I’ve seen it coming for a few weeks now. We are renovating an older house and have reached that stage when a multitude of choices need to be made. And the first is skirting boards. And that will be a decision that effectively sets the pattern for all the other woodwork in the house.

The house is probably around 130 years old but it is a quirky property – certainly not typical of the Victorian era! – standing between two modern houses and on a road where no property looks like its neighbour.

*

I began by searching out pictures of the house as it was when we bought it. Goodness, how little attention we actually paid to the skirting boards when we were viewing. Pictures still available online confirmed that there was no uniform theme. The boards were a mixture of Victorian, Edwardian and modern. Maybe the previous occupants had simply chosen the easiest to find or the cheapest to buy. Forget authenticity, just do what is easiest.

We then looked for some online guidance. I learned that the height of a skirting board should be 1/18th the height of the room. I’m not sure what is so special about an 18th, so I suppose it simply represents a proportion our eyes have got used to. After mentally filing that piece of information away it soon became clear that the most common advice was to choose the design that predominated in the era the house was built. Be authentic, but only in order to preserve tradition and avoid looking different.

This was followed by a discussion with the very experienced carpenter who is currently designing new balustrades and handrails for the stairs. What motifs was he planning to use? Was there something in his mind that he feels would suit the house best? We soon discovered that he most certainly has ideas, and that they are different to our preferences from the Howdens catalogue. Rather than try to persuade us, he is going to make and fix all the woodwork in one of the smallest rooms for us to see for ourselves. “When you see it I’m confident you’ll agree” we were assured. Consider the options carefully but be open to others who might know better.

Three very different approaches to a desire to be authentic.

*

The Collective is united around three values, and I find Living Authentically the hardest to pin down. Are we aiming to live authentically according to a definition we’ve agreed in advance? No. Maybe the closest we’ve got to defining what we mean is that we’re united in a common aim to follow Jesus. This, of course, begs a further question: which Jesus? Each theological tradition tends to focus on different aspects of Jesus’ teaching and ministry. And theological traditions aren’t known for their generosity to each other. So is Living Authentically a point of tension between us? Again, no. I think this demonstrates our shared understanding that, as long as carefully considered differences of opinion exist, the most loving path should be woven between them. 

This doesn’t mean we’re afraid to become clearer on what we believe. Listening Well and Thinking Deeply makes that journey inevitable. If there is a distinction to be made I think it is that Living what we believe is more important to us than Defining it. Living always involves a degree of fuzziness around the edges, and it is at the edges we meet people who think differently and we might disagree with. Disagreements usually bring opportunities to learn, either that we need to rethink or how to disagree respectfully.

Let us spend some time exploring what Jesus might say about Living Authentically.

*

There is a popular idea that the Old Testament is all about laws and that authentic living should simply be defined as trying keep them. Many of Jesus’ critics jumped on this bandwagon when they accused him of lawbreaking, an opinion that must have been solidified by his encouragement to adopt a human-centred approach to law-keeping, where he considered the well-being and needs of people to be paramount. This, he insisted, was fulfilling its purpose, even whilst technically seeming to break its letter. This seems to call into question any idea that authentic Christian living is a simple matter of keeping a set of rules.

One of the defining choices made by Jesus was away from the all too human preference for sticks: limiting bad choices by the use of rules and punishments; in favour of carrots: choose to live by positive values and listen for the Spirit to guide you. Is this a change of focus and how might his ideas help us live authentically?

The way John recalls Jesus’ teaching about the ministry of the Spirit was not as divergent from stories recorded in the Old Testament as we might think. Read Deuteronomy 30 for example. In it we find a series of clear instructions, but alongside these there is reasoning behind the rules along with promises that their author really wants things to go well when cause inevitably leads to effect. There are rules, there is persuasive reasoning, and a clear desire for the same living and flourishing relationship Jesus speaks of:

“Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him.”¹

So how are these verses significantly different to the teaching of Jesus? What Jesus says is necessary, but not that different to the listening and holding fast in the passage above, is that there is one who will show us how to live wisely who lives in us and will guide us if we are attentive. I have recently written about the way I understand the Spirit speaks to us in my personal blog:

“How does the Spirit go about this? Surely through what is often called our conscience, which is actually a pretty complex mixture of messages received though our upbringing, feelings of both true and false guilt which can be a mixed bag in terms of usefulness to us,² personal memories of cause and effect and a resulting awareness that all our actions will have certain social and legal consequences, a desire to do good that can be nurtured, and a decision of the will to take what Jesus teaches seriously.”³

But don’t get the idea that The Old Testament is harsh and Jesus makes things easy. This common misconception misses the point that Jesus’ teachings often went beyond the literal interpretation of the law, again revealing its intent, but challenging his followers to live by higher standards of righteousness. This reveals the weakness of obedience-by-numbers as a way of living authentic Christian lives: rules can’t help us know how to do the right thing in every situation. So they end up disempowering and condemning us. The Spirit is everything the law can never be.⁴

So the best guide to living authentically is like the advice my experienced carpenter gave me yesterday. Consider the options carefully but be open to guidance from within, and also from those we trust.

With this understanding in place, I agree with the conclusion reached by Paul who describes the way to live an authentically Christlike lifestyle using words which many theologians are wary of and some teachers I have known tend to dismiss as antinomian, and therefore dangerous:

“So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants… the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.…the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.”⁵

*

One final thought, rounding off what has already been an overly long post. If Living Authentically has a relational foundation, and the definer of right/wrong-best/worst in any given context is the Spirit of God, everything I wrote in the middle section above is of vital importance. There are some choices that are always right, and some others that will always be wrong, but most of the time our calling is to remain attentive and be kind to each other. 

If you think that is weak advice please ask me to tell you a story if ever we meet. “When you hear it I’m confident you’ll agree.”

1. Deuteronomy 30:19-20. ↩︎
2. Many years ago I found the Book Guilt and Grace by Paul Tournier to be a very helpful source of wisdom as to the difference between true and false guilt. ↩︎
3. https://craigmillward.substack.com/p/conviction ↩︎
4. Romans 6-8. ↩︎
5. Galatians 5:16-18; 22-25. ↩︎

Free image credit: Nolan Isaac from Unsplash.