I believe we can learn a lesson about the culture of grace by looking at the evolution of pig farming. Pigs are famous for their mess and stench. For centuries, pig farms were the most disgusting environments imaginable. Because pigs have no natural way of cooling themselves, farmers provided a mud hole for their pigs to keep them from overheating. These mud holes, where pigs wallowed for a good portion of the day, eventually filled with urine and feces because the pigs couldn’t seem to find a toilet. If you’ve ever been around a pigpen, you know the powerful stench that permeates the area, spreading as far as the wind will carry it. Filth, disease, bacteria, and infection are plentifully found in these places.
But in recent times, someone decided to separate pigs from their mess. Instead of making the mess an accepted part of what it means to raise pigs, today’s farmers build facilities designed to protect the pigs from all that is disgusting. Instead of using mud to cool the pigs, they use water. The floors and living areas of the pigs have drains and rinse systems that carry the waste away from the pigs. Pigs can now live in clean environments and be every bit as sanitary as household pets. This was unimaginable just a short time ago, and it still hasn’t become universal; many pig farmers still use the old methods because the new systems are so expensive.
The Father paid the highest price to make a new system of dealing with our messes available to us. If mankind can figure out a way to raise clean pigs and be willing to pay the price, then certainly the expense of the blood of Jesus can accomplish the desire of our Father’s heart for us. Jesus declared, “You are…clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.”[i] We are clean!
Therefore, we had better have a mechanism in our Christian culture that deals effectively with the sin when it comes out right in front of us. For whatever reason, we’ve come to expect that church is a place where there isn’t going to be any sin. It is just not true. If we don’t know how to deal with sin, then we don’t know how to deal with people. We inevitably create a culture of law in order to keep people from sinning. The message of this culture is, “Contain your sin within yourself. Don’t show it to me; I can’t handle it.” Remember, this was the Pharisees’ line. They were famous for being afraid of sin, largely due to the fact that the only remedy for sin in their day was various degrees of punishments. The fear of punishment ruled their hearts, relationships, and culture. Jesus, on the other hand, had a group of unlikely companions. They were the thieves, tax collectors, and the hookers of the day. Compared to the other religious leaders at the time, He was like “Jesus of Vegas.” He was not in the least afraid of messes people made in their lives, and of letting them happen around Him. Even the people who spent three years walking personally with Jesus were still making messes the night of His crucifixion. But ultimately, His love and the way He led people empowered them to rise above their mistakes and issues.
If we are going to cultivate a grace culture, we need effective ways of dealing with other people’s problems. We need environments that move the waste away from people instead of making it a part of who they are. Our methods must move the waste away, however, without reinforcing the expectation that other people control us and we control others. As I’ve pointed out earlier, no one can control us. We have our hands full trying to control ourselves. Therefore, we also need to have empowering ways of managing ourselves in the presence of other people’s problems. Our power and peace are rooted in being able to maintain our freedom around each other through self-control. Without a priority of self-control, we live in constant reaction to one another, which creates a culture of blame and irresponsibility. “Your stuff triggers my stuff, and I don’t know what to do when you do that. Stop it! Now I am going to blame you for what I do. If you don’t do that, I won’t have to do this.”
People will get their power back most quickly in a culture with powerful leaders who lead in freedom and honor. Such a culture has a high value for confrontation, a value that derives from the understanding that not cleaning up messes creates a toxic environment for everyone. However, I want to describe what confrontation is and what it isn’t, because there is confusion on that point and this confusion has created plenty of messes in addition to the messes the mishandled confrontation was meant to address. I am going to show you places in the Bible where it works beautifully. I pray that you receive an impartation of truth in your thinking about how to approach the issue of sin in the lives of those around you and how to manage yourself in relationships
- Danny Silk in A Culture of Honor
[i] John 15:3