This trait often begins right at conversion, notably with evangelistic “strategies” that transform the salvation transaction into a cookie-cutter assembly-line technique. We’ve all heard of the Romans Road (or was that the Philemon Freeway and the Titus Turnpike?): “Read these Bible verses and then pray and then you will surely be saved.” The examples of the wide diversity of Jesus’ evangelistic approaches (from the woman at Jacob’s well to the taxman Zacchaeus to the thief crucified beside Him) do not seem to dent the self-confidence of the evangelistic formulizers.

Child-Rearing
The formulizers are notorious when addressing child-rearing and other family issues. “If you just keep your daughters at home and never send them to college,” or, “If you only spank your children for every act of direct disobedience,” or, “If the mother always stays home and never works outside the home,” or “If only you avoid birth control,” or “If only you give your children communion,” or, “If only you send your sons to small, private, Christian colleges,” or “If only you require of your older teen-agers courtship rather than dating,” or “If only you prohibit your children from listening to rock music” — and any one of a number of other stale formulas — “will your children be more likely to love and serve the Lord.” The validity of these formulas is so demonstratively wrong that you’d think formulaic Christians would give up on them; but they continue on, year after year, binding the consciences of over-weaning Christians, nonetheless genuinely committed to training their children in the Faith. The fact that these are nothing more than formulas and not in every case Biblical requirements doesn’t seem to bother the Great Formulizers.

Wisdom versus Formulas
Formulas are not usually successful, but they are a great deal more rhetorically impressive than wisdom, which is what God requires of us (Prov. 4:7). Wisdom requires knowing God; knowing His revelation in Jesus Christ, in creation, and in His Word, the Bible; knowing your divinely given personality and its strengths and weaknesses; knowing your spouse; knowing your children, knowing the particular culture in which you live. Paul reminded the Ephesian elders that he delivered to them the “all the counsel of God” (Ac. 20:27), but he was wise enough not to deliver that entire counsel to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 3:2). He was not less a faithful minister because he taught less of the Word of God. Indeed, he was a truly faithful minister precisely because he taught less of it. God granted him the wisdom to know how much truth to communicate in a particular historical circumstance. Solomon exhorts us to answer, and not to answer, a fool (Prov. 26:4,5). It takes wisdom to know when to do which.

Our Culture-Dependent Faith
The Bible requires the saints to “salute one another with an holy kiss” (Rom. 16:16), yet it is evident this command is culture-dependent as, indeed, the entire Bible is. To those who recoil from this assertion, I would like to ask whether they really believe it would be possible to preach the electric chair or lethal injection rather than the Cross as the metaphor for the Christian Gospel. The great genius of Biblical revelation is that it met the original hearers right where they were, in their immediate historical circumstances and culture, and that it meets us today in our circumstances and our cultures. The wise believer interprets God’s culturally conditioned but infallible Word for today’s cultural exigencies, just as the New Testament writers interpreted the Old Testament for the exigencies of their cultural situation (Mt. 2:15; 1 Cor. 9:7-11).

It just so happens that many Christians would rather grow in formulas than in wisdom, and thus mature Christianity simply doesn’t appeal to them. Therefore, they follow after ethical simpletons who claim to give every answer in a neat package. And when the formula fails them, well, they simply look for a new formula.

The Biblical alternative is wisdom (Pr. 6:20-22), and wisdom requires an intent walk with God (Ps. 25:4-9), filling of the Spirit of God (Rom. 8:14), examination of the Word of God (Ps. 119:105), communion with the people of God (Ps. 73:2-17), and reflection on the providence of God (Mt. 67:28-30).

If you have to choose between formulas and wisdom, choose wisdom every time.

P. Andrew Sandlin, an ordained minister, is president of the Center for Cultural Leadership, a Christian educational foundation dedicated to reclaiming contemporary culture for Jesus Christ and teaching elder at Church of the King, Santa Cruz, California. An interdisciplinary scholar, he holds academic degrees or concentrations in English, English literature, history, and political science. He has written several monographs and books, including The Full Gospel: A Biblical Vocabulary of Salvation; Totalism: God’s Sovereign Claims in All of Life; Christianity: Bulwark of Liberty; and hundreds of essays and articles, both scholarly and popular. His book Lord of the Dead and the Living: The Significance of the Christian Resurrection is forthcoming. He was formerly a pastor, Christian school administrator, president of the National Reform Association, and executive vice president of the Chalcedon Foundation. Andrew and his wife Sharon have five children.