One of the traps people fall into is to switch the substance of something for the mere form, shadow or reflection of that thing. This short study will help you discern the distinction so you can look for substance and not be fooled by form.
Going Through the Motions
When something has lost its potency or effectiveness we tend to say that people are simply “going through the motions”. We know there will be no significant result. The process is a mere formality. All we have is the “form” of the thing, but not any substance.
A government enquiry, for example, may have no intention of dealing with the true underlying issues. The leaders may need to avoid true findings. So they set up an enquiry but limit it in some way, so it only goes through the motions, but does not come out with harmful findings.
A marriage may have lost all of its joy and the couple may just be going through the motions of a relationship, while not enjoying the substance which God intended for them.
Similarly a religious rite may have developed from some previously important process which has now lost all true significance. Now the devotees simply go through the motions, but there is not spiritual potency to the process.
Form Defeats Process
Things can lose their substance when people become distracted with form and give more attention to maintaining rituals than the productive purpose.
For example, imagine a public speaking group created to help members develop their public speaking. However, the group needs to be properly incorporated and have office bearers, a social secretary, a treasurer, a public officer, and so on. The process of maintaining the structure and attending to the procedures becomes so distracting that each time the group meets it has no time for its members to practice their public speaking.
The form of the group has defeated its purpose. The group may raise funds, advertise widely and be regarded as one of the best run speaking groups in the country, but that does not make up for the fact that it has no “substance” as a speaking group. It only has the form.
An Old Problem
This tendency is not a new problem. The issue of bureaucracy squeezing life out of processes has been with us since people ever began organising things.
The Apostle Paul described the issue of form defeating substance when he wrote to his apprentice, Timothy. Paul declared that men will hold the form, but deny the power that should be in the process.
“Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” 2Timothy 3:5
So there is a 2,000 year old reference to the problem of form replacing substance.
The True Problem
The real issue with form and substance starts in our heart. We happily exchange productivity for routine. It is not that bureaucrats create this problem. We all create the problem in the human heart.
We avoid personal responsibility, as Israel did at Sinai. When God came down and spoke to the whole nation from the mountain the people quickly delegated Moses to go and meet with God for them. They abandoned the substance of a personal encounter with God, preferring to have the form of their Jewish religion, but not face the full force of its reality.
Our “form” is akin to the fig leaves which Adam used to hide his failure. He did not want to face the real issue. This avoidance tendency is what feeds our love for “form” over “substance”.
Fake Food
Another analogy is the food we eat. Producers have worked out how to create large, crisp vegetables which have the ideal shape, size and colour. But in many of those vegetables and fruits the nutrition content is very low. I have heard of vegetables which have less than 25% of the normal nutritional content.
There we have the “form” of the fruit. It appeals to our eye and tempts us. But we have little of the “substance”. People eating scrawny, misshapen vegetables that they have grown without all the chemicals to supercharge the growth process, are getting much better nutrition, because they are eating real food.
The Plague of Form
Our devotion to form has spread like a plague and eaten up the substance of much that should be for our benefit. We have the form of a justice system where the substance of justice can be denied. We have the form of peace officers who are tied up enforcing policies, not protecting citizens. We have rules and protocols for everything, so that you can be denied your rights because you didn’t fill out the correct form.
We have corporations whose only concern is profit for their shareholders, not delivery of the substance of their product or service to their customers. We have megachurches caught up in maintaining the funding of their huge machinery, not on building God’s Kingdom. We have academic hoops which we must jump through, even though they have no bearing on how well they prepare us for an effective life or career.
In these and many other ways we see form becoming the central issue, displacing the substance which the form represents.
Demand Substance
The only way to get substance is to demand substance. If you are foolish enough to accept the form as if it is substance then you will end up empty. You won’t get whatever it is you are expecting.
It is personally up to you to choose substance, in all the different expressions of your life. If you let others deliver you their rules, protocols, bureaucratic systems, glossy imagery and empty form, then that can only be your choice.
It is time to start looking for substance and to stop being deceived by the form of things around us.
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