The Simple Life
Part 2 of 2 (Click here for Part 1)
2 Corinthians 11:3
By Dave Redick

"But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ." 2 Corinthians 11:3 NAS

A certain seminary campus had no gymnasium so the students often played basketball between classes at a nearby public school. The janitor at the school, an aging black man with white hair, was a Christian. As the students played ball, he would wait patiently so that he could lock up the building when they left. During this waiting period he would read his Bible.

One day one of the seminarians went up to him and asked, "What are you reading?"

The man didn’t simply reply, "The Bible." Instead he answered, "The book of Revelation."

The young student was surprised at that, given the simple appearance of this humble Christian. "Do you understand it?" he asked.

"Oh yes," the man assured him, "I understand it. It’s really very simple."

"You understand the book of Revelation? Our professors say that it is one of the hardest books of the Bible to understand. What do you think it means?"

Very quietly, the old janitor answered with this simple statement: "It means that Jesus is gonna win."

Last Sunday I brought a message that I called "The Simple Life" in which I showed you that in spite of the increasing complexity we see all around us in life and in religion, there is a beautiful simplicity in Christ that can be understood and experienced by all who are willing to accept it.

We worked from Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 11:3. Let’s look at them again this morning:

In this message I want to continue looking at this simplicity in Christ . There are at least five areas where this it can be found, the first being in the Bible’s:

I was talking to one of our elders week-before-last while I was preparing these messages and he shared with me a little statement that bears repeating. He said:

Though it may be a new thought to some, much of Jesus’ teaching is relatively simple to understand. For instance, what person with average intelligence could miss the simple meaning of the Parable of the Sower? It’s easy to visualize an ancient farmer, out in the elements, sowing his seed. Some of the seed falls on hard ground, some on shallow ground, some in weedy ground, and some on the good ground. This wasn’t the account of some futures broker wheeling and dealing commodities in the smoky office of a high-rise where few people see. It was a simple illustration taken from ordinary life, commonly seen by all. Yet it had a profound meaning that can still be recognized in our day of "sophisticated" people. It helps us understand that there are still those who don’t get the message. There are still those who jump at it but then run out of steam. There are still those who let the worries of the world crowd it out. And encouragingly, there are still those whose lives will bear fruit when they hear the message.

Then there is the story of the Prodigal Son. A young boy leaves the safety and reasonableness of his father’s home and teaching for the promise of a good time in a distant country, only to come crawling back, defeated, resources exhausted, and discover that his father still loves him.

The Parables of the Mustard Seed, the Pearl of Great Price, the Unforgiving Servant, and many others teach us wonderful things about life and living in Christ. They are not obscure theological texts that take many years of study to grasp. They are simple stories that were understood by ordinary people. And they can still be understood by ordinary people today.

Beyond the parables, there is Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, His picture of The Great Judgment in Matthew 25, and His pronouncement of the seven "Woes" on religious hypocrisy in Matthew 23. These can be read and understood by all who have ordinary reading and comprehension skills. If you can read the newspaper, you can read and understand important truths of the Bible.

Yes, there are things in God’s word that are more difficult and take concerted effort and wider knowledge. For instance, Biblical prophecy, especially that which still pertains to future events, takes knowledge of both history and previously fulfilled prophecy.

"Babes can wade and adults can swim."

If you’re new to the Bible or you have just neglected it reading, I challenge you to sit down with the book of Luke and read through it in an evening or two and see what I mean. You won’t understand it all at first, but you will learn many things. And as you do, you’ll make your next trip through the same book and other books of the Bible even more profitable as you accumulate knowledge. Many of the more difficult parts of the Bible are best interpreted by knowledge of the simpler parts.

A skeptic who still had a little caution left in his life once said, "It’s not what I don’t understand about the Bible that bothers me. It’s what I do understand."

There is enough Bible teaching on the bottom shelf, so to speak, that no one need be excluded.

Also included in the simplicity in Christ is:

When people came to understand the gospel message in the New Testament, that is, they heard the message(1) - that they were lost because of their sins and that God had provided the only way of salvation through Christ(2) - they either accepted it in faith, or they rejected it in disbelief.(3) If they accepted it in faith, they were expected to confess their faith in the presence of others, that is, to confess that they believed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God.(4) They were also told to repent, that is, to make the decision to turn away from a life of sin and turn toward God.(5) These repentant believers were then baptized in water to have their sin forgiven.(6) Baptism was required for salvation.(7) It was the beginning point of the new life in Christ.(8) After this beginning, believers were expected to continue on as Christians,(9) growing in faith, understanding,(10) and service to God and others.(11)

People understood these things. There was no debate about them. Everyone responded to the same message in the same way.

It wasn’t until later, after the New Testament era, that there was large scale drifting away from the simplicity of this teaching.(12) To be sure, some of the drifting had started, even while the apostles were alive,(13) but they were still there to correct it. In fact, knowing that they did correct it is further proof that they intended it not to be changed.

I maintain that responding to the gospel is still so simple that an ordinary person can understand it and obey it. You can know, without a shred of doubt, what you need to do to be saved by looking at the Bible yourself - and more specifically, the New Testament.

Sometimes, when people have a healthy skepticism to what I teach them, I like to suggest that they do one of two exercises. The first is that they get their own copy of the New Testament in one of the major translations and read through the book of Acts, writing down what people did or were told to do in order to be saved and have their sin forgiven.

Why start in Acts? Because that’s where the gospel message started spreading. We see it in action rather than in theory. Acts 2 describes the beginning of the church. The rest of the book covers the first thirty or so years of the church when it was still under the direction of living apostles of Christ. You can read about what they did and how they did it. Then you can compare that to some of the things said and done today and ascertain what is right and what is wrong. You don’t have to depend on someone else’s evaluation. You can learn it for yourself. It’s really that simple.

The second exercise I like to suggest for people who want to learn it for themselves is that they buy or borrow a good concordance. One of the new electronic Bible concordances is even better. Once they have one of these, I suggest that they look up the words "salvation," "saved," and "save" and write down what the New Testament says is necessary to get into that condition. I caution them to read the verses in their context (what is above and below) so they don’t misuse them. Then I have them write down the results of their study. by doing this they learn what they need to do to be saved.

It really is a simple plan of salvation.

Continuing on with this theme of simplicity in Christ that Paul spoke of, we also find that the New Testament contains:

You’ll find very few of the modern trappings of what is considered "worship" today as you read the New Testament. The early Christians didn’t have to have the kinds of things that are so often considered essential today. Jesus’ instruction was clear: "For where two or three have gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst."(14) According to Acts 2:42, those in the early church were "continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." Those four items served as the basis for what they did together.

Each Sunday when we gather here,(15) we try to do the same.(16) We know since it was approved then, God will approve it today. We engage in the apostles’ teaching when we read and study the New Testament. We enjoy fellowship as we share in conversation and singing.(17) We break bread in the observance of the Lord’s Supper.(18) We pray both together and as individuals. We also give of our means when we gather together, just as the early church did.(19)

Some think that such simplicity in worship is undesirable at the least and downright boring and even loathsome at the most. They want to add things – and they do. Intentions are usually good, but gradually, unless care is exercised, emphasis can shift from worship to entertainment – from God as the focus, to man. Why? Because true worship is hard work for an unspiritual person. Thus, preaching and teaching are minimized or replaced. Communion is moved to a back room someplace or to another day or ignored entirely except on major occasions. Congregational singing is replaced by concerts that focus on top notch entertainment at the expense of involvement by the ordinary person.

In 1 Corinthians 11:20, Paul said to the Corinthian church, "When you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper…." If you read Paul’s words in their context there, you learn that when the Corinthians met together they were supposed to eat the Lord’s Supper. And to their credit, they were engaging in something that resembled the Lord’s Supper in some ways. However, they had perverted its practice and meaning so much that what they were now doing, according to Paul, was no longer the Lord’s Supper. It had changed so much that it was not what it was supposed to be. And it was killing them spiritually! Paul said, "For this reason many among you are weak and sick and a number sleep."(20) A reasonable question to consider when studying this passage is this: "How far could the Corinthians go in changing the Lord’s Supper until it not longer was the Lord’s supper?"

And here is another question to consider: How far can we go away from the simple elements of New Testament worship until God says, if effect, "When you meet together, it is no longer worship"?

Perhaps I’m going too far and putting words into God’s mouth. So instead of that, allow me to just quote something Jesus’ said about worship. Dealing with the Scribes and Pharisees who were famous for complicating the simple commands of God’s word by adding things to them, He said this in Mark 7:6-7:

If you were a teacher of God’s word and you read Jesus’ words here in Mark about vain worship and the commandments of men, would you feel constrained to say something about them? I do. When you add things to the original teachings of Christ and the apostles, you run the risk of invalidating worship.

God is the ultimate judge of what He accepts as worship. The only guidance we have is what is in Scripture.

Again, when speaking of the simple things in Christ, we also see in the New Testament:

I don’t have time to do adequate justice to this topic so let me just say a few things to spur your thinking.

Few people today are concerned about how the church is governed. They just want to come in, participate in the worship, and leave. Further, few people have any idea of where the church came from or where it has been, so they have no gauge with which to measure where it is now or where it is going. Why be concerned for such boring issues?

Well, for starters, the greatest apostasy that has ever taken place in the context of the Church and Christianity took place during the first few hundred years of the history of the church. This major departure from the "faith once for all delivered to the saints"(21) was predicted by the apostles.(22) It started with subtle changes in the way the church was governed. Gradually, the simple form of government we read about in the New Testament was replaced by a form of control patterned after the political bureaucracy of Rome. Rome had an emperor who sat atop a pyramidal structure of political government. In time, the church had a similar structure with a Pope sitting at the top who had ultimate power and authority. Churches were persuaded or forced to accept this one man’s authority as equal to the word of God. The period in history referred to as the "dark ages" was ushered in through this seemingly harmless change in church government. It was a period of time where people could be arrested and burned at the stake for doing the simple things we are doing here today. It was illegal for individuals to own copies of the scripture. And had it not been for a series of events that came to be known as the Reformation, we would still be in the grips of the perversions of that apostate church.

Following a period of reform, also known as the Protestant Reformation, many different denominations developed. These groups grappled with this issue of church government. Some simply replaced the pyramidal structure of Roman Catholicism with their own pyramidal scheme. These churches were ruled by councils, if not by individuals. Others developed altered versions of the same. With the coming of freedom and democracy in the West, some churches adopted governments based on the one-man-one-vote principles of democracy. Few were willing to go back to the New Testament and ask the question, "How was the church governed in the days of the apostles?" Pragmatism and what was in vogue were large factors in deciding on the shape of church rule.

If one were to delve into the New Testament, he or she would quickly learn that churches were originally governed by spiritual men called "elders."(23) Screened by qualifications laid down by the apostles,(24) these elders were also called pastors, shepherds, bishops and presbyters – each designation reflecting a function of their assigned work. Every church had its own elders(25) and there were always multiple elders in a church. Since bishops and elders are one in the same in the New Testament,(26) we don’t read about men called "bishops" being in charge of multiple churches. Nor do we read anything of "arch-bishops," "cardinals," or the like - titles that are the legacy of the Papacy. In fact, in New Testament times, each church was directly accountable to Christ, through the apostles, and later to their writings(27) as they were circulated among the churches.(28) The elders in each congregation were under-shepherds who would one day will give account to the "Chief Shepherd,"(29) Jesus Christ. They were charged to teach and preach the word of God,(30) which included the writings of the apostles.(31) Thus, each congregation, though tied to others by common teaching and practice, was independent from others as far as government.

The wisdom of this system isn’t hard to see, especially if you know much about the history of what happened to the church after the death of the apostles. One individual or congregation simply could not gain control over the others. Apostasy could thus be limited.

I challenge some of you to read through the New Testament yourselves and learn about this simplicity of church government.

Finally, in discussing this issue of simplicity in Christ, I will mention the:

Here I’m referring to the Christian lifestyle. In the New Testament, every convert to the gospel was expected to conform to a way of life that was different from the world around.(32) And while the change of lifestyle was sometimes difficult to accomplish since it might involve altering lifelong habits, it was not hard to understand.

Here are just a few representative teachings of the simple living prescribed in the New Testament. I’ll just read them because my proposition is that they are not that hard to understand.

As to the overall issue and direction of living, the apostle Peter said in 1 Peter 1:14-16: "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’"

On the subject of marriage, the writer of Hebrews said in Hebrews 13:4: "Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge."

On the subject of money, the same Hebrew writer said in Hebrews 13:5: "Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you’…."

On the subject of responsibility to family, Paul wrote in 1 Tim 5:8: "But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever."

I could go on – and I’d love to – but my purpose here is merely to establish with you that there is a simplicity in Christ that is often overlooked or forgotten – and because of it, we lose.

So there it is. The simple life in Christ. Simple teachings. Simple plan of salvation. Simple worship. Simple church government. Simple way of life. Not nearly as complicated as most people think. Men complicate it by adding things to it. We can uncomplicate it by going back to the New Testament.

In some ways what has happened today is like the family that became fed up with the noise and traffic of the city and decided to move to the country and try the simple life in the wide open spaces. Intending to raise cattle, they bought a western ranch. Some friends came to visit a month or so later and asked them what they had named the ranch. The father said, "Well, the original name was "Circle-D" but since there is no "D" in our name, we wanted to change it. We started out really simple. I wanted to call it the Flying-W after the "W" in our last name. That would have been simple enough for me, but my wife wanted to call it the Suzy-Q. I guess that wouldn’t have been so bad, except that one of our sons wanted to call it the Bar-J and the other son wanted to call it the Lazy-Y. We finally ended up compromising by calling it the Flying-W, Suzy-Q, Bar-J, Lazy-Y Ranch." Their friend asked, "Well, where are your cattle?" The man replied, "We don't have any. None of them survived the branding."

So it is when we complicate the simple message of Christ. Many don’t survive the branding.

Let’s strive to keep it no more complicated than the simple teaching of the Scripture.

Footnotes: Please use your back button to return to your place

1. Romans 10:17 
2. Acts 4:12
3. Mark 16:16 
4. Acts 8:37; Matthew 16:16-18
5. Acts 2:38; Acts 3:19 
6. Mark 16:15-16; Acts 2:38; Acts 22:16
7. 1 Peter 3:21; Mark 16:16 
8. Galatians 3:27; Romans 6:3-5 
9. Colossians 3:1-2; Romans 11:22  
10. 1 Peter 3:18
11. James 1:12; Revelation 2:10
12. Acts 20:29-31
13. Galatians 1:6-9
14. Matthew 18:20  
15. Acts 20:7 
16. Philippians 4:9; 2 Timothy 1:13 
17. Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16
18. Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 11:20-30 
19. 1 Corinthians 16:1-2 
20. 1 Corinthians 11:30 
21. Jude 3 
22. 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 
23. 1 Timothy 5:17 
24. Titus 1:5-9; 1 Timothy 3:1-7; Acts 20:17-31   
25. Acts 14:23
26. Titus 1:1-7 KJV 
27. Ephesians 2:20
28. 2 Peter 3:15-16; Colossians 4:16
29. 1 Peter 5:1-4 
30. 1 Timothy 5:17 
31. 1 Corinthians 14:37
32. Romans 12:1-2   

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

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