What's That Stench? Part 1: Even the Righteous Man Sins

The pastors and teachers with whom the Lord has graciously gifted His people, have long recognized Noah's Ark as a symbol of The Church. By faith, we, like Noah, enter that door and are closed safely inside as we pass through the waters to deliverance. Thanks be to God.

But think about it for a moment. For Noah and company, what must it have been like to be shut up for months with a host of animals and with one another, with no escape or respite? Imagine the constant labor to meet all the needs, and then...imagine the stench that must have permeated the place!

So it is inside the ark of The Church. Here we are...shut up together and forced to endure the resulting stench! Remember all those OT references to bodily "issues" which make a man unclean? Ultimately these laws teach us that whatever comes from within a man - that is, from his heart - is unclean. Just as the sight and smell of those bodily issues are repulsive, so is the uncleanness which proceeds from our hearts.

When we consider that individual reality, then multiply it for every occupant of this ship, we have a sense of the corporate, cumulative effect inside the Ark/Church...and it can be staggeringly disgusting.

But wait! Hasn't the one who has been received into the Church been washed and made clean? Has not his heart been transformed and renewed? Indeed it has! But remember that even our righteous deeds are like filthy rags and King Solomon tells us that one of the great mysteries of life is that even the man who has been made righteous, sins!

In Ecclesiastes, Solomon speaks of this mystery as one of the great unsolvable dilemmas of life under the sun. "You cannot find it out." In our desperate struggle to understand this enigma, we will be as frustrated as if we were attempting to "corral the wind". Pastor Jeff Meyers, in his commentary on Ecclesiastes, says this, "Like Solomon, the wise person knows the depravity of man - both his own and others - and learns to live in terms of it. That is the sort of know-how that wisdom brings: the ability to live in a world of sinners, but living in such a world is not the same as being able to explain or comprehend sinful human nature. Even those known as righteous will sin. On some occasions, a righteous man will fail. We cannot afford to forget that there are limitations on all men and women. No one is perfectly wise. All sin.

"The wise man has discovered the ineradicable sinfulness of man and he has learned to deal with people in the light of this truth. Too often, we live in a dream world. We are surprised to discover that someone we love and respect is a sinner. He or she fails us. It may be our husband or wife, our elder or pastor, our good friend or neighbor. Sooner or later you will discover that he, like you, is a sinner. He will fail you. He will surprise you." (Table in the Mist, J.J. Meyers)
In Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer also reminds us: "The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner. So everybody must conceal his sin from himself and from the fellowship. We dare not be sinners. Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous." Upon entering the Christian community, he says, "we surely must be overwhelmed by a great disillusionment with others, with Christians in general, and, if we are fortunate, with ourselves. The sooner this shock of disillusionment comes to an individual and to a community, the better."
So...what IS that stench? It's you and me, living side-by-side, sinning in front of and against one another and stinkin' up the place. We might as well get used to it. But HOW do we learn to live in that reality without being continually discouraged and disappointed by the paltry Image of Christ in our brothers? How do we live with the disillusionment and pain caused by these sinners among us?
Next time...