The Real Thing

In 1985, Coca Cola executives decided to address increasing competition and falling profits by changing its formula. Despite years of advertising Coke as “the real thing”, the company decided to pivot to be more like its competitors. With much fanfare, the company rolled out New Coke. Loyal customers were not impressed, and within a few months, the company was forced to return to its old formula. It turns out the advertising executives had misread their base. Coca Cola stalwarts didn’t want an imitation of Pepsi. They wanted the Real Thing Coca Cola had promised them.

So many imitations … Which is the real thing? 

We live in a time when it is difficult to tell the real from the fake. Artificial Intelligence is rampant and many of us have been fooled by clever imitations of products offered online. As concerned as I am about the proliferation of AI, I am more concerned about Christian leaders who prove to be fakes. AI may devastate us financially, but following the wrong leader can cripple our spiritual growth or worse.

Who decides what’s right? 

Over the past few decades, evangelical believers have faced a tsunami of once trusted leaders exposed for a litany of financial and sexual sins, disqualifying themselves for ministry by their conduct. And there have been an equally crushing number who have turned their backs on faith, declaring they don’t know if they’re Christians anymore, or possibly ever were.

If that weren’t enough, we are inundated with mixed messages about what a Christian is supposed be. My social media feeds are teeming with advice on what I must believe and how I must vote if I’m a Christian. There’s not much agreement between political parties, but that doesn’t keep their messengers from stridently declaring their way is the only way, and true Christians can’t possibly disagree.

Spiritual junk food

All this rhetoric inflames heated internet exchanges without clear resolution. No wonder some of us have spiritual vertigo, spinning from one idea to another, unsure how to know truth.
Can we identify the real thing? Is it possible parse truth from lies? The answer is an unequivocal “Yes”. But it requires us to pursue wisdom and truth, not be passive consumers of intellectual and spiritual junk food.

As Jesus prepared His disciples for His death – and for the time He would return to His Father and leave them “in charge” – He spent His final evening teaching and serving. And He ended the lesson with a prayer for the Father to “sanctify them in truth. Your word is truth.”

Jesus does not equivocate. God’s word is truth. Modern philosophies based on Critical Theory and Post modernism deny that truth is universal or absolute. Jesus disagrees.

Is it the real thing? Or just a look alike? 

So the first question we ask in pursuit of the real thing is whether a teacher’s message aligns with scripture. Christians disagree on a lot of things. But Paul lays out the basics in I Corinthians 15. “By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you, otherwise you have believed in vain.

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the scriptures.”

Peter declared this gospel at Pentecost, and the gospel writers agree that these are the basics. Paul told the Galatian church  that anyone, himself or an angel, preached anything different, they were to curse them. Those are strong words that emphasize how important it is that we get the gospel right. 

It’s what’s inside that counts!

Next, we should ask whether we are following a leader rather than Jesus. The church at Corinth was riddled with division, and they rallied around their favorite preachers. The Corinthian church was young, planted by Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey. And since Corinth was at a hub for commerce, many Christians passed through town. The young church heard most of the big time preachers of their day. The three most prominent were Apollos, Peter, and Paul himself. 

Apollos drew people in. He hailed from Alexandria, a metropolitan crossroads, and spoke with eloquence.  Paul’s friends Priscilla and Aquila met the young man while they were all in Ephesus, and they discovered that he was preaching an incomplete message. He  submitted to their correction, and allowed them to instruct him in the complete gospel. After this “remedial education”, he continued to preach and many were saved under his ministry. 

Peter was the leader of the apostles, and had preached the first Christian sermon with astounding results, and held a high position at the church in Jerusalem. And it was Peter who preached first preached to Romans in Cornelius’s home, opening the church to Gentiles like the Corinthians. 

And Paul was likely the most educated of the three. He had been a student of Gamaliel, a well-known Jewish theologian, and his Damascus Road testimony was riveting. But Paul wasn’t a magnetic speaker by his own admission. And for the erudite Corinthians, he perhaps seemed unexciting.

Don’t take the bait. 

But Paul was a wise man. And he refused to take the bait. Paul didn’t debate personalities.  He told the Corinthians to quit taking sides. He knew it wasn’t about him. Or Apollos. Or Peter. Only Jesus saved. And only Jesus sustained the church. Paul dismissed all their arguments and told them to follow Jesus.

Personality cult? Or the real thing?

It’s easy for churches to become personality cults, following a charismatic leader blindly regardless of his theology. Our western culture values education, youth and appearance. And too often the church adopts the same values. Apollos was known for his eloquence and oratorical skills. But his original message was inadequate. Appearances can indeed deceive us. Paul knew that he wasn’t as exciting as some of his counterparts. But he spoke truth. 

In Acts 17, Luke commended the Jews from Berea because they listened to Paul and consulted scripture to make sure Paul’s words were true. These were not blind followers. They listened carefully and checked the message  against scripture. Beware of ministers who aren’t accountable to anyone and who treat questions as an affront to God. 

The apostles didn’t seek adulation. They made study and prayer a priority and accepted correction from their colleagues.  

The primary source

When you browse the shelves of your local Christian bookstore, you will  find dozens of books claiming to explain scripture, often written by “celebrity” pastors. We all need help understanding the Bible sometimes, and some individuals are gifted with the ability to make profound truth simple. But we do well to remember that we are all human. None of us speak from Sinai. Reading commentaries and listening to sermons are good for us. But we can remember that  the Bible is our primary source, and Holy Spirit is our first teacher.

When a prominent Christian leader’s failure is exposed, it sends shock waves through the Christian community. I’ve felt betrayed and angered by such announcements, too. We should be shocked. But we shouldn’t allow their failure to shipwreck our faith. Paul told churches to “follow me as I follow Christ.” He didn’t tell them to follow him regardless of what he did. 

Jesus is the real thing. And our devotion must be to Him, even if human leaders tell us otherwise. And even when our human leaders fail. 

Life in community

Last, we need each other. Proverbs tells us that “iron sharpens iron”, and Hebrews reminds us to not forsake meeting together. We encourage each other when we spend time together while studying and praying. As we do life together, we can encourage each other to “stay the course.”

We can check each other for error. Jesus says “My sheep hear my voice and they follow me.” Sheep know the shepherd’s voice. Just as bank tellers learn to spot counterfeits by studying genuine currency, so we will know the real thing because we spend time reading, hearing and discussing what is real. 

Keep your eyes on Jesus. 

My brother and I grew up in the heart of evangelical culture. Our parents were faithful church members and they took us to church, too, often  several times a week. And we saw the good and the bad about church life including church splits and disgraced pastors. But we are both still believers, still in church.

We stayed because we saw real Christians who modeled Jesus. Our parents were flawed human beings but they were real. They knew Jesus, the Real Thing.  I remember a couple of conversations with my Dad when I was angry or disappointed with a leader. He didn’t teach me blind obedience. Instead he taught me to always go back to truth, back to scripture. And he avoided some pitfalls of evangelical culture that could easily have ruined my life. He showed me the Real Thing and taught me to know truth.  

The writer of Hebrews warned his readers that there were many whose faith wasn’t real. But he encouraged his  audience “Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are convinced of better things in your case- the things that have to do with salvation.” He knew they had the real thing. So he encouraged them to keep moving, keep learning and keep serving one another. 

Just as true Coca-Cola enthusiasts can identify New Coke (or Pepsi) on the first sip, so we will know that we being offered a poor substitute if we are faithful to God’s word, avoid idolatry and personality cults, and practice genuine community.Otherwise we might be fooled by New Coke in an Coca Cola package.