Honoring God in Dating Part I

Dating didn't exactly exist in Biblical times, but that doesn't mean that Scripture does not point to a direction for us to honor God in dating.  I have ten biblical teachings that should apply to dating that I will be posting over the next 2-3 weeks.

I would like to start by asking you to consider not dating.  I want to start by asking you to stop.  I want you to consider that single life may be God's calling for your life.

8 To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is well for them to remain unmarried as I am. 9 But if they are not practicing self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion. (1 Corinthians 7:8-9)

Is is well with you to remain unmarried.  The unmarried life is a blessed life from God.  This is not to say that marriage is not a blessed life from God, but Paul points to singleness as being particularly rewarding.

We don't teach this well in the church today.  We tend to teach our children and teens that one day they will meet "the one" and that God has prepared a person specifically for them to marry.

Yet Paul asks us to consider singleness.  God tells us that we would be blessed to consider singleness.  The point is that we can serve God more fully and more ably if we are single.

32 I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord; 33 but the married man is anxious about the affairs of the world, how to please his wife, 34 and his interests are divided. And the unmarried woman and the virgin are anxious about the affairs of the Lord, so that they may be holy in body and spirit; but the married woman is anxious about the affairs of the world, how to please her husband. 35 I say this for your own benefit, not to put any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and unhindered devotion to the Lord.  (1 Corinthians 7:32-35)

Free from anxieties.

Anxious about the affairs of the Lord.

What does it mean to consider being single?  What would it look like to spend time trying to make that decision?  Let me offer a few thoughts:

1. Be intentionally single for a few months.  Let this be a time of prayer, Christians service, and careful soul searching.

2. Judge honestly your ability to withstand sexual lusts.  Paul makes clear that if you can't handle being single, then don't be single.  Celibacy is a difficult calling, so don't commit to it if you can't do it.

3. Seek completely God's calling on your life.  Is the mission or purpose that God is calling you going to be conducive to marriage or singleness?  Will you be free to do what you are called to do if you are married?

I am a happily married man.  My wife has blessed my spiritual life beyond what my words can express.  However, I would like to stand with Paul in encouraging any of you that are single:  consider making that permanent.

Shifting Paradigms Doomed to Popularity

A big part of my spiritual journey in the past 10 years has been focused on the Bible and how to read it.  What steadfast rules are there for reading Scripture?  What underlying assumptions do I have that play into how I read it?

I long ago became convinced that it was important for me to figure out how to read the Bible the right way, but I am just recently coming to the real conviction that until we can collectively read the Bible from the same starting point, we are never going to have healthy conversations about how it is authoritative for our lives.

Many of you from the churches I have grown up in and now even teach in will quickly respond by asserting that Scripture is indeed inerrant, or that all Scripture is truly inspired by God.  While I agree with the statements, they are neither rules for how to read, not do they give any indication of how we should read Scripture to seek this divine truth.

The truth is that all of us--or at least all of us who read Scripture regularly--have a strategy.  We have an underlying belief about how it is to be read; we think we know how it works.  And it is precisely here that I have found the greatest problems.  It is my conviction that most people who read Scripture do not put forth a consistent paradigm--they do not read it with a consistent strategy.  Furthermore, it is my belief that the underlying strategies employed by many within the Protestant (I will speak to my own) movement are inadequately equipped to bring to light the meaning of every text within the New Testament.

We are left with shifting paradigms; paradigms that employ tools to interpret passages based on what is comfortable to me and my existing worldview.  We build upon a foundation that starts with what I expect from God, then employ tools to the varying texts of Scripture that will fit my current opinions.

I know many who will disagree at this notion, so I want to give you a few examples of how we "shift" our paradigm to fit what we believe/expect from God

• We teach that the Bible is "easy to read" and made for "common people to understand."  We use this to teach the simple truth of salvation as we know it.  However, ask a faith-only believer to explain Acts 2:38 and they will quickly fumble about the possibility that the Greek means something other than "be baptized for the forgiveness of sins."
• We spiritualize stories in the Bible so that they have significance for me (this is the "What giant do you face?" mentality), but quickly refuse anything but a literal interpretation of certain passages like Genesis 1.  Though we may affirm that David and Goliath was an actual event, we never focus on its historicity like that of the creation--we are more concerned with the stories practical application.
• We argue that head covering are clearly a cultural issue in 1 Corinthians, pointing to cultural situations in Corinth to do so.  However, if someone were to suggest that male leadership was also cultural, and you will be told to just take the Bible at its word.

We do not read the Bible consistently.  I do not read the Bible consistently.  However, I think I am getting closer to doing so.  I am re-examing my old foundation and tearing parts up and replacing them.  Thus far, there are a few pieces in place, such as reading Scripture with a firm belief in a meta-narrative, belief that not every passage in Scripture is about me or intended for me (but that I can learn from each passage), and a belief that context is crucial (and much larger than just a few verses before and after).  However, I still have a long way to go.

My fear is that those shifting paradigms mentioned earlier are doomed to popularity.  My prayer is that we can become smarter readers of Scripture; that we can read it more consistently, more humbly.  It is my prayer that in so doing we can come to greater unity, greater love, and greater effectiveness as Christians.

The Scandalous, Moronic Death Of Messiah

In light of the cross, everything must be re-evaluated.

You see, the cross is not just the cross (for there were many crosses).

And the cross was not just the cross of a potential messiah (again, many)

No, the cross is the the cross because it is the cross of the Messiah.

And the thought of the Messiah dying is just not...right.

In fact, it is scandalous.

The Jewish Messiah was to come and conquer.  It was his role to rule, to repair and to rescue poor Israel from the hands of those who oppressed it.  Messiah was a savior who would destroy the swords of the Romans and collect the Jews dispersed among the nations.

And so when the Messiah died, it required a rethinking.  Perhaps the conquering that he came to do was more than political.  Perhaps those he came to rescue were in deeper bondage than realized.

Perhaps those who oppressed the true Jewish faith were not those who opposed the nation politically.

The Messiah's death is moronic.

Any good Greek would know a hero, and they would know power.  The thought of a King's coronation coming through his death wouldn't fit the mold.  Kingship meant authority, power, dominion.  It meant the right to dominate.

The thought of the Messiah--the King--serving humanity (and through his death!).  That doesn't make sense.

The cross of Christ calls the Greek to reconsider his notions of authority and power.  It calls the Greek to reconsider his understanding of sin, servanthood, and dominion.  It calls the Jew to rethink his view of election, ethnocentric salvation, and ethic superiority.

The cross of Christ calls us to reconsider everything.

And it calls me to reconsider.  My dependence on rational, scientific, systematic thinking.  My ethnocentric nature.  It calls me to reconsider the structures built around me, and within my very heart.

For God's Kingdom is coming, and now here, and it is unlike anything else.

It is scandalous for some.

It is moronic for many.

But for us who believe, Christ (and him crucified) is both powerful and wise.

And in this truth let my heart dwell.