Evangelical Reformation

While I was attending seminary in California, a little church nearby was gracious enough to let me be their pastor. Apparently, they saw their ministry as giving young pastors a chance to practice on them.

With all the enthusiasm of a young buck just starting to preach, I wanted to drive home the obligation to be completely sold out on every issue I addressed.

I distinctly remember preaching on sacrifice. This seemed to be an easy one. Christ gave everything for us on the cross. How could we do less? Therefore, it was evident that total sacrifice should be a hallmark of our lives.

The only problem was those verses that seemed to be saying just the opposite. For example, the apostle Paul in thanking the Philippians for their gift, commented, “I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity.” (Phil. 4:12 NASV) He seemed to be saying that when he had plenty of money he knew how to enjoy it, though no doubt without being self-indulgent.

Likewise, in 1 Timothy 6:12, Paul, in admonishing the rich notes that God “provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” This verse seems to be teaching us that God wants us to enjoy His provisions.

These passages were ruining my sermon on total sacrifice. They indicate that the Christian life is not all sacrifice, but that God expects us to enjoy at least some of what He has given to us.

The next week’s topic was separation from the world. As I started to wind up for a convicting sermon on our need for separation from a sinful world, those verses about Jesus hobnobbing with the publicans and sinners started to get in my way. Apparently, just as with sacrifice, there were limits to separation.

It soon became apparent to me that for every concept in Scripture, there was a counterbalancing concept, so that every teaching of Scripture was delimited by an offsetting teaching.

Scripture not only teaches the righteousness and judgment of God, but it also reveals his mercy and grace. We not only have passages about not being weary in well doing, but we also hear Christ calling us to come apart and rest awhile. We have verses on obeying the government, and others that instruct us that we ought to obey God rather than men. The fact is that one is hard-pressed to find any scriptural concept that is not paired with a counterbalance in the opposite direction.

This arrangement holds implications for almost every practical decision we make. If we spend too little on a car, it will be an unreliable money pit. On the other hand, if we spend more for a car we reach the point of diminishing returns and poor stewardship.

Therefore, one of the most important skills of life is to be able to discern the point at which counterbalancing concepts meet. In the instance just mentioned, what is the optimal amount to spend on a car?

In disciplining children, we can nitpick at everything, driving them crazy and destroying our relationship with them, or we can be neglectful, failing to provide sufficient discipline. The challenge is to find the midpoint of maximum effectiveness.

How does one discern that ideal balance between the extremes? First, it requires the development of the in-depth knowledge of the Word of God discussed in our previous post.

One of the most encouraging phrases in Scripture is the last segment of 1 Corinthians 2:16, which asserts: “But we have the mind of Christ.” This passage provides assurance that as we seek to make the decisions of life from a biblical perspective, the Word of God will enable us to think Christ’s thoughts after Him. This goes beyond knowing specific verses related to the decision before us. Rather, it refers to understanding the mind of Christ so well that we instinctively know what He would do in the situation confronting us.

Balanced decisions also require practical knowledge. To make a good decision about the purchase of a car, we need to know something about cars. Likewise, in dealing with children, we need to understand kids in general, our kids in particular, and where they are in their lives at the moment.

Since decision-making is a major element of leadership, it is essential that a husband and father recognize this need for finding the optimal balance between the extremes. He must also develop the scriptural and practical knowledge necessary to make the decisions at hand.

This requires substantial work. However, the payback for doing an excellent job is substantial. Beyond that, God calls us to do the work necessary to lead effectively.

Joe works for General Electric as a supervisor. That means he has authority. What a fun and easy job—telling people what to do. What a power rush. Joe can make all those people do his bidding.

Of course, this perspective overlooks the fact that Joe also has a boss. In fact, at General Electric he has many bosses as the almost endless chain of command stretches up through the ranks to the board of directors.

And each level of that chain of command has developed vision and mission statements, produced policies, and issued orders that flow down to Joe.

In other words, though Joe has authority, he is also under authority. Therefore, Joe, far from having the latitude to boss people around at his pleasure, must use his authority for the purpose for which it was given him, that is, to accomplish the purposes of those in authority over him. 

Likewise, God has assigned authority to husbands, not so they can boss their wives and children for their own purposes and pleasure, but to mold and lead their families so that they will honor God and be blessed by God.

That said, how does a husband and father know God’s agenda? They must know God’s mind and learn God’s will by studying God’s Word. That is, husbands and fathers must lead by applying the Word of God to the various aspects of family life.

This is a challenging assignment because the Bible is not an easy read. It is a big book with many sections that are difficult to understand. Developing a grasp of Scripture requires a lot of systematic study.

Consequently, to lead effectively, husbands and fathers must be serious students of the Word of God. At the risk of being branded as a legalist, I believe that a good grasp of Scripture requires at least a half hour a day of diligent study.

This study cannot consist merely of reading Christian books about biblical topics. It must entail digging into the Word itself, outlining passages and books, doing word studies, and reading commentaries.

Let me recommend two approaches to Bible study that together enable a person to develop a good working knowledge of Scripture. The first is reading the Bible through in a year, preferably using a good study Bible. All sorts of schedules are available for doing this. I believe the best type of schedule, especially for those who do not have a good working knowledge of the flow of Scripture, is the approach that takes one straight through from Genesis through Revelation. The following web site provides this type of schedule: http://www.backtothebible.org/devotions/readme.htm?level=beginning.

Another approach to Bible study that provides a wonderful complement to reading through the Bible consists of reading a short book (for example Philippians or James) or a short section of a longer book (for example Matthew 5 through 7, the Sermon on the Mount) every day for a month.

This process can include the outlining, word studies, and commentary reading mentioned above. In a month’s time, this book or section of Scripture will become part of a person’s life. Through this process, a person can become closely acquainted with 12 key portions of Scripture in a year’s time.

Alternating these two approaches, one that keeps the person fresh on the full scope of Scripture and the other that gives him in-depth understanding of crucial passages, develops a solid understanding of the Word of God.

It is only as a husband and father does his biblical homework that he can be qualified to be a leader in his home—that he can formulate a biblical agenda that will honor God and accomplish his purposes and be a blessing to his wife and children.

If husbands and fathers would do the necessary homework to develop a biblical agenda for leadership, it would bring about an evangelical reformation.

Our society hates authority. That is because it loves autonomy, and autonomy and authority don’t mix.

Make no mistake about it, the existentialism of the sixties is still with us, is still the underlying force that shapes our attitudes and dominates our culture. Therefore, the guiding principle of our society is, “I have a right to do my own thing.” That cliché leaves no place for authority.

I bought a recently published book on authority to discover how authority could possibly be fit into our current cultural context. The writers accomplished this by redefining authority to not mean authority, but something else.

They asserted that the word authority comes from the root “to author.” Therefore, to exercise authority over someone entails helping them “to author” their ideas, i.e. assisting them in doing their own thing. Consequently, through some lexical gymnastics, they drained the concept of authority of all its authority.

Not only so, but they assigned to those traditionally in authority the task of enabling those traditionally under authority to exercise autonomy.

This is precisely the mechanism at work in our culture. Our authority structure has been turned on its head. Students are now in charge of the classroom, children run the home, our laws give criminals the upper hand over policeman, and evangelicals are assured that it’s okay to be angry with God when he doesn’t meet their expectations. Those previously under authority are now in authority. The inmates are running the asylum.

All this to say that it is no easy task for a husband and father to exercise authority in his home. Even much of the evangelical world has bought into the theology of “mutual submission,” stripping the husband of his authority.

Notwithstanding, the fundamental law of management and leadership is that authority and responsibility must match. A person assigned responsibility can only meet that responsibility if he is also given authority. A person can only be held responsible to oversee a budget if he has the authority to control expenditures.

A person given authority must also be held responsible or he will abuse that authority. A person given authority to spend money without responsibility of the accounting for his expenditures will abuse the privilege.

Therefore, a husband and father must have authority. God has given it to him, but society and his family may resist it. Nonetheless, to meet his responsibility, he must exercise authority regardless of any resistance.

It is no fun to be in a position of authority because authority is always challenged. I don’t mean that every time a leader makes a decision it is challenged. Rather, I am saying that every person under authority will ultimately challenge that authority to see if the leader will fold or stand.

When such tests come, the husband and father who stands may have to pay a price. His family may respond with hostility or with a silent treatment—passive aggression. In the anticipation of or in the midst of such opposition, most of us feel afraid, intimidated, and inadequate, but being a leader requires that we exercise the discipline to rise above those emotions and take the heat.

Of course, as suggested above and asserted in previous posts, our purpose for exercising authority should never be self-serving, but rather to meet our responsibilities to our family.

The church should support husbands and fathers in their exercise of authority in their homes. Correspondingly, the church should challenge husbands and fathers to use that authority to meet their responsibilities.

Unfortunately, the evangelical community finds itself influenced by unbiblical aspects of the anti-authoritarian and feminist orientation of our secular culture. A return to a biblical understanding of authority and responsibility would require an evangelical reformation.