Context Is Key

Excerpt taken from The Jesus Method: A Reliable Approach to Navigating Today’s Urgent Social Issues by Ted Bryant

Chapter 1
Context is Key

As we were coming out of the pandemic, I was spending a lot of time considering what it meant to help lead the church in our present times. It seemed like there were constant moving targets on what to address and what to leave alone. I desperately wanted to know the real, practical application of bringing the kingdom of God to Earth, right in the middle of the social dilemmas that surrounded us. That brought me to Jesus. Of course it did; I’m a Christian. But seriously, he was the best at navigating decisions like this. Adversaries often thought that they had Jesus backed into some sort of philosophical corner, and then he would brilliantly execute an unfathomable escape. He’s like the Houdini of social dilemma traps. He wasn’t just a teacher who offered insights for further thinking, he wasn’t only an emotional catalyst, and he wasn’t only someone who did a bunch of random acts of kindness. His goal wasn’t only to make people feel good about themselves or to have everyone simply think positive. Jesus modeled perfectly what it looked like to love God with all his heart, all his mind, all his soul, and all his strength. He was the full representation of God the Father (John 14:9).

In this book, we are going to follow Jesus into the messiest social dilemmas that he faced, and here’s our one goal: to learn the Jesus Method. How did he navigate all those tense situations without sinning, and what can we do to follow his method in our own social dilemmas? Whether it’s politics, the economy, health care, sexuality, beginning of life, ending of a life, gender, social injustice, equality—you name it—there are plenty of social dilemmas in our culture to choose from. I’m not here to judge which ones are more important to discuss than others; I simply want us to learn the Jesus Method and then apply that in our own lives.

As I look at the world around us, it doesn’t seem like we’re trending toward peace and loving each other the way that Jesus loved. So many heated arguments, divisive posts, and claims of truth are swirling around. We crave to know what’s right and what’s wrong so that we can persevere through it all. We might even want to stand up for God or at least not appear to be ashamed of God (Luke 9:26). When Christians start to talk about all these hot topics, it often leads people to a passionate reaction like this:

I know what’s coming—we’re going to talk about all the theological stances that we should have, and it doesn’t matter how people are affected by that. It doesn’t matter what division or anger that’s going to cause. It’s the truth, and they just have to deal with it. If people get angry, fine! They don’t belong with us anyway. If they’re hurt, well, the truth hurts sometimes. That’s just the way the world is!

That’s where I want step in and say, “Exactly!” That’s exactly the way the world is.

Since I’m following Jesus, I’m called to a radically different way than “the world,” where cultural trends of truth lead us away from God. I’m called to only be in this world, not of this world (John 17:14–16). “That’s just the way the world is” should never qualify as a justification for my reactions in social dilemmas.

Many in the Western church are trending toward a tragic trajectory. We are becoming comfortable with alienating, discarding, and even celebrating separation from the exact people that Christians were meant to reach with the love and grace of God. There is an energetic movement to discourage the very people whom Jesus came to save. He gave his life for the sick, the lost, those who have really messed up, the ones who people think have done the most wrong. In contrast, Jesus was upset with the ones who were so puffed up with pride that they thought they were always correct, full of their own rightness and winning at any cost (Luke 5:31–32). I’ve been there, and I’m not proud of those prideful days. I want to win—yes—but to gain true life, Jesus says I must lose my own self-centered life (Mark 8:35).

Basically, this wayward approach that is plaguing the Western church is to say that what is right and wrong is most important, but how we talk about right and wrong doesn’t really matter. This overemphasis on the what reflects our current culture, and those who’ve grown up in the Western world have all been trained in it. It sounds like this: knowing what is right and wrong is way more important than how we communicate it. From schools, to standardized tests, to board exams and dissertations, the right information and answers are by far more vital to our culture than the process we use to get there. “Showing your work” on your assignments often seems to be more of a check to make sure you’re not cheating than it is to evaluate correct methodology. Of course, exceptions exist, but generally speaking, the cultural value resides in the what, not the how. Having the correct information (what) seems to outweigh engaging the correct process (how) almost every time.

And here lies the problem for the Christian: such an overemphasis on the what is not the method Jesus modeled. If we really want to live from a biblical worldview, we must follow Jesus not just in what he said, but in how he said it. As we read through the four Gospels, we see Jesus strategically navigating discussions about the what depending on differing levels of relationship that he had with people. Jesus’s brilliance about how to communicate led to different topics being discussed in corresponding contexts. Jesus demonstrated over and over that effective communication is not just what you say, but what is heard, and what someone hears is greatly affected by how you communicate it.

If we really want to live from a biblical worldview, we must follow Jesus not just in what he said, but in how he said it.

Jesus is the Christian standard. As Christians, we must never become complacent about how Jesus modeled God’s truth. We cannot ignore how he navigated social dilemmas. I believe we need to be equipped not just in what we know of God’s Word but in how we apply his Word. If we ignore the way Jesus communicated, we are throwing away a huge component of what made Jesus such an incredible teacher and leader. We would be dismissing a part of who he is because he is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).

Now, John 14:6 might be a verse you’ve heard before, but let’s pause for a moment and think about it more deeply. This verse means that truth is not just information, facts, or rules to follow. Truth is a person—Jesus. Truth is not a list of rights and wrongs to tell others about. Truth is a person to introduce others to. That massively changes things, doesn’t it? That means that when I’m speaking truth to someone, I actually should be talking about a person who wants a relationship, not just to know what is right or wrong. The way Jesus embodied truth is both what and how. He emphasized this to his disciples as the main identifier of following him: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34–35 ESV).

This is the harder path, the messier middle, and it will require us to depend on God in walking his way through social dilemmas.

I know that even as I’m writing this, you or someone you may know could be thinking, See, there he goes. He’s just going to avoid the hard issues—so weak. If you really believe something, you shout it as loud as you can! You make your best argument for that truth, and let the chips fall as they may—let the people fall as they may.

Here’s the deal: I’m unwilling to prematurely let people “fall as they may.” I love the church too much! I love my neighbors too much! I love people who are lost and broken too much. I know that at some point, people must make their own choices, and no one can do that for them. I get that, and it often breaks my heart. Choices are sacred because they set a direction that leads to a destination, and that destination has eternal consequences. No one knew this better than Jesus, and yet he was wholeheartedly committed to giving everyone the opportunity to choose him. He invited people into his love not just through what he said but how he said it, not just what he did but how he did it. That’s all I’m trying to get at. Listen, what is right and wrong is still very important, but if we want to take obeying Jesus seriously, we also must follow how Jesus modeled right and wrong.

Choices are sacred because they set a direction that leads to a destination, and that destination has eternal consequences.

This is the way of Jesus. So many of the people in Jesus’s day who seemed to be trapped in sin the most absolutely loved hanging out with him. They didn’t feel bullied by him or condemned by him. They didn’t sense his wrath of retaliation as he contended for the faith. Not at all. They felt seen by him, heard by him, saved, and chosen by him. Their experience of Jesus was so much more than the what. It was the how. This is troubling because it seems vastly different from people’s experience with Christians today. If Jesus is our model, we are to imitate him in every way.

In light of all of this, I want to be very clear. We’re going to be journeying through how exactly to approach social dilemmas. This is a pertinent topic for all of us, and I believe God has much to say about it. We want and need to be equipped to enter every day into social dilemma conversations with a new ability to dialogue with our friends, classmates, roommates, coworkers, kids, girlfriend or boyfriend, and spouse about the way of Jesus.

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