We’ve all heard the expression, the grass is always greener
on the other side of the fence. Honestly, all of us have felt that way before.
It seems our fallen, human nature, works hard on us to never be satisfied with
what we have, who we are, and how others perceive us. It is precisely this
attitude that leads us all down the path of discontentment. It is what robs us
of joy and makes true happiness seem nothing more than a pipe dream.
It is this attitude of discontent that fights against the
truth of the scriptures. We don’t want what we have, we want what we don’t
have, we want what God has said no to. The Bible develops this theme in the
very beginning. It is the essence of the sin and the fall of Adam and Eve in
the Garden of Eden.
Adam and Eve lived a place where there was no death, no
sickness. They had everything they could ever desire. Even work was without
trouble. The very name Eden is defined in the dictionary as “a state of perfect
happiness or bliss” and as “paradise”. Who wouldn’t want to live in Eden? Who
wouldn’t be content with that.
But then comes the “but” in the story. Genesis 2:16-17 tells
us that “the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every
tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall
not eat.”
And there it is. Everything here is yours, you’re free to
eat of it all, oh wait, except this one tree. Leave it alone, God tells them.
He even warned them that eating of that one tree would cause death. Yet, there
it is; discontentment. In spite of all the good things they had, they wanted
the one thing they weren’t supposed to have. And rebellion was born in the
heart of man. They had perfect bliss. But it wasn’t enough, they wanted more.
They wanted what God said no to.
Nothing has changed since that time. God has blessed us with
so much and yet it isn’t enough. It isn’t enough because God has also given us
free will to choose and we still use that free will to choose what He has said
not to choose. We want we God has told us will bring pain, sorrow, and even death.
God blessed us with life and made us, both male and female.
Now we want to decide that we want to choose our sexual identity. God blessed
us with sex, not only as a means to fill the earth with children, but He made
it pleasurable and the source of beautiful intimacy. But He told us it is to be
enjoyed in the context of marriage and to be performed only in the commitment
of one man and one woman. But we want to have sex with other people. We want
other men’s wives and we want it with anyone we choose, without the lifetime
commitment of marriage. We want to be able to get married but if we tire of our
spouse, make them disposable, just like everything else we consume. We want to
have sex free of the responsibility that it may result in children, so we
legalize abortion and murder our own off-spring. We want to have sex with our
own sex. We want everything God has told us can’t have, we are not content with
the beauty of what He has given us.
Recently, a prominent pastor/teacher, John MacArthur, has come
under fire for condemning the idea of women being pastors. In the past week I
have read the words of many who are commenting on this topic, and the church is
certainly divided on this doctrine. Certainly Dr. MacArthur came across harsh
in how he stated the error of allowing women to be pastors, but that is
irrelevant to the truth that the church needs to stand firm on the scriptures
in this, as it should do in all issues on which scripture speaks.
Maybe some of you interpret scripture differently and
believe in your heart that women should be allowed to pastor churches. I would
disagree and honestly, I have tried to consider the arguments I have seen in
support of this issue for women pastors and I just cannot find that to be justified
as I look at the entirety of scripture.
As I started out in this writing, I can’t help but wonder if
this isn’t another case of the sinful nature we possess to have what God has
said no to. It is hard to argue that God did not make men and women vastly
different. And scripture seems to stress that men and women, even individuals
within the binary gender creation that God has created us in, have different
roles. But those roles are, in no way, to be seen as one being better than the
other. Open up 1 Corinthians 12 and we see that the church is a body and that body
is made of many parts. Not one single part is more important than the other.
The body cannot function properly unless each part works in conjunction with
each other. Yet, this also means that each part has a specific function and that
part needs to operate within its own Biblical sphere.
So, I suggest that maybe women and men ought to find unity
in the fact that there are certain roles God calls us to and if we rebel
against that, we are hurting, not helping the body of Christ. We cannot
interpret nor properly apply scripture from the tainted and sinful viewpoint of
the human flesh, for it has, since the very creation of man, wanted what God
has said no to. We have to seek desperately the teaching of the Holy Spirit as
we develop our doctrine.
Ladies, you are important to God, to the church, to your
family, and to the world. Vitally important. We men need you. Other women need
you. God made you women for a reason and be careful that you don’t put your
wants, above His.
This culture, by the feminist movement, has told you that
being a wife, a mom, and all the other things women do that men really aren’t
very good at, have little or no value. They have attacked your self-worth. And
it has even permeated the church. We men, well we have failed you. We have
failed to make you feel like the queens you are. But the value of women is
beyond my ability to express. The Bible is filled with examples of how
important women are to the church.
The church, like the culture, is at a crossroads. We need to
repent, all of us, and get back to the place God calls us to be. We need to get
back to putting God first, not our feelings or our desires, for they will take
us into rebellion against God.
Again, I am not posting this to start a debate. I am posting
it to beg all of us to look deeply into the heart of God and turn back to His
way. Even if His way, is not what we want.
Let us at least join together in prayer for God to help us
to be united, with one mind, His mind.
1 Corinthians 2:16
“For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to
instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
God bless all of you.
