Flippin’ conviction.

Lets go back to my friend who loves Roman Catholics so much that we feels he needs to tell them they are all wrong. Or another brother who came to me a few years ago wanting me to arrange for Christians in Croydon to picket our local theatre because the European Witch Fest was held there each year or another Christian who encouraged me to stop the Gay Pride marches by handing out tracts saying that 'gays were an abomination to God'. All three: 

a. were totally sure that they were right, 

b. felt a divine calling to tell the others that they were wrong,

c. believed that this was love in action. 

Each of these guys wanted to convict others of their sin, and hereby is the problem in a nut shell. Human beings have somehow fallen for a lie that we are convictors. That it is somehow our job to convict others of them being wrong and us being right. But I don’t find that principle in the Bible, what I do find is this:

And when he (the Holy Spirit) comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment

Jn 16:8

It has been a huge release to me to find that I am not meant to convict anyone of their sin. But I am meant to love them and I am called to judge actions, to use my knowledge and wisdom to help others who are caught up in sin and wrong understanding, even to bring discipline if necessary. But in all of this, it is the Holy Spirit who brings conviction of sin. 

God is the only one who knows a situation fully, who knows everyones thoughts and motives and who loves everyone perfectly with and everlasting wonderful love. 

On the other hand, I am sinful, a frail clay jar and nothing good lives in my flesh. (This isn't a confession of my personal habits just scriptural truth of every believer). I get things wrong and I don’t know my own motives and thoughts fully, let alone those of the person I believe to be wrong. And my love for others is at best flimsy and fickle. So who is going to be the best person to convict someone of their wrong? God alone.

Let me walk you through a typical attempt by me to try to convict another person. Lets say that I believe that my wife, Ruth, doesn't read her bible enough. Shock, horror, put her out of the church immediately.

How do I convict her of her sin?

Well I could try all kinds of styles. I could do the straight out “You aren't reading your bible enough” That ones sure to bless my marriage and demonstrate my love! But if that doesn't get the desired result I could go to plan B and wait till friends come round and drop into the conversation “Oh Ruth’s not reading her Bible enough” surely a bit of embarrassment will convict her. No? Of well I’ll go for the nagging constantly, always a way of keeping the home happy. I hope you are starting to get the picture that my attempts will always fail. Why, because I’m not the Holy Spirit. What's more, I will have done damage to my relationship.

You see, Jesus is Lord and his Spirit is the one who brings conviction. If I decide that I am going to be the one who convicts, then I am saying “I am lord of this situation - move over Holy Spirit”. Guess what, the Holy Spirit moves over. This is beautifully demonstrated in the film Bruce Almighty when God lets Bruce Nolan hear some of the prayers he hears. Bruce begins to write them on Post-It notes but rapidly become overwhelmed. 

Bruce discovers that he isn’t equipped to be God. The last thing we need is for God to move over and let us be lord. But it gets worse because when we do this, the devil realises that we are being lord of the situation and he moves in faster than Usain Bolt can run 100 metres. We have gone from a place where the Holy Spirit with all of his knowledge, wisdom and love was in charge, and where I was an ally of God and my wife, and where the devil was the enemy, to a place where pathetic me is lord and the devil is on the inside of the fight and where now I am my wife’s opposition. The whole things has rapidly unravelled from win, win, win to lose, lose, lose.

I’m not sure how the writers of Bruce Almighty nailed the subject so accurately or with such amazing humour, but they so got it right.

So what am I meant to do when I see something wrong in someone else's life?

Thank God that he is lord and start acting like it.

God knows the situation perfectly. He has the power and love to do do what is exactly right. He cannot be successfully opposed by the devil. What does that leave for me to do? I need to talk with the Father. In my example above I would say:

“Father, you know that I think that Ruth doesn’t study her bible as much as I’d like her to, but maybe I’m wrong here. Maybe she does, but I don’t see it or maybe my expectations are wrong, or maybe you are working on something in our lives way more important right now. Whatever it is, will you send your Holy Spirit to bring conviction on me and on Ruth as to what is right here. Where I am wrong please show me, and where Ruth is wrong please convict her. I’m going to leave it with you and ask for your strength not to take over.

I know that this is a very simple illustration but the process is always that simple in all situations. Most of what we get so wrong in the world could be sorted out if we dealt with things this way. Most of the things we argue about and fall out over in church can certainly be sorted out when we allow the Holy Spirit to do his flippin job and we stick to ours.