The Beauty of Simplicity

Decades ago, my friend and his wife visited their pastor wondering why his sermons seemed to be so complicated and vague.

At some point in the conversation my friend asked the pastor, “If I were to bring an unbelieving co-worker to worship, and afterward they asked you, ‘What must I do to be saved?’ what would you say?”

Their pastor gave another long, complicated and obscure answer sprinkled with words like covenant and atonement. That couple never went back. Instead they moved to another congregation where the pastor could answer the question in the same way that Paul did, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household” (Acts 16:31). Simple.

Of course, no one could accuse Paul of preaching a simplistic gospel. He was quite capable of writing long and complicated sentences about the ways of God that we’re still trying to figure out. Yet, Paul also knew the value of expressing profound truths with simple words, the kind that could be printed on a t-shirt. 

Years later, my same friend was dealing with an adult daughter who had lots of doubts about the faith. He was wondering what went wrong and admitted that the church they had switched to, and in which they had raised their daughter, had a tendency toward legalism. That church had a simple rule or cliché on hand for every situation. That didn’t seem right either. My friend wanted simple, but not simplistic. 

When it comes to the life of faith in Jesus, the reality of the kingdom is both simpler and more complex than we would imagine. Each of us leans more in a simplifying or “complexifying” direction when we try to understand that reality, sometimes depending on the issue or the phase of life we’re going through.

As a pastor who preached to all ages and all levels of Christian maturity (and even to those with no faith in Jesus at all), I leaned toward the simplifying end of the spectrum. Perhaps some could accuse me of “dumbing down” the gospel. To “talk over people’s heads” never struck me as an act of kindness. I wanted to retain an awareness for myself and my churches that expressing simple truths does not mean we have it all figured out. When simple is taken too far, it creates a mess. 

Job’s friends, for instance, believed in the simplicity of their message: every bad experience is a case of reaping what you sow. If you have trouble, some sin of yours caused it. But God silenced such “simple” nonsense by the end of Job’s story. And the gospel of a crucified Messiah exposed such thinking as an oversimplification.

In considering these things, I find it helpful to contrast the simplicity and complexity of machines with the simplicity and complexity of relationships. If we think of gospel truths as simple machines, we quickly develop the mentality of treating God like a vending machine. I just put my coins of faith into the promise-machine and out pops my desired blessing. 

On the other hand, if we regard gospel truths as complex machines, then we might get lost in a labyrinth of trying to figure out the mechanics of predestination (infralapsarianism or supralapsarianism?), the Lord’s Supper (just how is Jesus present in the bread and the cup?), eschatology (pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib, or none at all?), the order of salvation (does repentance come before faith?), and more. There is a time and place to explore such things, and we may come to conclusions that we regard as biblical and satisfying. It’s a stretch, I think, to use those mechanical constructs to define what all Christians must believe. 

I much prefer to look at biblical truth from the perspective of the simplicity and complexity of relationships. On the one hand, relationships are simple. Healthy relationships with God and others involve love, joy, gratitude, respect, gentleness, self-control, sacrifice, kindness—many of things listed by Paul as the fruit of the Spirit. But on the other hand, even in these simple things, complexities arise in relationships. How we live out these simple truths while interacting with others—with all their emotions, backgrounds, sins, baggage, needs and wants—there’s no simple formula for doing so. The truths are simple, the relationships can be complex. 

Of course, there are complexities in living out simple truths, but most of the time we know exactly what God expects us to do (at least in our personal relationships). Yet we often don’t want to do it. So in order to avoid obedience, we “complexify” the situation, looking for some loophole or escape clause so we can think and do what we want instead of what God wants.

I haven’t read this particular book by Søren Kierkegaard, but the title of his Purity of the Heart is to Will One Thing contains an important truth. I have read other works by the famous Dane, including Fear and Trembling, which explores the morally and spiritually complex situation of Abraham when he was asked to sacrifice his son Isaac. So if I know Kierkegaard at all, I’m sure that Purity of the Heart is to Will One Thing is not as simple as it sounds. Yet there’s biblical truth in the title.

Relationships may be complex, but often faith boils down to one simple thing. Here’s a few biblical “one things” to make life simpler—and I think each of these “one things” is really about the same one thing: 

• “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple” (Psalm 27:4).
• “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me” (Luke 18:22). 
• “One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see” (John 9:25).
• “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion [listening to Jesus], which will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:41-422). 
• “But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14). 

It’s that simple, but not that simplistic. In the simplicity of hearing, following, seeing, and seeking the face of Jesus, all the complexities of life may not melt away, but they certainly move to the background. 

clockworks photo by Anthony DeRosa