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Clothed with Christ

(Gal 3:26-29) You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Paul finally says outright what he suggests elsewhere — we are baptized “into Christ.” This places us in his body — the church-universal. In a sense, we are clothed with Christ because we’ve wrapped ourselves in Jesus! Read more »

In a comment to an earlier post, Dell Kimberly asked,

One of our deacons has not come on board. He and his wife are upset with the change of direction. They continue to work just below the surface. They question the authority and effectiveness of the elders. Their complaints and questions are never presented in public. It is always done just below the surface. Actually it must be very similar to the murmuring that Moses must have experienced. How do we deal with this without taking away from the growth and energies of the church?

That’s a tough one. Read more »

In a comment to the previous post, Alan points out that the Old Testament’s use of “overseer” refers to a supervisor or overseer in the workplace. Think “middle management.” And it’s true.

I was already familiar with the passages. I’ve been looking at the OT verses relevant to eldering for another series I’ve been working on, which I may never get to.

The question of just what level of authority an elder has is a subtle and often misunderstood one, I think. I remember years ago being told by an elder that he was concerned about Wednesday nights. He was afraid that by requiring Wednesday night attendance, he was sending people to hell, because so many weren’t attending! Read more »

C. Church Affairs

This brings us to the passages that deal more particularly with church affairs. In 1 Cor 14:33b-35 paternalists find ample basis to conclude that women must be silent in the assembly. But many hierarchalists agree with egalitarians that this passage must be limited to its historical and cultural circumstance. Many hierarchalists would permit women to speak in the assembly, so long as such speaking is not authoritative over men. Read more »

In the last post, we considered the meaning of baptism in the Gospels and Acts, figuring that our search for the center of the gospel might be found in baptism and the Lord’s Supper. In this post, we’ll look at the meaning of baptism as presented by Paul.

Baptism into the death and resurrection of Jesus

(Rom 6:3-11) Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

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A. Egalitarian or Hierarchalist?

We earlier considered Osburn’s suggestion that there are four schools of thought as to the role of women: paternalism, hierarchicalism, egalitarianism, and radical feminism. We rejected radical feminism because this view does not accept the inerrancy of scripture. We rejected paternalism because it is based on shallow methods of interpreting the scriptures and insists on adding rules that admittedly are not found in the Bible.

Hierarchicalism has a strong appeal to those within the Churches of Christ. This view supports the inerrancy of scripture and makes a serious effort at careful Bible study in textual and historical context while retaining the long-standing teaching that there is a principle of male leadership.

And yet the egalitarian view also has much appeal. While distinctly non-traditional, it also supports the inerrancy of scripture. It appeals to our innate sense of justice and fair play and certainly has much support in the doctrine of gifts and talents. Accordingly, it is appropriate to consider how far apart the schools of thought really are. Read more »

Nicodemus

(John 3:3-1 In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

4 “How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!”

5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

Read more »

Just fiddling with the stat feature in WordPress.

There have been 2,078 comments posted on this site in less than 18 months. Most of those were this year, I’m sure. (Readership went way up starting around New Years.)

I’ve written 591 posts plus 62 pages (most of the pages are part of the Index system). I’ve written another 98 posts which are not yet published, most being drafts I’m not entirely happy with.

I’m a little worried about these OCD tendencies, OCD tendencies, OCD tendencies, OCD tendencies, OCD tendencies, OCD tendencies, OCD tendencies, OCD tendencies, OCD tendencies.

The blogs that have sent the most readers over here are — Read more »

Well, the year is halfway over. As is my custom, I’ll post links to the most popular posts for the last month. And while I’m at it, I’ll post the top 20 for all time. (Software won’t let me do the last 6 months. Oh, well.) Read more »

First, a word of explanation.

I’m trying to carefully work through the scriptures to decide for myself where the emphasis should be. I mean, I’ve read too many books and too many blogs and am having trouble sorting all this information out for myself and for my congregation.

It seems as though each week the elders are pushed to go one direction and then another and then yet another. There are too many good ideas, too many wonderful insights, too many directions.

And so, this is for me. I’m figuring this out as I go. In the end, I hope to have figured out what’s most important to Jesus — not what works best, what’s most fashionable, what the members want or feel they need, not even what I want. Read more »

Q. Doesn’t the fact that there were women deacons and not women elders in the early church tell us that God did not mean for women to be elders?

A. No, for two reasons. First, deacons were servants of the congregation and women could easily fill the role of deacon without violating cultural norms. But elders were foremost teachers and leaders. First Century Christians would never have accepted women as elders. Indeed, few women would have been qualified to be elders, due to lack of education or exposure to the world. The same cultural conditions that dictated that women not teach and that women not ask questions in the assemblies made eldership an impossibility. Read more »

Most commentaries, heavily influenced by Luther and Calvin, speak of “salvation” as getting to go to heaven when we die. Modern churches often speak of making “Jesus your personal Savior,” as though Jesus could be owned personally.

But, of course, this isn’t quite right. And part of the inadequacy of this perspective is that it completely ignores the Old Testament’s use of “salvation.” And we really can’t understand the Old Testament idea until we understand the long-standing promise of a new heaven and new earth. Read more »

And so we were talking about Surprised by Hope in class on Sunday and someone brought up the idea that the Holy Spirit is a “deposit.” For example –

(2 Cor 1:21-22) Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, 22 set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

Also 2 Cor 5:5; Eph 1:13-14.

The word translated “deposit” in the Greek is arrhabon. In modern Greek, it means “engagement ring,” which is pretty cool when you remember that the church is the bride of Christ! Read more »

Sexually pure gospel

Watch enough 24-hour news shows and pretty soon you’ll see some evangelist interviewed. The subject will be sex — abortion, divorce, homosexuality, abstinence. It’s as though the only thing Jesus taught us was to keep our pants on outside of marriage!

Now, the Bible is very, very moral and holds us to very high standards. But is this center of the gospel?

Ask a Christian teenager about the youth rally he just returned from, and he’ll tell you that most of the lessons were on sexual purity. It’s good they’re being taught this. They need to hear it. What else do they need to hear? And what else might the government or the TV audience need to hear? Read more »

Someone asked this in class Sunday, and I had wondered the same thing as I was preparing the lesson. The question comes from Isaiah –

(Isa 65:17) “Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.

There are some parallel verses, especially –

(Rev 21:4-5) He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” 5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”

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What is the rule in this case? Do we presume a rule or do we presume freedom? What does the Bible say?

(Gal. 3:25) Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.

Why do we insist on replacing the law that Christ died to free us from with a new, equally strict law? Can you tell any difference between our debates over whether a man must resign as elder if his wife dies or if his only child (or one of his two children) dies or is divorced and the debates the Pharisees had as to whether it is right to heal on the Sabbath? I can’t. They thought they were honoring God by strictly construing His commands to be “safe.” They built fences around the law to be doubly safe. They are burning in hell. Let’s not follow their example. Read more »

We need to consider a few more gospels, at least briefly.

The gospel of salvation

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, sometimes we so focus on the getting saved that we have little understanding of being saved. Which leads to –

The gospel of evangelism

Now, just as it’s very much right that we be saved, it’s also right that we spread the gospel. There’s a lot right with evangelism, and nothing wrong with it — unless, of course, we do it wrong. Read more »

2. Are the qualifications described in 1 Timothy and Titus intended as laws or merely indicative of to whom God has given the gift of leadership?

Objectively viewed, it is hard to argue that the qualification lists in 1 Timothy and Titus are “laws.” As we have discussed in the context of Galatians, Paul has very principled reasons for not making himself into the next Moses. Moreover, there is internal evidence that these are not laws.

First, why are the lists in Titus and 1 Timothy different? Is God’s eternal law of who can be an elder different in Crete (the destination of Titus) than in Ephesus (the destination of 1 Timothy)? It would appear so. While the lists are similar, Titus and Timothy were working out of two different rulebooks, if rulebooks they are.

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The questions thus presented are:

1. Is the apparent prohibition of an woman being an elder evidenced in 1 Timothy and Titus, as well as early church history, a temporary cultural matter only or an eternal ordinance of God?

2. Are the qualifications described in 1 Timothy and Titus intended as laws or as merely indicative of to whom God has given the gift of leadership?

An affirmative answer to either question would permit many women gifted to lead to serve as elders. Read more »

The prophetic gospel

In his book A Peculiar People: The Church As Culture in a Post-Christian Society, Rodney Clapp talks about our living in a post-Constantinian world where Christianity is no longer the chaplain to the powers that be. We now rest on the margins, causing us to rethink our gospel. Because of this, Clapp insists we’re starting to foster a more prophetic gospel that challenges the nation-state.

This is a corollary to the political gospel. If we are not to be the nation’s chaplain, but rather stand outside the nation, measuring it by God’s standards, there may be times when we have a duty to speak for God — to be like the prophets of the Old Testament and announce when God’s will contradicts the will of the nation. Read more »