Toby J. Sumpter's Blog, page 79

Pastoral Ministry, Pink Hair, and the Gospel

Since it’s come to my attention that there has not been nearly enough discussion of the typological and gospel nuances inherent in pink hair, I wanted to do whatever I could to rectify the situation.

Ha, that’s a little joke there, people.

If you’re just tuning in, you can go back and read my posts here and here, or maybe just google “pink hair Toby Sumpter” — that might do the trick.

I know there are some out there wincing and grimacing even as they peer at their screens. This again? Why, Toby? Why, Oh Why?

Well, because I love Jesus that’s why.

And let’s be clear: it could be any number of things: cross fit idolatry, nutritional nuttery, libertarian chicanery, glamor shot facebookery, curse word potty-mouthery, hipster beard preenery, ad nauseam. But consider “pink hair” the current place-holder for the spiritual sinkhole du jour. If the devil wants to fight there, fine, let’s have a little rumble.

But first, let’s get clear on what I’m doing. I’m a pastor. I’m a preacher of the gospel. You may be aware that at times the clergy, pastors have been designated the “third sex” — not quite male, not quite female, perhaps something else entirely. But the Bible is absolutely clear that the church is to be ruled by men not women.

As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church (1 Cor. 14:33-35)

Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor… (1 Tim. 2:11-12)

Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife… (1 Tim. 3:2)

This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you — if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife… (Tit. 1:5-6)

This means that there is an unmistakably masculine shape to the way God intends for His church to ruled, run, led, and loved. But it needs to be stated clearly that this male leadership is intended by God to be characterized by a martial spirit.

This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare… But as for you, O man of God, flee these things [greed]. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith… (1 Tim. 1:18, 6:11-12)

I have fought the good fight, I have finished he race, I have kept the faith (2 Tim. 4:7)

The single most important thing I do is preach the gospel on Sunday mornings. That gospel includes preaching the wretchedness and hopelessness of sin and the utterly shocking and amazing graciousness of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. This word is food, but this word is also a sword. Preaching is mortal combat. The church is a war zone because of the ongoing presence of sin, Satan, and the flesh. Of course this includes being a shield and shelter for every refugee from the world. It is compassion and sympathy and love for the sheep ravaged by wolves that drives all pastoral militancy. We fight sin because we love sheep. And so I also pastor people in smaller groups, lead Bible studies, welcome folks into my home, do evangelism, and meet one on one with people. And what I’m doing here on this blog is related to all of that. While it is certainly not the central thing that I do, it is one of the platforms, one of the pulpits God has given me. And if the Internet is the modern day Mars Hill marketplace of ideas and shrines, a pastor’s blog is one way a preacher speaks into the postmodern Babel with the Words of Life. There may be various ways churches and elder boards might organize how they do it, but at my church, my elders have designated my blog as a “commended ministry” alongside other parachurch ministries that are doing good gospel work in our community (e.g. crisis pregnancy center, Logos School, New St. Andrews College, etc.).

As we consider what pastoral ministry ought to look like, we really need to read the New Testament carefully. Many of the strong verbs used in conjunction with the office of elder and pastor could be summed up with the word guard. Even though an elder should be given to hospitality, that isn’t the repeated exhortation to pastors and elders in the New Testament. The repeated exhortations have to do with guarding the flock of God from false teachers, wolves, false doctrine, irreverent babble, and just plain old-fashioned vanilla sin and folly.

“Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking tisted things to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert…” (Acts 20:28-31)

“As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine… this charge I entrust to you, Timothy… that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith… O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called ‘knowledge,’ for by professing it some have swerved from the faith” (1 Tim. 1:3, 18-19, 6:20-21).

“But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you” (2 Tim. 1:12-14).

“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions” (2 Tim. 4:1-3).

“[An elder] must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced…” (Tit. 1:9-10)

Guard, guard, guard, pay attention, preach, rebuke, guard. And let me stop you real quick and ask: did you read those passages of Scripture carefully? They are the very words of God. Are they pure gold to you? Are they sweet like honey to you? Or did you just skim them quickly to get to whatever monstrosity I might be building up to? I know that I’m tempted to skim Scripture quotations. What an awful tendency. Rather than cheering and relishing God speaking to us in His word, we skim it like it was a Twitter feed. What a shame. So if you skimmed it, go back and read it again. Read the verses carefully, thoughtfully. Cherish them.

Ok now. Clearly a pattern emerges in these verses. Guard. It’s what pastors are supposed to do. Pastors are not repeatedly admonished to relate to their people or befriend or hangout with their people. Of course, good pastors must know their people and as noted above, they must be given to hospitality, but the repeated emphasis, the repeated command is guard, pay attention, watch over.

And the people that those pastors care for are required by God to submit to them in this:

“Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you” (Heb. 13:17).

Look, there’s that same idea again, “keeping watch over your souls.”

Now let’s say there’s a sheep loving Jesus and loving her neighbors and she just happens to be on the side of the flock where 10 yards farther over, there’s a steep cliff (she has a little pink or blue streak in her hair, let’s say). When the shepherd shows up waving his hands and staff on that side of the field, what should the sheep think? Should the sheep be offended because the shepherd might be accusing her of sin? Should the sheep accuse the shepherd of legalism? Hey, liberty of conscience, dude. No, a thoughtful sheep recognizes that the shepherd is pointing out something true. There is a cliff there. It really is dangerous. Even if the sheep decides that she’s loving Jesus and honoring her parents and blessing her community and there’s nothing to change, she understands the point of the warning. And when other sheep come along wondering what the shepherd’s point is, she explains it, “He’s warning us about the cliff right over there.”

So let’s be John Bunyan and call that cliff the Cliff of Worldliness. The Cliff of Worldliness has claimed millions of sheep that have wandered from the flock of God, who have shipwrecked their faith. We are hemmed in on every side by a militant secularism currently contemplating requiring schools and public places to allow deranged men to use women’s restrooms and locker rooms. Christian moms are wrestling with whether they should be putting girls’ panties on their little boys, and respected conservative Reformed Christian leaders are encouraging the church to normalize homosexual temptation and behaviors. And we have PRIDE parades where vile and indecent acts are simulated and celebrated in public, and if you say anything less than, “That’s totes my favorite,” you might lose your job, lose your business, and end up on someone’s hate watch list.

The point is that as we are contemplating this insanity, our culture slaughters babies by the millions, celebrates abominations with pride, and is drunk with wealth, greed, and vanity, and Christians can be some of the dullest, most naive spectators in the world. Who cares what color my hair is? Who cares whether I go along with whatever the catalogues say is beautiful?Who cares if I skip church occasionally and wear booty shorts to fit into my cross fit religion? Well, the reason I care is because I’m watching people being groomed by our masters. We’re being conditioned. They give us Netflix and porn and food and fashion, and they tell us what we must and must not do, say, or think. The biblical name for this is slavery. You are owned.

And when somebody stands up and says out loud: Um, let’s not be owned anymore. Let’s be free. There’s a cliff over there. You can tell how deep the hooks go because of the backlash that guy gets. “You can’t bind my conscience about pink hair.” Fine, but the other side has already bound it. There’s a cultural concentration camp being run by packs of roving wolves in our midst, and far too many Christians are worried about three disheveled shepherds getting out of hand. Look at the numbers. Look at the battle field. Christians need to learn wisdom. You are being herded by wolves. They’re selling you alternative, unique, new, creative, underground, shabby chic, modern, indie crap, and you’re lapping it up like an obedient dog. And of course part of the marketing scheme is selling it to you wrapped in the rags of authenticity. This is the real deal, authentic, 100% slave labor from Indonesia, pre-ripped by a hairless mole in Guatemala, and air dried by frantic free range chickens from the farmers market, all of which you can order off of GreatAuntTrudy’s Etsy shop from your iPad Pro.

Yeah, bro, drop the charade.

Now here’s the thing. I know that we have to live in this world, in this place, at this time. That means you have to go to the store and buy something to eat, something to wear, and unless we go Amish, we’re all going to look a bit like we’re from here. My point is just to use wisdom. And maybe, just maybe, if we’ve got a multi-decade cultural retreat going on, maybe, we should use a bit more caution. And if your heart cries out, “Yes, God give me more wisdom!” Then wonderful, and we’re on the same team. But if your knee-jerk response is defensiveness: “Who’s he talking about?” “Is he talking about me?” then, yes, I am talking about you.

Christ died to set His people free. Christ didn’t die so that you could stay in Egypt but feel better about it. He bled and died for your sins so that you might live before God in holiness and righteousness and joy. He didn’t die for your sins so that you would continue getting your fashion tips from sodomites. He didn’t die for your sins so that you would continue looking to the Canaanites for approval. He died so that we might go free. And in fact that freedom in Christ is the most punk rock you can get. Do you want to be different? You want to be unique? You want to stand out? You want to find yourself? Then lose yourself. Humble yourself. Take up your cross and die. There’s nothing more radical, more counter-cultural, more indie than being found in Jesus Christ. That’s the narrow way, the different way, the hard way, the good way. Confess your sins. Repent down to the ground of your bitterness, your envy, your sidelong glance at those around you. Kill your lust, your pride, your anger. Stop lying and tell the truth, confess it completely, until you get rid of that nagging feeling in your chest. Pray. Pray until you cry, until you know nothing but Christ and Him crucified, until Christ is all you have and wonderfully, Christ is all you need.

“Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Cor. 5:7-8).

Addiction is Idolatry

Addiction to pain medication, addiction to spending money, addiction to food, addiction to alcohol, addiction to pornography/masturbation, addiction to gambling, addiction to video games, addiction to exercise, addiction to sex, addiction to vanity, addiction to cutting and self-harm — whatever the addiction — addiction is idolatry.

This is not meant as an emotionless slam on anyone with addictions. If you are human, you have struggled with addictions because you have struggled with idols. And if you say that you really don’t think you have, you are blind to your idols. Adam plunged this world into idolatry; we are born addicted to self, to sin, to death.

The power of addiction runs in at least two directions, probably more. We give in to addictions. We are responsible creatures, responsible for our choices, our actions, our words, our thoughts, and therefore, we are responsible for the choices we make to either give in to our idols, to serve them, or whether we chose to walk in the Spirit and put to death the deeds of the body (Rom. 8:13). You choose to set your mind on the flesh or you set your mind on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father (Col. 3:1-2). You choose to seek your life in the works of the flesh or else you seek your life in Christ.

But the power of addictions runs the other way as well. The Bible refers to the “powers” of this world, the principalities, demons, gods. We do not know a lot about how they work, and it would be foolish to blame demonic activity for every hardship or misfortune. But it would be equally foolish to ignore the spiritual realities at work in the world. The reason idols have power is because we give them power. Idols are nothing but stone, wood, pixels, numbers, fabric, gold. But human beings are endowed with the image of God. We are creatures with immortal souls. When a man or a woman serves an idol, an idol somehow, mysteriously takes on something of that worth, something of that glory and power. It’s a false and fleeting glory, but it’s real nonetheless. This is the insidiousness of superstitions and sorcery and witchcraft. Of course it’s not real, but there’s something terribly dangerous about attributing powers to lifeless things. The second commandment says the results can be disastrous to the third and fourth generation. This is why addictions seem so powerful; they truly can take on positions of power in your life. Do not give the devil a foothold. When you love and serve a lifeless thing: an idea, a feeling, an image, a thrill, a sensation, a sense of power, of peace, of pleasure, of calm — you can endow those idols with power over you. The Bible describes this as enslavement. And this can include physiological realities as well.

All of this is why the only solution to addiction and idolatry is a greater power. Satan and the powers of darkness thrive off the power of impersonalism. Addictions and idols detach life from its source. They objectify, reify, snatching something good from this world to rule over in isolation from its source, detached from community, alone, in the dark. What is an idol? It is a false image of life. It has eyes but it cannot see. It has ears but it cannot hear. It has a mouth but it cannot speak. It has hands but it cannot help. And Psalm 115 says that all those who make them and serve them become like them. The power of addiction is in isolation. The power of addiction is found in how it turns people away from other people and in on themselves, and ultimately how it turns people away from God. The connections between mental disorders, spiritual powers, obsessions, addictions, and sin are mysterious, but there is plenty in Scripture, history, and human experience to simply assert that they are connected. Addictions are usually ways of coping with loneliness, depression, and broken relationships of all sorts.

The greater power that breaks the power of darkness, the power of idols, the power of addiction — is the power of life, the power of persons, the power of community, all of which ultimately comes from the power of God in Christ. The answer to impersonalism is people, real, living people. The answer to isolation is community. The answer to idols is the living Triune God who sees and hears and speaks and never leaves us or forsakes us. But people all by themselves will keep letting you down because we all have an idol problem; all people have addiction problems. This is why the answer cannot merely be other people, or different people, new people — it must be a person, the only good and perfect person. It must be Jesus.

You must know Christ. You must find in Him the solution to your loneliness, the solution to your hurt, the solution to your regrets, the solution to your shame, the solution to your idolatry. You must talk to Him. You must tell Him everything on your heart. You must talk to Him until you have said everything that needs to be said. You must talk to Him until you know He has heard you. Have you ever prayed like that? David prayed that way often in the Psalms. He cried out to the Lord, and He didn’t stop crying out until He knew the Lord had heard him. Until you have prayed like this. Until you have had a personal break through with the Living God, you will not be able to break the power of impersonal addictions in your life. No counselor, no friend, no pastor, no internet chat room, no perfect spouse or child or parent can carry what you need carried. You need Jesus to carry you, and you need Him to carry everything you are currently carrying. But this is only possible through personal interaction with Him. You must talk to Him and tell Him what you need.

Then, having surrendered everything to Christ for Him to carry for you, you must destroy your idols. You must kill them. Jesus told men to cut off their hands and pluck out their eyes in order to destroy the idol of lust. You are to mortify your flesh, crucify it, slay it, crush it, put it to death. Have no mercy on it. But you will be tempted to go easy on it until Christ is your everything, until you know that Christ is better than every pleasure, every hit, every sensation, every thrill. Is Christ better than anything you can get in this world? Then kill your idols.

Get rid of your internet if that feeds your addiction. Get a roommate (or a new one or three) or talk to the one(s) you already have. She’s a real person. He’s a real person. And if she’s a Christian, the Holy Spirit lives inside of her. She has eyes to see and ears to hear and a mouth that speaks and hands that can help. Tell your spouse the truth. Stop making excuses for your sin. Stop hiding it. Stop lying about it. Confess it as idolatry. No euphemisms. No generic apologies. Name the sin. Call it out. Ask for forgiveness. Repent. Change what you’re doing. Stop watching Netflix until 2am. Start getting up early. Stop interacting with those friends who lead you away from Jesus. Go to Bible study. Talk to a pastor or elder or older, godly woman, not because they can fix you but because they are people in whom the Spirit of God dwells. Trying to fix addictions on your own is sort of like trying to learn to swim after you’re already out in the middle of a deep lake. Humble yourself and turn toward Christian community. Idols isolate. But the living God draws you into His family.

Work hard. Be industrious and serve others. Remember, David sinned with Bathsheba during the spring when kings go out to battle (2 Sam. 11). How do you have time to fantasize about buying that new outfit? How do you have time to obsess over your body, what your next meal will be, or how you will get your next chemical rush? Paul says that the thief should stop stealing, work with his own hands, provide for himself, and so have enough to share with others in need (Eph. 4:28). Idolaters/addicts are thieves. They are giving energy, love, thought, and time to lifeless things, figments of their imagination, black holes of nothingness — instead of giving to those in need: your children, your family, your neighbors, the sick, the lonely, the lost. You have been purchased with the precious blood of Jesus for good works for the blessing and building up of the Body of Christ. You have the Spirit of God living inside of you in order to make you a powerful blessing to others. There are orphans who need love, will you love them? There are lonely shut-ins, will you befriend them? There are people in your city who have never heard of the love of God in Christ, will you tell them? There are glories still waiting to be found in this universe, will you discover them? God made men and women for work, for labor, for industry, for discovery, for love. This means that there is a deep human satisfaction in hard work and good work. But idleness and laziness are a thick and unrelenting fog, a blinding, disorienting desert. If extra time or extra wealth are causing you to be idle and turn to idols, give the time away, give the wealth away. Require yourself to be oriented to others’ needs. Serve gladly. Pour yourself out. Fill your days and hours with hard work. Jesus promises that if you give your life away, you will actually find it in the end. As my friend Nate Wilson puts it, Life is meant to be spent.

Bringing America to Christ

Every Christian knows (or should know) that our citizenship is in heaven. We are Christians first. All other loyalties follow. We have given up families, lands, nations for Christ and His Kingdom.

But.

We also pray for God’s Kingdom to come, for His will to be done “on earth as it is in heaven.” Even where Paul says that our citizenship is in heaven, he adds: “and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself” (Phil. 3:20-21).

And don’t forget that in the New Heaven and New Earth John sees the nations walking in the light of the Lamb, “and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it… They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations” (Rev. 21:24-26).

It is really important to examine the connection between our citizenship being in heaven and the glory of the nations being brought into the New Jerusalem. How do we get from one to the other?

Jesus tells us clearly: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mt. 28:18-20).

Our citizenship in heaven is the source of our mission. We are colonists of heaven. We bring the ways of heaven to earth in order that Christ’s will may be done on earth as it is in heaven. The nations learn to bring their glory to Christ because they are taught how to by the saints of God.

So we are Christians first, and all other loyalties follow. But being Christians first means that everything else follows. Everyone must come to Christ empty handed. Nothing in my hands I bring; simply to Thy cross I cling. Naked look to thee for dress, helpless look to thee for grace. But it’s vitally important to recognize that Jesus sends us back out into the world to get stuff. Jesus fills our hands with gifts that He wants us to bring back to Him.

Of course if at any moment we are tempted to take a gift somewhere else, we must stop and remember how we were empty handed and naked. We must remember (and be reminded) that everything is a gift from Him to be brought back to Him. He gives us a wife or a husband to give back to Him. He gives us children to give back to Him. He gives us gifts, skills, opportunities, talents, vocations to give back to Him. He places us in families, cities, churches, and nations to bring back to Him.

And here’s my point: you can’t bring those things to Jesus unless you embrace them. You cannot truly offer them to Jesus unless you love them. This is the pattern of the cross. It was only by the death of Christ that He purchased us and the world. It was only by His sacrificial love that He is able to offer it all up to His Father. “Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power” (1 Cor. 15:24). God gives authority in order that it may be used to serve Him. God gives authority in order to bring what ever is under that authority back to Him. Strictly speaking, this is what authority is.

Authority simply is the duty that God gives to bring His gifts back to Him. He gives a husband authority to bring his wife to Christ. He gives a mother authority to bring her children to Christ. He gives pastors and elders authority to bring those sheep to Christ. He gives kings and presidents and judges authority to bring their nations to Christ.

Therefore, our task as Christians in the nation of America is to bring America to Christ, to teach America to come to Christ, to teach our nation to walk in the light of the Lamb. This is no generic pluralistic society we are aiming for. This is no bland western democracy. We have been commanded to disciple this nation, to teach this nation all that Christ has commanded, so that our nation will imitate the ways of heaven, so that our nation will bring its glory and honor into the New Jerusalem.

While we have just been apprised of the gross idolatries of many churches in America this last weekend, with services in which it is difficult to determine whether God is being worshiped or the US flag or military service members or the current president’s motto (all of which deserves its hearty condemnation), it must be said that there is nevertheless a real ditch on the other side of that muddle which is every bit as muddled. Simply put, Jesus has commanded us to bring America to Him. We are not commanded to bring the nations to America. America is not the Savior of the world. We are to bring the nations to Christ. And one of those nations is America. America is not the Savior of the world because America is a nation that needs saving.

But the only way we will bring America to Christ is if Christians love her. The only way she will walk in the light of the Lamb is if Christians lay their lives down for her. Jesus taught us that the only way to rule is to serve, that the only true authority is the authority of sacrifice. This means that the only way God will give us influence and authority in this land is by dying for it. You cannot bring the glory of a nation to Jesus unless you have died for it. Of course you can die for something in an idolatrous way. You can offer your children to Molech and certainly feel very sacrificial, but that isn’t really love. It’s actually a form of deep hatred, resentment, and spite. When children are slaughtered for a higher good, the land is defiled. But when men lay their lives down in honest love for Christ and the gifts He has given, lands are healed.

We are at the point in the story where there are no easy answers. Our military is drunk on power and confusion. Our politicians are arrogant and blind. Our churches are comfortable and confused. Our families are riddled with betrayal and brokenness of various sorts. And if our hope would be placed in any of those things, our hope would be lost. But the power of the gospel is the power of grace. This is not a bland, generic wet blanket of warm fuzzies to lay over our sins and failures. No, grace is the mercy of God for our sins. Grace is the love of God that takes our sins away. Grace hauls us out of the pits we have dug for ourselves, washes us clean, and sets us on a Rock which cannot be moved.

This kind of grace turns empty cisterns into fountains of living water. It turns deserts into gardens. It turns fear into love.

We are in a bad place in this land. We celebrate abominations. We sacrifice our children to strange gods. We are defiled in our hearts and minds with lust and greed and apathy. But the mission is unchanged. Jesus hasn’t faltered. He suffered and bled and died for this mess, for our mess, for this American mess. He purchased this land, our neighbors, our cities, this nation with His blood. He loved this part of the world in order to save it.

Without pretending away all the complications and complexities of the founding of our nation, it is nevertheless true that all things being equal, they understood that liberty required love and love required sacrifice.

There is a great deal of nationalistic hubris and confusion masquerading as patriotism in our land, but if you ask me (which you didn’t), I’d say there is a whole lot more spite and resentment and bitterness in our land all while we continue enjoying massive comforts and freedoms. We say “love” a whole lot and have so very little. And despite all the confusions, men who have been blown up by roadside bombs in far off countries doing their best to serve God and this country still resemble Christian love far better than most of us do sitting on our couches at home.

So my prayer on this American Independence Day is that God would teach us to love America like He loves America. That we would hate her sins more fiercely, and that we would more gladly lay our lives down for our neighbors. What greater love is there than this? And this is the power that enables Christ to subject all things to himself. And amen.

Happy 4th, y’all.

Help for Women Who Struggle with Porn

One of the questions I hear from time to time is about the lack of Christian and gospel resources for women who have become trapped in pornography. So many of the admonitions are aimed at men, and women can often feel overlooked and neglected. Hopefully this post is one small step in addressing that.

But first, it’s actually worth pointing out why the lion share of admonitions and exhortations should be aimed at the men. One of the lies that’s not too far under the surface in some discussions of women and porn, is the lie that women struggle with porn in the same way as men or for the same reasons. In other words, there’s an egalitarian/feminist demon lurking in the shadows here if we’re not careful. Just as the world is constantly tempting women to resent their femininity when it comes to the glory of marriage, childbearing, and homemaking, so too there’s not a little bit of resentful whispering in the shadows, O yeah, well we can be addicted to porn too… Yes, this is true, and the Church does need to do a better job of addressing men and women on this sexual sin, especially given the proliferation of porn on the internet. Agreed. But this means that the Church needs to actually speak to the way that women sin with porn.

At the same time, to the extent that that Church has been addressing this issue with men, the Church has also been addressing the issue for the benefit of women. One of the other lies many Christians have bought from the world is the lie that says you have to specifically refer to women or use feminine pronouns or examples in order to include women in the conversation. This is a lie. Throughout the Bible we are taught that God intends to include women in the conversation when He speaks to and about men. Of course there are sex specific topics which the Bible addresses to women (childbirth, menstruation, the role of a wife, daughter, etc.), but when God created man and woman in His image He named them together “Adam” or “man” or “mankind.” “Man” is both the name for male members of the human race and the name for the entire human race, including women. If we want to use the modern arrogant parlance, “man” is an inclusive term. We are told this explicitly in the beginning, and then the Bible proceeds to assume that inclusiveness through speaking of male examples and using male pronouns regarding many things that may apply to women as well. Paul says the same thing is going on in the gospel: by faith in Christ, all have become sons of God… there is neither male nor female… (Gal. 3:26-28). All are “sons of God” by faith in Jesus Christ. Women are included. This is why the New Testament repeatedly addresses the “brothers” in the churches. Modern translations that want to add “and sisters” are refusing to believe what Paul said.

But this point is important because Jesus Himself does this with the sin of lust. He says that a man who looks at a woman to lust after her in his heart has committed adultery, and he should pluck out his eye and cut off his hand if that’s what it takes to kill that sin. Did Jesus forget to address women? Nope. Is Jesus denying that women struggle with lust also? Nope. Jesus was doing two things: He was addressing men because they are the leaders of civilization and society and responsible for the state of culture, and for the very same reason, Jesus should be understood as addressing women too. In other words, a woman need not find a Bible verse addressed specifically to feminine lust in order to know what do about her lust. In the first instance, she should take care not to desire that kind of lustful look from a man. Men are tempted to look in that way, and women are tempted to desire that kind of look. If she is looking for that kind of look from a man and covets him in that way, desiring him either sexually or in any other way that God has not given him to her, she is committing adultery in her heart and needs to repent. This repentance will often need to include radical steps to remove temptation from her life.

As we address these problems, Christians need to realize that there are ways of addressing these sins that just spread more gunk and confusion around. Let me give you just two examples of making things worse:

First, the fact of the matter is that many men want women to “struggle” with pornography. Boyfriends and husbands often introduce it to their girlfriends and wives, and do not be so naive as to not realize that many of those same men could find some sick pleasure in thinking about women “struggling” with porn. I put scare quotes there on purpose. In other words, there can be a pornographic way of exposing this issue. And piles of foolish women can be herded out into the open in the name of honesty and repentance in a way that is actually feeding and perpetuating male lusts and (this is crucial), that in turn actually perpetuate female lusts. So, for example, if you’re a man reading this article with an unhealthy sexual curiosity, maybe you should stop now. Voyeurism on Instagram, Facebook, your neighbor’s window, and even Christian blogs or articles is all still voyeurism. And women, hear me carefully, this should be in no way understood as some kind of excuse for not addressing the real challenges that you face. This is just to warn you that there are ways of offering you help that are actually not helping you at all.

Second, in a more general way, in order to address this problem with women, it really must address the fact that women are not attracted to pornography for the same reasons men are. And, at the point at which women are attracted to pornography for similar reasons to men, the situation is already far worse. Similarly, there’s a way of addressing men and women on the issue of pornography that can play right into the gender-confusion agenda. If a woman is addressed as though her lust is identical to male lust, she may either feel even worse if that description doesn’t really fit her situation or she may seek to embrace that caricature in order to fit the description (in order to get help). The Church needs to be shrewd on this issue, recognizing that the gender-bending agenda is actually propping up porn addiction in both sexes in different ways. Our media is full of propaganda suggesting and encouraging women to look at men and lust after them in a male way. This is driven by male lust, and cotton-brained feminists (some even in the Church) lead the way.

The driving force behind feminine lust is resentment. This resentment is often aimed in a number of directions: resentment of harsh or abusive treatment by a father or another male authority, resentment of the harsh or abusive treatment of a mother or another female authority, the rejection of spouse, family, friends, community, feelings of ostracism, isolation, shame, insecurity, and often there can also be a general resentment of the opposite sex. Men can come to resent women for their God-given differences, for their sins, for their weakness, and for the challenge it is to love them well. Women can come to resent men for their God-given differences, for their sins, for their relative strength, and for the difficulty it is to respect many of them. And behind all horizontal resentment is the elephant in the room: God. The God who made you, the God who is telling your story, the God who is at work in all of the details of your life. The opposite of resentment is contentment. If you allow resentment to creep in, loneliness, despair, sorrow, self-pity, and a general aimlessness follow quickly. And it is often into this void that lust comes, with false offers of comfort.

Feminine lust is also manipulative. While a man’s lust causes him to shirk responsibility, a woman’s lust is ultimately seeking to manipulate a man into taking responsibility. While there may certainly be elements of a momentary fix, God has wired women to be mothers and homemakers. In other words, a woman is made to find her greatest glory and comfort in the fruitfulness of motherhood and making home, usually through bearing her own children but always in hospitality and generosity (cf. 1 Tim. 5:10). Feminine lust is always in some way trying to short circuit that glory and comfort, to trick it into the present, to get it apart from trusting God’s timing, God’s ways, God’s goodness. A man’s sexual appetite is God telling him to take responsibility; a woman’s sexual appetite is God telling her she was made to be taken responsibility for. A man’s sexual desires tell him that God made him to give; a woman’s sexual desires tell her that God made her to receive. Male sexual hunger teaches a man that he was made to pursue; female sexual hunger teaches a woman that she was made to be pursued. The allure of porn for men and women respectively are false offers, cheap substitutes for these design features. Rather than taking responsibility, men shirk responsibility. Rather than giving, men take. Rather then pursuing, men are lazy. On the flip side, rather than resting in God’s provision, women seize false substitutes for a real man taking responsibility for them. Rather than receiving the goodness of God in His timing, women take what they can get. Rather than treasuring the pursuit of their Savior, women manufacture fantasies. On both counts it always bears reminding that sex on the screen (or in a novel) isn’t real sex, it isn’t real love. And it’s always bad practice for loving a real man or a real woman. Far from being educational or helpful, porn is a twisted, grotesque caricature of the good gift God has given His people.

And all of this leads to the solutions for women who wrestle with these sins and temptations:

First, the gospel of Jesus is for you. It is for this sin, that Christ came into this world. He left His Father to come into this far country for all the lost sons (that includes the daughters). He endured rejection for all those who have been rejected. He endured scorn for those who have been scorned. He was mocked for all those who have been mocked. He was lied about, slandered, and falsely accused for all who have been falsely accused. One of his best friends betrayed Him and all of His friends abandoned Him, and this was so He could stand with you where it hurts the most. He was stripped and beaten; He was spat on and struck. They laughed at Him and jeered at Him. And He was their Maker, their King, their only hope. He endured all of this in order to identify with you in your hopelessness, in your despair, in your anger, in your shame. But not only did He come here to stand with you, He came here to bring you home. He stood there in your place. He hung there for you. He hung there with a crown of thorns hammered into His head and nails sunk into His hands and feet in order to set you free. He endured that shame so that you could be made clean. Do you believe that? Believe it again.

Second, recognize in this gospel the fierce and undying love of your Father in Heaven. He so loved you that He sent His Son to die for you. He loves you like that, with that kind of fierceness. Yes, you’ve sinned. Yes, you’ve sought comfort apart from Him. But He’s there for you. He stands ever-ready to receive you. And this readiness on His part is not half-hearted. He is not holding anything against you in Christ Jesus. If He did not spare His own Son, how will He not also give you all things? All things includes forgiveness, cleansing, deliverance from these habits and patterns of life, as well as friendship, community, love, a family, a home. Jesus said that all who have given up family and friends for His sake will receive them back along with tribulations and in the world to come, eternal life. Everything that you must do must be built on these first two things. You must believe the gospel, and you must believe that the gospel is powerful to save. And you must learn to rest in His goodness and grace for you. So pray and thank God for this every day.

Third, distinguish between lust and resentment and depression and loneliness and desperation and curiosity. One of the tactics of the devil is to confuse God’s people. But when we bring sin out into the Light of the gospel of Christ, we are free to make distinctions. Lust is not merely noticing nice things, good husbands, faithful fathers. Lust is coveting those nice things. Lust is giving into a desire for something that God has not given you or others and deriving a pleasure from it that is improper, unchaste, unclean. It is not a sin to want to be married, to want to be loved, cherished, or fulfilled sexually. But it is a sin to try to enjoy that comfort now before it is given, or in a way that is forbidden by God. Ask God to show you what other sins (if any) have played a part in this: Have you been discontent? Have you been resentful? Have these things fed your depression or loneliness? Finally, there is a natural curiosity that can lead women into temptation. If you went looking for something one time or three times and now you feel awful and dirty, do not believe the lies of the Accuser that you are somehow damaged goods. Confess your sinful curiosity, your impatience, but then let it go because God doesn’t hold it against you. You are free and you are clean, and you have nothing to be ashamed of in Jesus. Satan loves to accuse, and he knows that women weighed down by guilt become weak and are easy targets to be led away by sinful passions (2 Tim. 3:6). But forgiveness makes a woman strong. The cleansing blood of Jesus Christ makes a woman the right kind of bold, confident, and assertive. Whenever the doubts and accusations arise, whether you’ve failed three times or a thousand times, do not doubt the blood of Jesus. Remember that when you confess your sins to God, He removes your sins from you as far as the east is from the west. Every time you give your sin to Christ, He truly makes you clean. He doesn’t grow tired of you asking. Whenever you come honestly and boldly to throne of grace and say, “Hi, it’s me again,” Jesus looks you in the eyes, with His infinite love, and says, “What do you mean, again?”

Fourth, pluck out the eyes and cut off the hands that cause you to sin. Are you watching television shows that feed your discontent? Are you watching movies that allow you to daydream about things that really aren’t helping you rest in God’s goodness? What about the friends you spend time with? What about the books you read? Are you giving yourself to fruitfulness in every way? How are you using social media? Are you feeding curiosities and daydreams? Are subtly soliciting unhelpful attention? Are you trying to comfort yourself with “likes” and nice comments? Are you feeding any resentment with casual whining and complaining? Should you get rid of cable television, internet, your smart phone, your Audible subscription? Plucking out eyes and cutting off hands is pretty severe, so don’t go easy on your sin. And fill your mind with good and true and lovely things (Phil. 4:8). Most of all, read Scripture. Lots of it. Sing Psalms. Sing Psalms by yourself in your room, sing Psalms while you drive in your car or with your roommates or invite families over from church to sing with you. The joy of the Lord is your strength. Whatever your circumstances (unmarried, married, divorced, widowed), do you recognize that God has called you to this place on purpose? He has assigned these days to you. They are you homework, your mission, your calling, and God gives no assignments on accident. He does not give us anything that is too difficult for us to handle. And all of His assignments are for our good and His glory. He doesn’t allow temptations and challenges in our lives in order that we will fail. He is for us. He is rooting for you. He is cheering you on. And we know that He is for us because He sent His only Son for us.

Finally, do reach out for help. Find an older, godly woman to talk to, to pray with, to hold you accountable. Paul says that the older women are to teach the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, working at home, kind, etc (Tit. 2:4-5). Sometimes older women fail to teach younger women, but sometimes younger women fail to be teachable. Sometimes women who wrestle with porn have experienced deep hurts in their pasts. Sometimes they have been sexually violated. Sometimes they sinned sexually. Those past pains need not be dwelt on, but they do need to be dealt with and if they’re still needling you with guilt and shame, you need to ask an older, godly woman to help you unload them onto Christ. Sometimes an older woman wants to help a younger woman, but the younger woman isn’t really willing to be helped because she isn’t willing to cast everything onto Jesus. And don’t think that an older, godly woman cannot help you simply because she hasn’t experienced the same hurts or temptations. Do not erect barriers and requirements and demands and expectations that go beyond God’s Word. She doesn’t need to meet all of those extra-biblical demands. Just find a godly woman, a woman who loves God, her family, the Bible, and has the fruit of the Spirit in her life. And don’t be afraid to be a little awkward about it, “Hi, would you please be a Titus 2 mentor in my life?” is a perfectly good way to begin the conversation.

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I Agree with Jonathan Merritt

I’m rather surprised to hear myself say it, but I agree with Jonathan Merritt.

Ok, but before anyone gets the wrong impression, let me explain what I agree with.

Jonathan Merritt wrote an article for the Atlantic suggesting that the Southern Baptist Convention is going soft on gender in their latest Bible translation, and he wrote the article just in time for the annual Southern Baptist Convention meeting (last week). Accident? Probably not. Inflammatory? Probably. Is the article overstating it’s case? Yes, probably that too. Would Merritt and other “progressive” Christians love to see the SBC devour itself with infighting over gender-inclusive language? I’d bet money on it.

But I still think Merritt is more right, and Denny Burk and Trevin Wax and Tom Schreiner (God bless ’em) are missing a really crucial point.

In response after response after response, Burk, Wax, and Schreiner refer to the much celebrated Colorado Statement and its principles, essentially saying: Our Bible translation does not bend to gender neutrality or inclusiveness because we wrote a statement at an important meeting convened by Bishop, er, I mean Dr. James Dobson and we held the meeting in order to stand against the PC gender-bending agenda. We followed all of those rules in our translation, and therefore, we have not succumbed to the PC gender-bending agenda.

So the argument is something like: We don’t believe in that bad thing you accuse us of and a bunch of our big whigs wrote something against it, therefore, we didn’t do it.

But what if the Colorado Statement itself isn’t so pristine? What if Dobson and Co were already more influenced by modern pagan PC philosophy than they realized? I believe they were.

We’re evangelicals. Our appeal is not to some man-made statement (however good it may be). Our appeal is to Scripture. Scripture itself teaches us how to interpret and translate Scripture. God’s Word is the standard not anything else we come up with, not PhDs, not a vote, not modern sensibilities, not even really good intentions.

So, for example, after affirming that masculine pronouns should be translated as masculine pronouns, the Colorado Statement says: “However, substantival participles such as ho pisteuon can often be rendered in inclusive ways, such as “the one who believes” rather than “he who believes.” Likewise, after affirming that “man” should be translated “man” to designate the whole human race, and that ‘ish’ (Hebrew) and ‘aner’ (Greek) should be translated as “man,” the Statement continues enumerating principles of translation: “6. Indefinite pronouns such as tis can be translated “anyone” rather than “any man.” 7. In many cases, pronouns such as oudeis can be translated “no one” rather than “no man.” 8. When pas is used as a substantive it can be translated with terms such as “all people” or “everyone.”” And again: “”Brother” (adelphos) should not be changed to “brother or sister”; however, the plural adelphoi can be translated “brothers and sisters” where the context makes clear that the author is referring to both men and women.”

Included in this statement are good affirmations that retain masculine references (and rightly so), but if a city under siege does a faithful job of defending three city gates and leaves one gate only minimally protected, we do not give the man entrusted with the care of the city a high grade. If the enemy finds that weak gate and takes the city, who cares that you took special care with the other three gates?

So, the problem with what has just been quoted above is that the Colorado Statement denies the Bible the right to interpret itself. While the Statement affirms that the Bible uses the word “man” to refer to “mankind” and the whole human race, it then goes on to deny that the Bible may do that in any other way or that the Bible may teach us to do the same. The most egregious instance of this is with the word adelphoi which means “brothers.” The Bible uses the word “brothers” to refer to the brotherhood of the church, which we know for a fact includes many women. It is completely inconsistent for the Colorado Statement to say that the Bible can use “man” to refer to the human race but cannot use “brothers” to refer to the church. The same thing is happening when gender neutral or inclusive language is preferred for indefinite pronouns and substantive pronouns or participles. Why not allow God to teach us how to translate those words?

In their explanation, Dr. Allen and Dr. Shreiner write: “The word [adelphoi] is accurately rendered “brothers and sisters” since the word “brothers” today suggests to many that just males are intended.” But notice that logic. The standard for translation has subtly shifted to the modern audience. But God intends to teach us to obey His Word even in our use of language. He intends to teach us to speak of the church as “brothers” because we have all (men and women) become “sons” in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:26-28). God intends to teach us to speak of the actors in the world and the people of the world in largely masculine terms, and this in no way excludes or marginalizes the absolute glory of being created female. God was never limited with language, and the writers of the Scriptures were not hampered by their cultural contexts. The Spirit broke through every conceivable barrier, thwarted kings and armies, divided the Red Sea, raised the dead, defied the hubris of man at every turn, and it is only the arrogance of modern evangelicals that thinks it knows better than God.

What He meant was “brothers and sisters.”

He had those words at His disposal and didn’t use them. Who are you, O man?

Therefore, when the Statement says, “substantival participles such as ho pisteuon can often be rendered in inclusive ways, such as “the one who believes” rather than “he who believes,” the Statement is affirming that translating the substantival participle as “he who believes” is not inclusive. But the Bible repeatedly teaches us that masculine words and pronouns often are inclusive. When God says that we have been made “kings and priests” to our God through Jesus Christ, He was not being insensitive to women. He didn’t forget about the women. He included the women. But on this matter, the Colorado Statement knows better than God. And I would count myself among those who have sometimes done the same thing. I have thought I knew better than God, that God needed my help, and so I’ve gone out of my way to say “and sisters” or “and daughters” or “and queens” — but this is simple arrogance and unbelief. So let’s be done with it.

While there is much good in the Colorado Statement, I believe Denny Burk and Trevin Wax and company should just recognize that Merritt has a point and go back and fix it. If this issue really is about being faithful to Christ and His Word then let’s realize we left that gate less guarded than we should have and thank one of our enemies for pointing it out.

But I suspect Merritt is smarter than that. He knows what he’s done. He knows that we don’t have the courage to lean into his criticism and fix our mistakes. He knows the story would be all over CNN and Huffington Post. He knows there’s a hoard of vultures circling, waiting for any signs of blood. The “safe” thing to do is just keep pointing at the Colorado Statement and hope nobody flinches. But the “safe” thing is also what keeps getting the Church pushed into obscurity and compromise.

It’s not good enough to point out all the ways you were faithful. We have to keep doing that and fix the stuff we weren’t faithful enough in. It’s called repentance. It’s called learning wisdom. It’s called humility.

It’s called courage.

Where is the Kingdom?

Luke LIV: Lk. 17:20-37

Introduction

This text is about what the Kingdom of God is like and therefore how Christians are to go about seeking it and building it.

The Text: Having rebuked the Pharisees for prizing the wrong things (Lk. 16:15), the Pharisees ask Jesus when the kingdom of God will come (Lk. 17:20). To which Jesus replies that the kingdom is not coming in ways that can be observed (Lk. 17:20). Rather, the kingdom is already in their midst (Lk. 17:21). Jesus then turns to His disciples and tells them that the days are coming when they will desire to see the days of the Son of Man and will not see them (Lk. 17:22). Jesus says not to believe the reports when people say, ‘Look, here it is!’ Rather, it’s going to be like lightening that flashes across the sky (Lk. 17:23-24). But before that, the Son of Man will suffer many things and be rejected by this generation: it will be like the days of Noah and like the days of Lot, when the Son of Man is revealed (Lk. 17:25-30). On that day, everybody should run and not be like Lot’s wife who looked back (Lk. 17:31-32). The followers of Jesus need to be willing to give up everything for Him, their own lives, friends, and family (Lk. 17:33-35). And when the disciples ask Jesus where this will happen, Jesus says cryptically, “where the body is, there the vultures/eagles will gather” (Lk. 17:37).

Now You See It; Now You Don’t

This section plays with the language of “seeing.” Jesus says the kingdom doesn’t come in ways that can be observed and tells His disciples not to listen to the claims that it has arrived here or there, but then He goes on to say that the day of the Son of Man will be like lightening stretching across the sky, like a flood, like fire falling from heaven, like a field full of corpses. And presumably, Jesus expects His disciples to see these signs in order to run when the time comes (Lk. 17:31ff). Clearly, Jesus means to equate the “days of the Son of Man” with the coming of the Kingdom. Daniel explicitly describes the ascension of the Son of Man to the Ancient of Days to receive a kingdom for all nations that will never be destroyed (Dan. 7:13-14). But at the center of this passage is the Son of Man suffering many things and being rejected (Lk. 17:25). This seems to be the interpretive key. If the disciples are looking for another Babylon or Greece or Rome, the kind of kingdom the Pharisees are looking for, they will not see it. It is not coming in ways that can be observed like that (Lk. 17:20). But the Son of Man is coming and His kingdom will be revealed, but He will be revealed in a storm, in a flood, in judgment and war. In other words, the kingdom will come in much the same way that its king has come.

The Faith of the Kingdom

This whole chapter is concerned with a particular kind of faith. When Jesus urged His disciples to be on guard against temptations, causing little ones to stumble, and confronting, repenting, and forgiving sin – the disciples asked Jesus to increase their faith (Lk. 17:5). But Jesus said the kind of faith they need is little like a mustard seed (Lk. 17:6) and humble like an obedient servant (Lk. 17:9). And all of this is pictured in the Samaritan leper “seeing” that Jesus has healed him and returning with shouts of joy to fall on his face at the feet of Jesus (Lk. 17:15). Jesus told that Samaritan leper: “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.” All of the lepers eventually saw that they were cleansed, but the Samaritan leper saw the most clearly what had happened. He saw most deeply, most truly. Faith believes and obeys and rejoices in the truth despite how the circumstances look (cf. Phil. 1:12-13). Jesus is challenging His disciples to see the kingdom coming like this.

The City of God

When Moses came to deliver Israel, and working conditions got worse, they were angry with Moses (Ex. 5:21). When Moses led Israel through the wilderness, the people complained that he had brought them out to die (Ex. 16:3). When Israel spied out the land of Canaan, the ten spies brought back a bad report of giants in the land, and the people once again complained and began making plans to go back to Egypt (Num. 14:1-4). Whether God takes away, whether God takes us through, or whether God leads us into something new, it has always been difficult to trust Him. The kingdom of God will be for all the nations of the world, and it will be a kingdom that will never be destroyed (Dan. 7:13-14) – therefore it must be a unique kind of kingdom, taking all things into account. The tension that is often felt is between what theologians call the “already” of the kingdom and the “not yet.” We pray for God’s kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven, but it can sometimes be tempting to assume that what has already come is the final version and resent anything new or else be so focused on the “not yet” to miss what God is giving us in the gifts right in front of us. Jesus came eating and drinking with sinners and tax collectors and the Pharisees refused to join, but Jesus says that when the Son of Man is revealed, people will be eating, drinking, buying, selling, marrying, and building and miss Him (Lk. 17:27-28). People can put the wrong kind of hope in a spouse or a leader or a church or a job and miss Christ. It could have been a terrible blow when Stephen died and Saul began his persecution of the saints, but when the Christians fled from Jerusalem they went out with boldness and joy: “Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word…” (Acts 8:4) Why? Because their faith was in Christ.

Conclusion: The Kingdom of the Son of Man

Jesus told the Pharisees that the kingdom was in their midst (Lk. 17:21) and then He went on to tell the disciples what to look for when the Son of Man is revealed (Lk. 17:22-30). Putting this together, we should say that the kingdom of God is wherever the Son of Man reigns. And the Son of Man began to reign when He was betrayed and condemned and lifted up to suffer on a Roman cross. So when the Roman legions with their eagle standards surrounded Jerusalem and burned it to the ground, the Christians did not look back like Lot’s wife because they knew Jesus had done it. They knew the kingdom had come. They knew they were more than conquerors.

So how do we build a kingdom like this? Fix your eyes on Jesus. Put your complete trust in Him alone. Everyone else will let you down some time. But Jesus will never leave you or forsake you. And faith in Christ doesn’t detach from the world because Jesus died for the love of this world. Confess your sins, forgive one another, and work hard unto the Lord, all with simple, joyful Samaritan-like faith in the Lord who is building His kingdom in our midst.

Contagious Joy

Luke LIII: Lk. 17:1-19

Introduction

In Escape from Reason, Francis Shaeffer argues that one of the central elements of the turn of Western Civilization away from God has been a turn toward despair – a certain hopelessness about God, human life, and the universe. Despair tends to spread bitterness and apathy, but Jesus came to give us a joy that can never be taken away (Jn. 16:22).

The Text: This section opens with a stern warning from Jesus about causing others to sin (Lk. 17:1-2). Jesus urges the disciples to watch themselves and one another carefully, being ready and willing to rebuke, repent, and forgive quickly, regularly, and continually (Lk. 17:3-4). While the disciples assume this must require enormous faith, Jesus says it’s actually a very small and humble faith (Lk. 17:5-6). In fact, Jesus says we should think of confronting sin, repentance, and forgiveness like servants think of serving their master (Lk. 17:7-10). The following story is surely meant by Jesus/Luke to illustrate the whole point of all of this: on His way to Jerusalem, Jesus is met by ten lepers crying out to Him as their master, to have mercy on them (Lk. 17:11-13). Jesus commands them to go and show themselves to the priests for examination, and as they go towards the temple, they find themselves cleansed (Lk. 17:14). Then one of them, seeing that he was cleansed, turned around, praising God with a loud voice, and he came and fell at the feet of Jesus, giving Him thanks (Lk. 17:15-16). Jesus marvels that the only one of the ten who returned to praise God was a Samaritan, and He sends the man away, saying that it is this kind of faith that saves (Lk. 17:18-19).

Sin & Uncleanness

In the Bible leprosy was not merely a skin disease. It was a form of contagious uncleanness that could show up in a skin disease but also an itch, swelling, spots, mildew or mold in garments or houses, unclean animals, corpses – even sexual relations, menstruation, and childbirth made individuals unclean temporarily, and all of these were contagious (Lev. 12-15). In addition to specific cleansing rites, in the Old Covenant, all of Israel’s sins and uncleanness were dealt with on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:16, 19, 30). Sin caused guilt for particular transgressions, but uncleanness is the contagious nature of certain actions and events in a fallen world. Both of these categories are necessary for understanding the world that God has made, our sin, and our redemption. This is why John says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn. 1:9). Fallen people need forgiveness and cleansing. Even in the New Covenant where all things have been declared “clean,” the category of “uncleanness” has not been abrogated – otherwise, why would John say God “cleanses” us (cf. 1 Cor. 7:14)? The point of the Old Covenant cleanliness laws was to teach Israel that all of these things affect us and others and our relationship to God; they are contagious. Likewise, all of our actions and conditions still affect us and others today. They are contagious either for good or evil, drawing us toward God or away from Him. So we certainly must ask: is this thing sinful or not? But we must also ask: what is this thing here spreading? Everything we do is either spreading despair or joy. Everything we touch, every situation is contagious with resentment or praise.

Jesus Makes People Clean

Imagine being that Samaritan leper, suffering day by day, separated from family and community, ostracized, despised, lonely, and then on this day, crying out to this Rabbi Jesus for mercy (Lk. 17:13). What could He do? Even the plea for mercy seems so desperate. Then He tells them to go into the city to the priests – would they be scorned and rejected for coming into town unbidden (Lk. 17:14)? And then as they turn to go to the priests in simple but courageous obedience to this Master, they see the spots and sores and skin legions fade away before their very eyes (Lk. 17:14). While we don’t know what the other nine did, we know what the one Samaritan did. When he saw that he was healed, he turned around praising God with a loud voice (Lk. 17:15). Why did he turn around and begin praising God with a loud voice? Because he was clean. Because the thing that made him a curse, the thing that made him a danger to other people, the thing that drove him into isolation – that thing was gone. Now instead of spreading uncleanness and defilement and despair, he was set free to share the cleansing of Christ, the love of Christ, the joy of Christ. Do you understand this man? Do you feel what he felt in that moment? If you are a Christian, you do, but if you are not, then you wish you did. This story is here because it answers and illustrates the point of what has just come before. For the disciples of Jesus to live boldly, confronting sin, repenting of sin, and forgiving sin over and over again, they must have this kind of faith. It is not enormous faith. It’s faith like a grain of mustard seed, but it is powerful faith because it rests in simple obedience to the Master (Lk. 17:10). And this simple obedience begins with believing that Jesus makes us clean (Lk. 17:19).

Conclusions

In one sense, you might say that the entire Christian life is the space between verses 15 and 16. The Christian life begins with seeing that you have been healed and then turns around (“repenting”), praising God with a loud voice until you finally come to Jesus Himself and fall on your face at His feet, giving Him thanks. The Christian life is a Eucharistic life, a life of rejoicing and thanksgiving. This is why Paul writes, “Rejoice always, and again I say, rejoice!” – from a Roman prison cell (Phil. 4:4-6).

The tasks of confronting sin, repenting of sin, forgiving sin are often terrifying, but they are also great litmus tests of our faith and joy. Are you confronting that sin because it annoys you or because of the joy of Christ? And if someone confronts you, are you offended? Why? Isn’t the truth far worse than they know and now you’re clean? Or do you run immediately to justify yourself by saying that it isn’t a sin? Maybe so, but is it unclean? Is it spreading Christian joy? Or is it a root of bitterness that will defile many (Heb. 12:15)? And even if it is honest joy in your heart, what if it causes your brother to stumble? Isn’t there an even greater joy in laying your freedom down for the sake of others (Rom. 14:13ff)? And why can’t you forgive your brother seventy times? Haven’t you been forgiven much more? This is only possible through the joy of being cleansed in the blood of Jesus (1 Jn. 1:7). If the whole Christian life is one of praising God with a loud voice, then rebuking sin, repentance, and forgiveness are central to spreading that joy. Sin and all uncleanness spreads despair and bitterness, but the blood of Jesus spreads light and joy and fellowship.

The Great Fixed Chasm

Luke LII: Lk. 16:19-31

Introduction

This is the third story in row that Jesus has told about a rich man. Remember that the context of all three is the grumbling of the Pharisees and scribes, that Jesus receives sinners and eats with them (Lk. 15:2). The point is to make us care about what God thinks most of all, to love Him and be loyal to Him most of all, and by that love, learn to love the way He loves.

Summary of the Text: Jesus describes a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and ate very well (Lk. 16:19). There was a poor man named Lazarus who was laid at the rich man’s gate covered in sores, who longed to eat the rich man’s scraps and was licked by the stray dogs (Lk. 16:20-21). Both men died, but the poor man was carried to Abraham’s bosom, while the rich man was buried and found himself in torment in Hades (Lk. 16:22-23). The rich man calls out to Abraham, longing for Lazarus to bring him some water, but Abraham reminds him that he already had his share of good things and Lazarus his bad things and therefore the situation is just (Lk. 16:24-25). Besides, Abraham explains that the request is impossible: none may cross between them (Lk. 16:26). Hearing this, the rich man begs Abraham to send Lazarus back to warn his five brothers of their impending doom, but Abraham says that Moses and the Prophets are sufficient (Lk. 16:27-29). And when the rich man suggests that a man coming back from the dead would be more effective, Abraham disagrees, insisting that someone who will not hear Moses and the Prophets will not be convinced by someone rising from the dead (Lk. 16:30-31).

The Great Fixed Chasm

Remember the immediate context was Jesus’ condemnation that the Pharisees justify themselves by the opinion of man, exalting money and despising God in the process – this is an abomination (Lk. 16:13-15). But the Law and the Prophets were all about God’s generous grace and this is why everyone is rushing into the kingdom – it really is good news (Lk. 16:16-17). There are a number of parallels between this story with the previous ones: a rich man, father with sons, longing for relief, but this serves to highlight perhaps the most striking difference: the great fixed chasm (Lk. 16:26), and likewise, the fact that this chasm stretches from Heaven and Hell back into the waking world (Lk. 16:27-31). In the other stories, there are resolutions; in this story, Heaven and Hell are the resolutions. At this point, we should make a couple of notes about biblical cosmology. First, Heaven and Hell are real places even though we may not be able to find them on the map in the same way that we can find Switzerland. In the Bible, Hell is likened to drowning, burning, absolute darkness, torment, death, and agony forever (Mk. 9:42ff, 2 Pet. 2, Jude, Rev. 20). On the other hand, Heaven is God’s presence, His light, His comfort, His beauty, His pleasures forevermore (Ps. 16, Rev. 21). All the indications are that Heaven and Hell “overlap” with the created order, though not with precise entry or exit points in our world. We see hints of this with Enoch (Gen. 5:24) and Elijah (2 Kgs. 2:11), as well as the summoning of Samuel from the dead (1 Sam. 28). We see this in the coming and going of angels, the reality of Satan and demons, prayer, miracles, and most significantly in the ascension of Jesus into Heaven (Acts 1:9).

Who Are You?

The point of the story is that God judges justly, but man justifies himself by what other men exalt — which is an abomination to God. In every generation and culture there are human assumptions about what is virtuous and what is shameful. Wealth has often been associated with virtue, while poverty and sickness are often associated with shame. But everything depends upon where you are in the story. Are slaves coming out of Egypt or slaves going into Exile? Are you being given the land of Canaan or have you grown fat with presumption? Moses commanded Israel to receive the good gifts of God and rejoice in Him (Dt. 8:7-10), but to beware that they did not lift their hearts up and forget God and begin to believe that their own hands had gotten these gifts (Dt. 8:11-20). Israel was the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son – God insisted that they remember this in all their dealings (e.g. Sabbath, hospitality, debts, slavery, etc. cf. Dt. 5:15, 15:15ff). Remember who you are. But the Bible from beginning to end is full of warnings about false brothers, people who refuse to remember and refuse to believe (2 Pet. 2, Jude). In this story, the rich man calls Abraham “father” and Abraham calls the rich man in Hell “son” (Lk. 16:24-25), but that only serves to underline the horror of the situation. This is why Paul says that the children of Abraham are those who are justified by faith in Christ (Gal. 3:7-9). The rich man wasn’t damned for being rich, and Lazarus wasn’t saved for being poor. The rich man was damned because his hope was in his riches, and Lazarus was saved because his only hope was in God.

Where Are You?

At the end of C.S. Lewis’s The Last Battle, Aslan makes a new heavenly Narnia, and the characters pass through a stable to get there. It’s a gorgeous, amazing new world, but a bunch of dwarves refuse to see any of it, and go on believing that they are in a dark stable full of hay and dirty trough water. To believe that riches, big houses, another job, perfect marriages, perfect children, perfect sex – to believe that any of that can satisfy your hunger and thirst, your greatest longings, is to imagine that’s the most you can hope for: hay and trough water. In other words, you’re aiming too low. How could any of those finite, created things fulfill your eternal longings? And that lie drives all selfishness, envy, and greed. Perhaps that thing, that stuff, his job, her haircut will make me happy and finally give me peace. But it never does. It never lasts. But to believe that your hunger and thirst, and your deepest longings can only be satisfied by the One who made you, by the One you were made for – is to believe that this created stuff is at best a sign of His love but barely scratches the surface – and this truth sets you free to endure hardships and to share generously (2 Cor. 4:16-18, 8:9).

Conclusion

Justification by faith in Jesus Christ is the legal reckoning of all that God has to you now and forever. In other words, justification by faith in Jesus is the legal reckoning of Heaven to you now, here on earth, despite your circumstances. This is why Paul says, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus…” (Eph. 2:4-5)

You are already in heaven or you are still in the death of Hell. And none may cross that chasm except Jesus Christ. Heaven and Hell have already arrived in this world. In Adam, all have sinned and find themselves alienated, isolated, never satisfied, always hungry, but in Christ, we have been reconciled, brought near, forgiven, comforted, and we have been filled with the bread of life.

In these last three stories that Jesus told, there are three rich men, but the real common element is that there are three beggars. A lost son reduced to poverty, a manager on the verge of unemployment, and here a true beggar, covered in sores, licked by dogs. But perhaps what is most striking thing is the fact that this last beggar has a name. The shameful one, the rejected one, the one that looks like a complete failure has a name, and his name is Lazarus, which is a form of the name Eliazer. And that name means “God is my Help.” Is that your name? Is that who you are? Is that where you are? If your heart cries out yes, God is my Help. Then you have nothing to fear. All that God has is yours. If you must wait patiently, you can wait with God as your help. If you must give generously, you can give with God as your help. If you must face sin head on, confronting it and confessing it or forgiving it, do not be afraid, God is your help. It doesn’t matter what it looks like if you’re a beggar before God because the beggars at the gate heaven always find entry.

The Shrewdness of the Sons of Light

Luke LI: Lk. 16:1-18

Introduction

This is one of the more challenging portions of the book of Luke, with somewhat differing interpretations in the history of the church. But the central point is about loyalty to God and how that drives the right kind of wise and generous love of the world.

Summary of the Text: This chapter begins with a parable told to the disciples about a shrewd manager who was charged with wasting his master’s possessions (Lk. 16:1). The master requires the manager to turn in his account and tells him that he is losing his job (Lk. 16:2). Realizing his only options will be manual labor or begging, he determines to make friends with his master’s debtors (Lk. 16:3-4). So he summons his master’s debtors and forgives enormous portions of their debts, each totaling over a years’ worth of wages for an average worker (Lk. 16:5-7). And when word reaches the master, he commends the manager for his shrewdness (Lk. 16:8). Jesus says that the sons of this world tend to be more shrewd than the sons of light, but his disciples need to imitate this shrewdness and make friends by means of wealth (Lk. 16:9). Jesus then summarizes the point laced with wordplay: he who is faithful in little will be faithful in much, likewise those who are unjust in little – the implication would seem to suggest a further commendation of the “unjust manager,” and having been “faithful” in another’s is setting himself up to be granted his own (Lk. 16:10-12). And again, Jesus plays with the word “master,” suggesting that God should be seen as the ultimate master in the parable (Lk. 16:13). The Pharisees mock Jesus for his view of money, but Jesus says that what they value is an abomination in the sight of God (Lk. 16:14-15). Finally, Jesus insists that the Kingdom He is preaching is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, and not one dot will become void, including God’s prohibition of divorce, remarriage, and adultery (Lk. 16:16-18).

Israel’s Abominations

I believe a key to understanding the parable is the rather cryptic statement at the end of this section about divorce, remarriage, and adultery and the accusation that the Pharisees are committing abominations (Lk. 16:18). Jesus is clearly concerned about faithfulness and loyalty to God in the heart and insists that what is exalted among men is actually an abomination in the sight of God (Lk. 16:10-15). An abomination is something detestable to God: sodomy (Lev. 18:22), the silver and gold of idols (Dt. 7:25), child sacrifice, sorcery, fortune telling (Dt. 18:10-12), cross dressing (Dt. 22:5) – the common thread being the detestable practices of the nations. One of those detestable practices included a divorced woman returning to her former husband after being remarried to another man – probably as a moneymaking scheme (Dt. 24:4). Abominations are not merely detestable to God, but they bring sin upon the land of Israel, they have a polluting effect (Dt. 24:4). Jeremiah picks up on this particular law: “If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man’s wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me? Declares the Lord” (Jer. 3:1). “[Judah] saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore. Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree. Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the Lord. And the Lord said to me, ‘Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah” (Jer. 3:8-11). To the extent that faithless Israel honestly returned to the Lord in repentance, they are more righteous than treacherous Judah who only returned in pretense, without repentance (Jer. 3:5) — and that presumptuous treachery is an abomination that defiles the land.

The Generous Master

In the parable, the manager has been charged with “wasting” the master’s possessions, just like the younger son “wasted” the father’s inheritance (Lk. 15:13, 16:1). The thing that caused the younger son to come to his senses was his realization of his father’s generosity – even his “hired servants have more than enough bread” (Lk. 15:17). The unjust manager comes to a similar conclusion: he’s hopeful that the debtors will be merciful and receive him into their homes if he gets fired, but he’s banking on the generosity of his master by forgiving their debts and making his master look like a generous man. It’s a very gutsy move, and the master commends him for it, which confirms that he is a very generous man. It pleases him for his manager to magnify his generosity. This master is a picture of God, and the manager represents Israel. In the Old Covenant, God had promised that Israel would lend to the nations and not borrow, they would rule over the nations and not be ruled over (Dt. 15:6). Jesus is saying that the disciples should lead Israel to forgive the debts of the nations/tax collectors/Samaritans because their Master is a generous and merciful God. Luke says that the Pharisees mocked Jesus because they were lovers of money (Lk. 16:14). To them, money was a sign of God’s covenant blessings – why should they have to choose between God and money? But Jesus says that God knows their hearts, whether they are seeking to be justified by God or man (Lk. 16:15). There is a gaping chasm between the man who serves God with his wealth and the man who serves his wealth in the name of God (Lk. 16:13). Much of what passes for worldly success is an abomination to God because it was gotten by adultery — and that greatly pollutes the land (Lk. 16:15-18).

Conclusions

James says, “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?” (Js. 4:4) When getting that college degree, how many times have you looked the other way when lies and sin were being exalted? When pursuing that career, how many times have you sacrificed your marriage and children on that altar? When choosing that clothing, that hairstyle, that piercing, is it the love of God driving it? Or is it the fear of man? That compromise and fear is an abomination and it pollutes the people of God. But Jesus also says to “make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings” (Lk. 16:9). What’s the difference? The difference is who your master is. If your master is God, the generous Father of our Lord Jesus, then you can live in true freedom and authority toward the world. If your master is security, then you live in fear, and you are actually in debt and they are ruling over you. Perhaps the central mystery of the parable is still: Why does the master commend the manager? And if nothing else, that same question should rest heavy on our souls: Why have we been forgiven and accepted by God? Why have we been commended by God? The shame and guilt of our treachery, of our wasting our inheritance ought to weigh heavy on our hearts right alongside the absolute glory of Jesus standing in our place, paying the debt we could never pay. If you know the Father has been infinitely generous with you, then you are free to confront sin and forgive the sins around you and build the Kingdom in that true gospel grace.

Elders as Fathers

“I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me. That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church.” (1 Cor. 4:14-17, cf. 1 Thess. 2:11-12)

At the center of the brokenness of this world is the deep ache of fatherlessness – what is often called father-hunger. This is because the central and most fundamental dislocation in all the universe is the division between God and man. We have rebelled against God our Father. So Jesus, the perfect Son, came to die in the place of all the rebel sons in order to rescue us and bring us home to the Father. But having done that, Jesus sent His Spirit into the world, and that Spirit fills some of those rescued sons and turns them into fathers. Many of them become biological fathers, but many of them also become spiritual fathers – fathers in the faith.

And here, Paul laments the fact that even though the Corinthians have many guides in Christ, they do not have many fathers yet. Guides may be able to teach true things, but fathers admonish the people of God like their own children. Guides can instruct people about the Bible, but fathers urge the people of God to imitate them as they follow Christ. Notice how Paul says that he sent Timothy to remind them of his ways in Christ. Guides have students, but fathers in the faith have spiritual children who look up to them, love them, and fear them, like Paul had Timothy.

Now, it stands to reason that if father hunger is at the core of human sinfulness and brokenness, then fatherhood – and fatherhood exercised particularly in the Christian Church – is both one of the greatest needs of the world and will simultaneously engender the most hatred from the world. We live in such an anti-authoritarian world that the exercise of almost all authority is considered tyrannical and oppressive. Of course you can also gauge where the gods of a culture are by where the fathers are. If a group of nine men in black robes say babies must be murdered and everyone shrugs and obeys – they are the fathers and represent particular gods. But God our Father has made elders the fathers of His people. Men who embrace this calling to be fathers to the people of God will simultaneously be the most helpful and loved and the most hated for it.

I was in a meeting recently with another elder who gave this wonderful sketch of fatherhood. He recalled a situation when his son was just a little two year old tike, and at that time the stereo was the big ‘no-touch’ for him. And there had been many spanks and instructions related to the stereo. One day, the elder watched while his son toddled into the room and began touching the stereo knobs. The elder called his son’s name, and the little boy turned around white as a sheet and ran to his dad and said, “Father, I’m scared.” My elder pointed out that the wonderful thing about that moment was the fact that his son was afraid and he ran to his father. And that’s a wonderful picture of God our Father. He must be feared and loved. He is just and holy, and Jesus says, He is able to cast our bodies and souls into Hell – fear Him! And our only hope is to run directly to Him, to love Him.

And this is what faithful fatherhood always looks like, and elders are called to embody this same fatherhood in the church. Elders should be feared and loved. Our people do not merely need guides, they need fathers. They do not merely need to be taught, they need to be admonished. They do not merely need abstract lessons, they need to be reminded to imitate us and our ways in Christ. This is a terrifying task, just as having biological children is a terrifying task. But the thing to realize is this: if you felt a little sick to your stomach when you held your firstborn child in your arms, just multiply that terror by a few hundred when it comes to fatherhood in the church.

At the same time, we must not forget the promises of the covenant. Those promises are not merely to biological families, they are to the people of God in covenant with God, which includes the fathers of the churches, the elders and pastors of the people of God. And what has He promised? He has promised to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers (Mal. 4:6). He has promised to be our God and the God of our children after us to a thousand generations (Gen. 17:7, Acts 2:39, Gal. 3:7-14ff). And this means that as we look to God in faith, we can minister to our many children in the faith, expecting to see these children grow up faithful in the Lord. In some ways this takes a bigger faith, but it’s not a different faith. It’s the same faith we need to be fathers to our own children (cf. 1 Tim. 3:5). It’s that same faith that we need to be fathers to the people in our congregations, who by the power of the Holy Spirit have become our children in the gospel. Of course we must not be domineering fathers, but we must not be passive fathers either. We must be diligent and attentive fathers, admonishing, rebuking, correcting, encouraging, praising, and blessing. We are responsible for the souls of our people. We will give an account to God for His sheep. He has made us their fathers.