Toby J. Sumpter's Blog, page 88

Loving Brothers in Error Part 2

I want to follow up my last post on this topic with two somewhat different points, heading in somewhat different directions, but which are related to the central principles already laid out. I’ll post part 2 today and then part 3 in a few days.

First, I take it for granted that when Paul exhorts Christians to avoid certain brothers in error, as he does several times (e.g. 2 Thess. 3:14-15, 2 Tim. 3:1-5, Tit. 3:9-11), Paul is not giving a one-size-fits-all exhaustive how-to manual to respond to every scenario. He is laying down principles which must be applied with wisdom to particular situations. In some places, Paul is very specific: that guy who is sleeping with his step-mom, you need to put him out of the church and not associate with him in that way (1 Cor. 5:1ff). Elsewhere, Paul names names but doesn’t give specific instructions: “Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica…” (2 Tim. 4:10) or “Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord repay him according to his deeds. Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message…” (2 Tim. 4:14-15). What should Timothy do with that information? Would that information effect how Timothy and the church of Ephesus interacted with Demas or Alexander the coppersmith if they came into town all chirpy and wanting to jump into the church community? Presumably it would effect how they received those men. What if you were old friends with Demas and you notice that he’s been tweeting up a storm about the problems with Paul’s ministry? Then he shows up for church the following Sunday. What do you do? What if Alexander’s wife wants to join the Ephesian Women’s Fellowship? Paul’s comments do not necessarily mean that these guys would have been excommunicated on the spot. But if they showed up to church smiling and shaking hands, it would be important for people to know that things were not right between those guys and the apostle Paul. The point isn’t gossip, the point isn’t hatred or exclusion, the point is honesty and love. Maybe Demas repented. Maybe Alexander wanted to appeal his case. Any number of things might have happened. And depending on the details, different responses would be appropriate. Not one-size-fits-all. But given what Paul said, you couldn’t just pretend everything was fine.

So, there are many particulars that must be weighed and considered when applying the principles of admonishing, correcting, and avoiding brothers in error. Paul is not saying that if your erring brother is stranded on the side of the road with a flat tire, you should drive by without smiling “that he may be ashamed” (2 Thess. 3:14). Neither is he requiring that conscientious Christians scream and run the other way if they see the woman coming down the sidewalk who has just been acting out on Facebook. No, the point that Paul is making is that friendship and fellowship and truthfulness all matter. You don’t have to run away screaming, but maybe if the Lord puts him/her in your path, He intends for you to raise your concerns. And if you can’t do that, then don’t pretend everything’s fine. My point here is that this task is difficult, challenging, and at points awkward, and so consider this an exhortation to think about it, pray about it, and talk with your wife, your husband, or another trusted friend or pastor about it. It isn’t easy, but it’s part of growing up into wisdom and maturity in Christ.

In some cases, you may have a relationship with someone who is acting out, and when you bring it up, you have an opening for a good discussion. They might not change or repent on the spot, but love and patience would continue to pursue that relationship. The challenge comes with judging whether you are making progress with them, or are they making progress with you? Are you leading them to greater faithfulness or are you being led away? Related to all of this are the other people around you. Are you helping others to think carefully about these matters or are you causing confusion? And often a lot rides on how people hold their errors; are they evangelists and missionaries on a crusade or are they severely misinformed, hurt, and confused — and often it’s a little of everything. The point here isn’t one of contamination, as though associating with sinners is bad for you in itself. Jesus associated with prostitutes and sinners, and compassionate, sympathetic love reaches out to all the hurting and broken, despite the fact that some may think it looks unseemly. But if you had followed Jesus around for a bit, you would have found Jesus challenging and confronting sin and brokenness, not just paling around and watching the women taking their next clients into the backroom, saying, “No, it’s OK, I’ll wait out here while you take care of that.”

And since we are called to love those around us, we want to imitate this kind of love and wisdom. For example, your friends and children ought to know the difference between the kind of fellowship you share with brothers and sisters where there is strong trust and mutual edification (and honest accountability) and reaching out to brothers and sisters who are hurt and in need or in error. Sometimes that’s manifest and there really isn’t any confusion about what’s going on, sometimes it’s very ambiguous. What does a “like” on Facebook mean? Does it mean, “All the rest of your posts are horrible and mean-spirited, but this one wasn’t”? Does it mean, “Right on, sister! I love everything you say and do!”? On the one hand, there’s no need to turn Facebook “likes” into some kind of informal gestapo. It’s just Facebook, people. But on the other hand, Facebook isn’t meaningless either. Patterns emerge. Impressions are made. Are you thinking about what those patterns are? Are you thinking about what impressions are being made? Are you pursuing wisdom?

A couple other examples: maybe your neighbors are nice Christians but you find out that their children watch cable television without any noticeable parental supervision. Rated R movies are a regular thing in their home. Now you would certainly look for an opportunity to ask them about it. Hey, did you know your kids were watching Chainsaw Babes 3 last night? But in the meantime, you’d (hopefully) exercise a great deal of care over how much time your kids spend with the neighbor kids, what they’re doing, what they’re talking about, etc. Without completely shutting them out, there would still be a good deal of careful “avoidance” of certain things for the good and protection of your family.

Or what if Protestant family members convert to Eastern Orthodoxy? Do they all turn and face the icons at dinner time to say their prayers? Do they insist on crossing themselves after every prayer? Are they aggressive in their “evangelism” of you or your children? Or are they respectful and highly deferential to their Protestant family members? Do they admit and recognize the severity of joining a denomination that requires them to cease taking communion with their former Protestant church family? Or do they downplay it, explain it away, and wonder what the big deal is? A whole lot rides on how much you trust the relatives, how they respond to your questions and concerns, how they hold their new convictions, etc. Openness, honesty, and deference is a whole lot different than underhandedness, duplicity, and defensiveness. Different situations would call for a range of faithful responses, none of which would pretend that everything is fine. For example, you might still do some family birthdays together but you might decline other invitations.

Again, the point here is the principle that sometimes we will be in some form of community with Christians who are in some kind of error, theological, liturgical, or just being divisive and troublesome. The instructions Paul gives us by direct command and example is to note those people, know who they are, and then carefully, thoughtfully figure out how to communicate clearly what the problems and concerns are and not go along pretending everything is just fine. This is part of loving one another.

Love is patient and kind, but love is also honest.

Foundations for Mercy & Mission #6: Beauty Will Save the World

Ps. 90:1-17, 1 Jn. 2:15-17, 5:1-5, Jn. 15:12-17

Introduction

The task of Christian mercy and mission is not complete without an eschatology: Where are we going? What are we aiming for? We are after unending goodness and beauty, and we are convinced that all goodness and beauty comes from God.

Against the World, For the Life of the World

John famously exhorts us not to love the world or the things in the world. “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 Jn. 2:15). At first, this can seem strange given the fact that God created the world. Should we not love fireflies? Or peanut butter? Or Miles Davis music? Or the smell of the ocean? John goes on to explain that what he means is “the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life” – those things are “not from the Father” (1 Jn. 2:16). And John adds that those things are passing away, “but whoever does the will of God abides forever (1 Jn. 2:17). Putting this together, we see that John is defining “the world and the things in the world” in a very precise way. He’s defining them as certain kinds of desires and pride, and he’s defining them by duration: they are passing away. John wants us to love the world and the things in the world rightly and in such a way as to be part of God’s future/permanent plan. We see this dynamic in much of John’s gospel: Jesus came into “the world,” but the world did not know Him or receive Him (Jn. 1:10). The world hates Jesus because He testifies that their works are evil (Jn. 7:7). He tells the unbelieving Jews that they are “of this world” and He is not of this world (Jn. 8:23). And He says that He came to judge the world: “now will the ruler of this world be cast out” (Jn. 12:31). But Jesus also came take away the sins of the world (Jn. 1:29). God so loved the world that He gave His only Son not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him (Jn. 3:16-17). He is the bread of life come down from heaven and “gives life to the world” (Jn. 6:33, 6:51). When Jesus casts out the ruler of this world, when He is lifted up from the earth on the cross, He promises to draw all people to himself (Jn. 12:31-33). So the point is that God is against the world in its slavery to evil desires and pride; He is for the life of the world in the beauty and glory it was originally intended for. And so are we.

What’s the Difference between Worldliness & a Christian Love of Goodness?

Because God is good, and He doesn’t make any evil, all sin and evil involves the twisting and mishandling of something good. It is this twisting and mishandling that God is determined to leave behind: it is passing away. Hebrews says that God is shaking all things, that He might remove the things that are shaken, in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain (Heb. 12:26-27). “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken…” (Heb. 12:28). Like Lot’s wife, if your heart clings to the things that are passing away, you will pass away with them. This is why all things die as a result of the Fall. Sin causes good things to become temporary, but the death of Jesus takes away sin in order that all good things might be established forever. Psalm 90 is a very realistic psalm of Moses, outlining the futility, shortness, and sinfulness of life, but it closes with an astonishing prayer: “Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!” Men in the grip of lust for power and arrogant pride, seek to make themselves immortal by science, by conquest, by wealth. But the humble see the futility in that and recognize that the only way of permanence is if God’s beauty is upon us and He establishes the work of our hands. While the men of Babel built a city and tower to make their own name great and they were scattered and foiled, Abraham sought a city with foundations “whose designer and builder is God” and God promised to make his name great (Heb. 11:10). The fundamental differences between the city of God and the city of man is the love of God versus the love of self. The one is humble and honest about human weakness, frailty, sinfulness and loves the only One who can give strength, permanence, and goodness. The other ignores or lies about the inherent weakness and evil, and loves the self as the source of strength, legacy, and goodness. Putting all of this together, the difference between worldliness and a Christian love of goodness is not in the things themselves but in how we hold and approach all things. And over time, cities and cultures form around loving self or loving God.

Applications for Mercy & Mission

The fundamental question to ask is: Is this “thing” drawing me closer to God and His people with joy and thanksgiving or is it creating a barrier, causing confusion or tension, and pulling me away? Is it self-love or self-giving-love? Is it for my kingdom or God’s kingdom? Some examples:

Your wealth: Do you use the resources God has given you to build bridges, to share life with others, to deepen friendships, or is it a fortress of self-sufficiency, effectively keeping people away? Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it (Prov. 15:17).

Your time: Husbands and fathers, when you come home from work, do you think, now for some me-time? Or do you think, now to serve my wife and children? Wives and mothers, when your husband comes home, do you think, now for some me-time? Or do you think, now to serve my husband? The same principles apply to singles and students with your roommates or children toward your parents.

Pop-culture: Is your love and enjoyment of pop music, movies, fashion, etc., driven by joy in God and the love of others? Or is it driven by fear of being left out, missing out, and wanting to be noticed, admired, respected, and thought cool? It’s not “the thing”; it’s how you hold it. Are you constantly looking in the mirror? Or are you looking out for others?

Start where you are: You may not be a wine connoisseur or a classical music aficionado or an fine artist, but beauty is fundamentally about the joy of sharing with others. Look at this. Taste this. Let’s do this together. Sometimes the most beautiful moments occur even in the midst of great loss and hurt – when those moments are shared. Every Christian has something to share – at the very least, you have what God has shared with you in Christ. This is the center of the beauty that is saving the world. This is our faith that overcomes the world.

Foundations of Mercy & Mission #5: Sin, Slavery, and the Gospel

Gen. 4:1-16, Rom. 7:1-6, Mk. 15:16-39

Introduction

As we continue to lay a biblical foundation for carrying out the mission of Jesus in this world, the world around us continues to give us reason to ask the question: How should we carry out this mission? What are we to think and believe? And what are we to do? This week, our nation has been rocked by a series of violent acts in Baton Rouge, LA, Falcon Heights, MN, and Dallas, TX, and other cities as well. Before that fifty were shot dead in Orlando. These are all symptoms of a deep cancer in our culture, the same dead rot that has filled the human race since sin entered the world. It is sometimes tempting, perhaps especially at times like this, to shrink back from telling the truth about sin and about Jesus. But God has entrusted to us a ministry of reconciliation, through the death of Jesus for sin; we cannot be silent.

What is the Problem?

Sin is the problem, and we need to fearlessly, cheerfully say so. In many ways, the biblical doctrine of sin really does “make sense.” All the other explanations on offer don’t go deep enough: poverty, addiction, ignorance, hatred, etc. Of course these factors can play a part, but they don’t explain the depth of human depravity, the depth of the human capacity to do evil. Don’t be afraid to name sin as sin because when the questions come (e.g. “huh?”), the Bible’s description of sin actually maps with history and human experience. In Romans 7, Paul describes the way sin rears up in our hearts, especially how we naturally respond to the law and rules (Rom. 7:7-11). Paul says that this is why we often don’t understand our own actions: “For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate… For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep doing” (Rom. 7:15-19). What human being does not resonate with Paul? This internal chaos flows directly out of our rebellion against God. The story of Cain and Abel illustrates this well. Adam and Eve sinned against God, and He promised them that there would be animosity in their family as a result (Gen. 3:16). And right on schedule we see jealousy, anger, hatred, and ultimately violence and murder, and then even indifference (Gen. 4:1-9). But notice it is the blood of Abel that cries out to God from the ground (Gen. 4:10). Cain’s sin and crime against his brother is not merely a human phenomenon; it is a cosmic phenomenon. And this, by the way, is the only basis for true justice in the world: there must be a transcendent standard.

Sin as Isolation, Despair, and Self-Loathing

Because God is the source of all goodness, to turn away from God is to turn away from goodness. We’ve said this before, but this is why sin is a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. Sin doubts the goodness of God. Sin says that God is withholding some good from us, and then when we turn away from God to seek “good” on our own, we find ourselves further from the good and we say, “See? God isn’t good.” In this sense, sin really doesn’t make sense. Fundamentally, this rebellion against God creates isolation and loneliness. We see this in Adam and Eve being exiled from the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:23), and then we see it again when Cain goes even further away from the presence of God (and his family) (Gen. 4:16). Many recent studies of poverty and addiction affirm that human brokenness results from broken relationships. Material solutions can be part of the means of restoring relationships, but if we do not address sin we are not getting to the heart of human brokenness. The isolation of sin is the root cause of despair. People were made for communion with God and other people. We were made for fellowship, stories, laughter, and love. But when our communion with God is broken, and our communion with other people fragments, the isolation we feel turns to despair (e.g. Gen. 4:13-14). And frequently despair turns to self-loathing. When people come to believe that there is no hope, they frequently come to believe that they deserve to be mistreated. This is why if we only speak to a battered woman about gaining freedom from an abusive situation without speaking to her at all about the way sin has abused her, we have failed to show her true compassion. This is like breaking open the front door to the prison and refusing to open up her cell. Satan is the worst, most insidious thug, and Hell is the most abusive situation of all. True compassion holds all of this together.

Sin as Slavery & Blindness

Isolation, despair, and self-loathing work together to enslave men and women in cycles of sin. This is why the Bible describes sin as a kind of slavery: Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin” (Jn. 8:34, cf. Rom. 6:6-14). Scripture also describes sin as blindness. “But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes” (1 Jn. 2:11). “The god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ…” (2 Cor. 4:4). In addition to despair and self-loathing, sin also causes deep fear and anxiety because when you are blind, everything is a threat, and therefore we suspect everyone is out to get us, and we hate one another. And once again, it is a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy, putting millions of sinners together in the same world: hating and being hated, they harm one another, and run further away from God and one another.

Our Savior

The point of this message is simply the old, glorious truth that we cannot save ourselves. In fact, if all this weren’t already enough, we can take one step further: sin is death. The wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23), and apart from Christ all are “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1). The fundamental compassion of Christ is the courage to diagnose sin for what it is. This is not a little infection. This is not a mild disease. This is willful, arrogant, spiteful rebellion against the God of heaven. We have all sinned. All have turned aside; together we have become worthless; no one does good, not even one (Rom. 3:12). The solution to addiction, abuse, poverty, racism, and all human brokenness cannot be anything less than dealing with our sin. It is not the compassion of Christ to fail to talk about Jesus crucified for the sins of the world. We have been given a ministry of reconciliation, and the central tool, the central means is announcing Jesus who became sin for us, in order to become our peace and take away all the hostility (2 Cor. 5:18-21, Eph. 2:14-16, Col. 1:19-22).

Justice & Leadership in Black & White America

A demonstrator protesting the shooting death of Alton Sterling is detained by law enforcement near the headquarters of the Baton Rouge Police Department in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S. July 9, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY – RTSH3XR

So we established that secular relativism is an ideology based fundamentally on injustice. If you believe there is no transcendent standard that binds all men, you have banished justice from your worldview. Or you have redefined “justice” as some kind of emotional, physical, or tribal manipulation. And this is only to perpetuate injustice. How do you know when something has been put right? How do you know a criminal has truly paid? What is the value on human life? What is the value of human suffering? How do you quantify that and then send out the bills?

That’s what justice is all about. Justice stands on the assumption of objective standards of right and wrong, and justice means putting things right, making things right, paying the bills. But this is why there must be an objective standard to appeal to. There must be a standard, a measuring line, a scale that remains the same for all people at all times. Then and only then can we have justice because then and only then can wrongs be identified and put right. You cannot address wrongs or put them right if you have categorically banished the categories of right and wrong. A nation that has banished the transcendent, objective law of God has officially banished justice.

Historically, justice has been pictured as a woman blindfolded holding a scale. The scale weighs and measures equally for all human beings, male, female, rich, poor, black, white, healthy, sick, born, and unborn.

This goes back to the biblical requirement that judges judge impartially:

“You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in his lawsuit. Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked. And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of those who are right” (Ex. 23:6-9, cf. 23:1-3).

“Hear the cases between your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the alien who is with him. You shall not be partial in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. you shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgment is God’s” (Dt. 1:16-17).

“You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality…” (Dt. 16:18-19, cf. 10:17-19).

But this justice is not merely a court of law thing. This justice is an ethic for life. God’s people are to “do justice” toward all people, and this is particularly required by all leaders. Part of what this requires is the willingness to be wronged. Leaders, those entrusted with power and authority, are required by these standards of justice to assume innocence until guilt is proven.

This has very practical implications for law enforcement protocols. I have no idea what actual police protocols are these days (I suspect they vary somewhat from city to city), but I do know American soil is not a war zone. Rules of engagement in a war zone are different than the streets of Baton Rouge, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, etc. If law enforcement is going to militarize and treat some city as a war zone, then they must at least have the common decency to declare war. But last I checked the First Amendment states explicitly the “right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

This means that when men sign up to be police officers they are signing up to perform a dangerous duty. They are pledging to put their lives on the line to serve and protect free Americans. This is a particularly dangerous and heroic task because it requires them to assume that all American citizens are innocent until proven guilty. And as we all know, they must assume this and act accordingly while knowing full well that not all Americans are innocent. Law enforcement is called to walk into the most dangerous situations, civil disturbances, and violent crimes, and they are called to stand between the innocent and the lawless. But frequently they will be called into situations where it is unclear who is who, and until that is confirmed beyond reasonable doubt, they must treat all men and women with equity, with impartiality.

This means — to be clear — that they must not shoot a man sitting in his car, even if he is a suspect for another crime, even if he has gun, even if he has a criminal record. This is what impartiality means. Impartiality means being willing to be shot by a criminal because you have not been able to confirm their lethal intentions. Yes, the Bible certainly defends the right of self-defense and specifically to defend your family and property (Ex. 22:2), and I believe that an officer on duty certainly may take action to defend his own life while defending the lives entrusted to his care. If there is an active shooter, by all means, take him out. But self-defense or stopping murder in progress are not the same thing as the unilateral right to use lethal force on others, even people in the process of breaking the law (Ex. 22:3).

Yes, I know that some protestors are throwing rocks. I know that some are shouting obscenities and making hateful gestures toward the police. Welcome to a world where leaders are scorned and mistreated. But all true leadership must bear the weaknesses of the people they seek to lead. If you cannot bear it, get out. The moment leaders begin to use excessive force without clear, compelling reason to do so, they have lost the argument. This applies to church authority, parental authority, political leadership, and law enforcement. The picture at the top of this article, whatever else it indicates, for a Christian, already indicates who won the argument. The woman won. The police in riot gear lost. This is because ever since Jesus was crucified for sinners, He has transformed weakness into power. And when people embrace their weakness as true power against those who wield tyrannical and abusive authority, they win. Even unbelievers and wicked people can tap into this reality to some extent, though they cannot ultimately rely on justice to vindicate them because justice will find them out in the end.

A couple final thoughts for now: Christians have many reasons to be watching (and participating) in the current wave of conversations and protests, not least because the trajectory of political ideology in our country is quickly marginalizing faithful Christians. But first off, to the extent that black Americans who have experienced various forms of ungodly prejudice and unjust treatment are Christians, we are required to stand with them. If one member of the body suffers, all suffer (1 Cor. 12:26). At this point there are many sane, level-headed, biblically informed black brothers and sisters telling us that there is a problem in our nation. Doing justice, acting with impartiality, means that we have a responsibility to listen to those voices carefully, assume that they are telling the truth and that we have something to learn from them. This is the law of love, but it is also the law of justice. To assume that they are all crying wolf and that this is all some massive liberal conspiracy is to participate in unjust prejudice. They are brothers in Christ, and Christ requires us to stand with them.

Second, we as Christians have every reason to care about what the police are allowed to do to any people in our nation. It may not be long before Christians are profiled and routinely harassed and taken into custody on petty charges. And while all sin and hatred must be confessed and repented of (on all sides), I find the Christians in America still far too docile and apathetic. While politicians continue to pass laws hemming Christian freedom in further and further, Christians do very little. It is high time the Christian Church begin standing up like that woman to the arrogant officials of our land. No, you cannot persecute bakers and florists for honoring Christ and refusing to bless same-sex marriage. No, you cannot persecute doctors and pharmacists who refuse to participate in your sacrificial slaughter of unborn children. No, you may not draft our daughters to fight in your ethically ambiguous wars. No, you may not treat our black brothers and sisters as perpetual suspects. No, you may not militarize the police, use excessive force, and treat us like your enemies.

Together, we are the bride of Christ. We were purchased with His blood. We have been forgiven. We have been clothed in the righteousness of Jesus. And His justice sets us free.

The Secular American Sweater: A Homily

Where is justice? Why can’t we get justice?

These sentiments are common. The FBI declines to press charges against Hillary Clinton. Police officers shoot a man to death for selling CDs. Three thousand little babies are pulled out of their mothers’ wombs every day and thrown into the garbage. Women and children are neglected, abused, and mistreated. Those with power misuse their power, and the very ones they are responsible to serve and protect are crushed, manipulated, snuffed out.

Where is justice? Let there be justice.

But to ask for justice, in the first instance, is to ask for a standard. There is no such thing as justice without a fixed standard. If there is a sense that black people are treated differently by police officers than white people, there must be a standard to appeal to, a standard of civility, a standard of morality. You cannot banish the standard and then insist on justice. To banish the standard is to banish justice. There must be a court to appeal to, otherwise you’re just talking to yourself. You’re just venting your feelings. But this is precisely what secularism has sought to indoctrinate us with over the last few hundred years. There is no fixed standard. Objective morality is dangerous and tyrannical. If you let objective morality in here, you are letting oppression and abuse in here, they say. Ok, it’s true: Sometimes people perpetrate great evil in the name of good. And sometimes people perpetrate great evil in the name of their god.

Secularism offers to be the great savior of the West by banishing absolutes from the public square. Relativism promises to be understanding, sympathetic, and respect everyone’s different opinion. This is the utopian vision of secular relativism. The problem is that this is like promising a knit sweater that you (on principle) refuse to tie off. There are frays at the top and at the bottom. The secularist insists that this allows for greater flexibility. It will adjust with the wearing, he says. It’s a design feature, not a defect. And yet, the sweater keeps unraveling. In fact, in order to keep the sweater looking like a sweater, the secularist must run around after you with his needles furiously knitting just in front of the unraveling.

This is where we are. We point to the unraveling of families, the murder of the unborn, the disease, poverty, crime, and addiction that follow (inevitably) in the wake of promiscuity and infidelity of every flavor, and they parade some smiling, happy face in front of the television (knitting with passion) and say, see, look how happy secular relativists are! Ta-da!

But the point is that secular relativism is an ideological commitment to injustice. They will say, no, we have rules and laws that must be followed. Justice is based on the rules and laws on the books. Right, until they change. Until they don’t apply. Relativism insists that justice can change. The nature of marriage can change. The nature of male and female can change. Justice can change. Which means that justice isn’t. It isn’t justice if it changes. This is like taking a test where you write your answers out on a separate sheet of paper, where you number your answers assuming that they will be graded according to the corresponding numbers on the test sheet. But since absolute standards are tyrannical and oppressive, the school has a policy that every five minutes a new test with different questions replaces the old one. And if you object, you are the one being insensitive and intolerant.

Part of the way the secular elites run this play is by how they change the subject every fifteen minutes. This leaves good hearted people constantly on their heels reacting to the latest injustice. Since the secular worldview breeds injustice, they have plenty of fodder to feed us with, and since none (or few) of us are in a position to watch the whole play being run, we are left feeling slightly frustrated but without enough info to go on and then the next outrage breaks out. And because secularism is a worldview based on the non-existence of absolute morals, the only currency they trade in is manipulation. When men and women are reduced to chemicals and atoms, the sole lever is various forms of physical, material, emotional manipulation. So it is always someone else’s fault. It is the economic conditions, the racial tensions, the political machinations, the guns, the extremists, the climate, whatever. And if you get enough of those balls spinning in the air you can keep several hundred million people sort of stunned and unsure about what exactly is going on.

This is why conservative Christians need to start seeing all of it as the same play, the same thing. And it’s actually not that hard if you use the category of “justice.” A black man was shot to death by police; will there be justice? That all depends. What is the standard of justice? Don’t appeal to the constitution, silly. We’ve already been told that the constitution is fluid and flexible. It changes. Don’t be distracted by their games, by the genealogical sleight of hand, they’ll pull. All men are created equal apparently didn’t apply to all the Africans kidnapped and sold to the framers of the constitution. Right? Ok, but don’t get distracted. Why is that wrong? Why is that horrible, awful, and morally repugnant? Because there is a God in heaven who created man in His own image, and that God has spoken to us clearly in His word and in His Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. If we want justice, we must have Jesus Christ. There is no other name under heaven whereby we must be saved. No other name means no other justice. It is Christ or chaos. Christ or injustice. Christ or death. Christ or nothing.

But women and children are being abused and abandoned. What should be done? Do you want justice? By what standard? But what about prison reform? What about foreign policy? What about corrupt corporations? What about justice for the immigrants, for minorities, for the disabled, for religious conservatives? It turns out that it’s all the same question, and it’s all the same answer. Let them ask it, and we must all begin giving them the same answer. The answer is that we will have justice. And by that we mean that we will have a fixed standard. We will have an immoveable standard. We will have Jesus as our King, our Lord, our Master, and none of their monkeyshines anymore. All other attempts at human society that are not built on the supremacy of Jesus Christ over all — are in principle opposed to justice. They are human levers with human hands pushing and pulling them. And to the extent that we settle for less than the justice of Christ, we are being bought and sold and bribed into silence and apathy.

Yes, men may abuse the standard. Men may pretend that the standard justifies their lust, their lies, their fears, and they may get away with it for a time. But it is no solution to banish the standard. This is like banishing doctors because some of them are corrupt or commit malpractice. No, thank you very much, but we still believe in justice. We believe in the truth, and we believe that despite our differences of culture which are real and good gifts of God there is such a thing as true truth that applies to us all. There is right and wrong. There is a standard that transcends culture, that transcends the constitution, that transcends the Supreme Court, that transcends the congress and the UN and all other man-made authorities. And that standard is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Every problem they raise, every attempted distraction they point to: another Trump atrocity, another Clinton scandal, poverty on the rise, Zika virus running rampant, transgender rights, abortion rights, immigration reform, economic trends, whatever — don’t be tricked, don’t be fooled. They’re running a Ponzi scheme in which they assume you won’t ask where all the money really is. Where do those “rights” come from? Where does that justice come from? How do we know what a solution would look like? Is there a fixed standard that we can all look at together to see what is wrong and what must be made right? Will the same standard that gives Hillary a pass apply to the florist or the baker or the preacher? Will it apply to Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Alton Sterling? Will it apply to the fifty million nameless children whose voices have been snuffed out since Roe vs. Wade? Will it apply to the single moms? Will it apply to corrupt corporate VPs?

They keep asking us to care about all of these atrocities, all of these evils, and really, they are asking us the same question again and again and again: Do we want justice? Do we really want justice? But what they don’t know is that Justice is a man named Jesus. And so what they are asking is: Do we want Jesus? Do want His death and resurrection? His blood shed for our sins? His life for our life? His justice to rain down?

When the American people rise up with one voice and say, yes, that is what we want, the secular American sweater will come undone and the people running this charade will stand there naked before God and the watching world looking mighty sheepish.

And then we will smile and tell them about Jesus and His justice that covers all our shame.

In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Country: What’s Left of Thee?

I mean it as an honest question. What’s left?

Of course, only God knows. The Creator, the Sustainer, the Lord our Governor, He knows what remains, how many sands are still up in the hourglass of our story. And if we have learned anything at all it is that nations rise and fall, civilizations are born, grow into maturity, wain, and die. It is not for us to know precisely where we are. It is for us to be faithful, true, and bold. It is for us to laugh at evil, smile at our loved ones, and share whatever we have been given with those less fortunate.

But even though we cannot know for sure what is left, where we are in the story, it is not an arrogant or blasphemous design to attempt to read the stars, the weather patterns of our culture. We are ants at the base of Everest, and we must remember that, but we are ants made in the image of the Living God, filled with the Spirit of the Risen King. This wasn’t our idea — it was His. He made us, not we ourselves. We are His sheep, and if He wants His sheep to mimic Him, that’s His business.

So where are we? America, my country, what is left of thee?

First, there is the growing sentiment among many that we are on board a sinking Titanic. And there are many signs that this is a fair assessment. The utter inanity of our ruling elites is mind boggling. Every day they say and do things that make it harder and harder to be a comedian or satirist. Perhaps this is our greatest objection to their tyrannies. They are stealing our jokes, our laughter, our joy. They have done this by running their relativistic pile-driver like a broadsword through the chest of the American soul. Everything is a sexual innuendo, every scene ends in a bedroom with heavy breathing. Male and female are just social constructs. Marriage is just an old fashioned custom that can be re-imagined, re-invented, or discarded, if you like. Their mouths are full of cursing and lies. They stand behind microphones with their ties and dress suits, and they spew arrogance and emptiness like chubby, furry animals with kazoos stuck in their throats. They say they will draft our daughters to fight in our wars. They say that little babies may be chopped up and vacuumed out of their mothers’ wombs. They say grown men may shower in the girls’ locker rooms because there’s something wrong with them, something is wrong inside of them, so let them.

It’s quite possible that when you get to this point in the story, you conclude that it’s too late. The kool-aid has been drunk, the cyanide is kicking in and we’re seizuring right on schedule; the ship is going down. This is a Babel moment. Our words have been confused. Next comes the scattering.

But there’s another possibility, and it’s the one I’m inclined to. And that possibility is that we’ve reached that point in the story where the bad guys have got drunk on what they believe is the inevitability of their success. This is the point where Nebuchadnezzar boasts in his power and pride and goes full ape in the Babylonian woods. This is the point where Herod receives the praises of the people as a god before being eaten by worms. This is the point where Vizzini puts his head back and laughs his last Sicilian laugh. Do you know what I mean? Most of the great stories have that part. It’s the part when the villains believe they have triumphed, and in their teeming confidence they show all of their cards. The White Witch and her demon horde shriek and cackle. They smile their big, toothy grins, they laugh and chortle and dance in the moonlight, and the fully ugliness of their agenda is revealed for the rotting, wrinkled corpse that it is.

This is where I believe we are.

I do believe there is a train heading for a cliff at breakneck speeds, and the bridge is out. Actually there never was a bridge there. The train jumped the tracks a while back. And there is only a wide, gaping canyon waiting to receive the wreckage. But I also believe that more and more people are jumping off that train. We have seen the Planned Parenthood videos. We have seen the ghouls discussing the dissection of little babies and the Lamborghinis they will buy off the sale of their tiny livers. We have heard them say with a straight face that they will draft our daughters to go to war. We have heard them say that they care about race relations while they continue to crush many minority neighborhoods with their jackboot socialism. We have heard them say that Islam is a religion of peace, and more and more of us are laughing at them every time they say it. They keep saying that you can be whatever you want to be, like fussy schoolmarms with too much makeup and too much perfume. (What are they hiding under all of that?) Boys can be girls and girls can be boys, and nothing is absolute, nothing is sacred except for whatever sacred cow they haul out of the fire today. But it’s getting pretty old. It’s getting tiresome, their games, their shrill PC hypocrisy. They keep saying that our guns are the problem, and they want us to just give them to them. To them. To. Them. While they stand there in their suits and ties, spewing lies, driving their train to the tune of trillions of dollars off this reservation.

Good riddance. We’re getting off that train.

While Donald Trump is an annoying, spoiled, junior high circus clown, he also isn’t part of that elite herd of political chimpanzees. While I can’t bring myself to something resembling an endorsement, I do believe there’s a common sense rebellion afoot as represented by the Trump phenomenon, as represented by the Brexit vote in the UK. It’s confused and schizophrenic and irrational in many ways, but it’s pretty sick of the Ahabs and Jezebels running this joint. I’m not sure how godly a man Jehu was, but Elijah anointed him, and he was the violent wrecking ball God used to level the house of Omri. Something like that may be at work now.

Regardless, we need to keep getting off that train. Jump now. Get out. Get off the bus. This means that we need to welcome and love children like the treasures they are. The single most valuable created asset in the whole universe is people because people are made in the image of God. They carry within themselves the potential of God’s very own creativity, productivity, love, and goodness. Sin has sucked this power from our souls, but Jesus crushed sin on the cross and now Easter is on the rise. So welcome people. Welcome them into your family, welcome them into your home. Welcome them to your table. Love them. Don’t love them with a smarmy blandness. Love them with Christian love. Love them like God loved us in His Son. Love them fiercely. Love them truthfully. Love them with forgiveness piled up high. And then because you love them, teach them, disciple them, sharpen them, and let them sharpen you. Teach them to think hard. Teach them to sing the Psalms. Teach them to forgive. Teach them that in Jesus is everything they will ever possibly need.

And because you are committed to this task, you will not send your children to schools that cannot or will not state clearly what the difference is between a boy and a girl. Let this be your simple litmus test. If all of the teachers and administrators will not state clearly for the record that they can tell the difference between a boy and a girl, they are not qualified to teach your children anything. Get out, and don’t let them near the steering wheel while your children are in the car. There were likely many nice, Christian teachers and administrators in the Nazi school system, but that system was designed to train up little Nazis. The American public school system is a thorough catechetical program designed to train up little mindless drones. Of the sort I meet on the college campus all the time.

The thing is we don’t know exactly what is left of America at this point. It may be that the screaming chimps who are shoveling all the coal into the engine of the train will take America off the cliff with them. That’s God’s business, and if so, let them have it. But I believe that in God’s goodness He has poured particular gifts and glories into every nation on the face of the earth. This is why the nations are bringing their glory and honor into the New Jerusalem at the end of Revelation. I believe that America is one of those nations. Various American institutions and structures may carry on for many more years or not, but we have a choice to go along with the insanity or not.

It’s Independence Day, a good day to ask God whether you’ve been going along with any of the insanity. Don’t set your foot on a secular school campus, university campus, courthouse, legislative house, voting booth, shopping mall, movie theater, sports stadium, or any other public place without declaring war on all unbelief first. We don’t go there to be educated. We don’t go there to have a round table discussion. We don’t go there to be passively entertained. We aren’t on their train. If we go there, we go there as spies, we go there as rebels, we go there to take notes on the weaknesses in their defenses. We go there to take every thought captive to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

But mostly, we are answering the question we originally asked each and every day for ourselves. Our country, America, what is left of it? We answer this question by whether we get up and work hard with our hands, or whether we whine and complain about wages and envy our brothers. We answer this question by whether we love our wife and children, by how we care for the poor and hurting in our midst and around us. We answer this question by the faces around our dinner table, by the fact that we have a dinner table that we eat at together. We answer this question by whether we give thanks to God for the goodness He bestows each day. We answer this question by going to church every Sunday, and making sure that we go to a church that preaches the Bible and isn’t embarrassed by any of it. We answer this question by the compassion we show to our enemies, and by the willingness we have to stand up to them and tell them they are wrong. We answer this question by whether we will continue to go along with their charades, by whether we give up and throw the towel in because it’s just so hard and tiring. We are answering the question now. We are answering the question by what we look to for our source of strength and joy.

The first apostles had far less to go on than we do. But they knew that the resurrection of Jesus changed everything. And so it has.

So Happy 4th of July.

Foundations of Mercy & Mission #4: Children, Treasure, and Productivity

Ps. 127, Eph. 4:25-32, Mt. 25:14-30

Introduction

So far in this series, we have established that Christian mission flows from the assumption of God’s abundance. We ground our faith in that abundance by prioritizing the use of our time and resources in accordance with God’s word, specifically through obedience in Sabbath keeping and tithing. Last week, we asserted that the most valuable created resource in the universe is people. All sin is a form of waste and fraud, but sexual sin and confusion is a particularly heinous crime because it is against the image of God and drives much poverty, abuse, and addiction in our world. Jesus comes as our Bridegroom, our Kinsman Redeemer with living water to restore all of us, body and soul, to our full potential. Today, we pour another part of this slab by insisting that children are central to the mission of bringing Christ’s mercy to the world. Receiving and training children is not at odds with the task of making disciples of Jesus and but rather central to proclaiming repentance to all men.

Let the Little Children Come

It is a well known episode where the disciples are under the impression that children would be a distraction or get in the way of the mission of Jesus (Mt. 19:13-15, Mk. 10:13-16, Lk. 18:15-17). But Jesus disagrees. He says that the little children should be allowed to come to Him, and that His disciples should not do anything to hinder them (Mt. 19:14). Why would we want to bring children into a world with terrorism, racism, drug addiction, AIDS epidemics, orphans, disabled people, tyrannical government regimes, abortion, and homosexual and transgender perversions? Jesus began answering this question in the previous chapter in Matthew 18: Jesus said that little children are the greatest in the kingdom, and anyone who wants to enter the kingdom must become like them (Mt. 18:2-4). Likewise, He said that those who receive little children in His name, actually receive Him (Mt. 18:5). But those who hinder little children from coming to Jesus, those who cause them to sin, are at war with Jesus and therefore are under His judgment (Mt. 18:6-7). So we want to welcome children into our lives because we want to welcome Jesus into our life. His power and strength and greatness are especially revealed in children. So welcoming children is welcoming the power of Christ into our world.

Children as Treasure

This is what Solomon is talking about in Psalm 127. The song is about building houses and watching over cities, about laboring to be productive and successful in the world (Ps. 127:1-2). And the refrain is “if the Lord is not building…”, “if the Lord is not guarding…”, your building and guarding is worthless and empty. Solomon affirms our previous point about resting in the abundance of the Lord. But somewhat surprisingly, he then starts talking about children. In a song about building houses and guarding cities and working hard, Solomon says that children are an inheritance from the Lord; the fruit of the womb is His treasure (Ps. 127:3). Inheritance and treasures are what men invest to build houses and cities. Not only that but Solomon says that children are like arrows in the hand of a warrior. Notice that he does not say that children will one day be arrows. He says that they are arrows (present tense) (Ps. 127:4). And whereas our building and guarding and toiling without God is “empty,” Solomon says “happy is the man whose quiver is full of children” (Ps. 127:5). And just in case we think Solomon has changed the subject in some kind of subtle Hebraic sleight of hand, he closes by talking about confronting enemies in the city gates (Ps. 127:5). This psalm insists that children are central to building houses, guarding cities, laboring diligently, and confronting enemies. The implication is the same as what Jesus said explicitly: in receiving children we are welcoming the power of God into our homes and cities.

How Does This Work?

In Ephesians 4, Paul says that being a Christian means putting off the “old man” which is our old, futile, empty ways of thinking and living (Eph. 4:17-19). In Adam, human potential has plummeted. Sin and death suck the life out of men and women. But in Christ, men and women are being renewed, “after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:23-24). The image of God is the source of all human creativity, productivity, resourcefulness, and brilliance – and that is being renewed through Jesus Christ. The biblical word for this move from futility to productivity, from emptiness to fullness of life is repentance. Paul continues by illustrating what he means. The old man loves lies, so Christians must put off all falsehood. Lies breakdown trust and communication. Lies waste time and money, and are an insult to other image bearers. So Christians are to speak the truth (Eph. 4:25). Christians are not to be ruled by their anger; rather they must either kill it or address what needs to be addressed quickly (Eph. 4:26). And thieves must stop stealing. Theft is a failure to contribute your gifts and talents and treasures to the world and it dishonors the labors of others. In Christ, God turns the emptiness of theft into honest labor, and when men and women labor honestly with their own hands, they will always have at least a little to share with others. Christians are to build one another up with their words (Eph. 4:29), put away the emptiness and fruitlessness of bitterness and wrath, and put on kindness and forgiveness in Christ (Eph. 4:30-32). It turns out that welcoming children is welcoming people into your life who need to be trained up into this repentance. And when Christians do this honestly, these other people act as mirrors, revealing where you need repentance. This training requires you to see the children in your life as powerhouses of Christ’s presence. Children (and all people) are nuclear reactors of His glory.

Final Thoughts: How Are Children Arrows Now?

Children are arrows because they are disciples, and a church that welcomes and disciples them is a disciple-making church. This is why Christian education is so crucial. To the extent that we receive this mission with joy and apply ourselves to it, we are being given the resources we need to reach our neighbors with the gospel.

Children are arrows because they teach us that the best kind of “productivity” is often plodding, patient faithfulness. Children teach us to aim for the longview.

Children are arrows because they require us to deal with messes to the glory of God. This requires patience, hope, faith, and a good sense of humor.

Children are arrows because they are people we are in community with. Houses and cities are where communities gather. Our world needs this grace.

Reformation Out of Nowhere

In 2 Chronicles 29, Hezekiah leads the people of Judah in a great reformation. The center of the reformation is the restoration of worship in the temple: cleansing the temple, purifying the priests and levites, bringing the sacrifices, singing the songs of David and playing his musical instruments in praise to the Lord.

It’s all pretty astonishing especially given the last king, Ahaz. He had set up images to the Baals, burned his own children in fire, sacrificed on every hill and under every green tree, and stripped the temple of its treasures in order to bribe the nations around him. And when things were at their worst, Ahaz sacrificed to the gods of the nations that were afflicting him (2 Chron. 28:23). Ahaz closed the temple of the Lord, and he set up altars in every corner of Jerusalem to burn incense to the other gods.

And in the midst of this massive apostasy and confusion, Hezekiah comes to the throne, and he opens the doors of the Lord’s house and calls all the priests and levites, and says that he will renew the covenant with the Lord. And 2 Chronicles 29 ends with the understated line, “And Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, that God had prepared the people, for the thing was done suddenly.” The reformation seemed to come out of nowhere. One minute the temple was closed, children were being burned in the fires of false gods, and incense was being offered on every corner to idols, and the next minute, the temple was re-opened, cleansed, and sacrifices and praise were being offered to the Lord. It happened suddenly, but the Lord had prepared the people.

We live in a day not much different than the reign of Ahaz. Our rulers call evil good and good is called evil. Our children are offered on the altars of convenience and choice. We offer sacrifices to the very gods that afflict us. We cry foul when children are neglected and mistreated, and we insist that it is good and proper to chop them up into little pieces and sell their organs to the highest bidder. We cry foul when children are sexually abused, but we insist that perverse men be allowed to share locker rooms and bathrooms with our little girls. We claim to care about the poor and the needy, and yet we spend billions propping up the very industries that keep their faces pressed into the ground. We burn incense in every corner to the idols of our lust and envy and greed.

But we serve the living God, and He can move suddenly. And when He does, we will find that He had been preparing us. So we might as well get ready.

The Great Israelite Freakout

In Joshua 22, a rather tense scene unfolds when the children of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Mannasah return to their lands on the other side of the Jordan following the completion of the conquest of Canaan.

The two and half tribes return to their land and build an altar on the border of the Jordan River, and when the other tribes of Israel get wind of this they gather themselves together to go to war against them (Josh. 22:12).

I just want to point out that this is a glorious moment in the history of Israel, and specifically, it is a glorious moment for the unity of Israel. We need more of this kind of love in the Christian Church. Let me explain.

On the surface, you might be tempted to think of this as the great Israelite freakout — a massive overreaction, an example of legalism, being judgmental, belligerent, divisive, and so on. But that’s not how the writer presents the story. What unfolds is a controversy, full of hard questions, tense moments, but then faithfulness on both sides, the presence of God, and all indications of a deeper, sweeter unity.

Notice some of the details: when Israel hears something about their brothers that sounds bad, they are not indifferent (Josh 22:12). They care enough to prepare for the worst, and they go to their brothers (Josh. 22:13-14) and confront them directly (Josh. 22:15-18). The confrontation not only points out the apparent sin of their brothers but also offers a way of escape, indicating their good will (Josh. 22:19).

The two and half tribes respond with an oath of innocence before the Lord (Josh. 22:22) and recognize the justice of the military preparations if they have turned away from the Lord in any way (Josh. 22:22-23). The two and half tribes explain the purpose of the altar, somewhat courageously given that it (in part) prepares for the worst in the rest of Israel (Josh. 22:27-28).

Notice that both sides prepare for the worst, but do not allow their fears to cloud the truth. Either side could have been offended by the other side, but instead they believe one another’s good intentions. Nothing is said of whether Israel thought the altar of witness is a “good idea.” But they realize it was not done with any intention to turn away from the Lord, and that pleases them (Josh. 22:30-33).

It is in the midst of this controversy (with swords drawn) that the presence of God is known and by all appearances deeper respect and unity is cultivated. Having heard the explanation of the two and a half tribes, Phinehas says, “This day we perceive that the Lord is among us…” (Josh. 22:31).

The Bible has other important things to say about confrontation, like taking the log out of your own eye, like restoring erring brothers in a spirit of gentleness, but there is also something to be said about the kind of love that is direct, prepares for the worst, and is easily pacified. Unfortunately we live in an age of thin-skinned whiners who care more about their pride, their feelings, and their reputations than they do about the truth and honoring God. And I wonder how often we actually make things worse by tiptoeing around problems, assuming the best to a fault, and pretending we don’t notice, in the name of minding our own business, like those religious guys avoiding the body on the road to Jericho. The irony of course is that we often avoid the direct approach in the name of preserving unity, and then when the gangrene of fear and suspicion has settled in deep, we wonder where the unity went.

The Bond of Perfectness

1 Cor. 13 & Col. 3:14-20

In the reading from Colossians Paul says, “Above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Col. 3:14). Paul has just finished telling the Colossians to put on compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, and forgiveness. In some ways it might seem kind of redundant to say, above all these things put on love. What else is there? Aren’t kindness and patience and forgiveness already love? Maybe Paul meant to say, ‘and that’s what love is.’ Of course elsewhere, as in the 1 Corinthians reading, he does: Love is patient. Love is kind. That much is true, but here, Paul seems to say a little more. He says that there is another dimension to love. Love is patient. Love is kind. But love also binds everything together in perfect harmony; as the old King James puts it, love is the bond of perfectness.

This suggests that love is strategic. Love sees the big picture. Love sees the situation and knows what is called for. Love is thoughtful and careful. This is different than what our culture tells us, which says that love is thoughtless. Love is impulsive. Love, we are told, just happens to you, like chicken pox, like the flu – there’s nothing you can do about being “love sick.” There’s no cure, only giving in to your heart’s desire, even if what your heart wants is bad for you and harmful to others.

In fact, Paul says we are to “put on love.” The Bible teaches that love is something you can and must choose. And think about all the other things love is: patient, kind, thinking the best, keeping no record of wrongs, forgiving. That kind of love is rarely spontaneous and instinctive. You have to choose to be those things, to do those things. Our instinct is to be impatient, unkind, fear the worst, keep a long record of wrongs, and hold grudges. Our instinct is the opposite of love.

The Bible also says you can even do good things without love. You can speak with a tongue like an angel, and without love, your words will sound like a junior high marching band. You can have enormous faith and understand mysteries, but without love, your faith and understanding are worthless. You can give generously to the poor, and without love, Paul says it is nothing.

But this thoughtfulness does not mean we must be passionless prudes. The God who made us male and female did not create us to be merely reasoning brains traveling about in these strange shells we call bodies. No, God Himself, though He has no body like ours, is the perfection of passion as well. He does not change. His feelings do not fluctuate. But God’s love is full of passion. When His presence passed before Moses on Mt. Sinai, He proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin…” (Ex. 34:6-7) Or David sings, “How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings” (Ps. 36:7). And again, “But I will sing of your strength; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress” (Ps. 59:16). And it is this same steadfast love that has been at work through the centuries saving men from evil and sin: “Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses…” (Eph. 1:4-7). Or the apostle John: “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us… In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 Jn. 3:16, 4:10).

The love of God is steadfast. The love of God is patient, kind, forgiving, compassionate, and it culminates in the death of His Son for the sins of the world. In God’s love we see the perfect union of premeditated love with authentic passion. God’s love isn’t stoic. It isn’t a caustic calculation, as though we are some kind of bargain, as though we are worth it. But notice that while God’s love is constant and steadfast and passionate, it isn’t mindless or thoughtless. It is supremely mindful and thoughtful. Before the foundation of the world, God determined to adopt us as his sons through Jesus Christ, and that determination to adopt us included making us completely holy and blameless through the blood of Jesus taking away our sins. The love of God takes into account all that we need to become holy and blameless. The love of God in Christ took into account all that you would need to be Kiersten’s husband, and all that you would need to be Charlie’s wife. God’s love is thoughtful and passionate: love is the bond of perfection. It binds everything together in perfect harmony. It sees the big picture, and it gladly bleeds for a better future.

Charlie, it’s in this context that Paul tells husbands to love their wives and warns them not to be harsh with them. Men can be harsh with their wives in at least two ways: sometimes they are harsh directly, actively speaking harshly, acting harshly, without gentleness, without honoring and valuing their wife. But sometimes men are harsh through neglect and passivity. A man who ignores his wife is also being harsh. He may not be saying anything or think he’s doing anything to her, but he’s still being harsh – harsh like a famine, harsh like a drought, harsh like loneliness, and death. Both forms of harshness are supreme forms of waste. God is giving you a woman today. She is made in God’s image, and if you love her in imitation of God’s love to us in Christ, she will become even more glorious than she is today. Frequently men are harsh because they are afraid of actually loving their wives because real love, true love means imitating God’s love, laying your life down, dying to your own desires, letting your personal dreams bleed out for her ultimate good. So Charlie, my charge to you today is to put on love, which binds everything together in harmony. If you want your kindness to count, if you want your generosity to count for something, then you have to do it for love, which is to say that you must conspire to see Kiersten holy and blameless in the sight of God. Today, God is giving you the mission of loving Kiersten into the most holy woman you know. This is the love you are called to put on today, and as you put this love on, God will bind you together with Kiersten in perfect harmony.

Kiersten, Paul exhorts wives to submit themselves to their husbands, as it is fitting in the Lord. There’s a positive and negative aspect to this duty. On the negative side, there’s a limitation to your submission, guarded by the Lord himself. A husband’s authority is no more absolute than a police officer or a supreme court justice. Those are true positions of authority, but we submit ourselves to all human authorities, as it is fitting in the Lord. This is why when Daniel heard about the king’s decree to forbidden any prayer offered to any god but him, Daniel went home and cheerfully disobeyed the king and prayed to the God of Israel. Likewise, a husband who attempts to lead his wife away from Jesus must be cheerfully refused. Kiersten, you are responsible before God to only submit to your husband as is fitting in the Lord. But on the positive side, Paul says that when a wife follows the lead of her husband, this is fitting in the Lord. Today, the Lord is giving you this man and not a different man. This is part of God’s love for you. He is not tricking you. He is blessing you. The Bible does not teach that women submit to all men in general. No, before God, men and women are complete equals in dignity and honor, both being made in the image of God. But in marriage one woman freely submits herself to one man, receiving his hand from the Lord as an opportunity to demonstrate God’s love. So today, God is giving you Charlie, this man, with his strengths, his interests, and capacities and possibilities that are not yet even fully known. As you give yourself to Charlie, as you submit to his lead in the Lord, this is your ministry to him, causing him to grow in holiness and wisdom. Charlie needs this from you. This is your assignment from the Lord beginning today: honor this man, follow this man, lay your life down for this man, so that he may become the most godly man you know. As you put this love on for your husband, respecting him, following his lead, God will bind you together with Charlie in perfect harmony.

In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.