faithfulness

So, we're studying Judges, as I mentioned.

One of its recurring themes is that the Israelites kept forgetting God and being unfaithful - and he kept sending leaders to bring them back to the truth. The "obvious" application is that we too must beware being unfaithful to the truth. I made that conclusion dissolve in my Powerpoint, replaced by a caption saying "we are not Bronze-age hill-fort dwellers". But it deserves attention.

And yet, what does faithfulness entail? Behaving with 50s morality? Holding Victorian attitudes? Is faithfulness all about condemning stuff? The Israelites were condemned for adopting the lifestyle - including the worship - of those around them. And elsewhere we read that

friendship with the world means enmity against God

The call to faithfulness is a call to distinctiveness.

But that's simplistic. Where's the Christlike-ness in condemning people whom you haven't tried to understand? In which ways should we be distinctive? With poor poetry and worse music? With an isolationist stance which spreads neither salt nor light in our communities? By ignoring research in history, archeology, biology, psychology? By saying that the old ways were better?

No, of course not. The Israelites' failure to be faithful was expressed in the fact that they did evil in the sight of God. How do we tell good from evil? By its fruit, perhaps? What kind of fruit does God look for? Good news for the poor? Freedom for the prisoners? Recovery of sight for the blind? Release for the oppressed? The proclamation of the Lord's favour? The idea of putting this into practice seems alarmingly alien to Christian ears, if I'm honest.

God is faithful: how are we doing with the faithfulness thing?