Paraphrase: (2/7/03)
4 Young women should learn to love their husbands and their children. 5 They must be thoughtful, righteous, and kind. Let them work in their homes, and be subject to their husbands. Thus, they will be protected from dishonoring God by their actions.
Key Verse: (2/7/03)
2:4 - Train them to live their lives in a way that will bring no dishonor to God.
New Thoughts (2/8/03-2/9/03)
4 Encourage those new to faith, recently born anew to love their husbands, and their children, 5 to limit their actions with proper thinking, to restrain their desires, to be delivered from their feelings, having self-control and moderation in all things. Teach them to be free of all impurity, all carnality, all defilement, innocent and virgin, such as will inspire reverence. Let them be busy with keeping house, guarding their families, looking after domestic affairs with all prudence, being useful and profitable, excelling and distinguished in their actions. Let the purity of their speech display the purity of their soul, as they become honorable and acceptable to God. Train them to place themselves in orderly fashion under their husbands, not to the point of blind obedience, but orderly. In doing these things, they will live in such a way that the word of God will not be reviled, the reputation of Truth will not be hurt, the fame of our God will not be injured. Let no man speak evil of our God due to your example!
Again, while this passage is targeted at a particular demographic within the church, the message is applicable to all. It is one Truth that Paul presents here. In a spiritual sense, we are all called to love our Husband, to live as orderly subordinates to His will. If we are walking in obedience to His will, we will have our spiritual children, and they, too, will need our love. We cannot simply bring them in and abandon them to the elements. They must be nurtured, discipled. That's pretty much what Paul is talking about here. You, if you have reached maturity in this Christian life, then it falls to you to teach those who are new to the faith, to guide them into the ways of maturity. Model the true Christian life to them, don't just throw words and great ideas at them! This life looks impossible to the newcomer, because it is impossible to the newcomer. It's impossible to the mature believer as well! But all things are possible with God. Teach them! Let them know that the impossible can be accomplished by the working of the Spirit who has brought them to this place of renewal unto life!
What you are teaching them about living, live out yourself. This is so key! The closing words of this part just ring out in my ears: "that the word of God may not be dishonored." How often do we really consider that idea as we do what we do during the day? What are our words, our actions saying about the faith we claim? There are any number of levels at which to consider this. There is the question of what our example is doing for those who are of like faith. There's the question of what our 'mature' example is accomplishing in the faith of the newly reborn. If our example is poor, it is entirely possible that we could cause these newly arrived to fall away. "Woe to him who causes one of these little ones to stumble!" Jesus has made plain to us how seriously he takes the security of the believer, how seriously He regards the hypocritical actions of the senior believers which might cause unbelief. Woe to us, if our actions lead to such terrible ends!
What of our effect on those who know our claim to faith, but don't share it? Paul is calling us, here, to live such a life as will give them no cause to dishonor God. If our actions show that we don't take Him seriously, then we invite them to likewise not take Him seriously. If we are constantly professing one thing and doing quite another, then we encourage in them a view of our God as ridiculous. It is this hypocrisy on the part of believers that encourages the unbelievers around us to 'intentionally fall short of the reverence due God.' Certainly, offense will come even (perhaps especially) when we are most true to our beliefs in the way we live. But, we cannot allow our failures to bring those around us into deeper condemnation! How can we? We are called by Christ to love our neighbor as ourselves, to care about his wellbeing as much as we concern ourselves with our own wellbeing, if not more. How can we claim obedience to that command if we are allowing our example to become a stumbling block to whatever faith he may have? If we have caused him to blaspheme God, to bring himself under the condemnation due such blasphemy, where is love in that? In our selfish insistence on satisfying our own desires, even in the face of the great love of God, we ignore the impact our actions may have on those around us, and allow them to fall into deeper and deeper sin with our blessings.
"That the word of God may not be dishonored." Do we care? Does it bother us when we hear the Truth belittled? Does it bother us when the secular court of opinion not only shrugs off the Christian viewpoint, but laughs it away as totally irrelevant and uninformed? Do we take offense when the media goes on the attack against a man of God? More importantly, how do we react to the supposed men of God who have brought such attacks upon not only themselves, but the Church they represent, and the God they claim to serve? Here is where we should, perhaps, be focusing our concern. The world will, in large part, react the way it will react. It is inclined to disregard religions other than its own secular humanism anyway. When the declared leaders of a religion are shown to be no more than profit seekers, preying on the gullible to satisfy their own lusts, this merely reinforces the opinions they already hold. It shouts loudly in their ears that there is nothing real in this faith business.
When scandals arise in the church, and the church shows itself more concerned with image than with purity, then the unbeliever nods his head and sees that there is nothing so very different about the religious after all. He sees that faith has no more power than any other vehicle of imagination. He is moved all the more to laugh at those who continue to believe such obvious nonsense, to cling to it in spite of what it is shown to be.
But what must be his reaction if we will once begin to take ourselves and our God more seriously? What must be his reaction if we are public and open in dealing with these false claimants to godliness? Is this the right course? Perhaps not. It seems like something that should be pursued, and yet it doesn't quite line up with the ways of discipline as God has outlined them. We're still not at the root. Where such public lapses have occurred amongst the pastorate, surely there have been events that served as precursors. Surely, somebody somewhere had a clue as to what was coming. The place for discipline, according to the Word, is in private, and within the Church. The time for that discipline is before the situation becomes uncontrollable and uncorrectable.
Go to the offender in private. Seek his reconciliation to the things of God. If that fails, bring others to confirm your words. Again, the goal must ever be to restore this man to true godliness. But, if he will not listen to the voice of Truth, then turn him out of the body, turn him over to the enemy of his soul. Remember, though, that in doing so the goal has not changed. Even as you must expel him from the community of faith, pray earnestly that he might be restored to faith.
What to do, then, if such a one, rather than being restored, continues in his falsehoods, continues to claim truth in his lies? I think the instruction of this letter speaks quite clearly to that case. They must be silenced. They must not be allowed to be perceived as spokesmen for the church. Where they speak falsehoods, it falls to the Christian to declare the truth, to declare it in orderly and eloquent fashion, to speak logically, showing the errors in the claims of these false prophets, and laying out the truth in its place. We have allowed these deceivers to become sources of great harm to the body of Christ. If we would but follow the directions contained in Scripture, we could instead turn their efforts to great profit to that same body. Every declaration of falsehood is an opportunity for the godly man to stand and declare the Truth. If we will but present that truth in well-reasoned fashion, if we will take the time to prepare ourselves that He might speak His truth through us, if we will be workmen unashamed, able to rightly divide and present the Gospel truth, that truth will stand. The Truth cannot help but be conspicuous when presented against a background of lies.
So the time comes to ask, what are my own words and actions declaring about the worth of my God? How well does my life reflect on the Christ who saved me? Does He truly inform all my ways and all my days? I know, Lord, that perfection is certainly far from me, but have I improved? I have longed to have the witness of a life lived out. You know how long that desire has been in my heart. There have been times, Lord, when I thought that maybe that desire was no more than a thin mask to excuse my lack of effort in more active evangelism, and doubtless there have been times when this was the case. But, Lord, I see that the best of active evangelism is still nothing without the life being lived out behind it. Am I getting there, Father? Truly, Lord, between the lapses it seems to me that more and more I am choosing my words and actions to befit the faith I hold. I know there are lapses. Yet are they coming less often than once they would have? I thank You, Holy Spirit, that when those lapses do come I notice them! I thank You that You have brought such a change in my heart that these lapses bother me.
Indeed, I know You have been working great changes in me. There remain great changes to come, but how far You have brought me! I stand in awe, my Lord, to see what You have done in this life. Yes! I hear a resounding 'Yes' in my spirit right now, declaring to me that I am indeed becoming such a man that the life I lead and the way I walk through that life will indeed declare the glories of Your name! What were those words of St. Francis? "Go out today and preach the Gospel, and if you must, use words." Make this life, my Lord, a living sermon, a witness unto You in every moment and every action. Living sacrifice, that's what we are called to. You have shown me so much of the significance of that idea, and here You are showing it to me again in a new light. Living in a way that all personal desires have been thrust behind me in preference for pursuing and fulfilling Your desires. Indeed, a living gospel, a living letter from Your book of life. Let it be so, my God, let it be so.
