July 9, 2015
Three Admonitions
Categories: Biblical
The lead-up to the recent decision by the Seventh-day Adventist church (i.e. ‘No’ to Women’s Ordination) saw me going through many articles, publications, websites, statistics, et cetera. More importantly, I was compelled to search for God’s original plan for man (male and female – Genesis 1:26, 27).
My intent is to make this a short post, and I will give three direct admonitions.
(1) Men: Abraham, Joseph, Daniel, Elijah, John the Baptist, John (the Disciple), Paul, Jesus… how many examples of the model of godly manhood! Whether others do the right thing or not, know that your responsibility is to the God of Heaven… it is He that will judge you in the Last Day. Love your wife as God loves His church! Train your children in the fear and admonition of the Lord! Stay away from evil speaking! Store your treasures in Heaven! Time is short!
(2) Women: Sarah, Ruth, Esther, Abigail, the Proverbs 31 woman… these and many more have been given as examples of godly womanhood. I encourage you to strive for the perfect model that God set out for you. Like Ruth, don’t look to what others are doing: declare your loyalty to the Creator, and He will richly reward you.
(3) Many churches (including ours) have so departed from God’s original models for men and women, that we seek after worldly substitutes to supply the lack. We fascinate ourselves by talk of “taking the Gospel to the world”, when the very basics (the fulfilment of the roles of male and female) are sorely lacking. Jesus says: “Clean the inside first” (Luke 23:26). Figs cannot be gathered from thistles (Matthew 7:16), so we can only expect failure if this is done. Personally, I’m not amused by this talk about “Mission” when our families are broken, and our youth are disenchanted. This is all hot air. Clean the inside first… return to God’s models!
* * *
I encourage you to seriously assess how much of God’s model you are reflecting in your own life.
Depiction of Boaz and Ruth.
No comments yet.