Should you ever unfriend a fellow Christian?

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TODAY’S SPECIAL: 1 Corinthians 5-6; Psalm 143

TO CHEW ON: “But now I write to you not to associate with any one who bears the name of [Christian] brother, if he is known to be guilty of immorality, or greed, or is an idolater—that is whose soul is devoted to any object that usurps the place of God—or [is] a person with a foul tongue (railing, abusing, reviling, slandering) or is a drunkard or a swindler or a robber. [No] you must not so much as eat with such a person” 1 Corinthians 5:11 AMP.

The church discipline Paul recommends here sounds a lot like the “shunning” that happens amongst, for example, the Amish. To us, living in our postmodern culture of individuality and permissiveness, this kind of treatment may sound extreme. I’ve heard of members of religious groups taking to court church officials who disciplined them in such ways.

However, tolerated sin is dangerous. Earlier in 1 Corinthians 5, Paul explains why, using the metaphor of leaven or yeast (which is almost always a type of sin in the Bible). Just like leaven grows to spread through an entire lump of dough, so, Paul says, sin left unaddressed soon permeates an entire congregation (1 Corinthians 5:6-7).

The Israelites were to remove leaven from their homes in preparation for Passover. So, Paul argues, these Christ-followers need to deal with the leaven of sin in their midst when they gather to celebrate Christ (“keep the feast”-[2 Cor. 5:8—Passover and/or the Lord’s Supper).

Paul’s list of leaven-type actions they needed to address didn’t end with the sexual immorality of two members. To immorality Paul added greed, idolatry, "foul tongue"*, drunkard, swindler, robber.


Two takeaway thoughts from this passage:
1. I ask myself (and all of us)  are we guilty of the leaven on this list? Could we be spreaders of leaven in our churches? Could our attitude toward possessions, accomplishments, goals etc. ever be characterized as greedy or idolatrous? What about speech. Do we ever rail, revile, abuse, or slander? Are we disciplined in eating and drinking? Are we honest?

2. If our church leadership doesn’t enact discipline, we need to guard our own relationships. Perhaps we should prayerfully consider separating ourselves from “brothers and sister” who live immorally, are greedy and worship the idols of possessions, accomplishments, prestige, leisure, whose speech is abusive and foul, who practice dishonesty.

PRAYER: Dear Father, help me to eliminate the leaven from my own life, and to guard my relationships with Christians who have slipped into a worldly lifestyle.

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 143

* “Foul tongue” "Railing" (rail: to utter bitter complaint or vehement denunciation), and "reviling" (revile: to assail with contemptuous language, address or speak abusively - definitions from dictionary.com). 

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)

Breaking the bondage of confusion

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Isaiah 61:1-11

TO CHEW ON: “… And instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion.” Isaiah 61:7

Today, as I read amazing Isaiah 61, verse 7 jumps out at me:

“Instead of your shame, you shall have double honor,
And instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion.
Therefore in their land they shall possess double;
Everlasting joy shall be theirs.”

I’d like to focus especially on one snippet of verse 7: “And instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion.”

Isaiah wrote this (entire chapter) to a nation that would spend many years in exile. This prophecy in the immediate spoke to them of a time they would again live in their own land.

A few word definitions:

“‘Shame’ and ‘dishonor’ describe the experience of the Babylonian exile of the sixth century” - Reformation Study Bible (accessed through Biblegateway.com).

“Confusion” (kalimmah) is also translated humilation, disgrace, reproach, shame, dishonor, insult, ignominy.

“Portion” (cheleq) means one’s share, part, territory, one’s possession.

To the exile, this prophecy spoke of a time when they would come out of the confusion or “humiliation” (NAS) of being exiled outsiders to again owning and rejoicing in their own “portion” or possession of land.

One of the reasons this verse speaks to me at this time is that in our western society, one of our most precious possessions, our gender norms and sexual identity, are under attack. New theories that claim our birth sex means nothing and that we can decide whether we are wishing to identify as male or female on any given day, are being instituted and upheld in society at large. Of special concern to me is that these new theories are now mandated instruction and practice in the schools—whether religious or secular.

This is leading to the need for new pronouns in our dictionary to address those who feel they are neither a “he” nor a “she,” genderless bathrooms, changes on official forms to accommodate those who don’t want to be identified with their biological sex—in other words, a whole lot of confusion.

This is especially troublesome for children who are now to be taught this new fluid sexual identity theory as truth. Who, if they question their birth sex as defining their gender identity are being encouraged to experiment with living as the other sex and in some cases given puberty blocking medications* (drugs that may make them sterile).

As a Christian who lives by the principles of the Bible, I see this gender identity confusion as only one more evidence of the “Has God indeed said...?” rebellion first sown in the human heart way back in Eden (Genesis 3:1). For God has indeed said “…male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27) and has made His position on sexual relations between genders and gender identity clear in passages like Leviticus 18:22; 20:13; Romans 1:27 and Deuteronomy 22:5.

Male and female is how He made us. This is not some cruel edict from a stern, unfeeling deity. It’s wisdom. It’s love. Living as a male or female, according to our physical biology is how we work best. We’re only asking for trouble when we defy the way we were wisely and lovingly created (see Romans 1:24-27).

So Isaiah 61:7 gives us the hopeful assurance that Jesus (who declared this passage was speaking of Him as the One who can bring liberty to the captives - Isaiah 61:1 compare Luke 4:17-21) can also set free from from this. Instead of the bondage of confusion over whether we, our children, and grandchildren are and should identify as the gender we were born, we can rejoice in our portion (our possession of a sure male or female identity).

Let’s pray this for and over ourselves, our children, and grandchildren in these days, as we are forced to navigate this tsunami of lies and confusion.

PRAYER: Dear Father, I pray for the children of this generation. Deliver them from confusion. Help them to recognize this theory as the lie that it is. Please help us as those who believe You created us wisely and well to know how to express Your loving intentions toward all people. Amen.

MORE:

*Additional reading about puberty suppression from The New Atlantis:
Growing Pains: Problems with Puberty Suppression in Treating Gender Dysphoria


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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

What authority determines your course?

TODAY'S SPECIAL: 2 Timothy 4:1-18

TO CHEW ON: "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables." 2 Timothy 4:3,4

Such a time has come for the church, especially over the issue of blessing same sex marriages. Numerous books have lately come out by professing Christians that are pro same-sex unions (see this Publisher's Weekly article).

Writers of these books usually argue that Bible passages that speak clearly against homosexuality* have been misinterpreted and are saying something different than what they seem to say.

Dr. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has put together a book (God and the Gay Christian? A Response to Matthew Vines**)) refuting one of these books (God and the Gay Christian by Matthew Vines). In Mohler's book, Mohler and four other theologians speak to the arguments Vines makes.

In the chapter titled "What Has the Church Believed and Taught?" Denny Burk quotes liberal theologian Luke Timothy Johnson who, to his credit, is one who admits that the Bible doesn't come out favoring same-sex relationships. In fact, he names the authority that proponents of gay marriage are really following. He says:

"I have little patience with efforts to make Scripture say something other than what it says, through appeals to linguistic or cultural subtleties. The exegetical situation is straightforward: we know what the text says. But what are we to do with what the text says? … I think it is important to state clearly that we do, in fact, reject the straightforward commands of Scripture, and appeal instead to another authority when we declare that same-sex unions can be holy and good. And what exactly is that authority? We appeal explicitly to the weight of our own experience and the experience thousands of others have witnessed to, which tells us that to claim our own sexual orientation is in fact to accept the way in which God has created us" (quoted in God and the Gay Christian - A Response to Matthew Vines? p. 54)

More and more churches and individual Christians that hold to the traditional interpretation of the Bible on contentious issues like gay marriage are being pushed into a corner by the powers of political correctness and public opinion. In this context it's really important that we settle for ourselves (corporately and personally) who and what our authority is in these matters.

Do we set our course by the Bible's authority or are we too heaping up for ourselves fables (new authorities like experience)? We need to determine to set our course by the true North Star of God's word, not the flashy satellites of experience and public opinion that orbit the sky of our culture.

PRAYER: Dear God, in these times when the authority of Your word is being questioned, help me to stay true to it and You. Help me to live my life by Your standards, not the standards of the society around me. Amen.


* Bible passages that speak about homosexuality are: Genesis 19:5; Leviticus 18:22; Leviticus 20:13; Romans 1:26-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9; and 1 Timothy 1:10. 

** Download the free pdf of God and the Gay Christian? A Response to Matthew Vines HERE.


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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

A virgin again

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Jeremiah 31:1-22

TO CHEW ON: "'Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love;
Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.
Again I will build you and you shall be rebuilt,
O virgin of Israel!
You shall again be adorned with your tambourines,
And shall go forth in the dances of those who rejoice.'" Jeremiah 31:3,4

After all that He has been through with her, God calls Israel a virgin?!

"Only the amazing love of verse 3 could call Israel a virgin," says my Bible commenter.

God here seems to be talking about a process of what is sometimes called "revirginization"—of restoring that which has been lost, squandered or blemished: "Again I will build you and you shall be rebuilt."

The idea of actual sexual revirginization is relevant in our society where sexual looseness is tolerated, even encouraged in movies, TV, books, music—and from the earliest age. Chances are good that if you came to the Lord in your 20s or 30s, though still single, you were no longer a virgin.

Ken Shigematsu in his book God In My Everything talks about sex and spirituality. After describing how God's presence in our lives helps us express our sexuality in wholesome ways, he subtitles a final section "Revirginization." In it he says:

"Perhaps you feel that you have fallen short or have been compromised  because of your past experiences, failing to live out God's ideal …. Perhaps your sexual purity feels like a ship that sailed away long ago."

He quotes Ezekiel 36:25-27 and concludes:

"You may struggle with an ongoing sense of regret or shame over past sexual sins, but God promises to sprinkle clean water on you and make you clean. He offers you a new heart. You don't need to be defined by your past. When you turn to God, you experience a new beginning" - Ken Shigematsu, God In My Everything, p. 106.

If we are plagued by memories and regrets in this area, let's take to heart God's words to Judah, and claim His cleansing and rebuilding for ourselves.

PRAYER: Dear God, we are surrounded by sexual lures and temptations. Please help us to stay pure and accept Your washing and rebuilding when we are plagued by memories and regrets of sexual sin. Amen.

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New King James Version (NKJV) Used with permission. The Holy Bible, New King James Version Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.