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LEARNING A LESSON FROM LINUS

Clear back in 1966, a theological book came out that promised to shake the very foundations of the Christian faith. It was entitled The Gospel According to Peanuts, by Robert Short, and there was a great big picture of Charlie Brown right on the cover. I’m really not speaking tongue in cheek, because on the BACK cover, a review by The Young Calvinist wrote in all seriousness:

“This could be one of the most important Christian books published in our time.”

Mr. Short dedicated the book to his parents, observing that in raising him and his siblings, they had truly “acquired real appreciation for the full meaning of ‘Good grief!’”

Chapter five of Ephesians is where we want to go for our Thursday study, but first, along with Charlie Brown and Snoopy and Schroeder, let’s spend just a moment in Mr. Short’s book, chapter three, which is entitled “The Wages of Sin is ‘Aaaughh!’” We’re reminded of how Linus has spent these many years now dragging that blanket around. Which, according to the cartoonist, Charles Schulz, is “a symbol of things we cling to.” You have yours and I have mine. We all notice that the expression “security blanket” has even found its way into our dictionaries. But there’s a problem in the Van Pelt house. Linus and Lucy have a blanket-hating grandma who is coming for an extended visit. Lucy: “She believes children should be taught self-denial; she believes in discipline; she believes in moral fiber.” And a hyperventilating Linus, already anticipating the deprivation, and looking around for any kind of nicotine patch he can wear, sourly retorts: “She believes in butting into other people’s business!!” When the grandma arrives, she tries to wrestle the blanket from Linus and rescue him from his co-dependency, whereupon he cleverly reminds her that she’s addicted to 32 cups of coffee a day.

Well, it’s delightful reading, and we’re so thankful that a copy of this beautiful little book just arrived here at the Voice of Prophecy after years of hiding in an attic. But we want to think today about the fact that many of us are addicted to some form of blanket or another. We confess, along with Linus: “Only one yard of outing flannel stands between me and a nervous breakdown!” And we know our pet sins, our addictions, are hurting us. But what can we do?

Here in Ephesians 5, Paul doesn’t write about blankets or coffee, but the sins he does discuss are very alarming. Yesterday it was sexual immorality and loose talk and greed. And now in verse five comes the rest of the story — and this is very serious. Listen:

“For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person — such a man is an idolater — has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.”

The King James puts it: “whoremonger, unclean person, covetous man, idolater.” And even if you think your security blanket has a much milder fabric design than what’s described here, it’s disquieting to read that certain types of people simply will not get past the pearly gates. And we ask: “Even if we come to Jesus? Even if we repent? Even if we invite the Holy Spirit to change us? But what if the change is too slow? What if we fall away?” Etc. Etc. These are hard questions, and they cause many Christians — people who have sat in the pew for many years and read their Bibles through — to wonder: Am I really saved? I love the Lord, but I still have covetous feelings. And sometimes impure thoughts. Most of us are probably fairly sure that we aren’t full-fledged “whoremongers,” but are we sometimes unclean? Do we have idols — in the forms of material goods or SUVs?

One thing I appreciate so much about our Discover Bible Course is how it helps people at all levels of Christian study — beginner or expert — to understand the fundamental realities of this great religion called Christianity. What comes first – faith or works? And if faith DOES come first, do works come second? And what if they don’t come second? Friend, let me tell you something. You and I need to be with the Lord for the long haul. Do covetous feelings go away the minute you come dripping wet out of the baptismal tank? We may as well ask all grooms if stray, flickering thoughts of other women end the moment you say “I do.” Of course they don’t. You and I are children of dust; we’re feeble and frail. We’re going to fall sometimes and take our eyes off Jesus. But the question is this — and simply this: Are we willing to COMMIT to Jesus and make Him first? Are we pledged to Him? Once we say “I do,” do we keep doing? Do we keep coming to Him?

Going back to Mr. Linus Van Pelt, we might observe that it is all right for him to have that blanket. Schroeder can love Beethoven. Charlie Brown can fondly dream of the day when his team finally wins a baseball game, he gets that stubborn kite up in the air, and collects a kiss from the little red-haired girl. And Snoopy, of course, has all sorts of fantasies he treasures, whether he is chasing the Red Baron through the skies in his Sopwith Camel, or playing the part of Joe Cool hanging around the student union, trying to pick up chicks. But are all these things FIRST? Do they dominate the life ahead of one’s relationship with Christ?

Let’s go back to Ephesians 5:5 and its warning that nobody who is an idolater is going to inherit God’s kingdom. In the Tyndale New Testament Commentary, Francis Foulkes takes us directly to the question of who or what is number one in our lives. Notice:

“Passion, whether for money or for sexual indulgence, is in effect putting an idol and object of desire and worship BEFORE God. To the Jew idolatry was the worst of sins, and perhaps [F. F.] Bruce is right in saying that ‘The part which the commandment against covetousness played in Paul’s own spiritual experience no doubt made him acutely aware of the special deadliness of this subtle sin.’”

You remember that in Romans 7:7 Paul admits that he’s personally struggled with the temptation of coveting. Here’s his confession:

“I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, ‘Do not covet.’”

In fact, in the King James it’s suggested that Paul grappled with lust – that was the kind of coveting he had a hard time with. So he knows what he’s writing about here. Let’s continue with that Tyndale commentary for verse 5:

“The solemn warning of judgment that is connected here with the ‘sins of the flesh,’” writes Francis Foulkes, “raises certain questions in the minds of many. Are these sins worse than all others? Is it implied that sexual sin is the unforgivable sin, that debars man irrevocably from the kingdom of God?”

It seems that way sometimes, especially in recent years, with priests and preachers only getting in trouble for pedophilia and not for pilfering or pride. Can a person be forgiven for adultery and fornication? And the answer is yes. Forgiveness AND cleansing . . . AND victory are all possible. Dr. Foulkes continues:

“Paul could tell his readers that some of them HAD been guilty of these sins once, but now they were made new, pardoned, cleansed. Indeed we cannot say that these sins are viewed in the New Testament as worse than the sins of pride and the subtler forms of self-centeredness. But neither Law nor Prophets in the Old Testament, nor Gospels nor Epistles in the New Testament, allow men to regard lightly the sins that break the bonds of marriage, destroy the sanctity of the family, and cause children to be brought to birth without parents to be responsible for their care and nurture.”

That’s a good point, isn’t it? Were the recent scandals of sexual abuse serious? Absolutely. So much was at risk. The vulnerable lives of young children were being permanently scarred. And yet Paul gives us the good news. “This is what some of you WERE,” he says triumphantly in First Corinthians 6. “But when you put Christ first in your life, when you allowed Him to do His work, then a pattern of victory emerged.” Sometimes there are setbacks. Sometimes we slip and fall. Sometimes we lapse back into embracing that security blanket, of joining Linus’s grandma in the clutches of a 32-cup caffeine high.

There’s a good observation in the New International Version text notes here in Ephesians 5, which gives all of us encouragement.

“The greedy person,” the scholars write, “wants things MORE than he wants God.” That’s really it; who’s Number One in your life? “[And he] puts THINGS in place of God, thereby committing adultery.” Then they add: “The person who PERSISTS in sexual or other kinds of greed has excluded God, who therefore excludes him from the kingdom.”

Well, friend, we certainly don’t want to end on that note. Maybe we could close instead by remembering the late, great Charles Schulz, who created all those sweet, jealous, blanket-clutching kids for these many delightful decades. Schulz himself was a dedicated Christian man who, despite the millions of dollars he made from his syndicated strip, always put the Lord Jesus Christ first. “A cartoonist must be given a chance to do his own preaching,” he once said, and he eloquently did so.

Seek ye first the kingdom of God . . .