Reactive, proactive, and Truth

In the Not game but God about 3 week ago, I explored why the Heartiste article was off point on the topic of Jesus.

I’ve been thinking heavily about the situation because this is a Christian blog first and foremost. Thus, all responses should be filtered through the lens that is Scripture and God’s commands.

Since this is one of the Christian blogs that focuses on practical advice for men [and women] and may talk about such advice in relation to game and the mansophere, there must be a clearer delineation and understanding of what it means to be a Christian man or woman who are seeking first His kingdom.

I don’t want to be in the business of leading Christian men or women astray. Therefore, the onus falls upon me to ascertain what the Truth is and how to make it clearer in terms of examining the Scriptures and how they apply to our understanding and behavior.

That is the topic of what this article will seek to address.

1. Reactivity versus proactivity

Padre made some interesting comments which I’ve been mulling over for a while now and wanted to post some thoughts on them:

Reactionary, how unsurprising.

What CH was showing, or rather exposing, is how “Christians” are wonderful at reacting, never implementing in Faith. Does that mean sleeping w/scores of women?

Nope, our Leader has shown us how to NOT be speed bumps, and of course, it is rejected

How are you going to ever be bold in our faith when being reduced to clucking hens? CH sees it far better than we do

For example, how many here would rush to the defense of the condemned, instead of letting the waves of outrage wash over them and keep on keeping on.

Few, or none

When we examine what “game” we find that it is a logical secular (evil) response to feminism. That is women have quote unquote liberated themselves to the point where they set themselves up as their own idols.

However, “game” as perpetuated by players and gamers seeks to tear down this pedestal of women, and instead installs themselves on the pedestal. That is they become their own idol through emulation of the dark triad traits — narcisism, machiavellianism, and psychopathy.

Studies have confirmed that the dark triad traits are nearly universally attractive to women. Thus, it makes sense that if you want to sleep with many women you would use this reactive response in order to build attraction with women and ultimately get them into your bed.

Christians, however, are not called by Jesus to be reactive. The command issued by Jesus to Christians are clear that we are to be the proactive and the initiators as our witness in the world:

Matthew 5:2 He opened His mouth and began to teach them, saying, 3 “[b]Blessed are the [c]poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5 “Blessed are the [d]gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. 6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. 7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. 8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. 10 “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

And the rest of the Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 [e]Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you [f]always, even to the end of the age.”

John 14:15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

John 14:21 He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”

As you can see, we are not supposed to be reacting against different things that happen in the world. Rather, we are to take our stand on Jesus’ commands which are exemplified through our witness and ultimately loving God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength and loving one another as He loved us.

2. Reactivity, Proactivity, Reasoning, and Attraction

If we were to explore the base level of the difference between what is reactive and proactive, I think we have to look at the difference in reasoning.

There are two types of reasoning: inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning.

Inductive reasoning is “is reasoning in which the premises seek to supply strong evidence for (not absolute proof of) the truth of the conclusion. While the conclusion of a deductive argument is supposed to be certain, the truth of the conclusion of an inductive argument is supposed to be probable, based upon the evidence given.”

All scientific theories are based on inductive reasoning. Gravity, evolution, relativity, the big bang, etc are all types of inductive reasoning.

Deductive reasoning is “also deductive logic or logical deduction or, informally, “top-down” logic, is the process of reasoning from one or more general statements (premises) to reach a logically certain conclusion. Deductive reasoning links premises with conclusions. If all premises are true, the terms are clear, and the rules of deductive logic are followed, then the conclusion reached is necessarily true.”

Mathematical proofs are considered deductive reasoning.

As you can see, reactivity is based on the bottom-up approach of reasoning. That is we have observations we can make in this physical world — that women are with X type of men and they like Y type of behavior — thus this is what attracts women.

On the other hand, proactivity is predicated on having statements that are true and using them to get to a logical conclusion. For example, the Scriptures state that the husband is to be the head of the wife, she is to be his helpmeet, he is not supposed to have anyone before God in his life (especially woman on the pedestal instead of God), etc.

As Padre points out, the main problem with Christians today is that we rely too much on inductive reasoning and thus reactivity in our interactions with the world. This makes us lukewarm — we don’t have an opinion on something until we can figure out how to react to it. And most of the reactivity that lukewarm Christians do — especially Christian nice guys — may be hit or miss whether they follow the Scriptures or not.

Instead, as Christians we are called to be proactive and operate with deductive reasoning. Almost every single denomination of Christians hold the Scriptures to be the inspired Word of God to which we can instill those values inside of us in order to carry out our mission in the world. Our mission makes us proactive because we know what we are supposed to do.

This is the difference between the house build on the rock and the house built on the sand. Those that are proactive and utilize deduction via the Scriptures are embedded clearly upon the rock. Whereas those that are reactive and utilize induction have built their house upon the sand. It moves under them when they try to react because there is always some form of unsurity from inductive reasoning. Nothing is absolute.

This is not to say that reactivity and inductive reasoning are bad. They are indeed good because we need to be able to respond, but we are to always filter such things based on the proactivity and deductive reasoning of our mission first.

3. Truth

So where do we head from here?

Well, first we want to establish what is true through deductive reasoning:

1. The Scriptures establish commands via roles and responsiblities to both of the husband and wife in marriage.
2. Those that are unmarried that seek to live in a godly Christian marriage should strive to change themselves to conform to those roles (“take off the old and put on the new”).
3. Therefore, those Christians that aspire to be married should be seeking to learn and grow into these roles now — while they are single — in order to prepare themselves for a godly marriage.

This may be quite obvious, but that which is obvious is easily overlooked by most Christians.

Now that we have established the route that the single Christians are to take, what and the roles and responsibilities that are to be adhered to? Let’s look at the brief refresher.

Husbands:

• Love wife as Christ loved the Church and as his own body (Eph 5)
• Not be embittered to wife (Col 3)
• Head of wife (1 Cor 11, Eph 5)
• Provide for household (1 Tim 5) through work/toil (Gen 3)
• Do not provoke and discipline/instruct children (Eph 6)
• Live with in understanding way, and honor as co-heirs in Christ (1 Pet 3)
• Conjugal rights (1 Cor 7)

If a deacon/overseer:

1 Tim 3:2 [b]An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not addicted to wine [c]or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money. 4 He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity.

8 Deacons likewise must be men of dignity, not [e]double-tongued, [f]or addicted to much wine [g]or fond of sordid gain, 9 but holding to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. 10 These men must also first be tested; then let them serve as deacons if they are beyond reproach. […] 12 Deacons must be husbands of only one wife, and [i]good managers of their children and their own households. 13 For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a [j]high standing and great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.

Wives:

• Helpmeet (Gen 2)
• Desire for husband, rule over her (Gen 3)
• Husband is head (1 Cor 11)
• Submission to husband (Eph 5, Col 3, Tit 2, 1 Pet 3)
• Respect husband (Eph 5, 1 Pet 3)
• Love (philea not agape) husbands, love (philea not agape) children (Tit 2)
• Sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored (Tit 2).
• Do not nag, be contentious, quarrelsome, or fretful (Prov 19, 21, 25, 27)
• Of noble character (Prov 12)
• Gains his trust, does him good, works with her hands, provides food for household, does business, clothes household, generous to the needy, smiles, is wise and teaching with kindness with her mouth (Prov 31).
• Conjugal rights (1 Cor 7).

Now that we know what is truth we can start to explore that from a Scriptural point of view.

I’ve already started the series on the godliness of Jesus, but I will start to incorporate the deductive reasoning with these Truths into what Jesus is discussing.

Specifically, Jesus’ interactions with His disciples — not just the 12 or 70 but all of those who came to seek Him — which show the interactions of the Jesus-Church relationship before Jesus’ marriage to the Church.