#165: Listen, Obey, and Live!
The Shunammite woman demonstrates the life found in Christ’s Word in her obedience to the Word of God. She listened to God’s warning – famine was coming. She heard God’s instruction – get away from here! She obeyed God by leaving Israel and going to the land of the Philistines. Seven years she was away from her home and country. During this time another occupied the home she had so carefully kept. But by listening to and obeying the Word of God she received the benefit, she and her family lived!
So the woman arose and did according to the saying of the man of God, and she went with her household and dwelt in the land of the Philistines seven years. It came to pass, at the end of seven years, that the woman returned from the land of the Philistines; and she went to make an appeal to the king for her house and for her land.
II Kings 8:2-3 NKJV
What makes the Bible unique? Walking through the airport recently I saw the best selling book, “How to Win Friends & Influence People.” Another nearby was, “How to Do the Work.” There are books teaching readers “How Not to Hate Your Husband After Kids,” “How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free,” and how to “Live Your Best Life Now.” So many books telling us how to do things that should make our lives more fulfilling. What we don’t find in these books, however, is what we need most, eternal life.
The Bible is altogether unique and superior to the plethora of other books for two reasons: 1) its author; and 2) its message. No other book in the universe has the same author as the Bible. The Bible is the Word of God (1). God is the author of the Bible.
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The Psalms: A Tool for Cultivating Godly Emotions
Reading and praying the Psalms is emotional training, a godly course-correct to our wayward (or absent) emotions. It’s preventative medicine for when a crisis comes our way. Yes, praying the Psalms poses a challenge for 21st century readers as we wrestle with their meaning and message. But I’m convinced we will be rewarded for our labors, and in the end they will help our hearts to beat with God’s, filling us with eternal hope in Him as we navigate the troubled waters of this world.
In a recent Wall Street Journal article, therapists shared their favorite coping strategies for anxiety.[1] They include normal recommendations like sleep and exercise, and surprising ones like looking at memes of pets, jumping off of cliffs on vacation, breathing slowly to classical music, and spending time with tomato plants.
I see nothing wrong with these surprising remedies to anxiety (and think we can thank God for them as signs of common grace). But as I read the article, I couldn’t help but be thankful for the gift of prayer. In prayer, the God of the universe invites us into His presence to experience peace beyond all understanding (Philippians 4:6–7). When troubling emotions come, our first place to turn is not to the tomato plants, but to our heavenly Father.
And yet, my emotional problems aren’t just with the troubling ones. I’ve recognized how a lack of certain emotions poses a problem. A lackadaisical attitude toward sin, evil in the world, or the glories of God fall short of God’s desire for me. He created us as emotional creatures to love what He loves and hate what He hates.
As I’ve processed my troubling emotions and sinful apathy, I’ve found one part of Scripture particularly helpful: the Psalms.
The Psalms and Emotion
The Psalms not only help us know what we can say in prayer (often one of our biggest struggles), they help us know what to feel. They are, as Calvin wrote, “an anatomy of the soul” and share all shades of human emotion from deepest despair to exuberant praise. We find saints processing the good and bad of life in a godly way. Reading and praying the Psalms takes us into their emotional world, how they wrestled with God and eventually found hope.
Consider these two ways the Psalms can help us:
1. When Emotions Are Out of Control: Channel Your Emotions in a Biblical Way.
Sometimes our emotions feel like a runaway train. We may feel justified in having intense emotions but can’t stop their momentum from crossing the line into sin.
These days, nothing boils the blood quite like politics. A politician’s foolish word or wicked action can light a fire in me, and when unchecked, can quickly grow and spread to other areas of my life.
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The Current State of Complementarity
Complementarity, as it is unfolded in the Danvers Statement and Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, is still as urgent as ever. The Nashville Statement may feel more urgent because it addresses the current tragedies of so-called same-sex “marriage” and so-called “transgenderism.”
In 1987, I wrote the first draft of the Danvers Statement. Thirty years later, I gave input on the final draft of the Nashville Statement (2017). The former was foundational for the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood; the latter expresses the Council’s abiding relevance and maturity.
Here at the five-year anniversary of Nashville, the leadership of CBMW asked me to reflect on similarities and differences between the two statements for their journal, Eikon (and allowed me to publish the article here as well).1 I address their question below, and then, as one of the early shapers and promoters of a “complementarian” understanding of manhood and womanhood, I also respond to some recent criticism.
Profound Unity
First, as a shaper of both documents, I see a profound unity and prophetic difference between Danvers and Nashville. The unity can be seen, for example, in the following similarities.
The Danvers Statement affirms that “both Adam and Eve were created in God’s image, equal before God as persons and distinct in their manhood and womanhood” (affirmation 1). The Nashville Statement affirms that “God created Adam and Eve, the first human beings, in his own image, equal before God as persons, and distinct as male and female” (article 3).
Danvers laments “the widespread uncertainty and confusion in our culture regarding the complementary differences between masculinity and femininity” (rationale 1), and the tragic effects of this confusion in unraveling “the beautiful and diverse strands of manhood and womanhood” (rationale 2). Nashville similarly laments the fact that “it is common to think that human identity as male and female is not part of God’s beautiful plan, [so that] God’s good design for his creatures is thus replaced by the path of shortsighted alternatives” (preamble).
Danvers cites the “growing claims of legitimacy for sexual relationships which have Biblically and historically been considered illicit or perverse” (rationale 5). Nashville names them: “It is sinful to approve of homosexual immorality or transgenderism” (article 10). “We deny that God has designed marriage to be a homosexual, polygamous, or polyamorous relationship” (article 1).
Both statements challenge “the spirit of the age,” especially its encroachments into Christ’s church. Danvers warns of “the apparent accommodation of some within the church to the spirit of the age at the expense of winsome, radical Biblical authenticity which in the power of the Holy Spirit may reform rather than reflect our ailing culture” (rationale 10). Nashville sounds a similar alarm: “Will the church of the Lord Jesus Christ lose her biblical conviction, clarity, and courage, and blend into the spirit of the age? Or will she hold fast to the word of life, draw courage from Jesus, and unashamedly proclaim his way as the way of life?” (preamble).
Prophetic Difference
The prophetic difference between the two statements is that Danvers confronts women who intend to be pastors, while Nashville confronts women who intend to be men. Danvers confronts men who are unwilling to lead their wives; Nashville confronts men who can’t lead their wives because they don’t have one — they are “married” to men.
As the term “complementarian” was coming into being in the 1980s, the antagonists were different from those of the Nashville Statement. For example, the subtitle of “the big blue book” Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood is A Response to Evangelical Feminism. Thus, the antagonists that we were addressing in those days were voices like Paul Jewett, Margaret Howe, Gretchen Gabelein Hull, Gilbert Billezekian, Aida Spencer, Patricia Gundry, Craig Keener, Berkeley and Alvera Mickelsen, and Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen. I regarded all of these men and women not only as Christian but also as evangelical — at least at first. Danvers was, you might say, an in-house plea to family members to reconsider how they read the Bible.Related Posts:
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Elders in the New Testament: Occasional Letters
The Christian elder in the first century church had responsibility to serve under Christ’s authority, caring for the people of Christ, providing Godly conflict resolution, decision making, teaching, preaching, administrating, praying, serving the sick, and diligently working up a Christ-like sweat while seeking the good of Christ’s people.
Last post we began to discuss how the New Testament speaks about elders. This discussion was prompted by a great question during a recent congregational conversation: “What are elders?”
Here in written format I’ve begun to answer that question with a simple survey detailing the instances that the word “elder” comes up in the four Gospels and the book of Acts. Today, our discussion moves from the mostly narrative driven accounts of the Gospel and Acts, to the letters written by various Apostles to individuals, and churches in the rest of the New Testament. I’ll continue with the “survey” format, simply citing a passage and giving a brief statement.
In 1 Timothy 4:14 the Apostle Paul was writing to his “true son in the faith” (1:2). As Paul gave instructions to Timothy, he presented a reminder about Timothy’s own ministry which began with the involvement of elders. From this we see that elders are involved even in the training and launching of others into Christ-honoring ministry:
4:14 Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.
Later on in this same letter to Timothy, Paul describes the work of Christian elders (5:17), the compensation of Christian elders (5:18), dealing with accusations against elders (5:19-20), and strictly forbids any sort of preferential treatment towards elders (5:21).
5:17 The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. 18 For Scripture says, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages.” 19 Do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or three witnesses. 20 But those elders who are sinning you are to reprove before everyone, so that the others may take warning. 21 I charge you, in the sight of God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels, to keep these instructions without partiality, and to do nothing out of favoritism.
Timothy wasn’t the only person the Apostle Paul wrote to regarding Christian elders. Titus was one of Paul’s missionary team who was given instructions regarding Christian elders. His task was to carry out the work of appointing Christian elders in the church at Crete. We see included in Paul’s initial instructions to Titus a reminder of his mission to appoint Christian elders (1:5), and a description of qualifications accompanied by reasons for these qualifications (1:6-9).
1:5 The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you. 6 An elder must be blameless, faithful to his wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. 7 Since an overseer manages God’s household, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain.
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