Chapter 7 Summary: The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard

The Community of Prayerful Love

In chapter 7 of The Divine Conspiracy* Jesus continues his talk on the “strategic progression on the nature of true blessedness and well-being in the kingdom of God.”

Thus far we have learned about how God sees humanity; namely, as bless-able. We have learned the importance of laying aside anger & contempt, cultivation of lust, manipulation as a means of getting our way. In the previous chapter he dealt with two things that hinder growth in the kingdom; 1) seeking approval of others, and 2) forsaking dependence upon material wealth. Having followed his progression we are now ready to learn about growth into a community through prayerful love, and be empowered to offer help to those in need.

“Do not judge,” Jesus begins, “so that you may not be judged.” First off we must remember that when Jesus issues forth words that sound like impossible laws, he is suggesting that we can become the kind of people who are able to do what he says. So always keep the natural progression of his teachings in mind. It is also important to define what Jesus meant by “judge.”

In our day judging is all-together viewed as wrong. You simply should not do it, says society. This, however, is to misunderstand what Jesus was saying. The judging that Jesus referred to is better defined as condemnation. There is a way to judge without condemning; the dentist, for example, does this when she discerns that we have a cavity while inspecting our teeth. She looks and makes a judgement, but does so without condemning.

Condemnation, on the other hand, is judgement thats “communicates that [the other] is, in some deep and just possibly irredeemable way, bad—bad as a whole, and to be rejected. In our eyes the condemned is among the discards of human life. He or she is not acceptable. We sentence that person to exclusion.” From time to time we will say that a house is condemned. We are saying something about the nature of the whole house. All of it is bad and unsafe to dwell in. Now replace the house with a person. That is condemnation.

Still, for many people condemnation is something used for righteous reasons. They want to correct a certain act, and so they use condemnation to do it. This tool is used from parenting to pulpit to ”help” people; but rarely—if ever—does it work. But, as the definition above suggests, it routinely alienates, and results in counter condemnation. What goes around comes around.

How, then, can we help without condemning? Jesus answers this question with another illustration that his listener’s would never forget.

“Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3). In this illustration Jesus is describing a situation where someone sees a person in need—a speck is in their eye. The problem is the person wanting to help has an entire log in their eye.

Simply imagining what happens to the vision of a person with a log in their eye will help us understand what Jesus is saying. The log in the eye is condemnation. The person with condemnation in their eye, as it were, is incapable of seeing the one in need for who they are—a person created in the image of God. And until the “log” is removed they will not know how to help in a helpful way.

It is also important to note that the other person does have a “speck” in their eye. The trend nowadays is to say, “once you remove your log you will discover that nobody has specks because the world looks like a forest when a tree is in your eye.” That sounds pretty, but it doesn't fit into the context of what Jesus is teaching. This portion of the discourse is about helping others. But the help they need cannot come from a condemning one. Indeed, the apostle Paul advises that it should be “the spiritual ones” (Galatians 6:1) who seek to help; for they know how to do so without condemning. They have become the kind of people who simply do not condemn.

So then, how do we help?

We help by praying. But not only to God, we also pray to those we are in contact with; for prayer is simply asking. Jesus confirms this by having the first two “prayers” in vv. 9-11 be directed towards humans; it is only the last one that is to God.

So we help by asking how we may help, by doing this we recognize the freedom of the other, and we do not impose ourselves, and our helpfulness, upon them. What often happens when one imposes help, even with good intentions, is that they now become the problem in place of the actual problem and the person lashes out (with counter condemnation or more) at them.

This is why Jesus suggests that we should be wise as serpent’s and harmless as doves. “What is the wisdom of the snake? It is to be watchful and observant until the time is right to act. It is timeliness. One rarely sees a snake chasing its prey or thrashing about in an effort to impress it. But when it acts, it acts quickly and decisively. And as for the dove, it does not contrive. It is incapable of intrigue. Guile is totally beyond it. There is nothing indirect about this gentle creature. It is in this sense ‘harmless.’”

This focus on asking is the means for vital growth in community together, but even moreso with God. “Asking is the essence of prayer because it illustrates the dynamic nature of the relationship we have with the creator of all things.” Through prayer we learn that we have, not an immovable God who just wants to be asked, but a God who “can be prevailed upon by those who faithfully stand before him.”

In prayer we discover a relationship with God that is more intimate than that of parent and child, for he is the perfect parent who knows us better than we know ourselves. It (prayer) is, therefore, vital in spiritual (trans)formation; for Jesus “teaches us how to be in prayer what we are in life and how to be in life what we are in prayer.”

Since prayer is so important we should be grateful that the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to do it (Luke 11:1). As one learns to pray from Jesus we see how the soul is formed and grows closer to God.

So Jesus begins his lesson on prayer with the important recognition of the nearness of God, “Our father, the one in the heavens.” As we discussed in an earlier chapter, this bolsters the idea that God is not way out there, but he is in my atmosphere. He is loving and nearby, that is extremely comforting.

He then lists five requests. “The first two are about God’s place in the human realm… The next three requests concern personal needs we all need help with: food and basic sustenance; relational hurt and injury; the trials of life.”

Because we are oh so familiar with the King James model of this prayer Dallas provided what might be a common way to say it. Maybe you can read it in your bible and make one for yourself that follows Jesus’ model.

“Dear Father always near us, may your name be treasured and loved, may your rule be completed in us— may your will be done here on earth in just the way it is done in heaven. Give us today the things we need today, and forgive us our sins and impositions on you as we are forgiving all who in any way offend us. Please don’t put us through trials, but deliver us from everything bad. Because you are the one in charge, and you have all the power, and the glory too is all yours— forever— which is just the way we want it!”

*Buy The Divine Conspiracy. NOTE: This post contains affiliate links to the books referenced. Should you choose to use these links, I may earn affiliate commissions at no additional cost to you. Thank you for reading; I appreciate your support!