Posted on by Abe Austin

Inside Out- Internal Control

Yesterday we talked about the external influences that society puts on us, molding us into decent and productive citizens. We talked about how there is great good in this, and that we ought not to do away with it. However, we also discussed the limitations of external influence. How it can allow for a society of moral behavior, but inwardly immoral people. How it can be eroded, and when that happens, horrors follow.

Internal Control)

True stability in society requires internal control. It requires people to be inwardly converted to the principles of morality and civility, who will self-govern themselves, no matter what the laws or social norms say. Thus, laws of the land may be important, but laws of the heart even more so.

Consider how Jesus’s words align with this. “Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him; That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man,” (Mark 7:18, 20). We can infer that the opposite of this statement is also true, it is not that which goes into a man, but comes out of him, that justifies him and proves him good. It is the choices from the inner place, not the outer, that truly matter.

Notice, then, how sensible the work of missionaries and proselytizers is. They do not go to change public policy, to lobby for laws, to influence the external controls. They go to the individual, convict them of moral sin, reintroduce God to heal what is broken in the heart, and leave a soul that is personally committed to doing what is good. It is hard work and is only effective on those who are open to it, but it is the most important work to maintain the fabric of our societies, let alone the saving of souls.

A Warped Priority)

You would think that we as a people would have learned the importance of this work. That we would trust that as we focused on the individual soul, that the collective society would improve. That as we fixed what is inside, all of the outer peripheries would correct themselves on their own.

As one who gave two years of my life to missionary efforts, I can tell you that that is not the case at all. Opposition to proselyting efforts, and a desire to banish them is everywhere. Both from governments and individuals. Not only this, but we live in a time where people who do have a strong moral compass are often ridiculed or considered suspect. Instead, people crave more legislation, more external control, more outer force, particularly on those they disagree with.

As discussed yesterday, this is a very dangerous attitude to take. The more society discourages and tears down internal control, the more its people will be uprooted from true morality, the more wildly they will start to swing, and eventually they will surely fall to debauchery, perversion, and destruction.

In summary, this question of inner or outer moral convictions may seem a small and simple thing, but its long-term implications are far-reaching. All of us should be sharply aware of our own reliance upon internal or external controls, and also our society’s. And for both ourselves and others, the most important work is to heal the heart within, connect God to the inner man, and establish internal moral control.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Inside Out- External Control

When we try to modify a person’s behavior by external influence, we are trying to change them from the outside-in. When a person changes their behavior by a transformation of their personal values, they are being changed from the inside-out. You perhaps have heard of this concept in psychology as having an “external locus of control,” which is when behavior is controlled by outside influence, or an “internal locus of control,” which is when behavior is controlled by personal conviction. Today we will consider the benefits and shortcomings of the first of these and then examine the second one tomorrow.

Social Order)

An external locus of control is often presented as inferior to the internal, and it is, but that doesn’t mean that it is necessarily a bad thing. Punishments for crime serve as a deterrent for serious wrongs, and social pressure keeps us civil and fair in our everyday interaction. It’s impossible to say how much our conduct would deteriorate without these external influences, but most of our worst behavior comes out when we think we’re alone. Thus, external pressure helps us behave better, even if it doesn’t make us be better.

An external locus of control is part of the glue that holds a society together. It is first introduced to us when we are very small children, where we are made to follow rules like not hitting others, and sharing our toys, and saying polite things. It provides us a template for how to interact with the rest of the world to our mutual benefit, such as by maintaining positive relationships, remaining employed, and contributing to public safety.

As you can see, this external influence is not only about discouraging bad actions but also encouraging positive patterns that benefit everyone. As such, I think there will always be a place for it, and we can be grateful for the good that it does. That being said, it’s limitations must be acknowledged as well.

Morality Without Morals)

If each person had only an external locus of control, then it would be possible to have a society that was perfectly moral in its behavior, but where no one was actually moral. People would behave only because it was the most beneficial thing to do but would likely abandon all morals once there was an advantage to do so.

Now I do not believe in a society where everyone fits that description, but some of the people do. And I fear the percentage of people who are only moral because of social pressure is increasing. Jesus described such individuals when he said, “for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness,” (Matthew 23:27). Thus, we live in somewhat of an illusion of civility, and every now and again the mask slips, and we are terrified to realize that we live in a society dotted with psychopaths and monsters.

There are two great fears for the society that is primarily dependent on external controls for its morality. First, that those external controls will erode, and will be discarded one after another, until all pretenses of civility are gone. The second is that the people will simply become numb to the external controls. One fateful day, they just won’t care about them anymore, and once a significant percentage of people throw off common decency, even if they are a minority, it will become a snowball effect, a race to the bottom to maintain personal advantage at the expense of all others.

In short, there is real value in external influences for good, and I believe it is worth defending and strengthening them. But it is not the ultimate answer. For that, we must look to tomorrow’s post.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Held to Another’s Standards

No one wants to be held to another’s standards,
But they do want the rest of the world held to theirs.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Mote in the Other Eye- Surrendering the Outcome

Distrust of Others)

In my previous post I talked about the popular trend of pinning all of the world’s problems on someone else and never taking accountability for one’s own side. I also admitted how I, too, have fallen into that trend many times, and how my conscience and Jesus’s words have always been there to convict me it is wrong to stay there.

At the end of the last post, I mentioned that when I recognize my folly and tell myself to focus on the beam in my own eye, there is a part of me that is worried about what might happen if I do so. That fear is based on a profound distrust of the “other side.” If I’m not there to keep them in check, who will be?

This is because our culture’s “us vs them” mentality leads us to shore up our own side even as we’re tearing down the other. In order to strengthen our arguments, we make ourselves blind to our own failings, excusing them as inaccurate or unimportant. So, now if I focus my energies on correcting myself instead, then that’s one less voice keeping the other side honest. Imagine if everyone on my side turned to self-introspection. We might take care of all the problems over here, but the other side’s problems will abound unfettered.

The Need for Surrender)

Well…yes, there is that potential outcome. There are other, more optimistic outcomes, but there is no guarantee of them. I do trust that good will ultimately prevail, but there is the possibility that if I focus on improving myself, the other side will run rampant in the meantime, and things will get worse for a while.

What this means, then, is that focusing on the beam in my own eye is not only an exercise in humility, but also a leap of faith. It means doing what is right in my own sphere with the hope, not the guarantee, that things will work out for the best because of it.

For this reason, I think an excellent companion to Jesus’s words on removing the beam from our own eyes is his later injunction that “if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me,” Matthew 16:24. Once again, he’s talking about picking up our own cross, denying our own self. And his use of the word “cross” makes clear that this is something hard, painful, and even dangerous.

Let’s take a moment to take these abstract concepts and personalize them. Just what would you call “your side,” and what would you call the “other side?” Conservatives? Liberals? The Patriarchy? Feminists? White supremacists? DEI peddlers? Colonizers? Immigrants? Whichever tribe you belong to, I’m sure that if you were honest there’s some house cleaning that is needed over there. Would you be willing to take up your cross and focus on the beam in your own eye? Would you be willing to stop hammering the other side as you set your gaze inward? It’s a lot to ask…but it is what is asked.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Control You Give to God

The control you give God over your life
When times are good
Is the control God has to save your life
When times are evil

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 16:19-21

19 And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning.

20 Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was wroth with them.

21 And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted.

God gave a second piece of instruction, that the people were not to gather excess and store it for the next day. Every day a person would receive exactly what they needed, and no more, and the next day they would trust God to provide for them again. But some of the people did not listen. They did gather extra, they retained it through the night, and the next morning it was filled with worms and rotten.

Once again, the symbolism is clear. God had arranged this situation to teach a lesson that the people were to live by His grace alone. Going to bed every night and rising every morning would be an act of faith, trusting that there would be manna waiting for them each time. If there wasn’t…things would be very bad for them, but they would learn that they could count on God providing what they needed each day.

This, of course, goes directly against the instinct to provide for oneself. Rather than trust on the Lord tomorrow, some of the Israelites would rather have relied on their efforts the day before. They saw an opportunity to go beyond their mandate and build their own security. We also do this when we are distracted from God by our own strategies for happiness and security. The result for us, as it was for the Israelites, was rot and waste. All of our Godless goods became food for the worm. As a general rule for life, stale excess sooner or later summons the devourers.

Jesus spoke on this very matter in Luke 12. He warned against those who took too much thought for their gain when he recounted the parable of a rich man whose fields produced an excessive abundance, and who spent his time planning out the grand, new barns he would build to hold the surplus. Said the man, “And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?” (Luke 12:19-20).

It is better to live moment-to-moment by God’s grace than to pave a road of our own design. For God’s grace cannot be thwarted, but all our designs will be.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 10:8-11

8 And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh: and he said unto them, Go, serve the Lord your God: but who are they that shall go?

9 And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we must hold a feast unto the Lord.

10 And he said unto them, Let the Lord be so with you, as I will let you go, and your little ones: look to it; for evil is before you.

11 Not so: go now ye that are men, and serve the Lord; for that ye did desire. And they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence.

I mentioned yesterday how Pharaoh’s question “…but who are they that shall go?” sounded to me like he felt a need to deny the Israelites something. Perhaps he couldn’t let them get away with everything that they wanted. Perhaps he had to find some lingering piece that he could hold onto to maintain his sense of pride and control.

And so when Moses responded that all of them would go: the young and the old, the sons and the daughters, even the flocks and the herds, Pharaoh might have felt compelled to limit that somehow. “Not so: go now ye that are men,” he told them, reducing it to the smallest demographic possible. None of the women, none of the children, none of the livestock, only the men. And then there was no further discussion. Moses and Aaron ware promptly “driven out from Pharaoh’s presence.”

Of course, Pharaoh might have seen this restriction as necessary to make sure that the slaves wouldn’t try to escape into the wilderness. Which, of course, was exactly what they planned to do, and what Pharaoh would ultimately have to submit to if he wanted the curses to end.

Pharaoh’s servants had pleaded with him to comply with the Israelites so that they could have relief from the plagues. Pharaoh had made an initial show of submitting to God, but couldn’t fully surrender himself in the end. He was still trying to restrict and control. I have to assume that he knew exactly what would follow: the Lord would refuse Pharaoh’s terms and send the promised plague. Pharaoh may not have wanted to fight, but he wasn’t ready to surrender, so he had to be broken even further.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 5:13-14

13 And the taskmasters hasted them, saying, Fulfil your works, your daily tasks, as when there was straw.

14 And the officers of the children of Israel, which Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten, and demanded, Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday and to day, as heretofore?

We see in these verses what is now a well-known method for breaking a community. The taskmasters are made responsible by Pharaoh for the Israelites fulfilling his impossible command, the taskmasters in turn beat the Israelite officers when the people fall short, and the officers are motivated to turn against their own flock and punish them as well. By only punishing the first layer of the Israelite hierarchy, they hoped to have the punishments progressively dispersed to the entire nation. Like a bit in a horse’s mouth, the entire creature is made to turn by a minimal effort.

The question that the taskmasters gave to the Israelite officers shows a most heartless attitude. “Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task?” As if they did not know! This was a question that didn’t want an answer. It was actually a statement. A statement that the taskmasters were not going to acknowledge the reality of the situation. They were going ignore the impossibility of the task, and any attempt to blame the requirements as unrealistic would not be considered acceptable. It was a message to the Israelites that they needn’t expect fairness or justice from Egypt.

But that was exactly what the Israelites sought for next, taking a petition to Pharaoh for the burdens to be lessened. Perhaps they did not understand the writing on the wall, or perhaps they saw no other recourse. In either case, we will hear of their plea to Pharaoh in tomorrow’s verses.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Change in Others

Always trust that others can change,
But never think that you can make them.
Transformation will come from within or not at all.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Thought for the Day- Control of Self

To control the behavior of others is far less remarkable than to control the behavior of oneself.

Any simple tyrant can exert control over others without any personal inconvenience whatsoever. Controlling the self, on the other hand, always requires enormous sacrifice and self-abnegation.