The Everlasting Plumbline

“And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?” – Jonah 4:11

Utilitarianism is the ideal that if it works, its good.  If it is useful, then it’s right.  The world is has embraced this theology as its operating principle, but is it meet for Christians?  In the church, can we really measure ourselves by results?

God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh and cry against it.  Immediately, he turns and runs for the uttermost part of the world; only to be swallowed by a great fish.  It took three days but he finally got to the place where he was willing to go to Nineveh; he went, preached, and his one message saved the city.  In the natural realm, growth and progress are measured from a bottom line stand point.  Your business is measured by profit, education is measured by GPA; granted, there are some things that are more subjective, but give us enough time and we will find a measurement for just about anything you can see, touch, or feel.  By living in this world we become conditioned to this world, and if we are not careful, it can influence us to measure spiritual things in the same way.  In the church we can become conditioned to think that if we had thirty people in Sunday school this Sunday and twenty people last Sunday than we grew by ten people.  We can be tempted to believe that because only a dozen folks show up to Sunday service, or Wednesday night Bible study, there is something wrong.  A careful examination of the scriptures will reveal that with God, utilitarian religion is no religion.  Noah was a preacher of righteousness and the only man on Earth who found favor with God.  He preached his whole life and saved eight people.  Jeremiah spent his whole life preaching to stubborn Jews, and the only one who he found favor with was God.  The Son of God spent three years doing nothing but preaching; at his death there was not one convert who stood by him.  Jonah was called by God and he ran for the furthest corner of the Earth, repented, and then went to Nineveh to preach one sermon that saved the whole city.  Utilitarian religion says that Jonah’s example is better than Noah’s, better then Jeremiah’s, better than Jesus Christ.  Utilitarian religion and bottom line progress teaches us that any means is justified by the end.  It is as if we say “Whatever the cost!  As long as the numbers go up, where do I sign?”  If you’re looking for answers with a results mindset, you’re looking in the wrong place.  The reason utilitarian religion is no religion at all is because it is all for the benefit of the majority, and what the majority wants may not be what God wants!  God said “and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city…?”  He was trying to show Jonah that the results are in His hands and it is not for you to labor toward that end, but rather labor to the end that you might please God, and glorify His name.

This is the everlasting plumbline to which we should measure everything by.  It is no surprise that it is the same plumbline that Christ measured himself by; the will of God.  Jesus said “I do always those things that please Him.”  To do always the will of God is to live with the focus to please God, to glorify God.  Does your: business, personal life, church, fellowship, etc. glorify God?  Does it please him?  If it does, then it is profitable.  Your business may be bankrupt, home foreclosed on, church weaning in numbers, but if you are living your life to please God, then take courage: you are in good company!  You are in the preaching of Noah, you are akin to Jeremiah, you’re living with the same focus as your Savior.  You may not have utilitarian religion, but you have real religion; and real religion is what the world needs.