Last year I read this statement, tucked away in a footnote in a certain august magazine:
… Paul isn’t talking [in 1 Corinthians 10:31] about just any old eating and drinking (as if there is such a thing as a godly and an ungodly way to drink a glass of milk!), but about the specific issue of sharing in fellowship meals with unbelievers.1
The bit in brackets disturbed me (although, as I read on, I was reassured2) because I’m convinced that the Bible has a huge amount to say about seemingly inconsequential things like how to drink a glass of milk.
The Bible gives us a theology of insects, oceans, single cellular organisms, quarks, galaxies, the small spot on a nearby tree trunk, the unwanted hairs in my right eyebrow, and yes, the drinking of milk.
I’m not being flippant. Without this knowledge, I don’t know where I’d be. So much of our lives—so much of my life!—is mundane. Mothers wipe noses. Factory workers sort parts. Children play under sprinklers (well, they used to, before rain became scarce in Australia). We’re fathers, workers, teenagers, bosses, sisters, babies. We scratch mosquito bites. We walk the dog. We drink milk.
So here it is: a theology of milk.
- God created milk good, and if we receive it with thanksgiving, it’s holy, set apart for God’s glory (1 Tim 4:4-5).
- We’re free to drink milk in any flavour or quantity we like, but we should use this freedom to drink in a way that honours God and is loving to others (Gal 5:13-14).
- We should drink milk with self-control, for we should not be enslaved by anything (1 Cor 6:12).
- Wisdom dictates that we should be careful not to drink too much milk, for physical health is of some value and may help us to serve God with greater energy and without the slothfulness of gluttony (1 Tim 4:8; Prov 23:20-21).
- We shouldn’t be obsessed with the drinking of milk, lest it become an idol. Nor should we be obsessed with the non-drinking of milk, for dieting can as easily become an idol as its opposite. Inner beauty matters more than outer beauty (1 Pet 3:3-4).
- We shouldn’t spend too much money on fancy varieties of milk; instead, we should use our money to support ourselves and those dependent on us, help those in need, and further the cause of the gospel (1 Tim 5:8; Eph 4:28).
I could keep going, but I think that’s enough for now.
I’m not recommending an OCD approach to Christian living, where I mentally review a theology of creation with every gulp of milk, offer a hymn of praise every time I wipe my child’s nose, or utter a prayer for wisdom before I pluck each individual hair from my right eyebrow. What I’m talking about is an almost unconscious theology—a way of seeing everything, big and small, through the lens of God’s truth.
As I soak myself in God’s word, it will start to transform me so that I will begin to gulp, wipe and pluck with love, wisdom and thanksgiving. As my mind is increasingly filled with the gospel, it will shape my attitudes and actions in subtle and unexpected ways, so that I make wise choices about everyday things to God’s glory (Rom 12:1-2).
If I can do it with milk, I can do it with anything. And if I can do it with anything, I must do it with everything. Tucked away in my head, I need a theology small enough for anything and big enough for everything, so that I can glorify God in the mundane and not-so-mundane happenings of every day.
1 David Shead, ‘Making trainees of all people’ The Briefing, #365, February 2009, p. 25, footnote 3.
2 The footnote goes on to say “our call to serve Christ and the church governs the way we should conduct ourselves in everything we do, even in everyday activities like sharing a meal with friends”.
Smash down that sacred/secular wall, Jean!
A thousand times, yes.
LOVE this, Jean! Every word, so true. This is how I want to live – intentionally glorifying God in everything. Thank you!
An excellent post, Jean! It reminded me of Luther’s theology of nappy-changing-by-dads.
Jean: exactly so! Thank you for your theology of ordinary things.
Recently my husband was asked by someone at church, “What has God done for you this week?” I believe his response was something like, “I don’t think in those terms, and you shouldn’t either!”
This is everything that’s wrong with ‘Christian living’… just, everything.
Words fail.
Hey Luke!
Sorry the words are failing at the moment, but could you explain what you meant by your comment? Why do you think Jean’s approach to Christian living is wrong? That would help Jean and anyone else reading this to understand where you’re coming from.
lol, hi Karen, sure:
Firstly, isn’t it all a bit pharisaic focusing on the minutiae of the minutiae?
Secondly, isn’t it weird to think that, of all the problems of the world, we (or God) should even care about this at all? Isn’t this just Christian narcissism writ large? (Or small, as the case may be.) Why does God need to orbit the ultra mundane things in our lives? What does that say about where we put ourselves?
Finally, how one earth does one “gulp, wipe and pluck with love, wisdom and thanksgiving”?
The “lens of God’s truth” seems to be “How good *I* have it” which, in light of all the suffering in the world, seems faintly peverse to me.
I know it’s well intentioned, but I just really worry about what we focus on (and encourage others to focus on) as it just seems so centered on <i>us</i>.
My 3c, fwiw.
Hi Luke!
Thanks for your questions/objections!
Thinking about obeying God in the small things of life is only pharisaical if it’s turned into law e.g. to take the example of milk, if I said it was only godly to drink non-flavoured milk. It’s not pharisaical if we treat this issue (like bigger issues!) as one of exercising freedom in love (Gal 5:13).
God cares about everything, however small, even a sparrow that falls to the ground (Matt 10:29, Luke 12:7). He doesn’t “orbit” our lives – we orbit his – and that’s why we seek to glorify him in everything, both the big and small things of life.
You ask, “how one earth does one “gulp, wipe and pluck with love, wisdom and thanksgiving”? We can “gulp” with thanksgiving if we drink milk with thankfulness to God; “wipe” a child’s nose with love if we do it with patience and cheerfulness (much harder than you might think when you’ve done it 100 times in a day already!); “pluck” with wisdom if we don’t let the drive for outer beauty control and obsess us, and absorb our time and money.
I wonder if the main issue is that it all seems a bit me-centric, as you say. I guess you’re right, thinking about the “small things” could denegerate into me-centred pietism if it becomes all about me feeling good about my moment-by-moment decisions. But I’d hope it’s more that caring about the big things – glorifying God and loving others – expresses itself in small ways as well as big ways. There’s not much point in saying I love someone if I don’t express this in practical ways, as big as caring for them in suffering, and as small as offering them a seat (James 2:1-4)!
I don’t want to encourage people to focus on the small things. I want to encourage people to focus on God and his glory and grace. But this will be expressed in the small things of life as well as the big things.
In Christ,
Jean.
Hi Jean, thanks for the response.
I’m just concerned that when ‘glorifying’ God becomes a big warm blanket we wrap ourselves in, we cut ourselves off from the reality of the world. Given the choice, I think we better glorify God through our concern about the world we’re responsible for. I think we’ve already lost the battle when we’re trying to turn the mundane into the profound—is our world view that short sighted? Why can’t mundane things just be mundane, and that be ok?
We can say ‘well it’s possible to walk and chew gum’, but while God’s care might be infinite, ours isn’t, and there’s an opportunity cost for every time we focus on ourselves and how *I* glorify God by what *I* do in *my* life, as if God needs it (or, in my view, cares). Are we that existentially insecure that we need to tell ourselves how relevant the trivialities of our lives are to God? Personally, I think God will get by just fine without us having to worry so much.
The big myth we live with (which I think comes out in the original post) is that life is wonderful. ‘God is so good.’ Of course what’s missing is the qualifying *for us*. And it might be for us at the top of the socioeconomic pyramid, but surely the idea that we should indulge in this ‘unconsciously theology’ about how wonderful the mundanity of our lives is—filled with wisdom and love—is a huge distraction from the reality of the rather unforgiving world that most people experience.
The secular world does well enough being wrapped up in the trivialities of their own lives; isn’t it our job as Christians to point to and bear witness to the suffering and so on we don’t want to face?
Focusing on God’s glory and grace sounds good, but I really am concerned that in practice it unintentionally becomes a pacifying dead end that robs us of the urgency and reality of the horrors and suffering of the world as it is, and not the warm fuzzy place we may be lulled into think it may be.
Hi Luke!
Thanks for yours reflections. It’s helping me to think this through more thoroughly.
Let me give you some more ammunition. Jesus said,
“23″Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
25″Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
Matthew 23:23-26
If that is what I’m doing, then you’re absolutely right.
I hope it’s not. Like you, I would never want to encourage people to concentrate on the small things and ignore the big things: love, justice and mercy in a world full of sin and suffering, and sharing the good news of Jesus in this world.
But the fact is that much of my life is about raising kids and all the small stuff that goes with that – and the same is true of someone who’s at work all day. So you have to work out how the big issues translate to the small issues. I do think that God is concerned with my attitudes, words and actions – my cheerfulness, patience, kindness, thankfulness – in the small things as well as in the big things (1 Cor 13, Gal 5:22-23). And that’s what I was focussing on in this particular post.
Like I said in my post, this becomes problematic if it becomes an “OCD” approach to Christian living, where I have to think ten things through before I make every little decision (that would definitely be a waste of time, produce self-absorption, and steal attention from the things that really matter!). But it’s as my mind is filled with the big things – above all, with the gospel – and as I forget myself and serve and love others, that my attitude to the little things is shaped as well, without me even having to take time to think about it consciously.
To respond more specifically to your comment, I don’t think that we face a “choice” between glorifying God in the big stuff and the small stuff. I think it’s all or nothing. I think we do have to walk and chew gum. And yes, we can’t do or think about everything, but we can think about the big things (fix our eyes on Jesus – Col 3:1,2) and this will lead to faithfulness in the small things. Yes, God will get along fine without us – but he wants every bit of us. It has nothing to do with me feeling more existentially secure, and everything to do with me honouring his name by how I live! (Titus 2) The unconscious theology (I hope!) isn’t “how wonderful life is” but “God is good, God is great, God is gracious … etc” and this shapes how I see everything, both good and bad. Life is both wonderful and terrible – that’s the reality of life in a created, fallen world – and we need to recognise and be faithful in both. Our job as Christians is not to point to suffering, but to bring the message of the gospel and the love of Christ into this world, with all its horror and suffering. I agree with you that we can tend to stick our heads in the sand and become absorbed in our own tiny, comfortable lives. Heaven forbid! But I don’t think being faithful in the small things is a warm, fuzzy alternative to facing the big things – I think it’s the hands and feet with which we help in the midst of suffering. It seems to me that the people who do most with the big stuff are generally the same people who are most faithful in the small stuff. If the second collapses (e.g. sexual faithfulness in small ways) the first will soon follow (e.g. our reputation and ability to serve).
In other words, I’m not sure we’ll do the big stuff well (like giving away money to missions and people in poverty, and serving people in need) unless we do the small stuff well (like not spending too much on trivialities, and being faithful in loving our families).
Thanks for pushing my thinking about this. It’s been a helpful reminder for me, because I do tend to become too self-absorbed and focussed on my own world!
In Christ,
Jean.
Thank you Jean for this article & I’m thankful too for the dialogue that followed. This is such a great reminder to me that I am a creature – a redeemed creature reliant every second on God and destined to eternity. It reminds me also that my life and choices belong to him – not just the larger, other centred issues, but my very being and person.