There has perhaps been no bigger buzzword in Christian culture over the last decade than the term “deconstruction.” It has been both lauded and lamented; celebrated and criticized. Where are we to stand? We have to start by coming to the table with clear definitions.
Deconstruction: n. 1. “the act of breaking something down in order to understand its meaning, especially when this is different from how it was previously understood.” 2. “The evaluation of a viewpoint held, often to reveal its inadequacy.”
When we talk about deconstruction in the Christian faith, we are most often speaking of a professing follower of Jesus placing some aspect of what they’ve long believed about God, themselves, and others on trial, in an attempt to more faithfully pursue truth. After all, no one knowingly pursues something they’re convinced isn’t true.
Deconstructions can be great or small. They can lead to liberation or bondage; to the life or death of a pure faith. Here’s why this matters.
If we truly desire to follow Jesus, there will be many occasions where the deconstruction of what we’ve previously held as gospel will be necessary.
It needs to be said that the Gospel itself needs no deconstruction. However, humans have this pernicious way of leading movements that attempt to add to or subtract from the work of Christ in ways that parade themselves as gospel, to our great detriment.
The early church had a big problem with believers who adamantly taught that Gentiles needed to be circumcised to belong to Jesus. They were adding to the Gospel, and it required a prayerful counsel of all of the elders to deconstruct a long held doctrine in order to follow Jesus.
Apollos was an influential teacher, a “learned man with a thorough knowledge of the scriptures.” Yet, he was unknowingly leaving key elements of the Gospel out, teaching only the baptism of John. He was subtracting from the Gospel, and needed Priscilla and Aquila to teach him the way of God “more adequately” (See Acts 18).
Neither were condemned for their need to realign. It was simply the next step toward a more mature faith. Today, however, there are a number of believers who are immediately shut down when they begin asking sincere questions that challenge popularly held doctrines with phrases like, “slippery slope,” “denying of the faith,” and even “falling into heresy.”
If we aren’t careful, we will confuse “faith in our brand of faith,” with “faith in the Faithful One.” God is big enough to shoulder our deepest doubts and strong enough to hold us close through dark nights of wrestling through our faith, just as he did with the early church.
The real question isn’t if we will face some form of deconstruction, but rather, “What are we deconstructing from?” and “Who are we reconstructing to?” Paul wrote:
“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” 1 Corinthians 13:12
In an era before modern photography, the only way a person could know what they actually looked like was to look in a mirror. There was just one problem. Ancient “mirrors” possessed the same reflective quality as our stainless steel cooking pots.
Paul said that you and I presently see God about as clearly as you could look into a cooking pot and sketch your face. Let that sink in. We’ve seen a TON about God’s goodness, his mercy, and his love. But there is so much we’ve yet to see. If we are to walk faithfully, it will require hearts of humility who hunger to know him above all else.
If we can’t see that are still ways we don’t yet see God clearly, we will find ourselves “playing God” in ways that hinder others from seeing God clearly.
The Pharisees had memorized everything the Old Covenant said about the coming Messiah. And yet, when he came, they rejected him. It wasn’t merely that they didn’t recognize their Savior; they crucified him as a son of the devil! They were so certain they could clearly see what they did not yet see, and it cost them and those they led dearly.
Peter was the leader of the apostles. Yet, even he allowed religious pressures around him to distort the image of the Gospel within him. He needed to be called up to a purer pursuit of God. Deconstructions, for the lover of God, are nothing more than a refiner’s fire to purify our faith.
But here’s the crucial truth. God never stops at deconstruction. He delights to continually shape and form his image in us. This leads to the far more important question: “Who are we allowing ourselves to be reconstructed to?”
Sadly, many worshipers of Jesus have left beautiful yet broken communities of faith, only to currently reside in shanties of rejection. They are angry at the church and indifferent toward God, closer to forgetting their face than refining it. Others have left overly strict rules of doctrine, only to run into fortresses of idolatry. They rush to label themselves and define their purpose on their own terms, which unsurprisingly often mirror the consensus and feelings of popular culture. They deconstructed something necessary, but without reconstruction, they cannot see they are careening down the same path that runs lemmings off a cliff.
Here are 3 ways we can let God reconstruct his image in us:
1. Elevate God’s Word above your opinion, your preference, and your bias!
There are many mysteries in the ways of God and even standards God holds which I wish, from my very limited standpoint, were different. But this is what it means for Jesus to be Lord: we trust what he says over what we feel.
God gave us the Bible as the “more sure word of prophecy,” the Word of God by which we can measure all other ‘words from God.’ The problem is: God’s Word is inspired. Our interpretation of it is certainly not.
Many times, I have heard someone say, “God said it. That settles it. I believe it.” Except. We don’t read the Bible as it is but as we are. We read a lot into the text without ever knowing it, and wrongly coronate our assumptions as if they carried the authority of God himself.
“God didn’t say it. I assumed it. That settled it. I believed it. But I was wrong.”
How do I know if “God said” what I think “God said?”
If it doesn’t lead people to union with the all-consuming, ever-pursuing love of God as their Father…
If it doesn’t look like the nail-scarred hands of Jesus which empower his bride, the church to reconcile the world to himself…
If it doesn’t release the marriage of mercy and the transforming power of the Holy Spirit for the lost to be found and the broken to be made whole…
God didn’t say it. It was your assumption masquerading as God. This is the very definition of godless religion.
Ask yourself:
Is my ‘knowledge’ leading me to a more intimate desire to know God above all else?
Is my ‘gospel’ shaping me to look more like the holiness, compassion, and self-emptying love of Jesus?
Is my ‘revelation’ leading me to judge the dark, or to go into it to restore captives, lovingly bringing them into the light?
2. Walk in intimate connection with God and lovers of God!
The point of true deconstruction isn't isolation or separation, but transformation that leads us to unbroken relation with God and others. If we lose intimacy and community, we will find ourselves ministering from rejection and offense. Both are rooted in pride.
God doesn’t answer our every question according to our timelines, preferences, or satisfaction. That would make us God. Instead, God’s eternal answer is his offer of himself. As you deconstruct, cling to him and surround yourself with people who are moving in the direction you want your feet to follow.
3. Live to know God’s love and to give it away!
There is no context for a “Christian life” that doesn’t spend itself to bring life to others. Whenever we begin to chase after God so that he will allow us some other temporal desire or label, we are on the road of a counterfeit gospel.
The true Gospel is simple. God is Creator over all and adores his creation. We were made to be with him, but we, all of us, have lost our way. Our sin is a poison we’ve bartered to build a million lesser empires. There are no ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys;’ only ‘dead guys’ that desperately need life resuscitated back into our spiritual lungs. God knew it from the start, so “before the foundation of the world,” he chose to lay down his life to bring us all home.
There are endless facets to the kaleidoscope of his justice and his mercy, and many of the ways of his majesty remain a mystery to us. But this is the Gospel. God lays down his life. For you. And in turn, we lay down our lives for the whole world to taste and see that he is, and has always been, good!
I pray grace for every deconstruction and reconstruction your faith is leading you through. I speak courage to your heart and beg you, look to Jesus and trust his Word. Refuse isolation. And, even now, in the refiner’s fire, choose today to reflect and release his love, knowing one day soon we will see him face to face!
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