Oct. 4 – Thoughts on Isa. 20-22 & Eph. 6

It breaks my heart and angers my soul to hear about the multitude of clergy who have fallen.  From sexual abuse to sexual immorality, from financial misdeeds to marital infidelity, I often feel like every week we see a new clergy person fall.  My heart breaks for them as sinful human beings (just like me) who fell and lost so much because of it.  My soul gets angry because every one of them is one more hurdle I have to jump in my relationships with anyone who doesn’t follow Christ and many who do.  I am lumped in with these people as a deviant, a predator, and a fraud, and it is all that much more work to prove to people that I am not so that I might get a hearing for the gospel in their lives.

We talk often of “falling” but seldom of the opposite, “to stand”.  Yet that is the primary call of Eph. 6 – to stand.  I assume you read it and when you did, you couldn’t miss this calling.  “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.   Stand firm then…”

The famed armor of God, a metaphor for a righteous life, obedient living, life with Christ, is there not so we can go attack the strongholds of hell, or so we can consider ourselves better than others.  The armor of God is ours so that we can do one thing:  stand.  When we are tempted, we stand.  When we are attacked, we stand.  When we watch our churches fight over non-essential issues, and our denominations demonize one another, and our culture lure us into allowing anything at all, we stand.  That is what God calls us to, gifts us for, and expects of us.  Just to stand.  And in so doing, to “not fall” and so honor the name of Christ and the reputation of the Church.

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Oct. 3 – Thoughts on Isa. 17-19 & Eph. 5:17-33

Ephesians 5 is a chapter with a very distinct outline, and knowing this outline helps us greatly in our interpretation of some of Paul’s more confusing teachings.  Based on the grammar and wording Paul uses, here is the outline as I see it, beginning in verse 15

Title:  Be very careful how you live (v.15)

I.  Don’t be unwise but be wise (v.15)

II.  Don’t be foolish but be understanding of God’s will (v.17)

III.  Don’t get drunk but be filled with the Holy Spirit (v.18)

A.   speak to each other with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (v.19)

B.   Sing and make music form your heart to the Lord (v.19)

C.   Give thanks to God in everything (v.20)

D.    Submit to each other out of love for Christ (v.21)

1.   Wives, to your husbands (v. 22)

2.   Husbands to your wives (v. 25)

3.   Children to your parents (6:1)

4.   Parents (fathers specifically) to your children (6:4)

5.   Slaves to your masters (6:5)

6.   Masters to your slaves (6:9)

The three main points are all written as parallels.  The 4 subpoints are also written as parallels.  And the 6 sub-subpoints are all written as parallels.

This particular look at this section reveals a few things.  Paul’s seeming prohibition against drinking is not about teetotaling at all (elsewhere he suggests to Timothy to have a glass of wine before bed for his upset stomach) but is part of a long argument about ethics (be careful how you live) and specifically about who you allow to control your behavior.  Similarly, Paul’s command that wives submit to their husbands is a sub point under his main point that as Christians we should all be submitting to each other: wives to husbands, but also husbands to wives.  Children to parents but also parents to children.  Slaves (employees in our current context) to the masters (bosses) but also bosses to their employees.  Submission means to put the needs of another above your own, in essence to put them first, and this is the whole point of Christ’s love for us and His command that we love one another.

It’s amazing what a little grammar work can do for our historical misunderstandings!

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Oct. 2 – Thoughts on Isa. 14-16 & Eph. 5:1-16

Today’s reading contains two of the most misused texts in the whole of scripture.  Isa. 14:12-15 is the first…

How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!
You said in your heart, “I will ascend to the heavens;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.
I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”
But you are brought down to the realm of the dead,
to the depths of the pit.

This verse, proclaimed just 8 verses before as a “taunt against the king of Babylon”, has been used as a prophecy against Satan.  Most people “know” that Satan was an angel of heaven who was high up in the heavenly ranks.  But, oddly like Icharus, his ambition got the best of him and he sought to be like God and got himself and his followers thrown out of heaven for it.  They fell to earth, ultimately becoming Satan and his devils and taking up residence in hell.

The only problem with this history is that it doesn’t appear in scripture.  It is assumed from a few different references in both old and new testaments, but primarily from this one.  Note the similarity in wording between the well known “history” and this taunt.  The other commonly referenced passages are Ezekiel chapter 28, which is stated to be about the King of Tyre, and Jesus’ statement in Luke 10, which is one short line in one of Jesus’ prophecies.  This is not to say that I don’t believe in Satan; I do wholeheartedly.  This is not to say I disbelieve this history.  It is simply to say that we need to recognize it as Tradition rather than Scripture, and give it appropriate weight.  This is not a spiritual discussion; it is a textual one.

The other scripture that is so misused only begins in today’s reading: Ephesians chapter 5.  The whole “wives submit to your husbands” has been used as a misogynist whooping stick for generations, but it was never meant that way.  Tomorrow I will outline this section of Ephesians and show you just what I mean.  Stay tuned!

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Oct. 1 – Thoughts on Isa. 11-13 & Eph. 4

I have based most of my ministry on Paul’s verse from Eph. 4.  God has gifted people to lead in the church and in the Kingdom.  But we have decided that this means certain individuals are gifted to do the work of the Kingdom and the church, people like pastors, evangelists, theologians.  Paul says that this is not right.  Instead, God has gifted leaders to equip the church for the works of service that God desires.  It is the job of pastors, evangelists, and teachers not to do the work of God but to equip the church to do these tasks.

Rather than thinking like Americans who believe that we pay people to do work for us, we need to begin thinking like a community of Christians.  We do not pay pastors, teachers, and evangelists to do our work for us.  Rather, we pay their expenses so that they can devote their time to equipping the saints, the army of the Lord, the church.  Fro Paul, this meant staying with other Christians, being fed by his followers, and when the church couldn’t or wouldn’t, he worked as a tentmaker to earn enough to cover his expenses.

Today, many pastors, teachers, and evangelists are bi-vocational, holding other jobs to pay the bills so they can work equipping the church with the rest of their time.  But this means less time to serve.  So the ideal for the church and the kingdom is to give pastors enough to allow them to give their full time equipping the church.  But we must remember that this is not payment to do the work for us.

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Sept. 30 – Thoughts on Isa. 9-10 & Eph. 3

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder. For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered  the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood  will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire.

For to us a child is born,to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the  Lord  Almighty will accomplish this.”

It always feels like Christmas when I read this passage, and yet it was not originally written as a Christmas text.  In fact, it was written over 700 years before there even was a Christmas.  And it was written as an encouragement in the midst of fear.  The Assyrians to the North were a vast and growing empire and kept eyeing God’s people as their next conquest.  And as Isaiah keeps saying, they are to be God’s weapon aimed at the unfaithful, in this case Israel herself.  And sure enough, the Assyrians did conquer Israel, the first of the two exiles of the prophets.

The bible is not always a book that makes us feel better.  Sometimes its truth makes us afraid, or calls us to account.  So far, Isaiah has ticked back and forth like a metronome, first warnings of the impending disaster and then ticking over to encouragement for the future, and then back again.  Tick tock.  Tick tock.

This is life with God.  If we are courageous enough, and righteous enough, to listen to His voice, then we will hear both warnings of disaster brought on by our own sin and encouragement for the future.  For God is always honest, and always true.  But with an eternal perspective, He can also be always encouraging in the long run.

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