March 13, 2011

• "Consider God"

  From a flyer distributed last month in Cairo by the protesters immediately after former president Mubarak resigned (thanks Brian for the link) --

  "Today this country is your country. Do not litter. Don't drive through traffic lights. Don't bribe. Don't forge paperwork. Don't drive the wrong way. Don't drive quickly to be cool while putting lives at risk. Don't enter through the exit door at the metro. Don't harass women. Don't say, 'It's not my problem.' Consider God in your work. We have no excuse anymore."
  

  Well!  Here are a few thoughts...

  1. These all sound like reasonable prohibitions.   Basically, 'do the right thing; follow the law; don't disrupt societal order'.  Kind of a modern version of the Ten Commandments, although not nearly as comprehensive as the Biblical Ten Commandments.

  2. The fact that they would put out this flyer indicates that all these things were happening!   Imagine that...  a society full of people carelessly breaking all the rules of society... driving the wrong way on one-way streets, bribing, forging paperwork, harassing women, etc.  The phrase "we have no excuse anymore" indicates that many people must have excused/blamed their behavior on the government, instead of taking responsibility for their own actions.

  3. The basic motive seems to be: Pride.  Nationalistic pride.   "We're better than that."   "Let's have other people see how law-abiding we are, and start to praise us."  "Let's put Egypt on the map as a place of exemplary integrity."  Etc.

  4. Will this appeal to people's nationalistic pride be successful in making these changes to the behavior of hundreds of thousands of individual Egyptians?   When someone is tempted to bribe the policeman so he doesn't receive a ticket, will he decide to 'take the hit' for his country and refuse to offer a bribe?   When someone really wants to get uptown on the metro but has no money with him, and sees all his friends sneaking through the 'exit' door, will he decide to forgo the trip and bear all his friends' insults simply for the sake of making Egypt's reputation better?

  5. It remains to be seen whether this appeal will work in improving Egypt's personal integrity.  Appeals to pride sometimes work, in my opinion, but when they do, they create a worse problem.  In C.S.Lewis' "The Screwtape Letters", the senior tempter recommends to his junior tempter that he try to get the man to "conquer" his little foibles (lying, selfishness, etc) by telling himself "I'm better than that."  In so doing, the man becomes hooked on the much more insidious sin of pride.

  6. But what about that phrase in the flyer, "Consider God in your work"?   Surely this is a direct appeal to conscience and for doing what is right for higher reasons than simply individualistic or nationalistic pride, yes?   Yes, indeed it seems to be.  I'm not sure how that phrase fits with the rest of the paragraph!  Maybe several people were composing the flyer, and after they had finished most of it, someone suggested that they throw in an appeal to spirituality too.   The two motivations seem rather incongruous!  ...like trying to mix oil and water.  

  7. According to the Bible, God is after much more than simply behavioral modifications.  Consider these words from Jesus:
  "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.
  "You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
  "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence.
  "You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also.
  "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.
  "So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
  (Matthew 23:23-28)

  8. Consider how much more powerful a motivation it is once one believes the evidence that there is indeed a Creator God who is watching everything we do, and before Whom some day we will be judged and receive our reward or punishment.    If this God is real (and I think He is) and we are intimate with Him, then of course we won't litter or cheat or bribe or harass women.... because such behavior would bring dishonor to Him.  As Peter wrote:
  "Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.  Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority,  or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right.
   For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.  Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God.
   Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.
   Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable.  For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly.
   For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God."
  1 Peter 2:12-20

  9. Yet there is a motivation stronger still.  If God were merely the Judge, then the motivation to do what's right would only work as long as we were on good terms with Him.  But as soon as we broke His law, we would begin to fear Him, knowing that He will bring punishment against us on Judgment Day.  Any further motivation to do right would be crushed underneath hopelessness, especially as we humans find ourselves breaking God's law over and over again, all day long.
  But the God of the Bible is not only Judge.   He is also the Savior!   At terrible cost to Himself, He paid the price of my disobedience and "bought" me back for Himself (1 Peter 1:15-19).  Therefore I am not only motivated by a God who sees my every thought and action and will judge literally everything at the End, but by the love of my Savior, who gave up His own life for me so that I could have the privilege of walking with him in "newness of life" (Romans 6:4); "life to the full" (John 10:10); forever (1 Thessalonians 4:17)!!!!

   

   

  • 3:53 pm
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