Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. (1 John 4:1–6)

The message of this text can be opened for us to understand and embrace under three headings:

The threat, namely, the false prophets and false prophecy
The victory, namely, apostolic truth and divine power
The urgency, namely, antichrist.

Before we open each of these in turn, just a brief word about their relevance. This text is as relevant today in 2023 as it was in the first century. False prophecy abounds. Think locally and think globally. Think of the false prophets that once pastored large evangelical churches but now reject the authority of Scripture and spread their falsehoods in podcasts. Think of those who are still in large churches leading thousands astray.

Think of indigenous false prophets throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Think of the false prophecy of Islam, rejecting the incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ. Think of the false prophecy of Hinduism, without the divine-human Mediator. Think of false prophecies of Buddhism, Shintoism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism. Think of the false prophecies of Messiah-rejecting Judaism.

Think of the false prophecies of the Western secular religion of expressive individualism or moralistic therapeutic deism. Or, perhaps most similar to John’s immediate concern, think of the gnostic tendencies of modern theological liberalism that cannot accept the union of God with man in a virgin conception or walking on water or rising from the dead. It must all be demythologized to keep God at a safe distance from physical realities like sexuality and healing and crucifixion.

First John 4:1–6 is an absolutely crucial text for our time — and our school. When we say that here at Bethlehem College & Seminary we aim to build into our students the habits of mind and heart called observation, understanding, evaluation, feeling, application, and expression, we’re talking about the realities in this text. “Test the spirits” (1 John 4:1). Observe them. Do you see them? Understand them (no straw men). Evaluate them. That’s what John is focusing on. Feel their seriousness; feel the urgency; feel the glorious reality that “he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). Apply this to what you watch on your streaming service. Apply this to where you will spend your life so as not to waste it. Give expression to what you see so that others are protected and helped on their way to Christ, to significance, to heaven.

So, let’s turn to our three headings and see the threat, the victory, and the urgency.

The Threat

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world” (verse 1). Then they are described again in verse 5: “They [the false prophets] are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them.”

The threat is false prophecy through false prophets — people who claim to speak God’s truth but don’t. “Many false prophets have gone out into the world” (verse 1) — many. So, my list earlier was not an exaggeration.

Now, notice that the false prophets seem to speak from two sources — one supernatural (above the world) and one natural (in the world).

“Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits” (verse 1). Evil spirits never look at Christ-belittling error with indifference. Where Christ-distorting ideas are forming in your mind, demonic spirits have either put them there or are eager to get behind them and make them as plausible and prominent as possible. So, there is a supernatural source of false prophecy.

But verse 5 traces the false prophecies back to the world. “They [the false prophets] are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them.” They speak from the world. Here’s a glimpse of what John has in mind by “the world”: “All that is in the world — the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life — is not from the Father but is from the world” (1 John 2:16). The world is a system of forces that marginalize or oppose God and substitute creature-pleasure for God-pleasure, creature-treasure for God-treasure. So, these false prophets are speaking “from the world.”

But we must not think that these two sources of falsehood — the spirits and the world — are separate and distinct. They aren’t. In 1 John 5:19, John says, “The whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (see also Ephesians 2:2). The world shapes false prophecy because Satan shapes the world.

So, since there are so many false prophets, and since the world in which we live is shot through with Satan-shaped error, and since false prophets speak with supernatural influence, how shall we get victory over these influences so that our faith is not destroyed, and so that we stand in the truth and in love?

The Victory

We turn now from the threat to the victory — namely, apostolic truth and divine power.

Apostolic Truth

John assumes that if we recognize the false prophets as false, we will renounce their falsehood and get victory over their influence. So, the first thing he does in this text, with his apostolic authority, is give a specific doctrinal truth with which to measure the teachings of the false prophets. “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God” (1 John 4:2–3).

At first, this looks simple and straightforward. If you deny that the eternal, divine Son of God was sent by the Father into the world, becoming the God-man, the incarnate Christ — if you deny that, you are a false prophet. Your teaching cannot be trusted. As verse 3 says, you are “not from God” — that is, not born of God and not representing God.

But there’s a problem to be solved. Demons (unclean spirits) know and profess that Jesus Christ is the holy Son of God and has come in the flesh. Mark 1:23–24 states, “There was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, ‘What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? . . . I know who you are — the Holy One of God.’” And then ten verses later it says Jesus “would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him” (Mark 1:34).

What, then, are we to make of verse 2, “Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God”? I think John would answer my query like this: “When I say that a spirit confesses that Jesus has come in the flesh, I don’t mean demon-like confession. I mean confession with the whole heart and mind and soul that embraces the truth of the incarnation, trusts the truth of Christ incarnate, exults in the truth of Christ incarnate, treasures the truth of Christ incarnate, and loves the Christ himself who is incarnate.”

In fact, the literal wording of verse 2 is, “Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ come in the flesh is from God” — just as Paul says, “We preach Christ crucified” (1 Corinthians 1:23), not “We preach that Christ is crucified.” It’s the same grammatical construction. As verse 3 makes plain, “Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.” The confession is a heartfelt “Yes!” to the incarnate Christ. And essential to that personal, confessional embrace of Jesus as true and precious is the doctrine of the incarnation.

So, the key to victory over false prophets in verses 2 and 3 is the apostolic truth of the incarnation as a litmus test for genuine prophecy and faithful teaching. But there is one more thing to say about apostolic truth as a means of victory over the threat of false teaching. In verse 6, John says, “We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” In verse 4, he said, “Little children, you are from God.” And here in verse 6, he says, “We are from God.”

I think by “we” he means the same “we” as 4:14: “We have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.” This is the “we” of eyewitnesses, just like in 1:1: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life . . .”

So, I think verse 6 is John’s way of saying, “It’s not just the apostolic doctrine of the incarnation that divides the true and false prophets. It’s the whole body of what we eyewitnesses teach.” “We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us [in all we teach]; whoever is not from God does not listen to us [in all we teach]. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error” (verse 6). In other words, the key to victory over the spirit of error and the false prophets is apostolic teaching in general, not just one doctrine.

So, when we speak of observation and understanding and evaluation here at Bethlehem College & Seminary, this is the touchstone for evaluation. Does any claim to truth fit with apostolic teaching? Does it fit with Scripture?

What, then, is the victory over error and false prophets in this text? The first answer is apostolic truth. By this we detect the spirit of truth and the spirit of error, and are not deceived.

Divine Power

But there is a second key to victory over the false prophets — namely, divine power. This is found in verse 4: “Little children, you are from God and have overcome [gotten victory over] them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”

The “them” here is the false prophets. The overcoming, or the victory, over these false prophets is the successful resistance against their deceptions, deceptions that seek to destroy our faith by destroying our hold on the truth.

And that successful resistance is owing to God’s divine power. “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” The one in you is God. First John 4:12–13 says, “If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.” And the one who is in the world is the devil: “The whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19). You have victory over the destructive effects of false prophets and false teaching because the Spirit of God in you is greater than the spirit of the world. He is more powerful than Satan, the great deceiver.

Our final hope at this school to be faithful over the long haul will be the power of God in our lives. The Spirit of God keeps the children of God from destructive error by causing us to observe and understand and evaluate and cherish the word of God. No hope without apostolic truth and divine power.

The Urgency

This brings us finally to the third heading, the urgency — namely, the antichrist. “Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already” (verse 3). And add to this 1 John 2:18: “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.”

John did not have to bring up the antichrist. But he does — twice (chapter 2 and chapter 4). And the effect in both cases is to intensify the urgency of not being deceived by the false prophets, because Jesus put the false prophets and the false christs together in Matthew 24:24: “False christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.”

So, John is saying that when there are many false prophets, especially in the church (2 Thessalonians 2:3), this is the kind of intensification of evil that precedes the coming of Christ. And that coming, he says, will be preceded at the end by the arrival of antichrist. Both 1 John 2:18 and 4:3 describe the coming of a single antichrist preceded by forerunners who are like the antichrist. First John 2:18 says, “Antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come.” First John 4:3 says, “You heard [the spirit of antichrist] was coming and now is in the world already.”

This is virtually the same way Paul describes the coming of the end-time man of lawlessness. He is coming, and his spirit is already at work. When he finally comes, the Lord Jesus will destroy him at his second coming. Second Thessalonians 2:3, 7–8:

That day [the day of the Lord] will not come, unless the [apostasy] comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction. . . . The mystery of lawlessness is already at work. . . . [When] the lawless one [is] revealed . . . the Lord Jesus will kill [him] with the breath of his mouth and bring [him] to nothing by the appearance of his coming.

Both Paul and John taught that we — between the first and second coming of Christ — are in the “last days” (2 Timothy 3:1–5; “last hour” in 1 John 2:18). In this time, the antichrist is coming, and already many antichrists have come. The man of lawlessness is coming, and already the mystery of lawlessness has come. The point of these connections, and John’s reason for mentioning the antichrist, is to make us alert but not alarmed (2 Thessalonians 2:2; Matthew 24:6; 1 John 2:28) — that is, to make us spiritually awake with a sense of urgency to the threat of false prophets, the antichrists, but not fearful, because he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world.

In summary, the threat all around us, then and now, locally and globally, is false prophets who are anti-Christ. The victory over this threat is the infallible apostolic truth before us and the supreme power of God within us. And the urgency of this situation is that antichrist is coming, and his spirit is already at work. So, be of good cheer, trust Jesus, love one another (1 John 3:23), because “he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

Audio Transcript

This week we are talking parenting. A mom’s role in raising boys — that was Monday, in episode 2045. And today, Pastor John, as I look ahead in our Navigators Bible Reading Plan, coming up on the docket here between May 20 and June 2, we’re about to encounter three long, detailed, and related stories of rebellion. Children who rebelled. I’m thinking of Absalom, Sheba, and Adonijah.

On this trio of rebels, back in 2018, in a tweet you said to parents: “Read to your children the stories of the rebellion of Absalom against David (in 2 Samuel 15:1–18:33) and the rebellion of Sheba (in 2 Samuel 20:1–26) and the rebellion of Adonijah (in 1 Kings 1:1–2:25). Then look them in the eye and say: ‘Rebellion against the Lord’s anointed never, never, never succeeds.’” These three long stories are loaded with cautionary details. Can you point out a couple of things that strike you that parents would press home to their children in such a reading? And I presume the “Lord’s anointed” here you refer to in your tweet is Christ himself — is that correct? What other lessons stand out as you prepare us to read these sections for ourselves and to make use of them in our homes?

I wrote that tweet because it seems so painfully obvious to me that young people — and I suppose, as well, old people — need to be warned not to go down a path that has proved over and over again to be a path of self-destruction. Young people don’t always see the outcome of a path that they’re on. They need to be warned. They may not heed the warning — these three in the story certainly didn’t — but they might. And whether they do or not, it’s the parents’ God-given duty to sound biblical warnings for their children.

Three Failed Rebellions

I was struck in this passage as I was reading through it, like I always do once a year. One after the other, rebellions arose against King David. David is the Lord’s anointed. How he relates to Christ we’ll get to in just a moment, but God has chosen David to be king over his people. Samuel had anointed him king, and God had clearly warned in Psalm 2 what a foolish and deadly thing it is to plot against the Lord’s anointed. It’s utterly futile. The Lord sits in heaven and laughs.

Nevertheless, Absalom (David’s son), Sheba (who’s called a “worthless fellow” from the tribe of Benjamin), Adonijah (David’s son born next after Absalom) — one after the other, these three men raised their hand in rebellion against the Lord’s anointed, and every one of them is killed because of it.

Absalom steals the hearts of the men of Israel right under David’s nose by promising them better justice than David was giving them. And he leads a rebellion and winds up with his beautiful head of hair caught in a tree, and he’s dangling there and speared to death by Joab’s men.

Sheba tries to exploit a division between the ten tribes and Judah, who are squabbling over who gets to bring David back after the triumphs over Absalom, and he tries to lead a rebellion by mobilizing those ten tribes against Judah and David. But he ends up with his head chopped off (by a wise woman in the city of Abel) and thrown over the wall to Joab.

“We can never use the sins of our parents to excuse our own sins.”

And then Adonijah tries to exploit David’s old age to become king instead of his father’s choice — Solomon, his brother — recruiting even Joab now to switch sides. And both of them, Joab and Adonijah, die. So it’s not a very propitious prospect for anybody who lifts his hands against the Lord’s anointed.

Here are several lessons that I see in these stories, and maybe some more details can come out as I give the lessons.

1. Prophesied sin does not excuse sin.

First, a prophecy of misery and conflict in a family does not excuse those who caused the misery and the conflict. David began his reign with adultery with Bathsheba, murdering Uriah, her husband. Nathan the prophet says to David, “Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife” (2 Samuel 12:10).

So, all these rebellions from his children and others are prophesied as part of the consequences of David’s sin. But there’s not a hint in the stories that Absalom and Sheba and Adonijah are excused for their wickedness and their rebellion because of this prophecy. Prophesied sin does not excuse the sinner. That’s lesson number one.

2. Failed parenting does not excuse sin.

Second — and a very similar point, but maybe one that can be felt today by contemporary people even more than that one — young people need to hear this: Failed parenting does not excuse the sin of the children. We can never use the sins of our parents to excuse our own sins. We are responsible for ourselves regardless of our backgrounds. We will be held accountable for our own sinful actions, and the failures of our parents will not remove our guilt.

First Kings 1:6 says, “[David] had never at any time displeased [Adonijah] by asking, ‘Why have you done thus and so?’” This is an indictment of David’s sinful doting on his sons, a failure to discipline. And it seems to me that he treated Absalom in the same way as Adonijah because, near the end, his leniency toward Absalom’s rebellion almost cost him his kingdom. Nevertheless, in spite of this parental failure, both Absalom and Adonijah are responsible for their own rebellious attitudes and their sins. They can’t blame it on their dad’s failures.

3. Rebellion arises from high and low places.

Third lesson: Rebellion can arise from a sense of privilege and entitlement, and it can arise from a sense of worthlessness that seeks to take advantage of a situation and rise to power.

Absalom and Adonijah were both highly privileged, not only because they were the sons of the king, but because both of them were explicitly said to be very handsome. The author goes out of his way to make the point that they were handsome, well-liked, well-connected. Sheba was a nobody. He’s called “a worthless man” (2 Samuel 20:1). He hadn’t made anything of his life. Absalom and Adonijah used their privilege to gain power and overthrow their father; Sheba shrewdly took advantage of a brewing conflict between the king’s subjects.

But in both cases, whether from privilege or poverty, they failed. The point is that poverty and power, high position and low position, being somebody and being nobody, is no justification for rebellion against the Lord’s anointed. Sin lurks in the low; sin lurks in the high. So, beware, young people, that you could justify a rebellion against the Lord’s anointed by either one.

4. Self-exaltation ends in destruction.

Fourth, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Matthew 23:12) — the words of Jesus. The beginning of Adonijah’s story makes explicit the root of the problem. It goes like this: “Now Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, ‘I will be king’” (1 Kings 1:5). And the same is true of Absalom and Sheba. This is the great sin, the deep, deep sin of all children and all parents: a craving to be seen as great, a craving to be seen as powerful or beautiful or smart or cool or handsome or gutsy or rich, somehow to be seen better than others. “I want to be better” — like the apostles squabbled with each other to see who was the greatest.

“Rebellion against the Lord’s anointed absolutely cannot succeed.”

The Old Testament abounds with stories like these, designed to make Jesus’s point: “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Matthew 23:12). Noël and I are reading Isaiah right now. We just read last night about these oracles over and over again in Isaiah. The evil that God is punishing among the nations is pride, pride, pride — self-exaltation.

Submit to the Anointed One

So, finally, we should say that yes, David, the Lord’s anointed, was a type of Jesus Christ, a foreshadowing of King Jesus. Christ is the son of David. Christ is the final Anointed One. “Christ” (Christos) means “anointed.” And from these stories, we should warn our children — indeed, warn ourselves — that rebellion against the Lord’s anointed, David or Christ, absolutely cannot succeed. But to submit to him and see him as the great and glorious and wise and strong and just and gracious King that he is would satisfy our souls forever.

The glitzy promise of self-exaltation is a mirage, young people; it’s a mirage. Don’t go the way of Absalom or Sheba or Adonijah. It cannot succeed.

Audio Transcript

“Did Bathsheba sin with David? Was she complicit in the sin? Or was she simply taken advantage of? It’s an important Bible question, one that I see pop up on social media every now and again. Of course, it’s also a sensitive question too, so a heads up to those of listening with the kids around.

“The particular question arrived recently in the inbox from a listener named Micah, who lives in Toronto. Micah asks this: “Pastor John, hello! I have a delicate Bible question I have been thinking about for a long time about the misuse of a woman. Back in APJ 234, you came right out and said that Bathsheba was ‘raped’ by King David — a violation that went against her will. Most Bible scholars I read today leave this situation more vague and simply say David ‘committed adultery’ with her, leaving her volition ambiguous, maybe even suggesting that she was a willing participant in the sin. Is there any evidence in the Bible of whether Bathsheba was willing or unwilling? And, from what I hear from feminists on this text, his power as a male king over her, a subject, would immediately classify this as a rape, even if she put up no resistance. Are there any pointers for us in the text itself?”

Yes, I think there are pointers that David exerted a kind of pressure on her to warrant the accusation of rape, and I don’t say that because I think the act couldn’t be consensual given the power dynamics at play. It is possible for a woman to be sinfully complicit in committing adultery with a very powerful man. I don’t see any evidence for that in this text.

‘He Took Her’

On the contrary, I see two indications that David threw his weight around — threw his power, his influence, his position — in such a way as to force her, apart from and against her commitment to her husband, to have sex with him. So, here’s the first pointer that I see in the way the story itself is narrated.

It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (2 Samuel 11:2–4)

“David didn’t invite Bathsheba. He didn’t woo her. He didn’t lure her. He didn’t trick her. He took her.”

He didn’t invite her. He didn’t woo her. He didn’t lure her. He didn’t trick her. He took her. That’s what the text says: he took her. In other words, the description is of a completely one-sided, powerful exertion of his desire, with no reckoning with hers.

Parable of David’s Sin

Now, here’s the other point, and I think it’s even more significant. When the prophet Nathan is sent to rebuke David on behalf of God and confront him with his sin, he did it by telling a parable to suck David in to giving his own self-condemnation, which he did. The picture he creates is telling. Here’s what he said:

And the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him.

“Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.” Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die.” (2 Samuel 12:1–5)

“We are not exaggerating to use the word ‘rape’ for David’s abuse of his power in the way he took Bathsheba.”

Oh, I love that. I love Nathan. Nathan did not have to create a parable in which there was a single, harmless pet lamb who wasn’t just taken, which it was, but was taken and killed and eaten. In other words, he really re-created the adultery in the categories of theft and killing. Not Uriah’s killing — that’s an added evil — but as it were, Bathsheba’s killing represented by the little, little, helpless pet lamb being killed and served up as a meal.

So, I would say, for these two reasons, we are not exaggerating to use the word rape for David’s abuse of his power in the indulgence of his sinful lust in the way he took Bathsheba.

Holy Authority

But the Bible doesn’t just leave us with pointers — and I think this just needs to be said before we stop. It doesn’t just leave us with pointers to the reality, and the danger, and the sinfulness of the misuse of official authority or power in order to exploit, or threaten, or manipulate, or mistreat, or demean, or destroy other people. The New Testament is replete with warnings against a worldly use of authority. It is replete with beautiful descriptions of what Christians who hold positions of influence and governance should be like.

It starts with Jesus, it goes to Paul the apostle, it goes to the elders of the churches, and it goes to husbands — and indeed, it goes to all Christians, because all Christians are influential one way or the other, and they can be influential in harmful ways or influential in helpful ways. So, let’s just take a brief look at each of those stages.

Jesus

Not only did Jesus say that he came into the world “not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom” (Mark 10:45), but he also taught about this issue of power and servanthood. For example, he said,

The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves. (Luke 22:25–27)

Apostles

Jesus commissioned the apostles to have foundational authority, tremendous authority, in the church to teach. If something that other people taught didn’t conform to what the apostles taught, they were not acknowledged (1 Corinthians 14:38). And yet, we get glimpse after glimpse into the way the apostle Paul and Peter and others used their authority by trying to set an example to the churches.

For example,

For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed — God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. (1 Thessalonians 2:5–7)

He acted exactly that same way with his authority toward Philemon when he wrote to him in Philemon 8–9, “Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, yet for love’s sake I prefer to appeal to you.” That’s the apostles picking up on Jesus’s example and teaching.

Elders

Then comes elders. Peter says concerning the elders, the pastors who have rightful governing leadership roles in the church, “So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ . . . shepherd the flock of God that is among you . . . not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:1–3).

Husbands

Paul applies the same principle to husbands in Ephesians 5. After teaching that wives are to submit to husbands as their head in marriage, he tells the husbands how to use that headship, that authority, that leadership, and he says this: “Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:24–25).

All Christians

So it starts with Jesus, it goes to the apostles, it goes to the pastors, it goes to the husbands, and now it lands finally on all Christians, because all of us can throw our weight around with somebody in order to exalt our egos and manipulate or abuse them. So, Paul says to every Christian,

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 2:3–5)

And there it is — it all circles back to Christ: “Which is yours in Christ Jesus.” It all circles back to Christ. The only hope that David would ever have that he could be forgiven and be happily in heaven with Uriah and Bathsheba and a holy God is that Jesus Christ lived and served and died in a way radically different from David. All of us depend totally on the upside-down way that Jesus used his infinite power on the cross.