We are really good at discussing possibilities. What about realities? We can discuss "Should a wife submit to her husband?" and see the Scriptures that say, "Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord" (Eph 5:22; 1 Peter 3:1), and it's not ambiguous. The question is not "possibilities," but "What will you do?" We read, "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her", and it's not ambiguous. The question isn't "Should husbands love their wives sacrificially?" The question is "Will you do it?"
I was reminded of a Christian woman who married a Christian man. She divorced him for unknown reasons, but the suggestion was that he wanted to be a pastor and she didn't want to be a pastor's wife. Now ... the possibilities aren't ambiguous. When asked if there was any reason for divorce, Jesus replied, "Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate" (Matt 19:4-6). Or, in plain English, NO!! God says, "I hate divorce" (Mal 2:16). "Okay ... we got it!" Except ... we don't. We find excuses. We find exceptions. We find reasons why God doesn't hate it and Jesus wasn't exactly clear. We divorce. We fail to love. We fail to submit. For starters.
So we'll debate eternal security and election and whether or not Trump is a Christian. We'll discuss Creation vs Evolution. We'll try to figure out if Noah's flood was real or imagined. But ... will we ... obey? Will we do what is clear? Or will we figure out why we should be allowed ... to defy the Creator?
2 comments:
Obedience is the hardest yet surest way to express our love for our Savior.
Thinking about your closing paragraph, it does seem that many people do get caught up in peripheral issues, which serve as distractions to following the clear will of God. (Indeed, I do this myself.) It’s almost as if we say, “When I have figured out all these thorny areas of life to my satisfaction, then I will truly submit to the Lord. I’m working some things out first. (Read: I’m not 100% convinced that I can trust Him with my life.)” It is nothing more than excuses and exceptions, as you say, and justification and rationalizations.
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