Free Bible study

A few editorials back I presented a parable-type lesson and, since I have a particular affinity to those kinds of lessons, I’m going to throw another one your way today. I like to parabolize a lesson because I feel that it better helps us to learn something. You know, Jesus sure seemed to think they were helpful to get points across as He used them many times in teaching spiritual truths to His disciples. His parables were things familiar in their world. Things that they knew and understood when He talked about them. Thus, when He laid the spiritual concept alongside of the earthly illustration, they got the picture, so to speak. And, hopefully, when I’m finished here today, so will you.

Today’s parable lesson may be a bit different from the ones you’ve heard or read in the past, but I thought I’d take something familiar to our world today, talk a little about it, and then lay a spiritual truth alongside it for you to consider. The thing that comprises the "worldly" side of our equation is a product with which we’re all familiar, although I have met people who may not have had too much familiarity with it. I’m going to talk first about "soap" and then about "religion."

Let me start by asking you a question: Does "soap" and "religion" have a connection? Well, in my feeble (don’t say warped) way of thinking, they do and that will constitute our parable. I’ve got to admit that, in most every other way, they probably do not, but I intend to connect them in this lesson so please bear with me and read on.

Starting with our familiar product, "soap," let’s look at it for a few moments. And, recognize that we’re talking about all "soap" type products such as bars, powders, shampoos and others of that ilk. We know that these are products that are designed to get us and our things clean. And no, the connection is not the old saying "Cleanliness is next to godliness." That’s all that is - an old saying. Contrary to popular belief, it is not from the Bible. You’ll find that "patience" is next to "godliness" in the Scriptures. (2 Pet. 1:6)

Now I’m way too young to have used this, but some of you may be familiar with something referred to as "Grandma’s lye soap." From what I’ve been told, it did the job quite well and was probably about the most unadulterated form of soap ever used. Wasn’t anything fancy about it, but it certainly got the dirt off and maybe a little skin with it. I’ll start with "Grandma’s lye soap" because it serves about as good an example of pure soap as you’ll probably find.

Oh, I know there’s good old Ivory soap. You know, the one that says that it’s 99 and 44/100's percent pure and maybe, since I doubt if the grandma’s of today make lye soap, it could be the closest on the market to being pure soap. But, you know what else? Ivory soap isn’t the most popular brand in sales, is it? Why it’s not is what brings us to our "connection."

The reason that "pure soap" isn’t the big seller of today is because it lacks something that attracts customers today. It lacks something in the form of various and sundry ingredients that fall under the term of - "enhancements." Something that has been added to plain old soap so that people will buy that particular brand. Here’s what I want you to understand about "enhancers." They have absolutely nothing to do with the effectiveness of the soap or in the cleaning of us and our things. They’re simply something added by the manufacturer to "enhance" their brand of soap in the buying public’s eye.

Let me just tap into the TV/radio/magazine storage room of your mind and see if these examples ring a bell in there. You know that "there’s cold creme now in Camay" while another popular soap bar is said to be "1/4 cleansing creme." Oh yeah, they’ve got "vitamin E" and some with "antibacterial" ingredients. (I’ll bet "gramdma’s" got the bacteria off). 

Then we’ve got some with "foaming cleansers" and others with "scrubbing bubbles." Others that don’t get specific, just say that their product has "softening lotions." How about "scent" additives? If you want to smell like fruit you can find soaps with fragrances added like; apples, lemons, bananas or cherries. Or, you can smell like a pine forest, a lilac bush or a whole bouquet of flowers if you like. One can even smell "natural," whatever that smells like. I’ll leave that up to your consideration.

All of these things, plus lots of others, are simply "enhancements" to a product to make it more appealing to the buying public. The definition of "enhance" plays a part in our lesson today so let’s look at what it means. It means things like "to magnify" or "to complicate" or "to boost." In our street vernacular we say "to soup up" or "to jazz up." It also has the meaning "to enrich or amend." An "enhancement" is defined as being "an extravagance" or "an exaggeration." 

So, if we were in the soap making business, in order to compete with the other soaps out there on the market, we’d feel the need to add something to our product so that people would be interested in it, wouldn’t we? We’d feel that we have to out-enhance the other products. Do you see where I’m going with this parable?
When we switch to the spiritual side of this lesson and look at the "religion" aspect of it we easily see the connection, don’t we? The "religious world" seems to be adding "enhancements" at a rapid pace, aren’t they? False doctrines have always chosen to do this but, since the advent of radio and TV, the proverbial flood-gates have opened in this area. You’ve seen this.

In order to compete (read - outsell) their competitors, to appeal to the "religious world" (read - buying public) they use a lot of "enhancements." They build fabulous and ornate cathedrals and stage extravagant performances. They have famous people as guests and they have great orchestras and entertainers perform for their audiences (read - congregations). Here’s the problem with that - you have to keep "upping" your entertainment (or better said, keep "enhancing" your "enhancements") in order to keep your customers.

Perhaps the world hasn’t changed all that much from Paul’s day. The Jews wanted to see a "sign," a great wonder, a miracle performed and the Greeks wanted something more complex. Something magnified or enhanced. The pure, un-enhanced Gospel wasn’t enough for them. You can check this out by reading 1Cor. 1:22-23.

Sadly I’ve witnessed some congregations of the Lord’s church engage in these enhancing efforts and try and compete with the denominational world in things like social activities, in sports activities and fund-raising events. I’ve noted that some of them even have "ministries" set up for these "enhancements". 

Now, don’t get me wrong. I like most sports as much as anyone. I like plays and traveling. I like to be entertained, but when these things become part of the church, they tend to become a priority of the congregation and the worship of God becomes secondary. More time and effort seems to be directed towards the "enhancements" rather than pure, unadulterated Gospel.

In wrapping up my parabolized lesson I’ll just say that, to me it seems like "soap" and "religion" today is filled with "enhancements" in order to get people to "buy" their product. Soap does not need "enhancements" in order to clean - to do its job. The Gospel does not need anything added to it in order for it to do its job either.
My last comment is a statement I once heard said by Bryant Gumble when he was a host on the Today Show. I’m not a particular fan of his, nor do I watch that show, but I did happen to hear this statement and I thought it appropriate to use in closing this lesson. He said: "If you trim yourself to fit the world, you’ll whittle yourself away." I’m sorry, but I have to give him an AMEN on that one.


Ron Covey