Chapter 1: The 1 Rule
I’m a sucker for interesting facts. Whenever I’m asked to give an interesting fact about myself, I have a few go-to answers. One of mine is the college I attended. It was unique.
There are many ‘most interesting things’ about the college I attended. For starters, it’s one of three all-male schools left in the country. By comparison, there are at least a dozen all-female schools. The school is made up of around 800 men and it’s not a religious seminary—not in the slightest. The school has one of the longest school fight songs in the country and nearly every young man who attends can sing it for you (it’s seared into every young man’s brain by a yearly competition among the freshmen from each living unit called Chapel Sing). Every year, the football team plays the Monon Bell game against Depauw. It’s one of Division 3 football’s biggest rivalries, bringing out 10+ thousand fans each year. The school’s mascot is the Little Giant, coined for their ability to play and compete against the equivalent of Division 1 schools (before there were such distinctions). These could all be the most interesting things about the school, but in my opinion, they’re not. There’s one more thing that I think is more interesting than any of these facts.
The most interesting thing about Wabash College is that it only has one rule. Yes, you read that right: one rule. Most educational institutions have booklets, binders, handbooks, scrolls upon scrolls with rule after rule after rule after rule that you wince to carry as you haul them back to your dormitory (and never look at them again unless you get into trouble). They have rules for how you can or can’t dress, what you can or can’t say, how many times you can miss class, how many times you can be late to class, who can be in your room, and who can’t be in your room, and a hundred thousand other rules.
Wabash has one rule. As a student, I remember hearing how hard it was for Wabash to keep it that way since having only one rule seemed legally perilous. But they stuck to it and I’m glad they did. You’re probably wondering now, what’s the rule? What rule could possibly be enough for an entire school to function properly? Here’s the rule:
The Gentleman’s Rule: “The student is expected to conduct himself at all times, both on and off campus, as a gentleman and a responsible citizen.”
That’s it. That’s the only rule at Wabash.
With one rule, Wabash conducts itself as a highly respected school for young men. If you’re wondering how such a short rule could govern an entire school, here are a few reasons: It does several things at once. It’s open to interpretation, which produces natural conversation and debate. In the end, the Deans of the school have the final say on what is or is not acceptable behavior for a Gentlemen, which is convenient for them. Still, it creates a culture of constant conversation and a thing to be worked on together. While rule books describe the lowest acceptable level of behavior, the gentleman’s rule inspires you to a higher level of behavior. It’s simple and memorable and known by every person on campus.
To be clear, Wabash is no utopia. Not by a long shot. Wabash experiences plenty of the same behavior issues other colleges do. Students regularly make dumb choices and face the consequences. While the lowest level of behavior at Wabash is probably not much different from your average college in America, there is something about the way Wabash men own for themselves this mantle of being a gentleman and living up to the highest possible standard that is uncanny. I have witnessed men who, upon entering Wabash, had little motivation to perform or excel, who were then transformed and inspired to be men of character and accomplishment. It inspired me. It was an ideal to live up to. A rule, but one I wanted to own for myself. Instead of requiring me to live up to a bare-minimum standard, it gave me a level of virtue to aspire to.
The Deans used to joke that you could get into trouble for not opening the door for your date. I never saw it happen, but there was something about the possibility that changed the dynamic of the rule. To this day, those words ring in my ears when I take my wife out for dinner. It’s a reminder to be a gentleman, not just by opening the door, but by acting like the kind of man who opens the door for his wife.
The Gentleman’s rule wielded more power than any student handbook could. How? How does one simple rule do so much? I believe it has something to do with the deep desire inside each of us to embody an ideal. I desire to be known as a gentleman. That is powerful. And however you define the word, every attempt made at embodying that word is an attempt at being a better man.
It’s ugly out there.
It doesn’t take a special degree to see the ugly state of leadership in the United States of America. Politicians say whatever they can to raise their level of prominence – who cares if it’s true or if it contradicts what they said a week prior. Ideological silos are created and used to divide us by people who are more concerned with their clout than they are with their character. Faith leaders slip into the church of popularity only to fall because their character can’t hold up their influence. The church of fame has never had so many worshipers.
This leadership vacuum has been created by the drug of popularity. Add to it the culture-war weapons wielded by so many and all seems lost. You know the ones: Cancel culture, LGBTQ+ rights, abortion, whether the Left or the Right is more Christian, and the list goes on and on and on. The division is frightening and we all know it isn’t healthy.
Christians especially have fallen victim to this: We don’t know who we’re supposed to be. Wouldn’t a Christian care about these important issues? Wouldn’t a Christian vote for the candidate who is doing their best to instill our values in this country? Wouldn’t a Christian oppose someone with obviously flawed character? Wouldn’t a Christian choose not to associate with people who so obviously hold opinions counter to ours? It sure seems like the prominent opinion of our day. Except it’s not very Christian.
What is a Christian?
If you want the literal definition of the word, Christian means “Little Christ.” That’s how the term came about. According to the Bible, it was first coined in Antioch. Historians believe it was meant as an insult. The Christians there were the annoying “Little Christs” and no one knew what to do with them. You couldn’t label them. They were a conglomeration of different cultural groups with varying socioeconomic backgrounds. The only way they could describe them was through the person they claimed to follow: Jesus. Someone they believed had risen from the dead. Kind of like how Wabash College got the nickname Little Giants… These Jesus followers in Antioch found themselves labeled as Christians… little Jesuses. And it stuck.
There’s something powerful about identity. To say, “this is who I am” gives a person a sense of self, meaning, and purpose. I don’t have to tell you how central these things are. Meaning and purpose and identity fill the self-help aisles of book stores everywhere. It’s the question we’re all asking, “Who am I?” “What am I here for?” It’s what made the Gentleman’s rule so powerful. To say, “I’m a Wabash man” means something to me. It means living as a man of character. It means being generous and curious and a host of other things. Here’s my question for you: What does saying, “I’m a Christian” mean to you? Go on, think about it. Write it down even.
While you’re thinking about it, I want to be clear about something. If you say that you’re a Christian and own that label… that definition. If that’s who you are, then it means something to other people too.
It means you are a representative of Jesus to them. In other words, you are what Jesus looks like to them.
I know… it’s uncomfortable to think about. But it’s true. And there’s a lot here that we’ll get to in later chapters, but for now, let that sink in a little more as we revisit the question, what does it mean for you to say, “I’m a Christian?”
There are a lot of tempting answers to this question. We might be tempted to say it means we vote a certain way. It might mean we refrain from using certain language or doing certain actions or ingesting certain substances. It might even mean that we go to church on Sundays. As a pastor, I’m a firm believer that participating in a church community is good for you, but ultimately none of those things are it. Those are the results of our identity, but they’re not our identity. These are the low-bar outcomes of a rule-book faith.
A Christian is a new creation. A person who has been born a second time, having died to their own sinful nature through forgiveness, grace, and mercy provided by the powerful act of Jesus conquering death and sin on the cross and in the empty grave. A Christian is a person who has God’s Holy Spirit living inside of them. A Christian is a little Jesus. That is who we are. That’s who you are. You are nothing less than that.
But there’s a catch (there’s always a catch, isn’t there?). Here’s the catch: If you have chosen to become a disciple of Jesus – a person who, as Dallas Willard puts it, is an “Apprentice of Jesus” then it will show and it will be expected. Jesus had a master plan. It’s why he had to die and be raised to new life instead of staying with us in person forever. Jesus said it himself, “But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment” (John 16:7-8 NLT). Jesus’s master plan was to fill the world with people who had his Holy Spirit (the Advocate) living within them so they could walk around this world as light and salt – as people who look and taste like Jesus. People who embody him. People who represent Jesus to the world. People who, by the way they live, would convict others, show off God’s righteousness to others, and make clear that God is in charge. Jesus’ master plan was to fill the world with ambassadors for him who were so loving, so filled with God’s peace, grace, and righteousness, that people couldn’t help but be captured by that love. The catch is this: we represent Jesus.
This brings me to my point and the reason for these words. As Christians, we are called to Represent Jesus Well. In Colossians 3:17 it says, “And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father”(Colossians 3:17 NLT). How’s that going for us? How’s that going for you? I tell you what, it’s challenging.
Jesus famously said, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments”” (Matthew 22:37-40 NLT). Anything we say about representing Jesus well has to both start and end with these words. As I look around and peruse any social media platform or news outlet, I find this very beginning step of representing Jesus well lacking.
What’s our deal? Why do we prioritize culture-war conflict over Jesus’ greatest commandment?
The answer to this problem is both simple and nuanced. We’re not going to dwell too much on the cultural problem because the solution to the problem has nothing to do with condemning or complaining about politicians or inflammatory social media posts. The solution will only come from you and me. If we take the time to consider it, we know the solution has everything to do with us living a life worthy of our calling. It starts with us owning this guiding principle of Representing Jesus Well.