August 12, 2023

Pressure To Conform

“Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God.” John 12:42-43 (NASB)

            I remember when I came back to church. I was saved at 18, but I strayed from 18, to about 27. I became a Christian, but never learned how to live my new life in-Christ. So I struggled. This is why discipleship is so important in the life of the new Christian. It helps them to understand how to live the new life. If you are not sure what this is, see your pastor and find out how. Every church should have this available for the new convert, and those who never grew. It is the third portion of Matthew 28:19-20; the “teaching them to observe all that I commanded you,” (28:20b). In my young life, I didn’t understand much. I just attended church. My faith was superficial, and incomplete. It needed to grow, and I didn’t know how to do it without help. The rulers in this story had a new-found faith, but unfortunately theirs wasn’t real. It wasn’t “saving faith.” It was initial faith (the seed) which was choked out by the thorns (Matthew 13:7). Even demons “believe… and shudder,” (James 2:19), but they are not secure in Jesus Christ.

            “Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but…” This statement begins with some good news, but… The statement transitions from joy to sadness. The belief of the rulers was superficial, and inadequate. It would not hold in the face of pressure. Pressure from the religious leaders would overcome them. To take the side of Jesus, risked punishment which could include cutting the person from religious and social experiences. Remember, the center of life for the average Jew (including the rulers) was the temple. The temple was the center of worship and the abode of God. To be a Jew in the temple was to have the best seat in the house, outside of the priests. To be excommunicated from the temple was to be separated from God. This included all the festivals and celebrations in Jewish culture. This made the person an outcast of society as well. “To undergo such a ban would not necessarily lead to their physical death but it would be to experience a form of social death, and so there were many in the evangelist’s time who were sympathetic to Jesus’ claims but chose to remain in the synagogue and keep their form of belief secret… The Gospel’s general judgement on those who remain secret believers, however, appears to be that they are ultimately no different from unbelievers. Here the narrator draws attention to the social dimension of their inadequate belief and indicts them by attributing their fear to the fact that they loved human glory more than the glory of God.”[1]

            After I began discipleship, I learned a lot from a godly man about the Bible. One day, in my Sunday school class a question was raised about prayer. Many gave general answers. It wasn’t enough for me though. I asked, “What happens when you can’t or don’t know what to pray?” It was as if the air in the room was sucked out. How dare he? No one had answers. There was an appearance of godliness, but not much else. I later found out that many were in a group which affected pressure to conform to their standards, or how to act. One couldn’t outperform more than another. If not, they could be exempted from the large group, and become a social outcast in their own church. This is why many still conformed to the standards in place. I wanted the truth, and I sought it from God, not from mankind. Sadly these rulers let the leaders win out.

[1] Lincoln, A. T. (2005). The Gospel according to Saint John (p. 359). Continuum.