At any rate, I do have some ideas for posts and I am confident that I will have something prepared next week. Vaya con Dios until then.

34 “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another.
35 By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Using this standard there sure don’t seem to be many disciples of Jesus these days since there seems to be a lot more disdain than love being shown to one another.

When preparing for the series I did an internet search and found a blog post (see How Should Christians Treat Each Other?) that listed 44 passages in the New Testament that described how we Christians should treat each other. I published posts on three of those passages (John 13:34-35, Ephesians 4:2, and Romans 12:10) before I discovered that Robert Dean had pulled together the information I was looking for as part of his study of the epistle to the Hebrews. He called this the Doctrine of “One Another.” During the weeks that followed I was able to gather together a fairly complete recreation of that doctrine which used 18 of the “one another” passages.

In my last post on the Doctrine of One Another (see Christian vs. Christian: Hebrews 10:24-25 Part VIII) there were three passages listed that had prohibitions regarding how we are not to treat one another (all of the other passages I dealt with were “positive” commands on how to treat one another). So we have instructions on how to treat one another along with instructions on how not to treat one another, this makes for a rather air tight set of commands. Reviewing all of the passages it is clear that we have a duty toward other Christians to be patient and to treat them in a way that encourages spiritual growth and builds up the body of Christ rather than tear it down.

That begs a question that I have seen addressed many times on the internet: what about Christians who are unrepentant and refuse to follow biblical mandates? Are we really supposed to be patient and tolerant toward their worldly behavior? Of course the short answer is “no” but I don’t believe that we have a free hand in how we treat these fellow members of the body of Christ even if they are apostate.

At one time I worked up a post on the Doctrine of Separation that I had been taught many years ago (see Biblical Separation) and I still stand by what I said in that post. I have witnessed other believers exercising biblical separation toward other believers (which is necessary at times) but in a way that seemed petty and mean (which is never necessary). After going through these posts on the Doctrine of One Another I am more convinced than ever that we Christians need to re-evaluate how we treat other believers.

It may help to provide any readers with a bit more of my background which should provide some context. I first heard the Doctrine of Biblical Separation from the pastor of my youth who was R.B. Thieme, Jr. For anyone who is not familiar with his teaching, he was a very dynamic teacher who knew the bible like few others. He could also be very abrasive at times which wasn’t always a good thing. I think it is fair to say that he practiced the Doctrine of Biblical Separation as a matter of policy. His church was not a part of any denomination or conference. He did have a yearly pastors’ conference many years ago until someone floated the idea that they should form a denomination. At that time he quit having pastors’ conferences and justified it by saying that he “didn’t want to be the Pope.” In fact I remember him saying on many occasions that “the only reason there are denominations is that most pastors are weak sisters who need to lean on each other for support.” Like I said, he could be abrasive at times.

So, basically Colonel Thieme (that’s what we called him) cut his church off from as much outside noise as he could and focused on teaching the scriptures.  Any issues of separation that came up within his church were not made public (I am sure he invited many people to leave his church over the years). While that might seem extreme to many Christians it is certainly closer to the biblical model than what I have witnessed from other Christians (some of them being quite well known) with a presence on the internet.

This week I have reconstructed what I think is Robert Dean’s eighteenth point in his Doctrine of One Another (I think he incorrectly numbered one of his points about half way through and our numbering has never matched since).

18. Be hospitable to one another [allēlōn] without complaining. (1 Peter 4:9)

I have spent some time looking for commentaries on this verse but I haven’t found any that add to the sense of the verse that you can’t get just by reading it. Here is my understanding, and pretty much everyone else’s, of this verse: Christians! Be hospitable to each other and, just because you have been hospitable, you don’t get to complain about it. There, that wasn’t so bad was it?

I really don’t think I can add too much to that. Just because the verse is short and the meaning plain doesn’t mean that it isn’t important. We need to be hospitable toward each other and do so graciously and without complaint. I have seen this violated time after time and I believe it is terribly damaging to the Church. In case any of you are wondering about me, I have violated this command many times but not so much lately. Maybe I’m starting to take this to heart which would be a very good thing.

At the end of Dr. Dean’s Doctrine of One Another he adds in three prohibitions as to how we are supposed to treat each other. I am going to list all three prohibitions and provide some commentary on the last one. These should be self explanatory but they are also hard to actually do but that shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Prohibition #1

Therefore, let us no longer criticize one another [allēlōn]. Instead decide never to put a stumbling block or pitfall in your brother’s way. (Romans 14:13)

Don’t criticize one another [allēlōn], brothers. He who criticizes a brother or judges his brother criticizes the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. (James 4:11)

Brothers, do not complain about one another [allēlōn], so that you will not be judged. Look, the judge stands at the door! (James 5:9)

Prohibition #2

Do not lie to one another [allēlōn], since you have put off the old self with its practices (Colossians 3:9)

Prohibition #3

See to it that no one repays evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good for one another [allēlōn] and for all. (1 Thessalonians 5:15)

Here is Wayne Binnicker’s commentary on this verse. I think this is well worth remembering:

Paul commands (Imperative mood) all pastors to make sure (Durative Present tense) that nobody in their congregation gets involved in revenge motivation. Believers are not to return evil for evil (Culminative Aorist tense), even if the circumstances seem to justify such behavior (Potential Subjujunctive mood) in the eyes of men. Retaliation for real or perceived injury (Latin: malice) is not the Christian standard. This is a prohibition for believers in the congregation; do not confuse this command as referring to legitimate judicial authority in a courtroom. If somebody has done you wrong, the natural response is to retaliate, to get even at all costs. That may be what the Godfather might do, but that is not what God the Father wants us to do.

Commentary on 1 Thessalonians by Wayne Binnicker
pp 142-143

At any rate, I plan on starting to post again after a week or two of needed rest. Until then I wish any visitors a happy New Year!

This week I have reconstructed what I think is Robert Dean’s seventeenth point in his Doctrine of One Another. It is difficult to tell because he skipped a number at one time and I’m not sure he ever got back in order again. Fortunately it isn’t the numbers that are important but the doctrine:

17. Therefore, confess your sins to one another [allēlōn] and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The intense prayer of the righteous is very powerful. (James 5:16)

Rather than pull Dr. Dean’s exegesis from his study on Hebrews (see his transcript for Hebrews Lesson 169) I have decided to provide excerpts from his study of the book of James.

The one thing to keep in mind here is that in my previous posts on the Doctrine of One Another we keep receiving commands to be patient with each other and to seek to build each other up. This passage in no different from the others we have looked at in that regard.

I also want to point out that the sick, as in spiritually sick, believers discussed James 5 might not be very likeable people. You all may have that firmly in mind but I have to keep reminding myself. I am required to help other believers even if I do not like them!

From Dr. Dean’s transcript for James Lesson 87:

James 5:13 ^NASB “Is anyone among you suffering? {Then} he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. [14] Is anyone among you sick? …” But we have to look at these questions in context. The context is patience and endurance. What happens usually is that people take this passage at first glance, according to the English, and say this must be teaching something about healing and physical sickness. The problem is that the context doesn’t suggest that at all. Where does physical illness have to do with the subject of the epistle? Someone might say that sickness is a form of adversity. Right, but we are summing up the epistle, not introducing news subjects at this point. We have to look at the literary structure of the epistle.

The previous paragraph really doesn’t deal directly with my topic but I think it is important to make the point that this section of James 5 is not dealing exclusively with believers who are physically sick. Rather it this is speaking of believers who are going through some form of suffering which may or may not be physical. Pastor Dean continues:

“Is anyone among you suffering? “ This is the Greek word KAKOPATHEO [Strong's G770] which means to suffer physical pain, hardship and distress, to go through intense suffering. We saw this word in verse 10: “As an example, brethren, of suffering.” So this tells us when we come to verse 13 that James is writing still in the same vein that he has been talking in the previous three verses, he is not going off into some new subject. The principle is that the context is still patient endurance in the midst of adversity, so we have to interpret whatever phrases we come to by letting the context determine our interpretation. The next word we have to investigate is the word for cheerful, EUTHUMEO [Strong's G2114]. By looking at the English, talking about cheerful or joyful, it might be that we would expect a Greek word related to CHARA, “joy.” But it is not what we find. What we find is a word that means to be or to become encouraged, and hence cheerful. Cheerful is a secondary meaning to the word, it is not the primary core meaning of this word. It means to be encouraged, to take courage, to become encouraged. In other words, to be strengthened in your soul.

Dr. Dean continues to establish that this passage is not speaking about physical illness:

So this word has a range of meanings, its core meaning is weak and we have to determine from the context whether it means to be physically weak or spiritually weak. James 5:15 ^NASB “and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick.” The English uses the word “sick” in v. 15 and “sick” in v. 14. However, it shouldn’t be a surprise that they are two different words in the Greek. It is the second word in v. 15 [Strong's G2577] that is a more precise word and that helps us understand what ASTHENEO means in v. 14. We are talking about the same person. The restoration of the one who is sick, if that word doesn’t mean physically sick, then  the word back in v. 14 doesn’t mean physically sick. It is the Greek word KAMNO which means basically to be weary or exhausted. It classical Greek it did means sick or ill or even dead, but it is not used anywhere in the Greek New Testament to mean physically ill or dead.

The following paragraph is the core of what I have been looking for in this lesson. As “one another” and fellow members of the body of Christ, we are to help each other out. In this case James is telling believers that if any one of them is exhausted through trials and suffering that we are to pray so that they are encouraged and strengthened. Sometimes believers are suspicious when other believers hit a rough time in their life. It is easy to think that God must be punishing them for something. That may very well not be the case and we need to pray for each other.

James 5:15 “and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick [weary].” So now we have a new translation here that is a little more accurate: [13] “Is anyone among you facing adversity? Let him pray. Is anyone encouraged [strengthened]? Let him sing praises. [14] Is anyone among you weary [weak spiritually]? {Then} he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; [15] and the prayer offered in faith will strengthen the one who is weary, and the Lord will lift him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.”

Here Dr. Dean expands upon what prayer for each other can do. I find this to be very encouraging because I know that there are believers praying for me and I can be confident that their prayers are having a positive effect.

The last word that we will look at is the word for “heal” in v. 16: ^NASB “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” This is the Greek word IAOMAI [Strong's G2390]. Its core meaning is to recover. It can refer to any kind of recovery, even though most of the time it is used of physical recovery from illness. It is used in a couple of passages fro spiritual recovery. John 12:40 ^NASB “HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM.” There IAOMAI is used not of healing diseases but of recovery from the spiritual problem of spiritual death and salvation [Ed.: He is speaking of the John 12:40 passage here]. So the verb SOZO, EGEIRO and IAOMAI all emphasize recovery, and this is the recovery solution for the believer who has failed facing spiritual testing [Ed.: He has now switched back to James 5 here].

In his transcript Pastor Dean goes on to discuss what anointing means in this passage. It is not what most people think of when they read the word. Rather than take us down that road I think I will leave that for another day.

15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.
Galatians 5:15 (Holman Christian Standard Bible)

I have no problem with Christians disagreeing with each other over theology and I actually believe that debating issues can keep us from becoming spiritually flabby. However there are bounds to such debates which I believe Christians violate so regularly that we don’t even think about it. Not only do casual expressions of disdain for other Christians violate the principles laid out in the doctrine of “one another” but are classic examples of Christians consuming “one another.”

In addition this seemed like a strange coincidence to me (call it Divine providence if you like) since I began reading one of William Lane Craig’s books last week for the first time and have been enjoying it very much. Whether anyone likes William Lane Craig is completely up to them but I don’t think that Christians have a lot of latitude in how we treat each other.

I am going to provide links to both articles, some commentary on Galatians 5:15, and then finish with my take on all of this.

He Lives Blog: Bad to Worse

The “He Lives” blog is one of the first blogs that I discovered when I started searching the internet for Christian blogs six or seven years ago. The host of the blog is David Heddle who has a Ph.D. in nuclear physics so he is able to provide insight on some of the scientific debates that are going on right now and how they relate to Christianity. Dr. Heddle believes that the “fine tuning of the universe” is the most persuasive argument for God creating the universe that there is. Given his specialty that isn’t surprising.

I do read the He Lives blog for the physics/science topics but I have to say that Dr. Heddle doesn’t care much for Christians such as me. The problem is that I am a dispensationalist and he is a Calvinist (I don’t believe that he would be offended if I described him as a five point Calvinist). I think this also accounts for why we have different opinions of William Lane Craig’s work.

Without further ado here is the paragraph that caught my eye:

And then, also under the freethoughtblogs domain, there is the much heralded and apparently famous (although I had never heard of him, but I lead a sheltered life) John Loftus, whose cv trumpets the exceptional qualification that he studied under the rather regrettable apologist William Lane Craig [Ed.: emphasis added].

Follow the link above and read Dr. Heddle’s complete post. There was really no need for that shot at Dr. Craig (even if he isn’t a physicist). In fact I doubt that Dr. Heddle gave it much thought when he wrote that sentence.

I believe that the reason I have liked Dr. Craig’s writing so far is that his work is amenable to a dispensationalist such as me. See, Dr. Craig argues that human free will is compatible with God’s sovereignty which is a real turn off for five point Calvinists. I have been told in no uncertain terms by many Calvinists that if the human race is allowed to choose for themselves whether to accept or reject Jesus Christ as savior then God is not “absolutely sovereign.” That puts a real dent in their supralapsarian view of God’s work which apparently cannot be tolerated.

I know that David Heddle has used the teaching of John Gerstner when developing Sunday school materials (he occasionally posts these outlines on his blog). We are always influenced by those we respect and David Heddle is no exception. For those of you who don’t know of John Gerstner here is an excerpt of a review of his book “Wrongly Dividing the Word of Truth:”

How does Gerstner view dispensationalism? He describes it as not true premillennialism (p. 68) and identifies it as Arminianism (p. 107), Gnosticism (p. 208), pantheism (p. 136, 143), Pelagianism (p, 243), and, preeminently, as antinomianism. More seriously, dispensationalism is “a cult and not a branch of the Christian church” (p. 150). Dispensationalists are heretics and false teachers (p. 262) who have twisted the gospel (p. 252), are void of the gospel (p. 150), and deny the gospel (p. 169).

In his diatribe against dispensationalism Gerstner is liberal in the use of pejorative terms such as “travesty” (p. 141), “blasphemy” (p. 145), “absurdity” (p. 154) and “scandal” (p. 152). The tone of the book is angry, sarcastic, bitter and derogatory, in stark contrast to such irenic critiques of dispensationalism as Oswald T. Allis’ Prophecy and the Church (1964).

Are We Wrongly Dividing the Word of Truth?

Given that, I suppose it doesn’t surprise me that David Heddle and I like different approaches to apologetics.

Into His Grace: Book Review: If You Bite & Devour One Another by Alexander Strauch

Immediately following David Heddle’s article I read the book review linked to above. I don’t remember when I last read Galatians 5 and I didn’t remember reading Galatians 5:15. So, I immediately tracked down a detailed exegesis of the passage and I am going to share it with you:

KJV Galatians 5:15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.

TRANSLATION HIGHLIGHTS

The Galatian believers were involved in a bad habit (Durative Present tense) of biting and devouring one another. The protasis of a first class condition means it was indeed going on at that very moment. No doubt the debate on grace mechanics versus legalism was causing a lot of commotion, argumentation and shouting matches. “Biting” is a metaphor for the arrogance complex of sins; “devouring” is a metaphor for the hatred complex of sins. Both sin complexes began with mental attitude sins and eventually expanded to verbal sins. The Greek word “analothete” is used to describe wild animals in a deadly struggle, clawing and gnashing each other to pieces in the process.

It’s a shame when believers treat each other this way, but it happens more often than you might think. Sometimes it is covert gossiping and maligning; other times it is overt arguments and brawls in a public forum. Paul begs them to be careful (Imperative of Entreaty) not to be consumed (Culminative Aorist tense) by one another. In a manner of speaking, the first step would be (in our vernacular) to agree to disagree on a matter. The second step would be to realize that neither party is likely to change their mind about something (grace or legalism) that is dear to them. The third step is to make sure you are confessing mental and verbal sins regularly.

Galatians Commentary by Wayne Binnicker
p 242

My View of This

Believe what you will, teach what you will, make your doctrinal points but all of this must be done in a way that builds up the body of Christ rather than tears it down. This passage comes to mind:

4 Who are you to criticize another’s household slave? Before his own Lord he stands or falls. And stand he will! For the Lord is able to make him stand.
Romans 14:4 (HCSB)

We Christians are not masters of one another, only Jesus Christ is our master. Of course if you believe like John Gerstner then you are not sure if I am even saved. If I am a believer you are required to treat me with patience and long suffering. If I am an unbeliever you are required to provide me with the way of salvation. I am not aware of any biblical justification to treat others, saved or reprobate, with disdain.

I am going to make three general statements that I think are true and help me think about this. If I am wrong, or just not thinking this through, then please let me know.

I) So far in the Christian vs. Christian series I have posted a lot of New Testament passages about how Christians are supposed to treat one another. In a Christian marriage the husband doesn’t get to blow off those passages just because he is married. His must treat his wife with the same high standards he is required to treat any other Christian.

I am going to quote several of those passages regarding how Christians are to treat one another but first I want to quote another passage. I can imagine that there are Christians who would claim that all bets are off when it comes to how the Christian husband treats his Christian wife. How can such a thing be without being directly stated in scripture? To claim that, without biblical warrant, is unsupportable.

33 For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.
1 Corinthians 14:33 (NKJV)

That passage is dealing with worship services and leads into the famous passage on woman remaining silent in church. I really don’t want to open that can of worms but I want to make the point that “God is not the author of confusion” is a general principle that can be applied to anything set up by God whether that thing is a church or a marriage.

Here is a quote from Wayne Binnicker’s commentary on this passage:

God is never (Gnomic Present tense) a source of confusion or sloppiness, but of harmony, peace, and precisely correct protocol. Nothing in God’s plan is left to chance. Nothing is out of place. Everything is done according to divine structure, not chaos. Nothing is done haphazard, but to absolute perfection. This is true not only in His world, but it should also be true of His assemblies around the world. Noise, confusion, and amateurish services are not of God, but are from the flesh and the world as a source. True worship is always according to precisely correct protocol, the hallmark of His eternal plan working itself out in time.

1 Corinthians p 617
by Wayne Binnicker

My claim is that for a Christian husband to use the authority God has given him to do anything to his wife that is not in keeping with all of the other commands regarding how Christians are to treat one another is confusion. God is not the author of confusion so I do not believe that God allows Christian husbands to treat their wives in ways that are contrary to the following passages:

Romans 12:10, “Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another”

Romans 12:16 “Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation.”

Romans 14:19 “So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another.”

Philippians 2:2-3 “make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;”

Galatians 5:13 “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”

Colossians 3:13 “bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.”

II) The authority the husband is given in marriage is a burden and something I would rather not have.

Have any of you ever watched one of those “chick flicks” where a marriage is falling apart and the no-good alcoholic husband is out cheating on his wife? In the ones I have seen the wife spends a good part of the movie blaming herself and asking “what have I done to cause this!” From what I can tell that is exactly backward. It is the husband who is on the hook before God because of the authority the man has been given. So, it should be the husband blaming himself and asking “what have I done to cause this!”

Scripture does state that the husband has been given authority within the marriage so I am going to take that as a given. Since the husband has been given authority he is responsible for using it wisely. The following passage states a general principal regarding our use of things that God has given us:

48 But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.
Luke 12:48 (NKJV)

We husbands have been given a lot by being given authority over our wives. Frankly I don’t want to be “beaten with few” much less many but what I want doesn’t seem to play into this.

III) Is the husband’s authority some kind of inflexible bludgeon that he has to “use or lose?” I don’t think so.

I probably shouldn’t even bring this up but what the heck. My family grew up in a church where the pastor could be heavy handed with issues relating to authority. He was particularly heavy handed when it came to how a husband should use authority within the marriage.

I believe that Mike Smith, pastor of Country Bible Church, grew up in the same church I did. He has a document on his website titled “Husbands – Leaders or Losers” (for those of you without MS Word click here) that promotes many of the same teachings that we were taught. What Pastor Smith teaches in his discussion of marriage is actually softened a lot over what we were taught growing up but some of those sticky points are still there.

Rather than dance around this I am going to provide a couple of quotes. Please keep in mind that you really need to read Pastor Smith’s document to understand the context of these quotes but I will leave that up to you.

Quote #1
Maintaining peace is never as important as maintaining authority!
“Husbands – Leaders or Losers”
p4

Quote #2
Husbands never prove their love by: compromising their standards, convictions or responsibilities.
“Husbands – Leaders or Losers”
p4

Quote #3
Husbands who do not assert authority, lose it! A husband without authority is without respect, and where there is no respect, there is no love. Consider what is at stake for the husband who does not exercise his God-given authority; loss of:

* the wife’s respect * authority
* self-respect * peace in the home
* the wife’s love * the marriage

“Husbands – Leaders or Losers”
p 7

Whoomp, there it is! If you take quotes #1 and #2 together then I can agree. If the wife wants to do something that violates the husband’s standards, convictions, or responsibilities then he does need to exercise his authority. That being said, how often does that really happen in a marriage? Unless the wife is the second coming of Lucille Ball I don’t see this as a common occurrence. Most men whip out there authority over silly non-issues. The issue is proper use of authority. If the issue does not involve true “standards, convictions, or responsibilities” then the husband should back off. If the husband abuses his authority he will be punished by God (see point II above).

That leaves us with quote #3. I believe that the first sentence of that quote is without biblical warrant. I dare any reader to show me passages in scripture where “Husbands who do not assert authority, lose it!” God gave husbands authority over their wives and only God can take that authority away. Please, that kind of hyperbole make my head hurt.

Even though I won’t be posting a regular article I have been thinking about posting one of those what-I-am-thankful-for articles that are always the rage this time of year. I have read a lot of those and they are usually a laundry list of the good things in the writer’s life at the moment. I suppose that is fine but have you ever noticed that no matter how hard the author tries their list always seems incomplete? It’s not that I can do a more complete job but I think that their emphasis is wrong and I have decided, through the study of scripture, that what we emphasize in life (our priorities) is what makes all of the difference.

So, here are the top things that I am thankful for:

1. I am thankful for my eternal salvation provided by the sacrifice of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

There is nothing more important than that for any of us. For anyone who hasn’t made that decision yet please read A Matter of Life and Death.

2. I am thankful for the wisdom that God has now made available to me.

Life is a matter of priorities and God has told me the priorities I need to have a good life:

The fear of the LORD
is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Proverbs 1:7

The word wisdom here is the key concept. If you follow the link you will get Strong’s definition of the Hebrew word chokmah which is translated wisdom. According to Jeffrey Gutterman the Jewish concept of wisdom is much fuller than what Strong’s shows: it is knowledge for living a good life and that knowledge is now available to me. What a wonderful gift to be thankful for!

3. I am thankful for the wonderful wife, partner, and friend that God has given me.

If you ever read the Book of Proverbs you will find that both wisdom and foolishness are personified as women. There is a passage in Proverbs where the personification of foolishness uses the loneliness of men to lure them to their destruction. If you have ever been truly lonely it is easy to understand how that can happen. I met my wife a little over eighteen years ago and I am no longer lonely. For this I am truly grateful.

4. I am grateful for two wonderful daughters who are the joy of my life.

What more do I need to say?

5. I am grateful for gainful employment which supports the wonderful family that God has given me.

This is no small thing. I don’t write this just because the economy is bad but also because a full third of my office was laid off last week. I won’t go into any detail because if my management were to ever find out that I posted something negative about them on the internet the repercussions would be ugly and predictable. Let’s just say that they didn’t follow King Solomon’s principles for good leaders.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

This week I have reconstructed points fifteen and sixteen of Robert Dean’s Doctrine of One Another:

15. Submit to one another (Eph 5:21).
16. Think about one another to stir up to love and good deeds [application of doctrine in thought, word, actions] (Heb 10:24).

If you read the exposition on Ephesians 5:21 that I quote below, you will note that the topic of authority comes up. Authority in several areas is mentioned but I want to focus on authority within marriage. This is really a hot button issue in this day and age. I believe a lot of the consternation regarding husbands having authority over wives is due to the simple fact that this authority has been abused. To give any reader a proper understanding of how authority in marriage is supposed to work I encourage you to read the Doctrine of Marriage by Robert Dean. There is a lot of great information in there but I want to turn your attention in particular to the Doctrine of the Dance which begins at the very bottom of page 5. Anyone who is interested in what Christian marriage should look like needs to read and think about what is written there. The husband is never given permission to mistreat his wife!

Now back to the main topic, Robert Dean deals extensively with Ephesians 5:21 in the transcript for Hebrews lesson 167 (link here) but he doesn’t talk much about that verse itself. Rather, he spends a lot of time dealing with the extended context starting in Ephesians chapter 4. That is all good stuff but it doesn’t really work very well for my blog post. So, instead of quoting Pastor Dean I am going to quote Jeremy Thomas (Pastor of Fredericksburg Bible Church) from his study of the Epistle to the Ephesians. It is quite good and I hope you read it all:

Ephesians 5:21 submitting to one another in fear of Christ.

Verse 21 is the fitting conclusion to verses 15-21. It is not the beginning of the next section but it is the transition verse for understanding what follows. It is the fourth fruit of being filled by the Spirit; 1) Speaking to one another…2) singing and making melody…3) always giving thanks…and 4) submitting to one another in fear of Christ. These are all results of being filled by the Spirit. You cannot ever manifest these characteristics unless filled by the Spirit. Being filled by the Spirit means yielding your will to the Lord’s will, which if you are wise you will understand. [Ed.: I am not sure if my understanding of the filling of the Holy Spirit is the same as Pastor Thomas'. Please see R.B. Thieme, Jr.'s Doctrine of the Filling of the Holy Spirit.]

Let’s look at the fourth result of being filled by the Spirit; submitting to one another in the fear of Christ. The word here for subject or submit is hupotasso [Strong’s G5293]. It is a military term meaning “to rank yourself under a leader”. When you are under the control of the Holy Spirit you will rank yourself under others because you yield your will to the Lord’s will. And the Lord’s will is for you to submit. You are to do this in fear of Christ. Believers are not to act like unbelievers. Unbelievers take great pride in “independence” and “individualism”. Believers are instructed to act otherwise. We are commanded to “give preference to one another in honor” (Rom 12:10). We are to be humble regarding “one another as more important than” ourselves (Phil 2:3) and it is impossible to consider others as more important than ourselves unless we are filled by the Spirit. If you are a self-centered brat, always concerned about yourself and your needs then this is a sign that you are rarely, if ever filled by the Holy Spirit. You are full of yourself and need to learn the doctrine of kenosis (Phil 2:5-8). Christ gave up the independent use of His divine attributes. He yielded His will to the Father’s will (Matt 26:39). Later tonight I’m going to show you important it is to follow Christ’s example of yielding your will. You cannot live the Christian life if you don’t train yourself to yield your will to the Lord’s will. Jesus Christ did not walk independently. Jesus Christ walked dependently, being filled by the Spirit, in submission to the Father. As believers in Jesus Christ who desire to be Christ-like we must also be filled by the Holy Spirit in order to submit ourselves to one another. This subordination, as we’ll demonstrate, is not contrary to equality. There is both submission and equality in the body of Christ

Who are we to submit to? The reciprocal pronoun one another indicates that this is mutual submission. I submit to you and you submit to me. The problem however, is “HOW DOES MUTUAL SUBMISSION WORK?” For example, if believer A submits to believer B then B is not submitting himself to A, but ruling. Only one person can rule at a time. So, how do we solve this dilemma? The solution lies in the way Paul applies this principle in the relationships described in 5:22-6:9: wives-husbands, children-fathers, and slaves-masters. So, the way mutual submission works is like this, “let each of you submit yourself to the ones who you should be submissive to” (e.g. wives should submit to husbands, children should obey their fathers, slaves should obey their masters, etc…). The bottom line is that you must be willing to submit to those who have authority, whether it is in the church, home, workplace, or society at large.

Once again I am having problems pulling together a good quote from Pastor Dean regarding point sixteen above. He touches briefly on Hebrews 10:24 in lesson transcript 168 and then he goes into a study of James 5 in order to provide background. So, I have the option of providing a short quote or a long one that rambles. Since the quote from Pastor Thomas was a long one I am going to provide a short quote here and if you want more please go to the lesson transcript (or listen to the lesson).

So we’re studying the Doctrine of One Another as we’re coming out of our study in Hebrews – Hebrews 10 which actually relates to the seventeenth point in our study.  Because we’ve spent such a good bit of time on this, I didn’t labor on it much last time.  But the 17^th point [Ed.: this is my 16^th point] was by way of review – think about one another to stir them up to love and good deeds.  This is brought about by that word that’s translated “let us consider one another.” 

The root word there in Greek means to give it thought, to meditate on it, to reflect upon it, to take conscientious actions.  So we’re to consider one another in order to stir up love.  That means to stimulate – the Greek word from which we get our English word paroxysm.  It means to stimulate activity, to encourage people.  

I talked about when we went over this.  I talked about a couple of illustrations we could use.  Dan and I were out on the road together.  We were talking about this.  We came up with different illustrations.  But if you’ve got a background in any sort of competitive activity whether it’s sports, whether it’s military, whether it’s in some sort of a team activity; you can reflect on that.  When you would get together with a group of others and you’re all trying to achieve something and to go through a course of action together that what you do is instead of trying to put each other down and compete against each other in that sense, you try to encourage each other and say, “Come on everybody.  Let’s go.”  You cheer each other on so that encourages and strengthens one another, coming up with ideas to help those who aren’t quite as adept or quite a strong to also do that.  You have gone through boot camp.  You go through various kinds of challenging activities.  This is a good thing to do.  It’s the same thing.  It emphasizes that teamwork attitude that should be present in the body of Christ. 

So that scene in Hebrews 10:24:

^NKJ Hebrews 10:24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works,

Now that idea of “one another”… I said…  Don’t take that.  I think some people tend to look at that and say that means equally every believer.  It’s almost a socialist idea.  We’re going to handle everybody equally the same way.  This has to do with the people in whose presence or whose sphere of influence you are: your friends, the other believers that you know – just to encourage and help one another.