Dr. Harry Kraus is a practicing surgeon and a missionary with Africa Inland Mission, currently on home assignment. He is the author of eleven novels and two works of nonfiction, including Crossway’s Breathing Grace and The Cure. Kraus earned his MD degree from the Medical College of Virginia, completed his surgical internship and residency at the University of Kentucky, and has practiced medicine in Virginia and Kenya. Visit his web site at www.harrykraus.com for more information.
Dr. Kraus took a few minutes to speak with us about his newest book from Crossway, The Cure:
In the opening of The Cure, you say that we’ve strayed from the essence that defines us as Christians and left the main thing long behind while we strive forward. Busy. Fruitless. What do you mean? What is the main thing?
Dr. Kraus: The main thing is something so simple, so basic, that we often treat it as an “of course” and pass over it without thinking. LOVE is the main thing. But that concept is so distorted by our contemporary culture that it’s been left a dreamy emotion, a nebulous and fluffy feeling that we can’t get our minds around and therefore ignore in our preparations for the work of the church. But without it we are nothing. All our strategies, partnerships, efforts at contextualization, cell church, and programs are little more than an offbeat crashing of a cracked brass cymbal.
As a surgeon you use a lot of medical and physiologic metaphors as a part of your signature. Can you tell us a little bit about your use of DNA as an analogy?
Dr. Kraus: DNA is a wonderful molecule that carries the entire genetic instructions for an individual. It contains all of the messages that individual cells will carry out. It may be as simple as a message to the growing individual, “Be tall,” or a message to the eyes, “Be blue.” But sometimes the messages get scrambled. Poor nutrition, dehydration, lack of oxygen or rest, or a myriad of illnesses can get in the way of a DNA message. The message is blocked or distorted. In the case of the body of Christ, the message He is sending is LOVE. When that love isn’t being expressed, it’s not because the message isn’t being sent. We need to dissect below the surface and ask why. What is blocking the impulse of love that originates with our head, Jesus Christ?
In The Cure, you expand on the biblical metaphor of the church as the body of Christ. As a medical doctor, you shed light on many aspects of health maintenance that are needed to assure that the physical body will behave as intended. Do you really believe that the body of Christ is intended to love and that if the body is healthy, then love will be the natural fruit?
Dr. Kraus: Absolutely. Did you ever notice that after every major biblical passage speaking about the body of Christ comes a passage about love? I can’t believe that God would set the bar high above what He expects. If He says love is to define us, then it must be something available to all of us. If it isn’t happening, then we are likely ignoring some of the basic body maintenance issues that are hampering the flow of love.
Explain what you mean when you speak of the language of the great commission.
Dr. Kraus: Paul makes it pretty clear in 1 Corinthians 13 that all of our efforts at doing good, all of our life sacrifices, all of our generosity to the poor, etc., are nothing without love. Our efforts at evangelism, at fulfillment of the great commission, are flat dead works if they aren’t infused with love.
In your conclusion you state, “The central reason for the body of Christ metaphor used in the Bible is so that we will begin to see ourselves as the avenue for the impulses of God.” Can you explain what you mean?
Dr. Kraus: I’m just trying to restate the most liberating news of all: that love is what we’re called to do, but it doesn’t originate with us. All we have to do is be a channel! The channel doesn’t get the credit. Jesus does. The point about the body of Christ metaphor is that we are all different parts of the same whole. Under the same direction, a thyroid cell behaves differently than a liver cell and both of them behave differently from a muscle cell. What’s my point? Just that love has many faces and you don’t have to feel obligated to love the world around you just like the next Christian. A person with the gift of hospitality will love differently than the person with the gift of teaching. The person gifted with evangelism will love differently than the person who is gifted with helps ministry.
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