Pulpit Language, 4 of 4

If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, persecuting the church; as to the righteousness that is in the law, blameless. But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of Him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them filth, so that I may gain Christ - Philippians 3:4b-8 HCSB

When faced with the incredibly frustrating tendency of the Jewish Christians to insist on following Jewish ritual practices, Paul exclaimed, “I wish those who are disturbing you might also get themselves castrated!”[1] If the average pastor said the same thing in the average American church today, the puritanical congregation with moral taboos more grounded in Victorianism than in the Scriptures would gasp and quickly form a pastoral search committee.

Paul tried to explain that all the religious externals that we think are so important are completely irrelevant. They are all a loss compared to simply having a real, passionate and intimate relationship with Christ. He was not only willing to set aside religious rituals and what the world commonly describes as holiness, he went on to say that to him they had become “filth.” The word he used was “skubalon” which means animal excrement or dung according to Thayer’s Greek Lexicon. The Etymologicum Gudianum puts it “that which is given forth from the bowels, or dung.” Its common usage was apparently along the lines of “it’s just so much crap to me.”

Like Paul, we want to be able to speak to all people at their level, in their language and within the context of their culture. We want to be all things to all people so that we may by all means save some.[2] Not that we will follow the world into sin[3] for in what way will this lead them to their Savior? No, what we seek is relevance without misplaced irreverence. We want to be real. We want to be practical. We want to deal with issues that matter in a way that will be heard and understood by the average listener.

This causes some to reject us, but that is all right. Some rejected our Master too. He was very polarizing. People either hated Him or loved Him. Interestingly, the same type of people who were drawn to the Savior have also been drawn to our church: those who humbly stand far off from the holy places, not daring to raise their eyes to heaven but striking their chests and saying, “God, turn Your wrath from me – a sinner!”[4]

[1] Philippians 5:12
[2] 1 Corinthians 9:20-22
[3] Romans 12:2
[4] Luke 18:13