Aug
25
What submission is not
Filed Under Christian Living, Culture, Family, Marriage, Men, Preaching | Leave a Comment
John Piper, from a sermon on 1 Peter 3:1-6 available at Desiring God Ministries, has listed six things that biblical submission is not. Time did not allow me to share these or elaborate on them at all in yesterday’s sermon on 1 Peter 3:1-7. Here they are:
What Submission Is Not
Here are six things it is not, based on 1 Peter 3:1-6.
1. Submission does not mean agreeing with everything your husband says. You can see that in v. one: she is a Christian and he is not. He has one set of ideas about ultimate reality. She has another. Peter calls her to be submissive while assuming she will not submit to his view of the most important thing in the world—God. So submission can’t mean submitting to agree with all her husband thinks.
2. Submission does not mean leaving your brain or your will at the wedding altar. It is not the inability or the unwillingness to think for yourself. Here is a woman who heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. She thought about it. She assessed the truth claims of Jesus. She apprehended in her heart the beauty and worth of Christ and his work, and she chose him. Her husband heard it also. Otherwise, Peter probably wouldn’t say he “disobeyed the word.” He has heard the word, and he has thought about it. And he has not chosen Christ. She thought for herself and she acted. And Peter does not tell her to retreat from that commitment.
3. Submission does not mean avoiding every effort to change a husband. The whole point of this text is to tell a wife how to “win” her husband. V. 1 says, “Be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives.” If you didn’t care about the Bible you might say, “Submission has to mean taking a husband the way he is and not trying to change him.” But if you believe what the Bible says, you conclude that submission, paradoxically, is sometimes a strategy for changing him.
4. Submission does not mean putting the will of the husband before the will of Christ. The text clearly teaches that the wife is a follower of Jesus before and above being a follower of her husband. Submission to Jesus relativizes submission to husbands—and governments and employers and parents. When Sarah called Abraham “lord” in v. 6, it was lord with a lowercase l. It’s like “sir” or “m’lord.” And the obedience she rendered is qualified obedience because her supreme allegiance is to the Lord with a capital L.
5. Submission does not mean that a wife gets her personal, spiritual strength primarily through her husband. A good husband should indeed strengthen and build up and sustain his wife. He should be a source of strength. But what this text shows is that when a husband’s spiritual leadership is lacking, a Christian wife is not bereft of strength. Submission does not mean she is dependent on him to supply her strength of faith and virtue and character. The text, in fact, assumes just the opposite. She is summoned to develop depth and strength and character not from her husband but for her husband. Verse five says that her hope is in God in the hope that her husband will join her there.
6. Finally submission does not mean that a wife is to act out of fear. V. 6b says, “You are her [Sarah’s] children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.” In other words, submission is free, not coerced by fear. The Christian woman is a free woman. When she submits to her husband—whether he is a believer or unbeliever—she does it in freedom, not out of fear.
Nov
20
Nota bene. 11.20.07
Filed Under Christian Living, Culture, Current Events, Ethics, Family, Men, Nota Bene, The Church, Youth Ministry | Leave a Comment
I’m borrowing Joe’s Nota Bene category to post a link to piece written last week by John Piper about a phenomenon sociologists are calling adultolescence–the postponement of adulthood into the late twenties or even into the thirties. I have always defined adulthood as paying your own freight and taking responsibility for providing for yourself and your dependents (if you have any). Piper offers a 15-point strategy by which the Church should respond to this sociological trend in his piece entitled A Church-Based hope for ‘Adultolescence.’
Sep
18
Book Review: Mighty Men
Filed Under Books, Christian Living, Family, Men, Reading | Leave a Comment
The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 16:13-14: Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. John Crotts, pastor of Faith Bible Church in Sharpsburg, Georgia, has written a booklet aimed at spurring men on in that direction called Mighty Men: The Starter’s Guide to Leading Your Family [Sand Springs, OK: Grace & Truth Books, 2004].
In Mighty Men Crotts hopes to give men something of a kick in the pants, but also give them a set of basic tools to set about the work of demonstrating Christ-like love and solid spiritual leadership at home. He correctly identifies the idolatry of laziness and passivity that grips so many men for what it is–idolatry! He also groups with it the laziness of what he calls ‘the Dictator Dad’–the ‘me Tarzan, you Jane’ approach to headship, which some numbskulls (pardon my use of technical theological terms) confuse with biblical headship. Crotts also addresses with warmth and compassion what I call the intimidation factor of Christian leadership. He writes, “My assumption is that men are so overwhelmed by inflated expectations of spiritual leadership, they don’t even try to take responsibility for the spiritual well-being of their homes” [37]. Crotts encourages men to think of themselves as managers of their home, working under the sovereignty of the owner. He goes on to apply this in some very practical ways.
The strong points of Mighty Men include:
- It is a booklet–only about 40 pages long. In other words, it is short enough that a man might actually read it! Alas, this short attention span is the norm among the majority of our men, and we must pray and labor that God would cure them of this malady! But in the meantime, it’s good to accommodate teaching to the capacities of the hearers.
- He is simple and illustrative in the points he makes.
- He urges healthy Christian growth through the ordinary means of grace as the foundation for the development of Christian character.
- His advice about family worship and prayer/Bible reading with your wife is some of the best, most practical that I have read.
A booklet such as this one might be faulted for what it does not say, but that is not fair. He sets the matter squarely on the table and within reach of any man. Men must go deeper than Mighty Men will take them, but Crotts work is an excellent, succinct resource for men who need to put the shovel into the ground for the first time. It’s time to act like men.
Apr
23
There is no plan B…
Filed Under Around the Church, Bible, Evangelism, Holiness, Justification, Men, The Church | Leave a Comment
Dr. Elliott Greene has been doing a marvelous job at FPC Kosciusko’s annual Bible Conference (look for mp3s of the sermons later this week at fpckosciusko.org), taking us through the book of Ephesians under the title ‘What the Church Would Be If She Knew What She Was.’ In introducing Dr. Greene on Friday evening I read for the second time an excerpt from Dr. Ligon Duncan’s introductory address at the recent Twin Lakes Fellowship. He had posted it on his blog. It sums up so much of the vision of what The Sweet Dropper is about and what FPC Kosciusko is about:
“What do we long to see come out of the Twin Lakes Fellowship?
“. . . a strong coalition of Bible-saturated, truth-driven, God-entranced, prayer-soaked, aggressively evangelistic, Christ-treasuring and exalting, Spirit-filled, sovereign grace-loving, missions-advancing, hell-robbing, strong-thinking, real-need-exposing, soul-winning, mind-engaging, vagueness-rejecting, wartime-life-style-pursuing, risk-taking, justice-advancing, Scripture-expounding, cross-cherishing, homosexuality-opposing, abortion-denouncing, racism-resisting, heaven-desiring, imputation-of-an-alien-righteousness-proclaiming, justification-by-faith-alone-apart-from-doing-preaching, error-exposing, complementarian, joyful, humble, loving, courageous, happy pastors working together for the Gospel. (Thanks to John Piper for many of these words and thoughts).
“And we want to see them leading strong evangelical churches who, while they hold as faithfully and biblically as they know how to certain doctrinal distinctives not shared by all other biblical evangelical churches, band together for the Gospel on a basis that is robustly doctrinal, historic, orthodox, reformational, world-opposing-while-at-the-same-time-world-serving, Bible-preaching, scriptural-theology-inculcating, real-conversion-prizing, deep biblical evangelism-practicing, New Testament church-membership-and-leadership-implementing, church-discipline-applying, healthy and growing Disciple-making – all for the display of God’s glory in the churches.
“May the Lord raise up such a ministerial fraternity – not on the basis of doctrinal minimalism but rather on the basis of shared conviction of the truth and Gospel forbearance in the areas where we differ; not to the detriment of our convictions regarding our distinctives in faith and practice in the local churches and families of churches we serve, but to their enhancement. And may the Lord raise up churches that are truly a witness to grace in this passing age, a display of the glory and power of God’s saving grace, outposts of heaven, suburbs of eternity. For the church is God’s strategy, and there is no plan B.”
Jan
3
Time to Rally!
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The Annual Mid-South Men’s Rally in Jackson is fast approaching. It will be the evening of January 26 at First Presbyterian Church, Jackson. I’m including the text below of Brad Mercer’s blog post concerning the conference. Mark you calendars men! I’d love to see a good number of FPC, Kosciusko men attend. Information with be forthcoming on when our group will depart for Jackson that evening.
Authentic Biblical Leadership, as Illustrated in the Lives of Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Joshua ChamberlainMen, mark your calendars and plan to join us on Friday, January 26, 2007 for our annual Mid-South Men’s Rally. This year, we are privileged to have Dr. Harry Reeder, senior minister of Briarwood Presbyterian Church, as our speaker.Dr. Reeder is the creator and speaker of an audio series on “Christian Manhood.” In this series, he gives biographical illustrations of Christian leadership using the lives of Robert E. Lee, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. The Men’s Rally evening messages will be based on this series.In 1999, Harry recieved the call to become the Senior Pastor of Briarwood Presbyterian Church, where he continues with a vibrant preaching ministry. He receieved his Doctor of Ministry Degree from Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte in 2002. Since then, his first book has been published, entitled, From Embers to a Flame, in which yearly conferences are hosted at various churches around the country and world with the purpose of teaching a biblical paradigm for church growth. Dr. Reeder also brought into existence a growing radio ministry called, “In Perspective,” which is heard across the Southeast each week.
Schedule
5:15 - 6:30 p.m. Dinner served in Miller Hall, bookstore open6:30 - 7:30 p.m. Session I7:30 - 8:00 p.m. Break: Refreshments in Miller Hall, bookstore open8:00 - 9:00 p.m. Session II
Advanced registration is not required and there is no charge for the rally or the dinner. A freewill offering will be taken during the service. If you have any questions, please contact Ashley Hall in the Discipleship Office: 601-973-9118.