The lowest common deonominator problem

Jeff came home yesterday after a trip back to Darwin. He was saddened to hear that some people who had been in our church congregation there have since left it over issues which stem from understanding and trusting the Bible and acting on what it teaches. I won't even touch on what the issue was, because that would be unjustifiable gossip. But the situation has led me to think about the issue of how easy it is to fall into sinful ways.

The way I see this problem, is that there is a tendency in groups of people to exhibit what I call the problem of the lowest common denominator. Others might call it the power of the mob mentality. This is what it looks like in everyday life:
I take my four pre-schoolers to the park and they join a game of chasey with some other kids there. When we come home, I notice they have learnt some colourful new language from their park playmates that has never been heard from their lips before.
... A new girl joins a circle of teenage girls. The new girl is self-confident, a bit brash and not particularly modest in her dress. Pretty soon the other girl's mothers notice their daughters are wearing more makeup and asking to shop for some more revealing clothing also.
... A new school year brings a new mix of classmates. Without his previous group of friends, who all had similar backgrounds, Jack falls in with a group of boys with a bad attitude towards study and teachers. It isn't long before Jack's parents get a letter from his teacher saying he's been wagging his classes.
... Ella heads off to university and her parents are very proud of her initial attempts to find some Christian friends to study the Bible with. But her attempts are unsuccessful and she begins to be sporadic in her church attendance. When she returns home for holidays Ella admits to her parents that she "doesn't want to be a Christian" any more, because she has become convinced by the arguments of her university peers and lecturers that God doesn't really exist.
... A new mum finds that, now she is staying at home with her baby, she can join the women's prayer group at her church which is during the daytime. She starts going to the group but discovers the women spend more time gossiping over the people and problems in the church than praying about them. She tries to lead by example but soon finds that she, too, is developing a critical, judgemental attitude to others.
... A congregation is without a minister for some time. When they are finally able to employ someone, the new minister lacks a deep knowledge of the Scriptures or the desire to teach others to search the Bible for answers to their questions. Gradually, although some of the older people in the congregation grumble about the need for a more Bible-based approach, the people notice that the sermons are based less on what God has said and more on what the world has to say. Sermons become, not a time to be built up in the knowledge of God and His will for them, but instead a time to be fired up with enthusiasm to live the perfect life through their own efforts. After a while the congregation don't even notice the absence of mentions of the Bible and the gospel anymore.

There are many more scenarios like these where people find themselves thinking, talking and behaving according to the lowest standards held by anyone in their group, rather than the highest standards. It happens to Christians and non-Christians alike, at all ages and, I am sure, in all nations and cultures. When I look at this problem, I can see that, just like the flu, sin is catching! Paul warned the Corinthians, "Do not be misled: 'Bad company corrupts good character.' " (1 Cor 15:33) and this is as true today as it was then. It isn't just our morality that is affected by the presence of bad character. We can easily be led astray by teachers of incorrect doctrine. The churches in Galatia began to fall into this trap, and it didn't take a long time, either. Paul wrote to them (Gal 1:6), "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel..."

Paul was conscious of the need for the church to appoint good teachers, and wrote in some detail to Timothy and Titus on this topic. Often, as I have suggested in my last illustration above, we can follow bad quasi-Christian teaching because we lack any familiarity with sound Biblical teaching and don't know any better. Many of us are not in a position where we choose people in leadership over our congregations, but there are other decisions we make along these same lines. As parents, we should prayerfully and intelligently consider the qualifications (not just academic) of our children's Sunday School teachers and regular teachers, as well as other adults whom we allow to have authority over our children, such as sports coaches. We also should take responsibility for care over which peers our children associate with, a situation in which homeschooling obviously has benefits.

Over and above this care, however, is the need for prayer. We must pray for ourselves, our partners in marriage, our children and our fellow Christians. There are a lot of Paul's prayers recorded in his letters and many of them would be great models for bringing a lowest common denominator problem to God. I particularly like Paul's prayer for the Thessalonians (recorded in 2 Thess 1:11-12): "With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfil every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ." Let us be people of prayer, asking for God's power to overcome our tendency to follow others so quickly down the slippery slope of sin.