We Cheat Students When We Confuse Grace And Wrath

In the last post, I listed a few initial ideas to help address the problem of academic cheating among Chinese Christians. Here are a few more suggestions.

Don’t confuse grace and wrath

When I have argued for consistent enforcement in the past, I have heard colleagues cry out, “You have to give them grace!!” My question is simply this: When did discipline and accountability cease being considered grace? Doesn’t Hebrews 12 tell us that God’s disciplines those he loves as sons? Isn’t it for the sake of building us up?

By “grace,” I fear some people practically mean blind tolerance. If standards are not enforced, then is there any practical difference? In Romans 1, Paul does not call this grace. Instead, he calls it God’s wrath (cf. Rom 1:18–32). God gave them up to debased thinking and actions.

Have Higher Expectations

Don’t patronize the Chinese church––or anyone else. I sometimes hear students complain about the amount of work required for accredited seminary education. They don’t have to do that much work in typical non-accredited training centers. I then give them my speech that I will not belittle Chinese Christians as if they can’t handle the same standards as the rest of the world. How then will the Chinese church lead the world in reaching the world? How will China produce great biblical thinkers and strategists?

It won’t come by having low expectations and even lower standards of accountability.

Focus on God’s Honor than Human Face

Whatever we do, whether we eat or drink, we should do it to the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31). It’s not primarily about our churches, the number of new churches we see, or a degree. We need to raise the bar when it comes to motives. We should be concerned with God’s reputation.

Do our actions, policies, strategies, and teachings actually reflect this?

Understand How Face Works

“Face” is more than a mere synonym for pride. I’m concerned too many foreigners trivialize this concept. As a result, they don’t go deeper to understand the underlying web of motives and perceptions. Therefore, we also miss the chance of speaking the gospel in a way that makes sense to an Eastern thinker. This was a big reason I wrote Saving God’s Face.

Take Out the Systemic Splinters from Our Eyes

How will anyone take cheating seriously when people brush off similar offenses in other areas of life? For example, how many Christians are contributing to the problem by buying pirated movies and music?

I’ve heard some pitiful justifications, like “Well, they don’t really enforce the law”, “How else can I get movies?” and “But it’s so much more expensive in iTunes!” You would think we were talking about food as if entertainment were essential for survival.

I could write a few blogs on this one. I’ll just leave it at that for now.

Photo Credit: CC 2.0/commons.wikimedia