At the dawn of human history we have the story of the tower at Babel. Here we see man’s ingenuity and unity used at cross purposes to God’s plan. God wanted humanity to spread out over the earth, but mankind centralized in order to build a name for themselves through their city and tower to heaven. This is part of the corrupted human nature; to use people for projects, like city and tower building, instead of releasing people to fulfill God’s plan for their life.
This project had many earmarks of godly motivation. After all, the tower’s destination was heaven. It was a product of unity - they had all agreed to build it together. Additionally, mankind would be in community; it would be a unified community project building a tower to heaven. Everyone would want to stay here because we have the only tower to heaven on earth. Why not? If we became rich and famous in the process, who could blame us?
The Church has never been free from the influences of human nature. As much as we like to talk about the moving of the Spirit of God in and through God’s people, the corrupted version of human nature has never been far away. Because of this, how we have done ‘church’ has also been influenced by this vision of Babel - to build a name for ourselves as we build a tower to heaven. The ministries of the church have come under this same influence. After all, what is ministry but the serving of the people of God to help in the fulfillment of the purpose of the church?
To the extent our vision of church is conditioned by Babel, to the same extent the ministries of the church serve to help centralize power and use people more and more efficiently in accomplishing this purpose. To the extent that our vision of the church is conditioned by the command of God to go into all the world, to the same extent our idea of ministry is releasing and expansive.
Jesus made this distinction when he spoke of the kind of leadership that is to be in the church. In Matt 20:25-28 Jesus said "You know that in this world kings are tyrants, and officials lord it over the people beneath them. But among you it should be quite different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must become your slave.” Paul wrote to the Corinthians the he did not “lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, because it is by faith you stand firm.” (2 Cor 1:24 NIV) And Peter wrote once to the elders that they should ”shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock.” (1 Peter 5:2-3NASU)
Over and over again the Bible says serving as an example is the type of leadership that is to be in the body of Christ.
Knowing that a picture is worth more than a thousand words, Jesus gave some people as gifts to the church. Ideally they are both examples and instructors of how to follow Christ. They are our leaders. If we want to know how to follow Jesus, we can look at the pictures God has given. I feel that ordination is how we, as a group, identify those people who are given to us by God to be that picture of how to follow Christ. They have the responsibility of informing us, by word and deed, what it means to be a follower of Christ.
The danger has always been that these leaders would use their position of influence for their own gain, or that they would want to build a city and a tower. No part of Christianity has been immune from this. But here, at Tree of Life Church, we hope that we see enough of the problem to avoid some of the pitfalls. How it will look in the final analysis we have yet to see.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Romans 10:4
Romans 10:4 NIV
Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.
I wanted to key in on this verse. Its meaning hinges on the word ‘end’. What did Paul mean by this word? Here is how the Greek word ‘telos’ can be translated:
Performance, consummation, fulfillment, result, event, power of deciding, supreme power, validity, magistracy, government, completion, end, finish, cessation, achievement, goal, prize, purpose.
Out of these options three are normally used in this verse.
1. fulfillment
2. goal, culmination, consummation
3. termination, cessation
Let’s look at these options and compare them with other scriptures.
1. Fulfillment Matthew 5:17 "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. NIV Jesus explicitly states that He fulfills the law. In the teaching that follows He compares His teaching of how to fulfill the Laws intent with how the scribes interpreted it. He always went to the heart attitude rather than an external fulfillment. Example: don’t murder contrasted with don’t hate. Jesus not only fulfilled the Law in himself, but taught us how the law was to be fulfilled. Ro 13:10, Gal 5:14, Jas 2:8 Love is the fulfilling of the law.
2. Goal Galatians 3:24 So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. NIV Here the goal of the law was to lead us and prepare us for Christ. The law shows us what sin is. Rom 8:3-4 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4 in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. The problem with the law is us, not the law. The law is good, we will not do it. We are slaves to ourselves and will not love.
3. Termination contra Romans 3:31 Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law. NIV Romans 7:14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. NIV The law is not terminated. It is still how we know sin. But no long do we relate to God on its basis. We have a new arrangement – the New Covenant – where we are forgiven and are given a new life that comes from believing the truth about Jesus. Our flesh has been dealt with by death on the cross so we are no longer slaves to sin – to ourselves.
Here is an illustration showing what it is like if we want to relate to God through the law. God standard of righteousness is like the distance from here to the Andromeda galaxy. We may jump as high as we can, but the distance is insurmountable. I may jump 2 feet, and some may even jump 7, but we are all woefully short. It is a very high standard, equal with the glory of God. The problem is not the standard, the problem is us.
Here is an illustration of what it is like to relate to God by faith. The distance is still the same. But now, when we believe and confess with our mouths the truth, His word performs in us what He says. There was a time when I was in Bible School I had an ex girlfriend who I could not get an emotional release from. I annoyed her with my unwanted attentions. I fasted, I prayed, I had counsel, yet I could not get over her. My emotions and thoughts held me prisoner. One day while I was simply walking down a hallway the Lord shouted 3 words into my heart. He said “Give Her Up”. As soon as He spoke those words it was accomplished. My heart was instantly freed from that emotional feedback loop. I could sit next to her and it was the same as sitting next to any of the other young ladies at the school. No emotional pull. I was free and Jesus did it through His word.
Jesus’ word when believed creates in us what He spoke. Now by learning to love by walking in the Spirit the distance from here to the Andromeda galaxy is crossed by Christ living through His word in us who believe. We are forgiven. We stand pure before the Lord. We are growing in love each day. There is no law against this fruit. Christ did in us what we cannot do ourselves.
Philippians 3:8-9 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ — the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. NIV
Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.
I wanted to key in on this verse. Its meaning hinges on the word ‘end’. What did Paul mean by this word? Here is how the Greek word ‘telos’ can be translated:
Performance, consummation, fulfillment, result, event, power of deciding, supreme power, validity, magistracy, government, completion, end, finish, cessation, achievement, goal, prize, purpose.
Out of these options three are normally used in this verse.
1. fulfillment
2. goal, culmination, consummation
3. termination, cessation
Let’s look at these options and compare them with other scriptures.
1. Fulfillment Matthew 5:17 "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. NIV Jesus explicitly states that He fulfills the law. In the teaching that follows He compares His teaching of how to fulfill the Laws intent with how the scribes interpreted it. He always went to the heart attitude rather than an external fulfillment. Example: don’t murder contrasted with don’t hate. Jesus not only fulfilled the Law in himself, but taught us how the law was to be fulfilled. Ro 13:10, Gal 5:14, Jas 2:8 Love is the fulfilling of the law.
2. Goal Galatians 3:24 So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. NIV Here the goal of the law was to lead us and prepare us for Christ. The law shows us what sin is. Rom 8:3-4 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4 in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. The problem with the law is us, not the law. The law is good, we will not do it. We are slaves to ourselves and will not love.
3. Termination contra Romans 3:31 Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law. NIV Romans 7:14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. NIV The law is not terminated. It is still how we know sin. But no long do we relate to God on its basis. We have a new arrangement – the New Covenant – where we are forgiven and are given a new life that comes from believing the truth about Jesus. Our flesh has been dealt with by death on the cross so we are no longer slaves to sin – to ourselves.
Here is an illustration showing what it is like if we want to relate to God through the law. God standard of righteousness is like the distance from here to the Andromeda galaxy. We may jump as high as we can, but the distance is insurmountable. I may jump 2 feet, and some may even jump 7, but we are all woefully short. It is a very high standard, equal with the glory of God. The problem is not the standard, the problem is us.
Here is an illustration of what it is like to relate to God by faith. The distance is still the same. But now, when we believe and confess with our mouths the truth, His word performs in us what He says. There was a time when I was in Bible School I had an ex girlfriend who I could not get an emotional release from. I annoyed her with my unwanted attentions. I fasted, I prayed, I had counsel, yet I could not get over her. My emotions and thoughts held me prisoner. One day while I was simply walking down a hallway the Lord shouted 3 words into my heart. He said “Give Her Up”. As soon as He spoke those words it was accomplished. My heart was instantly freed from that emotional feedback loop. I could sit next to her and it was the same as sitting next to any of the other young ladies at the school. No emotional pull. I was free and Jesus did it through His word.
Jesus’ word when believed creates in us what He spoke. Now by learning to love by walking in the Spirit the distance from here to the Andromeda galaxy is crossed by Christ living through His word in us who believe. We are forgiven. We stand pure before the Lord. We are growing in love each day. There is no law against this fruit. Christ did in us what we cannot do ourselves.
Philippians 3:8-9 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ — the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. NIV
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Church Leadership is Tied to Purpose
A friend of mine at church offhandedly said something very significant. He made a joke that while I was gone in Russia that I was hardly missed. I would like to explain why I feel his comment is important.
To do this, I will need to do some teaching about what it means to be a church. This is because I feel that his comment touches on the purpose of our gatherings. It’s not that I want to teach myself out of a job, but when I’ve taught, those who’ve learned won’t need me to help them do theirs.
When I use the word church, many different things come to various people’s minds. Some think of a large stone building with spires and stained glass windows. Others think of a universal group made up of believers from all places and times. Others think of denominations, or those who believe in and live in certain locale, like Oregon or the USA.
The reason people think these things is because we use the word church to mean all these different things at different times. The meaning of the word church, in its primary sense in the New Testament, isn’t any of the above. Most of the time it is used as descriptive of a specific gathering of believers. This is why Paul, for instance could say that “in the church” or the “churches (plural) of Judea”. In secular Greek the word is most often used of the town meeting where the citizens would gather together to exercise their rights and handle their responsibilities. This use is seen in Acts 19:32,39,41. Somewhere between 85-90% of all uses of the word church in the New Testament refer to this local assembly. So when we see this word, we should assume that it is referring to this specific gathering unless the context indicates otherwise.
Why is this important? Because it is in our gathering that we express ourselves as the church. This is where God’s purposes for the churches begin their fulfillment.
When God made man in his image it necessitated plurality. God is triune. Male and female were necessary to complete the image. “Let us make man in our image - male and female He made.” Only as communities do we reflect all the elements of the image of God. Just the very fact that John tells us that God is love is enough to show that to express the image of God there needs to be more than a solitary subject to do it.
Jesus, in John 17:20-23, prayed "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” This unity of the Spirit is seen as concretely love.
In John 13:34-35 Jesus said, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." The world is able to know that Jesus is of God when we are one through our love for each other.
Facilitating that love and being an example of this love, is the primary responsibility of the leadership in the churches. Yet so often leaders have taken upon themselves many other responsibilities, responsibilities that are God’s. Additionally, leaders have structured churches to be pictures of something other than love.
For instance, in the older church structures, like the Catholic’s and Eastern Orthodox, each in its own way is representing the plan of salvation. Each has the communion as the focus of its service. The Catholic Church has the Pope as its head. He stands in for Jesus in the structure of the church. The Eastern Church also has its head. Even in the so called free churches, such as Baptist or Methodist, they all have someone in Jesus’ seat both locally and denominationally. These office holders have the role that can be described as anywhere from king to CEO, depending
on their checks and balances.
It is my opinion that this role actually disguises Jesus’ role in the churches rather than clarifies it. Peter writes in 1 Peter 5:1-4 “To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ's sufferings and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed: Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, serving as overseers — not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.” In this passage Peter indicates that there is only one chief shepherd. The rest of the elders/pastors/overseers are under Jesus. From this we deduce that, since in every church there is to be a plurality of elders, that they operate by consensus endeavoring to discern Jesus’ will in helping the rest of the body of Christ find their own ministry - their own Spirit empowered expression of love.
Paul wrote in Eph 4:11-16 that “It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service [ministry], so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” Note, once again, that that the purpose of the people God gave to the churches as gifts to be helpers was that they would prepare God’s people of works of service – ministry - later defined as the work of growing in love.
In all our efforts to organize, to teach, to do stuff, it is easy to push into the background our purpose in doing all of this. Things take on a life of their own. We look at ministries as offices to be filled rather than relations between people. Our ministry is how we help others to love God and other people. It is an expression of
who we are.
There are no permanent offices in the church other than elders. Even elders don’t have to be chosen immediately. If everyone used their gifts and abilities to encourage everyone else to love God and love people, our job would be done. But learning to love isn’t the easiest thing. For most of us it is the hardest thing we will ever do. For many people it takes a lifetime to even begin to get proficient at it. If I as a leader do not guide you into a dependent relationship with Jesus I have not completed my ministry. Jesus is the object of our love.
This is why my friends comment was so suggestive. If I am hardly missed it means to me that I have been doing my job of guiding our church into dependence upon God instead of me. Through the Holy Spirit we can get our needs met by God himself. This is true success. Paul said it this way:
1 Thess 3:8 For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord.
Phil 1:27 Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel.
To do this, I will need to do some teaching about what it means to be a church. This is because I feel that his comment touches on the purpose of our gatherings. It’s not that I want to teach myself out of a job, but when I’ve taught, those who’ve learned won’t need me to help them do theirs.
When I use the word church, many different things come to various people’s minds. Some think of a large stone building with spires and stained glass windows. Others think of a universal group made up of believers from all places and times. Others think of denominations, or those who believe in and live in certain locale, like Oregon or the USA.
The reason people think these things is because we use the word church to mean all these different things at different times. The meaning of the word church, in its primary sense in the New Testament, isn’t any of the above. Most of the time it is used as descriptive of a specific gathering of believers. This is why Paul, for instance could say that “in the church” or the “churches (plural) of Judea”. In secular Greek the word is most often used of the town meeting where the citizens would gather together to exercise their rights and handle their responsibilities. This use is seen in Acts 19:32,39,41. Somewhere between 85-90% of all uses of the word church in the New Testament refer to this local assembly. So when we see this word, we should assume that it is referring to this specific gathering unless the context indicates otherwise.
Why is this important? Because it is in our gathering that we express ourselves as the church. This is where God’s purposes for the churches begin their fulfillment.
When God made man in his image it necessitated plurality. God is triune. Male and female were necessary to complete the image. “Let us make man in our image - male and female He made.” Only as communities do we reflect all the elements of the image of God. Just the very fact that John tells us that God is love is enough to show that to express the image of God there needs to be more than a solitary subject to do it.
Jesus, in John 17:20-23, prayed "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” This unity of the Spirit is seen as concretely love.
In John 13:34-35 Jesus said, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." The world is able to know that Jesus is of God when we are one through our love for each other.
Facilitating that love and being an example of this love, is the primary responsibility of the leadership in the churches. Yet so often leaders have taken upon themselves many other responsibilities, responsibilities that are God’s. Additionally, leaders have structured churches to be pictures of something other than love.
For instance, in the older church structures, like the Catholic’s and Eastern Orthodox, each in its own way is representing the plan of salvation. Each has the communion as the focus of its service. The Catholic Church has the Pope as its head. He stands in for Jesus in the structure of the church. The Eastern Church also has its head. Even in the so called free churches, such as Baptist or Methodist, they all have someone in Jesus’ seat both locally and denominationally. These office holders have the role that can be described as anywhere from king to CEO, depending
on their checks and balances.
It is my opinion that this role actually disguises Jesus’ role in the churches rather than clarifies it. Peter writes in 1 Peter 5:1-4 “To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ's sufferings and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed: Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, serving as overseers — not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.” In this passage Peter indicates that there is only one chief shepherd. The rest of the elders/pastors/overseers are under Jesus. From this we deduce that, since in every church there is to be a plurality of elders, that they operate by consensus endeavoring to discern Jesus’ will in helping the rest of the body of Christ find their own ministry - their own Spirit empowered expression of love.
Paul wrote in Eph 4:11-16 that “It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service [ministry], so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” Note, once again, that that the purpose of the people God gave to the churches as gifts to be helpers was that they would prepare God’s people of works of service – ministry - later defined as the work of growing in love.
In all our efforts to organize, to teach, to do stuff, it is easy to push into the background our purpose in doing all of this. Things take on a life of their own. We look at ministries as offices to be filled rather than relations between people. Our ministry is how we help others to love God and other people. It is an expression of
who we are.
There are no permanent offices in the church other than elders. Even elders don’t have to be chosen immediately. If everyone used their gifts and abilities to encourage everyone else to love God and love people, our job would be done. But learning to love isn’t the easiest thing. For most of us it is the hardest thing we will ever do. For many people it takes a lifetime to even begin to get proficient at it. If I as a leader do not guide you into a dependent relationship with Jesus I have not completed my ministry. Jesus is the object of our love.
This is why my friends comment was so suggestive. If I am hardly missed it means to me that I have been doing my job of guiding our church into dependence upon God instead of me. Through the Holy Spirit we can get our needs met by God himself. This is true success. Paul said it this way:
1 Thess 3:8 For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord.
Phil 1:27 Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Church Leadership
Recently a friend of mine has been posting about how the Alcoholics Anonymous traditions could be a model for the church. Although there are some things that will readily cross over, I find that we are not comparing apples with apples.
In the first place, the church is where God dwells by His Spirit. It is more than a volunteer organization that helps one another. Because of this, there is authority in the church placed there by the Lord as gifted people to serve and to guide the church into obedience to and worship of the Lord. Additionally they guide and are examples of how to love one another.
In AA no one rules. In the church the elders do rule. Yet their rule is not like the world. Their authority is not for their own use - so they can have a group of people in their image, but only to build up the church in the image of Jesus.
This requires authority. True, respect and trust are earned. It is not like a job where you can hire someone to fill a vacancy. It is only by God that a person should have this authority. Yet it is fashionable in our culture to disdain authority. This has come from the pendulum swinging away from those who abused authority. But authority is still there.
When I was first a christian I belonged to a church that taught that their are o positions of authority in the church. It got so that if a person called themselves a pastor then they couldn't be one because pastoring was a verb and not a noun. So if they didn't know this they were not qualified to actually pastor. We were taught of the equality of the saints, about the priesthood of believers, and of body ministry. All good stuff. But it was applied in such a way as to stop anyone from leading with any authority, or so we thought.
In actual practice, the dominating personality was in charge. No one could stand up to their "wisdom" and "insight". Because of their experience and verbal abilities we wound up doing things their way. Additionally, some people would hold the group almost hostage because of their powerful responses to things they didn't like. So in my experience a true egalitarianism was never reached.
Later I found that God put leaders by gifting in His church to lead the church with love and godliness. This stopped the mob rule and the dominating personality rule. When done by the Holy Spirit, it produced good fruit. But I have never seen anything like a perfect leader. I have never seen leadership done perfectly - including my own.
I do not want to go back to the "good old days". I believe God has set people in His church to lead who have been given authority to do so in the name of Jesus. In this way the church is not like AA. We are not a volunteer organization. There is authority in the church. Just because the authority has been misused is not justification to ban it. It is motivation to discover how Christ wants it used and to use it for His purposes and not our own.
In the first place, the church is where God dwells by His Spirit. It is more than a volunteer organization that helps one another. Because of this, there is authority in the church placed there by the Lord as gifted people to serve and to guide the church into obedience to and worship of the Lord. Additionally they guide and are examples of how to love one another.
In AA no one rules. In the church the elders do rule. Yet their rule is not like the world. Their authority is not for their own use - so they can have a group of people in their image, but only to build up the church in the image of Jesus.
This requires authority. True, respect and trust are earned. It is not like a job where you can hire someone to fill a vacancy. It is only by God that a person should have this authority. Yet it is fashionable in our culture to disdain authority. This has come from the pendulum swinging away from those who abused authority. But authority is still there.
When I was first a christian I belonged to a church that taught that their are o positions of authority in the church. It got so that if a person called themselves a pastor then they couldn't be one because pastoring was a verb and not a noun. So if they didn't know this they were not qualified to actually pastor. We were taught of the equality of the saints, about the priesthood of believers, and of body ministry. All good stuff. But it was applied in such a way as to stop anyone from leading with any authority, or so we thought.
In actual practice, the dominating personality was in charge. No one could stand up to their "wisdom" and "insight". Because of their experience and verbal abilities we wound up doing things their way. Additionally, some people would hold the group almost hostage because of their powerful responses to things they didn't like. So in my experience a true egalitarianism was never reached.
Later I found that God put leaders by gifting in His church to lead the church with love and godliness. This stopped the mob rule and the dominating personality rule. When done by the Holy Spirit, it produced good fruit. But I have never seen anything like a perfect leader. I have never seen leadership done perfectly - including my own.
I do not want to go back to the "good old days". I believe God has set people in His church to lead who have been given authority to do so in the name of Jesus. In this way the church is not like AA. We are not a volunteer organization. There is authority in the church. Just because the authority has been misused is not justification to ban it. It is motivation to discover how Christ wants it used and to use it for His purposes and not our own.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Forgiving Divorce and Remarriage
When I think about divorce, I rarely think about the kinds of divorces that are ‘allowable’. I see all divorces as a failure. True, it is rare when only one party failed. But even if so, the marriage did end because of failure. It seems to me that divorces that come about because of ‘incompatibility’, or ‘we just drifted apart’, or a mishandling of money are sinful in itself. A refusal to love would be a better way to express it. Sin is that which undermines or refuses to love. Sin and love oppose each other, they are opposites. Hate is a subheading under sin – and not all hate is sin.
The question I want to look at in this post is what does forgiving a sinful divorce and remarriage look like? In the book Remarriage After Divorce in Today’s Church – 3 views Gordon Wenham, William Heth, and Craig Keener wrestle the issue of whether or not divorce for Christians is allowable and if consequently remarriage can also be allowed. They did a fine job of presenting their views. Yet none of them really dealt with the more common issue of how do we relate to people who get divorced and remarried and messed it all up? Those who were already adulterous and those who remarried anyway?
It is easy to say to someone, oh you’re the innocent party, you are free to remarry. What do you say to the guilty party? How are they restored?
What I say depends on when I am asked. If someone who is married comes into the church and desires to love God by loving people and I discover that they wrecked their previous marriage(s) by sinning against their former spouse(s), I don’t banish them to the back row. I do not declare their present marriage a false one, devoid of the blessing of God, and shun them. I treat them like Jesus did to the woman caught in adultery. I expect them to sin no more. I will bless their marriage. I won’t go back and try to undo the mess they made with their former marriages. I simply see them as bankrupt and encourage them to reestablish credibility. I will love them and show them how. I’ll explain, if asked, how to discover the weakness in their faith that put them in a place where God’s love for them did not satisfy. I’ll try to teach them how to grow in their faith so it won’t happen again.
If someone comes in who has just wrecked a marriage, is divorced, and asks me what to do, I’ll encourage them to seek to be reconciled to their former spouse. I’ll help in any way I can. If reconciliation doesn’t happen, I will view the divorce as final. Hardness of heart will have its way. The marriage will be over. The unbelieving will have departed and they are no longer bound to that marriage. To this person I’ll encourage to stay single. But not all will stay single. Many will have young children and want a spouse. In some circumstances it might even be best to marry again, but only to a person who loves Jesus.
Yet even here, again and again, people fail. Many marry outside the faith. Many sin and live with someone without marriage. Do we, as the church, toss them out? Shoot them? No, we start all over again.
Did you ever notice that God did not put a fence around the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden of Eden? Why didn’t He? I would have chopped it down and burned it. But God wanted us to trust His word so we would learn to love Him. This is all we have now. I will not put a fence around sin. I will continue to hope that people will get tired of sin and its wages and desire to trust Jesus’ word. Like the Nazarite who broke the vow, you can always start over. Where sin abounds, God’s grace does abound even more.
The question I want to look at in this post is what does forgiving a sinful divorce and remarriage look like? In the book Remarriage After Divorce in Today’s Church – 3 views Gordon Wenham, William Heth, and Craig Keener wrestle the issue of whether or not divorce for Christians is allowable and if consequently remarriage can also be allowed. They did a fine job of presenting their views. Yet none of them really dealt with the more common issue of how do we relate to people who get divorced and remarried and messed it all up? Those who were already adulterous and those who remarried anyway?
It is easy to say to someone, oh you’re the innocent party, you are free to remarry. What do you say to the guilty party? How are they restored?
What I say depends on when I am asked. If someone who is married comes into the church and desires to love God by loving people and I discover that they wrecked their previous marriage(s) by sinning against their former spouse(s), I don’t banish them to the back row. I do not declare their present marriage a false one, devoid of the blessing of God, and shun them. I treat them like Jesus did to the woman caught in adultery. I expect them to sin no more. I will bless their marriage. I won’t go back and try to undo the mess they made with their former marriages. I simply see them as bankrupt and encourage them to reestablish credibility. I will love them and show them how. I’ll explain, if asked, how to discover the weakness in their faith that put them in a place where God’s love for them did not satisfy. I’ll try to teach them how to grow in their faith so it won’t happen again.
If someone comes in who has just wrecked a marriage, is divorced, and asks me what to do, I’ll encourage them to seek to be reconciled to their former spouse. I’ll help in any way I can. If reconciliation doesn’t happen, I will view the divorce as final. Hardness of heart will have its way. The marriage will be over. The unbelieving will have departed and they are no longer bound to that marriage. To this person I’ll encourage to stay single. But not all will stay single. Many will have young children and want a spouse. In some circumstances it might even be best to marry again, but only to a person who loves Jesus.
Yet even here, again and again, people fail. Many marry outside the faith. Many sin and live with someone without marriage. Do we, as the church, toss them out? Shoot them? No, we start all over again.
Did you ever notice that God did not put a fence around the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden of Eden? Why didn’t He? I would have chopped it down and burned it. But God wanted us to trust His word so we would learn to love Him. This is all we have now. I will not put a fence around sin. I will continue to hope that people will get tired of sin and its wages and desire to trust Jesus’ word. Like the Nazarite who broke the vow, you can always start over. Where sin abounds, God’s grace does abound even more.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Marriage
Jesus makes it very clear that marriage, as intended, was for life between one man and one woman. This is because marriage was an union between two people whom God Himself joins together. Since God put them together, let no one break it apart. Apart from death, sin is the only way a marriage can be broken. But marriages can be broken by sin. This sin is either hardness of heart or unchastity. This sin can destroy the relationship that God put together. Yet if one person is truly loving, and the other is willing, a marriage can be preserved.
A marriage provides the context in which love can grow. Since Jesus commanded us to love even our enemies, and to turn the other cheek, we can certainly love our mate. We love not because we feel loving, but because He first loved us and gave Himself for us. A marriage is a bond made by covenant between two people, man and woman, wherein they can learn to love.
Yet even God came to an end of His patience. When Israel sinned continuously against him and His covenant, He divorced them. This is how it reads:
This is what the Lord says: "Where is your mother's certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of my creditors did I sell you? Because of your sins you were sold; because of your transgressions your mother was sent away. Isa 50:1NIV
I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries. Jer 3:8 NIV
It is clear that no one walking in the flesh can walk with God. And how can two walk together unless they are agreed? So in the end the covenant between God and Israel was destined to failure unless Israel could walk in the Spirit, which it can through Christ. Yet my point is, God Himself went through divorce. As He says in Isa 5:4 NIV “What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it?” There could be no blame on God for divorcing Israel.
[I have been asked if God is all powerful, can He create a rock so big He cannot move it? My answer is that He can if He gives it free will.]
Even though God hates divorce, He Himself divorced Israel. Additionally, when a greater need made it so, Ezra commanded Israel to divorce their foreign wives as the will of God. Ezra 10:11 NIV “Now make confession to the Lord, the God of your fathers, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples around you and from your foreign wives." See Ezra 9-10. Although God hated divorce, the integrity of the people as the people of God had a higher value. This tells me that although marriage is of the Lord and binding, there are still higher values.
Regardless, it is sin that ends marriage. In the next article I’ll try to deal with the implications.
A marriage provides the context in which love can grow. Since Jesus commanded us to love even our enemies, and to turn the other cheek, we can certainly love our mate. We love not because we feel loving, but because He first loved us and gave Himself for us. A marriage is a bond made by covenant between two people, man and woman, wherein they can learn to love.
Yet even God came to an end of His patience. When Israel sinned continuously against him and His covenant, He divorced them. This is how it reads:
This is what the Lord says: "Where is your mother's certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of my creditors did I sell you? Because of your sins you were sold; because of your transgressions your mother was sent away. Isa 50:1NIV
I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries. Jer 3:8 NIV
It is clear that no one walking in the flesh can walk with God. And how can two walk together unless they are agreed? So in the end the covenant between God and Israel was destined to failure unless Israel could walk in the Spirit, which it can through Christ. Yet my point is, God Himself went through divorce. As He says in Isa 5:4 NIV “What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it?” There could be no blame on God for divorcing Israel.
[I have been asked if God is all powerful, can He create a rock so big He cannot move it? My answer is that He can if He gives it free will.]
Even though God hates divorce, He Himself divorced Israel. Additionally, when a greater need made it so, Ezra commanded Israel to divorce their foreign wives as the will of God. Ezra 10:11 NIV “Now make confession to the Lord, the God of your fathers, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples around you and from your foreign wives." See Ezra 9-10. Although God hated divorce, the integrity of the people as the people of God had a higher value. This tells me that although marriage is of the Lord and binding, there are still higher values.
Regardless, it is sin that ends marriage. In the next article I’ll try to deal with the implications.
Divorce and Repentance
Recently I was taken to task over my view of divorce and remarriage in the church. This came about because I had publicly in our church prayed over a newly wed couple where the wife had been divorced and the previous husband was still alive and unmarried. This appeared to have been an official acceptance on my part, and the church’s part, of their marriage – which it was.
I thought it would be good to get my views down in digital format (no longer paper and ink!) so we could discuss these things.
There are several issues that have to be looked at. First of all, what is marriage? Why do we have marriage since it is not essential for procreation? How does marriage fit into God’s plan for mankind? Is it more than itself i.e. a sign of something greater? If so, what? Are polygamy and polyandry always wrong? How does the church relate to those new converts who are in such marriages?
Secondly there is the issue of divorce itself. What is it? Can it be done without sinning? Is it always because of the hardness of the heart? If it is always sinful, how do you repent of it? What does repentance over this sin look like? How can such a person be restored? If it is not always sinful, how can we tell the difference? Do we need to always be able to tell the difference? Is it ever the right thing to do?
Then, after coming to an understanding divorce, we need to see how this applies to remarriage. Can a divorced person remarry? Is this always adultery? If it is adultery, how can this be repented of? What does forgiveness of the sin of remarriage look like? Can a remarriage be blessed by God? Under what conditions, if any, can a remarriage after divorce be proper? If never proper what do you do about it? How should the church relate to those who are married improperly?
These are some of the questions that need to be addressed in order to answer the question of divorce and remarriage. I will try to simply address these issues over the next few posts. Wish me luck.
I thought it would be good to get my views down in digital format (no longer paper and ink!) so we could discuss these things.
There are several issues that have to be looked at. First of all, what is marriage? Why do we have marriage since it is not essential for procreation? How does marriage fit into God’s plan for mankind? Is it more than itself i.e. a sign of something greater? If so, what? Are polygamy and polyandry always wrong? How does the church relate to those new converts who are in such marriages?
Secondly there is the issue of divorce itself. What is it? Can it be done without sinning? Is it always because of the hardness of the heart? If it is always sinful, how do you repent of it? What does repentance over this sin look like? How can such a person be restored? If it is not always sinful, how can we tell the difference? Do we need to always be able to tell the difference? Is it ever the right thing to do?
Then, after coming to an understanding divorce, we need to see how this applies to remarriage. Can a divorced person remarry? Is this always adultery? If it is adultery, how can this be repented of? What does forgiveness of the sin of remarriage look like? Can a remarriage be blessed by God? Under what conditions, if any, can a remarriage after divorce be proper? If never proper what do you do about it? How should the church relate to those who are married improperly?
These are some of the questions that need to be addressed in order to answer the question of divorce and remarriage. I will try to simply address these issues over the next few posts. Wish me luck.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)