus
3:9-10, 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15, etc), but many Christians claim that God’s
method will not work with their loved one and therefore it doesn’t apply;
mankind is given the concept of raising their child in the correct manner and
they will continue in it (Proverbs 22:6, Proverbs 22:15), but Christians often
claim to be the exception to such Proverbs because their children are “different”
or they as parents did do everything “correct” and their child still went bad. This is just a brief list of areas in which
Christians claim to be the “exception” to the rule.
In Christianity, many have the particularly bad habit of turning the “exception”
into the “rule,” rather than living by the rule. For instance, there are a great many debates
concerning what the Bible teaches on the topic of marriage, divorce, and
remarriage, and most false doctrines on this topic stem from making the
exception the rule. We as Christians
often spend so much time trying to fit our loved ones into the “exception” so
that they can be Scripturally remarried that we forget what God’s rule is: NO
DIVORCE. In fact, we forget what is
written in Malachi 2:16, “For the Lord God of Israel says that He hates
divorce, for it covers one’s garment with violence…” Simply attempting to manipulate details in
order to fit a loved one into the “exception” does not mean that God will
accept someone into Heaven because WE claim they are the exception.
Think of it this way for a moment: if EVERYONE is the exception to the
rule, then to whom does the rule actually apply? For instance, if everyone has
a “legitimate reason” for forsaking the assembly of the saints, then to whom is
the Hebrew writer saying this? We often “think it through logically” and say
that we are free to miss for our jobs because we have to work (2 Thessalonians
3:10). However, where are we actually
given the positive Bible authority to forsake for our jobs or school? In fact,
Jesus tells us not to worry about our livelihood because God knows that we need
such things to survive (Matthew 6:25-34) and we are given examples where
followers of Christ actually left their employment immediately to be servants
(Matthew 9:9, 4:18-22). Are we “legitimately
excused” from the worship of God for such reasons or are we attempting to make
a man-made exception the rule? Think about the time period in which the book of
Hebrews was written; many first-century Christians had been murdered because
they would not forsake their belief in Christ…God expected them to be faithful
to the assembly under such circumstances, so will He excuse us because our jobs
keep us from meeting with the saints?
No matter how much many of us might think so, we are not unique and we
do not face circumstances that nobody has ever faced before. American society has taught us to have the “me
first” mentality and has also taught us to attempt to outdo one another in how “hard”
our lives or our circumstances are.
Therefore, we often use social forums such as Facebook to express to
others just how hard our lives are and how they simply cannot understand our
circumstances in life. Some may even
point to how the Apostle Paul wrote concerning the things that he endured and “boasted”
of them to the Corinthians…but they have missed the point. Paul does indeed “boast” concerning the
afflictions in his life, but he does so as an answer to false apostles who had
the same problem many Christians have today (2 Corinthians 11:1-30). False apostles (Paul’s words – 11:13) were
bragging about their so-called suffering and claiming that they were true
apostles as well, but Paul says that they were deceitful workers. If we look at
our lives, do they compare to the suffering of the Apostle Paul? Are our
circumstances as difficult as his often were? If Paul were here today, would we
tell him that he simply was not experienced enough to judge our circumstances?
Even though we often think that God doesn’t understand us or our
circumstances, we are wrong. Even though
we often believe that we know a better way (this is usually the case with
church discipline…we think we know a better way than God), we do not. Consider Isaiah 55:8-9: “’For My thoughts are
not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the
earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your
thoughts.’” God is ALWAYS right and God does understand our circumstances
better than we do. We are not the
exception to God’s rules no matter how much we might wish that we were, but
rather we need to stop thinking of ourselves more than we ought to think and
accept God’s will for us as it is. If
Paul, with all the wonderful things (Acts 19:11) he did and all the afflictions
he suffered (2 Corinthians 11), counted himself as nothing but a servant to God
(1 Corinthians 3:5-15), then why do we seek to make something of ourselves? Why
do we seek to be more important or “unique”?
We are but laborers in God’s field and we need to view ourselves as
such and nothing more. We are not the
exception, but rather we need to be the epitome of the rule. We live our lives in service to the Lord and
yet all we have done is what is our duty to do (Luke 17:6-10, Romans
12:1-3). We ought not to think more
highly of ourselves than we ought to think (Romans 12:3), for we are but
unprofitable servants of the Lord (Luke 17:10).
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