What Is Christian Unity (Build Up Part 2)

 I got a lot of really good questions about unity after last week’s sermon. Does unity mean we never confront sin? Do we just ignore false teaching?  Does unity mean we avoid any type of tension at any cost? So this Sunday I am going to offer four points to clarify what biblical Christian unity looks like.

 1) Christian Unity Is Between Christians

“As a prisoner of the Lord, I urge you: Live a life that is worthy of the calling He has graciously extended to you.  Be humble. Be gentle. Be patient. Tolerate one another in an atmosphere thick with love.  Make every effort to preserve the unity the Spirit has already created, with peace binding you together.” (Ephesians 4:1-3)

We should show Christian love to everyone, but we simply can’t have the kind of unity that should happen between disciples of Christ with those who are not also disciples.  I have great friends who do not share my allegiance to Christ. We unite around other things - a love of philosophy, sports, books, social issues - but we don't unite around Christ.Unity must be with regard to something. Saying "we are unified" as Christians doesn't mean anything unless we have a common cause, allegiance, motivation – in this case, the unity the Holy Spirit brings through Christ.

2) Christian Unity Has Boundaries.     

There are plenty of “secondary issues” within the faith that Christians legitimately disagree about and should not break our unity.

• Is the earth old or young? 

• How will End Times unfold?

• How is the Holy Spirit active today? 

• What is the purpose of church services and how should they be done? 

• Does God predestine who will be saved, or do our choices make a difference?

• Is Song of Solomon about marriage and sex or is it an allegory for Christ and the church?

Yes. Sure. Different perspectives are found within the boundaries of united allegiance to Christ (Check out Romans 14:1-12 for a practical example). However, there are things that will either make Christian unity impossible or will destroy unity within the church if left unchecked. 

Theological Boundaries (the person and work of Christ)

 The Bible clearly shows that Jesus was God in the flesh (a member of the Trinity), who lived, died and rose again. Sin destroys peace within us and between God and others, and  punishment is our just reward. God (through Christ) provided a way out of that penalty of eternal death, and Christ alone has brought salvation and made peace between us and God. Once we give our allegiance to Christ, we can be “conformed” to increasingly reflect His image but we will never be Him.[i] One day we will stand before God to give an answer for our lives. Those who enter into reward instead of  punishment will do so only because they have accepted Jesus' offer to pay their debt.

Christian unity is not possible if we don’t agree on these things, because these points are all integral to the person and work of Jesus. I can think of at least five different phrases I have heard about Jesus from others who claim allegiance to Christ that give me a lot of concern.

• “I am a Christian because I follow Jesus’ teachings. I don’t think he was God, but He showed us how to live.”[ii]

• “Jesus is one of many ways to God.”[iii]

• “Jesus is only about love, not anger. We have to lighten up on all this talk about sin and wrath and hell.”[iv]

• “You can be just like Jesus! You can be a little god too!”[v]

• “Jesus and the Holy Spirit are just names or titles for different ways God has shown himself.”[vi]

 We can’t be in Christian unity if we are fixing our eyes on a different kind of Christ.

• If he was just a good man, Jesus is not divine and should not be worshipped.

• If there are many ways to make peace with God, then Jesus is not the only way and is certainly not the necessary way, and his death and resurrection were unnecessary.

• If sin and its eternal consequences aren’t important, then Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection aren’t important, and the day of judgment should not concern us.

• If we can become just like Jesus, then the bar for what it means to be God is incredibly low, and there is no way Jesus should be worshipped.

• If there is no Trinity, then Judaism and Islam have been right about the nature of God all along, and Christ was not who we thought he was. If thats true, then his life, death and resurrection did not accomplish what we claim they did.

When Paul is writing about the importance of unity, he’s not saying that anything goes as Christians when we look at Jesus. He clearly calls out false teachers numerous times in his letters (Galatians 5:7-12; 1 Timothy 1:3-11; 1 Timothy 6:3-5; 2 Timothy 2:14-19). Even if we attend church together, if we are not united about the most important thing, we may be respectful friends who genuinely like each other, but we are not united around the same Christ.

Moral Boundaries (Committed Discipleship)

Christian unity does not require perfection. Sinfulness will always be present within our Christian unity on this side of heaven. When that happens, we don't just step over our brothers and sisters when they fall down, and we certainly don’t kick them while they are down. We don’t enable sin, and we don’t berate and humiliate sinners. We help them back up like we have constantly been helped up, and we revisit the foot of the cross not to regain our salvation, but to ask for the forgiveness only Christ can give.

However, unity doesn’t mean we act like sin is no big deal. Paul writes numerous times about how to confront sin in the context of church (Matthew 18:15-20; 1 Corinthians 5:1-13); (1 Corinthians 5:6-7; (2 Corinthians 2:5-8). Why? Because sin can begin to permeate the church, and that will destroy our unity. There’s a reason God says not to do these things that goes beyond our individual holiness. True unity cannot be sustained if these things are allowed to flourish in a church.

Unity does not require that we overlook sin.  If we are going to be unified around Christ, we have to have a healthy respect for the reality and devastation of sin. The more our personal sin hurts others or draws others in, the more crucial it becomes to confront for the purpose of the individual and the unity of the group. If we overlook or enable these things, they will take our eyes off of Christ, our walk as a disciple will erode, our unity with others will crumble, and our witness for Christ will be compromised. So the fact that we are sinners is not the thing that divides us; it should actually unite us at the foot of the cross. It’s what we do with or how we respond to the sin that cannot help but bring disunity. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in Life Together:

“Reproof is unavoidable.. Where defection from God’s Word in doctrine or life imperils the family fellowship and with it the whole congregation, the world of admonition and rebuke must be ventured. Nothing can be more cruel than the tenderness that consigns another to his sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe rebuke that calls a brother back from the path of sin. It is a ministry of mercy, an ultimate offer of genuine fellowship…”

As a church community, we are in this together. Unity requires a community of grace, forgiveness and hope that always points us toward a Christ who offers all these things to us. But sin corrodes, and it must be addressed.               

3) Christian Unity Confronts Tension

Ephesians 4:25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 

Galatians 6:1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

“But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?” (Galatians 2:11-14)

Unity is not the absence of tension.  If it were, we would never be unified. We would always hide our true self from others, or avoid people or situations that make us uncomfortable, or never have the hard conversations about protecting doctrine or living holy lives.We must confront it instead of retreat from it. The Bible does not say blessed are the peacekeepers, it says blessed are the peacemakers (Matthew 5:9). Keeping peace is easy, passive, and ultimately destructive. Making peace is uncomfortable, but necessary and always fruitful. The unified do not hide.

We must learn how to say, “I love you and I am for you, so we must have this conversation.” Then we pray for wisdom, we may seek godly counsel, and we turn to the Bible for our foundational truths because it is” profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness…”(2 Timothy 3:16)

 4) Christian Unity displays Christ-like love

“ Since you are all set apart by God, made holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with a holy way of life: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Put up with one another. Forgive. Pardon any offenses against one another, as the Lord has pardoned you, because you should act in kind. But above all these, put on love! Love is the perfect tie to bind these together. Let your hearts fall under the rule of Jesus’  peace (the peace you were called to as one body), and be thankful. (Colossians 3:12-16)

Love is the ultimate gift of the Spirit as seen in 1 Corinthians 13.[vii] It’s the glue that is meant to hold the church community together. The Bible is really specific about what Christ-like love looks like (and I am pulling this list from 1 Corinthians 13).

• Patient (good things take time)

• Kind (it’s a basic human quality)

• Content (not jealous)

• Humble (not boastful or proud)

• Decent (never rude or crude)

• Other-centered (not self-absorbed)

• Composed (not easily provoked or resentful)

• Forgiving (doesn’t keep tally of wrongs)

• Rejoices in Truth (doesn’t avoid it)

• Rejoices in Justice (is not content to let injustice unfold)

• Bears all things (endures and protects insults, burdens, and hardships)

• Never loses faith (does not become cynical or jaded)

• Hopeful (never forgets that Jesus saves)

• Persevering (keeps going even when it's tough

This kind of love is the greatest gift given us to preserve the unity that Christ brings, Is far more than emotional connection. It comes from fixing our eyes on Christ and walking with others in loving, faithful discipleship. Paul gives an example of how this looks in Romans 12:14-18.

“If people mistreat or malign you, bless them. Always speak blessings, not curses. If some have cause to celebrate, join in the celebration. And if others are weeping, join in that as well. Work toward unity, and live in harmony with one another. Avoid thinking you are better than others or wiser than the rest; instead, embrace common people and ordinary tasks. Do not retaliate with evil, regardless of the evil brought against you. Try to do what is good and right and honorable as agreed upon by all people. If it is within your power, make peace with all people.” (Romans 12:14-18)

This kind of loving unity will never compromise truth or holiness, but it will always guide the attitude and presence we bring to any situation.

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[i]  Paul’s Creed (from 1 Corinthians 15:3-11) often considered the earliest creedal statement: “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.” Note the three key subjects: Jesus’ life, death and resurrection; the fact the Jesus died for our sins; and the reality of grace as the means of salvation.

The Apostles Creed(150 AD) reads: “I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
 and born of the virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
[‘he descended to hell’ was added much later in response to doctrinal challenges].
The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty. From there he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit,
[‘the holy catholic (universal) church' was added in the 4th century], the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.” As a response to different doctrinal challenges, this creed is more broad (and more specific) than Paul’s.

 The Nicene Creed (325 AD) reads: “We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth, and of all things visible and invisible; And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Only-begotten, Begotten of the Father before all ages, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, Begotten, not made; of one essence with the Father, by whom all things were made: Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made man; And was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried; And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; And ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father; And He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, Whose kingdom shall have no end. And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, and Giver of Life, Who proceeds from the Father, Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, Who spoke by the Prophets; And we believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins. We look for the Resurrection of the dead, And the Life of the age to come. Amen.” This was written in response to the Arian heresy, which denied the divinity of Christ. In 381, it was revised to address the Macedonian heresy, which denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit.   

[ii]  Google the term “moralistic therapeutic deism” to see this in action. Michael Horton provides a good overview of this position at http://www.modernreformation.org/default.php?page=articledisplay&var2=917

[iii] " I don't believe making disciples must equal making adherence to the Christian religion. It may be advisable in many (not all!) circumstances to help people become followers of Jesus and remain within their Buddhist, Hindu, or Jewish contexts.” (Brian McClaren)  For a good response, check out a book by Ravi Zacharias called Jesus Among Other Gods.

[iv] The fact is that the cross isn’t a form of cosmic child abuse—a vengeful Father, punishing his Son for an offence he has not even committed. Understandably, both people inside and outside of the Church have found this twisted version of events morally dubious and a huge barrier to faith. Deeper than that, however, is that such a concept stands in total contradiction to the statement: "God is love". If the cross is a personal act of violence perpetrated by God towards humankind but borne by his Son, then it makes a mockery of Jesus’ own teaching to love your enemies and to refuse to repay evil with evil (Steve Chalke and Alan Mann, The Lost Message of Jesus, pp. 182-183).”John Piper has a good response at http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/defending-my-fathers-wrath

[v] “Man…was created on terms of equality with God, and he could stand in God’s presence without any consciousness of inferiority…. He made us the same class of being that He is Himself…. He lived on terms equal with God…. The believer is called Christ, that’s who we are; we’re Christ.” (Kenneth Hagin, Zoe: The God Kind of Life, pp. 35-36, 41).

“Why didn't Jesus openly proclaim Himself as God during His 33 years on earth? For one single reason. He hadn't come to earth as God, He'd come as man.”  Kenneth Copeland, Believer's Voice of Victory magazine, Aug. 8, 1988. p.8.

"The most remarkable "messiah" at (the time of the writing of this book) ... is to be found at camp Manujothi Ashram in the desert in South India. It is the extreme American evangelist, William Branham, whom Christians have to thank for this false messiah. His name is Paluser Lawrie Mathukrishna. When Branham was on (a) tour of India, Brother Lawrie became a disciple of his, and Branham described him as the "Son of God" and "Christ returned." (Kurt Koch, Occult ABC, 1978, p. 66) Read more at http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/thirdwaveteachings.html

This is also a key teaching of Mormonism. Here is a short but good response from Hank Hannegraaff: http://www.equip.org/perspectives/little-gods-are-we-little-gods/

[vi] This is a position called Modalism, which has been considered heretical (so far from orthodox Christianity that it cannot be authentic Christian belief) since almost the beginning of the church. Two popular names associated with this movement are Tommy Tenney (because of his Oneness Pentecostal roots) and T.D. Jakes (who is a Oneness Pentecostal). Here’s a link to a great article that gives a very thorough discussion of this issue: http://thecripplegate.com/modalism_oneness_and_td_jakes/

In an unusual (and false) twist, Benny Hinn has been promoting Tri-theism, the idea that each member of the Trinity is its own Trinity. ”God the Father, ladies and gentlemen, is a person; separate from the Son and the Holy Ghost. Say, what did you say? Hear it, hear it, hear it. See, God the Father is a person, God the Son is a person, God the Holy Ghost is a person. But each one of them is a triune being by Himself. If I can shock you - and maybe I should - there's nine of them. Huh, what did you say? Let me explain: God the Father, ladies and gentlemen, is a person with his own personal spirit, with his own personal soul, and his own personal spirit-body.” (Benny Hinn” program on TBN, 10/30/90) 

[vii] “The apostle bookends his famous chapter on love (1 Corinthians 13) with these two (perhaps surprising) charges: “earnestly desire the higher gifts” and “earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy” (1 Corinthians 12:31; 1 Corinthians 14:1). God means that we desire all of his gifts, not to glut our selfishness, but to selflessly strengthen others — “so that the church may be built up” (1 Corinthians 14:5)… Desire all the spiritual gifts, knowing that “the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13; cf. 2 Thessalonians 1:3). Compared to other “higher gifts” (such as tongues, healing, and prophecy† among others), love is “a still more excellent way” (1 Corinthians 12:31).” 

 Read the entire article at http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/10-reasons-to-desire-all-the-spiritual-gifts.

OUR ROLE (IN THE CHURCH): BUILD UP (EPHESIANS 2: 11-22)

When we talked last week about being “raised up,” we talked about how we are saved by grace, and we have value, worth and dignity in Christ. God is glorified when God is seen in us, shining through the cracks of our brokenness, making something new and better of us to accomplish good works He has planned for us. But as we continue reading Ephesians, Paul is going to talk about purpose.  Why are we here? What good am I?  What can God possibly do with me, and how will he do it? Let's pick up in Ephesians 2 beginning at verse 11:

 "So never forget how you used to be. Those of you born as outsiders to Israel were outcasts, branded “the uncircumcised” by those who bore the sign of the covenant in their flesh, a sign made with human hands. You had absolutely no connection to the Anointed; you were strangers, separated from God’s people. You were aliens to the covenant they had with God; you were hopelessly stranded without God in a fractured world.

But now, because of Jesus and His sacrifice, all of that has changed. God gathered you who were so far away and brought you near to Him by the royal blood of the Anointed, our Liberating King. He is the embodiment of our peace, sent once and for all to take down the great barrier of hatred and hostility that has divided us so that we can be one. He offered His body on the sacrificial altar to bring an end to the law’s ordinances and dictations that separated Jews from the outside nations.

 His desire was to create in His body one new humanity from the two opposing groups, thus creating peace. Effectively the cross becomes God’s means to kill off the hostility once and for all so that He is able to reconcile them both to God in this one new body. Jesus, the Great Preacher of peace and love came for you, and His voice found those of you who were near and those who were far away. By Him both have access to the Father in one Spirit.

And so you are no longer called outcasts and wanderers but citizens with God’s people, members of God’s holy family, and residents of His household. You are being built on a solid foundation: the message of the prophets and the voices of God’s chosen emissaries with Jesus, the Anointed Himself, the precious cornerstone. The building is joined together stone by stone—all of us chosen and sealed in Him, rising up to become a holy temple in the Lord.  In Him you are being built together, creating a sacred dwelling place among you where God can live in the Spirit."

In Ephesians 2, Paul uses three analogies to show how our role in the church it to live and build together in a sacred church community where the presence of God is both welcome and obvious: One body (Identity) One citizenship (Allegiance) and One building (Purpose). As Christians, we are part of a church. We aren’t just raised up so we can shine. We aren’t saved in isolation. We are raised up together so that we can bring the practical application of God’s goodness into the world. So, let’s make this practical.

In high school, I was on a basketball team. Ten individuals had to become one. We were united.  We were a Flame (which was our mascot). Our identity was worn proudly on our shirts. Our allegiance shifted. When we went out for the team, we had to choose basketball over a lot of other things, and we had to give up our independence to the will of the coach. We all had a purpose: win. If you watch March Madness or the NBA, the team that clicks is the team that wins. The Pistons who won the NBA championship several years ago weren’t the best players in the NBA. They were the most united.

In marriage, two individuals become one. Sheila and I were united almost 25 years ago. We were no longer our own; we were not only “one,” we had a claim to each other. Our identity was now wrapped up in the other one. Our allegiance shifted. We had to choose each other over our family and over other people. We were now surrendered to the will of God and the desires of the other. We are united in purpose (at least ideally), whether it’s vocations, or mission, or raising kids.

 In church we see the same principle, but in some ways it is much, much more complicated.

 One Body (Identity)

We are all part of one body. This addresses the issue of Identity. It’s not just a question of who I am anymore. It’s a question of who we are. And the “we” is everybody committed to following Christ. The barriers that come with this are huge. At that time Paul wrote to all the churches around Ephesus, the Jew/Gentile barrier was the biggest hurdle (and the one mentioned here). But there was also men/women, slave/free, rich/poor, etc. When individual people form the “body” of Christ on earth, it’s hard.

• We unite emotional with intellectual.

• We unite people who worship God best through music with people who worship God best through study or hiking or praying or painting.

• We unite people who grew up with the Bible or in church with people who didn't.

• We unite Charismatics with Traditionalists.

• We unite introverts and extroverts.

• We unite the expressive and the stoic.

• We unite Republicans and Democrats.

• We unite people who think marriage is awesome and people who think marriage is a nightmare, so when we talk about the church as the Bride of Christ, or we use marriage analogies for God’s love or our relationship with God, we have to be careful

• We unite people who work for PCC and RTL and people who have had abortions, so we speak truth with so much grace, and we offer the hope of God’s healing by being a part of the healing of others.

• We unite people who think ‘family’ means home and people who think ‘family’ means hostility.

• We unite people who love that God is a Father and people who cringe at that connection because of their fathers.

• We unite people we just don’t like, and people who let us down, and people who ignore us when we need attention, and people who pay too much attention when we want to be left alone, and people who are hypocritical, and people who are a little too transparent…

 It’s hard. But God plans to reconcile us to God through this “one body.” Christ died not only to save us as individuals but to unite us as one humanity. We are individual ambassadors, yes, but the church is the corporate ambassador.  

One Citizenship (allegiance)

We are all citizens of a new country. This addresses the issue of Allegiance. As a Christian, a citizen of the Kingdom of God, my time, my money, my emotions, my relationships are all surrendered as an act of allegiance and obedience to Christ. In the Old Testament, God commanded that His people not worship any of the other pagan Gods. In the New Testament, this worship of idols has more to do with priorities. No one can serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). You can’t serve God and something else.

As citizens in the Kingdom of God, we pledge our allegiance to something greater than our wants and desires. We pledge our allegiance to something greater than America. My money is God’s, my reputation is God’s, my sex life if God’s, my time is God’s, my entertainment and vacations and work and friendships – all God’s. And that’s hard, too, because we like being the ruler in our Kingdom of Me. Jesus said,“By this the world will know that you are my disciples: that you love one another.” (John 13:35)

 If we want to be a disciple, we have to accept the authority of Christ and follow. If we want to be a follower of Christ, He will demand our allegiance. Being our own authority figure is not an option for us if we are followers of Christ.

 One Building (purpose) 

Being “built up” does more than just establish comraderie. It gives us a purpose. What are we here for? What plan does God have for our life? We are being placed by the Master Builder to form the walls of a sacred dwelling place, a holy temple, where God can dwell in Spirit. We sometimes over-personalize the fact that the Spirit of God dwells within us. We only claim it personally, and we forget that the Bible also talks about it the Spirit of God dwelling in us corporately.

When Paul made this claim, he upended the prominent role of the temple at that time. The temple building was the heart of the Jewish nation – politically, socially, musically, morally, etc.  It was also the heart of Greek and Roman communities too (think of Cult of Diana in Ephesus). Many believed the temples were where heaven and earth met. 

Paul made it clear: we don’t have to go to a geographical place or a particular building to go to a place where the Spirit of God dwells. The Spirit of God dwells with God’s people. So, what difference does that make? How does it tie back in to the previous analogies? There is an interesting comment in Philippians where Paul talks about a fruit of Spirit-filled living that is often overlooked.

“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.” (Philippians 2:1-2)

 Paul is basically saying, “If the work of God in you has done anything at all, you should have the same mind (the mind of Christ), the same love (agape, self-sacrificial), and be in one accord.” We let God unite us. Because Christ is in us, we build unity by asking for forgiveness – and we are able to do the hard work of forgiving.  Because Christ is in us, we build unity by speaking truth humbly and with grace, and by listening humbly and with grace. Because Christ is in us, we build peace by entering into life together with a very different and very challenging people and make it work.

So we are raised up not just for our sake, but for the sake of others in the church. There are lots of other ways we can talk about using our gifts and talents, but this is a foundational purpose that all of us can participate in no matter our education, background, abilities or skill level.  We can become part of the ‘body’ of believers; we can give our allegiance to Christ; we can become part of what God himself uses to build a sacred dwelling place where God lives in Spirit.

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• What are our divisions today? Race, culture, gender, economic or marital status? Spiritual or educational background? Different ways in which we experience God?

• What tends to hold you back from participating as a part of the church body?

• How would our corporate life together change if you fully gave your allegiance to the lordship of Christ?

• What are the implications of the church being the temple of the Holy Spirit? If we were all conscious of that, how might our lives change? If the American church were purposefully conscious of this as we address social issues, do you think our approach would change or stay the same? 

Our Position in Christ: Raised Up (Ephesians 2:1-10)

Why do we treat a canvas that is painted differently than a blank canvas? Why do we put our kids’ pictures or stories up on the refrigerator? Why do we keep a letter from the one we love for years? Because something added value. Something made these things more than just the sum of their parts. There was canvas or paper and something to make marks. Yet a painting can sell for millions of dollars, and we keep the letters and drawing for years. Something added value -  in this case, it was the personal touch of the one who took ordinary things and created something of great value.

I wonder how many of us feel like we are just the canvas. That we are worthless, useless, unworthy of love, incapable of offering anything of value to the world? And how many of us long to believe that we are that letter or picture in whom someone takes delight instead of that discarded, crumbled up paper that’s only fit for the trash? In Ephesians 2, Paul gives the ultimate added value by showing what Christ does in us and for us. First, he explains what kind of material God has to work with.

As for you, don’t you remember how you used to just exist? Corpses, dead in life, buried by transgressions, wandering the course of this perverse world. You were the offspring of the prince of the power of air—oh, how he owned you, just as he still controls those living in disobedience. I’m not talking about the outsiders alone; we were all guilty of falling headlong for the persuasive passions of this world.

We all have had our fill of indulging the flesh and mind, obeying impulses to follow perverse thoughts motivated by dark powers. As a result, our natural inclinations led us to be children of wrath, just like the rest of humankind. (Ephesians 2:1-3)

I don’t know about you, but that’s not how I like to think of myself. However, that’s the raw materials. That’s us before Christ. We’re not just plain canvas; we are stained and soiled. We’re not just paper – we are torn and soggy. Paul doesn’t pull any punches. We were corpses, dead in life. We were the zombies in a much more serious sense of the word than most horror movies show. Those are just biological problems. Ours is deeply spiritual.

 I find it interesting how how an increasing number of modern stories use a thing like a zombie – the Walking Dead -  to make a point that we find in the Bible 2,000 years ago.  It’s as if no matter how far from Christ people wander, there is this lingering dread that we will somehow be dead even while we live, just wandering through a world that robs us of life and offers us nothing in return. A recent book series called The Zombie Bible takes incidents from the Bible or early church history and inserts zombies – which sounds silly, but the author (who takes the Bible very seriously) uses them to stand in for the deepest expression of being dead in our sin. 

This world was one of hunger, filled with those who would devour you—both among the dead and among the living.… Like a violent fever, the hunger eats away mind and spirit. In the end, everything that we truly are is gone. Only the hunger remains. Even other men and women are no longer anything but… meat for our desires and obsessions. Then we are lost— unless some other brings a Gift. We cannot recover ourselves alone.” – From What Our Eyes Have Witnessed

A recent book and movie called Warm Bodies described the rise of  these walking dead as the result of people giving in to what they believed was the meaninglessness of life.  One of his characters says of himself, 

“We recognize civilization, but we have no role in it. We are just here. We do what we do, time passes, and nobody asks any questions…We may appear mindless, but we aren’t…We grunt and groan, we shrug and nod, and sometimes a few words slip out. It’s not that different from before… I’ve never thought of these other creatures walking around me as people. Human, yes, but not people. We eat and sleep and shuffle through the fog, walking a marathon with no finish line, no medals, no cheering… We view ourselves the same way we view the Living: as meat. Nameless, faceless, disposable.” – Warm Bodies

 That’s not a bad description of what many of us wrestle with. How often do we shuffle through the fog of life with no goal?  We think we have no role in life. We believe we are just here. And if that’s what we are stuck with, that's lousy. But Paul says we are not fated to shuffle through life as nameless, faceless, disposable people driven by hungers that can never be satisfied.

But God, with the unfathomable richness of His love and mercy focused on us, united us with the Anointed One and infused our lifeless souls with life—even though we were buried under mountains of sin—and saved us by His grace. He raised us up with Him and seated us in the heavenly realms with our beloved Jesus the Anointed, the Liberating King.

He did this for a reason: so that for all eternity we will stand as a living testimony to the incredible riches of His grace and kindness that He freely gives to us by uniting us with Jesus the Anointed. For it’s by God’s grace that you have been saved. You receive it through faith. It was not our plan or our effort. It is God’s gift, pure and simple. You didn’t earn it, not one of us did, so don’t go around bragging that you must have done something amazing. For we are the product of His hand, heaven’s poetry etched on lives, created in the Anointed, Jesus, to accomplish the good works God arranged long ago. (Ephesians 2:4-10)

Lots of worldviews offer a solution for the problem of walking in our own life of death and feeling like we are worth nothing. Let’s go back to the two books I cited earlier.  Warm Bodies has a solution: “We will exhume ourselves. We will fight the curse and break it. We will cry and bleed and lust and love, and we will cure death. We will be the cure. Because we want it.”

 The problem is, that never happens. It’s a humanist salvation story, but nothing in the history of the world suggests that solution will work.  Humanity’s never been the cure of the deepest, darkest aches in our souls. We’ve always been the problem. Even when we fix a particular issue, it’s only a matter of time before we ruin it again.

• We said, “Hey, let’s get more energy by harnessing the power of the atom!” and then figured out how to use it to kill a lot of people.  

•  We said, “Let’s cure disease with stem cells!” and eventually began to plunder the bodies of unborn babies for our benefit.

• We said, “Hey, wouldn’t we be healthier if we could learn about sex earlier and more explicitly? The problem with our culture is that we are prudish and repressed. ” And eventually we found ourselves in a culture where STD’s are epidemic, and  pornography and the hook up culture first desensitizes us then damages us, sometimes deeply but always profoundly (and never beyond hope of redemption, I must add).

 Nothing in human history suggests we are able to save ourselves. G.K. Chesterton, a famous author, was once asked by a newspaper, “What’s wrong with the world today?” He famously responded, “I am.”  On the other hand, the other story I mentioned actually got the solution right:

“What do we know to be true? Nothing is broken that cannot be remade. Nothing is ill that cannot be healed, nothing captive that cannot be freed. That is what [Jesus] taught us.” – from What Our Eyes Have Witnessed, The Zombie Bible series.

That’s actually the gospel (which is what you would hope to find in a book series with the word ‘Bible’ in the title). That’s part of the good news. Paul says we can do nothing on our own – our default is to be one the spiritually Walking Dead – we don’t raise ourselves up. Now, through Christ, we are raised and made fully alive.  Heaven’s poetry is etched on our lives – other translations say we are His handiwork. God plans for us to be the ones through whom good work is done in the world .

So if Christ is “raising us up”, if God is restoring all these things in us and putting us on His mission, there are at least three important things that follow.

1. This should bring to us a staggering amount of humility. Paul says none of us can boast about how we contributed to the project of moving from spiritual death to life. “Don't’ go around bragging as if you did something amazing.” Any time we think, “I just wish people could be like me,” we have missed the point. We should be thinking, “All that I am is a gift of grace. I will pray that God works in the life of others so they too can experience God’s grace.” Paul never says, “Look at me!” He always says, “Look at Christ in me.”  I would guess that’s because the minute he says, “Look at me!” someone else could say, “Do you mean all of you? Do you realize what you were doing 10 years ago? You killed people!” 

 Why would I say, “Look at me”?  Just ask my wife if I have given a perfect picture of what it means to be a godly husband.  “Oh, do you mean all those times you overlooked my heart? Do you mean those times we argued and you overwhelmed me with your words and presence? Do you mean that time you ran yourself into the ground and your family paid the price?”  Ask my boys if I have been a perfect father. Ask anyone in this church if I am a perfect pastor. Ask my friends if I have been a perfect friend. For every time I want to say, “I’m awesome!” someone around me is thinking, “Except when you’re not.”  What I have to say (if I look at myself honestly) is only this: “Don’t look at me. Look at Christ in me. He’s the hope of glory.”

 The fact that Christ steps in and raises us up should bring about an incredible amount of humility.

2. This should change how we view our value and worth. If you are the product of God’s hand - if God is raising you up so you can bring good into the world in a way that will be empowered by Christ working in you - then you should never say, “I guess I deserve to be mistreated. I guess I deserve to be belittled. I don’t matter. My life is nothing. Everybody else is cool and doing great things and I’m just stuck with my personality or looks or circumstances.” If that’s the voice in your head, I promise you it’s not the voice of Christ. The voice of Christ says, “Just bring what you’ve got. I’ve got this. It’s my job to take what you as you are and craft you into something that will be for your good and my glory.”

 Now, God will ask us to step up.  It is often through the process of walking (and stumbling, falling, and getting back up) that Christ does this work in us.  But we “run the race” only because Christ has shown us the track, and strengthened our legs, and given us the right kind of shoes, and given us a prize on which to fix our eyes. We are called to run the race, but the glory for the ground we cover belongs to Christ alone.

3. This should change how we treat others. This is why we should never treat others in a way that shames them, or belittles or mocks them. We don’t brag about our spiritual exploits to other people. We don’t take advantage of people, or hurt them with our words, our attitudes, or our hands.  We are, after all, created for “good works.”

 That’s not a reference to the Old Testament Law – it’s a term that simply means we are to do good to others as representatives of Christ’s presence on the earth. Certainly that will include walking in the path of life that God has shown us, but it goes beyond just that. We look for opportunities to do good. We look for opportunities to affirm in those around us that they matter, and love them as Christ would love them.  

 If heaven is writing poetry on the lives of my wife and children, who am I to step in and deface the work of Christ? Whenever my words or my attitude send them a message that they are failures, or that they have to earn my love or pride, or that they are an annoyance, I deface the work of Christ. Every time I give my wife a look that tells her without words that I am annoyed or think she just doesn’t get it, I step in and write shame and anger into the poetry of heaven. I need to model grace and speak words of life to my family and friends. I need to honor and not shame them, to speak truth but always with grace, to affirm their gifts and talents, and to display the compelling nature of Christ through my words and actions. 

We often wonder if God has a plan for our lives. Yes. He wants to raise us up. His plan is that we become a testimony to the incredible riches of His grace as He makes us into something beautiful. 

 _______________________________________________________________________

QUESTIONS FOR DEVOTIONS OR DISCUSSION

• What spiritual force compels us to choose sin? (1-2)

• What characterizes people going the wrong direction? (v.3)

• What has God done to get us on the right road? (v. 4-6)

• What does God want to accomplish by this? (v. 7)

• What is the means of our salvation? (v. 8-9)

• Why did God save us? (v. 10)

• What has being “raised up” looked like in your life?

• Of the three implications listed (humility, value and worth, the treatment of others), which is the most challenging for you? Why?

• Grace is a gift; we can’t boast about receiving it! Does this mean there is nothing about our walk with Christ that is up to us?

Prayer:  Pray that you and those around you can do more than know that we are raised with Christ. Pray that we can all experience what it means to experience the reality of being “raised up” in our humility, our sense of value, and our relationships with others.

(Thanks to N.T. Wright’s Ephesians: Studies for Individuals and Groups for some of these questions)

The Hope of the Resurrection

The following satirical letter to NYU has been floating around the internet for a while:

IN ORDER FOR THE ADMISSIONS STAFF OF OUR COLLEGE TO GET TO KNOW YOU BETTER, WE ASK THAT YOU ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTION  ARE THERE ANY SIGNIFICANT EXPERIENCES YOU HAVE HAD, OR ACCOMPLISHMENTS YOU HAVE REALIZED, THAT HAVE HELPED TO DEFINE YOU AS A PERSON?

I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I have been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the areas of heat retention. I write award-winning operas, I manage time efficiently. Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row.

I woo women with my god like trombone playing, I can pilot bicycles up severe inclines with unflagging speed, and I cook Thirty-Minute Brownies in twenty minutes. I am as expert in stucco, a veteran in love, and an outlaw in Peru.

Using only a hoe and a large glass of water, I once single-handedly defended a small village in the Amazon Basin from a horde of ferocious army ants. I play bluegrass cello, I was scouted by the Mets, I am the subject of numerous documentaries. When I’m bored, I build large suspension bridges in my yard. On Wednesdays, after school, I repair electrical appliances free of charge.

I am an abstract artist, a concrete analyst, and a ruthless bookie. Critics worldwide swoon over my original line of corduroy evening wear. I don’t perspire. I am a private citizen, yet I receive fan mail. I have been caller number nine and have won the weekend passes. I bat 400. My deft floral arrangements have earned me fame in international botany circles. Children trust me.

I can hurl tennis rackets at small moving objects with deadly accuracy.  I know the exact location of every food item in the supermarket. I have performed several covert operations with the CIA. I sleep once a week; when I do sleep, I sleep in a chair. While on vacation in Canada, I successfully negotiated with a group of terrorists who had seized a small bakery. The laws of physics do not apply to me.

I balance, I weave, I dodge, I frolic, and my bills are all paid. On weekends, to let off steam, I participate in full-contact origami. Years ago I discovered the meaning of life but forgot to write it down.  I breed prizewinning clams. I have won bullfights in San Juan, cliff-diving competitions in Sri Lanka, and spelling bees at the Kremlin. I have played Hamlet, I have performed open-heart surgery, and I have spoken with Elvis. But I have not yet gone to college.

He’s a fantastic guy, but he is not real.  He sounds good, but neither I nor anyone else I know of will be restructuring their way of life to follow him, or introducing others to him, or starting a Church of The Living NYU Student, or wearing a bracelet (WWNYUSD). It doesn’t matter how great he sounds, he is not real (and neither was the letter). 

If Jesus was not real – if he was not who he said he was – then Christianity has nothing to offer that you can’t find in another worldview, a self-help shelf or a bottle. But if Jesus was who he claimed to be, then He matters in ways that nothing else does.[i]

This is what I want to address today – the reality of Jesus Christ. If you attend here throughout the year, you are going to hear over and over again how Jesus saves and transforms even the most broken and hopeless lives. You are going to here how God is awesome, and Jesus alone is worthy of our praise. You are going to here testimonies about how Jesus enters into our reality and changes us from the inside out. But this Sunday, I just want to talk about the reality of Jesus. [ii] The APOSTLES CREED (which probably dates from the second century) begins like this:

I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only son, our Lord, Conceived of the Holy Spirit, Born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried, [he descended to the dead] on the third day he rose again, he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come again to judge the living and the dead..,”

 If we have grown up in church or been a Christian for a while, we can lose sight of how fantastic this claim is.  The Incarnation says that God came to earth as a human being in order to save us from the penalty of our sins and restore peace between us and God. God made a good world; we break it. Over and over, we do the kinds of things that destroy peace with God, with others, and within. In an unbelievable act of love and grace, God himself took care of the penalty we deserved so that our sins could be forgiven and peace could be restored.  [iii]

 If you think that’s a fantastic claim today, so did those who lived with Jesus.

 THE BACKGROUND

The Jews had been waiting for a Messiah (a Savior) since David. Time and again they ended up enslaved to other nations. By the first century, they had spent several hundred years convinced that the Spirit of God had been removed from them. They were waiting for a Messiah who would do two key things to fix this broken world: defeat the enemy and liberate Israel (in Jesus' day, that was Rome), and purify / rebuild the temple.  Plenty of people claimed they were this promised Messiah.

1. Judas Maccabeus 160's BC, entered Jerusalem at the head of an army,  purified the temple, destroyed altars to other gods, but was eventually killed in battle.

2. Judas (of Galilee), Zealot, led revolt against Romans AD 6 (Acts 5). It failed.

3. Theudas (mentioned in Acts 5.36) claimed to be a Messiah, and led about 400 people to the Jordan River, where he would divide it to show his power.  He was stopped and executed in AD 46.

4. The Anonymous Egyptian (Jew), with 30,000 unarmed Jews, did a reenactment of Exodus around AD 55. He led them to the Mount of Olives, where he claimed he would command the walls around Jerusalem to fall.  His group was massacred by Procurator Antonius Felix, and he was never seen again.

5. Simon bar Kokhba ca. 135), founded a short-lived Jewish state  that he ruled for 3 years before being defeated in the Second Jewish-Roman War.  580,000 Jewish people died.

No wonder John the Baptizer, while in jail awaiting his death, sent a message to Jesus: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” This was John the Baptist, who once announced Jesus as, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” He needed to know if Jesus was the real deal.

 Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. And blessed are those who do not take offense in me.” (Luke 7)

That last line seems odd, but remember that the Jews were expecting a Messiah with a sword, not a healing touch.  Jesus is basically saying, ‘Don’t let this trip you up. This is what a real Messiah does.”[iv]

So after doing all these things to show He was who He claimed he was, Jesus’ crucifixion suggested that he was just another failed messiah. He had not freed them from Roman rule and had not restored the Temple as they expected.  Now he was dead and his followers were hiding. Typically, another person would be tagged to continue the movement, usually a family member or relative.

And yet three days after Jesus’ death this movement begins.

• The early Christians claimed they had seen a Resurrected Messiah at a time when no one believed that individuals would be resurrected. The Greeks thought the soul would finally be rid of the body. The Jews believed in the coming Resurrection where the entire world would be renewed, but they did not believe in the personal resurrection of individuals.

• They didn’t appoint a successor (which was the normal response at the time)

• The early Christians said they had more hope than ever before, not because Roman rule was gone but because they had been offered life in a Kingdom that was not of this world.

• They claimed that Jesus had set them free from a much greater problem than Roman rule – the just and eternal consequence of their sin.

• They claimed that the community of the church was now the temple, and it was being restored as the people in it were transformed into the image of risen Christ who was at work inside them through His Spirit and His word.

• They worshipped Jesus at a time when worship of a human was blasphemous to the Jews and potentially traitorous to the Romans. 

The early followers of Christ reordered their entire worldview, changed their view of God, and radically changed their way of life to the point of being willing to die. Why? What had happened to cause them to confidently make this claim? [v]

It was the belief that Jesus had resurrected. He had shown He was the Christ, God in the flesh, by showing his mastery over death.

 “But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away – for it was very large.  And entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed.  But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed.  You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.  He is risen. He is not here.  See the place where they laid Him.  But go, tell His disciples – and Peter- that He is going before you into Galilee, and there you will see Him, as He said to you.” (Mark: 16:4-7) 

Several years later, after a miraculous conversion that moved him from a killer of Christians to an apostle of Christ, Paul would write that the power and hope of Christ’s Resurrection is meant to bring us to life. 

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world… all of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts… because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus…” (Ephesians 2:1-10) 

We are all in need of a Savior. We cannot save ourselves from the sin and brokenness within us and around us.  Nothing outside of us can save us either. We won’t be saved by a new tax system or a higher minimum wage or better health care or another person who will ‘complete us’.  We don’t need a better social circle or more money or amazing sex or the latest I-something. Substitute saviors will never save us.  We know this. They have failed us time and again, and then ones we think are working now will fail us too.

Christ offers to raise us out of sin, despair and death.  As Tim Keller says, because of Christ we are offered the hope that one day “everything sad will come untrue.” The very things that were once a sign of the deadness and despair of sin can be the very things that are a testimony to the life-giving power of Christ. 

That is what Easter offers to us.  The Crucifixion showed us how much God is willing to sacrifice for our good. Our salvation cost Him a crucifixion. The Resurrection of Christ shows us that Jesus has the power to do what He claimed.  We, who are sinful, broken and so often wondering if there is any hope, have an answer. 

“God so loved the world, that He gave His Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”  (John 3:16-17)

This is the heart of Christianity, and it is the hope of Resurrection.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

Cold Case Christianity, J. Warner Wallace

The Reason for God, Timothy Keller

Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis

The Case for Christ and The Case for the Real Jesus, Lee Strobel

The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, by Gary Habermas and Mike Liconna

The Jesus I Never Knew, Phillip Yancey

What if Jesus Had Never Been Born? D. James Kennedy

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis (fiction)

The Sin Eater, Francine Rivers (fiction)

A.D. 30, Ted Dekker (fiction – recommended to me)

The Gospel of John (movie)

ENDNOTES

[i]  By way of contrast, the historicity of the founder of other world religious does not carry the same level of importance in other major world religions. Buddhism does not rise and fall on the historical reality of Siddartha – which is good, because the earliest records start 2 to 3 centuries after his death, and some of the trusted manuscripts appear 1,000 years later. Hinduism does not rise and fall on the reality of anyone.  It is not based on historical truth, but revealed principles. (If fact, it sees history as a weak point for other religions, because they become falsifiable.) Islam does not rise or fall on whether or not Mohammed rose from the dead, or was who he claimed he was. He was a prophet, not a Savior.

[ii] For the extra-biblical evidence about the life and person of Jesus, check out an article by J.Warner Wallace, “Is There Any Evidence for Jesus Outside the Bible?”  (http://coldcasechristianity.com/2014/is-there-any-evidence-for-jesus-outside-the-bible/)

[iii] The death of Jesus was understood by the early Christians as a fulfillment of a covenant God had made centuries earlier.When God made a covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15 (and following), he used the standard form of what was called suzerain covenant-making. In typical fashion, Abraham killed some animals, cut them in pieces, and arranged them to walk through. Typically, both parties or just the weaker party would walk through the dissected animals as a way of saying, “If I break our covenant, may this be done to me as punishment.” But then only God, the stronger party, passed through (as a fiery pillar) – but never made Abraham, the weaker party, do the same.

By passing through the slaughtered animal, God was saying that if He didn’t bless Abraham and honor the covenant, God – the stronger, initiating party - would have to pay the penalty. That alone would be unusual, but that wasn’t the most incredible point. God was saying that if Abraham doesn’t keep the covenant, God would pay the penalty for Abraham.

This was unprecedented. God was clearly not a consumer god, paying attention and blessing us because we made him happy.  God was a covenant god, but completely different from the wealthy, powerful lords of earth. He gave the rules, established the penalty of rule-breaking, then committed to paying that penalty for everybody.

What kind of God would do that? A God who arrives in the person of Jesus Christ. On the cross, Jesus fulfilled the conditions of the covenant by paying Abraham’s penalty. We commemorate this every time we partake in communion – His body broken, His blood spilled. The covenant must be honored. Someone must pay for breaking the agreement.

Read more at “The Only Thing That Counts,” http://nightfallsandautumnleaves.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-only-thing-that-counts-galatians-51.html

[iv]  There are at least two key reasons Jesus performed miracles.

Miracles confirmed Jesus’ divine mission

• He “manifested His glory” at the marriage feast in Cana, so his disciples “believed in Him.” (John 2:11)

• "Men of Israel, listen to this:  Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through Him, as you yourselves know.  (Acts 2:22)

• “Even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father." (John 10:38)

Miracles confirmed the message of the gospel  (Hebrews 2:1-4;  John 2:18-21;   Matthew 12:38)

”Then the Jews demanded of him, ‘What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?’  Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.’ The Jews replied, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?’ But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.” (John 2:18-21)

“...This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.”  ( Hebrews 2:1-4)

“Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . . ." He said to the paralytic, "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!"”     (Mark 2:9-12)

[v] “If we are to think in first-century Jewish terms, it is impossible to conceive what sort of religious or spiritual experience someone could have that would make them say that the kingdom of God had arrived when it clearly had not, that a crucified leader was the Messiah when he obviously was not, or that the resurrection occurred last month when it obviously did not.”  - N.T. Wright

Made…For The Glory Of God

In all the things we’ve been talking about in this series, one reality has become clear to me: what we bring to the table on our own power is a whole lot of broken.  God’s design and purpose for us as men and women in complementary community is amazing and full of life – and out of our reach.  We simply cannot do it like we should.

How many times have my wife and I failed to love and respect each other like the Bible commands us?  Men, how many times do we fail to make the world safe for the women around us? Women, how many times have men felt demeaned or belittled around you? In the midst of this brokenness, how is God possibly glorified?*

 Because God is glorified when it’s clear that He is awesome.

 Let’s backtrack to the book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel was a prophet living in Babylonian captivity. The first part of his book explains that the Israelites lost their land because of their sin; the middle part chronicles how other nations will experience judgment for their sins as well. Beginning in Chapter 33, God begins to unveil for Ezekiel what revival and restoration will look like. We will begin in Chapter 36, verse 16:

 “When the people of Israel were living in their own land, they defiled it by their conduct and their actions…I dispersed them among the nations, and they were scattered through the countries; I judged them according to their conduct and their actions. And wherever they went among the nations they profaned my holy name, for it was said of them, ‘These are the Lord’s people, and yet they had to leave his land.’  I had concern for my holy name, which the people of Israel profaned among the nations where they had gone.”

 “I had concern for my name” seems like an understatement.  God’s people show up places, and everybody around them says, “What a bunch of losers. Their own God kicked them out.” They had broken a key commandment: “Don’t take God’s name in vain.” God is not pleased. And yet…

 “Therefore say to the Israelites, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: It is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Sovereign Lord, when I am proved holy through you before their eyes.”

 That’s an astonishing passage. After all that God has just said about them profaning his name (his character and reputation), God says He will be show His holiness of His great name through them so much so that everybody who sees them will know that the God of the Israelites is God.**

 “‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God. I will save you from all your uncleanness…

 God is going to gather up a profane people who defiled the land he gave them, clean them up, give them a new heart, give them His Spirit, and put them back in a land they didn’t deserve – and then he will proudly claim them as His own. He’s not doing this because Israel is awesome. Israel is terrible. This wasn’t like The Voice, where Israel is auditioning while God’s chair is turned around, and He’s waiting until they hit the right note to turn His chair and beg them to be on his team.  That’s just not Israel.

 He’s doing this because He is awesome.  I’m still waiting for Blake Shelton to hit the button on someone who couldn’t carry a tune if it was in a bucket, and when asked why he did it, I just want him to say, “Because this will settle the debate about who the best coach is. You all keep choosing people who are already amazing. Have any of you chosen someone who sounds like cats fighting? No? Watch what I can do with this.”

“‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: On the day I cleanse you from all your sins, I will resettle your towns, and the ruins will be rebuilt. The desolate land will be cultivated instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass through it. They will say, “This land that was laid waste has become like the garden of Eden; the cities that were lying in ruins, desolate and destroyed, are now fortified and inhabited. Then the nations around you that remain will know that I the Lord have rebuilt what was destroyed and have replanted what was desolate. I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it.’  (Ezekiel 36:16-36)

 Lest there was any doubt, this wasn't going to happen in a way where the Israelites could take credit. The nations will know that God rebuilt what was destroyed and replanted what was desolate. There wasn’t going to be a couple builders hanging around on the walls saying, “Hey, did you see that cool stonework I just did?” There would be no farmers sitting by the road at their market taking credit for their amber waves of grain.  This was the kind of restoration where the people around them would say, “Are you kidding? How did this happen? Only a God could do this.”

 So that’s what God says he will do for the land and for His name. But in the next chapter, Ezekiel has a vision of a valley full of dry bones, lifeless skeletons. God reveals to him what the vision means for the people within the land:

These bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel.  Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’” (Ezekiel 37: 11-14)

 Rebuild what is destroyed, replant what is desolate, and bring life and hope to the dead people returning to a land they had broken but God would heal.  God says to the people of Israel that He will do it for them not because they are great, but because He is great. The nations will know, and His people will know.

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 Here’s the bad news: we are like Israel. People look at us at times and say, “Seriously? You’re a Christian?”  Our spouse or kids or friends know that we can make the land desolate. We will knock our homes and our church to the ground if we aren’t careful. On our own, we are the dry bones, lifeless shells that make a mockery of what it means to be fully alive. Without Christ, we were dead in trespasses and sins (Romans 8:7–8; Ephesians 2:1; John 15:5). While we were yet sinners, Christ went into the grave to bring us back out.

Here’s the good news: What God did with Israel, he offers to us through Christ. Christ alone has the ability to genuinely heal us, to bring us back to fullness of life, to rebuild our homes, our relationships and our souls and bring a bountiful harvest in the midst of desolation in ways we cannot comprehend. Look what we read in the New Testament:

“Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus the Anointed One, who grants us every spiritual blessing in these heavenly realms where we live in Christ—not because of anything we have done, but because of what He has done for us. God chose us to be in a relationship with Him even before He laid out plans for this world; He wanted us to live holy lives characterized by love, free from sin, and blameless before Him.

He destined us to be adopted as His children through the covenant Jesus inaugurated in His sacrificial life. This was His pleasure and His will for us. Ultimately God is the one worthy of praise for showing us His grace; He is merciful and marvelous, freely giving us these gifts in Christ. Visualize this: His blood freely flowing down the cross, setting us free! We are forgiven for our sinful ways by the richness of His grace, which He has poured all over us.

With all wisdom and insight, He has enlightened us to the great mystery at the center of His will. With immense pleasure, He laid out His intentions through Jesus, a plan that will climax when the time is right as He returns to create order and unity—both in heaven and on earth—when all things are brought together under Christ’s royal rule. In Him we stand to inherit even more. As His heirs, we are predestined to play a key role in His unfolding purpose that is energizing everything to conform to His will.

As a result, we—the first to place our hope in Christ—will live in a way to bring Him glory and praise. Because you, too, have heard the word of truth—the good news of your salvation—and because you believed in the One who is truth, your lives are marked with His seal. This is none other than the Holy Spirit who was promised as the guarantee toward the inheritance we are to receive when He frees and rescues all who belong to Him. To God be all praise and glory!”  (Ephesians 1:3-14)

As a kid, I was always the last one chosen at school recess when captains picked teams.  I dreaded every time we lined up. I just wanted one captain to say, “I want Anthony,” not, “I guess we’ll take Anthony. There’s nobody else left.”

God didn’t say to Israel, “I guess I’ll take Israel seeing how Horus already got the Egyptians and Baal has the Philistines. Fine.” God said, “I want you. I will make something of you, and because it is through you that I will display my glory, what I make of you will be glorious.”

God doesn’t say to us, “Fine. I guess I’ll take Anthony. Or Sheila. Or…” God says, “I choose Anthony.”

And if I see myself honestly, my reply is, “But…do you see what I have to offer? I’m proud, self-centered, forgetful, offensive, short-sighted, overly sensitive at times and not sensitive enough at others, I over think some things and under think others, I fail as a husband and a father and pastor and teacher and friend. I wish I could take back so many things I’ve said and redo so many situations in life. I want to date my wife again and do it right, and then learn how to communicate effectively early on, and learn how to honor her and love her before 20 years have slipped by …”

And God says, “I know. This is going to be awesome! Have you seen what I can do with even guys like you?!  My name will be made great not because you are awesome, but because I am awesome, and that’s going to be really clear when my Glory begins to make something glorious out of the ruin and desolation you brought to the family.” That’s an imaginary conversation, but the principle is in the Bible:

“Now all of us, with our faces unveiled, reflect the glory of the Lord as if we are mirrors; and so we are being transformed, metamorphosed, into His same image from one radiance of glory to another, just as the Spirit of the Lord accomplishes it.” (2 Corinthians 3:4-6; 18)

We see that with the greatest clarity when he brings the dead to life, when he makes something beautiful from the ashes of our life, when the old, broken, and used becomes new because of Christ.  That’s why Paul writes,

“Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”  (Ephesians 5:14)

God is glorified when it’s clear that He is awesome.

There are times we will not want to rise up from the deadness of our selfishness and pride. I promise you that if you really try to live up the biblical standards for what it means to be a man and be a woman, if you really look hard at how you handle headship and humility… it is not a pretty picture. The only way genuine beauty is brought from the ashes we make of our lives is through Christ.***  So we read in Hebrews

"Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16; ESV).

 Men and women, if you have failed to be the kind of man or woman God wants you to be – and you have - commit your life to God, pray for Christ to shine on you as His Spirit gives you life. God will be glorified as you are transformed into the image of Christ. Boldly ask God for mercy and grace… and freely pass it on to those around you who need it, which is all of us... and God will be glorified. 

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NOTES

* Listen or watch Casting Crown’s “Broken Together” for a poignant look at how we need the work of Christ in order live together well.  Listen or watch Mercy Me’s “Greater” for an invigorating look at the promise and hope we can find when we really experience the greatness of God in our lives.

** We see this principle in the New Testament as well. Often, when talking about how men and women are to live together in Christian community (think of the Household Codes and Church codes we talked about earlier in the series), the writers of the New Testament letters give a clear reason: so that God and His Kingdom will be glorified.  Three examples:

• “Live honorably among the outsiders so that, even when some may be inclined to call you criminals, when they see your good works, they might give glory to God when He appears.” (1 Peter 2:12)

• “…give the enemy (opponents, adversaries) no opportunity for slander. (1 Timothy 5:9-10)

• “…that the word of God may not be dishonord. (Titus 2:3-5)

*** There is a great episode in the life of Moses. Not long after the Golden Calf incident, Moses goes to God with a poignant request:

Moses said to the Lord, “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’ If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people. The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”  (Exodus 33:12-16)

How will anyone know that God is pleased or that His people are blessed? Not because of their past actions, that’s for sure. And it wasn’t because of their current righteousness. Ever since the golden calf incident God has referred to them as Moses’ people, stiff-necked and stubborn (Exodus 32:7-9). And yet Moses has the audacity to ask, “Will you go with me?”

 When I am in Costa Rica driving, I don’t want a map. I want Delynn or Gloria in the seat next to me.  And when my wife and I struggle in our relationship and we need to go to places emotionally that are dark and frightening, the key question we ask each other is, “Will you go with me? To this counselor… into this part of our hearts…in front of a mirror that will show us who we really are.”

 “Will you go with me?” is the haunting question all of us ask as we go into the dark, into a scary situation, into a new place. God’s presence matters. How will God be made glorious unless He goes with us?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

• Are there areas of your life where you can see the desolation and ruin of your sin in your relationships, your identity, or your community? In what way to you need to be brought back to life?

• Have there been times in your life when you have clearly seen God bring healing, hope and life back into your life? How was His name glorified in the process?

• Where do you see your need for the Holy Spirit most clearly? When have you most clearly seen the Holy Spirit at work in your life?

• Talk about some times when you have experienced mercy and grace. 

Made…In Complementarian Community (part 2)

And the Spirit makes it possible to submit (be under God’s arrangement) humbly to one another out of respect for Christ. Wives, it should be no different with your husbands. Submit (private, personal, uniquely one’s own”) to them as you do to the Lord,  for God has given husbands a sacred duty to lead as the Anointed leads the church and serves as the head (kephale, the cornernerstone). The church is His body; He is her Savior.  So wives should submit (be under God’s arrangement) to their husbands, respectfully, in all things, just as the church yields to Christ.

Husbands, you must love (agapao, actively doing what the Lord prefers) your wives so deeply, purely, and sacrificially that we can understand it only when we compare it to the love Christ has for His bride, the church… “And this is the reason a man leaves his father and his mother and is united with his wife; the two come together as one flesh.”  There is a great mystery reflected in this Scripture, and I say that it has to do with the marriage of the Anointed One and the church.  Nevertheless, each husband is to love and protect his own wife as if she were his very heart, and each wife is to respect her own husband. (Ephesians 5:21-33)

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In Christian theology, the Trinity offers an analogy to the male/female relationship. The three persons of the Godhead are absolutely equal in essence, but they are distinct in function. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one , but they have different roles or offices. They engage in equally necessary and distinctly unique roles with and in the world. Within the Trinity, there is a constant interaction of leadership/headship and submission/obedience

Based on the title of this series it’s obvious I believe there is something unique about being male and female that makes men and women complementary in the same way that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit complement each other. I think that conclusion is unavoidable. 

• Biologically (it’s how we get kids)
• Sociologically (generally present attributes)
• Relationally (generally common approaches to people)
• Spiritually  (as imago dei)

A complementarian view says we are all one in Christ; we are all recipients of his gifts; we are all stewards, ambassadors and disciples. The Trinity gives us the model of how men and women experience equality and unity without denying diversity.  It is impossible to replicate this type of interaction in humanity because we are not God, but the Trinitarian relationship is nonetheless a model that is meant to give us some insight into God’s design for human relationships.  We, too, are equal in essence but different in function.

We engage in equally necessary and at times distinctly unique roles with and in the world. There is a constant interaction of leadership/headship and submission/obedience.  We see it most directly in marriage where “the two become one,” but we can see it clearly in all human interactions. Male and female complement each other as male and female as they function in ways that match God’s intent for their flourishing and for God’s glory.*

 So what do HEADSHIP and SUBMISSION mean in the biblical context? I am going to broaden this out from the subject of marriage, because we will all have times in our life where we are responsible for leadership in a particular area of life, and we will all have times where we must submit to the leadership of others. But let’s back up.

In Genesis 3, we saw one of the results of sin clearly spelled out: there would be a power struggle between men and women where there was once peace. We see there a picture of a fundamental struggle we all face:

We want power and we can’t stand submission.

We love to lead and we hate to follow.

We love to be in charge.

• When Vince was in kindergarten he used to come home and proudly proclaim the days he was ‘line leader.’ He never said anything about being ‘line follower’.
• You don’t see coaches call a timeout when the game is going bad and ask, “Who’s gonna step up and show some followership(?)” No, it’s always about who’s going to lead.
• There is no high school graduation speech where kids are encouraged to join with someone else and help that person make their dreams come true.
• When’s the last time you heard someone commemorated by saying, “Bob sure knew how to follow. He could toe the line and do what other people told him to do better than anybody.”

We love to lead and we hate to follow. It’s been that way since the Fall. We talked last week about life during the New Testament era, how those who were leading were more often than not oppressive and exploitive, and those who submitted to their authority were treated cheaply at best and brutally at worst.

We also talked about the big picture, “the forest” and not just the trees, and how the Household Codes and Church Codes were an amazing redemptive move in the first century.  This week we are going to look at two trees: headship and submission.

HEADSHIP

Let’s see where the Bible talks about Christ as the ‘head’ to see what that means. First, here is what Jesus said about power:

“You know that among the nations of the world the great ones lord it over the little people and act like tyrants. But that is not the way it will be among you. Whoever would be great among you must serve and minister. Whoever wants to be great among you must be slave of all. Even the Son of Man came not to be served but to be a servant—to offer His life as a ransom for others.” (Mark 10:42-44)

So whatever we are going to hear must have something to do with becoming a servant. Paul use the term “head” to describe how Jesus serves in a headship role, so let’s look at his explanation. 

God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head (kephale) over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. (Ephesians 1:20-23)

But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:15-16)

Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, dwelling on visions, puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God. (Colossians 2:18-19)

What is biblical headship? Equipping, promoting, and nourishing through loving service for the good of others and the glory of God. Our 21st Century Western ears hear the discussion of headship and we hear authority, power and privilege. When the Bible uses these terms, it is a template for understanding responsibility and service for those around us.  There is no sense of entitlement, no sense of ‘lording” over others. When that is present, it is not biblical headship. Any time Christians use headship as an excuse for lordship, it is a sin.

Biblical Headship cannot mean power as the world understands power. It cannot mean authority for the sake of being in charge.  It cannot mean someone is at the top of a hierarchy of value, worth and dignity. It can only mean self-sacrificial responsibility to empty yourself, and treat everyone around you as more important than you are, to die so that others may live, and not care if you get noticed or appreciated.

SUMBISSION

Once again, let’s look at the forest, the big picture. We already read what Jesus said about being a servant as recorded in Mark 10, so let’s look at one of Paul’s teachings:

“ If therefore there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition or vanity, each of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself. Each of you should be concerned not only about your own interests, but about the interests of others as well. 

You should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had, who though he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, by looking like other men, and by sharing in human nature. He humbled himself, by becoming obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:1-8)

 “Moved to treat others better than ourselves.” Concerned about the interests of others.”  That’s biblical submission. Notice it’s not unquestioning passivity. It’s not cowering in fear or anxiety (we read some verses in 1 Peter last week). Biblical submission is not taken. Biblical submission is honor and obedience which is given freely as a principled decision to sacrifice and serve others in the same way Christ sacrificed and served us.

Biblical Submission cannot be a life in which someone lives in a coerced prison of fear and anxiety.  Mere conformity is not the goal of submission; harmony of mission and purpose is the goal. Biblical submission is not following while rebelliously undermining – if there is a challenge to be made, it’s open and honest.  Submission does not mean one is silent or passive in such a way that sin or degradation is enabled.  Biblical submission is a principled commitment to allow others to lead and encourage those who have leadership roles for which God has equipped them. It’s encouraging and challenging but never insulting. It’s working to bring honor and not shame to those who exercise leadership.

We are all transformed into the image of Christ as we all learn what it means to exercise godly headship and godly submission.

So who’s in charge? I guess I’ll use my home as a way to talk through this, not because it’s a model but because it’s one way to see how this idea plays out.  I asked my wife last night if she thinks of me as the “head” of our house, and she said she did. So I asked what that meant to her. She said, “You have the weight of the household on your shoulders.” In other words, I will answer to God in a way that she does not for what happens in my home – which is why I have to love my wife as Christ loved the church, and pour out my life in the service of her and my family.

I asked her what she thinks it means to submit, and she said, “I need to help you carry that weight.” In other words, we are on the same mission.  I pour out my life for her and our home, and she pours her life back into me and our home. God has given me a terrifying weight to carry, and my wife sees that, and she comes along side me in this mission. In the Kingdom of God, we should tremble when we bear the weight of leadership and celebrate when we are able to freely submit and follow godly leadership.

 How does this look practically?

 I don't just decide where we go on vacation, or how we spend our money, or how to discipline or reward our boys, or what job I or my wife should have, or what to plant in the garden, or what vehicle to buy, or what translation of the Bible we should use in our home.  Neither does my wife. My wife and I wrestle with these questions together.  But at the end of the day, do I make the final call? No. Yes. Depends on the issue. What’s my strength? What’s my wife’s strength? How can we serve each other? How can we help each other flourish?

Let’s broaden this principle….

With my kids, or here at church in my role as pastor, or at TC Christian in my role as teacher, it’s not about how I will be served, or how I will be obeyed, or how people must give me what I am owed. I’ve not earned some privilege that forces others to bow to me. I have been given a position of responsibility from which to serve my kids, to serve you, to serve my students. The question must be, “Am I equipping, promoting, and nourishing through loving service for the good of others and the glory of God?”

 And here at church I serve in a plurality of leadership, and at school I have an administrator, and at home my wife takes the helm in certain areas, and the question must be, “Am I allowing them to lead and encouraging them in the leadership role for which God has equipped them?

We are all going to have times in our life when we lead, and when we are given the responsibility of serving through leadership, we had better drop to our knees and beg God to overwhelm us with His strength, wisdom, goodness, and humility because if we don’t have that, everything around us will crumble.

When you are following the lead of someone else, are you stubborn, critical and judgmental, or are you praying for their wisdom and offering respect even if it is (at times) confrontational respect? When we are in situations where we are called to submit, follow and serve, we had better drop to our knees and beg God to do a work in this around us who lead, and to fill us with strength, wisdom, goodness, and humility so that we allow those who lead to flourish.

So how do we do this impossible task? There is only one way: “ If therefore there is any encouragement in Christ… if there is any fellowship of the Spirit…” (Philippians 2). Next week we are going to talk about encouragement in Christ and the fellowship of the Spirit, and how God is glorified in all this.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

• If you desire to be in charge, be honest before God. Why? Do you want power and control, or are you humbly looking for greater opportunities to serve?
• If you cringe at the idea of submission, be honest before God. Why? Is it because silence and inaction will enable sin and ruin, or do you just want power and control?
• If you are married (or engaged), are you and your spouse on the same page about the interplay of leadership and submission in your own home?
• When you are at home, with your friend and coworkers, or working with people at church, do they experience you as leading by equipping, promoting, and nourishing them through loving service? Do they see you submit to the authority figures in your life by looking out for their interest above yours?
• What are some signs that someone in  biblical headship/leadership is moving from being a servant to be being a ‘lord’?
• What are the biblical limits of submission (for what biblical reasons should someone draw a line and not submit to someone in authority)?
• Why is it so important to find encouragement in Christ and maintain fellowship with the Holy Spirit?

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FOR FURTHER THOUGHT….

  There is another view of the biblical relationship between men and women that is called egalitarianism. Egalitarians agree with the theological claims, but argue that the distinction of roles will not reflect a designed role for genders but will instead reflect a designed role for our gifts. Men and women don’t necessarily complement each other as male and female, but because as individuals with imago dei they have particular gifts or strengths that will flourish in particular ways for their flourishing and for God’s glory.

Both of these perspectives invite controversy. Complementarianism is a word with a lot of baggage because it’s been used as a code word for stifling authority and coercive power. Egalitarianism is accused of being just a reflection of modern feminism, or a kind of postmodern attempt to eliminate differences between men and women and see gender merely as something we construct.

I recommend a book that does a fantastic job explaining these two positions from a Christian perspective: Two Views of Women in Ministry, Stanley Gundry and James Beck, editors. Here’s a statement from the four authors in the book: “We believe one can build a credible case within the bounds of orthodoxy and a commitment to inerrancy for either one of the two major views we address in this volume, although all of us view our own position on the matter as stronger and more compelling.” If you would like to read more about areas of agreement and disagreement, and why Bible-honoring Christians disagree about this issue, I will just refer you to that book. Since that’s not the point of my sermon today, so I leave that follow-up opportunity in your hands.

Here’s just one example (which you can read about in far more detail Two Views of Women in Ministry) why Bible-honoring Christians have a vigorous discussion about complementarianism vs. egalitarianism.

THE CONTEXT OF 1 TIMOTHY 2

“Now, Timothy, it’s not my habit to allow women to teach in a way that wrenches authority from a man. As I said, it’s best if a woman learns with quiet harmony and agreement.  This is because Adam was formed first by God, then Eve.  Plus, it wasn’t Adam who was tricked; it was she—the woman was the one who was fooled and disobeyed God’s command first. “ (1 Timothy 2:12--14)

Here’s the difficulty in wrestling with passages like this one. There is always a context, and understanding what the original audience heard vs. what we hear is hard work, and not everyone agrees. So, here’s the context.

The wording used to describe how women are not to “wrench authority from a man” always carried a violent or sexual meaning when used in ancient literature. Catherine Kroeger writes: “Chrysostom uses autheritia to denote “sexual license.”   Dr. David H. Scholer cites Leeland Edward Wilshire’s exhaustive study of the word authentien“… almost exclusively meant “a perpetrator of a violent act, either murder or suicide.” In other words, there were a lot of other words Paul could have chosen that would have been entirely adequate to refer to teaching, but he chose this one. There is a much deeper dynamic going on.

Consider this reality of ancient Greek culture (pointed out once again by Catherine Koeger) that seems to have been a part of life in Ephesus: “Virtually without exception, female teachers among the Greeks were…hetairai (remember them from last week?) who made it evident in the course of their lectures that they were available afterwards for a second occupation. But the Bible teaches that to seduce men in such a manner was indeed to lead them to slaughter and the halls of death (cf. Prov. 2:18; 5:5; 7:27; 9:18). The verb authentein is thus peculiarly apt to describe both the erotic and the murderous.”

Something seriously distorted is happening in Timothy’s church that goes far beyond the mere act of teaching. It seems clear, if you read the whole book of 1 Timothy, that the church in Ephesus was plagued with false teaching. The primary source appears to be women in the church who had picked up some teaching that combined the religion of Artemis with some of the early gnostics. This is not surprising, considering that women were generally not educated, and were thus more susceptible to taking whatever was taught to them and accepting it as true.

The cult of Artemis, which was very active in Ephesus, taught female superiority and dominance. It was characterized by, among other things, fertility rituals and genealogies that only traced female bloodlines. There was also a movement in Judaism at that time that combined the teachings of Artemis with the teachings of the Old Testament story of Adam and Eve. In their version, Eve was the 'illuminator' of mankind because she got 'true knowledge' from the Serpent, who revealed truth God did not give to Adam. Eve was the Mother of both Life and Truth, and she gave birth to Adam and taught him the truth of the Serpent.

So When Paul writes, "Adam was formed first, then Eve,” and that Eve was deceived not Adam, it’s a direct attack on the idea that Eve was the Mother of both Life and Truth. A contextualized translation of 1 Timothy 2: 12-14 would read something like this:

“Now, Timothy, it’s not my habit to allow women to teach in a way that wrenches authority from the qualified men who are teaching. As I said, it’s best if a woman learns true doctrine with quiet harmony and agreement. Considering that women are being taken with the popular the idea that Eve was the originator of Adam and the goddess of life, let women submissively and humbly learn sound doctrine. And I do not permit a woman to teach that she is the illuminator of man because Eve was the illuminator of Adam. The Bible teaches that Adam was first formed first, then Eve. Adam disobeyed, but he was not deceived; Eve fell into sin because she was deceived."

So suddenly it’s not just, “I don’t let women teach because women are more susceptible to error than men.” It’s loaded with insight about how to structure life in such a way that those who are strong in certain areas take the lead, and those who are weak in certain areas let those who are strong do their thing. Everybody benefits if it’s done well. Some complementarians would say there is a timeless principle here; egalitarians would say it is situational. Maybe there’s elements of both. That’s the tension, and I point you again toward Two Views of Women in Ministry (Stanley Gundry and James Beck, editors) to read more about the discussion.

Made…In Complementary Community (Part 1)

Any time there is a discussion about men and women and the Bible, there’s a lot of baggage. Paul is often considered kind of a sexist jerk, and there’s often a sense of resignation, tension or even hostility when we start talking about men and women and the Bible. Part of the push back from defenders of 50 Shades of Gray is that Christians are in no position to point fingers; after all, hasn’t the church oppressed women for 2,000 years?

 I am going to argue that that the Bible offers a compelling vision of how life in Christ shows us how to flourish as men and women for the glory of God.

 The Early Church was flooded with far more women than men. It was so lopsided that Christianity was mocked for being a religion for women and children.  Tatian (AD 110-172) recalls that the Greeks who write against Christianity “. . . say that we talk nonsense among women and boys, among maidens and old women . . .” We don’t hear much about how, for the first 100 to 200 years,  women were deeply involved with the growth of the church. Something was happening in this community that was incredibly compelling to women.*

 I think we often miss this because of a common problem: we don’t see the forest for all the trees. In other words, we get so hung up on the tree blocking our view– submit, headship, obey, don’t speak in church, cover your head – that we miss the beauty of the landscape. My goal it so help us look at the forest.

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We have to start by understanding what the Mediterranean world was like when Jesus lived and when the Bible was written. Most of the discussion will be about married people, because the culture was built around the family. However, the principles are broader, so if you are single, hang with me. There’s a gold mine here.

 Rome believed the family unit was a microcosm of the state, and the state was meant to mirror the life of the gods. As the family went, so went the country. For this reason, Rome insisted in the stability of the family structure. When occasional groups would spring up and promote a different style, Rome would crush them as seditionists or traitors.

Aristotle is famous for his Household Codes, a list of obligations that wives, children and slaves had to the husband/father. Many other codes have survived, but they all follow the same basic pattern – women, children and slaves submit, obey, etc.  Aristotle had claimed that “The one gender is far superior to the other in just about every sphere,” and that the women have the ability to deliberate about things, but without authority.

 An upper class Greek or Roman husband was the pater familias, the head of the family (like Augustus was the head of Rome). His word was law. His wife, kids, and slaves were all simply possessions. He could kill his children or divorce his wife on a whim. Sarah Ruden (Paul Among the People) notes that men believed that they were entitled to extract sex from their wives by violence. It’s a common “meme” in Greco-Roman literature. If a wife would not have sex, she could be beaten.

 Many men – especially the aristocrats -  had three significant women in their lives: their wife, their mistress, and their concubine. Demosthenes (384-322 BCE, Athenian statesman and orator) said: “We have hetairai for our pleasure, concubines for our daily needs, and wives to give us legitimate children and look after the housekeeping.” Marriage was typically (though not always) functional and political. 

The hetairai were mostly ex-slaves from other cities, known for dance music, and their intellect. They were educated, and they took part in the discussions men had. Athenaeus explained the allure of the hetaira:  “Is not a ‘companion’ (hetaira) more kindly than a wedded wife?  Yes, far more, and with very good reason.  For the wife, protected by law, stays at home in proud contempt, whereas the harlot knows that a man must be bought by her fascinations or she must go out and find another.”

It was a shame for women to speak in public venues (unless they were hetairai or the rare aristocrat).  Aristotle wrote in Politics, “Silence is a woman’s glory.”  The ecclesia, or the assembly, was a man’s domain. Wives didn’t even join their husbands at meals when topics of significance were discussed. The few times we have record of women giving speeches, they brought shame on their family even if the speech was praised. Oration was for men, and female orators were mocked for being male.  When a woman named Maesia Sentia defended herself publicly against an accusation, Valerius Maximus described her as "androgynous," apparently implying she had entered the male sphere by speaking in public.

Several Roman writers instruct women to just go home and be quiet. One ancient inscription that read, “Theano [the wife of Pythagoras], in putting her cloak about her exposed her arm. Somebody exclaimed, ‘A lovely arm.’ ‘But not for the public,’ said she. Not only the arm of the virtuous woman, but her speech as well, ought to be not for the public, and she ought to be modest and guarded about saying anything in the hearing of outsiders, since it is an exposure of herself; for in her talk can be seen her feelings, character, and disposition."

While some aristocratic women were well educated, they were the exception. Learning and debate were also considered masculine traits. Juvenal argued that it was "exasperating" for a woman to discuss Virgil and Homer at the dinner table. Such a wife might as well cross-dress, worship and bathe with men. He finally concluded:“Wives shouldn't try to be public speakers; they shouldn't use rhetorical devices; they shouldn't read all the classics-there ought to be some things women don't understand. . . If she has to correct somebody, let her correct her girl friends and leave her husband alone.”

Livy thought women should ask questions to their husbands at home, but cautioned: “As soon as they begin to be your equals, they will have become your superiors.”

There were Stoic and Epicurean philosophers who stressed the dignity of women and encouraged their education. This was not the approach everywhere.  The Greeks were far more open to this, but the  Romans generally made a connection between increasing freedom of women and a breakdown of morals and family.

Russ Dudrey noted, “Good Roman wives demonstrate their character by pudicitia (which is often translated "chastity" but includes modesty and domesticity) by respecting and honoring their husbands, by working faithfully to manage the domestic affairs of the household.” Piety, chastity and modesty were in such widespread use that the words were often given abbreviations on the tombstones of women.

Above all, women needed to stay in the private sphere. There they were given great leeway in the ‘private’ sphere of their own homes – business, education and raising of the children, social connections, etc. They were very skilled and capable, and among their circle of female friends there were often thriving businesses. There was decent money to be made through manufacturing and trade, and plenty of women (including some prominent members in the early church) did this.

There was also a lot of gossip and slander, which is no surprise considering the quality of the men around them. There is plenty of surviving literature that notes rebellion, jealousy, extravagant waste – in other words, bringing shame and not honor to their father or husband.  And let’s be honest – in this venue, it would certainly seem tough to find good reasons to be honorable.

Perhaps that’s why, in the first century, there was a “new Roman woman” on the rise. She was brazen, flirtatious, loud and immodest. She piled her hair full of gold and riches as a way to show off her wealth and status. They may have been trying to break the glass ceilings of the time, but because of their approach, people generally saw them as annoying at best and shameful at worst.

Add to this some religious dynamics. At this time, Eastern religions were making a push, specifically the cult of Isis.  Women were gravitating toward this style of temple worship. There were some pretty wild temple priestesses who were publically loud and immodest. The general public did not like them, and Roman authorities were greatly concerned about Isis worship because they thought female worshipers of Isis had too much power over their husbands (back to the family as the microcosm of the state, etc).  In addition, it seems like some false teachings were coming into the church through the women simply because they were not educated enough in their faith to be discerning. (We will see that come up in 1 Timothy.)

While Judaism had always offered a better life for women than the surrounding cultures, there was work to be done. Though women had a lot of domestic authority (reads Proverbs 31), men had dominant power in the marriage. Women had more rights than most other cultures, but husbands could divorce their wife basically on a whim.

Judaism did not oppose education for women, but only if it did not distract women from their duties at home.  There have been several women who had significant influence on rabbinical teaching, but they were the outliers.

Women were not considered to be inferior by nature, but they were believed to be untrustworthy, and they could not testify in court because their word carried so little weight.

Godly Jewish women were to cover their heads because hair was seen as sexually enticing. One rabbi wrote, “What is the transgression of law of Moses and the Jews? If she goes out with her hair unbound, or spins in the street, or talks to everyone.”  Women who violated this law could be divorced without compensation.

Their role in the synagogue was usually minor, which came from a complicated mix of being exempt from the obligations of the men (being a mom is demanding) and then not having the education the men did. They sometimes worshipped separately from the men so men would not be distracted and so that no one would confuse them with some fertility cult.

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 It is in this setting that writers like Paul and Peter have to show this brand new church community what life together as the “new humanity” should look like. The church claimed a new family and a new head (God), which made Rome really nervous because they though chaos was coming. This was most certainly not the household of Caesar. So what does the church decide to do? We will start with a passage from 1 Peter.

 “Beloved, remember you don’t belong in this world. You are resident aliens living in exile, so resist those desires of the flesh that battle against the soul. Live honorably among the outsiders so that, even when some may be inclined to call you criminals, when they see your good works, they might give glory to God when He appears.

For the Lord’s sake, accept the decrees and laws of all the various human institutions, whether they come from the highest human ruler or agents he sends to punish those who do wrong and to reward those who do well. You see, it is God’s will that by doing what is right and good you should hush the gabbing ignorance of the foolish. Live as those who are free and not as those who use their freedom as a pretext for evil, but live as God’s servants. Respect everyone. Love the community of believers. Reverence God. Honor your ruler.

Peter is noting that they were in exile, but they had to live honorably in such away that they would silence those who did not understand what was going on, and those who wanted to call them criminals would actually give glory to God.

“If you are a slave, submit yourself to the master who has authority over you, whether he is kind and gentle or harsh as he deals with you. For grace is clearly at work when a person accepts undeserved pain and suffering and does so because he is mindful of God.” 

“In the same way, wives, you should patiently accept the authority of your husbands. This is so that even if they don’t obey God’s word, as they observe your pure respectful behavior, they may be persuaded without a word by the way you live. Don’t focus on decorating your exterior by doing your hair or putting on fancy jewelry or wearing fashionable clothes; let your adornment be what’s inside—the real you, the lasting beauty of a gracious and quiet spirit, in which God delights.

This is how, long ago, holy women who put their hope in God made themselves beautiful: by respecting the authority of their husbands. Consider how Sarah, our mother, obeyed her husband, Abraham, and called him “lord,” and you will be her daughters as long as you boldly do what is right without fear and without anxiety.

 In the same way, husbands, as you live with your wives, understand the situations women face and show them honor as the weaker vessel. Each of you should respect your wife and value her as an equal heir in the gracious gift of life. Do this so that nothing will get in the way of your prayers.

 Finally, all of you, be like-minded and show sympathy, love, compassion, and humility to and for each other—  not paying back evil with evil or insult with insult, but repaying the bad with a blessing. It was this you were called to do, so that you might inherit a blessing.” (1 Peter 2:11 - 3:1-9) 

Let’s try 1 Corinthians:

 There’s a slogan often quoted on matters like this: “All things are permitted.” Yes, but not all things are beneficial. “All things are permitted,” they say. Yes, but not all things build up and strengthen others in the body. We should stop looking out for our own interests and instead focus on the people living and breathing around us….

(After talking about meat offered to idols) Whatever you do—whether you eat or drink or not—do it all to the glory of God! Do not offend Jews or Greeks or any part of the church of God for that matter. Consider my example: I strive to please all people in all my actions and words—but don’t think I am in this for myself—their rescued souls are the only profit. (1 Corinthians 10:23-25; 31-33) 

Note the context: You have freedom, but stop looking out for your own interest. Focus on people around you. How can you serve them? How can you bring honor and not shame? Don’t offend people; strive to please them. Rescued souls are the goal! Note what follows: 

“Any woman—I mean, of course, a married woman—not wearing a veil over her head while praying or prophesying disgraces her head, her husband. It wouldn’t be much different than if she walked into worship with her head shaved. For if a woman isn’t going to be veiled properly, she ought to go ahead and cut off her hair; but if it brings shame to the woman and her husband to have all her hair cut off or her head shaved clean, then by all means let her wear a veil.” (1 Corinthians 11:5-6)

Let’s throw in a related section of Scripture from Paul:

“I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God. A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.” (1 Timothy 2:9-11)

For the last one, let’s check out the infamous Ephesians 5 passage.

 The Holy Spirit makes it possible to submit humbly to one another out of respect for Christ.  Wives, it should be no different with your husbands. Submit to them as you do to the Lord, for God has given husbands a sacred duty to lead as Christ leads the church and serves as the head. (The church is His body; He is her Savior.) So wives should submit to their husbands, respectfully, in all things, just as the church yields to Christ.

Husbands, you must love your wives so deeply, purely, and sacrificially that we can understand it only when we compare it to the love the Anointed One has for His bride, the church. We know He gave Himself up completely to make her His own, washing her clean of all her impurity with water and the powerful presence of His word.  He has given Himself so that He can present the church as His radiant bride, unstained, unwrinkled, and unblemished—completely free from all impurity—holy and innocent before Him. 

 So husbands should care for their wives as if their lives depended on it, the same way they care for their own bodies. As you love her, you ultimately are loving part of yourself (remember, you are one flesh). No one really hates his own body; he takes care to feed and love it, just as the Anointed takes care of His church, because we are living members of His body. 

 “And this is the reason a man leaves his father and his mother and is united with his wife; the two come together as one flesh.” There is a great mystery reflected in this Scripture, and I say that it has to do with the marriage of the Anointed One and the church. Nevertheless, each husband is to love and protect his own wife as if she were his very heart, and each wife is to respect her own husband. (Ephesians 5:21-33)

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In a practical sense, the Household Codes and Church Codes enabled Christians to do two key things: Live within certain cultural patterns as a way to silence critics, and redeem those cultural patterns by demonstrating extraordinary honor, love, and service. The church can’t be isolated from the culture if it wants to effectively share the good news of the gospel. But figuring out how to be "in it" but not "of it" requires wisdom and discernment.On the one hand, we could enable sinful brokenness of people and institutions if we give too much ground; on the other hand, we can so alienate ourselves from our neighbors that they want nothing to do with us or our Christ.

Here’s a key question that Christians have debated: are these codes meant to be timeless, or were they timely? In other words, are we to understand these passages to say that every Christian household or church service should look like this, or are we to understand them as showing us how broader principles of honor, love and service were demonstrated at that time and in that way? If we say it’s timeless, we run into at least two problems. First, we don’t have slaves, and all the Household Codes did. Second, we clearly allow women to speak, ask questions in church, and not cover their head. So to just automatically say, “Replicate that!” does not do justice to the text. On the other hand, if we say it was only cultural, then everything seems up in the air. Does this mean respect and honor are just cultural accommodations? If the culture had been different, would Paul and the other writers have commanded an increase in subjugation and dishonor? So what we are looking for is how to look at timeless godly wisdom and timely application at the same time.

Let’s see the forest in the home and church, not the trees…

The call for wives to submit to their husband’s authority or to build character instead of outward beauty was not a shock.  Every woman understood that covering her head, dressing simply, wearing a veil, and not overriding men in public was what modesty, respect and honor looked like in their culture.

Peter and Paul went beyond the outward appearance and challenged their hearts: bring honor to your family and church not out of fear and anxiety, but for the Lord’s sake. Had Paul stopped there, he would have merely had a keen sense of the obvious family and church patterns, and nothing really would have changed except their attitudes. However, he takes an unprecedented step: he also talks about the honor owed them.

• Women deserved their husband’s love and commitment. They were worthy of being served and honored in their home and in the church.

• Women were to pray and prophecy in the church, the ecclesia, which was traditionally a man’s domain.

• Men and women were to worship together. And all women, even those who had not earned it, were to wear the honoring symbol of a veil.

• Unlike the claim of the Roman philosophers, women weren’t a bother if they wanted to learn. Men had a responsibility to pass on what they knew. 

• If you read the New Testament and early church history, you see women functioning as apostles, prophets, evangelists, teachers, benefactors, and martyrs.

So even as women were called to live in a way that silenced their critics and protected the reputation and honor of their family and church, they flourished as women in a way that unleashed a cultural earthquake. If the shock for the women was how much Christ had to offer them in terms of dignity, value and worth, the shock for men was to find out how badly they had distorted God’s design for men and women. 

• Men were commanded to serve and encourage their wives, and to help women flourish in the church and home.

• As the ‘stronger vessel,’ they weren’t to intimidate, bully or abuse their wife just because they were more powerful.

• They were to respect and value women as co-heirs in Christ in a culture that believed women were by nature inferior.

• Men were not to divorce for just any reason. We read in Matthew 19:1-10 that this was so upsetting that Jesus’ disciples claimed it would be better not to marry.

• Men were to love sacrificially, pass on their education, and bring honor to their wife with the implication that if they messed up that relationship, they harmed their relationship with God.

• They were to let them be engaged in church.

• In a culture that said women were inherently trustworthy or mentally incapable, men were to entrust them with the gospel message.

Then all of you, show sympathy, love, compassion, and humility. This is simply not what characterized the surrounding culture. Neitzsche claimed the Romans had what he called a Master Morality (pride, strength, nobility) while the Jews and then the Christians had what he called a Slave Morality (kindness, humility and sympathy). It angered him; he felt like Christianity emasculated mankind because it made everyone equal slaves. He couldn’t understand how it eventually defeated Rome by changing it from the inside out.

The first Christians were living in a world that was not their home.  They were to take the very structures used to oppress or dominate and redeeming them by living with a mutual honor and respect for each other  - and do it with the help of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God.  

Where do we go with this today? As disciples, ambassadors and servants, we must enter into what our culture allows (or encourages) men and women to be and do and redeem it to the glory of God.

Men, you must turn your back on your culture’s standard of how men are allowed to act and raise the bar for how men should act.  When culture says women are things for your pleasure, and its just in our nature to cheat on them, and if they make us unhappy we should move on or make them change….you honor all women around you, you commit to them when you marry, and you lay down your life for them.

You guard your eyes, you don’t support porn or tell jokes that demean women. You give up your right to autonomy and pride and you lay down your life. You don’t have to be Mr. Sensitive, but you must bring safety to the women around you, and you must provide a climate in which they can flourish.  Show is how Christ loves the world.

Women, you must turn your back on your culture’s standard of how women are allowed to act and raise the bar for how women should act. When culture says that it’s cool to make fun of, insult and criticize men, even your own husband, you respect them, you honor them with your words and your actions.  In that sense, you, too, lay down your life for your husband.  You don’t have to be the Proverbs 31 Superwoman. Just watch what happens when you provide a climate where the men around you can flourish.  Show us how Christ loves the world.

If we did this kind of life together, what would happen if someone who thinks the Bible or the church oppresses women and lionizes men visited our homes or visited our church or hung out with our circle of friends and saw men and women who “show sympathy, love, compassion, and humility to and for each other,” where husbands and wives cared for each other, where men and women protected the hearts and the honor of those around them?

 “Live honorably among the outsiders so that, even when some may be inclined to call you criminals, when they see your good works, they might give glory to God when He appears… All of you, be like-minded and show sympathy, love, compassion, and humility to and for each other—  not paying back evil with evil or insult with insult, but repaying the bad with a blessing. It was this you were called to do, so that you might inherit a blessing.”

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AN INCOMPLETE LIST OF SOURCE BOOKS

Kenneth Bailey, Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes

E.Randolph Richards and Brandon J. O'Brien, Misreading Scripture With Western Eyes

N.T. Wright, Paul For Everyone: The Pastoral Letters (1 and 2 Timothy and Titus)

N.T. Wright, Colossians and Philemon

Sarah Ruden, Paul Among the People

Christian Origins and Greco-Roman Culture, edited by Stanley E. Porter

Two Views on Women in Ministry, edited by James R. Beck and Stanley N. Gundrey

John Walton, The Essential Bible Companion

Frank Viola, The Untold Story of the New Testament Church

AN INCOMPLETE LIST OF SOURCE WEBSITES

Kindalee Pfremmer DeLong, "Women and Culture in the New Testament World: Social Values Related to Paul's Teaching in 1 Corinthians"

Kenneth Bailey, "Women in the New Testament: A Middle Eastern Cultural View"

Kruse Kronicle, Household of God series

Christianity Today online, "The Neglected History of Women in the Early Church"

"Putting Paul in his place: Examining the apostle through the eyes of a classicist."  - an interview with Sarah Ruden

Russ Dudrey, "Submit Yourselves To One Another: A Socio-Historical Look at the Household Code of Ephesians 5:15-6:9." http://www.pas.rochester.edu/~tim/study/household%20code%20eph.pdf

Jen Wilken, "How Are Women Weaker Vessels?"

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* Here's a brief list of how women were elevated in both worth and role in the New Testament, beginning with the life and ministry of Jesus

• The angel appears to Mary, and everyone has to take her word even though women were considered unreliable liars in Judaism.

• Jesus' disciples included several women, which was highly unusual (Luke 8:1-3)

• Christ's first clearly identifies himself as the true Messiah to the Samaritan woman (John 4:25-26).

• He treated female outcasts with dignity (Matthew 9:20-22; Luke 7:37-50; John 4:7-27).

• Jesus appeared to women first after His resurrection as eyewitnesses.

• At Pentecost, women were there praying with the other discpiles (Acts 1:12-14). They clearly understood sound doctrine and experienced spiritual giftedness (Acts 18:26; 21:8-9).

• Paul ministered alongside women (Philippians 4:3).

• Paul applauded their faithfulness and giftedness (Romans 16:1-6; 2 Timothy 1:5

• Couples evangelized with him (1 Cor. 16:3)

• Paul says that Andronicus and Junias labored with Paul in apostolic work (Romans 16:7)

• The church in Philippi met in the house of Lydia, a seller of purple cloth. Pauls’s visit to her suggests she had a leadership role of some sort (Acts 16:35-40).

• Phoebe (Rom 16:1-2) is called a deacon and a leader.

• Priscilla was a "professor of theology," who, with her husband, taught Apollos (Acts 18:26).

• The four daughters of Philip appear in Acts 21:9 as prophetesses. Eusebius viewed these daughters as “belonging to the first stage of apostolic succession.”

• When the Roman governor Pliny the Younger interrogated church leaders, he included two slave women called ministrae (deacons).

• Clement of Alexandria wrote that the apostles were accompanied on missionary journeys by women specifically to preach to women.

• Jermone (330’s) was so impressed with Roman women studying with him that he sent some church elders to Marcella to resolve a question of hermeneutics.

• Augustine (400’s) claimed that Christian women were wiser in spiritual matters than were many philosophers.

• Fabiola founded the first Christian hospital in Europe.

Read more about this issue at http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/1988/issue17/1706.html?start=1

Made…as men and women (Part 2)

In "Made as Men and Women (Part 1)," I noted that God is Creator, Sustainer, Protector and Provider, and He has given to those who bear his image the privilege and responsibility of embodying those things in the world. So while women and men individually often share interchangeable traits and are sometimes able to function effectively in all these roles, the Old Testament gives us a foundational starting point. Men can do a lot of things, but they must commit to making the world safe within the scope of their ability and opportunity. Women can do a lot of things, but they must commit to helping the world come to life and flourish within the scope of their ability and opportunity.

(Note: I highly recommend Matt Chandler's series, "A Beautiful Design," if you want to hear some excellent teaching on these distinctions.)

This post will discuss what the New Testament shows about the design for men and women. The next will look at what the New Testament reveals about how we are to do life together in in our homes and in the church. Finally, the last post in this series will show how all of this is meant to bring glory to God.

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1) The Old Testament was the start of the discussion, not the end.

The Old Testament is “breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3:16). It is however, incomplete.  It was an important step in the right direction, but it wasn’t the end of the journey. I ended last week by noting that in the Old Testament, the way for men and women to recapture Eden was to walk in the “path of life” (Psalms 16:11), which was found in God’s law.  It wasn’t going to change our hearts; it would, however, direct our hands. Fast forward to Paul’s discussion of the Law….

“Now you’re asking yourselves, “So why did God give us the law?” God commanded His heavenly messengers to deliver it into the hand of a mediator for this reason: to help us rein in our sins until Christ, about whom the promise was made in the first place, would come…. “So,” you ask, “Does the law contradict God’s promise?” Absolutely not! But it will not lead us to resurrection and life; if it could have, then surely we could have experienced saving righteousness through keeping the law. But we haven’t. Before the coming of Christ, we were surrounded and protected by the Mosaic Law, our immaturity restrained until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian or tutor until Christ came that we might be acquitted of all wrong and justified by faith.” (Galatians 3:19-24) 

I don’t know how you felt after last week, but I’ve been really conscious about how totally inadequate I am to stay in the path of life by my own strength.  So while the Law showed us how to live well and bring about goodness, it also showed us that it is an impossible task.  The New Testament makes it clear that this dilemma is not the end of the story - the “path of life” was paving the way for the only One who can help us do it well. 

“This is the kind of confidence we have in and through Christ. Don’t be mistaken; in and of ourselves we know we have little to offer, but any competence or value we have comes from God.  Now God has equipped us to be capable servants of the new covenant, not by authority of the written law which condemns us by showing our inability to keep it, but by the Spirit who brings life...” (2 Corinthians 3:4-6)

 So the New Testament will show us what the Old Testament has been  pointing us toward, and will show how Christ will transform our hearts and empower our hands so that we can do that which is simply impossible for us to do on our own.

 2)  The NT goes out of its way to talk about how God is in the process of bringing about a “new humanity” (Ephesians 2:15) characterized by unity (John 17:18-23).

 “Father, may they all be one as You are in Me and I am in You; may they be in Us, for by this unity the world will believe that You sent Me. All the glory You have given to Me, I pass on to them. May that glory unify them and make them one as We are one, I in them and You in Me, that they may be refined so that all will know that You sent Me, and You love them in the same way You love Me. (John 17:20-23)

 We read Galatians 3: 19-24 earlier (“the law is a tutor”). Here’s what follows:

 “So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:26-28)

 This is probably a direct response to a typical Jewish prayer in which the men thanked God they were not a Gentile, a woman or a slave. But it highlights a shift in thinking that takes place in Christ. The things that were used before to decide who was important, or whom God liked – race, gender, social hierarchy – have been dissolved in Christ.

 What we are going to see in the New Testament won’t negate that there is a purpose and design in gender – it’s not going to claim that men and women are interchangeable - but it will show us that our differences can only be made truly complementary when we understand what it means to be unified in Christ.

 3) The NT offers Christ as the ultimate example of life and godliness. And we are being transformed as Christians into that image:

“Now all of us, with our faces unveiled, reflect the glory of the Lord as if we are mirrors; and so we are being transformed, metamorphosed, into His same image from one radiance of glory to another, just as the Spirit of the Lord accomplishes it.” (2 Corinthians 3:4-6; 18)

 In Christ, we see all the elements we talked about last week for men and women brought together in their fullness (well, except for having kids J). In Christ, who was fully God and fully human, we see the imago dei fully expressed. Christ protects and provides; He creates and sustains. He challenges injustice and he weeps over Jerusalem. He takes dominion over the sea and he tenderly cares for children.  He casts out demons and he “sees” people deeply and empathetically. So whatever the New Testament has to say is going to point us toward what it looks like to be transformed into the image of Christ, in whom we see the fullness of God’s image represented.

That's one reason we see men and women moving effectively in areas that are are typically associated the opposite gender. Women can clearly order the world and make is safe. Just read the book of Judges to see how women showed leadership in Israel, then take a look at how women in the early church offered leadership in many areas. Men can also clearly nourish life. When Paul challenges men to "cherish(thalpo) their wives (Ephesians 5:29), it's the same word he uses when he talks about how " a nursing mother tenderly cares (thalpo) for her own children" (1 Thessalonians 2:7).

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 So as part of this “new humanity” who is brought to unity in Christ, increasingly transformed into the image of Christ and empowered by Holy Spirit, what does the New Testament add to what it means to be a man or a woman? It means we are designed to become and called to be mature disciples of Christ. With that in mind, there are at least three things that men and women must do if they want to live in the fullness of God’s design as mature disciples of Christ.

Count the Cost 

“If any of you come to Me without committing to me over your own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, and yes, even your own life, you can’t be My disciple. If you don’t carry your own cross as if to your own execution as you follow Me, you can’t be part of My movement. Just imagine that you want to build a tower. Wouldn’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to be sure you have enough to finish what you start? If you lay the foundation but then can’t afford to finish the tower, everyone will mock you: “Look at that guy who started something that he couldn’t finish!” Or imagine a king gearing up to go to war. Wouldn’t he begin by sitting down with his advisors to determine whether his 10,000 troops could defeat the opponent’s 20,000 troops? If not, he’ll send a peace delegation quickly and negotiate a peace treaty. In the same way, if you want to be My disciple, it will cost you everything. Don’t underestimate that cost!” (Luke 14:26-33)

The walls protected people and crops.  A guard was posted in the tower during harvest. A king defending his nation in war needed wisdom to know which course of action was best.  If you didn’t know what it would cost to accomplish your goal, your enterprise would fail. 

Disciples need to make an informed decision. This is why we have to be honest with people about life in Christ. That’s why it is so damaging to say things like, “God wants everybody to be rich,” or “You will never be sick.” It makes Jesus into a Wish Fulfillment God who just gives you everything you thought you needed to make you happy. If that were true, there would be no cost to count. That’s easy math.  Jesus is just laying it out there for them. “You must know that if you follow me, it will cost you everything: your money, your time, your attitudes, your priorities, your relationships, your free time, maybe even our health or your life.”

• You cannot simply make money and do with it what you want.
• You cannot simply think of yourself when you organize your day.
• You cannot simply act out every emotion, or justify every emotion.
• You cannot simply come up with a ‘bucket list’ without consideration of God’s priorities.
• You can’t just consume entertainment mindlessly
• You can’t just settle for bad relationships with your family.

Following Christ will cost you your autonomy and independence. But what is the cost if you don’t? Look at the ruin in the world when people live outside of the path of life.

• Has sexual impurity brought greater good to the world than purity?
• Have greed and lust have helped us?
• Have gossip and slanderhelped bring life to the world?
• Can we argue that when men dominate and use women or when women emasculate and undermine men that we have somehow achieved the good life?
• Can we argue that squandering our resources, or being mean to our kids, or cheating at work, or always being jealous has somehow helped the human enterprise?

 So we can choose ruin, or we can choose life. Each will cost us. If we choose ourselves, we will surrender to ruin that we bring into our life and the lives of those around us.  If we choose Christ, we surrender to God’s will. Our life will be not our own, but we will experience what it means to walk in the path of life.

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 Take up your cross and follow Christ

 “If any of you want to walk My path, you’re going to have to deny yourself. You’ll have to take up your cross every day and follow Me. If you try to avoid danger and risk, then you’ll lose everything. If you let go of your life and risk all for My sake, then your life will be rescued, healed, made whole and full. Listen, what good does it do you if you gain everything—if the whole world is in your pocket—but then your own life slips through your fingers and is lost to you?” (Luke 9:23-25)

 It’s so counter-intuitive. How can it be that not doing what I feel like doing can be for my benefit?  Nevertheless, if you want to be rescued, healed and made whole and full, you must follow Christ.

• We die to our privacy and hiddenness and follow Christ to honesty and transparency.
• We die to our emotional outbursts and we follow Christ to self-control.
• We die to self-justification and blame and follow a Christ who frees us to say, “I am the worst of sinners” without shame and with a longing for holiness.
• We die to pornography and promiscuity and follow Christ to purity.
• We die to wanting our spouse, or kids, or our friends to make us happy and instead serve them for their happiness.

And in all these things, you will take up a cross and walk toward your own crucifixion. Day after day. Christ will empower you with His Spirit, His Word and His people, and he will guide you in the path to genuine fullness of life, and in the end you will understand how the Resurrection of Christ brings you to life.

 Ladies, if the men around you counted the cost, took up the cross and followed Christ, would this not be a climate in which you could flourish? This isn’t a 50 Shades of Grey man, who ruins the women in his world.  (The actor playing him in the upcoming movie said he was asked to do things for the movie that he would never do to women in real life. Thank God.) Ladies, is that kind of man truly more desirable than a man who has counted the cost, then taken of the cross of Christ so that he might give his life for the good of those around him every day?

 Men, when the women around you count the cost, take up the Cross and accept it, is it not be beautiful to see the glory of God’s image in them  Listen, Katy Perry caught the attention of the world during the Superbowl when she rode out on a tiger like the girl on fire, but she can’t hold a candle to my wife. Now I think my wife is beautiful, but that’s not the reason. My wife takes up her cross daily and offers her emotions, her actions, her schedule, her life in the service of Christ and those around her, and in her transformation she is beautiful in ways that far surpass the shallow markers in our culture.

 This is why 50 Shades and halftime shows break my heart. Our culture does not understand what it means to be feminine or masculine in the deepest sense of the word.  The good news is that we have a tremendous opportunity to show the world how the Resurrection power of Christ brings us life in the fullest sense of the word.

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 Press On in the Power of the Christ

“I want to know Christ; I want to experience the power of His resurrection and join in His suffering, shaped by His death, so that I may arrive safely at the resurrection from the dead. I’m not there yet, nor have I become perfect; but I am charging on to gain anything and everything Jesus has in store for me. Brothers and sisters, as I said, I know I have not arrived; but there’s one thing I am doing: I’m leaving my old life behind and straining toward what is ahead.   

I am sprinting toward the only goal that counts: to cross the line, to win the prize, and to hear God’s call to resurrection life found exclusively in Jesus the Anointed.  All of us who are mature ought to think the same way about these matters. If you have a different attitude, then God will reveal this to you as well. For now, let’s hold on to what we have been shown and keep in step with these teachings.” (Philippians 3:10-16)

If we want to flourish in God’s design for men and women, we must count the cost, take up the cross of self-denial and discipleship, and follow Christ as we press on toward the fullness of life.

Christ does all the heavy lifting in making the transformation of our hearts possible. When we are dead in our sins, He alone has the power to bring us spiritual life. Christ does all this for us. It’s why we never boast. But Paul notes that this doesn’t mean we never do anything. We don’t earn our salvation, but it is often the case that God’s will is done “on earth as it is in heaven” when we press on by keeping in step with God’s teaching.

When our presence harms relationships, we will ask forgiveness and seek reconciliation.  When our words hurt instead of heal, we will seek to make amends with humility. When we see the lonely or the damaged, or the sinner lost and maybe even glorying in the midst of their sin, we won’t turn up our nose and walk away. We will press in, because that’s what Christ and others have done for us, and we will press on because of God’s call to Resurrection life.

We don’t throw up our arms in frustration and bail. We don’t rest on our accomplishments when we do well, and we don’t confuse history with destiny when we fail. None of us have arrived, but we acknowledge it, we hold fast to Christ, we absorb His word, we surround ourselves with men and women who will walk with us, and we press on toward the only goal that counts, not because we are awesome in our own strength, but because Christ is awesome in His power. We recommit to walking in the path of life with the help of Christ and the power of his Holy Spirit. We won’t be perfect, but we commit to stepping up and striving for the fullness of what Christ has to offer.

MADE…as men and women (Part 1)

 If God made us in his image, how are women and men designed to reflect something about God’s good nature, how do we tend toward ruin, and how can we recover the good of Eden? There are so many different ways to approach this subject biblically and practically, and I have chosen one. I pray that it is honest and true, but it will be incomplete and, like everything on this side of Heaven, imperfect. Let’s pray that that the Holy Spirit brings us all wisdom and discernment, and let’s use this as an entry point for walking together as a church, committed to God and His Word and each other, as we seek to better understand this issue.

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The Eternal God placed the newly made man in the garden of Eden in order to work the ground and care for it. He made certain demands of the man regarding life in the garden. “Eat freely from any and all trees in the garden; I only require that you abstain from eating the fruit of one tree—the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Beware: the day you eat the fruit of this tree, you will certainly die.”

 “It is not good for the man to be alone, so I will create a helper for him, a perfectly suited partner”… So the Eternal God put him into a deep sleep, removed a rib from his side, and closed the flesh around the opening. He formed a woman from the rib taken out of the man and presented her to him. And Adam said, “At last, a suitable companion, a perfect partner.
Bone from my bones.
Flesh from my flesh.
I will call  her “woman” as an eternal reminder
 she was taken out of man. 

 Now this is the reason a man leaves his father and his mother, and is united with his wife; and the two become one flesh. In those days the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed…. The man named his wife Eve (life-giver) because she was destined to become the mother of all living. ” (Genesis 2:15-18; 21-25; 3:21, The Voice) 

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You don’t have to read the Bible to recognize that men and women are different. You can study biology, sociology and psychology as a purely secular endeavor and see this clearly.

• Men get lots of testosterone, women get lots of estrogen. Men tend to be taller and broader, built for confrontation (we actually have thicker skulls).
• Men have more grey matter in their brains (processing center) and women have more white matter (network connections) in their brains.
• Women bond with their children chemically (oxytocin) in ways that men don’t. Cells from the unborn baby actually permeate the mother’s body.
• Men often score better at tasks that involve orienting objects, while women usually do better at language tests.
• Women tend to build relationships with words, men with activities. It's “Ladies, shall we go out for dinner and talk for 5 hours?” vs. “Hey, you guys want to watch the Superbowl or go golfing?”
• Women are generally more concerned with how to solve a problem (it’s relational). Men want a solution to demonstrate their competence.
• Women tend to build support networks; men don’t. In studies, girls tend to go through mazes together with “collective intelligence.” Boys tend to establish a chain-of-command and send out scouts.
• Women tend to see the interconnectedness of problems in a task and can be more easily overwhelmed. Men get more done, but they tend to minimize the complexity.
• Women tend to remember things that have strong emotional components. Men tend to remember memorable events. “Do you remember that trip when we really connected with your family?” vs. “Do you remember the zoo?”
• Men often feel validated through shared activities; women through shared experiences. If my wife goes to Stratford for a Shakespeare Festival she could care less about, that’s a good trip to me. And we could go to the Bahamas, but if we don’t connect emotionally on that trip, the dream trip will be ruined.
• Women generally determine the quality of a day or a life by their relationships; men value accomplishments. Little girls will make sticks play together; boys will fight something with them. I look at a finished project and think it was a good day; my wife is more likely to consider whether we did projects together to reach the same conclusion.
• Women tend to respond to emotion with more empathy. Even as babies, girls respond to the emotion around them in ways boys do not.

God’s Word and God’s world give a unified picture of the general way in which men and women see and interact with the world – and that’s differently.  Our culture wants us to view these differences through the lense of power. The Bible views it through the lense of service. Rather than trying to erase these differences, let’s understand them and maximize them for the glory of God and the good of the world.*

(It's important to note that this does not mean there is an insurmountable wall erected between the sexes, or that there is an exclusivity to these generalized categories. Just because men and women generally have different strengths or tendencies does not mean they always do, and neither men nor women are somehow exempted from seeking to flourish in the 'image bearing' commonly found in the other. Men and women combined - and thus the masculine and feminine combined -   fully represent the image of God as revealed in humanity.  If we desire a well-rounded view of God to be increasingly seen in us as individuals as well as in combination, men should desire to have and grow in 'feminine' traits, and women should desire to have and grow in 'masculine' traits. One can identify with both sides of the previous list and still very capably fulfill the tasks God has designed for them.)

So let’s look more closely at what service looks like for men and women.

God is a protector and provider.  So is Adam.  We see Adam tasked with the privilege and responsibility of serving God and the world by doing the same. When Adam is told to “care for” the land, it’s shamar, a word used in Psalm 12 to describe how God keeps Israel safe from evil. This encompassed the physical (the land), the people in it (“be united”), and the spiritual (“Keep that tree off limits”). 

Men, within the reach of your abilities and opportunities, protect and provide for everything in your environment, not because women shouldn't or can’t but because you must. Get involved in the needs around you. Raise the spiritual bar. Protect the oppressed and helpless. Honor and value women. Be a father to your kids or to those whose fathers are gone. ‘Be united’ to your wives. Stand for truth and justice. Fight against sin and for righteousness. Biblically speaking, real men do not sit back and watch the world become overrun with thorns and thistles physically or spiritually. We have got to do work!  This is genuine masculinity, and the world flourishes when we do this well.

God is a creator and sustainer, and we see Eve tasked with the privilege and responsibility of serving God and the world by doing the same. This isn’t just about having children, though that is included. Eve is bringing God’s “help,” a word used throughout the Old Testament to describe the kind of help God Himself gives humanity.  If Adam was to order the land and provide safety and resources for those under his protection, Eve was to take that environment of safety and provision and use it to nurture and encourage the people in it. 

Women, within the reach of your abilities and opportunities, nurture and bring life (literally and/or figuratively), not because men shouldn't or can’t but because you must. The world flourishes when you see the needs around you and engage with and enter into the lives of people. The ways in which you impact our culture reflects this. It’s not just bringing life and nurturing by having children: the top fields women dominate in America show how crucial your presence is for our world to work: day care (99%), health care (78%), social assistance (74%), educational services (69%), and advocacy and civil organizations (67%). (http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2009/01/26/10-industries-where-women-rule/). There are plenty of women who are in politics and business and the military, but the vocations that more overtly encourage, sustain, emote, and empathize flourish because of the overwhelming presence of women.

Cue the Fall.

(To Eve) “As a consequence of your actions, I will increase your suffering—the pain of childbirth
and the sorrow of bringing forth the next generation. You will desire your husband; but rather than a companion, he will be the dominant partner.”

(To Adam) “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistle for you and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground since from it you were taken;
for dust you are and to dust you will return. (Genesis 3:16-19)

How do we tend toward ruin? Primarily, we stop seeking to serve and we start wanting to be served.

 Men, at least two things happen as a result of the fall.

First, we now fail to provide as we tend to drift toward the ruin that comes with being lazy. We see a broken world full of thorns and thistles and we just aren’t motivated to break a sweat.

 Second, we now fail to protect as we tend to abuse our power. With other men, everything becomes an unhealthy competition. We gauge our manliness in comparison physically, or financially, or by social status. We think dominance is the mark of a man.

 With children, we aggressively dominate them verbally or physically because they are aren’t strong enough to challenge our anger or frustration, or we force them to become the kids we wish we had been and live vicariously through them with no thought for who they are.

With women, we use them instead of protect them. It might be a recreational approach to sex that uses and discards women so casually – or it could be an approach to sex in marriage that demands availability no matter the circumstances. It might be that we dismiss the intelligence, talents, and gifts that the women around us bring to any given situation. It might be that the jokes we tell or the places our eyes roam make women feel unsafe or demeaned.  

Women, the Fall distorts how God has designed you as well.

Eve’s increasing “pain’ after the Fall was emotional “sorrow” more than physical. The call to relational and emotional engagement with people will now bring you sorrow.

 You will tend to feel the pain of broken lives and failed relationships in ways that men do not, and instead of that motivating you to press in even more, it will bring resentment, despair or anger. You will not want to serve; you will want to be served. You will tend to build emotional walls to preserve your heart and disengage, or you will tend to lash out and hurt others to keep them at bay.

With other women, if they hurt you or intimidate you, you will not try to serve them more. You will try to make them feel it too. Your capacity for empathy and understanding that gives you this tremendous power to bring good also gives you an incredible capacity to bring ruin. That’s why gossip, or comments about appearance or capability are so devastating between women. When deeply relational and empathetic people decide to hurt someone else, they know how to do it.

 You will tend to sabotage your own longing for connection with men by pushing them away instead of engaging with your attitudes and words. How many times have I heard the phrase, “If he can’t handle me at my worst, he doesn’t deserve me at my best!” Or,  “I was just too much woman for him to handle!” What that usually means is that you either withdrew and became hard or cold, or lashed out and insulted or belittled him, and showed him what it looks like when someone decides that ruin is more important than relationships.

Instead of nurturing and serving children, you will want them to serve you. You will tend to resent the obligations they put on your life, or you will count on them to respond perfectly to all your nurturing needs and place on them an impossible burden to bear.

WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?

If we want to recapture a vision of Eden, we must walk in the path of life (Psalm 16:11). In the Old Testament, this was done through the Law. David said it delighted him (Psalm 119:97).Why? God has made clear that you can plant particular things so you can reap a particular kind of harvest. And you CHOOSE. Over and over again:

‘After all, what I’m commanding you today isn’t too difficult for you; it’s not out of reach. It’s not up in the sky, so you don’t have to say, “Who will go up into heaven and get it for us and tell us what it is, so we can obey it?” It’s not across the sea, so you don’t have to say, “Who will go beyond the watery abyss and get it for us and tell us what it is, so we can obey it?”  No, the words you need to be faithful to the Eternal are very close to you. They are in your mouth (always talk about these laws, as I’ve commanded you) and in your heart (treasure them there). Look, I’ve given you two choices today: you can have life (“tob”) with all the good things it brings, or death and all the ruin (“roa”) it brings.” (Deuteronomy 30:11-15)

And we are right back to the language of Tree of the Knowledge of Good (tob) and Evil (roa). God’s law is for our good. It’s not just OT law; just read Proverbs, and you will get a fantastic overview of the path of life that anyone who bears the image of God can read, put into practice, and receive the benefit.

 This will not save us, but it will guide us. It won’t transform our heart, but it will guide our hands. (We will talk next week about how Christ fulfills the Law and brings us hope in ways the Law can’t). It will give us general boundaries for “sowing and reaping” so that we can bring good to the world and not ruin.

MEN – – Within the scope of your abilities and opportunities, provide and protect  - not because women shouldn't or can’t, but because we are designed to reflect God’s image in this way as you serve the world. Show the world what it is like to live in a church, a workplace or a home where men not only bring safety, but men are safe. Be committed to character and integrity; make it your goal to help those around you flourish, praise and honor the women around you. The world is desperate for men like that. Watch the women around you flourish.

 WOMEN – Within the scope of your abilities and opportunities, create and sustain life in all its depth and complexity - not because men shouldn't or can’t, but because you are designed to reflect God’s image in this way as you serve the world. Show the world what a nourishing, life-giving presence looks like. I think I speak for all men when I say we long for it, we flourish in it, and we will respond to it. Show us what life is like when our hearts are safe with you, and watch what happens.

This is not yet the path to Eternal Life. Next week we are going to talk about why it took Christ to fulfill what the Law started. But God has given us a path to help us recover the Eden we long for. Let’s choose it for our good and His glory.

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* It's worth noting that the issue of gender distinctions rises to the surface in more places than just the church. While there is plenty of debate about how much we are socialized to act like what we think is masculine and feminine, there is also plenty of reason to think that - no matter whether it is nature, nurture, or both - the differences matter. Here are a few excerpts from studies and articles about this issue from a non-Christian perspective.

“In a 2008 study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, a group of international researchers compared data on gender and personality across 55 nations. Throughout the world, women tend to be more nurturing, risk averse and emotionally expressive, while men are usually more competitive, risk taking, and emotionally flat. But the most fascinating finding is this: Personality differences between men and women are the largest and most robust in the more prosperous, egalitarian, and educated societies. According to the authors, ‘Higher levels of human development—including long and healthy life, equal access to knowledge and education, and economic wealth—were the main nation-level predictors of sex difference variation across cultures.’ New York Times science columnist John Tierney summarized the study this way: ‘It looks as if personality differences between men and women are smaller in traditional cultures like India's or Zimbabwe's than in the Netherlands or the United States. A husband and a stay-at-home wife in a patriarchal Botswanan clan seem to be more alike than a working couple in Denmark or France." http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/03/what-lean-in-misunderstands-about-gender-differences/274138/

 “Shared church attendance and normative support for the institution of marriage are associated with higher levels of women’s marital happiness… Specifically, we find that the gendered character of marriage seems to remain sufficiently powerful as a tacit ideal among women to impact women’s marital quality even apart from the effects of the continuing mismatch between female gender role attitudes and male practices…women are not happier in marriages marked by egalitarian practices and beliefs… men’s emotion work (and women’s assessment of that work) is the most crucial determinant of women’s marital quality. It is more important than patterns of household labor, perceptions of housework equity, female labor force participation, childbearing, education, and a host of other traditional predictors of global marital quality.” Social Forces, Volume 84, Number 3, March 2006. http://www.researchgate.net/publication/265713370_What%27s_Love_Got_To_Do_With_It_Equality_EquityCommitment_and_Women%27s_Marital_Quality

"A study called “Egalitarianism, Housework and Sexual Frequency in Marriage,” which appeared in The American Sociological Review last year, surprised many, precisely because it went against the logical assumption that as marriages improve by becoming more equal, the sex in these marriages will improve, too. Instead, it found that when men did certain kinds of chores around the house, couples had less sex. Specifically, if men did all of what the researchers characterized as feminine chores like folding laundry, cooking or vacuuming — the kinds of things many women say they want their husbands to do — then couples had sex 1.5 fewer times per month than those with husbands who did what were considered masculine chores, like taking out the trash or fixing the car. It wasn’t just the frequency that was affected, either — at least for the wives. The more traditional the division of labor, meaning the greater the husband’s share of masculine chores compared with feminine ones, the greater his wife’s reported sexual satisfaction."  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/magazine/does-a-more-equal-marriage-mean-less-sex.html?module=ArrowsNav&contentCollection=Magazine&action=keypress&region=FixedLeft&pgtype=article&_r=0

Made…to Flourish ('Made' #2)

Last week we talked about what it means to be made in the image of God.

• The universe is designed by God with purpose, planning and intention. Since we are part of the universe, this applies to us (Genesis 1-2)
• All human beings are imago dei, bearers of God’s image. (creative, self-aware, rational, philosophical, moral, relational, and spiritual). We are not simply animals.
• All Christians are ambassadors of God, not culture.

This week we are going to expand on that idea. Our primary texts come from the first several chapters in Genesis.

God said, “Now let Us conceive a new creation—humanity—made in Our image, fashioned according to Our likeness. And let Us grant them authority over all the earth—the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, the domesticated animals and the small creeping creatures on the earth.” 

So God did just that. He created humanity in His image, created them male and female. Then God blessed them and gave them this directive: “Be fruitful and multiply. Populate the earth. I make you trustees of My estate, so care for My creation and rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that roams across the earth.” 

Then God said, “Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant that grows on the earth and every fruit-bearing tree. They will be your food and nourishment. As for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and every small creeping creature—everything that breathes the breath of life—I have given them every green plant for food. And it happened just as God said. (Genesis 1:26-30) 

“The Eternal God planted a garden in the east in Eden—a place of utter delight—and placed [Adam] there. In this garden, He made the ground pregnant with life—bursting forth with nourishing food and luxuriant beauty. He created trees, and in the center of this garden of delights stood the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil... The Eternal God placed the newly made man in the garden of Eden in order to work the ground and care for it. (Genesis 2:8-9; 15) 

It is not good for the man to be alone, so I will create a companion for him, a perfectly suited partner… At last, a suitable companion, a perfect partner.
Bone from my bones. Flesh from my flesh. I will call this one “woman” as an eternal reminder
that she was taken out of man. Now this is the reason a man leaves his father and his mother, and is united with his wife; and the two become one flesh. In those days the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. (Genesis 2:18; 23-25) 

“Then they heard the sound of the Eternal God walking in the cool misting shadows of the garden. (Genesis 3:8) 

We see at least three areas in which humanity’s purpose, planning and intention is revealed:

• Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth ("Make more of you!")
• Be trustees of creation ("Make the earth look like this!")
• Live in shalom with God, each other, and the world

This Hebrew word, shalom, means peace in at least four ways: With God, within, with others, and with the world. That’s what you see in Eden. And God basically said to Adam and Eve, “Do you see what we have here? Recreate it everywhere you go." John Walton says the beginning of Genesis is meant to show how God built the earth as a Temple where He took up residence at the end of His creation. We are given the responsibility and privilege of going into all the world and doing a kind of spiritual terraforming as we show the world what Eden looks like.

We are designed in the image of God to flourish: to live in and help bring about God’s design for the world for our good, the good of everything around us, and for his glory. There is nothing important in life where we are free from asking the question, “How does God want me to use this in such a way that I recreate Eden? How does this show stewardship of the people and things around me, and how does this bring peace to the world?”

 The more we live in God’s design, the more the world is good (“tob” in Genesis 1 and 2 is good in the broadest sense).

When we as Christians talk about morality and ethics or things we “ought” to do, we are talking about the parameters and boundaries God has placed into the world and around us so that God’s good objectives can be accomplished for our good and His glory.  He never meant them to be – and we should never think of them – as rules meant to rob us of life. “He has shown you what is tob, and what the Lord requires of you” (Micah 6:8).

 The more we live outside God’s design, the more the world falls apart (“roa” – calamity, disaster, ruin)

 The contrast is seen in Genesis 1-3 in the discussion of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (“tob” and “roa”). It’s God’s way of saying, “I given it to you in the fullest sense of the world. Now, you can learn what roa is. You can gain that knowledge. But don’t do that. If you make that choice, you will die (literally, ‘Dying, you shall die.’) Your life will be characterized by the constant pull of ruin and the approach of death.”

We see in Adam and Eve a part of human nature that is present in all of us: now we will tend to default toward ruin. When we read in Proverbs 14:12 that, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death (ruin)" it’s the same word (tob).  That’s the way it is now. What seems right to us is often not good at all. If we don’t know what the right way actually is – if we don’t understand what something is for - we tend toward ruin. Here’s how this looks practically:

• We can become stewards of knowledge or we can ruin things with it (medicine vs. atomic weaponry)
• We can steward the arts or we can ruin the world with them (think of a musician who glorifies genuine love or who glorifies dedgredation)
• Close friendships can pull us toward co-dependency.
• Sex is a fantastic gift of intimacy, vulnerability, and pleasure that can become lustful addiction.
• Meaningful vocations can turn us into workaholics.
• A good microbrew or a fine wine can pull toward the ruin of alcoholism.
• Our speech can bring life…or death. We can build up or we can gossip. We can praise or demean.
• Relaxation can become laziness.
• Ownership can become greed.

 Every day, in all kinds of ways, we choose tob or roa. We choose goodness or ruin.

 There’s a poignant verse in Genesis 3 when God says to Adam and Eve after their choice of roa: “What have you done?”  It's not a question because God was ignorant.  It’s sadness, because God understands, the consequences. “You chose to die while you wait to die. Do you understand what you have done?” 

But we are not without hope. It’s is not God’s design what we are doomed to wallow in the ruin we choose.

 Psalm 16:11. "You make known to me the path of life (alive and vigorous); in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." 

God didn’t just kick Adam and Eve out of the Garden and say, “Well, good luck. You broke it. I’m out of here.” No, he gives them clothes to hide their shame. In the very next chapter in Genesis, we see Eve thank God for his help, God looking with favor on Abel, God protecting Cain even after he murdered his brother. The last verse in Chapter 4 says: “At that time, people began to call upon the name of the Lord.” 

And as the Old Testament unfolds, you see a God who is present, involved, and who painstakingly makes sure His people know what things will help them flourish and experience God’s favor and what things want. That word for “life” in Psalm 16 has to do with sustenance. “Fullness” means satiated. And then in Christ, we see God offering Himself as the as the ultimate antidote for all that has gone wrong. 

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes on him will not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) 

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life (active; vigorous; blessed) and have it abundantly (exceeding expectation)." (John 10:10)

 Both these verses use the same word for 'life.' Because of Christ, one day all of creation will flourish because of what Christ has done. While we wait for that day, Christ will work in us through His word, His Spirit, and His people. In other words, there is hope even now. We don’t have to settle for being world breakers. We don’t have to settle for ruin.

 God has made known the path of life. Jesus came to save a broken world, and the redemption that we will one day experience in its perfection we can even now experience in anticipation of the ultimate, final glory. Christ redeems us, and the Holy Spirit works within us, and God’s Word instructs us… and God can take a life that is prone to ruin the world and use it to bring life to the world in ways we never imagined.