Divisions, Dissensions, and Disrespect

Some "stuff" has been happening at my church recently that has kept me thinking a lot lately about people causing divisions, being uncharitable, hasty in judgments, disrespecting those in positions of leadership, and just flat out forgetting what God's Word says about the unity of the church. So, I decided to jot down some verses that have come to mind of late...

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. (James 1:19-20)

So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (1 Pet 5:1-5)

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it says,

“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.”

In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Eph 4:1-16)

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. (Heb 13:17)

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. (Gal 5:16-26)

I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. (Rom 16:17-18)

But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garmentstained by the flesh.

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. (Jude 17-25)

Revising The ESV

While doing some study in Ephesians chapter 5 the other day, I noticed that verse 7 has changed on the ESV website compared to all the other ESV versions I've seen. The ESV website shows Eph. 5:7 as:

Therefore do not become partners with them;

That verse appears in my Classic Thinline ESV (as well as ever other electronic resource I've tested) like this:

Therefore do not associate with them;

I follow the ESV Blog pretty closely and haven't seen any announcements about changes going into place. Several days ago, I emailed the ESV Blog folks to ask about the changes, but I've yet to get a response from them, which is abnormal -- I've emailed them a couple times before and received a prompt response.

If anyone has any insights into what's going on behind the scenes, I'd appreciate your comments.

Imitators Of God?

I saw this story today about some churches in North Carolina leaving their state convention over the issue homosexuality. Here's an excerpt of the official response of one church:

Baptists believe in "local church autonomy." Exercising that freedom and that responsibility to interpret scripture for our own faith and practice, we have said in our church covenant that as a "community of the new creation" we are "open to all and closed to none." This includes a welcome to gay and lesbian persons who wish to follow Christ with us here.

I admire their compassion, but I don't see how their position can stand up in the face of 1 Cor. 5:9-12 and Eph. 5:1-21 (esp. Eph. 5:7). Their beliefs about what the local church is supposed to look like is the complete opposite of what scripture says.

This situation also highlights some of the interesting questions that the SBC and other state conventions and associations have been facing lately. To what extent are we to cooperate? At what point do we have to part ways? Does not the convention or association (which is really just a bunch of individual churches banded together) have an obligation to apply these passages in 1 Cor. and Eph. to their member churches? All very interesting and practical questions for us Southern Baptists today.

Do We Go With Campolo?

Tony Campolo has become an increasing popular figure in American Christianity (or at least in the more moderate/liberal camps). He's been speaking all over the place, including my alma mater, Hardin-Simmons University. Having seen his chapel address at HSU last year, I can attest to the fact that he's a dynamic speaking and quite entertaining, but I learned something interesting about Dr. Campolo today. Here's an excerpt from a Star-Tribune interview from Jan. 19, 2007:

Q: You and your wife, Peggy, famously disagree on same-sex marriage. Describe your disagreement.

A: We agree on some aspects of it. Both of us believe in monogamy and that the state should have nothing to do with marriage, homosexual or heterosexual. We believe the state should guarantee civil rights to all people and oversee civil unions, as is done in Europe. Then, if a couple wants to get married in a religious sense, they would go to a church. When President Bush says marriage is a sacred institution, my first response is, what the devil is the government doing messing around with something sacred?

My wife says same-sex marriage fits into her understanding of scripture. It doesn't fit into mine. She makes a biblical case for it; I make one against it. We don't go to the same church; she is in what's called "a welcoming and affirming" congregation. [emphasis mine]

Say what? As an associate pastor in a Baptist church, Dr. Campolo and his wife don't attend the same church? Say what? Not only that, but it appears that she quite openly opposes her husband's views in public. I can't for the life of me reconcile the Campolo marriage with the description Paul gives in scripture of what a pastor's marriage is supposed to look like (or any Christian's marriage for that matter).

As a church member, I probably would not support Dr. Campolo as a shepherd of my local church, but how much should we follow his attempts to shepherd us as a national body of Christians?

Our Future With The Past

It seems the older I get (I'm a whopping 28 years old) the more respect I have for the things of old and the less appeal I find in the things that are new. Now, don't get me wrong: I like electricity and not having to die a slow death from tuberculosis like David Brainerd did in the 18th century, but what I mean is that I don't tend to view "new" as inherently "improved" like I used to. As a parent, we are bombarded with advertising telling us that a new toy or gaming console is what we should be buying our kids, and it often seems very enticing, doesn't it? What happened to the simpler toys from when I was growing up? Well, I found some of them the other day.

Somehow, and I don't remember how, I stumbled onto the "Life in a shoe" blog a few months ago, and they were promoting a contest put on by The Vision Forum. You had to guess how many products were in their soon-to-be-released catalog to receive prizes worth $1500. Well, I didn't have the right guess...but I was one of two people randomly selected to receive a $50 gift certificate!

Before this contest, I had never heard of The Vision Forum, so I guess the marketing worked! With two young boys at home, this has been a good find. I used the gift certificate to get the boys some Christmas gifts. Here's what I ordered:

• Brass Bugle - I've always wanted to try one, and our family and boys enjoy music.
• Antler Fire Starter - I had a similar tool as a kid, and we go camping quite often; I know our boys will enjoy this one (what boy doesn't like to start fires?!)
• Backyard Ballistics book - do I need to explain this one? We're boys!!

I'm really looking forward to the boys unwrapping these goodies at Christmas.

I would be remiss if I didn't send out a big Thank You to the folks at Life in a shoe and The Vision Forum. Thank you both for your ministries, and I'm looking forward to enjoying these classic gifts with my boys. Thanks!!

Update [2006.12.27]: Fixed a couple typos -- oops!

Godless Jews?

I was at home this past Friday with a sick kiddo and happened to catch a segment on the "Today Show" dealing with the Jewish concept of heaven and salvation. With my limited knowledge of the Jewish faith (I'm a Christian), it was pretty predictable up until the end of the segment where they totally lost me (and may have even lost Judaism itself). They had a female, "conservative" rabbi from California on that said this (and I paraphrase):

The big secret of Judaism is that you don't actually have to believe in God to go to heaven.

SAY WHAT?!! That doesn't seem to jive with the Old Testament that I'm used to reading, and it definitely doesn't agree with the New Testament writer of Hebrews' view of the Old Testament: "And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him." (Heb 11:6)

Surely this is an American perversion of the Jewish faith. I can't image that orthodox Jews would agree with this rabbi's statement. Anyone care to comment?

An UnSuggestion From LibraryThing

LibraryThing has recently rolled out a new UnSuggester feature (basically, reverse book recommendations). I went to this page to check out the UnSuggestions for John Piper's Desiring God and saw something funny. On the right side of the page is two columns of book covers: one with "Did you like?" and the other with "You will not like!" The one I thought was funny: if you like Bill Clinton's My Life, then you will not like John Piper's Don't Waste Your Life.

I'll let you draw your own conclusions, but it looks to me like the LibraryThing folks have themselves a pretty accurate algorithm.