Imperfect people doing God's will

Series: Why Should I Encounter Persecuted Christians?

I need to encounter persecuted Christians because they show us that you don't have to be perfect to do the will of God.

While living in Hong Kong, I used to make a point of having dinner with many of the Open Doors supporters worldwide who gave up some of their holiday time to take Bibles into China.
Often in the course of their travels, some of them would meet famous house church leaders like Samuel Lamb or Wang Ming Dao.
Usually over dessert they would say, rather hesitantly as if fearful of my reaction: "To be truthful, I was a bit disappointed in meeting so-and-so," and they would name the particular famous saint.
They would add something like "I thought these people would be remarkable saints, and of course they were, but they were also quite prejudiced, or rude, or had some other feature that I did not think worthy of a very spiritual leader."
Many were quite shaken by this discovery.
They assumed that persecuted Christians are "super-saints". But they aren't. It is a very unfortunate trend to idolize the persecuted.
We assume that if a Christian survives 20 years in a stinking prison cell, they are in a completely different spiritual category from ourselves. They are, of course, different in what they have experienced, but that does not necessarily make them more spiritual.
They often retain the blind spots and prejudices of their culture.
As J C Ryle once put it: "Even the best of men are only men at the best."
One couple had been visiting the Canton house church leader Samuel Lamb. He spent over 13 years in jail for his faith, and built up a house church of 1,500 members after his release, refusing to close it down despite numerous threats from the government.
But they watched with horror as he taught his listeners in church a series of utterly crackpot theories of the Second Coming, ending up by "proving" triumphantly that Eden was actually in China.
Years later, despite the best efforts of Western teachers, Samuel Lamb sticks stubbornly to his ludicrous theories. He is a great man – with a great blind spot!

Bad temper
On another occasion, I introduced a representative of the Billy Graham Association to Wang Ming Dao, surely one of the most significant figures in the Chinese church's turbulent 20th century.
This man embodied the strength of the Christian faith as he emerged from 23 years in solitary confinement still praising God. Millions of house church Christians took their inspiration from his testimony.
But Wang Ming Dao had his faults too. He became furious during the interview, refusing to meet Dr Billy Graham because he was visiting an official church also.
Said the representative afterwards: "I didn't expect him to still be so bitter about what had happened 40 years ago. That man wants revenge. But does the Scripture not say "'Vengeance is mine,' says the Lord?"
Yes, even Wang Ming Dao had his faults. He was bitter to his dying day. He could not find it in his heart to forgive those who had accused him falsely.
And if you look at his sermons, you find that he was - in the words of Li Tien En, another house church leader - "a great preacher of the law, but not nearly enough of grace."
In fact, this is quite common in Chinese house churches. Sermons often contain lists of tasks that must be performed to earn the favour of God.
This trait comes from life in a typical Chinese family, where children must earn the love of their parents, and so this gets mapped onto their relationship with God.
It is very hard for them to find and accept the embrace of the God of unconditional love.

Strange ideas
On another occasion, I was taking a distinguished Bible teacher to meet a revival leader in Lanzhou, Gansu province. The Chinese leader had seen over 50,000 people come to know the Lord through his ministry over a 10-year period.
But to our amazement, he taught that "you can only come to faith on a Sunday." He had been taught Christianity by his beloved grandmother, who believed the Lord would only listen to pleas for repentance on a Sunday.
We talked and argued about this, and eventually he threw us out, shouting: "You just hate my Granny!"
I hear now, two years later, that he has extended the "repentance period" to a Saturday as well.
He is still an extremely effective evangelist despite this chronic doctrinal obstacle he has erected to the grace of God!
The great point is this: flawed as these men were, they did the will of God mightily.
They laboured in a country that has seen the number of Christians grow from less than two million in 1978 to over 60 million today - the largest revival in the history of Christendom.
God didn't stop pouring out His Spirit because His saints were imperfect.
If persecuted Christians can teach us anything, it is that God will work through us despite our prejudices, blind spots and eccentricities. If we offer ourselves, we will be used - just as we are.
We do not have to be perfect to do God's will. Otherwise, no one could serve the Lord.
 
Other articles in this series:

• Achievement or Sacrifice?
• Stop Complaining
• Our Debt to Spiritual Ancestors
• Hope for Hard Times
• The Battle for Religious Freedom Never Ends
• Seeing the Bible through Persecuted Eyes
• Death Loses its Sting
• The Power of Song
• Simple Faith
• Key Ingredients in Hospitality
• The Beauty of Mystery
• Awakening to Struggle
• Obstacles to Instruments
• God is Not Safe
• Deliverance Comes Through Endurance