Beyond Fear and Legalism
The Wisdom/Formation Grid
Growing up in evangelicalism, there were only two categories that I was given through which to think through morality and life choices. It will sound stupidly obvious when I say it, but hang with me.
The categories were good/bad and right/wrong. As I said, stupidly obvious.
These categories determined whether or not an action, thought, or choice was righteous or sinful. If it’s good/right, it’s righteous. If it’s bad/wrong, it’s sinful.
Let me be very clear: These categories are real. It’s not bad that I or anyone else was taught this. There are things that are objectively good and bad, right and wrong, righteous and sinful, and, in some corners, we need to recover this truth. So I’m not criticizing this as a way of thinking or that it is something that is taught.
2D Categories for Life
What I want to say is that is an incomplete, 2D way of viewing the world. If this is the only grid you have to view things through, you end up constantly fearful of falling below the line. The line of morality becomes a battle line in which you line up to defend yourself against those who would drag you down and to fight those who you perceive to live below the line.
Life is far more complex than a binary choice between right and wrong, good and bad. We do face those moments in life, but they are not the only moments we face. Sometimes this line blurs and bleeds, the sweat of our existential stress blinds our eyes, and we’re left with our best, faith-filled attempt to follow Christ in the particular contours of our lot in life.
Also, it’s often the case that these categories become more culturally defined than defined by the way of Jesus. What might be the “right” thing to do for your finances might not be the “good” thing to do in terms of following the call of Jesus on your life. These wires can get crossed, and that’s when we either become paralyzed because our values have come into conflict with each other or compromised because we make a choice counter to our spiritual convictions because it was the “right” thing to do.
It’s also possible that we can do a “good” thing that isn’t the “right” thing to do. You see this in the man who wanted to wait to follow Jesus to bury his father. It’s a good thing for him to want to stay with his father until his death, but putting Jesus on hold for prior commitments is never the right thing to do.
When this is the only grid you look through, it’s surrounded by an invisible circle labeled “works righteousness.” Instead of living in the sinner-saving, sin-forgiving gift of God’s grace, you white-knuckle your life, trying to stay above the line. It’s a recipe for legalism, burn-out, shame, fear, and combativeness.
The Wisdom/Formation Grid
So, while we need to retain these categories, we also need to add new ones. We need to go from 2D to 3D in how we view our life with God. The categories we need to add are wisdom and formation.
I love Brett McCracken’s definition of wisdom in his book, The Wisdom Pyramid.
Wisdom is knowing what to do with knowledge gained through various means of education: how to apply knowledge and information in everyday life; how to discern if something is true or not; how to live well in light of truth gained. Wisdom is not merely knowing the right answers. It’s about living rightly. It’s about determining which right answer is best. It’s a moral orientation: a developed sense and intuition for discerning right and wrong, real and fake, truth and falsehood; the ability to weigh greater and lesser goods and make complex decisions involving multiple, sometimes competing truths.
Add that too Robert Mulhollands definition of spiritual formation and lots of things start to come into view.
The process of being formed into the image of Christ for the sake of others.
Instead of being a binary, wisdom and formation live on a spectrum of more or less. Something can be more or less wise, more or less formative, that makes you more or less like Christ. What is wise will always make you more like Christ and what is unwise will always make you less like Christ. But something could be unwise yet not necessarily sinful.
For example, is it unwise to go a whole year without reading scripture? Certainly. Is it sinful? Well, no. Not necessarily. For centuries, Christians went without personal Bibles for them to read on their own. This didn’t mean they were in sin. It just meant that they didn’t have access to the resources we have today. Scripture itself never prescribes regular reading of scripture as a requirement to follow Jesus faithfully. If it were, those who are illiterate or have learning disabilities would be in sin. So not reading scripture isn’t in and of itself sinful. However, if you have access to and the ability to read scripture, would it be wise to? Absolutely!
As David says in Psalm 119:
97 How I love your instruction!
It is my meditation all day long.
98 Your command makes me wiser than my enemies,
for it is always with me.
99 I have more insight than all my teachers
because your decrees are my meditation.
100 I understand more than the elders
because I obey your precepts.
101 I have kept my feet from every evil path
to follow your word.
102 I have not turned from your judgments,
for you yourself have instructed me.
103 How sweet your word is to my taste—
sweeter than honey in my mouth.
104 I gain understanding from your precepts;
therefore I hate every false way.
You see David holding forth studying and meditating on the word of God as a pathway to wisdom. You see this too when Paul commends the “noble character” of the Bereans who “examined the Scriptures daily” (Acts 17:10-12). And this practice over the course of a lifetime is formative. By studying and meditating on scripture, you fill your imagination with the mind of Christ and are renewed day by day into his image. So while not studying scripture isn’t wrong or bad, it is wise and formative.
Motivated and Relieved
This should both motivate you and relieve you. Motivate—because we should want to be wise people who are being formed into Christlikeness. Relieve—because if you miss some time reading your Bible, you’re not in sin. You can relax in God’s grace for you.
Once you add this grid to the right/wrong, good/bad grid, the invisible line is no longer works-based, but grace-based. It allows you to have more complex categories through which to discern your choices.
Should you:
go to this or that school?
pursue this or that career?
take this or that job?
move states or stay in place?
get off social media or stay on?
spend time with these people or those people?
… and a million other decisions we have to make every day.
Navigating Complexities
This can also apply in terms of doctrines, beliefs, and practices that make us uncomfortable.
"This doesn't apply in every circumstance!"
Yes, that's why we need wisdom to know how, when, and where to apply it.
"This belief can go bad!"
Yes, that's why we need to be formed into the character of Christ and put sin to death in order to wield it rightly.
Once you apply the wisdom and formation filters, things start to click into place. Blanket statements become pillows of wisdom for individual people in particular circumstances. Truths that are twisted shine in their beauty when held by someone who has been further formed into the image of Christ.
So the next time you feel afraid of a decision or hear something that makes you uncomfortable or aren’t sure what to make of someone’s choices, apply the wisdom/formation grid and see if it clicks.
I’ve noticed in my life when I apply that grid, things that were fuzzy almost always come into crystal clear focus.