Hasten To The Word of God

PRIDE AND ALLOWING OURSELVES TO BE BESTED

 

 

Prov. 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.

Prov. 26:18 ‘And after all this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.19 I will break the pride of your power; I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze.20 And your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit.

 

Pride is something I’ve pretty much always avoided talking about. It’s not that I think I am so proud and dare not discuss it. Rather I know that I am like most humans and have a natural tendency toward pride from time to time. We generally do some small bit of exulting when we do well, because really we know we are not all that great. We feel good when we accomplish something. The real problem comes when it gets out of balance and we don’t exult in others when they do well or when we don’t give space for them to do well. And that is the point I wish to discuss today.

Leviticus is kind of scary on this subject. God must always be first. God is love and when we keep Him first we love well. When God is not first we love poorly and slip into different kinds of destruction, one being pride. When we walk in God’s Love as we should, God’s Holy Spirit rains on us and we produce the fruit of the Spirit and the anointing of the Spirit flows through us upon others. The peace of God falls upon us, we praise and honor God and rejoice in Him.

When we get off track and give ourselves the credit justly due to God, Leviticus says God will break the pride of our power and life gets hard around us. We know that life around us can be hard anyway. So, the idea that God would make life harder when we take honor upon ourselves is just scary. But the truth is that we humans do it to some degree all the time.

One area I am thinking of this morning is that of churches and leadership. The world teaches us that leaders are supposed to be better than others. Certainly, leaders need to be accomplished to some degree in order to be able to lead others somewhere. Too often I have seen this taken to the point of control. If we control who serves around us and only allow ministry to those who won’t in our opinion do better than us, then we can maintain our position of leadership. If we just don't give opportunities to others to grow, we can prevent them from possibly doing better than us. This is an issue of pride and fear. Keeping this attitude will make life hard around us. It will also make life difficult for those seeking to mature and gain experience in their Spiritual giftings. And that doesn’t please God who loves us all and wants all of us to be released into the fullness of our callings.

Speaking practically, men do this to women, and then women do it to each other. Men and women who believe that only men are to be leaders and teachers or preachers often become inwardly furious when they see women besting them in some area of church leadership. So, they begin to work to prevent and control these women. Pastors and church leaders will do this when they watch someone preaching a better sermon or teaching better. They feel that their position of superiority is being challenged. So, they simply will refuse to honor or encourage that person in those things giving them fewer opportunities. This is the ugly side of pride. And we will sense the heavens becoming like a wall of iron and the earth like a wall of bronze in being immovable. We will be stuck and either go backwards or simply not move forward.

One of the errors in this is thinking that in order to serve well leaders must do better than those around them. In general they should have a certain degree of competency. Men who think men must be leaders, think they must know more than women. Really men just need to give their strengths, whatever they are, to serving those around them. Being concerned over who is doing better than whom is not an option. In this way anointed leaders can allow themselves to be ministered to by whomever God sends. The best leader releases those around them into ministry and service so much so that eventually he or she will be surpassed in excellence from time to time. This has the potential to blossom into amazing Spiritual ministry and growth.

But pride will stop it all, pitting one against another, shutting down the wind of God’s Spirit. Let us instead concentrate on opening doors for others to do well and rejoicing with them when they do.  So, if you suddenly get a lot of bananas, share some.   :)

 

 

IS BIBLE COLLEGE BAD FOR CHRISTIANS

For the past several years I keep hearing whispers by spiritual minded Christians that Bible learning and schooling in Bible colleges is bad for Christians. The idea is that somehow too much learning hinders one from hearing the Holy Spirit influence our minds and hearts. In addition to that we hear that all one needs is a good memory and the clear words of the Scripture will be sufficient.

First a few words from a friend about rightly dividing the words of Scripture as 2 Timothy 2:15 says we should do.

“When I come upon a baffling passage or set of passages, it is an indicator that I need to dig deeper, seeking more context. The whole Bible is inspired by the Spirit, but a human is limited in what they can hold in their mind at one time. If I am given a few jigsaw puzzle pieces and am informed that they are part of a larger picture, yet I cannot get them to fit together, I suspect I need to look for more pieces.”

What my friend is describing is inductive study. Inductive study has to do with reasoning into. I like to think of it as leaving the Scriptures in their Biblical context and see the meaning from within Scripture. The opposite is deductive study, which means to deduce from one’s own thinking. In other words if we take a Scripture out of the context and reason from that particular set of words it’s meaning, that is deducing. Deductive study can and does create a barrage of ideas according to the thinking of different people with different ideas and experiences. What Christians desperately need to do is to do inductive study, leaving the Scriptures in their context and finding the meaning from the context of the book they are written in as well as the entire Bible.

I am fairly certain that all Bible Colleges have courses on how to properly study the Bible outlining exactly how to do inductive, contextual Bible study. This is essential for everyone and in my opinion pastors, preachers, and Bible study teachers should have the training to be instructing Christians how to do that. It would indeed cut in half the amount of dissension in the Body of Christ. Instead we have a large number of untrained, uninformed, opinionated Christians following believers who talk the loudest and sound spiritual. And often these people like to say that college almost always shuts down a person’s ability to hear the Holy Spirit leading and guiding us.

However, there is a believer in Scripture that was a diligent Torah observant Jew, who was trained by the most famous Hebrew teacher of that era 2000 years ago.  Gamaliel was the grandson of the famous Jewish teacher Hillel the Elder. Almost any Hebrew book or set of Torah translations will have notes by Hillel. Gamaliel, influenced in his studies by his grandfather Hillel, became famous for his knowledge and understanding of the Torah and writings. He became a leading authority in the Sanhedrin in the time of the early church. Paul of Tarsus who wrote a large part of the New Testament letters is the believer who was instructed by Gamaliel. In fact, Gamaliel even defended Paul and the apostles when the Jewish High Court, the Sanhedrin, wanted to kill Paul and the apostles. [i]

Now Paul, a highly trained student of the Scriptures, used his training and knowledge to impart understanding of God’s Word. Anyone who thinks the Holy Spirit did not inspire him is being foolish at best. Paul is one of the best examples of using our minds and hearts to understand God’s messages to us. Paul extensively used examples from the Torah and writings. He praised the Bereans who searched the Scriptures to see if what they heard were true. [ii]

Reading in ontext also means to read before and after the verse one is reading. Often the writers set the stage for a point. If we read before,  we may see what he was thinking about. Reading after may give us some further clarity. Sometimes we best see the picture by reading the whole epistle or story and then go back and note all the elements. Not doing these things is how one gets odd and often antiBiblical concepts and teachings.

If more believers learned how to effectively search the Scriptures we would have less divisions in the Body of Christ today. And we would have far fewer injustices being proclaimed as God’s ways. Searching the Scriptures does not mean only doing a search on one word and compiling Scriptures into a teaching. Believers need to learn what it means to read in context. One compelling picture of “context” is to put oneself in the authors’ cultural setting and to hear as if one were there at their feet listening. This would include a picture of life in that era, knowledge of the things they might experience and insight on what was happening around them. It would also include some degree of understanding that the language we read Scripture in was not the language spoken by the apostles of the New Testament or the writers of the Old Testament. We read a translation. Thus, sometimes it really does help to find a means of understanding something of the original words used, whether going to a book (or app) written by some studious college trained person, or by seeking out a linguist. Just as the Holy Spirit used Paul with all his training and knowledge, so we can be not only helped in our studies by the Holy Spirit, but also directed by the Holy Spirit through our studies. College training need not get in the way.

Training and/or degrees from Christian institutions of higher education does not get in the way of hearing the Holy Spirit speak to our spirit. Rather if submitted to the Lord, our learning will amplify our ability to hear.

 

[i] Acts 5:27-42, [ii] Bereans Acts 17:11

 

 

 

3 Wheels of a Church

A wheel in a wheel in a wheel.  

 

Last night in a vision with insight I saw a wheel in a wheel in a wheel describing how a church body works together.  The good success and even the bad success depends on whether or not at least two wheels operate together.  If there is no wheel but only a hub, then all we see is potential.  The hub is the potential core group of a church.  One person is a beginning with a promise not the fulfillment. A healthy hub is 5 men and women, three will end up crippling the hub into a power struggle. God is able to work in a trinity because they are all of the same essence, power and will.  The design for the building up of a church body is a five fold ministry in which all have the same goal, all working together with the same harmonious unity.  It is not necessary for the five fold ministries to be singular, such as one ministry calling for each person.  In real life believers generally weave two or 3 types of callings into one, with one primary.  Then when these men and women are joined together in a hub there is available all the ministries with the attached gifting of the Spirit, and the ministries interweave supporting and giving strength.  That kind of a hub is powerful. It is powerful when each believer is respected, honored, encouraged and released into their callings and gifts.  Generally the one with an apostolic calling is the fulcrum of the nucleus.  But without the interworking of the other five ministries, life is minimal and cannot grow.  

It is necessary to have some understanding of the five fold ministries.  They are life callings, not gifts or grace effects of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  Of course those personal callings will grow and must have the support of whatever gifts the Holy Spirit chooses to equip them. Ephesians 4:11 tells us that Jesus Himself personally calls those in the fivefold ministries.

The first wheel around the hub is the beginning of the life of the Body of the church group.  It is composed of those who are supported, encouraged and held together by the core group.  Jesus painted a picture of service and leadership in Matt. 20:25-28 in which Jesus suffers death (came to give His life for us) and came to serve and support life in others.  This is how life is brought forth. If the core group in strong unity does not call forth, encourage other's (outside the core) into service themselves, then there is no life, only the potential for life. The first wheel is composed of elders and deacons.  These are people who desire to work in the ministry of the church and who join "hands" with the core like the spokes of a wheel.  They must be individuals with good character, mature in Christ. My understanding is that elders are more mature individuals having been in Christ longer, who hold enough wisdom and example to be good role models for new believers. Deacons do not need to be older or as mature, but must be as dedicated to serve.  But they must have something to contribute.  Elders may not have a life calling to teach or evangelize but they must be able to do so on some level. There must be wisdom learned from being a long time believer. The deacons are often the ones who faithfully keep up the daily work of worship, Sunday morning services, keeping up the church grounds, kitchen service, helping in all areas of the daily needs of the church.  All must be ready and willing to faithful lift up a body of believers in prayer.

A church can be strong even though small with this one hub and one wheel.  The second wheel are those who come supporting the ministry of that church.  Many churches have a crippled hub and a crippled first wheel, or even no first wheel, only the second wheel which is those who attend.  That is like a wheel with missing spokes and missing spots on the wheel.  Those who attend need the personal support of dedicated spiritually anointed elders and deacons.  They are the hands that reach out in the personal lives of believers to fill in the areas the hub/core cannot reach or fulfill.

Throughout this picture of interlocking wheels attached to a center hub must be men and women with not only a true commitment to Jesus as savior and Lord but the hub and the first wheel need to be dedicated believers who have the anointing of the Holy Spirit working in their lives.  If we only have one gender in the hub and in the first wheel, then the church is imbalanced. And since the one gender is usually male, the imbalance is usually one of authoritarianism. But that imbalance can happen even with a good mixed group and must be diligently guarded against.  If we have true believers in these places but who have not been baptized in the Holy Spirit then we are imbalanced and flesh will work against the Spirit.  

 

This is the vision and the insight I saw.  I will update as I see things I may have missed.

The FIVE FOLD MINISTRIES in Eph. 4

In Ephesians chapter four Paul talks about gifts that God gives to the church.  There are only four places in the New Testament where this Greek word doma, translated as ‘gifts’ is used.  In Matthew 7 and Luke 11 Jesus talks about fathers giving good presents to their children.  In Philippians 4:17 Paul talks about monetary giving and aid for his traveling necessities. Basically, the word means a present, something given voluntarily without expecting payment in return to show favor or give help to another.

In Ephesians 4, this word is used in reference to Jesus giving the church individuals who would be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.  There are those who think that this is an hierarchical listing of ministries.  But Jesus never thought in terms of hierarchies.  In Matthew chapter 20 Jesus admonished the Thunder Brothers, James and John, not to think in terms of authority, but to think in terms of serving others. And Paul spent a total of 13 years alone with God seeking personal and specific instructions from Jesus after Jesus stopped him on the road to Damascus.   In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul listed the ministries as: Apostles, Prophets, Teachers and Workers of Miracles.  These are two lists tweeked differently.  And I trust that Paul knew what he was talking about.  The question is, do we.

The spiritual word that God woke me up with this morning was that these lists were also not categories cleanly divided from each other. I kinda already knew that but the Holy Spirit was giving me an expanded view. These were areas of focus that would result in building up the body of Christ.  They were also not restricted to one locale.  Even those with a pastor’s heart and ministry can travel and minister to other churches effectively. Pastors are not limited to a specific physical place or group of people as much as we think they are.  Some are, but not all. 

 Also, most often people with God’s callings on their lives are associated with more than one of these descriptions.  Conversely, sometimes people need more than one shepherd’s influence or more than one teachers insights, and more than one prophet’s insights and encouragement, and more than one apostles admonitions for unity, and more than one miracle worker and healing ministry’s prayers and insights, and so forth.  When we think of it that way, it just makes sense.

Thus, the ‘fivefold ministries’ are not limited to five AND they are not cleanly divided from one another in ministry. They are not divided from each other in focus but are often linked in different ways. Some individuals have ministries of prophetic teaching, or apostolic shepherding, or teaching evangelists, or teaching miracle workers, or, or, or.  The list of possibilities is huge.

Those in these callings are not limited to specific physical locations but may travel.  Traveling between churches and locations only makes sense because these people are God’s GIFTS to the whole body.  The person is the gift, not the ministry.  The ministry is God’s workings into the lives of the believer the things that God wants him or her to impart to the Body of Christ.  And just a word of caution here.  These people must grow into their callings with the associated manifestations of the Holy Spirit.  They are not bombed with perfection. The Holy Spirit must work their callings into the person.  It is a process just like sanctification.

This is why several of the New Testament writers admonished us to pray for our leaders, and to pray for everyone.  After all, most people are not really aware of who God is raising up to minister to them.    So, just to be on the safe side we pray for those we know are called, for those we don’t know, and then for all our fellow believers.  But be specially attentive to support, honor, respect, assist and encourage those we know have a calling of any sort on their lives. 

Individuals that Jesus calls, He equips.  That equipping sometimes starts even before they accept Christ as their Savior.  In other words, they may have a lifetime of experiences of learning in preparation for when they come into the rulership of God and Jesus tells them what He wants them to do.  Jesus uses the very lives of these individuals.  That is why they are themselves the gifts to the church.

 

 

Note:  previously wrote on this subject here: http://tiro3.typepad.com/spoudazo_logos_blog/2014/02/the-fivefold-ministries-gods-gifted-people.html

Male Dominance and the Honor Shame Social Paradigm

 

 

 

Ancient Roman and Asian societies were honor and shame societies. Their lives revolved around who was honored and who wasn’t. There were two main sources of honor: ascribed and achieved. Ascribed honor was your roots, where you came from, your family, your family achievements (wealth, reputation, etc.). Achieved honor had to do with your personal successes and achievements.

Aristotle, a student of Socrates (and considered a genius), developed the social construction of a society whose citizens were the wealthy and noble born men. It is interesting that Aristotle ignored Plato’s more liberal ideas of women (the Greeks liked Plato’s ideas) and chose to view them as completely inferior. A man could become noble by his achievements as well. If one was not male, noble born or from wealth then that person was not considered honorable enough to sit in discussion and planning of the social issues or sit in judgment of law issues. People of this background could not become  leaders. Many well-known and educated men throughout history used this same or similar pattern of thinking including Calvin and Luther. Thus the Rabbis and Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day were greatly influenced by Socrates (469BC-399BC), Plato (424BC-347BC) and Aristotle (384BC-322BC)

Women could be considered noble born by reason of their family status and family achievements. However, because women were considered physically inferior and incapable of the physical and mental challenges that men exchanged between themselves, the primary honor they could gain was in serving their fathers and husbands and in certain personal feminine achievements, primarily the arts.

Men sought to perpetuate their own honor by marrying women who could continue their own nobility, wealth, and good family bloodlines. This is why few men in those times (including the days of Jesus and the early church) thought it of any consequence to love their wives. They married to perpetuate their public honor and continue an honorable bloodline. The majority of society was scrambling in a “quiet” way to outdo each other. And in these struggles women fell to the wayside. These were the issues of women and marriage that Paul so delicately, indirectly and brilliantly spoke into in Ephesians 5. According to Mischke, it is a common theme of the honor/shame way of thinking to speak indirectly. This way one can be directed, direct others and correct oneself without shame of error or failure. It is commonly called “saving face” in Eastern cultures today. And this I believe is what Paul was doing in Ephesians 5 and in 1 Cor. 11:2-16.

It is my belief that the entire system of male dominance we deal with in the church today is built around these ancient paradigms. The hierarchalists don’t say outright that women cannot be leaders and cannot be equal partners with their husbands because women are inferior mentally and physically. But they do say it indirectly and cleverly.

In Jesus’ day and in the early church, the challenge Jesus’ Truth brought to the Pharisees’ power and authority was so feared, so destructive to their (may I say evil) paradigm of honor and shame that they sought to kill Jesus. And they also sought to kill Christ’s disciples before and after Christ’s death and resurrection. God’s Truth brings equality, mutuality, and true compassion, support and help to become like Jesus in humility. These things, especially humility, do not walk well with a scrambling for honor.

The vociferous responses of the hierarchalist male dominance crowd to the teachings of mutuality, is very similar to the attempts by the Pharisees to destroy Jesus and His disciples. We have difficulty getting along because we not only speak different languages but our approaches are opposite. Those believing in equality want to speak more directly. Those in the honor shame paradigms speak their beliefs indirectly so that one has to interpret and guess at what is really being said. Hence the “equal but different” mantra that is really not about equality at all. But they speak their anger boldly and harshly because mutuality threatens their social systems.

Paul chose to be all things to all that some may be won for the kingdom. (1 Cor. 10:31-33) Thus he spoke indirectly in most instances. Christ chose to do both fairly equally. In many instances He strongly rebuked the Pharisees who were constantly challenging him critically and in judgmentalism, and in other instances Jesus wove His answers and directions in metaphors and stories.

My hope is that considering these things we may all (including myself) better learn how and in what circumstances we can respond both directly and indirectly toward the issues of male hierarchies in today’s churches in hopes of bringing and living the humility of honoring all believers.

What say you . . . . . .

Sources:

Honor & Shame in Cross Cultural Relationships by Werner Mischke
Honor & Shame in the Gospel of Matthew by Jerome Neyrey
When Dogmas Die by Susanna Krizo
Woman in Greek Civilization Before 100BC by Arthur F. Ide

 

The FiveFold Ministries - God's Gifted People

It is an unfortunate truth the most Christians today read the Bible in words and not in word pictures and concepts.  Writers and speakers speak from the pictures that God puts in our minds.  The words are the colors that the authors paint to reform the pictures and concepts in their heads so that others might see in their minds what the authors and speakers are seeing. It is not easy to do.  We understand best when we hear and read in principles and concepts or in stories by setting the scene up in our minds eye.  The misinformation comes when people read in merely words.  Words can mean different things to different people.  And words can be rearranged in the hearers and readers minds like building blocks taken apart and reformed into a new building.  

When we rightly divide the words of Scripture, instead of rebuilding them into our desires or the answers we seek, we seek the purpose of the authors who wrote them, taking into consideration the era they lived in, the cultures, the idiosyncrasies of the time, word meanings, grammar and the subject matter or story spoken about.

 

Thus we come to the fivefold ministries mentioned in Ephesians 4:11-13.  This bit of insight Paul was sharing about starts out in verses 1-5 where Paul is drawing our attention to the Body of Christ as one whole.  We all as one united family have the same Holy Spirit, the same Savior, faith and birth through belief and baptism.  We are united to God as our father (generator, parent) through Christ.  And to this one body of people Christ apportioned grace among us,  and gave gifts.  In this discussion the gifts that were given (and are still being given today) are people, not the spiritual manifestations of the Holy Spirit mentioned elsewhere.  These are people that Christ has chosen to send us with specific callings upon their lives. You see the words in verse 11 “so Christ Himself gave”.  And then in verse 12 the purpose of calling, sending and equipping these individuals was to build up this one Body into maturity. Mature believers help keep the Body united together in compassion for each other,  and attached to Christ as our Lord and Savior. 

 

These individuals as gifts are not called by churches but by Christ Himself for God’s purposes. And generally these anointed people have lifelong callings and Christ sends them where He wants them.  Sometimes they stay in one place as some of the apostles did.  Sometimes they move around as several of the apostles did.  But whatever they do they are beholden to follow the call of God our Father, Christ and the Holy Spirit.  

 

Now the type of callings they had on their lives Paul outlines in five general themes:  apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers.  The first thing to understand is that these individuals do not live or relate in a hierarchy.  The apostle does not direct the prophet, the prophet does not direct the evangelist, the evangelist does not direct the pastor/shepherd, the pastor does not direct the teacher. They are a team of people that work together to serve the purposes and plans of God.  They do have different areas of activities.  Often they will work together to address similar goals, but coming from different angles. One other thing they have in common is that they all teach. 

 

Apostles teach to draw, organize and keep people together. Apostles often start different types of ministries as God leads them. They will often travel frequently to find believers and organize them into groups to mature together as a church/ecclesia. Prophets teach the mind and purposes of God (in past and present) as well as reveal the Scriptures and present/future predictions. Prophets reveal God’s heart and purposes as the Holy Spirit gives them timely relevant words, visions, dreams, etc. Evangelists teach to reveal our need of God and help new believers stay in Christ. Evangelists have a sense of explaining God’s work of salvation that is easy for non believers and new believers to comprehend and follow.  Shepherds teach to draw people deeper in their relationship with the Lord.  Shepherds are like guardians who keep watch, go after us when we are suffering, supporting and encouraging as a parent. Teachers are like scholars who are in love with the Truth and search the Scriptures daily in order to share the wonders of the truths that God shares therein. They teach us how to rightly divide the Word of God, and point us always back to Scripture as God’s help to keep us walking towards Him.

 

It is also important to note that some individuals are combination ministries.  An apostle could also be anointed in any other of the called ministries, such as an apostle/prophet.  We could have an evangelist/pastor.  Any of the called ministries could also be an anointed teacher.  Often today we have shepherd/teachers either as a pastor or as a teacher (teacher/shepherd).  Being a called shepherd actually doesn't mean that such a person is a modern pastor of a church.  He or she could start, organize and manage any number of service ministries in the world. In the same way that todays missionaries do a wide variety of services, so can an anointed individual in one or several of the fivefold ministries be led of God to do a variety of services in churches and around the world.

 

This team of anointed and called believers should be working together all over the world.  In fact, that is something that Loren Cunningham sought to encourage in his establishment of Youth With A Mission.  They minister in many varied capacities all over the world.  But the ideal is that God's anointed individuals should work together first in their own churches, then in cooperating churches and ministries in the same city or town, and then all over the world as God leads.  Some stay local and some roam abroad.  But the main thing is that we should work together because we are indeed in God's eyes, One Body in Christ our Lord and Savior.

The Fallacy of the Firstborn Right of Leadership

There is a long time popular fallacy and misinterpretation of Scripture that declares only males can be public leaders because the male was created first in the record of Genesis.

Recently, one of our Bible Study groups had the privilege of reading through the book of Genesis.  One of several things that stood out was that God never choose the first born to be leaders.  God always choose the one whose heart and intent was righteous.  Put these very clear facts of history together with the other glaring omission of God ever stating that the first born had leadership rights, and we see that this concept is man made and inserted into the interpretation of what is said in Genesis.  It is also inserted into the interpretation of what Paul said in 1 Timothy 2. 

What God did say in Genesis is that it was not good for the human to be alone.  This had nothing to do with authority or leadership, but aloneness. AFTER the man discovered what God already knew, that there was no one LIKE him (not different than), God proceeded to take of the man’s own essence and reform and refine it into the only one who was like the human enough to allay his aloneness — another human, but female. All of this had nothing whatsoever to do with the females fitness for leadership because God gave humanity, not male humans, the responsibility of leadership over the creation. The ability to compassionately lead, guide, protect and direct to promote life is part of the image of God that all humans share. Some are more gifted than others. But it is not imparted by being born first. It was imparted to all humans by the supernatural hand of our Creator. 

 

 

Kevin Giles review of a recent Equal and Complementary seminar

The following link is to a google article by well known scholar Kevin Giles who calls himself a non-hierarchical complementarian (I consider myself the same).  In this article Giles is critiquing the teachings of some hierarchical complementarians who claim an interpretation of Scripture that is gender biased toward male dominance in church and home.  I find Giles review of their seminar very informative.

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B58yzgL3ovUUZmFiNTMyMjktOTg2MS00YWRlLTljOTktYjE4YjgxM2M5YTFm&sort=name&layout=list&num=50

I will be interested in any questions and comments regarding what Giles has to say on this.

Be Willing to Be Persuaded

Hebrews Chapter 13 is an interesting chapter. It reminds the reader to look, observe, remember, and apply good proper behavior to ones life. Verses 7-9 and 17-18 are the tied together perhaps book-ending what is in-between, somewhat defining how we approach and apply what we are observing and remembering.

Verse 7 tells us to remember those who lead us in teaching the Scriptures. Remembering has already been admonished in verse 3 as part of letting brotherly love continue, which is closed with verse 5’s admonition to let our conduct by without covetousness. So, remembering has already been tied with observing so as to adjust our own behavior towards godliness.

OK, so the implications are that we are to remember and observe our leaders, but we are not to following their teachings (further defined in verse 9) until we consider the outcome of their conduct. In other words we must observe how they live out their teachings, consider its ramifications before wholeheartedly taking it into our own behavior. This carefulness in following what our leaders teach is emphasized by mentioning that Christ (who is Truth embodied) is the same and does not change, AND that we must not be carried away by strange teachings. Our hearts must be established on grace, we must eat the spiritual foods that profit our soul. One way to see that is by observing how teachings (and we must agree that the body of Christ has many diverse teachings) flesh out in the lives of those who teach and believe them.

Then in verse 17 we have an interesting word that had it been translated better (difficult word though) I believe it would read: “be willing to be persuaded by your leaders and be submissive …..”. The Greek word for “obey” (upakouo) is not there. Instead we have peithomai or a derivative.

The Greek word (3982) "peitho" means:

1) persuade
a) to persuade, that is, to induce one by words to believe
b) to make friends of, to win one's favor, to gain one's good will, or to seek to win one, to strive to please one
c) to tranquilize
d) to persuade unto, that is, to move or induce one to persuasion to do something
2) be persuaded
a) to be persuaded, to suffer oneself to be persuaded; to be induced to believe: to have faith (in a thing)
1) to believe
2) to be persuaded of a thing concerning a person
b) to listen to, to obey, to yield to, to comply with
3) to trust, to have confidence, to be confident

In Classical Greek students were taught that the fundamental meaning of the word pietho was to persuade (in the active voice), or be persuaded (in the passive, or middle voice).This is not claiming that this verb can never be translated obey, but is saying that even in those cases, the word likely has overtones of doing such and such BECAUSE one is persuaded. In the New Testament the idea of persuasion and related ideas are frequently present when the verb is used, as in the very next verse, Hebrews 13:18, with the idea of confidence (because one is persuaded).

Thus, we have this whole section closing with the idea of being willing, allowing for the possibility of, being persuaded of what is being taught by our leaders. And how do we allow them to persuade us, by observing and remembering how they live out their beliefs. This is further drummed in by verse 18 which says that we are to pray for the author(s) of the epistle (implying leaders and teachers perhaps) because they are living honorably in a good conscience.

It is unfortunate that many have helicoptered verse 7 and 17 out of the context of this chapter and used it to demand that the laity give somewhat blind obedience to their clergy rather than properly separating honor and respect from blind obedience. We are to honor and respect those who have dedicated their lives to serve the body of Christ but we are to follow what proves to be truth, both by searching the Scriptures (Acts 17:10-12) and by observing how they live what they teach.

In Conclusion: the implication of verses 7-9 and 17-19 are to test what is being said against real life (the real life of the leaders living out their beliefs) , in order to not be led about by strange doctrines. Sometimes, it’s difficult to tell what our leaders really mean until we see how they apply it in their lives. This of course does not mean we ONLY follow our leaders, and do not read Scripture and through prayer and research figure things out for ourselves. We must keep our hearing tuned like donkeys ears swivel to grab the sound, so that we eagerly take in what is being said by our leaders respecting their sincere devotion to God and Scripture. Observing, how they live out their beliefs is another way to fine tune what they believe. But, it is imperative that we only trust Scripture as the final authority and like the Bereans search the Scriptures to see if what is being said is really in Scripture and as described by our leaders. 

I believe that when we do this, when we are diligent to hear, willing to be persuaded, diligent to research the Scriptures for ourselves like the Bereans, we will experience a deeper inner walk with God.

Spiritual Growth - A Word For The Body

Here is a simple thought:  We are meant to experience God more today and tomorrow than we have in the past.

Have you ever tried to describe a beautiful sunset to a man or woman born blind?  Words don’t do justice do they? It is exceedingly difficult to describe something that we have no information to compare it to.   It is with the same difficulty that Christians try to describe God to the unbeliever.  Every human is born spiritually blind outside of the Garden of Eden where humanity first walked with God the creator of sunsets and sunrises.  It is difficult to describe spiritual life to one who is living in spiritual death.

 

Every believer by some miracle steps out of spiritual death into spiritual life.  But it is a process that only God can accomplish in our lives one veil at a time, just like the process of the removal of sin from our lives.  It doesn’t all happen at once.

 

There are four general areas that promote spiritual growth and all the healing and deliverance it brings with it:  worship, prayer, Christian community, and Bible Study

 

Worship is adoration of God and should happen not only on Sunday mornings in our singing but frequently in our daily communication with God , for God is looking for those who will worship Him in Spirit and Truth.  (John 4:23).  We should praise Him for the intricate patterns of the spider’s web , the beauty of the tiger’s eyes, the sound of the rain falling…..  as well as so much more goodness He is responsible for in our lives.

 

Prayer is our intimate communication with our Creator, Lord and friend in whose image we were created.  It should be composed of many things.  We ask for the things we think we need with humble petitions and often forget to laugh and share our wonderments, confusions, pains and joys with God.  But He is always listening, never turning a closed ear, so why NOT pray without ceasing never NOT thinking about His presence.  1 Thess. 5:17

 

Fellowship and Community with the saints is about not only getting to know the people of God with whom we will be spending eternity, but also being of some support, encouragement, assistance, direction, and benefit to them.  Getting together with God’s people allows us to use our spiritual gifts and grow into the person of God we were meant to be.  We remind one another of the greatness of God by doing so.  Hebrews 10:25

 

Studying the Scriptures daily is the means by which God can admonish us and direct us in the other 3 areas. All that we need to know about God, salvation and how to grow and mature into the fullness of the person of Christ Jesus are contained within the 66 books of the books we know as The Holy Scriptures.  We desperately need our minds transformed so that we can prove by our lives what is that good and perfect will of God for humanity.  (Rom. 12:2/ Acts 17:11)

 

Every churches leadership is committed to providing opportunity for believers to participate in all of those things in various Bible studies, meetings, social events, retreats, seminars and the Sunday morning services.  But this is scarcely enough.  Each believer must take responsibility for their own life, for their own spiritual growth, hand in hand with Jesus.  If we do not, we limp along spiritually just like someone with a physical handicap.  And if we continue to slag spiritually, we don’t grow and we miss out on so much goodness that God would have for us.

 

Please brethren, don’t limp and don't continue to be spiritually blind. Experience God. Experience Scriptures.  Please make every effort to determine to grow spiritually into the man or woman of God that God wants you to be.