The Training Ground for Sound Doctrine

Article by Tim Challies

For over a decade, I have been reviewing books that are of particular interest to Christians. While the vast majority of the titles I have reviewed are solid works founded on biblical principles, I am far better known for those occasional reviews of the very worst  books in the Christian world. Sadly, these books that teach the worst are often the books that sell the best.

I do not relish writing such reviews. That’s partly because they meet plenty of backlash. But it’s mostly because I find writing them very sorrowful. It’s sorrowful to witness the church’s widespread theological ignorance exposed by these books’ popularity. Because Christians are not trained in sound doctrine, they wholeheartedly embrace error, often finding it more satisfying than God’s revealed truth.

We have attempted to make Christianity palatable by making it simplistic.

There are many reasons that ignorance pervades today’s church. For decades, Christians have focused on felt needs rather than doctrinal truth. We have focused on immediately-applicable topical sermons rather than verse-by-verse exposition that unleashes the whole truth of God’s whole Word. We have ceased catechizing our children, building within them a solid, systematic foundation for their faith. We have emphasized Christianity as a relationship with God at the expense of Christianity as an established body of truth. In so many ways, we have focused on feelings rather than facts. We have attempted to make Christianity palatable by making it simplistic.

While the Christian faith is much more than facts, much more than doctrines, it can never be less. Christianity is dependent upon truths that are taught by God’s Word and received by God’s people. Every Christian is responsible to learn sound doctrine, to be trained in the truth in order to discern error. Here are three means God has provided for us to train ourselves in sound doctrine.

Train Yourself in Sound Doctrine

Every Christian is individually responsible to study sound doctrine and learn it for themselves. Paul told Timothy, “If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed” (1 Timothy 4:6). Paul wanted Timothy to know that this training would be hard work: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).

To know sound doctrine, we must know the Word of God, for “all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Every Christian must read, study, and know the Bible and the truth it contains. King David models an appropriate love for God’s Word when he exclaims, “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day” (Psalm 119:97). By day and by night he read the Bible, he learned the Bible, and he applied it to his life.

Christian, you must know the truth of the Christian faith. And to know the truth of the Christian faith, you must know the Bible. You must sit under the teaching of God’s Word week by week in the local church. You must ensure a habit of regular, consistent Bible intake, reading the Word, pondering the Word, and ensuring you are living consistent to it. You have access to myriad resources to help you in this—books and commentaries and web sites that will help you further understand, embrace, and apply the truths of God’s Word. Commit your life to the pursuit of the sound doctrine by a deep commitment to God’s Word.

Train in Sound Doctrine With Your Family

Parents have a sobering, God-given responsibility to instruct their children in the Word.

Every Christian is responsible to personally know and embrace sound doctrine. Every Christian parent is also responsible to teach sound doctrine within the home. Moses commanded this from the very beginning when he said, “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:6-9). Parents have a sobering, God-given responsibility to instruct their children in the Word. This involves reading the Bible to their children, but also explaining it in age-appropriate ways and applying it to specific situations.

We see this beautifully modeled in young Timothy. Paul commended Timothy’s mother and grandmother for the way they had raised the lad to know, understand, and treasure the Word of God. Paul was able to say, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:14-15). Timothy had the inestimable privilege of spending his whole life being taught the Word and the sound doctrine it contains.

Parents, it is your solemn responsibility to instruct your children in the Word of God and in its doctrine. Familiarize them with the Word, with the story it contains and the characters it describes. But also ensure that you also familiarize them with its pattern of sound doctrine. Take advantage of the many devotionals, creeds, and catechisms Christians have created for just this purpose. Instruct your children so they, too, will know the truth.

Train in Sound Doctrine With Your Church

Just as parents bear the responsibility of teaching sound doctrine with the home, pastors bear the responsibility of teaching sound doctrine within the church. As Paul writes to his colleagues Titus and Timothy, he pleads with them to teach sound doctrine, to guard it faithfully, and to ensure its preservation by entrusting it to others (Titus 2:2, 2 Timothy 1:13, 2:2). Paul himself taught sound doctrine by instructing believers both “in public and from house to house” (Acts 20:20). In public ministry and private ministry, in big groups and small groups, Paul actively taught the people the Bible’s key truths. Paul’s most solemn charge of all was for Timothy to preach the Word and its every truth: “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:1-2).

But it is not just pastors who bear the weight of training in sound doctrine. Every church member must be rooted in truth. Paul commanded all believers in Ephesus, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom.” God has provided fellow believers in the local church to admonish us in sound doctrine and to guard us against falling away from it.

When Paul spoke the word to the Jews in Berea, they “received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11). Likewise, all Christians are called together to test all things according to the Scriptures. This is a noble calling in God’s sight.

Train in Sound Doctrine for a Lifetime

Training ourselves in sound doctrine cannot happen without diligence. But even as we use all of the means God has given us, training in sound doctrine cannot happen overnight. It requires small, daily investments of mornings in private study, evenings of worship with the family, and weekly faithfulness in gathering with the church. Over time, these small seeds of training will yield the fruit of righteousness.

Christian, start training in sound doctrine today. Make daily investments of faithfulness in private, with your family, and with your church. Then you will be “equipped for every good work,” ready to hold God’s unchanging truth and reject any deadly doctrine.

Posted at: https://www.challies.com/articles/the-training-ground-of-sound-doctrine/?fbclid=IwAR0b8K07gitiEuEKnyICek9MaCw3ILBquPUtW5_O_oOibIeIrJIE-D7Rj6M

Prayer: A Source of Living Water and Strength For Desert Wanderers

by James Williams 

We know we need to pray. We also know the Scripture commands us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17). After all, the forces of evil will do everything in their power to stop God’s people  from praying. Even though, we know all that (or should know that),  yet we often find our prayer life lacking.

Why?

Perhaps the most common excuse is that we’re so busy. I can relate to this. The demands of life are ever-increasing without a single minute being added to the day. On top of the normal demands of a full-time job, kids must be taken to practice, yards must be mowed, and somebody has got to figure out what’s causing that funky smell in the mini-van. On top of all this, any ‘spare’ moment I can find is spent trying to complete my dissertation. While your situation might look different than mine, chances are you are extremely busy too. Is that the real reason we don’t pray enough?

No.

A DEEPER ISSUE

While it’s true, we are very busy, that’s simply the surface excuse. The problem is much deeper. As Jackie Hill Perry perceptively states, “Our busy schedules aren’t keeping us from prayer, our hearts are.” Our continual lack of prayer is an indication of something deep within our heart. Maybe it’s pride telling us that we’ve ‘got this’ on our own. It could be our unbelief telling us to that prayer is a waste of time when there so much more ‘practical’ things to do. Of course, most of us would never say these things explicitly, but our actions show what a portion of our heart truly believes. These deep-seeded issues in our heart come out in many different ways:

• Perhaps we don’t pray for our spouse enough because we think we’ve got the whole marriage thing figured out.

• Perhaps we don’t pray for our kids enough because we subconsciously think that our ability to ‘raise them right’ is enough for them.

• Perhaps we don’t pray for our fellow church members enough because we’re ignorant of the forces of darkness that are seeking to destroy their faith or the temptations they face daily.

• Perhaps we don’t pray for the government leaders enough because we don’t believe it really does anything.

• Perhaps we don’t pray for our pursuit of holiness because, compared to some, we’re doing ok.

• Perhaps we don’t pray for God to work in a difficult situation because we simply think we’re capable enough to fix it on our own.

• Perhaps we don’t pray for lost loved ones because we doubt the power of the Gospel to work in the hardest hearts.

The main problem isn’t that we are too busy (although we probably are), it’s that we are too self-sufficient, too prideful, or too unbelieving to pray. At times, God pulls back the curtain and gives us a glimpse into how needy we are.

DESERT WANDERERS

I don’t like to think I’m weak, but the reality is I’m a needy wanderer walking barefoot in a sun-scorched desert. My pride might tell me I’m ok, but every step in the blistering sand sears my feet and elevates my body temperature. The great Accuser reminds me of past sin that zaps my mouth of any drop of moisture, causing my tongue to stick to the roof of my mouth. Every failure is another bead of sweat that gathers on my drenched forehead, reminding me that my body is slowly withering away in dehydration. At last, I see a fountain of water ahead and desperately hobble to it only to discover the mirage of my own self-sufficiency. By my own fading strength, I’m crawling through life on the verge of death, longing for a drink.

It’s only when I see the truth about my situation that I’ll make time to pray. With a dry mouth and sandy hands, I’ll adjust my schedule to drink deeply of the water of life. Jesus said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink” (John 7:37). The truth is we are all thirsty, we just don’t always realize it. Rather than see ourselves as desert wanderers, we like to imagine our life as a well-equipped day at the beach. However, when we come to see our inabilities, insufficiencies, and unholiness, we’ll fall down before our Maker in humble desperation.

Do we cry out with the Psalmist, “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1)? As Kevin DeYoung says, our life shows what we truly cherish:

If someone recorded your life for a week and then showed it to a group of strangers, what would they guess is the “good portion” in your life? What would they conclude is the one thing you must get done every day? Folding the laundry? Cleaning the house? Catching up on e-mails? Posting to Facebook? Mowing the lawn? Watching the game? I know you have things to do. I have plenty to do myself. But out of all the concerns in our lives, can we honestly say and show that sitting at the feet of Jesus is the one thing that is necessary?

My fellow desert wanderer, let us drink deeply today through prayer and God’s word that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Given our state of absolute need and desperation, and given the mighty abundance of grace and mercy available in Christ, it’s foolish not to pray. Let us not die of thirst and exhaustion when living water and strength are only a prayer away.

Posted at: http://servantsofgrace.org/prayer-a-source-of-living-water-and-strength-for-desert-wanderers/

Toward a Theology of Apology

By Kevin DeYoung

We need more work in the years ahead—exegetical, historical, and doctrinal—on our theology of apology.

For starters, the word itself is ambiguous. Apology can mean anything from “let me defend myself,” to “my bad,” to “I’m sorry you feel that way,” to “I repent in deepest contrition.” We could use more careful language to express what we mean (and don’t mean) to communicate.

Apologies are also complicated by history. What is our responsibility in the present to apologize for things that have happened in the past? Should Christians apologize for the Crusades? For the Salem Witch Trials? For slavery? Some apologies for the past are appropriate and heartfelt, while others feel less sincere and more manufactured.

And then there is the presence of social media, which gives us all the opportunity to make public apologies (or demand them of others). When are public apologies profound examples of humility and healing, and when do they cross the line into implicit rebuke and moral grandstanding? These are issues of the heart to be sure, but they are also biblical and theological issues.

Moving in the Right Direction (Maybe)

The “Toward” in the title of this post is important. It’s the academic way of saying, “I don’t have this all figured out, but maybe I have something helpful to throw into the mix, so here goes.” With my weasel word firmly in place, here are two suggestions for Christians as we formulate a theology of apology.

Suggestion #1

First, let’s utilize the category of corporate responsibility, but within limits.

The book of Acts is an illuminating case study in this respect. We see, on the one hand, that people can be held responsible for sins they may not have directly carried out. In Acts 2, Peter charges the “[m]en of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem” (v. 14) with crucifying Jesus (v. 23, 36). To be sure, they did this by the hands of lawless men (v. 23), but as Jews present in Jerusalem during Passion Week, they bore some responsibility for Jesus’s death. Likewise, Peter charged the men of Israel gathered at Solomon’s Portico with delivering Jesus over and denying him in the presence of Pilate (Acts 3:11-16). While we don’t know if every single person in the Acts 3 crowd had chosen Barabbas over Christ, Peter certainly felt comfortable in laying the crucifixion at their feet. Most, if not all of them, had played an active role in the events leading up to Jesus’s death. This was a sin in need of repentance (v. 19, 26). We see the same in Acts 4:10 and 5:30 where Peter and John charge the council (i.e., the Sanhedrin) with killing Jesus. In short, the Jews in Jerusalem during Jesus’s last days bore responsibility for his murder.

Once the action leaves Jerusalem, however, the charges start to sound different. In speaking to Cornelius (a Gentile), his relatives, and close friends, Peter relays that they (the Jews in Jerusalem) put Jesus to death (10:39). Even more specifically, Paul tells the crowd in Pisidian Antioch that “those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers” condemned Jesus (Acts 13:27). This speech is especially important because Paul is talking to Jews. He does not blame the Jews in Pisidian Antioch with the crimes of the Jews in Jerusalem.

This is a consistent pattern. Paul doesn’t charge the Jews in Thessalonica or Berea with killing Jesus (Acts 17), nor the Jews in Corinth (Acts 18) or in Ephesus (Acts 19). In fact, when Paul returns to Jerusalem years after the crucifixion, he does not accuse the Jews there of killing Jesus; he does not even charge the council with that crime (Acts 23). He doesn’t blame Felix (Acts 24) or Festus (Acts 25) or Agrippa (Acts 26) for Jesus’s death, even though they are all men in authority connected in some way with the governing apparatus that killed Christ. The apostles considered the Jews in Jerusalem at the time of the crucifixion uniquely responsible for Jesus’s death, but this culpability did not extend to every high-ranking official, to every Jew, or to everyone who would live in Jerusalem thereafter. The rest of the Jews and Gentiles in the book of Acts still had to repent of their wickedness, but they were not charged with killing the Messiah.

Does this mean there is never any place for corporate culpability across time and space? No. In Matthew 23:35, Jesus charges the Scribes and Pharisees with murdering Zechariah the son of Barachiah. Although there is disagreement about who this Zechariah is, most scholars agree he is a figure from the past who was not killed in their lifetimes. The fact that the Scribes and Pharisees were treating Jesus with contempt put them in the same category as their ancestors who had also treated God’s prophets with contempt (cf. Acts 7:51-53). It could rightly be said that they murdered Zechariah between the sanctuary and the altar because they shared in the same spirit of hate as the murderers in Zechariah’s day.

Similarly, we see several examples of corporate confession in the Old Testament. As God’s covenant people, the Israelites were commanded to confess their sins and turn from their wicked ways so as to come out from under the divinely sanctioned covenant curses (2 Chron. 6:12-42; 7:13-18). This is why we see the likes of Ezra (Ezra 9-10), Nehemiah (Neh. 1:4-11), and Daniel (Dan. 9:3-19) leading in corporate confession. The Jews were not lumped together because of race, ethnicity, geography, education level, or socio-economic status. The Israelites had freely entered into a covenant relationship with each other and with their God. In all three examples above, the leader entered into corporate confession because (1) he was praying for the covenant people, (2) the people were as a whole marked by unfaithfulness, and (3) the leader himself bore some responsibility for the actions of the people, either by having been blind to the sin (Ezra 9:3) or by participating directly in the sin (Neh. 9:6; Dan. 9:20).

To sum up: The Bible has a category for corporate responsibility. Culpability for sins committed can extend to a large group if virtually everyone in the group was active in the sin (it is telling, however, that the apostles don’t seem to think they killed Jesus, even though they were in Jerusalem at that time). We can also be held responsible for sins committed long ago if we bear the same spiritual resemblance to the perpetrators of the past. And yet, the category of corporate responsibility can be stretched too far. The Jews of the diaspora were not guilty of killing Jesus just because they were Jews. Neither were later Jews in Jerusalem charged with that crime just because they lived in the place where the crucifixion took place. And we must differentiate between other-designated identity blocs and freely chosen covenantal communities. Moral complicity is not strictly individualistic, but it has its limits.

Which leads to a second point.

Suggestion #2

Let’s try using more precise categories when apologizing for the past.

As I said at the beginning, our apologizing words don’t always mean the same thing. “I’m sorry” can mean “I feel bad that you are hurting” all the way to “I sinned against God and men.” Likewise, people may use “blame” to mean “I could have done more” or “I feel deep contrition for my wickedness.” We need some additional categories for expressing grief over wrongs committed.

I can think of at least four things we might mean by making an apology for something in the past.

• Recognition: I acknowledge what happened, and I see the negative effects of those sins of omission or commission.

• Remorse: I feel terrible for what has happened.

• Renunciation: I reject what has taken place in the past and repudiate those beliefs, words, thoughts, or actions.

• Repentance: I have sinned against God and will turn away from this evil and strive after greater obedience to God’s law in my life.

Each aspect of apology has its place, but all may not be present in every instance of saying, “I’m sorry.” Sometimes we get tied up in knots making public apologies of corporate sin because we are unsure how to repent of sins we didn’t commit, when a more appropriate (and equally salutary) step might be to recognize what happened and express our remorse over what transpired in the past, while utterly renouncing those attitudes and actions wherever they exist in the present.

[I suppose you could make restitution a fifth aspect of apologizing, but I would include this under repentance. When Zacchaeus declared his intentions to pay back four-times the amount he defrauded from others—in keeping with Old Testament law (Exod. 22:1)—Jesus took this as a sign of genuine faith and repentance (Luke 19:8-9). While the law at Sinai never tried to enforce a vision of cosmic justice whereby every inequality was abolished, it did command God’s people to make restitution for wrongs committed (Exod. 21:33-22:15) and to be openhanded to the needy (Exod. 22:21-27).]

Is There Room for We?

Of course, things get even trickier if we change those “I” statements to “we” statements. When am I responsible for something as a “we” that I may not be responsible for as an “I”? That depends on a lot of factors. We’ve already seen that Paul did not ask the Jews in Pisidian Antioch to repent of killing Jesus just because they were Jews. And yet, that doesn’t put an end to all corporate responsibility.

Consider two examples.

If you’ll permit a grim analogy, suppose you are the parent of a child who ends up a mass shooter. You raised your child with love and discipline. You didn’t encourage any destructive or hateful tendencies. You were a good (if still imperfect) parent, and your other children turned out fine. When the camera comes on you for a statement, you may not repent per se (since you don’t feel like you sinned in how you raised your now-25-year-old son), but you would certainly be right to recognize what has happened, express profound remorse (probably even saying “I’m sorry”), and renounce violence of this kind.

But consider a second example. Suppose you never disciplined your child for violent behavior. You saw his disturbing journals and did nothing about it. In fact, as a parent, you often told your son that people of color, or people with disabilities, or people with athletic chops, or pretty girls, or whatever, were losers and didn’t deserve to live. Now when you find out what your son has done, what do you say? Even though you didn’t commit a crime, you would be right to issue a “we” statement that includes repentance. Your actions played a direct role in the tragedy.

It’s messy, isn’t it? Someone can always say that you were a part of “a culture” that produced someone or something. But I think we need a tighter argument. The apostles didn’t argue that the culture of first-century Judaism killed Jesus; the Jews in Jerusalem, by the hands of the Romans, killed Jesus. Our corporate apologies would be helped if we looked at the differences between recognition, remorse, renunciation, and repentance.

Similarly, public apologies are more or less appropriate based on whether their cost is mainly to us or mainly to someone else. When someone steeped in Southern Presbyterianism apologizes in tears for the sins of the 19th-century Presbyterians he grew up revering, that costs something. When college kids, who have never been tempted in their lives to idolize Richard the Lionheart, set up confessional booths on campus to apologize for the Crusades, that costs next to nothing. One is a public expression of personal lament; the other is a personal expression of public accusation.

All of this means that the stronger the ties that bind, the stronger the argument for corporate identification. On the one hand, some Christians are quick to apologize for anything and everything (and quicker to demand apologies from everyone else). On the other hand, there are too many examples in the Bible of God’s covenant people confessing their sins together to immediately dismiss every attempt to address corporate sins of the past or the present. Even if we don’t issue a formal statement of repentance, there is still a place for churches, denominations, and other institutions to express the other three R’s. Our theology of apology must be sufficiently nuanced to allow that “We are sorry” can be appropriate even in situations where insisting on moral complicity may not be. If the Sanhedrin in AD 90 had come to Christ en masse, they wouldn’t have had to repent for killing Jesus, but we would certainly have taken it as a good sign if they had expressed the deepest remorse over his crucifixion and renounced the opposition to Jesus that lead to his death.

Posted at: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevin-deyoung/toward-theology-apology/

Blessed Assurance

By John MacArthur

God is holy and we are sinful. Those two inescapable truths should frame our entire worldview. They also explain the terror God’s saints always felt during the divine encounters recorded in Scripture. It shouldn’t surprise us that even the apostle John collapsed “like a dead man” at the Lord’s feet when he came face-to-face with the glorified Christ (Revelation 1:17).

Throughout Scripture, that kind of intense, overwhelming fear was the consistent reaction of those who experienced a heavenly vision or encounter. When the Angel of the Lord appeared and announced the birth of Samson, “Manoah said to his wife, ‘We will surely die, for we have seen God’” (Judges 13:22). Overwhelmed at his vision of God in the temple, Isaiah cried, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (Isaiah 6:5). After an angel appeared to him, Daniel writes, “My natural color turned to a deathly pallor, and I retained no strength” (Daniel 10:8). At the sight of a bright light from heaven on the road to Damascus, Saul of Tarsus and his traveling companions collapsed to the ground (Acts 26:13–14). John, along with Peter and James, fell to the ground at the sound of God’s voice during Christ’s transfiguration (Matthew 17:6). And one day, the unrepentant world will realize the terror of God’s judgment and call out “to the mountains and to the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?’” (Revelation 6:16–17).

Scripture is clear: Unlike the frivolous, boastful accounts of men and women today who falsely claim to have seen God, the immediate response from everyone who genuinely saw the Lord unveiled was fear. Sinners—even redeemed sinners—are right to be terrified in the presence of a Holy God. There is always fear in a true vision of Christ, because we see His glory and He sees our sin.

John crumbled at the trauma of his vision. In the presence of the Lord, staring at His bronze feet of judgment (Revelation 1:15) and the double-edged sword of His Word (Revelation 1:16), we would likewise collapse in a lifeless heap.

But that terror turned to comfort and assurance as the vision continued: “He placed His right hand on me, saying ‘Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades’” (Revelation 1:17–18).

Those simple words delivered a powerful message of tremendous encouragement for John, and for all believers: the Lord is not our executioner. Although Christ administers chastening and judgment against the church, the debt for our sins has already been paid. He “was dead” and is “alive forevermore.” That simple truth should perpetually buoy our hearts in grateful assurance of our salvation. John proclaimed this great assurance in his opening salutation: Christ “loves us and released us from our sins by His blood” (Revelation 1:5). Christ alone holds “the keys of death and of Hades.” The redeemed have nothing to fear. Jesus proclaims, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die” (John 11:25–26). This was the assurance and comfort He brought to John in the midst of his fear: Your debt has already been paid. You belong to me, and nothing—not even your sin—can change that.

John had not misinterpreted his vision; Christ was moving in judgment against His church. But the righteous Judge was not coming for John. He had work for His beloved apostle to accomplish. He said, “Therefore write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things” (Revelation 1:19). John’s commission was not yet complete. He had a duty to record what he had already seen, what the Lord still had to say to the churches of Asia Minor, and the prophetic visions that unfold throughout the remainder of the book. In other words, “Pick yourself up. Dust yourself off. And get to work.”

That same assurance and encouragement extends to every believer. The initial terror of seeing God move in judgment against His church turns to comfort when we reflect on what He has done for us. We don’t have anything to fear because Christ has died and risen again for us. He has redeemed us, and He is always interceding for us, protecting our purity, and providing faithful shepherds to guard His flock. Amazingly, in spite of our unworthiness, He has work for us to accomplish. We’re not going to write another book of the Bible. But we have been called to proclaim the glory of His gospel to the ends of the earth. It’s time to get to work.

  Posted at: https://www.gty.org/library/blog/B190213

Take Courage

by Darrell B. Harrison

Scripture is clear that believers are divinely equipped by Christ to overcome the threats of this world (1 John 5:4—5). That means we don’t need to yield to the mounting pressure to conform to the world’s skewed values, sinful social norms, and ever-shifting morality. We don’t need to acquiesce to a world determined to sideline the church and silence the proclamation of the gospel.

At the same time, we must not make the mistake of thinking we’re incapable of caving in to such pressure. We need to remember that none of us is impervious to momentary compromise, and we must not be quick to judge others who stumble and fall. As Charles Spurgeon said, “Do not judge a man by any solitary word or act, for if you do you will surely mistake him. Cowards are occasionally brave, and the bravest men are sometimes cowards.” [1]

Knowing the weakness of our flesh and the ubiquitous pressures of the unbelieving culture, we must commit all the more to being courageous Christians. We need to boldly address the sinful state of the world and the eternal consequences its rebellion requires. As John MacArthur writes,

Christians are right to repudiate sin, and to declare without equivocation that sin is an offense to our holy God. That includes sins like abortion, homosexuality, sexual promiscuity, and any other sins that our corrupt culture says we must accept. [2]

We need to remember that throughout Scripture, God’s people are called to act courageously.

• The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life; whom shall I dread? When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh, my adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell. Though a host encamp against me, my heart will not fear; though war arise against me, in spite of this I shall be confident. (Psalm 27:1-3)

• Then David said to his son Solomon, “Be strong and courageous, and act; do not fear nor be dismayed, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you until all the work for the service of the house of the Lord is finished.” (1 Chronicles 28:20)

• Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. (Ephesians 6:10-11)

• Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. (1 Corinthians 16:13)

• When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You. In God, whose word I praise, in God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me? (Psalm 56:3-4)

• Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in the Lord. (Psalm 31:24)

Conversely, to act cowardly is to walk in a manner that is wholly antithetical to the divine promise that “God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7). Ultimately, the key to being courageous Christians who do not conform to the world is summed up in the words of the Puritan William Gurnall: “We fear man so much because we fear God so little. One fear cures another . . . . When man’s terror scares you, turn your thoughts to meditate on the wrath of God.” [3]

As followers of Jesus Christ—who, on behalf of unworthy sinners like you and me, courageously endured the shame of a humiliating death on a cross “for the joy set before Him” (Hebrews 12:2)—let us do likewise for the joy set before us (1 Peter 4:13).

Posted at: https://www.gty.org/library/blog/B190220

What Does Jesus Mean by "I Never Knew You"?

Article by John Piper

Ten Virgins and a Bridegroom

Do these verses and the words “I don’t know you” imply anything about salvation? The answer is yes. Yes they do. They imply exclusion from salvation.

“If you treat the Lord like he’s unimportant, you won’t enter the feast. You won’t enter salvation.”

Now, let me step back and give a little reminder. This is a parable, okay? There are ten virgins in this story that Jesus made up. Ten virgins are assigned to welcome the bridegroom when he comes to the feast, to go in and enjoy the bride. So they were to welcome him when he comes.

Five virgins take this seriously and stay ready. Five are careless and don’t have what they need to be ready. At the last minute, they run away to try to do a last-ditch effort to be ready. And it fails. It’s too late.

Spiritually Awake

Here’s what we read:

And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, “Lord, lord, open to us.” But he answered, “Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.” Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. (Matthew 25:10–13)

The point is, watch. The point is not to stay awake at night looking up into the sky, because all ten slept. They all slept — the wise ones and the foolish ones. So that’s not the point. But stay awake to your Lord and to your calling: Be spiritually alert, awake to your calling, and awake to Jesus, to the way of life in Christ. Stay awake to it. Stay spiritually alert and alive. Because if you treat the Lord like he’s unimportant, you won’t enter the feast. You won’t enter salvation.

Excluding Judas

Here’s the closest analogy to that language:

Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven [this is why I talk about exclusion], but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?” And then will I declare to them [here are the words], “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” (Matthew 7:21–23)

“‘I never knew you’ means ‘I don’t recognize you as my disciple, as my follower. You are a spiritual stranger to me.’”

“I never knew you” means “I don’t recognize you as my disciple. I don’t acknowledge you as my follower. You are a spiritual stranger to me.” Judas would be the best example here from Jesus’s life. For three years, he cast out demons and did many mighty works with Jesus. In the end, he was driven by money, not by love for Jesus. We know that from John 12:6. He’s called a thief. He was excluded at the end of all that time with Jesus.

Chosen and Known

So what’s with this odd use of the word know? “I do not know you.” “I never knew you.” Now, there’s a backstory to this. For example, in the Old Testament, it was used almost interchangeably with choose. “I didn’t choose you.”

You see this, for example, in Amos 3:2, when God says to Israel, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth.” That didn’t mean that Jesus wasn’t aware of the other nations. It meant he hadn’t chosen them. They weren’t acknowledged as his. They weren’t recognized as his. He hadn’t chosen them.

Here’s Genesis 18:18–19: “Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in [him.] For I have known him, that he may command his children.” Known here is usually translated chosen. But it’s just the plain old word know. “I have known him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord.”

Called to Love God

When we come to the New Testament, we read things like this: “But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God” (Galatians 4:9). So being known by God is expressing the initiative that God has taken to enable you to know him: “But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world?” (Galatians 4:9).

“Being known by God is the precondition and enabling of how you come to love God.”

Here is the same idea again in 1 Corinthians 8:3: “If anyone loves God, he is known by God.” Wow, that means being known by God is the precondition and enabling of how you come to love God. So loving God is evidence that you’re known by God — that is, chosen by God.

Keep Watch

Now, back to our parable. The foolish virgins came too late to the feast of the bridegroom and his bride. They cry out, “Lord, lord, open to us.” And he says, “Truly I say to you, I don’t know you.” That is, “I don’t see in you the marks of faithfulness to me. There’s always a correlation between my choosing people and their belonging to me and the marks of obedient faithfulness.”

We see this is 2 Timothy 2:19: “God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: ‘The Lord knows those who are his,’ and, ‘Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.’” Those are the two marks of the seal. “I know them — I chose them — and they depart from iniquity.”

Jesus is saying to the five foolish virgins, “I don’t see in you the life, the evidence, of loving my name and departing from evil. You’re not mine. I don’t know you.” And Jesus concludes, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” Meaning, “Stay alert spiritually. Keep my greatness, my beauty, my worth always before you. Don’t slip into a greater love for the world. If you do, I won’t know you.”

John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist and most recently Why I Love the Apostle Paul: 30 Reasons.

Posted at: https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/what-does-jesus-mean-by-i-never-knew-you?fbclid=IwAR1o2ZObNw543SEHhe_Fca7EdDcHWEygNBTEkx3WQBGgVK_evOSJk6fs2os

Cut Off Your Hand: How Far Will You Go to Save Your Soul?

Article by Jon Bloom

Losing a sense of God’s holiness is the first warning sign of entering a spiritually dangerous place.

Externally, everything might look fine: Our families might be well, our ministries might be flourishing, we might be receiving recognition and walking powerfully in our spiritual gifts. But inwardly, we’re wandering.

External phenomena do not reliably indicate our spiritual health. Families and ministries can struggle and go wrong for reasons that have nothing to do with our spiritual states. And history is full of examples of men and women who exercised spiritual gifts with great power for a period of time — even when involved in gross secret sin. Besides that, externals are usually lagging indicators of spiritual decline. By the time our decline starts surfacing, it often has reached a serious state.

What to Watch

The thing to watch is our sense of God’s holiness.

“The loss of the sense of God’s holiness always produces the loss of the sense of sin’s sinfulness.”

I don’t mean our doctrinal knowledge of God’s holiness. That’s something we might affirm and even teach when secretly we are in a place of decline. The doctrine of God’s holiness is real to us only when we have real fear of God. And one clear evidence of this is our fear of sin. The loss of the sense of God’s holiness always produces the loss of the sense of sin’s sinfulness. When God is not feared, sin is not feared.

A tolerance of habitual indulgence of sin — a lack of fear over what slavery to sin might imply (John 8:34) — is an indictor that the fear of God is not governing us. And when we are in such a state, Jesus tells us what we need to do: cut off our hand.

Absolutely Terrifying Reality

Matthew 18 is a sober read. Jesus gets very serious about the extremely horrible consequences of sin. And he says this:

Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire. (Matthew 18:7–9)

Note the words eternal fire in verse eight. For most of the history of the church, some have asserted either some form of ultimate universal salvation for everyone or ultimate annihilation of the lost. But for the entire history of the church, the vast majority of Christians and the vast majority of the church’s most eminent and reliable theologians have affirmed that what Jesus and the apostles taught about hell is eternal, conscious punishment. Those three words describe an absolutely terrifying reality.

Metaphor, But No Hyperbole

I used the words “extremely horrible” and “absolutely terrifying” very carefully and intentionally. They are among the only fitting words we have to describe hell, the eternal death that is the wages of sin (Romans 6:23). No one wants to experience this. And it will be the reality experienced by everyone who is a slave to sin and not set free by the Son (John 8:36).

“If we don’t reverence God as holy in our private lives we are on a perilous path that leads to destruction.”

That is why Jesus uses the extreme metaphor of cutting off our hand and tearing out our eye. Extreme danger calls for extreme measures of escape. Yes, the mutilation imagery is a metaphor, but it is not hyperbole. We know it is a metaphor because the literal loss of a hand or an eye doesn’t get to the root issue of sin. But radical and painful amputation of stumbling blocks out of our lives may be the only way to escape falling headlong into sin’s insidiously deceptive snare.

We may need to “mutilate” — chop off — a habit, a relationship, a career, certain personal freedoms, whatever is causing us to stumble. Because far better that we enter life having lost those things than kept them and lose our souls (Luke 9:25).

Cut Off Every Hand

When we lose the sense of God’s holiness, Jesus’s warnings in Matthew 18land lightly on us. We reason that such a warning is for someone else. We don’t seriously think it applies to us. Nor do we seriously think it applies to other brothers and sisters who are characterized by worldly concerns and pursuits and are rather numb when it comes to sin.

We might take consolation that our affirmation of orthodox doctrine, external affirmations, and “fruitful” labors demonstrate we’re on the right path. But if in the secret place, we’re tolerating sin, tolerating relative prayerlessness, tolerating a lack of urgency over lost souls, it is an indicator that something is wrong. If we don’t reverence God as holy in our private lives, we are on a perilous path that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13).

“A tolerance of habitual indulgence of sin is an indictor that the fear of God is not governing us.”

Jesus provides us the cure to this deadly infection: cut off every hand that is causing you to stumble. And he really means it. “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart” (Hebrews 4:7). Whether we have just ventured on to this road or been on it way too long, the time is nowto repent and take the extreme measure to amputate whatever is entangling our feet in sin (Hebrews 12:1). We must plead with the Lord and do whatever it takes to see the fear of the Lord restored in our hearts.

Choose Life

For the Christian, the fear of the Lord does not compete with our joy in the Lord. Rather, it’s a source of our joy in the Lord. Isaiah prophesied this about Jesus: “And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord” (Isaiah 11:3). Jesus delighted in the fear of his Father, and God wants us to enjoy this delight too. Because “the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death” (Proverbs 14:27). And “the friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant” (Psalm 25:14).

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10). Conversely, losing the fear of the Lord is the beginning of foolishness. The reward of such wisdom is eternal life (John 3:16) and fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11). The reward of such foolishness is absolutely terrifying.

When we notice a diminishing of our healthy fear of God, the loss of a sense of his holiness, that is the time to take action. Let us repent by cutting off every foolish hand and, as Deuteronomy 30:19 says, choose life.

Jon Bloom (@Bloom_Jon) serves as author, board chair, and co-founder of Desiring God. He is author of three books, Not by Sight, Things Not Seen, and Don’t Follow Your Heart. He and his wife have five children and make their home in the Twin Cities.

Posted at: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/cut-off-your-hand?fbclid=IwAR1imRst4w_BUYraBBq_tNkY9ZGiB6M78GQTEFS3K17hKgBHfKupWUjsW0Y

Your Family's Mobile Classroom

Article by Steve Watters

I learned a big chunk of life while riding along in vehicles with my parents. Our blue and brown Pinto station wagon was a mobile classroom of sorts for me and my brothers as our parents drove along the country roads surrounding our hometown in Washington, NC, including the 10 mile stretch into town and the 20 mile trek to church. Whether it was our full-spirited family conversations or the many times that my brothers and I would just listen in on our parents talking, we were a captive audience to observations about life, work, challenges, relationships, and faith.

Sometimes I think about those rides with my parents when my family is out and about in our Toyota Sienna. And I consider what our kids are learning from our time together in our mobile classroom. This weighs on me increasingly as I think about the Deuteronomy 6 call to teach my children, talking about the Lord’s commands “when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise.” Just as it was with my parents, a lot of our “walking by the way” happens in a vehicle, and that is a significant setting for which we are accountable for shaping our children’s knowledge of the Lord.

That struck us a couple of years ago when were driving to Arkansas for a family camp. As we rolled down I-40, Churchill, who was 5 at the time, piped up with a question about a word that was new to him from the audiobook we were playing. “Mom, Dad, what’s baptism?” he asked. We weren’t planning a conversation on baptism for that trip, but we realized this was a prime “when you walk by the way” opportunity and so we paused the audiobook and made an effort to explain baptism to a kindergartner.

As we thought about that unexpected conversation, it dawned on me that Churchill’s question could have been quite different. It’s so easy in today’s media-packed vehicles to offer up music, movies and games to our kids in order to buy moments of peace, and also so easy to slide in paying attention to what exactly they are observing in their rolling classroom. “You know,” I said to Candice at the time, “we could have easily drifted in our van-time media options, and Churchill’s question could have been, ‘Mom, Dad, what’s a butthead?’”

It challenged us to think about how we view our time in the vehicle–especially in a day when entertainment options make it possible for families to spend endless miles on the road together with only limited conversation about snacks and bathroom breaks. What’s happening to our ‘along the way’ opportunities as children’s media fills up our minivans?

This has motivated us to be more intentional about those many hours in our van—about initiating conversations and being intentional about any media we use. Even the lightest of questions, such as “What summer activities are you looking forward to?” can keep conversation flowing and can make it more natural to weave in discussions about thanking God for His provisions or trusting Christ in the face of various challenges.

Leaving church, we often ask our children what they could apply from the sermon or from their Sunday School lesson. At other times, we’ll review scriptures we are memorizing. We’ve also found that sermons, audio dramas, podcasts (like Ask Pastor John), and Christian music mixes can give us stretches of concentrated engagement and spark good conversations.

Here are some Truth78 resources we recommend for getting more spiritual nourishment out of the time you have available in your family vehicle:

• Fighter Verses memory recitation—either the printed pack or the app

• Fighter Verses songs–word-for-word Bible passages set to music (with varied styles including folk, jazz, pop, doo-wop and even Gregorian chant).

• Growing in Faith Together (GIFT) pages–reflection on application points from Truth78 Sunday School lessons, either from printed pages provided by the classes using them or through the GIFT app.

We anticipate at least a thousand or so more hours of driving time with our kids over the next few years. Alongside the thousands of hours we have with them around meals and at bedtime, we have plenty of opportunities to be faithful to Deuteronomy 6:7. We pray we won’t waste those hours, especially the time that can so easily get lost “along the way” in our mobile classroom.

This post was adapted from an article that originally appeared on CBMW.org.

Written by Steve Watters

Steve Watters is the Truth78 Communications Director. Before joining Truth78, he earned an M.A. in family discipleship at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary where he served as the Vice President for Communications. He and his wife Candice co-authored the book Start Your Family: Inspiration for Having Babies. They have four children.

Posted at: http://blog.childrendesiringgod.org/your-familys-mobile-classroom/?fbclid=IwAR0Rb-VgdeLXdnj38bTe-9wv9JycZYMNixVQDU1x5foz_CLHa8JXRQ5UcfQ

Elisabeth Elliot: "Your Suffering Is Never For Nothing"

Editors’ note:  This is an adapted excerpt from Suffering Is Never for Nothing(B&H Books, 2019).

It’s only in the cross that we can begin to harmonize the seeming contradiction between suffering and love. And we will never understand suffering unless we understand the love of God.

We’re talking about two different levels on which things are to be understood. And again and again in the Scriptures we have what seem to be complete paradoxes because we’re talking about two different kingdoms. We’re talking about this visible world and an invisible kingdom through which the facts of this world are interpreted.

Suffering in Scripture

Take for example the Beatitudes, those wonderful statements of paradox that Jesus gave to the multitudes when he was preaching to them on the mountain (Matt. 5:3–12). He said strange things like this:

How happy are those who know what sorrow means. Happy are those who claim nothing. Happy are those who have suffered persecution. What happiness will be yours when people blame you and ill treat you and say all kinds of slanderous things against you. Be glad then, yes, be tremendously glad.

Does it make any sense at all?

Not unless you see there are two kingdoms: the kingdom of this world and the kingdom of an invisible world. And the apostle Paul understood the difference when he made this stunning declaration. He said, it is now my happiness to suffer for you, my happiness to suffer (Col. 1:24). It sounds like nonsense, doesn’t it? And yet this is God’s Word. Janet Erskine Stuart said, “Joy is not the absence of suffering but the presence of God.”

It’s what the psalmist found in the valley of the shadow of death: “I will fear no evil” (Ps. 23:4). Now the psalmist was not naïve enough to say, “I will fear no evil because there isn’t any.” There is. We live in an evil, broken, twisted, fallen, distorted world. What did he say? “I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”

My Suffering

When I stood by my shortwave radio in the jungle of Ecuador in 1956 and heard that my husband, Jim Elliot, was missing, God brought to my mind the words of the prophet Isaiah: “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee” (Isa. 43:2). You can imagine that my response was not terribly spiritual. I was saying, “But Lord, you’re with me all the time. What I want is Jim. I want my husband.” We had been married 27 months after waiting five-and-a-half years.

Five days later I knew that Jim was dead. And God’s presence with me was not Jim’s presence. That was a terrible fact. God’s presence didn’t change the terrible fact that I was a widow, and I expected to be a widow until I died because I thought it was a miracle I got married the first time. I couldn’t imagine that I would ever get married a second time, let alone a third. God’s presence didn’t change the fact of my widowhood. Jim’s absence thrust me, forced me, hurried me to God, my hope and my only refuge.

Suffering is an irreplaceable medium through which I learned an indispensable truth: God is God.

And I learned in that experience who God is in a way I could never have known otherwise. And so I can say to you that suffering is an irreplaceable medium through which I learned an indispensable truth: God is God. Well, I still want to go back and say, “But Lord, what about that little child with spina bifida? What about those babies born terribly handicapped, with terrible suffering because their mothers were on cocaine or heroin or alcohol? What about my little Scottie dog, McDuff, who died of cancer at the age of six? What about the Lindbergh baby and the Stams who were beheaded? What about all of that?”

Mystery of Suffering

And I can’t answer your questions, or even my own, except in the words of Scripture, these words from the apostle Paul who knew the power of the cross of Jesus. And this is what he wrote:

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God” (Rom. 8:18–19).

The creation was made the victim of frustration—all those animals, all those babies who have no guilt whatsoever—not by its own choice, but because of him who made it so; yet always there was hope. And this is the part that brings me immeasurable comfort: The universe itself is to be freed from the shackles of mortality and enter upon the liberty and splendor of the children of God.

Where does this idea of a loving God come from? It is not a deduction. It is not man so desperately wanting a god that he manufactures him in his mind. It’s he who was the Word before the foundation of the world, suffering as a lamb slain. And he has a lot up his sleeve that you and I haven’t the slightest idea about now. He’s told us enough so we can know that suffering is never for nothing.

Elisabeth Elliot was a Christian author and speaker. Her first husband, Jim Elliot, was killed in 1956 while attempting to make missionary contact with the Auca of eastern Ecuador.

Posted at: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/elisabeth-elliot-suffering-never-nothing/

The Fifth Commandment: Root of Honor

by Kevin D. Gardner

In Romans 1:28–32, the Apostle Paul goes through a litany of offenses committed by those who don’t see fit to acknowledge God. Many of the charges make sense, including that such people are “full of envy murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness” (v. 29). Yet there is one offense that might seem out of place: they are “disobedient to parents” (v. 30).

This phrase tended to make an impression on the teenagers with whom I used to work. It’s easy to say that we are not murderers or filled with malice. We might protest that we are not “gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil” (vv. 29–30; although we might have a hard time credibly denying the first two). But who has never disobeyed his parents? We might think that disrespectful children are a uniquely modern phenomenon, but the problem certainly existed in Paul’s day. The law of Moses even prescribed death for intractably rebellious children, a penalty that seems unspeakably harsh to people today (Deut. 21:18–21).

Clearly, the Bible takes obedience to parents seriously. The fifth commandment tells us, “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you” (Ex. 20:12). Let’s explore why this commandment is included among the Ten Commandments and what it means for us.

The fifth commandment is the first on the so-called second table of the law. The first table has to do with our duties toward God, while the second table has to do with our duties toward our fellow man.

It may seem strange that a command to honor one’s father and mother is the first of the commands regarding man. But it makes sense. The first commandment begins the first table of the law by telling us that we are to have no other gods before God (Ex. 20:3). God is setting up a structure of authority: He is God, and we are His people. We are to have no other Gods. We are to recognize His authority alone and to act accordingly. In the same way, God has set up authority structures on earth, and so He begins the second table of the law by addressing the most basic of these structures, the family—one man and one woman for life, together with their children. In this context, children learn what authority is, and they learn to obey. In the same way that we are to recognize and abide by our heavenly authority, we are to recognize and abide by earthly authorities.

As God is due honor by virtue of His being our God, so our fellow man is due honor by virtue of His being God’s image bearer.  SHARE

Recognizing this parallel, the Westminster Standards expand the meaning of the fifth commandment to encompass our duties in all of our relationships. The Westminster Shorter Catechism says that the commandment requires “the preserving the honor, and performing the duties, belonging to every one in their several places and relations, as superiors, inferiors or equals” (WSC 64). The reference here is not to superiors and inferiors in terms of dignity or value but in terms of authority. The Westminster divines understood that while fathers and mothers are the first and most basic authorities in our lives, they are not the only ones. The divines also included authorities in the church and the state; we might add authorities in the classroom and the workplace.

In each of these contexts, we have various relationships. Sometimes we are superior, sometimes inferior, and sometimes equal. In each case, we have various duties and are liable to commit certain sins, and the Westminster Larger Catechism expands at length on these duties and sins (WLC 123–33). In so doing, the Larger Catechism unfolds the meaning of honor as paying what is due to them—to superiors, reverence, prayer, obedience, imitation of their godly virtues, maintenance of their dignity, and bearing with their infirmities (WLC 127); to inferiors, love, prayer, instruction, rewards, correction, and protection (WLC 129); and to equals, recognition of their dignity, deference, and rejoicing in their advancement (WLC 131).

To fail to honor those around us, whether superiors, inferiors, or equals, is to engage in rebellion against God. Especially in the case of our superiors, casting off earthly authorities is tantamount to casting off our heavenly authority, the One who placed those earthly authorities over us. This is why rebellion against parents was such a grievous sin under the old covenant and why Paul included disobedience to parents among the grave offenses committed by the ungodly.

As God is due honor by virtue of His being our God, so our fellow man is due honor by virtue of His being God’s image bearer, and so also our superiors are due honor by virtue of their having authority “by God’s ordinance” (WLC 124). When we honor our fellow men in their several relations, we honor the God who placed us all where we are.

Rev. Kevin D. Gardner is associate editor of Tabletalkmagazine and a graduate of Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. He is an ordained teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America. 

Posted at: https://tabletalkmagazine.com/article/2019/02/fifth-commandment-root-honor/?fbclid=IwAR3qBVKPGVQsCzgJXXCZ6TVo3SdYnr_jHC2JlkKk8PLL2EInIlVLPpxl9vo