Department of Church Efficiency? (Part Three)
For several years, Sen. Rand Paul (KY), among others, has called for an audit of Fort Knox. If you are unfamiliar, Fort Knox in Kentucky is the site that holds the largest gold reserve in the world at 147.3 million troy ounces, equating to over $4,000,000,000 (4 Billion!). That is not all that surprising when you consider the United States is the wealthiest nation in the world. Yet, the largest deposit of gold in the United States has not been audited since 1974, that is 51 years ago. In that time, we have amassed such a great deal based not on gold, but on the faith that the government of the United States will pay its bills.
Paul said,
"I think some of them may not think it needs to be audited all the time, but I think the more sunlight, the better, more transparency, the better. And also, it brings attention to the fact that gold still has value and implicitly, not explicitly, but implicitly, gold still gives value to the dollar,"
I can see why Sen. Paul and the Department of Government Efficiency are interested in auditing to make sure what is supposed to be there is there.
The Active Do Not Fear the Audit
So how can we apply this scenario in the Lord's church? We should not only seek audits of where each item on the church budget goes. We need to set our minds on audits in a spiritual sense. Each congregation and each eldership will not be judged by the amount of fiat currency in some account; each will be judged on what they did with what they had. No one doing right by God and man should ever fear an audit. Rather, as we grow and mature in the Lord, we ought to take the initiative to audit ourselves before we try and audit another.
Matthew 25 records Jesus telling of the parable of the talents. As you will recall three men were left as stewards of their master's wealth as he went to a far country. The first two men took the investment their master made in them and collected a profit for their master. These two men when faced with an audit were able to present the evidence of profit for their master. Yet, the one-talent man hid away his master's talent because of fear. When the Master returned he was not satisfied and the servant proceeded to blame the master for being harsh. It is not harsh in the negative sense to expect a return on investment. If you put money in a retirement account, you rightfully expect a return.
The Lord invests life in each of us. We are all answerable to someone. We are accountable to our parents, spouses, elders, and of course our Master. Simply put, we will face audits in this life and at the judgment (cf. Rom 14:12; Matt 12:36). We must not use fear as an excuse to not get a return on our master's investment.
The Fruit-Bearer Does Not Fear an Audit
It is very concerning that some members of our government have an aversion to audits of departments. It should be more concerning to the Christian that we have the same unwillingness to comply. How does this happen? One way is that when we study God's Word we make all the application relative to someone else. We may even be tempted to think of how someone else is not doing what a certain passage says or that they are doing something a certain passage forbids.
Jesus said,
And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me cast out the mote out of thine eye; and lo, the beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
(Matt. 7:3-5)
The Lord directs us to conduct a self-audit here. We must first attend to the beams in our own eyes. When we handle our issues then we can help our brother. We must remove the impediment in our vision to help our brother in a precise audit of his own. Perhaps this is needed more than ever in the United States. There are times I fear that because of our great wealth, we think ourselves higher than we ought as our financial blessings render some partially blind to the depths of their spiritual poverty. This is true in the general public and even among members of the church. Meanwhile, there are brethren in this country and around the globe who are spiritually rich though very impoverished.
We cannot function in our lives without some form of audit. How else will we know if we are fruitful workers? Galatians 5:22-23 reads, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control; against such there is no law." When was the last time you audited love in your life? Are we loving our God, the brethren, our neighbor as the Bible teaches? Would you pass an audit on joy? We have so much to be joyous about because of the goodness of God. Would you pass a long-suffering audit? Your Father in Heaven is patient with you. Do you have a right to be impatient with your brother for whom Christ died? Do you fear a faithfulness audit? What work are you doing for the kingdom today? Perhaps self-control is one of those items on a fruit audit that influences the presence of all others. If you fail to have self-control it is hard to exercise peace, kindness, goodness, and meekness.
Jesus explained in Mathew 6:19-21 that the proper place for our treasures is in heaven. If we were to audit our homes, meeting houses, and attitudes, would we find merely earthly treasures with little heavenly fruit? Are we focusing on what we must do as workers in the vineyard of the Lord rather than looking at everyone else and criticizing them? Are we so disturbed by the suggestion of an audit in our own lives that we attack the auditor or push for an audit of someone else? Brethren, this cannot be. We must not wait 51 hours, days, months, or years. Begin the audit of yourself today and let's go to heaven together.
Grace and Peace,
R.D. Beavers
