This past year I have had multiple conversations, mostly with young adults, concerning their desire to live holy lives in a fallen world. In those conversations issues such as avoiding legalism, knowing what is appropriate or inappropriate for Christians to be involved in, and are things always black and white with God have come up. These are very imprortant issues with which every Christian must come to terms.
Typically, the Bible contains clear instructions on what a God honoring life looks like and what behaviors and activities most define the Christian life. However, what about those things the Bible does not directly address? I came across the following article on the Grace to You website that I thought would be very useful in helping us navigate through the "gray areas".
If the issue you are wondering about is not specifically addressed in the Bible, then it's helpful to ask these questions from 1 Corinthians to help you in deciding what to do. Asking these questions (and others like them) will help you make a wise decision based on sound biblical principles.
1. Will it benefit me spiritually? First Corinthians 10:23 says, "All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify."
2. Will it put me in bondage? First Corinthians 6:12 says, "All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything." Any questionable practice that can be habit-forming is not wise to pursue.
3. Will it defile God's temple? First Corinthians 6:19-20 says, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body." We should not do anything with our bodies that would dishonor the Lord.
4. Will it cause others to stumble? First Corinthians 8:8-9 says, "Food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat. But take care lest this liberty of yours somehow become a stumbling block to the weak." One should refrain from using his freedom in an area which might cause others to sin. For "by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore," Paul said, "if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, that I might not cause my brother to stumble."
5. Will it help the cause of evangelism? First Corinthians 10:32-33 says, "Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God; just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of the many, that they may be saved." We must think of the effect any practice might have on our testimony to the lost.
6. Will it violate my conscience? First Corinthians 10:25-29 contains three references to abstaining from a certain practice "for conscience' sake." And Romans 14:23 says, "He who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin." If we are not sure whether an action is pleasing to God, we should not do it. That way our conscience will remain clear and our relationship to God will not be hindered.
7. Will it bring glory to God? First Corinthians 10:31 summarizes all these principles by saying, "Therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."
Copywrite 2007, Grace to You, All rights reserved, Used by permission
You can find this article at http://www.gty.org/Resources/Print/Articles/A165
David
Friday, September 25
Friday, August 28
Responsibility Equals Accountability
I wonder how many Christian fathers have truly been overcome with fear and trembling while pondering the depth of responsibility God has given to them for their children? I can honestly say that in my life that has happened far less often than it should. My lack of sensing the seriousness of my responsibilities was brought to bear while reading the third chapter of I Samuel today.
We know this chapter because it describes the calling of young Samuel as a prophet by God. What should cause every man to step back and take notice is the ominous message that God gives to Samuel concerning Eli the priest. Here is God’s message concerning Eli and his family in verses 11-14:
Then the LORD said to Samuel, “I am about to do a shocking thing in Israel. I am going to carry out all my threats against Eli and his family, from beginning to end. I have warned him that judgment is coming upon his family forever, because his sons are blaspheming God and he hasn’t disciplined them. So I have vowed that the sins of Eli and his sons will never be forgiven by sacrifices or offerings.” NLT
These verses contain a horrific pronouncement of judgment. God said that He was about to do something to Eli and his wicked sons that would shock Israel. Several translations say that God’s judgment would make everyone’s “ears tingle.” Despite God’s warnings to reign in his blasphemous sons Hophni and Phinehas, Eli basically let them off with simple warnings.
It is very apparent that God holds Eli personally accountable for the sins of his sons. In chapter 2 verse 12 we read that Eli’s two sons “were scoundrels who had no respect for the LORD” even though they were priests in the temple.
Eli had failed to appropriately discipline (some translations say “restrain”) them from their evil ways. These were adult men who needed to be removed as priests and possibly even stoned according to the Law but Eli allowed them to continue in their greed and blasphemy. God took care of the matter by seeing to it that all three men died a violent death and then He refused to forgive their sins. They brought God to His “I’ve had it” point!
Here is the issue at hand, God held Eli accountable for his sons behavior. He had the right and the authority to restrain these two but chose rather to enable them to continue. Therefore, God will hold every Christian father accountable for neglecting the proper discipline of his children. Too often I think men have bought into the idea that their children need them to be their friends. That they need someone to have a good time with and to make sure they are properly entertained.
Listen, God has called fathers to train their children and to discipline them towards godliness not simply be their pals. We are to be to them as God, our heavenly Father, is to us. Yes, He is our friend but He is also our righteous God who disciplines us and does not overlook our sins.
I am challenging every father to be bold, to be the fair but firm disciplinarian that God has given you the responsibility to be. We will one day give an account of this before God and I pray that the sins of our children will not be brought as an accusation against us at our time of judgment!
We know this chapter because it describes the calling of young Samuel as a prophet by God. What should cause every man to step back and take notice is the ominous message that God gives to Samuel concerning Eli the priest. Here is God’s message concerning Eli and his family in verses 11-14:
Then the LORD said to Samuel, “I am about to do a shocking thing in Israel. I am going to carry out all my threats against Eli and his family, from beginning to end. I have warned him that judgment is coming upon his family forever, because his sons are blaspheming God and he hasn’t disciplined them. So I have vowed that the sins of Eli and his sons will never be forgiven by sacrifices or offerings.” NLT
These verses contain a horrific pronouncement of judgment. God said that He was about to do something to Eli and his wicked sons that would shock Israel. Several translations say that God’s judgment would make everyone’s “ears tingle.” Despite God’s warnings to reign in his blasphemous sons Hophni and Phinehas, Eli basically let them off with simple warnings.
It is very apparent that God holds Eli personally accountable for the sins of his sons. In chapter 2 verse 12 we read that Eli’s two sons “were scoundrels who had no respect for the LORD” even though they were priests in the temple.
Eli had failed to appropriately discipline (some translations say “restrain”) them from their evil ways. These were adult men who needed to be removed as priests and possibly even stoned according to the Law but Eli allowed them to continue in their greed and blasphemy. God took care of the matter by seeing to it that all three men died a violent death and then He refused to forgive their sins. They brought God to His “I’ve had it” point!
Here is the issue at hand, God held Eli accountable for his sons behavior. He had the right and the authority to restrain these two but chose rather to enable them to continue. Therefore, God will hold every Christian father accountable for neglecting the proper discipline of his children. Too often I think men have bought into the idea that their children need them to be their friends. That they need someone to have a good time with and to make sure they are properly entertained.
Listen, God has called fathers to train their children and to discipline them towards godliness not simply be their pals. We are to be to them as God, our heavenly Father, is to us. Yes, He is our friend but He is also our righteous God who disciplines us and does not overlook our sins.
I am challenging every father to be bold, to be the fair but firm disciplinarian that God has given you the responsibility to be. We will one day give an account of this before God and I pray that the sins of our children will not be brought as an accusation against us at our time of judgment!
Thursday, August 6
Christ-Like Headship
Weighty Words on the Meaning of a Husband's Headship:
John Piper
August 5, 2009
[I have copied this article from the Gender Blog of The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. It was originally posted on the DesiringGod blog]
What follows is one of the greatest reasons for a man to get married and stay married: not the rapturous flame of eros, but the refining fires of holiness.
No relationship is more clearly commanded to model the death of Christ. No relationship is more costly-in both senses of that word (painful and precious).
This quote comes from one of C. S. Lewis's last books, published in 1960, The Four Loves. In it we hear the wise fruit of a lifetime.
"The husband is the head of the wife just in so far as he is to her what Christ is to the Church. He is to love her as Christ loved the church-read on-and gave his life for her (Ephesians 5:25).
This headship, then, is most fully embodied not in the husband we should all wish to be but in him whose marriage is most like a crucifixion; whose wife receives most and gives least, is most unworthy of him, is-in her own mere nature-least lovable. For the church has no beauty but what the bridegroom gives her; he does not find, but makes her, lovely.
The chrism [anointing, consecration] of this terrible coronation is to be seen not in the joys of any man's marriage but in its sorrows, in the sickness and sufferings of a good wife or the faults of the bad one, in his unwearying (never paraded) care or his inexhaustible forgiveness: forgiveness, not acquiescence.
As Christ sees in the flawed, proud, fanatical or lukewarm Church on earth that bride who will one day be without spot or wrinkle, and labors to produce the latter, so the husband whose headship is Christ-like (and he is allowed no other sort) never despairs. He is a King Cophetua who after twenty years still hopes that the beggar-girl will one day learn to speak the truth and wash behind her ears. (105-106)"
John Piper
August 5, 2009
[I have copied this article from the Gender Blog of The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. It was originally posted on the DesiringGod blog]
What follows is one of the greatest reasons for a man to get married and stay married: not the rapturous flame of eros, but the refining fires of holiness.
No relationship is more clearly commanded to model the death of Christ. No relationship is more costly-in both senses of that word (painful and precious).
This quote comes from one of C. S. Lewis's last books, published in 1960, The Four Loves. In it we hear the wise fruit of a lifetime.
"The husband is the head of the wife just in so far as he is to her what Christ is to the Church. He is to love her as Christ loved the church-read on-and gave his life for her (Ephesians 5:25).
This headship, then, is most fully embodied not in the husband we should all wish to be but in him whose marriage is most like a crucifixion; whose wife receives most and gives least, is most unworthy of him, is-in her own mere nature-least lovable. For the church has no beauty but what the bridegroom gives her; he does not find, but makes her, lovely.
The chrism [anointing, consecration] of this terrible coronation is to be seen not in the joys of any man's marriage but in its sorrows, in the sickness and sufferings of a good wife or the faults of the bad one, in his unwearying (never paraded) care or his inexhaustible forgiveness: forgiveness, not acquiescence.
As Christ sees in the flawed, proud, fanatical or lukewarm Church on earth that bride who will one day be without spot or wrinkle, and labors to produce the latter, so the husband whose headship is Christ-like (and he is allowed no other sort) never despairs. He is a King Cophetua who after twenty years still hopes that the beggar-girl will one day learn to speak the truth and wash behind her ears. (105-106)"
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