"Do Not Lust"--Authority

Do Not Lust Meditation Commentary

“And if thy right hand offend thee, pluck it out, and cast if from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut if off, and cast if from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.” —Matthew 5:29-30

“Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness , faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart .”—II Timothy 2:22

            Often we think our thoughts are our own territory for us to rule over.  After all, if there is one place that is private and personal enough for us to own, it has to be our own thoughts that go through our own minds, right?  Is it actually possible, however, to infringe on someone else simply by the way we think?

            Obviously, Christians understand that their thoughts must bow before God, and must completely submit to Him as Lord.  If God commands His people to think a certain way, and avoid other thoughts, the nature of a servant under the authority of his master demands that God’s people obey Him even in the area of thoughts.  However, in the specific command God gives not to lust, there is another area of authority that is infringed upon.  When a person lusts, he or she actually steps out of the bounds of his or her own authority and takes authority that he or she has no right to.

            It is interesting that the tenth commandment denies the right a person has to covet.  Many of the Ten Commandments are fairly concrete and it is clear why the commands not to steal, murder, commit adultery, etc., are given in that those actions hurt other people.   In the tenth commandment, however, God goes straight to the root and attacks the mindset and mentality that could bring a great amount of harm.  Covetousness involves desiring things you have no right to or authority over.  Concupiscence, an obscure King James Biblical word used in Colossians 3:5, is used to describe a longing or desire for what is forbidden.  Clearly lust falls under the category of covetousness and concupiscence.

The Bible has an interesting concept in 1 Corinthians 7:3-4.  “Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband. The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife.”  Each spouse has power or authority over the other’s body.  Until marriage that person’s body does not belong to you, and when you desire it and undress a girl or disrespect her mentally, you are acting as if her body is yours to derive pleasure from, when that is not the case.  Lust crosses the boundaries of your own authority and tries to rob Christ of His, since all our bodies are supposed to belong to Him anyway (1 Cor. 6:20).

"Honor vs. Disrespect"--Authority

Honor vs. Disrespect Meditation Commentary

Honor is humbling myself in the presence of a God-given authority and expressing my devotion with an appropriate gift.

“O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker. For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.”  —Psalm 95:6-7

“Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you. Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly.” —Hebrews 13:17-18

            Honor is an undervalued concept in our culture.  Other cultures often have more esteem for the concept of honor than we as Americans do.  It has to do with respect and reverence, which are often not concepts that care-free and easy-going, tolerant Americans like to think about.  We do have some idea of what it is all about.  When we put our hand over our hearts and say the Pledge of Allegiance, we are showing honor for our country.  When we have a moment of silence for those who have died in battle, we show honor for their sacrifice.  When we clap or stand for a well-known speaker we show honor for his position.  When we give up a better seat on the bus for an elderly person or a lady, we show honor for age or femininity.  Some of these things are still lightly esteemed.  Acknowledging and recognizing authority, however, can restore a glorious understanding of honor to the way we interact with people.  

If we acknowledge God’s authority, and the authority of His Word in the Bible, we will give Him and His Word due respect and honor.  We will esteem those things that have to do with Him or His Word in a higher fashion than we may treat a comic book, psychology newsletter, or Buddha statue.  We show honor to God and His Word in many different ways than simply physical like standing for the reading of the Word in church, or putting it in an exalted place.  A Muslim friend of mine was surprised to see a Bible on the dashboard of a truck, and mentioned that Christians treat what they claim is the Word of God with so much more disrespect than Muslims do the Koran.  My friend who owned the truck explained that he did honor the Word of God, but he honored it by doing what it said, rather than showing reverence for the actual ink and paper.  Honor involves showing value by respecting the gravity and authenticity of authority.  We honor God by doing what He says.  The same goes for the authority of other things.  If we acknowledge the authority of our country’s leaders, our parents, our employers, our teachers, or even of other people, we will honor them, and honor those the authorities command to honor.   Of course, there is a hierarchy of order.  Honor for God comes before honor for any other authority.  But if we really honor God, we will also honor those He commands us to honor, which includes everyone around us.  (Eph. 5:21)

"Honor Your Parents"--Authority

Honor Your Parents Meditation Commentary

“For God commanded saying, Honor thy father and mother; and he that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.” —Matthew 15:4

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honor thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.” —Ephesians 6:1-3

            The word for “honor” reveals a lot about what God’s intentions were in giving this command.  The Strong’s definition says, “to prize, that is, fix a valuation upon; by implication to revere: - honour, value.”   As the definition indicates, this is more than a casual respect or regard or simple obedience.  Christians are supposed to prize and value parents which means that we are not to just begrudgingly do what they say because we have to, but must recognize their value.  Parents are incredible gifts, especially in the context of the way God intends for families to work.  He has provided two people to help and instruct us through life, and to provide examples for how to do basic things, and also to provide and protect and teach social constructs to.  Of course, the immediate question is to ask about those parents who do not live in the context of God’s plan…those who are not perfect or who are absent.  My dad passed away when I was seven years old, and I have grown up in a single-parent home, with just my mom raising us.  Though this may be seen as a drawback, I value and prize and honor my mom even more than I likely would if both of my parents were alive, because I recognize that she has put in so much work and effort into raising us, having to do the job of both parents.  I also still value my dad, even though he is not with us, because he did so much for me when he was alive.  The command, however, also applies to those whose parents do not live according to God’s guideline.  We are to look for and uphold the value in our parents, regardless of how they act.  Parents are the authorities God has placed in our lives, and part of honoring them has to do with esteeming them even if we do to agree with them.

"Meekness"--Authority

Meekness vs. Anger Meditation Commentary

Meekness is yielding my rights to God so He can demonstrate His peace and power through me.

“So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” —James 1:19-21

            America is a very “rights” driven society.   We talk a lot about our rights: as human beings, as Americans, as citizens, as a man or woman, as a certain ethnicity or race, as Christians, etc., the list goes on and on.   We also have this concept that we are our own authority.  Government is of the people, and nobody can tell us to do anything that we do not want to do.  We are constantly told to stand up for our rights.  Meekness, however, flies in the face of all that and is described here as yielding our rights to God.  Meekness is essential in submitting to any authorities.  We have to be willing to take ourselves down off the pedestal of our own authority, and yield our right to be right, our right to be happy and our right to do what we want, to someone else.  Otherwise, we are not under any authority other than our own.  The result when an “un-meek person” clashes with someone in authority usually has to do with an angry confrontation.  The Bible says, “Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well-advised is wisdom.” (Proverbs 13:10)  The ESV puts it this way: “By insolence comes nothing but strife, but with those who take advice is wisdom.”  Those who take advice could be summarized as those that are meek.  It is wise to be meek.  It is wise to let go of our own selfish pride and ‘rights’ so that we can yield to someone else in humility.  This can be easily seen in so many relationships.   A mom tells her teenage son not to listen to a certain CD, or a father tells a daughter not to dress a certain way, or whatever the case is, and the kid gets angry.  Why?  Because he or she believes he or she has a right to do these things and the parent is infringing on those rights.  A church has certain guidelines for how people on the platform should dress and a singer gets angry when the pastor tells her she cannot sing this service because her dress does not meet the guidelines.  She has the right to dress however she wants!  Nobody can tell her what to do. As students we have the choice to be meek or angry.  We can yield our ‘rights’ to do what we want, or we can get angry that we all of our rights are being challenged by the guidelines the faculty of our school sets in place.  These examples have all been with human authority figures but the biggest test comes to the Word of God, and to living for Him, and determining whether we still think we have the right to do certain things, and that God cannot tell us what to do.  We are told to receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save our souls.  If we do not have meekness, and a willingness to yield our rights, it is hard for us to see that God should have absolute control, and it makes sense that we yield.  Meekness requires that we submit to authority and yield to God, and angry confrontation becomes the norm if we do not.

MedCom Series! "Follow Me"--Authority

Another semester ended and has begun again, so I thought I would do another meditation commentary series.  These are short little 300 word posts relating two concepts from Scripture together.  Last time I did this in December the focus was Design, as you can see here: What's a MedComm Anyway? (Repentance and Design).  This semester the theme was 'Authority', and each post reflects how the broad concept relates to either a command of Christ or a character quality.  Love to hear your thoughts on any of the concepts!

   Authority

Honoring the responsibilities of parents, church leaders, government, and other authorities and learning how God works through them to provide direction and protection. Honoring my authorities brings Inward Peace.

Follow Me Meditation Commentary

“And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” —Matthew 4:19

 “For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.”—II Corinthians 4:5-7

            Authority is a concept from which we tend to shy away a lot of times.  The innate pride, rebellion and selfishness that threatens to rule our lives as humans is in complete opposition to the concept of authority.  We may not cringe at the thought of all authority, however—only the authority that is over us.  As humans, we do not like to be told what to do, but as Christians, it is imperative to recognize that God needs to have complete authority over our lives, and that He places others in authority over us as well.  There is something wonderful that pervades God’s authority though.  Sometimes when we think of authority, we think of a power-hungry tyrant, with armies of brutal soldiers at his command, or a ruler snapping principal who is intent on enforcing the ‘no chewing gum in class’ rule, or a police officer who is delighted to give us a ticket for going 3 over the speed limit.  God’s authority is not the authority of an iron fist, however.  In fact, we do not even have to submit to it.  He gives us a choice.  “Follow me,” is the command of Christ.  We can choose to place ourselves under His loving rule or not, but once we put our hands to the plow, and declare Him Lord, He expects us not to look back, or we are not fit for the kingdom of God.  Once we follow this command, any other authority in our lives must fall under that umbrella.  The Apostle Paul wrote, “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.”  (1 Cor. 11:1)  Clearly, the Apostle Paul was seen as an authority in the Corinthian church, but he made it clear that the authority was only valid if he was under the ultimate authority of Christ. Our job is to follow Christ wherever He leads.  If another authority in our lives is following Christ, then we fall right in line behind that person.  On the other hand, if an authority in our lives makes a break from that path of following Christ, our duty is to keep on the straight and narrow path of following Him, and ignore the road the other person takes.  We see this concept over and over again when the Bible talks about authority.  “Children, obey your parents in the Lord,”… “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord.” (emphasis added.)  We are told to submit to governments, but when the government comes in between us and our Lord, we are to have the same response as the apostles in Acts 4:19: “Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto ye, rather than unto God, judge ye.”  When we think about authority, the command of Jesus needs to be our top priority: “Follow me.”  All other authority falls beneath that command.

Bride of Christ Perspectives

This is a paper I wrote a few months ago, but thought I would make it available to everyone in cyberspace.

            In light of the fact that Jesus Christ our Lord views us as His cherished Bride, how does this affect your perspective on the following:

            Worship:

            Understanding the definition of worship as intense focus and devotion, in light of the fact mentioned above, brings an incredible perspective to worship.  Worship suddenly becomes a natural outpouring of our heart, when we begin to see Christ the way He really is, and fall in love with Him for that reason.  Worship ceases to be a drudgery that we have to perform, as if we were grudgingly bowing down in front of a king whose policies and ideals we don’t really agree with, but that we still have to honor—instead, worship is a response in devotion and love to the great love and faithfulness He has shown us!

            Sin:

            Sin can be thought of as breaking a law, or doing something wrong, and it is.  But looking at it from the angle that Christ is our “groom”, and we are His “cherished bride”, makes it less about a formalized code that we are breaking, and more about hurting Someone we love.  The realization of who Christ is and the way He sees us should change our motivation behind not sinning.  The reason I do not want to sin is not because I am trying to avoid hell or get to heaven; it is because I love Jesus and do not want to do anything that displeases Him, particularly in the light of all the grace He has shown us, and how much He loves us and is looking out for our best interests.  Psalm 10:4 has an interesting statement about the wicked.  It says, “God is not in all his thoughts.”  I noticed it does not say, “God is not in his thoughts at all”, but rather that the wicked person is not thinking about God all the time.  What that tells me is that if we have the mentality that we are in love with Him and He is in love with us, just like a groom and his bride, all our thoughts will be centered on Him and what He desires, and what we desire will pale in comparison.  That is the thing that will keep us from wickedness.

            Obedience:

            The verse that comes to my mind in relation to being obedient to Christ is 1 John 5:3: “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.”  Because we understand the relationship that exists between ourselves and Jesus, we should not think of obedience to Him as a grievous thing, like following the rules of a strict taskmaster.  We are so overwhelmed with gratitude and love because we do not deserve anything that He has given us and we want to do whatever we possibly can to show Him our love, that obedience should be the natural response of the heart to express our love for Him.  In a healthy marriage relationship, a wife obeys her husband, not because she is scared of him or insecure, but because she wants to demonstrate that she respects, trusts, and honors him.  Our relationship with Christ should have the same impetus.

            Life Purpose:

            The whole reason Jesus uses this metaphor is because there is an unbreakable covenant that is enacted when two people are married.  The husband does not have his own life separate from his wife.  The two become one.  It is the same when we make a covenant with Christ.  Colossians 3:4 is one of my favorite verses describing this, and it says, “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”  Christ doesn’t just give us a new life for us to go live on our own…He becomes our life!  Our old life is dead.  As was mentioned in the sermon we listened to in class, love involves leaving your old life to begin a new life, completely entwined with your spouse, and the purpose of your life becomes to please him/her.  When we become a Christian, the purpose of our life becomes to please our husband, Christ, and we cease to look at our own interests and expectations, and focus on Him and what He wants and who He is. 

Are We Running Toward Jesus or Away From Sin?

Are we running toward Jesus or away from sin?
This question has been a theme in conversations and Bible studies for me the last couple weeks. It's not something I think I'm mastering.  It's just a different way of looking at things, that I thought I would share with all of you.
One might think these two things are the same, but there's a slight but important, very significant difference in the nuance of the question.  The difference is in focus and in motivation.
The goal in our Christian lives is supposed to be Jesus.  God is our focal point, because we are supposed to be in relationship with Him.  It seems obvious, but He is the One who makes the Christian life anything.  He is our exceeding great reward.  But sometimes, we, as Christians, can become focused and consumed with fighting sin.  Our eyes are on the battle, not the goal.  We see a problem in our lives, and understand that we should not be sinning as Christians, so we become determined to beat the sin, and to overcome the besetting sins that we are faced with.  We set up tons of boundaries and strategies, and completely focus on fighting the battle.  It is important to understand the point of the fight though and not lose sight of that.  Obviously, we have to fight sin...but why?  What is our motivation?  Is holiness the goal?  Is humility the goal?  Actually, the reason we work towards all these things is because sin gets in the way of our relationship with Jesus.  We love Him; we are focused on Him, and therefore, we want to love the things He loves and hate the things He hates.  Even if we were able to completely eradicate sin in our lives, it would not solve the root issue of our cold heart, which is in need of a relationship with God.  We eradicate sin to get it out of the way of our relationship with God.
David's Men Fighting to the Well at Bethlehem
I love the stories of David's mighty men, and one of my favorites is when David longs for a drink from the water in the well of Bethlehem.  Three of his great men overhear, and they fight through the enemy lines just to get him a cup of water.  However, they were focused on a goal.  Can you imagine if they got distracted from their goal and were focused on the battle?  If in fighting the battle and trying to get through, they suddenly became completely focused on killing the enemy, they never would have accomplished the goal for their master.  They killed enough people, fought through just enough to get the water and get back to their king because they loved him.  They weren't thinking about the fight as much as the prize, but the fight was necessary to get the prize.
The following verses really encapsulate this concept for me:

Philippians 3:9-14  And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:  (10)  That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;  (11)  If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.  (12)  Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.  (13)  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,  (14)  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

A friend sent me this quote, which goes right along with this concept:

"The great error that I am trying to explode in these messages is the error that says, faith in God is one thing and the fight for holiness is another thing. Faith gets you to heaven and holiness gets you rewards. You get your justification by faith, and you get your sanctification by works. You start the Christian life in the power of the Spirit, you press on in the efforts of the flesh. This is the great evangelical error of our day. The battle for obedience is optional, they say, because only faith is necessary for salvation.

Our response: the battle for obedience is absolutely necessary for salvation because it IS the fight of faith. The battle against lust is absolutely necessary for salvation because it is the battle against unbelief. Faith alone delivers from hell and the faith that delivers from hell delivers from lust." ~John Piper

I love this because faith is not a one-time thing like so many people seem to believe.  Faith is a lifestyle.  It is actively and continually choosing to trust and hope in God and throw ourselves at His mercy.  We MUST fight sin BECAUSE we believe what He says is true and we obey Him.
I see praying and reading my Bible as an end sometimes.  I know I NEED to do it, but it can be difficult.  The other day when I finally prayed, and hadn't for two consecutive days, I asked myself why.  I was telling God that I want Him to work in the ways I've been learning and the things I have been teaching about walking in the Spirit and not in the flesh, but I realized I'm scared.  I'm scared that it won't work.  I'm scared that He won't come through in the way that I understand the Scriptures to be communicating.  I don't really trust Him.  When I realized this, I sort of broke down, and said, "God, I know I need to trust you, but I don't know how."  And it seemed like He said, "Obey me."  Do the things that you know I've commanded, and demonstrate in that way that you believe that His promises are true, and that He will do the things He's said.  It freed me up a little bit.  I could do the basic things I knew to do like pray and read my Bible to become closer to Him, and He could handle the rest.  The focus is Him.
Safety Net
This is one thing the Pharisees didn't understand.  A mentor gave me an analogy that I know I have mentioned before, but it made so much sense to me, so I am going to bring it up again.  The law was intended as a safety net for the Jews.  Their focus was supposed to be on God, and the laws were intended as boundaries to show them when they were falling too far back or straying too far from His character.  Instead of looking to Yahweh and letting the law keep them from sin, they elevated the safety net, which was the law, and began looking to that.  The law became the standard instead of their God being the standard.  The law was a means to keep them in right relationship with God, not an end in itself.
Romans 8
Now, however, we do the same thing.  As Piper mentioned, and the apostle Paul asked the Galatians, "Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?"  Romans 6 shows that we cannot continue in sin, but Romans 7 shows that we cannot overcome it solely by relying on our flesh or willpower, because we have a sin nature.  Romans 8 describes walking in the Spirit. We are walking in His footsteps, following after Him.  What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son did, by doing all the work for us, and inviting us into His family.  Romans 8 describes a deep, intimate, personal relationship as adopted sons, rather than slaves in bondage, communicating with the Spirit of the One who groans on our behalf, and helps us in our weaknesses.
Superstitious Bible Memory
Sometimes people look to strategies for conquering sin, and approach the Christian life almost superstitiously.  If I do certain things I will be fine.  Even things like memorizing the Bible...they think there is some intrinsic power in memorizing the words that will keep them from sin.  But when Psalm 119:11 speaks of hiding His word in our hearts so that we might not sin against Him, it isn't saying that the letters making up the words themselves have some kind of hidden power...rather, the concepts contained in the pages of Scripture, when transferred to our heart, and when it becomes part of our motivation, it shows us how to live and what God wants and how to keep from sinning.  Our focus needs to be on God though.  His character.  His Word.  His Name.  When we focus on Him, we understand what He loves and what He hates, and are able to fall in love with Him, and do the things He wants, which includes the battle against sin.

To sum up what I am trying to say, if we love Jesus, we are going to shun sin, but the point isn't to shun sin, the point is to get to Jesus.  That has to be understood.