Behavior?

         Although I hope to come to you soon, I am writing you these instructions so that, if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great:

He appeared in the flesh,
    was vindicated by the Spirit,
was seen by angels,
    was preached among the nations,
was believed on in the world,
    was taken up in glory. (I Timothy 3:14-16)

          Sometimes, people say something to me about behaving. Sometimes, I’m the one who raises the issue by telling them to behave. I suspect I give the people the same “What? Who? Me? Huh?” look that they give me. I have a well-practiced response whether I’m being needled, or the needler. “One has only two choices. One can behave well or behave badly. Either way, one is behaving.”

          Sometimes, I see memes on social media that say that they don’t care what you believe. How you behave is all that matters. If you see a big storm coming, you go buy the food you need to last until the storm is over. If you see a semi careening sideways down the street, you get out of the way. Reality is the foundation of all behavior.

          The first response to reality or to claims of reality is belief (or lack thereof.) In one of the topics that crossed my mind in the past twenty-four hours, there is a belief that the accusation of a crime is sufficient to punish the accused criminal. If someone is accused of sexual improprieties, one is guilty even if there is no proof.  If one is accused of being a racist, one must be a racist (even if nothing has been said about race!) We are presented with a claim of reality, we believe it (or don’t.)

          It isn’t until we believe that we can respond. Even if we say, “I don’t have enough information), that’s still a behavior: withholding judgment pending more information.

          In the same way, we have historical claims about Jesus Christ. We either believe them, or don’t believe them, and as a result of believing or not believing we behave. And this is where the problem develops. We may have two people, one who believes, and one who doesn’t. They may behave in the same way; a way we’ll describe as “good” for the moment. It might seem that we should just take their behaviors at face value. After all, they’re good behaviors. That’s all that matters, right? What if the motivation of one is to be a good person, and the motivation of the other is to win your trust so that he can enter your home and kill your family? The hypothetical examples are at opposite ends of the spectrum, of course, but they make the point. Good behavior can be a lie. What the person believes is vitally important.

          Ultimately, the good behavior of the person who rejects the reality presented in Scripture may be the result of the person being nice, or good, or weak, or fearful, or lazy, or deceitful. Since that’s the case, good behavior can be deceptive. What matters, then, is not what one believes, or how one acts, but the combination of the reality, the belief, and the behavior.