Submission To Love - Ephesians 5: 22-24

“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.” - Ephesians 5:22-24

    The Greek word for “submit,” hupŏtassō , in its simplest translation means “to obey.” Countless disagreements have arisen from these three lines of scripture. With the rise of feminism in the latter half of the 20th Century to its highly fanatical form today, new antagonisms have reared their ugly heads suggesting that Paul was at the very least a condescending chauvinist if not a blatantly outspoken misogynist. Neither of which accusation is true. But the misunderstanding of the passage owes itself to two patently obvious errors. (1) That women are under no obligation to submit or obey any man, let alone their husbands; and (2) that men have carte blanch power over what their wives think, say, and do. There isn’t an element of truth to either of these relational errors. The lynchpin of the misunderstanding lies in our failure to properly understand  the word “submit.”
    Do we show our love for one another by the way we disagree with one another? By the way we intentionally ignore or defy one another? By the way we backbite, argue, and fight with one another? Do we exhibit our love for one another by blatant disobedience? Love truly is a demonstrable emotion. In other words we more easily exhibit it by our actions than with our words. Love is not defined by contention. It is more truly defined by cooperation and compatibility. Men and women who love one another do not exhibit it by expecting their demands to be met based upon conditions held over one another’s heads.
    “ Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” - 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.
    In fact, the only true submission we make to one another is when we submit to one another in love. We submit neither to command or demand; we submit only to love. This is the point of our title verse. Wives are to submit to their husbands AS TO THE LORD! Would the church flagrantly disobey Christ? To what purpose? Would the church suggest that Christ might demand or command something unholy of them? By the same token would a woman charge her husband with some unreasonable demand? Her husband must be at the task of doing what has been commanded by God - “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her . . .” - Ephesians 5:25 As Christ would never mistreat His church neither would a Godly husband ever mistreat or disrespect his wife! This speaks directly to the mutuality of love between a husband and a wife. This being said, a husband would just as surely “submit” to his wife were she to ask what is righteous and what is holy of him.
    To all of us who have been blessed in this lifetime with a Godly husband or wife let us submit to them as to the Lord. Let us submit to love.

Resisting the Fight - Romans 12:17

 Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. - Romans 12:17


    If two sides were engaged in mutual combat in the middle of a field, how would we be able to determine the right side from the wrong side? The good from the bad? The moral from the immoral? If their tactics were the same, their anger the same, their violence the same, how could we tell? Without some symbol or uniform there would be no way to tell; they would all seem to be the same: simply two sides fighting one another. Our title verse seems to close out such options for Christians pacing for a fight. “Repay no one evil for evil,” is not a call to us to lay down our lives before violent men but a call to us to resist the use of violence to merely remedy what we see as “evil.”
    “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.” - Romans 12:18. The command is clear - “live peaceably”, if it is possible and as much as it depends upon us. The mere presence of evil in the world is nothing new and certainly cannot excuse us for using tactics similar to those of unbelievers. Such behavior neither justifies us nor ingratiates us to our heavenly Father. His command is clear.
    “Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.” - Romans 12:19. Perceived wrongs, whether from the secular world or the state, may in deed be wrong in the eyes of the Lord, but we are not contracted by God to undue these wrongs. We must not support them but we must not take it upon ourselves to extract the vengeance that belongs to God alone!
    “Therefore, ‘if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” - Romans 12: 20-21. Our heavenly Father is the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth. He is in no imminent danger of being “a king deposed.” There is no power in the universe, either physical or spiritual,  that can undo God’s sovereignty.
     Let our goodness heap coals of fire upon the heads of those who are evil and let us patiently remain faithful in prayer as we wait upon God’s holy judgment against those who deny Him. Anathema maranatha.

Dereliction of Duty - Job 12:24-25

He takes away the understanding of the chiefs of the people of the earth, and makes them wander in a pathless wilderness. They grope in the dark without light, and He makes them stagger like a drunken man. - Job 12:24-25

    Revisiting the recent SCOTUS decision on gay marriage one would be remiss were he or she to overlook the glaring fact that God’s all-powerful hand was at work in the chambers of the court and in the Oval Office. “Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.” - Romans 9:18. And it would not be the first time in history that our heavenly Father hardened the hearts of those in power. One need only look back to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision to see another heinous example of our Supreme Court (I use the term lightly) over-stepping the grounds of common decency, in the least, and an outright violation of the 6th Commandment at worst.
    Throughout history God has hardened many a human heart. “And the Lord said to Moses, ‘When you go back to Egypt, see that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in your hand. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.’” - Exodus 4:21 The fact that God hardens one’s heart, however, does not mitigate the actions of the sinner. The sinner has still transgressed the laws of God. Each and every sinner intrinsically knows true moral right form wrong, yet he or she still makes the choice to sin. When a sitting President or Supreme Court judge chooses to do evil rather than good the sin remains with them! When these “chiefs of the people of the earth” commit such overt sins it is certainly a dereliction of duty.  And with their sin they will ultimately face the coming judgment of God - “But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God . . .” - Romans 2:5
    In times such as these we must remain faithful and know in our hearts that God is still in complete control. “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” - Romans 8:28.
    Let us continue to trust in His purpose and pray that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
   

Mission: Accomplished - Galatians 1:24

And they glorified God in me. - Galatians 1:24

    We often hear the stories of lost souls wondering, pondering, the “why” of their existence here in this life. I refer to these unfortunate folks as lost in the sense that they are seeking the answer to a question which for all intents and purposes should be readily available to them. If they but knew where to look. This is the part where we Christians come in.
    When Paul wrote Galatians, near the end of the first chapter he spoke of his former self - a persecutor of Christians. He was a man known and feared by the fledgling Christian community. So much so that when news of his conversion came to them they glorified God for His grace that Paul was the recipient of. They knew that the effectual grace God had bestowed upon Paul had changed his life. As a result of what these Christians saw in Paul they fulfilled one of the foundational doctrines of the Christian faith: they glorified God! (WLC: - Q.1) But then how does this answer the seeker’s question, “Why am I here?”
    As Christians, are we living examples to those unbelievers around us? When they see us do they immediately recognize that we are “different” either from the world around us or from our former selves, for those who knew us before we enjoyed the grace of God? Let us look again at Paul’s admission - “And I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea which were in Christ.  But they were hearing only, ‘He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy.’” - Galatians 1:22-23. And they glorified God! Paul’s “new man” was so convincing that even the Christians he once persecuted glorified God because of the change in him. Do others watching our lives feel so inspired by us that they glorify God because of what they see? If not - why not?
     “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” - Galatians 5:22-23. If we are exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit in our lives both those who believe and those who have yet to believe will know that we are different. And that difference just might answer the question of  why we are here: we are here to glorify our heavenly Father.

By God It Comes To Be - Job 9:24

The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the faces of its judges. If it is not He, who else could it be? - Job 9:24

    There are endless discussions regarding God’s role in the existence and observable workings of evil in the world. Last week’s SCOTUS ruling in favor of homosexual marriage is just another outgrowth of the reality that God does indeed ordain all that comes about. From tsunamis to earthquakes to mass shootings to childhood cancer, God does indeed ordain the events. There is only one alternate explanation: that God is not sovereign and thus Satan holds power even greater than God! This is absurd, of course. We know for certain that “ . . . all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” - Romans 8:28.
    The question remains “why?” I would suggest an answer, but not to that particular question. I would ask, “why do we ( how dare we) question our sovereign God, using our limited human wisdom as the template for understanding His divine motives. How could we ever begin to understand why God ordains a good day or a bad day without possessing the one thing we will never possess: divine omniscience?
    We cannot possibly comprehend the divine plan that God has in place, nor the workings He has put into play to bring it to completion. We simply do not possess that knowledge - “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.  “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.’” - Isaiah 55:8-9. We are not humanly capable of possessing God’s knowledge so how could ever possibly understand His plan?
    So from this we must accept the fact that the abominable SCOTUS ruling, as terribly destructive to our nation, society, and culture as it is, has been ordained by God Himself and no other. We must stop trying to understand that which has been veiled to us by God and -  “Let us search out and examine our ways, and turn back to the Lord; let us lift our hearts and hands to God in heaven.” - Lamentations 3:40-41.

Teach You Children - Proverbs 22:6

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.
- Proverbs 22:6

Children. We love them, but one of the harsh truths about children is that they are a direct reflection of the mores and values that we have instilled in them by our thoughts, words, and behavior. Everything we do sets an example to our children, so Proverbs 22:6 is perhaps one of the most important of all the proverbs given in the Bible. But the impetus is upon us a parents, Christian parents -  “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.” - Deuteronomy 6:6-8.
Have we forgotten what God had to do in our lives to get our attention? Is that what we want for our children? I know what God had to do to make me reach up for Him out of the sinful morass I put myself in. Would I have directed my children’s paths away from the Lord with my thoughts, words, and behavior had I been saved in my youth? “And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.” - Ephesians 6:4.
For those of you raising children now, in your and their youth, remember the words of one of God’s most faithful servants - “And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  - Joshua 24:15.
    Lord, that I had held You in my heart when I was a young man, raising my children. I pray now that I may still help You effect a change in their hearts and the hearts of my beloved grandchildren. May Your words always be in our hearts.

An Encounter With Unbelief - Matthew 10:33

 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven. Matthew 10:33

    I was at the local home improvement store where I bought a new outdoor lounge chair. I struggled to get the chair in the trunk. No luck. I decided to try putting the chairs in the back seat. After ten sweat-filled minutes I’d managed to get it in. Now I tried to get it out. I said “tried.” After another ten minutes one of the store’s associates approached to see if he could help. He said he was a problem solver and almost came to the point of insisting he could get that confounded chair out of my car. I said, “Have at it, my friend.” A moment of careful maneuvering and there the chair was freed from the back seat. He turned to me and asked if I’d like him to show me how to put it back in and retrieve it as easily as he did. Of course, I said, “Please do!” After showing me how to put the chair back in I thanked him and said, “God bless you.” It was at that very moment that he made the most curious remark. He said, “Oh. I don’t think God had anything to do with it.”
    I mention the encounter here for a couple of reasons. For one, I thought even if he isn’t a believer he didn’t need to make such a remark. Sure, he certainly helped me and I in return merely asked a blessing upon him . . . not a curse. Yet as helpful as he had been he still could not resist the opportunity to deny God! Here the man had a chance to show a little class despite his feelings. He could have been gracious enough to say, “You’re welcome,” and leave it at that, but no, he just had to reject God. “But he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God.” - Luke 12:9.
    This encounter cannot be compared to one where an unbeliever wishes us fortune through some satanic entity or Wiccan-type earth deity. The reason is simple: if someone were to wish me well with a phrase such as, “The mother of creation bless you,” it would offer me an opportunity to share the Gospel with that misguided person. The helpful atheist didn’t offer me an alternative gospel or blessing. He simply manifested his unbelief in God by making his crass remark. These are the unbelieving people who need our prayers. They aren’t arguing a case for another god per se; they’re denying God. Yet, whether they know it or not, in their denial they are decreeing another god: the god of this fallen world, the god of this age! “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.” - 2 Corinthians 4:3-4.
    When one denies God it can be compared to one who has been warned about the dangers of the dark and ventures forth regardless. Their pride and their stiff-necked resistance to the warnings puts them in such a precarious place. Prayers, our prayers, are indeed what these lost souls desperately need!
    Let us always pray that the Holy Spirit will fill the hearts and illumine the minds of sinners like us.