Babies, bathwater, and the Church
Don’t throw out the baby with the bath water!
We’ve all heard this old saying. But did you know that this proverb was applied to the church as far back as 1526 by Martin Luther himself?1
I was reminded of that during my Bible time as I read the story of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments. In Exodus 31:18 we see God giving Moses tablets of stone containing His instructions. Meanwhile, the people had gotten tired of waiting for Moses to come down from the mountain and had pestered Aaron so much to build an idol for them that he caved in to public demand and did as they asked. When Moses came down from the mountain, he was furious. So furious, in fact, that he ground up the golden calf and put it in the water supply so people would drink it.
It makes sense to get upset about things that are wrong, doesn’t it? The issue is how we handle that anger. As Moses came down from the mountain, Exodus 32:15 says, “He held in his hands the two stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back.16 These tablets were God’s work; the words on them were written by God himself.”
Moses is carrying something the likes of which had never been seen on earth! He had been in the very presence of God and seen God inscribe these tablets. Spend a minute letting it sink in just how incredible were the tablets in his hands. The kind of thing that would be revered as long as humans had breath!
19 When they came near the camp, Moses saw the calf and the dancing, and he burned with anger. He threw the stone tablets to the ground, smashing them at the foot of the mountain.
Sure it’s understandable that Moses was angry. But in his anger, and in his haste to fix the situation, Moses destroyed something unspeakably sacred. When we do that, God is under no obligation to restore what we destroyed. In this case He did, but notice the difference we see in Exodus 34:
1 Then the Lord told Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones. I will write on them the same words that were on the tablets you smashed.
The first time, God created the tablets. The second time, necessary only because Moses threw out the good with the bad, Moses had to chisel out the tablets himself. His job became harder because he allowed his anger to overwhelm the sacred things he was carrying.
I see two applications for this lesson that are highly relevant today. First, there are many calls for reformation in the church these days. Emerging church, missional church, externally focused church, organic church… all attempts to correct things that have gone wrong. Fair enough. But in our zeal to address what is wrong, let us be very, very careful not to destroy something that is sacred in the process. Let us be careful to treat the Church as the Bride of Christ, radiant in her glory.
Second, Acts 2 speaks of a time when Christ’s followers were admired by the people and many were being saved as a result. The key characteristics of the Christians were generosity, joy, sharing with those in need, and praising God. Today the admiration of Christ’s followers in the U.S. is arguably at the lowest point in the country’s history. Many would say that the key characteristics of Christians are anger, judgmentalism, and hypocrisy. No doubt some of this is due to the media’s desire to pounce on anything that feeds that image—but they don’t have any trouble finding examples to highlight.
In our anger over the things that are wrong, let us not destroy something that is utterly sacred. We would do well to imagine ourselves carrying two stone tablets at all times; each containing one of Jesus’ words to His followers:
John 15:12 “This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.”
John 13:35 “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
As we feel anger for the things that are wrong in our world, let us not destroy the tablets of love.
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1Quoted from D. Martin Luthers Werke, ed. by Paul Pietsch. Weimar: Hermann Böhlau, 1898, vol. 20, p. 160. See also James Cornette, Proverbs and Proverbial Expressions in the German Works of Martin Luther. Diss. University of North Carolina, 1942, p. 157.
