THE WAY OF THE GENTILES

In Matthew 10:5 Jesus gave instructions to his disciples as he prepared them to take the message of the Kingdom to the house of Israel. His first sentence is, “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans.” Jesus’ disciples were to take the message only to the Jews and no one else.

Obviously this passage does not mean the same thing to us as it did to them. We are the Gentiles, the message has come to us, and we, for argument’s sake, live in the unclean cities of the Samaritans. The plain fact is that everything changed at Calvary. The disciples were being given pre-Calvary instructions and we live on the “after” side of Calvary. Many of the men to whom these instructions were initially extended by Jesus were later the leaders of the church in the first century. It was these men who led the first-century church that quite literally exploded among the Gentiles. Most of the great first-century churches were in wicked cities like Corinth and Rome, of all places.

“Do not go into the way of the Gentiles.” Now I ask you, how are we supposed to look at a phrase like this? Perhaps the easiest thing to do is just ignore the phrase, just pretend it isn’t there. If you like, I can lend you a black marker with a broad tip and you can just “censor” this passage, put a heavy black line through these words, and then you won’t have to try to understand what God was saying to us. Or we can try to discover why the Holy Spirit led the early church to keep these words in the manuscript. Maybe we had better try this before we break out the marker or get a pair of scissors to cut the passage out of our Bibles.

I believe the phrase “the way of the Gentiles” refers to an entire way of life that is in stark contrast to “the way of the Kingdom.” In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus talks at length about worrying or being preoccupied with the cares of life, including housing, clothing, food and life in general. In verse 32, Jesus says, “For after all these things the Gentiles seek.” He was not putting us down, He was using “the way of the Gentiles” to describe a way of life that is opposite to life in God’s Kingdom. I believe that “the way of the Gentiles” describes the world as it is without the influence of God and His saving love through His Son Jesus Christ, without the influence of the Word, and without the presence of the Holy Spirit! “The way of the Gentiles” is the driving force that people live in, in the natural, carnal world.

The injunction then of Matthew 10:5 takes on a special meaning to us who are Gentiles and are alive after the work of Calvary was accomplished. It has special meaning for us who have embraced the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary. “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles” then becomes a very clear teaching that we are not to make the guiding principles of our life the same as the ones that drive those outside God’s Kingdom. The authenticity of New Testament Christianity is lost when we try to become like the world.

In the last few weeks in my regular reading of the news, I have observed the following about Christian leaders who seem to be struggling with understanding what it means to be “in the Kingdom.”

1. I read about XXXX, the cussing pastor. XXXX is the pastor of a large conservative church and occasionally is known to use swear words in the pulpit. I didn’t use the real name to protect the guilty. I wonder what verses he has “censored” in his Bible?

2. A well-known speaker who is advocating that Christians become much more aggressive and assertive in personal relations. This speaker is known to be very abusive to his staff and seemingly touts this as “becoming a more mature Christian.” I wonder where the fruits of the Spirit fit in for this person or maybe “as a mature Christian” he is making use of the broad tip marker?

3. A well-known pastor and his equally well-known wife who are publicly divorcing without a moment off for personal restoration or apparently any kind of pastoral counseling. Has the day of the “throw-away marriage” finally overwhelmed the church? Better get the marker warmed up on this one!

4. A well-known pastor who brags about his tattoos, his love of fine wine, who ignores the financial shenanigans of his church, and has introduced his personal masseuse to his congregation. The “masseuse” is allegedly a converted porn star. (We sincerely hope and pray that last part is true since the other parts of the “testimony” are questionable at best.)

Hello, hello, anybody listening? There are some large parts of Jesus’ and Paul’s teachings that have to go away to make this one smell right. Better bring two markers!

I don’t have all the answers to how to stay free from the “way of the Gentiles.” Paul refers to it in Ephesians 2:2 as “the course of this world” and then immediately ties the phrase to the influence of “the prince of the power of the air” (better known as the devil). I do know that Jesus doesn’t want us living according to the “course of this world” and having our life aligned with the evil purposes of the enemy. I do know that Jesus died to open the door to life in the Kingdom for all who will enter. God has given us an abundant life to live and yet for some there is an almost mystical attraction to go back and live like God has no part in our lives, go back to the way it used to be, go back to the “way of the Gentiles”!