The Width Of Gray, Part One

For John didn’t spend his time eating and drinking, and you say, “He’s possessed by a demon.” The Son of Man, on the other hand, feasts and drinks and you say, “He’s a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!” But wisdom is shown to be right by its results.
-Matthew 11:18, 19

To the pure, all things are pure… - Titus 1:15a

It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery (i.e., the law). - Galatians 5:1


One of the great temptations of being a leader within the church is to create lists for people, consisting of do's and don'ts, who seek structure and direction for their lives. Lists are helpful when making a trip to the grocery store. Lists are not always helpful when trying to craft a soul into the image of Christ. Living out a list-free life places us within the trajectory to which Jesus and the epistles clearly point. He and other New Testament writers would equate list-free living with spiritual maturity. Conversely, spiritual immaturity would be evidenced by a life that is defined by a series of lists.

I would like to begin a conversation that lobbies hard for lives that are free of lists. What I will say in the next few posts will either be welcomed as good news or reviled as heresy. Either way, I suspect that whatever side you fall on you will enjoy the ride. To each camp, and those in-between, I say, “Welcome aboard.”

A list is simply another word for laws or rules. The New Testament goes to great lengths to describe for us a redemption that has set us free from the ultimate of lists – the law. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:2) Paul would say this to the church at Colossae: “You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules [lists] of this world, such as: ‘Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!’? Such rules [lists] are human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. These rules [lists] seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires.” Colossians 2:20-23.

This last verse begins to shine the light on why living by lists is problematic. Paul says that lists “seem wise.” It must be true. Go to any Christian bookstore and you find hundreds of titles that have some combination of lists that promise to: set you free from a variety of addictions; make you rich; make you healthy; make you a good leader; make you a good lover; make you Spirit-filled; etc. Each author has set forth a carefully prescribed list of must-do sequential steps that one must master to achieve the golden ring of success that is promised. I am not saying that the outcomes are not both godly and good, or that the author’s intent is malevolent. I just believe that there might be a better way to go about achieving good outcomes without mastering a plethora of lists. (We’ll talk about the “how-to” in a future post – sans list – I promise).

But back to it: Paul says these lists “seem wise.” Why does list-living seem wise? I suspect it has something to do with having in my hands an empirical tool by which to keep score. If I can report to you that at the end of the day I have checked a series of boxes and have kept to the list - then I experience the pride of accomplishment. Lists measure progress. That seems wise.

But the nagging question that surfaces in the Scriptures is this: “Do your lists go far enough?” Let me speed things up for you: The answer is always no. Instead of expanding the horizon of wild possibilities of what God in His creative ability might accomplish through a Spirit-led and empowered believer – a list becomes a limiting, lowest common denominator ceiling. The reason that the New Testament takes such a dim view of lists is that: 1) They will eventually limit what God is up to; and 2) They will make us dependent on the list rather than God.

There is one other thing that lists do that is even more troubling. Lists have a nasty habit of creating a judgmental spirit. Oftentimes, those who live by lists judge “list-free” lives as worldly. Those who know and adhere to a certain list become “clubby.” Those who do not know or practice the list are offered no admittance, i.e. no relationship, with those in the club. One’s worthiness of relationship is predicated upon one’s allegiance to the list. To be ignorant of or to outright reject the list alienates a person from the list-keepers.

This subject is broad and tricky. I fear saying things in print that I will later regret. I fear offering ideas that will be misunderstood and then exploited. But before we close this post, let me offer the challenge before us with a working metaphor. I will pick the color gray.

The color gray is an absolute heresy for those who live by lists. Gray has been associated with ambivalence, mediocrity, and uncertainty. I have heard many a sermon preached along the lines that: “Everything is either black or white – there are no shades of gray.” Usually these sermons are delivered in the color of red – that being the face of the preacher. I have also heard mushy sermons which seem to suggest that almost every moral issue is gray. These sermons are skin-tone in delivery because they are usually very fleshly.

What I am interested in discovering is not so much the question of black or white, but rather this: “What is the width of gray?” To tip my hand early and say that I believe the width of gray is an oscillating thing – sometimes narrow, sometimes wide - is to run the risk of allowing your mind to run ahead of where I intend to land. Be that as it may, I urge you to wait it out and not prejudge or try to pre-guess where our journey is going to take us. When we discover together the width of gray, we may find ourselves living in a freedom and an assignment that we never before thought possible.

Be blessed...
CJ