The Pious Bias

Pastor Pat Duffin

There is a tendency amongst Christians to minimize the humanity of great Bible characters and exalt them to some kind of elevated status. This same thinking tends to place other spiritual people, such as leaders, on pedestals as examples of how we ought to be, but know we can never be. However, the Bible makes no such assumptions about the perfection of special men and women. Great people of faith are truthfully portrayed with all their warts and wrinkles, so that they are revealed to be people just like us. True, these were people of great spirituality and they experienced exceptional encounters with God, but that does not change the fact they were human to the core and therefore subject to similar frailties, faults and failures with which we also struggle. James, the Lord’s brother, tells us that Elijah, was a mere man just like us, yet his prayers were powerful because he learned to operate in the realm of faith (James 5:16-8). Some Bible heroes failed spectacularly. They experienced egregious moral and spiritual catastrophes. David’s adultery with Bathsheba, followed by the cynical murder of a just man to cover up their blatant sin, has no equal. Yet, David found forgiveness and restoration with God such that God even called David a man after His own heart because of his devotion to God. (Acts 13:22) The dysfunctional family of Isaac is a classic case study in family dynamics (Genesis 25 and 27). Intense sibling rivalry fueled by the favouritism of a doting father; a traitorous, manipulative wife; a base and ungrateful son who despised his birthright; and a conniving younger son who coldly defrauded both his father and his brother; all contribute to a volatile mix that could easily form the basis of a modern soap opera with all the contemporary drama of the Sopranos. Yet, Isaac and Jacob became the patriarchal foundations of Israel. Other inconsistencies of character are demonstrated in the New Testament. Peter walked on water, but denied Christ three times. Mark abandoned Paul in the midst of a missionary journey (Acts 15:37-39), but was later used of God to write the Gospel of Mark. Most touchingly, we have Paul imprisoned and awaiting Caesar’s judgment. While sitting in chains, Paul laments that another fellow worker in the Gospel, named Demas, has also abandoned him “...because he loved this world, has deserted me.” Then, without pausing for breath, Paul asks Timothy to visit him in Rome and to bring with him the same Mark who had earlier deserted him (2 Timothy 4:9-11). How poignant! How ironic! How healing! I love the story of these two deserters, Mark and Demas, because they clearly demonstrate the operative principle found throughout all the above biblical illustrations. It’s not how you start, but how you finish that counts. Mark started badly but finished grandly. Demas started grandly but finished badly. Watch out for strong starts and weak finishes. A rough start does not mean it has to stay that way. In these truths there is great comfort and encouragement for our own faith walk. With the exception of Demas, every one of these men are commended in the Bible as great men of faith. Yet they were also made of clay. They were made of the same substance from which you and I are made. Even so, their inconsistencies were not enough to hinder God’s work in their lives. They were great men of God, not because they were special, or different, from the rest of us, but because they chose to walk a closer walk with God — however unsteady their gate. Rather than go their own way, they consistently invited God into their lives. When they fell they got back up and continued with God. When they turned aside and went astray, they turned back and started over - always knowing that they themselves did not possess the internal resources to live their lives as God had called them to live, which explains why they continually looked to God for the strength to carry on. Our tendency to place human beings on pedestals is to our own detriment. One might call it “The Pious Bias.” The Pious Bias is our tendency to elevate biblical characters, or contemporary spiritual leaders to a level far above our own performance, and far above what we would expect of anyone else, knowing man’s nature. It persuades us we could never rise to their level of spirituality. It convinces us that they are special and we are not, so we are therefore excused from even trying because we are not like they. The Pious Bias also makes us vulnerable when someone we regard in high esteem falls from the lofty pedestal to which we have assigned them. Many souls have shipwrecked their faith on the ruins of some spiritual leader’s sullied testimony. A guest speaker once told our freshman class that we could not survive in the ministry without a healthy appreciation for the depravity of man. “Everyone will disappoint you at some time or other,” he said. His words have proved to be wise counsel, indeed! His advice has taught me to always hope for the best in people, yet not to be shaken when they fail. In the words of the Apostle Paul: “(Love) always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails!” (1 Corinthians 13:7-8) This advice has freed me from false expectations of myself, as well as of others, and has loaned me the currency to personally fail and then get right back up and keep on going. The Pious Bias has one final snare. If God plays favourites, it follows that average people must be outside the circle of God’s ‘holy huddle’. They are the outsiders looking in at the privileged few. Therefore, it seems there’s not much chance of our relationship with God going further than what we have already experienced. So, the Pious Bias is a misconception we must avoid. We need to remember that God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34), that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). All are called to repentance and right relationship with God (Acts 17:30), and that we all have equal opportunity to know and experience God to the very fullest. All we need to do is choose to exercise the opportunity God provides. To this end we must also realize we can only do so on His terms rather than our own. We must be willing to meet those terms rather than insist that God do things our way. Therefore, let us not allow the Pious Bias to derail our proper understanding of God, ourselves, or others — including those spiritual giants we so much admire.