What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? ….
God will judge those outside….

1 corinthians 5:12,13

Paul wrote these words to the Corinthians while urging them to deal with sexual immorality in the church that was so bad it would not have been tolerated by pagans. (1 Corinthians 5:1)

I am reminded of these words that Paul wrote as I listen to Gospel Shoes by the folk/Americana group, Watchhouse (formerly Mandolin Orange) from Chapel Hill, NC. This isn’t a “Christian” song written by people who profess to be Christian, but it speaks with poignancy, clarity, and tenderness. This version is particularly well done:

 Some set their heads to swimming, nothing to lose
Drift about their good times, slivers in their boots
Some walk the straight and narrow, only passing through
Trading this world over for a pair of gospel shoes

The opening stanza of the song contrasts the “pagans” of the world with the “Christians” (more or less). Andrew Marlin (the writer of the song) may put it another way. He might say that he is contrasting “normal”, average, typical people with “religious”, church-going people.

To be fair, the caricatures of religious people do not accurately describe most of the people in my church (or in any church I have gone to, for the most part). BUT, those caricatures do have some elements of truth to them about some people, or some segment of people, who are religious in our society.

Those who “set their heads to swimming, nothing to lose”, are living this life for all it can give them because they believe this life is all there is. They “drift about their good times” because they have no particular aim, meaning, or purpose. They are looking for whatever fun and pleasure they can get, though they accumulate “slivers in their boots”.

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The term, “gospel shoes”, finds some resonance in Isaiah:

“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’”

Isaiah 52:7

The word, “gospel”, of course means “good news”. The feet are beautiful of those who say “God reigns!” because it is news of peace, good tidings, and salvation. Or so it should be. Paul says, our feet should be “fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.”

Ironic, isn’t it? That Paul in talking about the “armor of God” includes “shoes” made of the “gospel of peace”. (Ephesians 6:15) It’s no wonder that we send mixed messages out into the world. But, that isn’t the “fault” of scripture; it’s our misunderstanding of it and of the upside down nature of the kingdom of God that Jesus preached.

The armor of God does not protect us against people (flesh and blood) but against dark spiritual forces. (Eph. 6:12) We are not intended to use the armor of God as a weapon against people.

Of course, some people often don’t want to hear about God. They don’t want to do be accountable, so the news of God is not “good” to them. The people who set their heads to swimming, who think they have nothing to lose and drift about the good times, however, are bound to gather slivers in their boots.

Drifting through life doing “whatever feels good” inevitably results in hardship and heartache. These are people, however, for whom God emptied Himself to become human in Jesus and for whom Jesus gave up his life, dying on a cross. He didn’t come to condemn them; he came to save them. (John 3:16-17)

Those slivers in their boots are problems that will fester and get worse. People often do not wake up to the folly of our youth until we have accumulated more hardship, difficulty, and pain than we can handle. And sometimes, those slivers cause problems that linger for a lifetime.

God who loves “those people” so much that He gave His son for them. He loves them no less than any religious person in the world, no matter how devout. Thus, God desires to reach them with His Gospel, the good news that there is a way for them to avoid the pain of their own doing and judgment that inevitably follows this life and enter into relationship with the God who created them and loves them.

As I recall Paul’s words to the Corinthians, I am struck that we often seem to have gotten things backwards. Instead of loving the world and seeking to reach them with the good news, we condemn the world and preach judgment.

Jesus said very specifically and purposefully that he didn’t come to condemn the world, but the “gospel” message we often deliver to the world is condemnation. Instead of preaching the good news of God’s kingdom, we often preach a message laced with politics and culture war propaganda that is condemning and which lacks the very good news that is at the heart of God’s purpose.

The song, Gospel Shoes, is an example of they way in which people in the world are confused by the mixed messages they hear:

Gospel shoes are laced with shackles and chains
Fitted for the poor runners of the race
Now every hand is folded shape of a gun
Target’s ever-changing, but the war it rages on

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Inevitably, though, people grow weary of these “good times”. We need to be able to connect with people where they are so that when they do grow weary, we can be there with a helping hand, the water of life, and the living bread of the Gospel.

The problem is in the weaponization of the “gospel” message to gain ground in a “culture war” that rages on. For what? Jesus came preaching a heavenly kingdom, not an earthly one. Some people don’t recognize the distinction and have confused the good news that Jesus preached about God’s kingdom for a culture war they are fighting to try to retain a “Christian” influence in modern society.

Freedom was a simple word so reverent and true
A long time ago, it meant the right to choose
Who you love and how to live, now it’s so misused
Twisted by the politics of men in gospel shoes

“The right to choose” might produce a shudder in American Christians who have devoted themselves politically to overturning Roe v. Wade and advocating the “right to life” in contrast to this right to choose. But, don’t let words trigger you.

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It is part of God’s great (and terrible) plan of redemption. Great because God created people in His image with agency that ensures our ability to love; terrible because it enables us also to hate, to reject God, and to go our own ways.

Love is only enabled in an environment in which we have freedom to choose. Without the ability to choose, love is not possible. Therefore, God does not compel our allegiance. Instead, He emptied Himself of all that set Him apart from us and became one of us. He came to us with good news, healing the sick, giving honor to the poor and downtrodden, and urging us to love God and love our neighbors.

As Christians, we may not celebrate the choices people make like the world does, but we must respect and honor the ability to choose because it is essential to God’s plan.

We cannot force or legislate anyone into the kingdom of God. For this reason, the “culture war” that rages on is a lost cause. Even if we win all the battles, we will lose the war because it cannot accomplish God’s purposes.

So the armies march onward for the mother and the son
As this world of screaming color is bleached in the blood
Our mother she is crying, her broken heart is blue
‘Cause we’re too busy dying, to love this life we lose

People who do not want to bow to God won’t, and no law or influence we can wield in the world will change a person who has hardened his heart against God. We can fight against a “world of screaming color” and try to bleach it “in the blood” until we are blue in the face, but we will accomplish nothing.

We risk turning off and turning away all those people who might be willing to consider the actual Gospel, but for our misguided tactics and attempts to force the world to conform outwardly to a religious standard.

I don’t want to make light of the Ten Commandments or of civil laws, but no one is comes into right relationship with God by living up to a standard. We come into right relationship with God simply by acknowledging Him and turning to Him, asking forgiveness for going our own way (like a child with a parent) and receiving His grace that He freely offers. This is the Gospel.

The Bible is clear that God’s people will one day judge the world, but that time is not now. What business do we have judging the world (now)? Paul’s question is rhetorical, and the answer is clear: we have no business judging the world at the present time.

Now is the time to love the world (as long as it is today) and to reach those people who have accumulated slivers in their shoes with the good news that the God who made them loves them more than they know. But we need to bring them the beauty of the actual Gospel unadulterated by our own desire to hold onto political power, influence, and position.

How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news? Our gospel shoes should be the good news of salvation and redemption, but we have bastardized them with judgment, condemnation, and attempts to hold onto an earthly culture and a political kingdom “for God”.

The irony is that we are “too busy dying, to love this life we lose”. What are we trying to hold onto? We should not be laying up for ourselves treasures on this earth.

She’s growing weary of the lying
She’s tired of all this fighting in the name of gospel shoes

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The world sees us fighting them for cultural position and compromising the very standards we claim to want them to live by to do it. We don’t advance the kingdom by lying and other tactics that do not reflect the fruits of the spirit. What are we fighting for if the message is lost in the fight?

I am reading into and extracting from the words of Gospel Shoes meaning that Watchhouse likely doesn’t intend, but they have provided enough food for thought to allow me this platform. It’s a beautiful song, and it is tastefully and tenderly done, as all their songs are.

The art of music has a way of moving us and conveying messages that might not be as well received more directly and bluntly spoken. Gospel Shoes is a glimpse into the way “the world” sees the “culture wars” waged in the name of Christ, and it shows how the good news that God sent His son to save the world is completely obscured when people who call themselves Christians lose sight of what is important.