What Good Is a Clean Stable?
Perfectionism Exposed
“Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is
by the strength of the ox.” --Prov. 14:4
The Bible recognizes that there is no perfection in this world,
and very often there is a tradeoff as we go through this world. A clean barn is
desirable, but not at the expense of the work of the ox.
You Have to Shovel
If you want to enjoy the use and blessing of an ox, you will have
to shovel some manure. The best Christians have things wrong with them. Even
the Apostle Paul said, “When I would do good, evil is present with me.”
(Romans 7:21)
God gives gifts according to His purpose. (I Cor. 12:6ff). Every
gift has a downside. God called David to be a man of war, to kill Philistines,
and to consolidate the nation of Israel. David was very good at it; but it made
him unqualified to build the temple at Jerusalem (1Chron. 28:3,4).
Squeamish People May Do Great Harm
The man with one talent hid it in the ground because he was afraid
he would get into trouble for not using the talent to perfection (Matt. 25).
Many people fritter away their whole lives wishing for perfection, doing
nothing for fear of messing up their clean stable. Every great man who ever
lived--in the church or in the state-- had people who carped and complained
because he was not perfect enough to suit their tastes.
Your author has taught school all his life, and has lived long enough to see how many students have turned out. I have learned that it is usually, with rare exceptions, impossible to tell what a person is truly made of by observing him in grade school, or high school.
Some students cause trouble and are hard to teach because they have confidence in their opinions and desires. Those who teach them must be prepared to shovel a lot, but the strength of the ox is there and will accomplish much in God's kingdom. On the other hand, some students may cause no trouble because they lack confidence and simply desire to please.
The same is true in Christian ministers.
Strong men often have glaring faults that may embarrass those who do
not like to get their hand dirty.
Sometimes faithful ministers who preach the word and labor tirelessly in
the kingdom of God are slandered because they do not come up to some
perfectionist standard. Some people seem to delight in nosing around until they
find something that offends their overly sensitive noses. Then they rejoice as if they had discovered
something new in the world. Such people would have been terribly uncomfortable
around men like Luther, Calvin, or Knox. Israel put the blood on the doorposts
of their homes--it must have made a mess of their doors. (Ex. 12:22)
Does this mean that we approve of manure? By no means. It simply
means that we are realists, and recognize that no men are perfect; that all
have faults and failures. It also means that we recognize that we can obtain a
clean barn in only two ways: by getting rid of the oxen and getting nothing
done; or by doing a lot of shoveling.
It is unfortunate that some modern translations miss the point of
this verse. The word “clean” does not mean “empty” in any other place that it
is used in the Bible. In Job. 11:4 it
stands for doctrine that is “clean” or pure in God's sight; in Psalm 73:1 it is
used for a “clean” heart; in Ps. 19:8 it says that the commandments of the Lord
are “pure”: the loved one of Song of Solomon 6:9 is “choice.” In this place to
say the “manger is empty” is to take a secondary meaning, and to miss the main
teaching of the verse.
On this verse the great expositor Matthew Henry says, “Where no oxen are, to till the ground and tread out the corn, the crib is empty, is clean; there is no straw for the cattle, and consequently no bread for the service of man. The crib indeed is clean from dung, which pleases the neat and nice, that cannot endure husbandry because there is so much dirty work in it, and therefore will sell their oxen to keep the crib clean.”
The Pharisees could not tell a gnat from a camel, or a mote from a
two-by-four. It is no fun to have a gnat in your throat, but a wise man knows
it is not a camel. A mote in the eye may feel like a two-by-four unless you
have had a two-by-four in your eye; then you might know the difference. The
Pharisees had no judgment, no valid rule of measure to distinguish between
great and little things. What was worse, they thought God was as trivial as
they were. You can almost hear them say, “Well, sin is sin,” leaving the
impression that they had a more finely tuned sense of sin than lesser mortals.
They did not understand when Jesus said for them to pay more attention to the
“weightier” matters of the law (Matt. 23:23).
It is true that men before God are either justified in Christ or
are yet in their sins and rebellion. But a child of God does not sin as an
unbeliever does (Deut. 32:5), and even the sins of unbelievers are not all
equal. Sins are not all equal in God's
eyes, and must not be esteemed so in ours, for wise men must discern between
gnats and camels. As the Westminster Larger Catechism says,
“Q. 150. Are all transgressions of the law of God equally
heinous in themselves, an in the sight of God?
A. All transgressions of
the law of God are not equally heinous; but some sins in themselves, and by
reason of several aggravations, are more heinous in the sight of God than
others.”
The Scripture evidences are John 19:11; Ez. 8:6,13,15; 1John 5:16; Ps.
78:17, 32, 56; Luke 12:47; I Sam. 2:25; Heb. 2:2,8; Heb. 10:29; Matt. 12:81 and
many others.
The effect of equalizing all sins is not to make us abhor small
sins. It causes us to trivialize great
ones. We strain at gnats, and swallow
camels.
Mail:
Pastor C. W. Powell
Trinity Covenant Church (R.C.U.S.)
6050 Del Paz Drive
Colorado Springs, CO 80918
719-590-1477
Trinity
Covenant Church Website
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