Samuel's Sons

"When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. Yet his sons did not walk in his ways but turned aside after gain. They took bribes and perverted justice." ~ 1 Samuel 8:1-3

I read this the other day, and it stuck with me. Mostly because it called to mind the fact that many righteous men in the Bible - David, Eli, etc - had wicked sons. It is a grave reminder of the fact that children of believers are not necessarily saved. They don't have some sort of "get out of jail free" card.

You hear about such things today, too - how children of great and wise leaders, pastors, and theologians turn away from their faith.

Samuel's sons are just another glimpse at the depravity of men.

They had the knowledge. They were taught about God all their lives.

They saw their father live out his life in obedience to God.

And they still turned away.

It makes you wonder why Samuel made them judges. I think it's probably because they talked the talk. They knew what to say. They knew how to act - until sin came along and tempted them in the form of unjust gain. They talked the talk but very quickly proved that they could not walk the walk.

It's the same nowadays. Children might be able to fool their parents by their speech, but they can't fool God and they can't produce fruit if they have no root. That's why the Bible says even a child is known by his actions.

That's why the Christian parents I know pray for their children. They don't take salvation for granted - it's by God's grace. It's always by God's grace, never by who your parents are or what family you are a part of. Samuel's sons, David's sons and Eli's sons are all testimonies to that fact.

Sight of Sin

I was reading through a book by Jerry Bridges, and he wrote at one point that we should be stern toward ourselves and tender toward others.

I think the only way to really do that is to have an undiminished sense of your own depravity.

Paul practiced this. He knew his own failings.

In remembering them he consequently did two things:

1) He developed compassion for others, and showed patience and love in his ministry.

In every book written by Paul you can see his love for the "brothers beloved by God". He loves them and therefore wants them to know and practice the truth of God. He writes with patience, understanding their limits because he knows his own.

We should be the same in our dealings. If we understand our own failure and lack, we will have more compassion for those among us who struggle. We will extend a hand, we will pray, and we will seek to show them the truth.

2) He exalted and glorified God more and more for His grace and mercy.

You can see both Paul's sense of his own sinfulness as well as his understanding of the glory of God in this passage:

"I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen." ~ 1 Timothy 1:12-17

He knows what he was formerly; he calls himself the foremost among sinners; so he thanks Christ Jesus, he praises the grace of the Lord...and gives God honour and glory as he praises His attributes.

As we think of what we are, we will undoubtedly praise God for His grace and mercy and perfect patience, just as Paul has done. Beyond that, in our every day dealings with other people there will be no room for pride or judgment.

No one is a sinner like I am. And no one is as magnificent and gracious as God is.

If we are stern toward ourselves, we will be tender toward others.

The more you understand your own sinfulness, your own darkness, and your own tendency to turn toward what is evil, the more sympathy you will have for those who struggle with sin. The more compassion you will feel for those trapped in the snares of the devil. The more you will overflow with God's grace and love and pour it out on others.

Discernment and Freedom Part Two

It is our own weakness that rears its ugly head whenever we use our freedom in Christ as an excuse to practice sinful things. If we really follow Christ we ought not to do what displeases Him. If we love Him, we will keep His commands (John 14:15).

Paul addresses this twice:

"“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be enslaved by anything." 1 Corinthians 6:12

"“All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. " 1 Corinthians 10:23

You can see what is important to Paul - and what should be important to us.

While all things are lawful, because of the freedom we have by the grace of God, that doesn't necessarily mean we should do them. We are to seek what is helpful, and what builds up. If we merely focus on what we are allowed to do instead of what we ought to do, then we can easily become enslaved - to pleasure, to self-glorification, to idolatry.

Isn't it funny how freedom of the wrong sort is akin to enslavement - while being a servant of Christ, obedient to His commands, makes us the freest of the free?

That is why we are exhorted to be disciplined (Titus 1:8). We have freedom, but our freedom should lead us to "..flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart...." (2 Timothy 2:22)

I love the imagery of fleeing/pursuing. I always think of a marathon runner. I don't know of any runners who haven't had to work up toward their goals. They have to start out small, and build up their endurance, build up their stamina, build up their muscle...in the same way we have to train our spirits toward godliness. We strain toward the goal of Christ-likeness. We discipline ourselves to flee what is bad and pursue what is good.

Just like a runner who keeps at it, seeing the results of their perseverance, we look forward to the hope of growing righteousness:

"For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." Hebrews 12:11

We know that training ourselves for godliness holds value in every way, for this life and the life to come. (1 Timothy 4:1-16)

Discernment and freedom really go hand in hand in the Bible, and they do not contradict each other, because true freedom does have restraints, or it is no longer freedom, but chaos and enslavement.

We have to remember both in our daily lives. They are like the two sides of a suspension bridge: you can't have one without the other, or the whole thing collapses. If we obey Christ, and pursue what we are called to pursue, we will be kept safe from enslavement to sinfulness. On the other hand, if we remember the freedom we have in Christ, we will remember that it is before your own Master that you stand and fall; and we will be less swift to make legalistic lists and condemn others for not following what we decide is the right way to go.

~~~

For more on this topic, see these posts:

Christian Profiling

Two Kinds of Slavery

Jeans

Discernment and Freedom

If you were to ask me what is one of the most difficult and yet paradoxically easy questions that Christians get caught up with, it would be this:

"Is it okay to do this? Is that ungodly?"

We get ensnared by this question. Believers of all stripes and sizes break away from other believers over this type of question. This is the question that makes and breaks relationships, that makes war where peace ought to be.

The reason why it is so difficult is that it is a serious question. For the most part I think we ask it because we sincerely want to do what is right before God. We want to serve Him in an honest, responsible way. We want to glorify Him with everything we do, say and think. I think peoples' intentions are good when they ask this question. The problem is our every intention has a natural bent toward sin, and we can corrupt even the most honest desires, and make them into something ugly and horrid.

Whenever you hear about a battle between Christians, I hope it breaks your heart. It happens all too often. You hear about, for instance, Christian feminists who fight tooth and nail against those under the "patriarchal" movement. Each thinks the other is wrong; each thinks the other is doing things that are not okay. Each thinks the other has warped the gospel. This is one example among thousands.

We get caught up in our mental lists of what constitutes a Christian. The problem makes itself known in the fact that our lists are personalized. What I mean by that is we add what we think the Bible says on a subject, when in reality the Bible can be very vague in many things. If our lists were made up of what the Bible strictly says a Christian ought to do, we'd have far less skirmishes regarding what clothing we wear or what movies we watch, or even what books we read.

If you think about it, freedom in Christ means just what it is: we have freedom. We don't have to follow a cookie-cutter formula for Christianity.

"For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. " Galatians 5:13

Here's the freedom and the restriction. The freedom: we are free.

That's it. It's simple, isn't it? We have no restraints on what we eat, no restraints on what we wear, no restraints on what we see or hear. We are free. Completely free. That means we don't have to worry about what others think of us. We don't have to follow a list of dos and don'ts.

But wait a minute; there is a restriction. "Only...through love serve one another."

This means that if we are in the company of someone who thinks it is a sin to eat a certain thing, out of love for him we should avoid it. (1 Corinthians 8:9-13, Romans 14:13)

It means that if we love one another, we will seek to do our best not to lead them to sin. I have freedom to wear what I want to wear, but I see dressing modestly as an opportunity to prevent myself from willingly becoming a stumbling block to sinful young men with wandering eyes.

There is another, greater reminder in this verse:

"Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God." 1 Peter 2:16

Again, we are told we are free. But our sinful hearts can so easily use freedom as an excuse to practice lawlessness. Think of those who believe in "super grace", which in effect enables them to be as filthy and sinful as they choose, and God will save them anyway. It's a load of rubbish. They neither know God nor the Scriptures.

This verse is a guard against such thinking. We are free, but we are servants of God. He is our Master, and we should live like He is. That means we should obey Him, and even emulate Him. We should be holy as He is holy. That leaves no room for evil. It leaves no room for debauchery. It leaves no room for sinfulness.

Do you see there is a balance here?

We are free. Free to the uttermost in Christ. We need not be ashamed, we need not fall into these petty battles with one another over things the Bible doesn't even mention. Do you think that you, as a woman, ought to wear only skirts? More power to you; you have the freedom in Christ so to do. Are you more comfortable in pants? The grace and freedom found in Christ declares with the loudest voice possible that you are free to choose this!

Do you believe it is wrong to drink alcohol? Then don't do it; you are free in Christ. Make this decision regarding yourself and be content. Leave no space in your mind for condemnation toward those who have no issue with the consumption of alcohol. We have freedom. We are free.

On the other side of the balance, we have a responsibility as Christians to live as Christ lived. We have a duty to obey His commands, and strive to be holy. We are to show that we are set apart.

There is the need for discernment here. In everything we do, everything we choose, we must discern whether our decision pleases God. If you use your freedom in Christ to watch a movie that is full of the glorification of sex or murder or what have you, you should be ashamed. We are called to use our minds for the glory of God, and if we fill our minds with sin that leaves no room for righteousness.

We are exhorted to flee from sin. 1 Timothy 6 commands us to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness. We are called to live in a way that is free from reproach.

Too often we use our freedom as a cover-up for evil, thinking up arguments for why we are allowed to do this and that instead of remembering that we represent God on this earth.

(This is becoming rather long, and I'm nowhere near done, so I guess I'll do a part two.)

Why You Can Feel Good

"I don't feel good because you have acknowledged my righteousness, but because I remember that Christ's has been given over to my account." - Paul David Tripp