Will You Love Your Brother?
We are in need of being a genuine family in these difficult days. We need one another and that need will only increase over time. Let me make a simple suggestion. I don’t need to help you love those you already love, but what about those who are like the Thessalonians, those less noble. How can I help you with them? Let me urge you to pray a specific request. Pray that your love would abound toward the ignoble brother or sister in your life (Phil. 1:9). And if you are willing, your heart will enlarge for them and others.
What is your impression of the church? When you think about the church what comes to mind? Think about the Old Testament church, the church underage and specifically that time after the Exodus but before the Conquest of the Promised Land. By all accounts, she was not in good shape. In fact, on one occasion God had punished the Israelites by sending serpents throughout the camp. On another occasion a plague ravaged the people. And the hardships were the result of Israel’s disobedience. But God kept His promise.
And that obviously was a cause for consternation to the surrounding nations. It also explains why Balak, king of Moab, got scared and sent for Balaam. He wanted him to conjure a spell or curse the people of God. Balaam agreed to come. But instead of cursing Israel he couldn’t help but bless them! That may be the humorous side of the story but it’s not the most surprising element.
Notice what comes out of Balaam’s mouth by way of description. He doesn’t speak of Israel’s disobedience; he says that they are like a lion. As he looks down on them, he says, “How fair are your tents, O Jacob! Your dwellings, O Isreal! Like valleys that stretch out, like gardens beside the river, like aloes planted by the Lord, like cedars beside the waters. Is that the description you would have given?
God’s perspective of the church is coming out of this unfaithful prophet and the words challenge us. How do we think of the church? How do we speak of the church? Perhaps you don’t think very well about the church, but you are repentant. The first chapter of the letter to the Thessalonians might be a good letter to reflect on. You might start by remembering something vital.
The Church has her foundation in God.
I am quite sure that this doesn’t come as a surprise to you. Notice verse 4. Paul is speaking to the Thessalonians and this is what he says, “For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you.” The first thing that hits us is that Paul is speaking about a local church. Notice that Paul doesn’t say to this local body, “For we know, brothers loved by God, your credible profession.” No, he roots their existence as a church in the electing love of God.
Now, this leads us to a second point. God is said to have loved these people. Paul describes them as “loved by God.” Loved when they were yet sinners. In fact, the word translated “loved” or “whom God loves” is a verb form indicating that this love was initiated in the past. Now, think of that in light of Romans 5:8. Though God loved these people in eternity His love was demonstrated for them on a Roman cross.
However, this raises a third point. God chose us. Verse 4 of first Thessalonians parallels Ephesians 1:4, “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. In love He predestined us…” He chose us out of death. We were dead in our sins and transgressions, and He made us alive in Christ.
God set His love upon the undeserving Thessalonians in His eternal counsel and he displayed that love in Christ when they were unlovable. But there is a fourth and final thing I want you to notice. This love and choice of God did not lead to abstraction. It led to a local church in Thessalonica.
It is impossible to speak of loving the church in the abstract.
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How Much Free Will Do You Really Have?
This is the work of God—that you believe in Christ Jesus. We freely choose to believe only because God has changed our nature by regeneration—new creation—such that our desires are now inclined toward God instead of toward sin.
It is quite common for both Christians and non-Christians to point out their free will. But how free are we? Are we free to do anything? Why don’t believers use their free will to freely choose never to sin again? Why does no one do that? We do have free will—no disagreement here—but maybe it’s not that simple.
After explaining to Timothy how to teach and correct opponents, Paul then explains how God works:God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. (2 Tim. 25-26)
Paul encourages Timothy by reminding him that he cannot convince a person into the kingdom of God. Before God acts, a person is held captive by the devil, and being held captive a person cannot, of his own free will, free himself from the snare of the devil by deciding for himself what is true. Like Timothy, we are to be kind teachers who correct with gentleness, remembering that it is God who may grant repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.
But what about free will?
Some Christians believe God only made it possible for humans to be saved—it’s up to us, exercising our free will, to choose the offered salvation; then God will regenerate us. Others believe humans are so blind, deaf, spiritually dead, and enslaved to sin that they are unable to turn to Christ Jesus unless God first regenerates them—God takes the initiative and a person freely responds.
There is disagreement, but part of the problem may be oversimplification—a tendency to believe there are only two alternatives—we are either completely free or we are completely determined. But what does Scripture teach us? Perhaps we need to go a little bit deeper into the nature of our choices—addressing both what we freely will and why we freely will as we do.
What is free will?
The will is the faculty of a person’s mind involved in choosing what a person desires. The human will is free in that it chooses voluntarily and is undetermined by anything other than itself.
Do humans have free will?
Yes, humans after the fall of Adam still have natural liberty, meaning they are not forced to choose either good or evil. Humans have the power of self-decision according to what pleases them, what they desire.
In other words, humans freely choose what they desire—their will is not forced by anything outside of themselves—what they most desire is what they freely choose. Consider for example, James 1:14 which speaks of how a person’s own desires affect his or her choices of will.
Does humanity’s fall into sin affect free will?
Sinful humans still retain their free will—they still freely choose according to what they desire, according to their sinful nature.
Scripture teaches us that the nature of fallen humans is that they are spiritually dead and incapable of any spiritual good toward salvation. Paul writes in Romans 8:7-8 that the carnal mind is hostile to God. The word of God does not say that the carnal mind is passive but rather that sinful unconverted persons have an active hostility (enmity) toward God.
Ephesians 2:1-3 (see also Col. 2:13) teaches that fallen humans are dead in their sin, carrying out the desires (i.e., will) of body and mind. They are by nature children of wrath. Elsewhere Scripture describes humanity’s condition as spiritual blindness and deafness (see Deut. 29:4; Matt. 13:13; John 12:40; Acts 28:26; 2 Cor. 4:4). God also describes the nature of fallen humans as being in slavery to sin and corruption (Rom. 6:17; Titus 3:3; 2 Pet. 2:19).
The unregenerate set their minds on fleshly things.
Returning to Romans 8, Paul writes that those who are in the flesh—those not regenerated by the Holy Spirit to be a new spiritual creature (see John 3:3; 2 Cor. 5:17; Tit. 3:5)—do not set their minds on spiritual things, but only on fleshly things. As a result, they have no ability to please God (Rom. 8:5-8). There are no righteous humans, there is no one who understands, and there is no one who seeks for God. No one does good—there is no fear of God in their eyes (Rom. 3:10-18 quoting Psalms 5, 14, 36, 53, 140; Isa. 59:7).
So what do sinful, unregenerate, unconverted, human beings desire—what do they freely will?
The unregenerate use their free will to choose what they desire: to sin.
Prior to the flood, God saw that every intention of the thoughts of a person’s heart was only evil continually (Gen. 6:5). Long after the flood the psalmist points out there are none who do good (Ps. 14). Isaiah 59 teaches how the sinful think only of iniquity. The heart of fallen humans is deceitful above everything (Jer. 17:5) The spiritually dead yield to the passions of the flesh and the sinful desires of the body (Eph. 2:1-3).
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Leaked: Teachers Reveal How They “Stalk” Kids, Sideline Parents To Pull Middle Schoolers Into LGBT Groups
After [teachers] Baraki and Caldeira angered parents by using an “anti-bullying” presentation to teach kids what it means to be gay or lesbian, they explained to conference attendees that “Next year, we’re going to do just a little mind-trick on our sixth graders.”
Members of California’s biggest teachers union plotted how to push LGBT politics on children and undermine concerns about their tactics from parents, principals, and communities, reveals leaked audio from an October conference of the California Teachers Association (CTA).
“Speakers went so far as to tout their surveillance of students’ Google searches, internet activity, and hallway conversations in order to target sixth graders for personal invitations to LGBTQ clubs, while actively concealing these clubs’ membership rolls from participants’ parents,” Abigail Shrier reported on Thursday.Three people from the “2021 LGBTQ+ Issues Conference” in Palm Springs, Calif., titled “Beyond the Binary: Identity & Imagining Possibilities,” sent recordings to Shrier revealing the radical content of some of the workshops.
Multiple seminars at the conference encouraged hosting LGBT clubs for middle schoolers. An audio clip reveals teacher Lori Caldeira explaining why such clubs keep no rosters, noting, “Sometimes we don’t really want to keep records because if parents get upset that their kids are coming? We’re like, ‘Yeah, I don’t know. Maybe they came?’ You know, we would never want a kid to get in trouble for attending if their parents are upset.”
Caldeira has noted in a separate podcast appearance that, in the club she runs that includes other people’s prepubescent minors, “What happens in this room, stays in this room.”
At the CTA conference, Caldeira and another teacher, Kelly Baraki, led an additional seminar about “How we run a ‘GSA’ [Gay-Straight Alliance club] in Conservative Communities,” and discussed their strategies for how to “get the bodies in the door” and ensure kids keep coming back when “we saw our membership numbers start to decline.”
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Five Reasons Why I’m Voting for Overture 37
Overture 37 provides a helpfully pointed guide for character examinations that meets the evident needs of our situation. Church courts will be greatly aided in fulfilling their biblical duty by focusing on sexual immorality, relational sins, abuse, racism, and gross financial mismanagement. It also will communicate to our leaders what character is regarded as necessary for holding church office. On its merits, the proposed change to the BCO is one for which we have had an urgent need for many years.
Overture 37 from the 2021 PCA General Assembly (approved as amended by a substantial majority of commissioners) proposes a change to the Book of Church Order (BCO) in Chapters 21-4 (for teaching elders) and 24-1 (for ruling elders and deacons). If approved by 2/3 of the presbyteries, the change would call for presbyteries to examine the personal character of candidates for office, giving specific attention to notorious concerns, such as but not limited to relational sins, sexual immorality (including homosexuality, child sexual abuse, fornication, and pornography), addictions, abusive behavior, racism, and financial mismanagement).
I want to urge our presbyteries to affirm Overture 37 and thus insert this paragraph into our BCO for the following reasons:
Reason #1: To bring unity and peace to the PCA. The cause of unity is served by taking clear stances on controversial issues. The PCA went into the 2021 General Assembly with a great deal of controversy centered on same-sex attracted ministers and answered this controversy with a resounding endorsement of biblical teaching. Not only did the study committee on sexuality give clear and lucid affirmation to the Reformed doctrine of concupiscence—affirming that all sin desires and orientations must be repented and mortified—but the strong majorities in support of Overtures 23 and 37 signaled a desire for the PCA to take a clear and biblical stance. Unless these overtures are passed by the presbyteries, then the statements of the General Assembly will have resulted in no action and no progress will have been made on our unity as a denomination.
Reason #2: To align with the biblical emphasis on character. As it now stands, our BCO does not specify the examination of an ordinand’s character. This deficiency is surprising since in 1 Timothy 3:1–7, almost all of the apostle’s qualifications deal with character and personal fitness. For the PCA not to have clear and pointed areas of concern regarding character leaves us out of step with Scripture.
Reason #3: To protect the church from problems arising from character deficiencies. It may be argued that doctrinal error produces the greatest harm to the church, but character concerns produce the most frequent damage to our congregations and people. We live in a time when serious harm brought by the sexual misconduct, addictions, or abusive leadership of Christian leaders regularly hits the news. It simply would be irresponsible of our denomination not to take formal action to ensure that our leaders have no tendencies toward child sexual abuse or demeaning leader behavior. In a time when pornography wreaks untold damage to marriages and families, the PCA must take a firm stand against the use of pornography by its officers. In short, the PCA needs clear categories for the examination of character that will preserve the honor of our Lord, protect the flock from distress and harm, and guard the peace and purity of the church.
Reason #4: The categories of Overture 37 are clear, appropriate, and helpful. Overture 37 provides a helpfully pointed guide for character examinations that meets the evident needs of our situation. Church courts will be greatly aided in fulfilling their biblical duty by focusing on sexual immorality, relational sins, abuse, racism, and gross financial mismanagement. It also will communicate to our leaders what character is regarded as necessary for holding church office. On its merits, the proposed change to the BCO is one for which we have had an urgent need for many years.
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