The family of God

The following sets out, in three paragraphs, a summary of what we need to know ourselves and what we need to teach others as a foundation for people coming out of the kingdom of darkness: God as Father is the foundation of every human family. The Bible states: “I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth receives its name” (Eph. 3:14-15). Note that the NIV translation “from whom His whole family in heaven and on earth receives its name” is incorrect. God’s position as Father is the foundation of every human family, not just God’s family. God’s position as Father establishes order in the Trinity as well as in creation: “The head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man and the head of Christ is God” (1 Cor. 11:3). God’s order does not become tyranny or legalism because in His Kingdom, those in authority are commanded to lay down their lives for those under their care — Jesus Himself setting the example.

Husbands lay down their lives for their wives, parents lay down their lives for their children and employers seek the good of their employees. Because God is Father, His kingdom becomes a kingdom of relationship. Relationship exists within the Trinity and flows out into creation. The kingdom of God should be the most relational place on earth, and the place where relationships operate the most effectively and for the benefit of all. True Biblical relationship, at whatever level, is found in people serving one another within the order established by God. Such relationships are characterized by words such as respect, honour, love and sacrifice. These relationships are deep and can withstand any strain or attack.

A city on a hill

Not only are we salt, according to Jesus (see our last blog), we are light. Again (as it was when Jesus talked about salt) the construction in the Greek is emphatic: “You, you alone and no others are the light of the world!” This should be no surprise, because Jesus said of Himself: “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12), and here He teaches us that we are meant to reflect this light in our own lives. Paul wrote that we are to “become … children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe…” (Phil. 2:15), and that God has “shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” (2 Cor. 4:6). The next thing Jesus says is this: “A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.” This statement seems to give a practical application or consequence to His declaration that we are the light of the world. What does Jesus mean by describing the church as a “city on a hill”?

Clearly, it has something to do with visibility, and again a knowledge of the historical context comes in handy. In the Israel of Jesus’ day, houses were often built of white limestone. As such, they would gleam in the sun and could scarcely be hidden, particularly if set on a hill. At night, the light of hundreds or thousands of oil lamps would cast a glow over the hillside. Even as you would not build a city on a hill and try to hide it, neither would you light a lamp and set it under a bowl, verse 15 continues. A lamp is put on a lampstand to give light to everyone, and the church is set on a hill for the same purpose. Jesus was almost certainly thinking about the Old Testament prophecies concerning Jerusalem as a city of light lifted up before the nations who would come to it: “In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it” (Is. 2:2). “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and His glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn” (Is. 60:1-3).

Jesus is reminding us that the church has taken the place of Jerusalem as the city of God in the same way that believers of Christ from every nation, Jew and Gentile alike, have taken the place of Israel as His covenant people. In the same way as a city on a hill gives out its light, day and night, God’s city will shine eternally: “The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine upon you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory” (Is. 60:19). Jesus now commands us in verse 16 to let our light shine before the world, that everyone may see our good deeds and glorify God. The church is the most powerful solar energy device ever made. We are designed and created to take the light of the universe and reflect it into the world around us, imparting the energy by which that universe was created and by which Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. Without us, the people and nations around us will descend into darkness. This incredible power and responsibility is ours.

Salt of the Earth

“You yourselves and no other are the salt of the earth”. This is the best translation of Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:13. Jesus envisions a role for us no one else can fulfill. If we are not prepared to be the salt of the earth, no one else will be. It is no use looking to governments, scientists, philosophers or military figures to save civilization – only the church of the living God can rise to the task. If the church fails, there is no Plan B. Jesus does not envision a world where humanists and people of various religions will join forces to establish peace and harmony. Jesus was so “narrow-minded” as to insist that only His followers, empowered by His Spirit, would be able to do the job. The most common use for salt in the ancient world, in places with a hot climate and no refrigeration, was as a preservative. A small amount of salt rubbed into meat would slow its decay. Clear enough – we are to be a preservative. But how could Jesus speak of salt losing its saltiness? Anyone who has taken high school chemistry knows that salt, sodium chloride, is what chemists call a stable compound. In other words, it does not decay or become diluted over time. Was Jesus a poor scientist? The answer is found in the fact that in the ancient world salt, rather than being mined or produced as the product of evaporation from salt water, was found in salt marshes. It therefore contained many impurities. Because the salt itself was more soluble than the impurities, it could wind up being drained or leached out in the process of being transported, stored or used, thereby leaving most of the impurities but only a little of the pure salt. The residue was so diluted it was of little worth for preserving purposes. This was described as salt which had lost its saltiness.

Jesus then states that such salt is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled by men. According to scholars, salt that had lost its saltiness was used for a specific purpose in the ancient near east. It was scattered on the soil which covered the flat roofs of houses. The nature of its chemical composition was such as to harden the soil and prevent leaks in the roof. In those times, roofs were used as playgrounds for children or as meeting places for adults (much as we use patios or decks). Consequently, they were continually being trodden under foot, and this process was used, along with the sprinkling of diluted salt, to keep the roofs hard and leak-proof. What is tasteless salt good for?  Only to be thrown out (or cast around) and trodden under foot. That was the only practical use it had left.

The message is clear. In order to be the moral disinfectant, the agent of health and wholeness in a world of decay and death, Christians must retain the full strength of what Jesus has put within them. When we come to Christ, we are given the potential of living with Christ’s nature and the ability that comes with that to affect the world around us. But along with it, we also carry the baggage of our fallen human nature. As we take the purity of what God has given us in Christ and carry it through this fallen world, we are continually confronted with the possibility of compromise, of letting our standards fall, of choosing to live with one foot in the kingdom and one foot out of it. If this takes place, the purity and strength of what we have in Christ will gradually be leached away, and all we will be left with is a pale copy of the real original. There must be no compromise with worldly standards, no letting down of our guard.

Otherwise, we will find ourselves thrown out of God’s purposes and trodden underfoot by the men, in such a way that, through our hypocrisy or inability to live up to the message we proclaim, we wind up contributing to the hardening of their hearts against God.

Rights or responsibilities?

Our postmodern culture is focussed on rights and freedoms. We want to be able to do anything we can to further our own sense of purpose or happiness. But this often has bitter and unintended results. The conflict over male-female role distinctions illustrates this. Each gender desires the right or ability to do what he/she wants in order to fulfil their goals and achieve happiness, but in disregard of the good of the greater whole. Women feel they must somehow take hold of their rightful share of rulership which has been monopolized by men while they have been kept in a subservient position. As Christians, we must indeed acknowledge that men, Christian men included, have often wrongfully dominated and lorded rulership over women, seeking their own benefit while not being concerned for the woman. The solution, however, is to hold to the Bible’s view that men and women are equal in worth and value, though different in role and function.

This relates to the breaking of the curse God placed on the relationship of Adam and Eve as a result of their disobedience. According to Gen. 3:16, the substance of this curse was that the man would “rule over” the woman and the woman would “desire” the man. In Genesis, the Hebrew word for “rule over” does not refer to the legitimate exercise of authority but to violent physical abuse. In Christ, while there is still legitimate authority in the marriage relationship, there is no room for any form of abuse. Rather, the husband shows his leadership in the marriage through the laying down of his life (Eph. 5:25).

The other element of the curse – the woman’s “desire” for the man – does not refer in Hebrew to legitimate physical desire, but to an obsessive controlling manipulation of the man best personified in Scripture by Jezebel. Satan’s plan was for the man to rule abusively through force and power, and for the woman to respond defensively through control and manipulation. The effect of the curse, therefore, was to pervert Adam’s God-given authority into an abusive tyranny, whereas Eve’s role as a submissive co-worker was twisted as she attempted to achieve self-protection through controlling Adam with an obsessive focus on him rather than on God, resulting in a potent mixture of idolatry and control. Adam found “freedom” to govern outside of God and Eve found “freedom” to find security outside of God. This, Paul declares, is the curse now broken through the work of the cross.

Attacking while attacked

Even though things may from time to time be difficult, and there will be moments when we feel despair, the truth is that, no matter what is happening externally, God is powerfully at work accomplishing His purposes. I think each of us can look back to times when things looked very bleak, times which were very hard for us, times when we were tempted to lose hope, yet God brought us through those times. And looking back, we can often see how He was working out His purposes through it all. Ask the Lord to open your eyes to how He has worked things in your life through times of battle which would never otherwise have happened. And ask the Lord to show you that attack verifies one thing: you — yes, you — are a threat to the kingdom of darkness. The enemy does not bother with those who do not threaten him.

And of course, just because battle is a reality does not mean it is constant. God provides times of rest between the storms. But we do live in a fallen world. Revelation 12:12 teaches that the devil has come down to the world “in great wrath” to do battle with the church from the time of Christ’s resurrection until the time of His return. He will not give up an inch of his territory without a fight. The battle is a given. But we are victorious in it. Attacking while attacked, inch by inch, we move forward, not backward. I pray God will encourage you daily by opening your eyes more and more to the ground that has already been gained.