The Confusion of Obedience

Exodus 5:22 – 23 is instructive.  Moses has been called by God to go to Pharaoh and demand he let Israel go to worship God.  Pharaoh is not playing along.  Moses is doing exactly what God asked him to do.  The result is hardship on God’s people.

Moses is questioning why it is he was the lucky one that got to anger both Pharaoh and his countrymen.

There is a lot of teaching out in the Christian ether that if we obey God, things will work out.  That teaching is basically correct depending on what you consider “work out” to be.  If it means that you will not get resistance, things will go smoothly, you will get a promotion, a big raise, and live a peaceful existence, you will more than likely be disappointed.

Christ obeyed God perfectly.  Do I need to expand on that?  I will…  He was resisted by the enemy and the religious leaders of the time relentlessly, to the point where they executed him.  We are expected to imitate, follow Jesus.  Paul did.  He experienced similar treatment, as did Peter, James, John, pretty much all of the 11.  Unless one redefines some key words, it is difficult to validate that obedience to the Lord in this world leads to smooth sailing.

If you have a differing perspective, I would be interested in hearing how you validate your position Biblically.

Two Modes of Slavery

I have often returned to 1 Corinthians 9:19 – 23 for a checkup.  Paul tells us there that in the process of doing all things – not some things, not a weekend or a seminar, or a part time volunteer in a ministry no, all – for the sake of the gospel; part of that process is to make himself a slave – he could have used the word servant, but no, he penned, “slave” – to those who do not know Christ.

That passage has served to both challenge and rebuke me over and over again along with 2 Corinthians 5:11 – 21.  It reminds me that central to my every action should be the furtherance of the gospel.

There is a major wrinkle in my application of those passages and the subsequent making a slave of myself.  Some, make that more than some, of the people that I meet that are non-believers I don’t like very much.  Yet there it is smack in the middle of 1 Corinthians 9, I am supposed to ignore my reaction to these folks and become their slave so that they can come to Christ.

Which brings me to the last paragraph in 1 Corinthians 9:19 – 23.  My reactions to less than polite people requires the self-control to which Paul refers.  He is describing an intentionality in his purpose, his choices.  The purpose is to win people to Christ.  To do so he makes his body a slave to his purpose, his intention.

So rather than trying to get back at those who are defaming him, he commands himself to not react and seeks to lead them to his Lord.

I have a long way to go in imitating Paul.

Fear

What do you fear?  I just took a survey on some upcoming publications.  One of the books dealt with ISIS and the Middle East.  I travel in that area from time to time.  Many are fearful of the spread of that entity.  Images of ISIS members beheading Coptic Christians leap to mind.  It is a reasonable response to wish to avoid that experience.

This morning though I was struck by Luke 12:4 – 5.  Christ instructs us not to fear those who threaten to kill us with that being the limit of their threat.  That short statement has staggering implications.

First it assumes that there is something worse, much worse in fact, than death.  Second, it tacitly claims that there is existence after death.

We tend to focus on the event of death.  But the implication of Christ’s command here is that should not be our focus.  I am currently reading, I believe I have mentioned this before, D. A. Carson’s book, Praying with Paul: A Call to Spiritual Reformation.  In it he points out that the ground of all of Paul’s prayer is a focus on the reality that we are to live eternity in the presence of Christ, in our glorified state.  Carson’s point is that is what drove not only Paul’s prayer but his approach to life.  He lived in light of his ultimate end, which guided his prayer and his life choices.

In Luke 12:5, Jesus tells us why we should not fear those who threaten murder.  His reasoning aligns with Paul’s or better Paul’s aligned with Jesus’.  Those who would kill us have no power over us after they do so.  God however, has the authority to cast us into an eternity in Hell.

That is something to fear.