Performance-based spirituality turns faith into public display, measuring holiness by image, approval, and visibility rather than humility, mercy, and inward transformation.
By Dr. Paul Louis Metzger
Founder and Director, The Institute for Cultural Engagement: New Wine, New Wineskins
Professor of Christian Theology & Theology of Culture, Multnomah University and Seminary
The Apostle Paul struggled with Phariseeism. Phariseeism, as I am defining it in this context, signifies fixation with external religious practices and confidence in one’s own “Superman” or “Superwoman” performance; such fixation replaces authentic confidence in God as the basis for one’s salvation.
In Paul’s day, certain religious leaders were getting inside the hearts and minds of Christians and getting them to move away from relational trust in Christ to confidence in the flesh. These religious leaders were seeking to convince Gentile Christians that faith plus circumcision equals salvation. For Paul, these religious leaders’ demand that Gentile Christians be circumcised signified the mutilation of relational trust. We find Paul discussing this problem and providing a response in Philippians 3:1-21.
I doubt many Gentile Christians today are debating whether or not to be circumcised to make sure they are saved. However, we often struggle with a more subtle form of performance-based spirituality expressed through a certain kind of Protestant work ethic. I wonder what Paul would have made of those attempts to assure ourselves of our salvation and adequacy as Christians through our spiritual performances and forms of religious expertise?
Performance-based spirituality is nothing new. ‘Faith plus circumcision’ is simply an old form of it. The age-old problem of performance and capacity-based spirituality vs. relational spirituality is alive and well. Forms of performance or capacity-based spirituality are more subtle today, though they are always relatively easy to measure. As my friend Joe Enlet has argued, “Too often our approach to spiritual formation is a series of ‘cut and paste’ activities. We start with a ‘sanitized’ view of the gospel and then we attempt to ‘match’ our living to that. This ignores the depth and complexity of life and breeds a static, performance-oriented spirituality of having all your ‘ducks in a row.’”
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