Here is another '3-fold' concept that relates to our honour/shame research that will hopefully help you see some further implications of what we are discovering....
Head, Heart, Hands
This is a threesome that is often linked with ensuring that Biblical Application is complete and thorough.
Jackson Wu recently had something to say about this in his blog and I want to quote what he said:
Every single thing we ever do in our life follows the certain sequence, whether we are talking about getting married or going to the bathroom. Our actions are born out of the same process, one that can never be skipped.
- First, we have a thought or idea (whether it be true, false, conscious, or unconscious).
- Second, we have some sort of heart or volitional response to that idea.
- Third, the head and heart then produce in us an action expressing that idea and want.
That's the way God made us; it's inescapable. Why does this matter? I'll briefly mention a few reasons.
1. If we skip immediately to actions (as if that were the only true meaning of "application"), then we will inevitably have to motivate those actions with something else.
However, that idea in the head or desire in the heart may not be all that pure and holy. Actions that appear godly may in fact be motivated by the ambition to people-please or get some other benefit. Mere external conformity to a standard can hardly be considered the obedience God wills for our lives.
Basically, it is all too common to focus on one kind of the fruit to the neglect of other types (i.e. love, joy, peace, patience,….)
2. What you look for will greatly affect what you find.
If we insist that application is "really" about our hands (rather than head and heart), then we will overlook countless texts with their implied applications for our lives. In other words, we will only obey (apply) a small fragment of the Bible and ignore the rest. What we look for greatly influences what we find. We need to be aware of this dynamic; otherwise, we will misinterpret and misuse a lot of of Scripture. We will skip major portions of the Bible.
He carries on in his next blog...but the points he makes here are extremely important especially in an honour/shame cultural context. You see, in that context, the 'what to do' totally consumes a person's mind. The whole culture is about 'doing' what is acceptable and carefully copying the actions of elders so as to be acceptable. Asking questions as to 'why' and considering 'how to think' is an almost foreign concept. So when a person becomes a Christian, and they just begin to 'copy' the church elders or find out 'what to do' to be acceptable, if proper head/heart/hands discipleship isn't taking place, the 'right' actions are performed from very 'wrong' motives. Conforming to an outward pattern is not God's goal for us. Following a ritual without understanding and responding to the reality behind it will ultimately leave us empty, fruitless, dry and victory-less. (Currently in our home during the week we have a group of young people going through a video series by Charles Price (Living Truth) on this very thing called "Maintaining Spiritual Reality", looking at the book of 1 Samuel....and they are being greatly challenged at the heart-motive and mind-thoughts level - PTL)
We have to remember that behaviour is the fruit not the root! Just trying to change the fruit will ultimately be unsuccessful. The condition of the roots is what determines the quality of the fruit. The mouth speaks out of the heart, so even if we give the mouth some new words to 'say' for now, sooner or later what has been in the heart will still emerge. (Luke 6:45) It's how we are WIRED - Worldview, values Internally Respected, behaviour Externally Delivered.
His second point is also worth considering in the light of how much of Scripture is profoundly dealing with the concepts of honour and shame, yet those of us in a 'guilt-based' and 'law-emphasis' Western context can all too easily look for the 'rule to obey' and not look any further. We all too easily totally miss all that Scripture has to say about honour/shame because we aren't even looking for it. We will never find it if we aren't looking for it. And we won't look for it, if we have never been awakened to its reality in our lives, let alone the reality of it in relation to the lives of those immersed in an honour/shame culture.
So, join me in the prayer of : 1 - 2 - 3 "Let - Me - See" - clearly rather than through cultural and 'traditional' tinted 'sunglasses'! ....... for we need the Lord to help us to see the fulness of the meaning of His word and how He wants to make us more like Jesus, in thought, motive and action, so that we don't just see external 'behaviour change', but worldview replacement and a total re-orientaion of internal values!
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