How to Read the Bible in Context and Stay on Track

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It is common to hear admonishments to read the Bible and interpret it in context; that is, that we ought to avoid detaching a particular verse, story, or portion of Scripture from the immediate and original context in which it was written. An accurate meaning of words, verses, and stories may be found only as understood in context.

For example, “He hit a home run,” may mean different things depending on whether it was written in the context of a business presentation or a baseball game. “Out of Egypt I have called my son,” has meaning in light of its Matthew 2 and Hosea 11 contexts. On the other hand, in Exodus God identifies Israel, while they were enslaved in Egypt, as his firstborn son (Exod. 4:22).

In each place there is the immediate context, but there is a broader context—the context of the entire revelation of God contained in the Bible. There are different human authors (i.e. Moses, Hosea, and Matthew), yet there is one divine author—God himself. There is an immediate context, and there is an overall biblical context—the overarching story of God’s mighty acts of redemption in Christ Jesus.

The Word of God was written by both humans and a divine author.

Though we may be tempted at times to overemphasize the human author over the divine author, or the divine over the human, it is important to understand both together as we strive to accurately understand the word of God. Questions include, how are the two writers related to one another? How do they work together in Scripture? Is the Bible a human book, written merely by human authors, or is it a divine book supernaturally dictated to men of old? The answers are found in Scripture itself, which reveals that the Word of God was written by both humans and a divine author—every word is simultaneously human and divine.

Let’s consider 2 Peter 1:21 concerning the nature of prophecy:

For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

The word of God in the Bible comes to us through human writers. We find the humanity of the writers in variations of vocabulary, idioms, structure, and style. For example, there is the difference between the exquisite Hebrew poetry and varied vocabulary of Isaiah and the straight-forward narrative of Joshua. Similarly, in the New Testament there is the difference between the complex and elegant Greek of Hebrews and John’s more elementary Greek. We can detect the presence of the human authors throughout all of Scripture.

On the other hand, and at the risk of sounding obvious, we ought not neglect the divine author, God himself. Here, the incarnation of the Son of God in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word become flesh (John 1:14), is a helpful analogy for understanding the human and divine together as one.

As Christ Jesus is indivisibly and inseparably divine and human, so Scripture is harmoniously divine and human. Each human author, as inspired by the Holy Spirit (2 Tim. 3:16), had his particular context, but it came within the overarching context of the divine author, God himself. What are we to make of this when reading Scripture? How are we to do justice to the context provided by both authors?

We must consider both the immediate and canonical context.

It is important to recognize the presence of both writers without overemphasizing one over the other. The Bible is the word of God that was first spoken by God and then written down by his chosen human authors. The prophets were commissioned in the midst of God’s council to receive God’s word (see Isa. 6:1-5; Jer. 23:18, 22) and then to declare it to God’s people. God spoke to Moses, who then wrote it down.

Writing in the circumstances and the idiom of their time and place (context), the prophets communicated the word of God. Yet through these men, God was telling his story—his mighty acts of creation and redemption, his overarching context and story, and the “big picture” of the entire canon of Scripture.

Consider how Scripture begins and ends with creation—the old creation described in Genesis 1 and 2 and the coming of the new creation, the new heavens and earth, described in Revelation 21. These bookends serve to frame the creation motif of Scripture (see Isa. 47:13; 65:17; 66:22; 2 Pet. 3:13). We even find ourselves in God’s creation story—his context: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17).

Likewise, it is a story of redemption from a fallen creation with fallen humans to a new heavens and earth with redeemed humans. The context? Our salvation in Christ Jesus. Here we also find the central theme of Scripture—the central overarching context. But isn’t Christ Jesus found only in the New Testament? What about Old Testament stories and prophecies? Don’t they have their own context apart from Christ? Not entirely.

All the promises of God find their yes in Jesus.

When we read Old Testament prophecies, surely they can be difficult to understand at times (e.g. dreams, visions, and riddles, Num. 12:6-8). Even angels were not aware of all things the prophets wrote about Jesus (1 Pet. 1:10-12). Jesus similarly alluded to the difficulty in understanding how the Old Testament Scriptures pointed to him (John 5:46; Luke 24:27), yet he ascribed the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies to himself (Luke 4:16-21). Of course, we want to recognize the immediate context of the human prophetic and narrative writers, while we also recognize the divine author, the Holy Spirit, who unifies the entire message of Scripture.

The unity is the gospel message of redemption we have through our Lord Jesus Christ, the suffering servant (Isa. 53, Matt. 8:17, John 12:38, Rom. 10:16, 1 Pet. 2:24, etc.) who lived, died, and was resurrected according to the Scriptures (1 Cor. 15:3, 4), and who poured out his Spirit to us at Pentecost (fulfilling Joel’s prophecy, Joel 2:28-29; Acts 2:16-18).

God’s eternal truth and all his promises find their yes in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 1:20). This is the central message of Scripture—the promise of redemption, of new creation, and of the love of God poured out in the promise, the life, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus our Lord.

Therefore, remembering that Scripture is the word of God, which he has spoken and which has been written down by humans and inspired by the Holy Spirit, we read his word considering both the immediate context of the human writers and the unifying context of the divine author. This is not an either/or argument but is both/and—human and divine. It is God’s word—his divine revelation to us and received by us through his instrument of human writers.

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This article was originally published on March 6, 2018.

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Does Jesus' View of Grace Offend You? The Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard

Rembrandt (1606-1669), Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard, 1637; The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia; image from Wikimedia Commons, .

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Where is grace? Real grace. True grace.  

Giving to one another generously and abundantly, without thought of any payback? Giving not just from a bucket of excess, but from one’s needs? Giving that causes the giver to suffer? Giving to those who can never repay? Giving to those who hate you? Who have harmed you?

Where is this grace? It is a foreign object. We don’t see it. We don’t understand it. We don’t do it. We don’t know how to do it. And we don’t like it.

I am likely typical. I give of my surplus: my surplus money, time, and energy. And I hope to be noticed, to get appropriate gratitude and applause. When do I give without wanting anything back? When do I give to those who hurt me or insult me?  

Grace is pouring out one’s life, without any hope of something being poured back. Grace is pouring out our time, talents, resources, physical and mental energy, without looking to see what is left. Grace is emptying self, until suffering, even upon those who hate.

Who does this? We hear rumors of it, but we don’t see it. What is familiar is the pouring out of anger and frustration. We are harsh with each other. Even in our homes, grace is alien. We get cross with each other. Prickly. “I have poured out much. You have poured out little. So I will punish you, and coddle myself.”

Grace is central to Christianity, and so it is still in the DNA of Western society. This means that one important aspect of grace—giving one’s life for the good of others—is still admired.

But true Christian grace has been pummeled. The German philosopher Nietzsche (1844-1900) did a lot of the demolition. He derided the Christian values of humility, kindness, and pity. These only got in the way of the ideal “superman,” the “magnified man, disciplined and perfected in both mental and physical strength, serene and pitiless, ruthlessly pursuing his path of success and victory and without moral scruples” (Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 1997, p.1154). Nietzsche understood grace, and it disgusted him. 

Grace is alien to us.

Ayn Rand (1905-82) was the same. In her much-admired novel The Fountainhead, hero Howard Roark is strong and talented. He takes what he wants and lives unashamedly for himself in order to achieve his fullest potential and fulfill his destiny. He cares nothing for the weak, the disabled, or the frail. These are hindrances to be thrown off. Grace has no place in Rand’s system. By retarding the strong and the talented, Grace just poisons things.

Such attacks on grace have not been unsuccessful. Our naturally ungracious hearts have lapped it up. In short, grace is alien to us.  

In fact it is so alien to humanity, that in order for us to understand grace, Jesus has to shock us. And he does that in his parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard.

He tells a story that will antagonize us, that will perhaps even enrage us. When builders insert bolts into concrete, they use explosive tools. Explosive charges force and break the bolt into the hard concrete. The concrete is our graceless hearts. The explosive bolt is Jesus’ parable. He tells it not to guilt us into grace. He tells it that we might understand grace, and so be in a position to receive it. For it is only when we have received grace that we can come to be gracious.

Here is the parable from Matthew 20:1-16,

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’So the last will be first, and the first last.”

Not every commentator agrees, but the proximate audience seems to be the Pharisees. Jesus was a Jewish rabbi who taught, surprisingly and incessantly, that God willed to bless non-Jews, that Gentiles are invited to receive salvation and to be a part of the kingdom of heaven.

This upset the Pharisees. We can almost hear them saying:

We can trace our ancestry 1,800 years back to Abraham. We were slaves in Egypt for 400 years. We fought under the Judges for 400 years. We struggled to expand the kingdom under David and Solomon. We endured the divided Kingdom. We endured the destruction of the north in 722 BC. We lived through the great siege of 586 BC. We saw Jerusalem razed. We endured exile. We fought tooth and nail to re-establish the temple and the nation. We resisted brutal Persian, Greek, and Roman invasions.

Are you saying that these Gentiles, who played no part in this except to persecute us, can simply turn up now and receive the kingdom of heaven?! We are the first, and so we should be paid first. We should receive the first and best of God’s blessings! We deserve it!

All this history seems to lie behind Jesus’ story. Those who were hired at the start of the day are the Jews who had suffered and toiled for two millennia. Those hired at the end of the day are the Gentiles. They are “Johnny-come-lately.” They have—according to this mindset—endured and suffered nothing. The sun is setting, there’s a cool breeze, and all the hard work has been done. Yet they can receive exactly the same as the Jews!

Jesus’ parable resets the perspective.

God, the landowner, is fair to some, and he is lavishly generous with others. There’s nothing unjust about that. The kingdom of heaven is his. This is the one grand point of the parable. God can give it to whomever he likes.  

And when we take this one point and set it in the broader context of human rebellion, we see God’s generosity shining out even more brilliantly. For, unlike the parable, no one deserves any good from God. There are no workers who have done all that God has required and who deserve payment from him. “There is no one righteous, not even one . . . All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:10, 23).  

So when God gives the kingdom of heaven, it is always an undeserved gift. Every good thing from God comes by grace. Everything is freely given, undeserved, and unearned.  

What is it that antagonizes us about Jesus’ story?

We put ourselves in the place of the landowner: “I would never have done that. I would either have paid the latecomers one-twelfth of what those who started at six got, or paid the firstcomers twelve denarii. I would have made sure everyone got the same.”

Or we put ourselves in the shoes of the six o’clock workers: we feel offended on their behalf. 

The landowner’s willingness to give to some and not to others antagonizes us. And notice this: it is his grace that antagonizes. When we extrapolate the story to God, pride gets in the way. The parable implies that we deserve nothing from God, that the kingdom of heaven only comes by his gift. It shames us.

There is something that make the parable’s lesson of God’s grace even more striking. Immediately after the parable we read this:

Now Jesus was going up to Jerusalem. On the way, he took the Twelve aside and said to them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!” (Matt. 20:17-19)

Before time, God determined to save a people. The Son agreed that he would come, that he would take on flesh, that he would bear the sins of his people, that he would give his body to be tortured and crucified for them. The gift of the kingdom of heaven is free for the recipients, but costly for the giver. God purchased the kingdom of heaven for us with the blood of his Son (1 Pet. 1:18-19).

Love it or despise it, this is grace. This is the beating heart of the Bible. God is a gracious God. He gives the kingdom of heaven. He gives it to the undeserving. He gives it at the cost of his Son’s blood. Salvation comes only by grace.

This is one of the great rediscoveries of the Reformation: Sola Gratia, grace alone. Salvation cannot be earned by ritual-keeping, by devotion to prayer and fasting. A thousand masses cannot earn a postage-stamp piece of the kingdom of heaven. No wonder the peddling of indulgences enraged Luther—the church’s sale of certificates to shorten one’s time in purgatory. This was the antithesis of grace.   

God opens wide his arms to you here and now. 

God gave. God poured himself out. He poured himself out to bless others. He expected nothing from them in return. His gift cost him untold suffering. Have you received God’s grace? God opens wide his arms to you here and now. He says “Come! I have a gift for you! Come and receive the gift of forgiveness, a new heart, reconciliation, and adoption.”

When I know that I am forgiven, then I cannot help but forgive. God has smiled upon me, despite everything, so how can I not smile at others? God has washed away my list of wrongs with the blood of his Son, so how can I not forgive others? God is gentle and kind with me. How will I not be kind to others?

Imagine if even one person truly understood this. Imagine just one person who loves others by pouring out his or her time, energy, gifts, and resources, and who suffers because of this. In this person we would see Christ.  

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)

Grace is rare. God has poured it out on us. Receive it, and then pour it out on others.

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This article was originally published under the title “Does Jesus’ View of Grace Offend You?” on December 8, 2017.

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4 Good Ways to Run the Christian Race Well

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Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. (Hebrews 12:1-2a)

The above is one of my all-time favorite passages in Scripture. Indeed, in numerous places in Scripture the Christian life is compared to the effort and exertion of a race (1 Cor. 9:24; 2 Tim. 4:7). These few words from Hebrews teach us four things about what it means to run the Christian's race well.

1. Run the race well by finding your motivator to run.

These verses begin with laying out some of the motivation we have to run our Christian race well. That motivation is the example of those who have run it before us. Remember, this verse follows immediately on the heels of the "Hall of Faith" in chapter 11. There the author describes a whole host of committed believers who have run their race well. They are to be our examples (for instance: “let us also lay aside...” that is, we should run the same way they have).

More than being our examples, they are also our cheerleaders! In chapter 12 they are now referred to as “a cloud of witnesses.” Picture running a race on a track and the stands on every side filled with people who are cheering for you. Though we can't see it, that's what's going on in the Christian life. We are surrounded by the saints who have gone on before, and that is meant to encourage us to run well.

If you have ever run a race or sat on the sidelines and watched one, you know the power of hearing people cheer one another on. Someone who is winded and barely able to lift their feet suddenly hears the voices of supporters rallying them on, and just like that they have renewed vigor and motivation to keep going! As we run our race, we must remember the example and encouragement set by all believers who have run before us, not just pillars of the faith, like Abraham and Moses (although certainly them). We should also remember others whom God has graciously placed in our lives: parents, siblings, pastors, teachers, friends, and mentors. Let their godly example motivate us to run well.

My wife recently completed a half marathon, and she explained to me the importance of finding another runner who can be your pacesetter—someone whose speed will challenge your own. You make it your goal to stick behind them during the race. This illustrates a biblical principle. The apostle Paul said,

Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. (Phil. 3:17; emphasis added)

So, who in your life can be your “pacesetter”? Who will you join in imitating their Christian life? Who will be your example and encouragement? Who will motivate you to run that race that is before you? Answering that question is the first step in running well.

2. Run the race well by casting off your weights.

Second, we see that in order to run well we must cast off our weights.Lighter means faster. If runners want to perform their very best, they will make sure they are not weighed down by a cumbersome load. In this context, the word "weight" could refer to extra layers of clothes that slow us down or get in the way. Flowing robes aren't the attire for running. The analogy to the spiritual is explained in the next clause: “and sin which clings so closely.” Trying to run the Christian race with sin clinging to us is like trying to run a marathon in a ballroom gown while carrying a backpack filled with bricks.

Sin is a weight that ties us down and prevents us from serving Jesus to the best of our ability. Remember Levi the tax collector? His profession was rife with corruption, and it kept him from following after the Savior; but when he was called by Christ, we read that he "left everything" (Luke 5:28). We need to have that same sort of determination.

We cannot afford to be hindered in a race that has such important consequences, so we must cast sin off from us. In your life, what sins might be impeding your progress? There can be some very "sticky" sins—the kind that Hebrews says cling so closely. Part of the reason some sins are so stubborn is because we don't recognize them as being sins at all. Or at least we don't recognize them as being very serious sins. Thus, we excuse certain behaviors such as grumpiness, discontent, gossip, envy, judgmentalism, and swearing.

Yet these seemingly "less serious" sins are the ones that will easily trip us up. They are the ones that weigh us down and prevent us from reaching the heights that sanctification offers us. So, just as a hot air balloon operator will toss ballast overboard to soar higher, we must toss overboard any and all sin in order to attain "to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13). What a foolish thing to take sin lightly when it's the heaviest thing there is.

3. Run the race well with endurance.

The writer of Hebrews says that once we find our motivation and cast off our weights, we need to “run with endurance the race set before us.” Endurance implies that the Christian life is better compared to a marathon than a sprint. It is something that takes work, commitment, and fortitude. It can't be completed without preparation or practice—otherwise we will burn out in no time at all. Think about it: you would not run a marathon without any preparation. You don’t just show up the day of the race and expect to do well. Rather, you sign up months ahead, sometimes a year ahead. You learn what kind of course it is, if it will be hilly or flat, hot or cold, and so on.

So too in the Christian life we must prepare ourselves for what lies ahead. This is what it means to "count the cost" of following Christ. There's a price to be paid. It won't be easy. Discipleship requires endurance. Following Jesus will mean trial and tribulations, but we can't allow those hindrances to cause us to give up. And indeed, if we are expecting them and are prepared for them, by the Spirit's power we won't give up. Thus, Peter and John both exhort us: “do not be surprised” or "do not be caught off guard" at the race we must run (1 Pet. 4:12, 1 John 3:13). When we see the course that is set before us, we will not be surprised. We will be ready to run, come what may.

In Luke 9 one eager would-be disciple approaches Jesus and proclaims, “I will follow you wherever you go” (Luke 9:57). But then Jesus explained to him the nature of the course before him: “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Luke 9:58). Jesus was telling him this is the kind of life he would be signing up for if he wanted to follow the Son of Man. In other words, Jesus was explaining it wasn't an easy stroll, nor a quick sprint. It was a grueling marathon that would take endurance. The implication in the passage is that, upon hearing this, the man gives up on Christ. He wasn't ready to run with endurance.

Are you prepared for the race set before you? It will be a long one—indeed, a lifelong one. It will take endurance. But the good news is that the endurance comes from God himself. God strengthens us for whatever he calls us to do. Paul reminds us of this in Colossians. He says that we as Christians are "being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy" (Col. 1:11; emphasis added) Similarly, Paul says later on that this alone is what keeps him going in ministry. He can't do it on his own, but he can do it “with all his energy that he powerfully works within me” (1:29).

4. Run the race well with your eyes on the prize.

Finally, we want to consider the most important aspect of running our Christian race well: keeping our eyes on the prize.Yes, we need proper motivation and encouragement to run, we need to rid ourselves of things that would encumber our progress, we need to prepare for the long haul. But none of this matters if we don’t keep our eyes on the prize. In this case, that doesn't mean a trophy or a finish line. It means “looking to Jesus.”

This implies we have already begun our race, and now that we have we must continually keep our gaze fixed forward (or upward) as opposed to backward. We are not to look back on the things that we have left behind, or the weight of sin that we have cast off. They are in the dirt and dust where they belong, whereas we are headed for glory. Colossians offers similar advice for the Christian life:

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (3:1–3)

The point that Paul is making here is quite plain: your final destination is in the heavenly places, where even now you are spiritually raised with Christ. And if that's your ultimate destination, keep your focus on the things that are above. You belong above in heaven, not below on earth. Jesus himself says the same thing in Luke 9: “‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God’” (v. 62).

Running a race well can never entail looking back. Looking back implies our heart and our desires and our loves are all still back at the starting line, and not in the kingdom of God. When we look back we reveal that we actually belong with the world and the things of the world, and not with the world to come. And if we belong to the world, what will eventually become of us? (Hint: read the story about Lot's wife—it's a scary thing to look back!)

Let us run toward heaven by keeping the eyes of our heart fixed on the one who is already there. The one who has already run the race and come in first. The one who stands victorious in the heavenly places and is waiting to share that victory with us. Let us keep our minds and hearts fixated on Christ, who holds the prize at the finish line—and he is the prize. 

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This article was originally published on Beautiful Christian Life on July 15, 2019.

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24 Bible Passages about God’s Sovereignty

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What does it mean that God is sovereign? We find a helpful definition in the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647):

God hath all life, glory, goodness, blessedness, in and of himself; and is alone in and unto himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creatures which he hath made, nor deriving any glory from them, but only manifesting his own glory in, by, unto, and upon them. He is the alone fountain of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things; and hath most sovereign dominion over them, to do by them, for them, or upon them whatsoever himself pleaseth. In his sight all things are open and manifest, his knowledge is infinite, infallible, and independent upon the creature, so as nothing is to him contingent, or uncertain. He is most holy in all his counsels, in all his works, and in all his commands. To him is due from angels and men, and every other creature, whatsoever worship, service, or obedience he is pleased to require of them. (“Of God, and of the Holy Trinity,” WCF 2.2)

Here are 24 Bible passages about the sovereignty of God (all Scripture quotations from the English Standard Version):

God has sovereign dominion over all.

1. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:27-28)

2. Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases. (Psalm 115:3; see also Psalm 135:6)

3. The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will. (Proverbs 21:1)

4. I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does all these things. (Isaiah 45:7)

God is omniscient (all-knowing), omnipotent (all-powerful), and omnipresent (present everywhere).

5. Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure. (Psalm 147:5)

6. Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. (Isaiah 40:28-29)

7. “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?” (Jeremiah 32:27)

8. But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)

Nothing happens unless God permits it.

9. And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. (Job 1:12; see also Job 2:4-6)

10. The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord. (Proverbs 16:33)

God makes use of our plans to fulfill his purposes.

11. As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. (Genesis 50:20)

12. The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble. (Proverbs 16:4)

13. The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. (Proverbs 16:9)

14. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

God acts according to his will, not according to human opinions of fairness.

15. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” (Daniel 4:35)

16. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. (Ephesians 1:11)

17. So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. (Romans 9:18)

18. Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? (Romans 9:21)

God’s purposes will stand.

19. “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. (Job 42:2)

20. Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. (Proverbs 19:21)

21. The Lord of hosts has sworn: “As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand.” (Isaiah 14:24)

God alone is to be worshipped, served, and obeyed.

22. Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’” (Matthew 4:10)

23. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. (1 Timothy 6:13-16)

24. And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” (Rev. 5:13)

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What Is God's Plan for Your Life Here and Now?

Photo by Omar Lopez on Unsplash

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning Beautiful Christian Life LLC may get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through its links, at no cost to you.

Perhaps one of the most common Bible verses found on bookmarks, in memory lists, and on social media posts is Jeremiah 29:11: “‘For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.’”

This verse brings a message we cling to—a message of comfort and future hope while living in places and times full of stress, suffering, sadness, confusion, and anger. We read and recite this verse to direct our hearts and minds forward to a better time in a better place—the pleasant future God has planned for us.

The Context of Jeremiah 29:11

It is important—actually critical—for us to consider the context of this message of hope in Jeremiah 29:11. A small remnant of God’s chosen nation were living in exile in a foreign land, ruled by prideful and violent leaders whose goals were to dominate others while protecting their own view of an ideal culture. It was in this environment of suffering that God told his people how to live. 

Patiently settling in for the long haul, God’s people were to build houses and live in them. They were to labor and work within the culture to provide for themselves and to help one another. They were to form and keep families. And, in terms of the culture and the nation, God’s people were to seek its welfare (in the Hebrew, shalom), because their present circumstances depended to a great extent on the good they themselves brought to their communities (Jer. 29:4-7). [1]

Even though we may not live in physical exile from our land, like the people of Israel during the time of Jeremiah, we too suffer in other ways. But just as Israel had a hope then, there is a hope and a future for us today—God’s plan for his people, which is the salvation we have in Christ Jesus through faith by God’s gracious gift. We know that in the immediate context of Jeremiah 29, God’s plan of redemption was Israel’s temporal return to the physical land from Babylonian exile. We also know by reading the context of the entirety of Scripture that God’s ultimate plan is eternal redemption in Christ Jesus.

Neglecting either of the contexts above could lead us to think that the future hope and plan of God is merely our temporal and present good, prosperity, and blessing, and surely we do sometimes experience these providential gifts of God. Yet, he also promises that we will suffer, we will be persecuted, we will know pain, and this life will be a struggle (Phil. 1:29).

Living Here and Now

So what does it mean to live here and now? Even though deliverance from this evil and suffering age has been inaugurated through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, how do we go about patiently waiting for God’s future plan of hope in its final consummation? How are we to live while on the one hand, we are citizens of a future time and place (Phil. 3:20), but on the other hand, we find ourselves in this painful place where we must strive to persevere while suffering?

We find the answer by carefully noticing the context of Israel’s Babylonian exile, and God keeps it pretty simple. Rather than telling his people to overthrow political power, he counsels them to seek the welfare (shalom) of the place where they live. Rather than telling the Israelites to take over centers of cultural influence, he tells them to form extended families. Rather than looking to others to provide for them, he tells Israel to build and produce. The apostle Paul gives similar counsel to believers who now live in the new covenant era:

And… aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you,so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. (1 These. 4:11).

Our True Hope and Eternal Future

So while we live in this present evil age (cf. Gal. 1:4) where God has temporarily placed us, he reminds us that there is a future ultimate and eternal hope—and this is his plan, not ours. Though our true hope and eternal future do not rest on temporal things, such as plans for political power or an ultimate cultural transformation, we are not to neglect this creation that God has so graciously and providentially provided to us. As he is patient, so we ought also to be patient, living in the here and now in a manner not like those who have no hope but rather in ways like those who are the redeemed people of God.

We need to be faithfully and patiently present to all of those who are near us as we settle in for the long haul. Since God has fully revealed his plan in Christ Jesus, we now live by faith in grateful and diligent anticipation of his ultimate and eternal plan while building, producing, and seeking the welfare of one another and our neighbors. 

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Note:

[1] Shalom: Though the biblical Hebrew word shalom has a broad range of meaning, its specific meaning is dependent on its usage in a particular context. Depending on its context, it may carry a meaning such as success, prosperity, safety, welfare, peace (broadly or individually), rest, salvation, friendliness, completeness, or even as a greeting like “hello.” In Jeremiah 29:7, it is variously translated welfare (e.g. ESV, JPS, NASB), peace (e.g. KJV), and peace and prosperity (e.g. NIV).

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Sleeping on Rocks Right Now? Jesus Is Right There

Photo by Mark Mialik on Unsplash

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning Beautiful Christian Life LLC may get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through its links, at no cost to you.

Weeks after winning my license, I crashed my car. It was a wet night and my friends and I decided it would be fun to drift around corners with wheels spinning. I lost control, the front of the car hammered into a high curb, and the steering was wrecked. 

I limped the car home, too ashamed and embarrassed to tell my parents. I drove it first thing in the morning to the repairers in town. The mechanic hoisted it up and showed me how I’d bent the wheels and steering arms. Repair would be very costly.

I remember pacing the wet streets car-less, wondering where on earth I would find the repair money and still too ashamed to tell my family. For just a few hours I felt unusually helpless, almost nauseous with worry and loneliness. Looking back, I see how unnecessary my suffering was. All the help in the world was all around me, and I was blind to it.

So it is with Jacob in the book of Genesis.

Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran (Gen. 28:10).

What tragedy we read in these few words. Jacob was born into a rich and loving family. But he tricked his twin brother out of his birthright (Gen. 25) and then pulled a seriously devious and nasty deception on his blind father, tricking Isaac into giving him Esau’s covenant blessing (Gen. 27). So now Jacob is fleeing Beersheba, his home in the south of the Promised Land, to Haran in the strange and distant north: beyond Galilee, beyond Syria and Damascus, right up near Assyria and the Euphrates River.

Jacob means “Grasper.” Grasper had betrayed his family. And by lying and cheating and dishonoring his father, he had also dishonored God. What had he accomplished? A family in humiliation and disarray. He himself running, alone, and far, far from home.

Remember, this is the father of Israel. According to the principle of corporate identity as explained in Hebrews 7:1-10, the entire nation was physically latent within him at that moment. Jacob is Israel. Grasper personifies the church. What is true of him is true of the church.

What is true of Jacob is true of the church.

And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep (Gen. 28:11).

After fleeing all day, night falls with no motel or friendly house nearby. In verse 20 Jacob prays for “food to eat and clothes to wear.” So we see a lonely, guilty, destitute man. He lies in the open air with a rock for a pillow. He is exhausted physically, morally, spiritually, and relationally. This by nature is you. This by nature is your church.

Sleeping on rocks gives anyone strange dreams. God gives Jacob a vision. It is a kind of apocalypse; God pulls aside the curtain to show Jacob what is going on behind his desolate circumstances.

God showed Jacob a staircase joining heaven and earth.

And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac” (Gen. 28:12-13a).

God cast our rebellious parents, and thus us, out of Eden. Cherubim wielding blazing swords barred the way back (Gen. 3:24). Humanity, and not least Jacob at this point, live within the desolation of that separation. But God showed Jacob a staircase joining heaven and earth.

The people of Babel attempted something like this, to build a tower to reconnect heaven and earth, to manufacture greatness and security (Gen. 11:1-9). But it was human-made and prideful, and God razed it. If God separated humanity from heaven, what can we do to bridge the gulf?

We cannot reach up to God, but he can reach down to us. That is the staircase.

Why are angels dashing up and down it? “Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?” (Heb. 1:14). They rush down with God’s word and salvation (Heb. 2:2), and rush back up with our prayers (Rev. 8:4). The staircase establishes communication between Jacob and heaven. It is a conduit of help—of salvation.

The One who speaks to Jacob is “the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac.” He made that unbreakable promise to Abraham:

“Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” (Gen 12:1-2)

At that point Jacob must have doubted those promises. “Land? Great nation? Great name? Blessing? I’m an exile from the land. My ‘great name’ is Grasper. I’m cursed, not blessed!” Jacob had betrayed family and God and had lost everything. Yet God was working right then even in Jacob’s betrayal and desolation to fulfill his promise. God was there, heaven and earth were joined. God’s ministering servants rushed up and down for Jacob.

How gracious God is! How kind, patient, and longsuffering. How wise and mighty that what we intend as evil he intends for our good (Gen. 50:20).

God would fulfill his promise through Jacob.

The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you” (Gen. 28:13b-15). 

God reiterates that he will make a vast people for himself, from all corners of the globe, to be a blessing to the nations. God would go with them, watch over them, and relentlessly accomplish his promise beginning with Jacob himself.

In all the hardships that Jacob’s exile would bring—his battle with Laban, home dramas, more poor decisions springing from his diehard manipulative habits—God says “I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go. I will fulfill my promise and bring you back to this land.”

The Lord is with Jacob, even in the bad place where Jacob found himself.

Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it” (Gen. 28:16).

Jacob speaks geographically. Grandfather Abraham had been a Chaldean pagan (Josh. 24:14-15), from a people who believed in localized deities. Likely Jacob thought, “The Lord is God of Beersheba. I didn’t think his jurisdiction extended this far. But it does!”

Note the double entendre. Grasper’s decisions had put him in a bad “place,” both geographically and spiritually. But the staircase showed him, “Surely the Lord is in this place,” again both geographically and spiritually. When God’s people are in a bad “place,” even a bad place of our own making, we must nevertheless say, “Surely the Lord is in this place.”

God’s angels were coming and going, ministering to Jacob.

And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” So early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first (Gen. 28:17-19).

Jacob stopped near what was or would be the city of Luz. He himself named it Bethel, which means “House of God.” Jacob realized God was right there and that shook him. “I am evil, and yet I am in the presence of the holy God!”

Note this carefully: God didn’t build that staircase that night. It was there the whole time. What changed was Jacob getting a vision of it. Because God promised to bless Jacob, he joined earth to heaven and had been right there with him the whole time, his angels coming and going, energetically ministering to him.

We have a huge advantage over Jacob.

Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you” (Gen. 28:20-22).

Jacob’s vow sounds like it is focused on what God can give him: food, clothing, and restoration. Instead of confession and repentance he attempts a deal with God (and you only make deals when you think you have something that the other person wants or needs). But Jacob had nothing that God wanted or needed. God has everything; Grasper had nothing but his sin. So, God had much more work to do on him.

We have a huge advantage over Jacob. We can look back to Genesis 28 through the 1,800 years of revelation that followed. Let’s now jump to AD 30, and a scene both comical and sublime.

Jesus Christ has just called Philip to follow him. Philip brings the great news to his friend Nathanael,

Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” (John 1:45-46)

While Jacob saw the vision, Nathanael would see the reality.

See the parallel with Jacob? A man hears about God’s provision, but he can’t see the truth, and acts improperly: Jacob with deceit, Nathanael with parochial snobbery. God was there and he didn’t know it.

“Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.’” This is not just “Come and meet him,” but, “Open your eyes, my friend!”

Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” (John 1:47-48)

Jesus is saying, “Nathanael, though you didn’t know it, I was there the whole time. I am with you.”

Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” (John 1:49-51)

Jesus is saying, “Nathanael, you will have a revelation. You will see what Jacob saw. Although he saw a vision, you will see the reality. You will see the angels ascending and descending on me. You will see that I am the bridge between heaven and earth. You will see that all of God’s promised blessings will come through me.”

Christian, you are standing at the gate of heaven!

I recall that wet day, seemingly a lifetime ago, those few hours of shame, loneliness, and helplessness. I was blind. I had a loving mother and father right there, more than willing and able to carry me through the trial. And in your time of pain and trial right now, or as you struggle as a church, lift up your heads to see this heavenly vision.

Though you are lonely, you are standing at the gate of heaven and it is open before you. “But my own poor decisions, and those of others, have put me here.” That was true of Jacob, yet he was the whole time in the presence of heaven. And so we are, for God “raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6). Christ is there, right with you. All the angels of God are ascending and descending upon Christ, for your help and your blessing.

And as a church struggles—and every true church must struggle—heaven’s stairway joins her to heaven and all heaven's mercy and safety. The stairway is not built by our faithfulness, but God’s promise. The stairway is not our obedience and steadfastness, but the person of Christ come down to rescue us from our sin and rebellion.

God’s people, wherever you are and wherever you are at, look up now with eyes of faith to Jesus Christ, and “you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (John 1:51).

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Where Did Hell Go?

Flaming gas crater known as the “Door to Hell” In Darvaza, Turkmenistan; image from Shutterstock.com

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning Beautiful Christian Life LLC may get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through its links, at no cost to you.

Hell isn’t trending nowadays. Other than irreverent statements such as the offhand reference, “What the hell,” the dismissive idiom, “Go to hell,” the weather observation, "It's hotter than hell," or the flip comment, “I’m bored as hell,” we don’t hear much anymore about the topic of eternal damnation.

It’s difficult to find anyone who wants to talk about hell because we think that most of us are pretty good overall. After all, nice people aren’t actually going to end up in some hard-to-believe-it’s-really-true everlasting lake of fire, right?

Kids say the darndest things.

Some years ago, I was teaching a second grade Sunday school class, and we were discussing the passage where Nicodemus comes to visit Jesus in the middle of the night. I explained to the students how the Pharisees heaped unbearable laws upon the people that were not given by God. After sharing with the children that God’s law guides Christians in daily living, I asked them, "What does the law tell unbelievers?" One boy raised his hand and declared, "That they're going to hell!"

The boy's honesty and candor surprised me at first, and his response also made me wonder: why does a young child accept something that is so difficult for many adults to reconcile in their minds? It was refreshing to hear someone—even if it was an eight-year-old kid—speak about hell without being embarrassed by it.

If I close my eyes, maybe it’s not really there.

The Bible clearly teaches about God's wrath and the reality of hell. Jesus didn't seem to have a problem with discussing these topics, warning people about hell on numerous occasions during his earthly ministry. With so much focus today on how Jesus will make our lives better here on earth, it doesn’t seem like our eternal state—much less God’s glory—is of much concern to some Christians anymore.

In his book Heaven, author Randy Alcorn cites a survey that concludes: “for every American who believes he’s going to hell, there are 120 who believe they are going to heaven” (p. 23). Alcorn contrasts this result with Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:13-14:

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

The math just doesn’t add up. In this passage, Jesus is clearly indicating that there will be more people in hell than in heaven. Yet, I can’t remember ever going to a funeral or memorial service where people thought the deceased person was now in hell—not ever. Why do so many people, even some who claim to be Christians, refuse to accept the reality of hell when the Bible teaches it?

OpenBible.com lists 100 passages on hell, including the following from the book of Revelation:

And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (Rev. 20:15)

It seems odd that such a prominent topic in the Bible is so infrequently discussed in churches today. The sad fact is that many pastors are hesitant to talk about the doctrine of hell anymore because they know people don’t really want to hear about it.

More and more, churchgoers are seeking community, ways to improve their lives and help others, and support through difficult times—and these are all good things. It’s easy to understand why church leaders wouldn’t want to scare off people by bringing hell into the conversation. Talking about eternal damnation with seekers who are interested in how Christianity can make their lives better just doesn’t seem like a good idea.

We think only really bad people should go to hell.

The truth is that we don’t like the doctrine of hell. It doesn’t seem fair to us that God would send nice people to hell for eternity just because they made a few mistakes. After all, “Who doesn’t mess up here and there?” “Why does God have to be so harsh?” “Doesn’t he see my heart and know how hard I am trying?”

The problem is that we don’t get it. We don’t get how holy God is, and we don’t get how sinful we are. Isaiah got it when he saw a vision of the Lord in his glory. He cried out,

And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (Isa. 6:5)

Isaiah saw his own sinfulness. He saw his total inadequacy to stand before God. He understood that he needed to be cleansed so he would not be destroyed by God’s utter goodness and purity.

We find another such example in the Gospel of Luke. When Peter witnessed the miracle of the great catch of fish:

But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” (Luke 5:8)

And when we get it—when we realize that there is nothing about us that is untouched by our depraved nature and how impossible it is for us to stand before God on our own merits—this is when we run to the foot of the cross and cling to Christ, our only hope.

Some Christians think it is best to put off discussing this difficult topic with unbelievers. If only we can first get people to experience Christ’s love in one-on-one relationships and then in a church community that cares for and supports them, we can teach them about the more difficult Christian topics of judgment, wrath, and hell at a later time. But when is the right time?

If we pass off Christianity as the best way to happiness now, what if people find an alternative way they like better for improving the quality of their lives and healing their brokenness? What if they never take the reality of hell seriously because the Christians they know don’t seem to take it seriously?

Eternity lasts a long time.

The issue is not whether or how God’s love can make our lives more fulfilled. The issue is that our sin offends God, separates us from him, and places us under his judgment. Avoiding the subject of God’s wrath or softening its severity does not make it go away.

In fact, the stakes here could not be higher: if the Bible is true, those who are not trusting in Christ alone as their savior are not going to heaven—no matter how much they think they are. If we really care about the people God brings into our lives, we should be prepared to lovingly explain the Bible’s teaching on hell as God gives us the opportunity. We do non-Christians no favors by acting as though the doctrine doesn’t exist.

For the sake of those we are trying to help, we have to be honest with ourselves about exactly what we’re attempting to achieve when we try to make the gospel more appealing. How we present the gospel certainly matters. The apostle Paul sets a strong example for us regarding always being as relational as possible (1 Cor. 9:19-23). He also tells us to be winsome (Col. 4:6). Still, we must consider that some well-meaning attempts to smooth over the parts of the Bible that make us uncomfortable contain, at their root, a sense of shame regarding the difficult truths of the gospel.

I’m not advocating a return to fire-and-brimstone sermons or standing on street corners with threatening signs about hell and damnation. I am pleading the case that one of the most loving things we can ever do is to help people understand that they cannot create their own reality of the afterlife in their minds. Thinking something is true doesn’t make it so. People need the truth about God, themselves, and what is going to happen after they die. In short, they need the gospel.

Out of the mouth of babes he has prepared praise.

On another Sunday at church, I asked the children in my class, “What did Jesus do for us that we couldn’t do for ourselves?” A little boy named Oliver raised his hand quickly and answered with confidence: “He was perfect!”[1] Such glorious truth in those three words. Jesus, the perfect atoning sacrifice for our sins and the perfectly obedient Son of Israel, fulfilled all the law’s demands on behalf of everyone who trusts in him alone for salvation.

Because of God’s unfathomable love in Christ, sinners who deserve hell are now at peace with God through the perfect completed work of their Lord Jesus Christ, growing together with each other in grace and knowledge of him as they await a glorious eternity in his presence. Well spoken, Oliver, well spoken, indeed.

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This article is adapted from "Where Did Hell Go?" at corechristianity.com.

Notes:

[1] Oliver’s response reminds me of the children who praised Jesus as he entered the temple and Jesus’ response: “Yes; have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?” (Matt. 21:16).

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12 Wonderful Responsibilities God Has Given to Women

Photo by Jhon David on Unsplash

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning Beautiful Christian Life LLC may get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through its links, at no cost to you.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them (Gen. 1:27).

Countless millions of women around the world faithfully strive to honor God in all their vocations in life. Here are twelve wonderful responsibilities God has given to women:

1. To Love, Believe, and Respect the Lord

Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,

    but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

Give her of the fruit of her hands,

    and let her works praise her in the gates. (Prov. 31:30-31)

And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband. (1 Cor. 7:34)

2. To Support the Gospel Work of the Church

I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae, that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a patron of many and of myself as well. (Rom. 16:1-2)

Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life. (Phil. 4:3)

3. To Be Diligent in Her Vocations

And every skillful woman spun with her hands, and they all brought what they had spun in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen. (Exod. 35:25)

She considers a field and buys it;

    with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard. (Prov. 31:16)

She opens her hand to the poor

    and reaches out her hands to the needy. (Prov. 31:20)

Now there was in Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which, translated, means Dorcas. She was full of good works and acts of charity. (Acts 9:36)

One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. (Acts 16:14)

4. To Be a Wife

And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,

“This at last is bone of my bones

    and flesh of my flesh;

she shall be called Woman,

    because she was taken out of Man.”

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. (Gen. 2:22-24)

He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” (Matt. 19:4-6)

5. To Be a Mother

And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.” And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.” (Gen. 21:6-7)

Let your father and mother be glad; let her who bore you rejoice. (Prov. 23:25)

Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been the wife of one husband, and having a reputation for good works: if she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work. (1 Tim. 5:9-10)

6. To Care for Her Household

The wisest of women builds her house, but folly with her own hands tears it down. (Prov. 14:1)

She rises while it is yet night

    and provides food for her household

    and portions for her maidens. (Prov. 31:15)

So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander. (1 Tim. 5:14)

7. To Be a Helper to Her Husband

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” (Gen. 2:18)

Her children rise up and call her blessed;

    her husband also, and he praises her:

“Many women have done excellently,

    but you surpass them all.” (Prov. 31:28-29)

For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. (1 Cor. 11:8-9)

8. To Love and Respect Her Husband

However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. (Eph. 5:33)

Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct. (1 Pet. 3:1-2)

So train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. (Titus 2:4-5)

9. To Submit to Her Husband

But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God. (1 Cor. 11:3)

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. (Eph. 5:22-24)

10. To Be Respectable

“And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you ask, for all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman.” (Ruth 3:11)

Women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works. (1 Tim. 2:9-10)

Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. (1 Tim. 3:11)

Let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. (1 Pet. 3:4-6)

11. To Learn Quietly in Church

The women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. (1 Cor. 14:34)

Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. (1 Tim. 2:11-13)

12. To Teach What Is Good

She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. (Prov. 31:26)

He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him and explained to him the way of God more accurately. (Acts 18:26)

Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. (Titus 2:3-5)

Related Articles:

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• The Strong Woman of Proverbs 31

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• 6 Ways a Christian Wife Cherishes Her Husband

• 4 Practices for Being Faithful Stewards of Little Eternal Beings

• 7 Ways to Raise Godly and Strong Women

• A Word of Encouragement on Motherhood

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