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People want to know the future. When we’re younger, we want to know whether we will marry and who the person will be if we do marry. We want to know what kind of work we will be doing as the years go by and if we will be able to reside in a safe place we enjoy. Will we have enough money to eat, be able to pay for our medical expenses, fulfill our dreams, and be able to have a restful retirement when we’re older? Amid so many unknowns, it’s helpful to turn to Scripture regarding both what God wants us to know and what he doesn’t want us to know when it comes to our future.
God does want us to know certain things about the future.
God doesn’t tell us everything about the future, but he does reveal some future events to us in his Word:
We know that Jesus is returning one day to consummate his kingdom (Matt. 24:29-51).
We know that tribulation will intensify, hearts will grow cold, and wickedness will increase as the Day of the Lord approaches (Matt. 24:9-14; 2 Tim. 3:1-9).
We know that God will never leave nor forsake his beloved children (Heb. 13:5), and no one will snatch them out of Jesus’ hand (John 10:18).
God doesn’t normally reveal to us what the specific future events of our personal lives will be.
True, through the prophet Isaiah God did tell King Hezekiah that he would live for fifteen more years (2 Kings 20:4-6; Isa. 38:4-5), but this is the rare exception and not the usual way God works in our lives. And when we stop to consider what it would be like to know the future like God does, we would hopefully think twice about the folly of such an ability.
We don’t have perfect knowledge like God has, and we aren’t perfectly good like God is. It would be impossible for us as sinful fallen beings always to use such knowledge for good and never for evil. Furthermore, our ability to function on a daily basis would be affected in countless ways by such knowledge. The dread of an upcoming normally unexpected tragic event would likely cripple us, and the joy of an upcoming normally unexpected happy event would no doubt be lessened by the lack of surprise.
We shouldn’t desire anything that God doesn’t desire for us to have. The Bible is clear that it’s sinful to seek to know the future via any means, including sorcery, divination, etc. (Gen. 44:5; Lev. 19:26-31; click here for more verses). Our desires are always to be in line with God’s will. Indeed, Jesus’ clear teaching in the Sermon on the Mount directs us not to be anxious regarding tomorrow as the current day is enough to handle (Matt. 6:34).
It’s good to plan for the future, even though we can’t know or control it.
The book of Proverbs does have much to say about the wisdom of planning for the future. One such verse is Proverbs 21:5:
The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.
Teaching that claims we don’t need to work diligently now so we have future resources since the Bible says God will provide for our needs is not interpreting Scripture in context. Indeed, such teaching actually promotes the sin of laziness (1 Tim. 5:8; 2 Thess. 3:10). Having stated the above, Scripture is also clear that we are not to trust in our diligent planning for our security but instead only in God.
Jesus made this point in the parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:13-21), which tells of a man who thought he was very clever in storing all his wealth in large barns he built in order to secure his future. Yet, when he had everything completed and all his crops stored, God took his life that night. Thus, as we plan for future needs, we must do so humbly, not forgetting to be generous to others and always remembering that God has his plans for us that might be different from our own:
The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps. (Prov. 16:9)
We need to be content in knowing only that which God wills for us to know.
We can’t control God; instead, we need to submit to his sovereign rule over our lives, past, present, and future. When we go back to the book of Genesis in the Bible, we read about how Satan used Eve’s desire to know like God knows to tempt her to sin against her Creator. The devil falsely claimed the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would make Adam and Eve “like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:4–5). After they ate the fruit, Adam and Eve’s eyes were opened—but not in the way Satan led them to believe. They painfully saw the shame of their sin and rebellion against God and attempted in vain to hide from him.
The result of Adam and Eve’s sinful desire to know like God knows was the fall of man from a righteous state before God. Going forward, all humans would have a sinful nature, be under the wrath of God, and live in a cursed world. Their only hope would be the God-man, Jesus, who would reverse the curse, obeying God perfectly as Adam failed to do and being the perfect once-for-all sacrifice for the sin of all who would trust in him alone for salvation.
We can rest peacefully because the future is ruled by God alone.
God alone holds our future in his hands, and he is all-knowing, all-powerful, and present everywhere always. We don’t need to know the secret things that God alone knows; we only need to know those things he has revealed to us (Deut. 29:29). We can cast our cares upon our heavenly Father in our prayers and rest peacefully knowing the future is ruled by God alone. As we keep God’s attributes of holiness, goodness, righteousness, justice, love, and mercy front and center in our thoughts, we can be comforted that all God is and does is good, even in the face of the unknown:
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
God wants us to know that all things work together for good for his children. God wants us to have joy in the knowledge that he is faithful, he loves us in Christ, he has a plan, and he will keep every single one of his promises. Knowing all this gives us true and lasting peace as we follow and cling to our Savior Jesus Christ, and nothing that is unknown can ever take this peace away from us.
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A kind couple recently gave me a heavy jar of honey from their own bees—a precious treasure to sweeten our toast and tea over the cold winter months. I appreciate the skill and effort (and possible bee stings) given to producing such a gift. And let’s not forget the bees themselves, who labor like titans! Thousands of forager bees brave birds and hornets to collect those minuscule sips of nectar, while drones, builders, guards, and nurses toil at home for the queen and her honeycomb kingdom.
In Romans 12:1-8 Paul pictures the church in quite a similar way: every Christian pitching in and working hard and doing what they have been created to do, producing together a sweet and valuable Gospel harvest to bless their community, nation, and world.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Rom. 12:1-2)
Paul urges us, in light of all that God has done for us, to offer everything back to him. We do this by not patterning ourselves according to godless society (Christians must be counter-cultural), but instead by being transformed by the renewal of our minds. Renewed minds know how to please God and to serve Christ’s body in the way God has gifted us to serve.
When it comes to serving, we must be careful not to over- or underestimate our gifts:
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. (Rom. 12:3)
And this is sober thinking:
For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us. (Rom. 12:4-6a)
The feet, for example, do not exist by themselves or for themselves, but work, in a unique and important way, with and for the other parts. A foot shouldn’t think, “I’m a V.I.P., and this body exists to serve me,” but rather “I’m one part of the body, and I exist to work with and for the other parts.”
Paul applies this principle to each and every church member:
Let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith;if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads,with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. (Rom. 12:4b-8)
A comparison with similar gift-lists (see 1 Cor. 12:8-10; Eph. 4:11) shows that this is not an exhaustive list, but it does generally cover the field. Your gifts are going to fit somewhere across this list.
1. Has God gifted you to prophesy?
To prophesy is “to speak God’s words after him,” which at the very least applies to preaching and proclaiming God’s word. It could mean more than this, but it cannot mean less.
Every Christian reads God’s word on their own. Many meet with a small group or class to study God’s word together. The preached sermon is however the only time when the Word is proclaimed to the whole church together, when the church together is called to repentance and faith.
This is why we invest very heavily in preaching: to identify and carefully train and test future preachers, and to set aside a large chunk of the pastor’s week for sermon preparation.
If God has gifted you for this, such prophecy must be in agreement with “the faith,” the life-giving Gospel that our Lord Jesus has entrusted to us.
2. Has God gifted you to serve?
Diakonia referred to the work of domestic servants: work done not for self but others. Our world doesn’t honor servants. If we work hard it is usually for money, recognition, and self-gratification. This mindset breeds frustration in the home and dissonance in the workplace. We will not recognize the high calling and nobility of serving if we think according to this world’s pattern.
Jesus was a perfect servant. He woke early to pray—for others. He labored all day and every day—for others. He toiled into the night—for others. Even on the Sabbath he did good works! Jesus incessantly healed, fed, and taught people. His life was one great act of service.
Has God gifted you to serve? Then serve, Paul says. Stop wondering and start serving. How? Love always beats a pathway. Don’t stand back. Write your name all over the church roster. Go and ask what needs to be done. Find needs. Do the small tasks, the hidden and unsung tasks, the revolting tasks. Be faithful with a little—Jesus will give you much.
3. Has God gifted you to teach?
Paul means Bible-teaching: one-on-one discipling, Sunday school, youth group, Bible studies, preaching the sermon, or evangelism. Parents must be Bible teachers to their children.
The human soul is stupendously complex. God has given us a Bible to match—to address—every possible complexity and human need. The attacks on the Christian come in a million different forms and from a million different directions, and this big, deep, and complex Bible more than equips us to withstand. But we need to know it, and praise God that he equips teachers for the task. If teaching is your gift, teach. Speak to your elders about this.
4. Has God gifted you to encourage?
The Greek word parakaleō comprises the root kal, “to call” and the preposition para, “beside.” It means to invite or call to one’s side, to appeal or exhort (it’s the very first word in Romans 12), to request and implore, to comfort and cheer up, and sometimes to console or conciliate. “Encourage” beautifully captures the basic idea: “to impart courage” (the word courage itself is derived from the French word cœur for heart).
If you don’t appreciate the power of this gift, you have forgotten the power of words. When we speak, we express our heart, our mind, our self, to another. Our soul addresses or impacts—to one degree or another—the soul of another. Thus, words have tremendous power to build or demolish, to heal or infect, to illuminate or dim, to fortify or cripple, to vivify or kill. God has gifted some Christians to use the power of words to call, cajole, comfort, console, and conciliate. Is this your gift? Then encourage!
5. Has God gifted you to give?
I am always in awe of those who have business acumen, of those who can buy, sell, manage, and produce the goods and services we need, and who do this so adroitly that they amass a surplus of resources. These clever people have been especially privileged to help others in need.
But every Christian is called to live simply, to deny self in order to share with others. That was the dirt-poor widow, whose gift so moved the heart of Jesus. That was the Macedonian churches:
For in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord. (2 Cor. 8:2-3)
Is giving your gift? Paul senses the danger: that we will give pitifully (Luke 21:4), or for applause (Matt. 6:2), or with a false show of generosity (Acts 5:1-2), or reluctantly (2 Cor. 9:7). And so Paul urges us to give, and to give with simplicity and sincerity.
6. Has God gifted you to lead?
I think of Churchill in mid-1940. Britain had just watched Europe topple to the Nazis, one nation after another, and many wanted to do a deal with Hitler: “Given that we are next to be conquered, what concessions can we beg from the Fuehrer?” Capitulation disgusted Churchill. He would not have it. He used his awesome power of words to convince Britain to eschew capitulation, to fight solely for victory. It had to be victory or death. Churchill set the example: he kept a Bren gun in his car boot, determined to fall in a hail of German bullets rather than wave a white flag.
Has God gifted you to lead his people: whether a group of ten, fifty, a hundred, or a thousand? (Exod. 18:21). If God has gifted you to lead, then lead with what Paul calls spoudē: eagerness, enthusiasm, goodwill, and devotion.
7. Has God gifted you to be merciful?
Jesus once described a man who was forgiven a debt of millions of dollars who then choked the man who could not repay him a few hundred dollars (Matt. 18:28). Things turned out very badly for this wretch, and every Christian is warned to extend to others the same forgiveness that we ourselves have received.
In this Romans 12 context, mercy takes on the sense of acts of practical love (see Matt. 15:22; 17:15, Luke 17:13; 18:38). Some are gifted to show this ministry of mercy to others. This is demanding and draining and easily breeds a begrudging spirit. Thus, Paul urges: “If you are gifted to show mercy, do it cheerfully” (cheerfully translates hilarotēs—you can see the connection).
You are living in a beehive.
Paul urges Christians to serve, to serve well, and to serve gladly. For bad service is like smoke in the eyes, and receiving resentful service is like drinking vinegar.
I love to read on our front steps. I like the quiet, the cool air, and Hobart’s beautiful city and river in my peripheral vision. But the bricks press against my left leg, slow the circulation, and put it soundly to sleep. When I try to stand, it is so numb that it makes me laugh. It is now a useless deadweight: barely holding me up, let alone conveying me. I have to take care not to fall. For a time, my slumbering limb cripples and jeopardizes every other part of my body.
Every person in the church must ask: Have I gone to sleep? God has given me to prophesy, serve, teach, encourage, give, lead, or show mercy. Am I absconding? Am I AWOL? How should I be serving my family, my church family, and my city?
Yes, there are changing priorities and seasons of life. A young mom must for many years devote herself to children and home. Men must work hard to feed and house their families. A person on crutches cannot mow another’s lawn. A child cannot preach and lead.
But a young man who idles in front of a computer screen while a young family or an old couple struggles to maintain their garden is delinquent. For a young single man with strength in his arm and love in his heart can lift a mountain of burdens from the shoulders of his church family—and his own family. Why else did God bless you with those muscles and broad shoulders?
A young woman who whiles away her time in front of Netflix and Instagram while a mother with little ones struggles to wash her family’s clothes should be ashamed. For a young single woman, having done her homework and household chores, can come with the wings of an angel to help a harassed young mom or a widow who now struggles to vacuum her carpets.
A retiree can “scatter abroad their gifts” of financial support, fellowship, and joy to their church family. Or perhaps God has gifted you to lead on the board of management as a deacon or in the eldership? A widow who disciples, helps, and encourages others is like Abigail who brought “loaves of bread, skins of wine, dressed sheep, roasted grain, raisin cakes, and pressed figs” to David and his famished soldiers.
The frailest who give themselves to pray can, like Samson, carry the gates of hell upon their shoulders far away from their church and their struggling brothers and sisters.
Within the hive there are all kinds of bees: workers, drones, builders, guards, nurses, cleaners, and a queen. There are no lazy bees. May our churches be the same. God has gifted you to serve your family, your church, and your city. Find and use your gifts as soon as you can, and the honey will flow.
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Until we’re face-to-face with a life circumstance beyond our control, it’s all too easy to think that if we work hard enough, pray enough, and trust God enough, we can fulfill our plans, hopes, and dreams. How much is enough in this life?
Striving for the things of the world is like trying to grasp the wind.
In Ecclesiates 4:4 we read,
Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man's envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
In this verse the Preacher is teaching us that striving for material goods out of a covetous heart and seeking worldly acclaim to be admired by others are like trying to grasp the wind. We think such things will bring us lasting happiness, but they can never satisfy us at the deepest level. In his book Living Life Backward: How Ecclesiastes Teaches Us to Live in Light of the End, author and pastor David Gibson reminds us to appreciate the place and circumstances where God has placed us right now:
Live the life you have now instead of longing for the life you think you will have but which you actually cannot control at all. (p. 73)
Work is good, as it is the means by which we provide for ourselves, for those who are dependent on us, and for the needy. But, we can let vain striving overtake our thoughts and divert us from the most important parts of life.
Let go of the approval of the world and find your contentment in God’s will for your life.
True joy comes from loving relationships with our Creator and other human beings. Jesus warned,
“No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” (Luke 16:13)
And the apostle Paul exhorts Timothy on the many dangers from chasing after wealth:
But godliness with contentment is great gain,for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. (1 Tim. 6:6-10)
For what are you striving? Is it to bring glory to God or to yourself? What would you do if all your dreams and plans were destroyed? Would your relationships be enough for you? Would your peace in Christ be enough for you?
If you find yourself in circumstances that leave you feeling unraveled and out of control, know that God uses such times to turn your gaze to him alone. Let go of the approval of the world and find your identity, joy, and rest in Christ your Savior.
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We might not always like it, but the fact of the matter is that our clothes make a statement. What you wear says something about who you are: your nationality, wealth, generation, occupation, and even your position on certain movements or issues in culture. After all, your clothes are the first thing people see, and you have to wear them.
We use clothes to make ourselves look “cool” and attractive, to identify with a certain group, or to rebel against our parents or authority. In fact, clothes can pigeon-hole us so much (especially in our pop-culture) that some people emphatically want to assert that clothes mean nothing: “It is not the outside that defines me but the inside.”
Yet, ironically, those who take such a dogmatic stand often end up being concerned with clothes just as much as the next person. Of course, it is good not to be vain (true beauty is of the heart) or too concerned about our clothes, but we cannot escape the fact that what we wear is a factor in who we are and how we interact with and respect other people.
In chapter 11 of First Corinthians, the apostle Paul brings up this issue of dress, especially in worship, and he calls us in Christ to respect and follow the order of God’s creation, an order through which Christ has revealed himself and his salvation to us.
God is a God of order.
After commending the Corinthians for maintaining the traditions he gave them in 1 Corinthians 11:1, Paul uses the occasion to instruction them on another topic. The Corinthians are holding to some of the apostolic traditions, but there is one more tradition with which they need help. And Paul begins this topic of instruction by setting forth the undergirding principle in verse 3:
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)
Headship is the key truth that must be kept in mind through our passage. By head, Paul means authority. To be the head is to be the one over another, to be in leadership. Yet, Paul is not evoking some heavy-handed image of authority. Rather, head is an organic image.
Head is an organic image.
The head is over the body, but the head acts for the body. The body serves the head, but what is good for the head is good for the body—there is mutuality. Thus, this structure of heads does not negate equality. Surely, Christ is equal to God in power and glory, but God is the head of Christ. So also, man and woman are equal in value and worth, even though man is the head of woman.
Certainly, there is a difference between Christ and man, but this verse shows that this structure of different heads is not about inherent worth, but about order. The apostle is setting for an order that God ordained and through which he works. In any army or business, there are levels of structural authority: workers, middle management, senior management, and a CEO. So also, God’s kingdom has a structural authority.
Indeed, since Christ is essential to the structure of heads, it is clear that Paul is thinking primarily of Christ’s kingdom—the church. Paul will bring in creational order as well, but the crosshairs of his instruction are aimed at the church.
Of course, when we hear that man is the head of woman, we immediately wonder how this is worked out? What is Paul saying specifically here about “headship”?
In order to understand Paul’s argument here, it is critical to know the world, or cultural context, in which Paul and the Corinthians lived, especially how they dressed, for the Greco-Roman world was one that had a defined dress code. People’s clothes were to be in accord with their status. As historian Thomas A. J. McGinn comments in Prostitution, Sexuality, and the Law in Ancient Rome, “you were what you wore.” [1]
Yet, the Greco-Roman world was quite diverse, and the dress varied between cultures. Greeks did not dress exactly like Romans, and the difference between Romans and Greeks would have been especially felt in Corinth, which was a Roman colony in the middle of Greece. It would be like working at the United States embassy in Egypt—your different dress would be noticeable.
The church has a dress code for men.
Paul begins with men—yes, Paul is concerned with men just as much as he is with women in this passage:
Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head” (1 Cor. 11:4).
First, Paul identifies a very particular activity of men: praying and prophesying. By prophesying, Paul is referring basically to preaching God’s word—to pray and prophesy is to be officially active in public worship.
Paul states in the above verse that the man who prays and preaches in public with his head covered shames his head. This head covering looked basically like a hood: the fabric covered the back of the head, not the face, with a piece of robe going over the head. But why is this so shameful?
It is clear that Paul is being a pastor to a church in the context in which they lived. For God commanded that Aaron and all the Old Testament priests had to cover their heads as they ministered in the temple. Aaron, as high priest, had to wear a turban, which covered his head. So, Paul’s point is not some universal prohibition against wearing hats in worship; rather, he is focusing on something different.
For the Romans, when their priests officiated in worship—praying and sacrificing—they would cover their heads. The male Roman priests would drape their togas over their heads. The emperor Augustus (and others after him) would do this as well, since he also performed pagan priestly duties. Augustus covered his head in prayer to show that he was also the religious head of the empire, and numerous statues have been found around the Roman Empire depicting Augustus with his head covered while praying. This image is also found on coins, as it was a form of Roman propaganda—showing Caesar as a religious head.
As this image was propagated in the Roman Empire, men started to copy it in their dress while praying. To copy the emperor was a way to elevate your own status. It said, “Look at me—I am noble as the emperor.” Therefore, the Corinthian men were copying a pagan dress as they conducted worship that stated, “Look at me and my high status. I am elite.”
Besides copying pagan worship, the Corinthian men also were copying female clothing by covering their heads.
There was another thing wrong with this male covering of the head in worship. When the Greeks looked at a man with his head covered, they thought he looked like a woman. The normal dress for a married woman was to wear a covering over her head.
There is one relief of Augustus praying with his head covered next to a woman with her head covered, and being clean shaven, he looks just like the woman. For a man to cover his head was effeminate; it was to blur the line between genders for Greeks.
So, the Corinthian man who was wearing a head covering was officiating in worship in a manner that said, “Look at my high status,” but everyone in the congregation was thinking, “he is dressing like a woman.” It is no wonder that Paul says that a man who does this shames his head. And in light of 1 Corinthians 11:3, there is double sense to ‘his head.’ As his head, it refers to the man himself—he shames himself. But the head of every man is Christ, so the man also shames Christ. He brings dishonor to Christ by drawing attention to himself and looking like a woman.
Paul then uses the hypothetical example of what it would mean for a woman to be leading prayer or prophesying with her head uncovered in verses 5 and 6:
But every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since it is the same as if her head were shaven. For if a wife will not cover her head, then she should cut her hair short. But since it is disgraceful for a wife to cut off her hair or shave her head, let her cover her head. (1 Cor. 11:5-6)
It is critical to note that Paul is clear in 1 Corinthians 14 that women should not be praying or prophesying in an authoritative role in the public assembly of the church; thus, he is not condoning such actions here in chapter 11. Rather, Paul is using hyperbole to show the men how inappropriate it was for them to dress like a woman via the example of a woman who is flaunting both cultural and church standards.
The church has a dress code for women.
Again, we need to be familiar with the normal dress for women in the Greco-Roman culture. First, to get married was known as “putting on the veil.” So only married women wore the head covering (hood-like; not over the face). Young girls got married at about 14, when they hit puberty. So women did not cover their heads until they were married, and young girls did not go out in public. Widows and prostitutes did not wear the cover. Wives, however, did not wear the cover at home, where they spent most of their time. The head covering was specifically for married women in public settings.
This covering told everyone that you were an upright and devoted wife, who honored your husband—so do not touch. The covering was a crucial part of being a modest and self-controlled woman. It was so important that many Greek cities had a local official called the “controls of women” who policed how women dressed in public.
In fact, Roman law stated if a married woman went out in public without a head covering and a man made advances toward her, it was her fault. Not wearing a head covering advertised that the woman was looking for a man (e.g., she was a prostitute).
Paul was addressing the “new women” of the first-century Roman empire.
In Paul’s day there was a movement by some women/wives to be more like men—historians call them the “new women.” (For more on this topic, please see Roman Wives, Roman Widows: The Appearance of New Women and the Pauline Communities by Bruce W. Winter.) They were trying to act and dress more like men. A wife who prayed in public with no covering was declaring she was free from all restraints—she was promiscuous. She was rebelling against the rules of propriety by dressing and acting like a man. In fact, for a wife to go out in public without the head covering would indicate that she was looking for another man and was thinking about a divorce.
Paul states at the end of verse 5 that such a woman is the same as one with her head shaven because the shaving of a woman’s head was a punishment for adultery—it shamed the woman in public as an adulteress. This is why Paul says a wife praying uncovered in public shames her head.
She not only shames herself, but she also shames her husband by making the statement that she sleeps around. For a wife to go out in public without her head covered would be similar to a wife today posting on Facebook that she is looking for sex partners. And it appears that these wives were doing this in the Corinthian church, which also dishonors Christ. To further attempt to lead prayer or prophecy dressed without a head covering would be especially appalling.
Paul grounds his point about dress in worship in creation.
Thus, a man should not cover his head while officiating in worship because he is the image and glory of God:
For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man. (1 Cor. 11:7)
By image, Paul is not thinking so much about the image of God—for women as well as men are created in the image of God. Rather, Paul is using image in terms of a picture or portrait, as that which reveals or makes visible something unseen. This fits with glory, which is the visible manifestation of God’s perfections.
The same sense is found in Colossians 1:15, “Christ is the image of the invisible God.” Christ makes visible the unseen God. Now God is not a creature, so gender does not ultimately belong to him, but God has always and only revealed himself to us as a man. Christ is a man. Our Lord is God, not a goddess.
Ministers represent God.
As a man is officiating in worship, he is especially representing God. Therefore, he cannot look like a woman, which a head covering made him look like in first-century Corinth. If the minister looks like a woman, this brings dishonor to God who reveals himself through the minister as a man.
Thus, Paul is not ultimately concerned about men wearing hoods or hats, in or outside worship, but he is clear that no cross-dressing is permitted, which a head covering was for a man in Corinth. A man should not dress like a woman—especially the minister in church who officially represents God and Christ, his head.
The wife reveals the honor of her husband.
In keeping with the headship structure of 1 Corinthians 11:3, if man is to reveal the honor of his head, Christ and God, so a woman is to reveal the glory or honor of her head, man. That is, she is to help her husband be honorable, and act in a way that respects him and upholds his good name. As the saying goes, behind every great man there is an even greater woman. The wife reveals the honor of the husband.
And this truth that man is the image of God and woman is the glory of man Paul roots in creation. As he states, man is not from woman, but woman is from man, since Eve was formed from the rib of Adam. The first man named her woman for she was from him, bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh.
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)
Likewise, woman was created for the sake of man, not the other way around. God created the woman to be a helpmeet to the man. It was the man that needed the help. This is the creational order that establishes the truth that the head of woman is man and that she is the glory of man, while the man is the image and glory of God.
Christ upholds the created order in his kingdom.
Christ, then, in his kingdom upholds this created order. Even though we belong to Christ’s heavenly kingdom, this heavenly kingdom does not undo the differences and order between the genders. In terms of equality and worth, there is no Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female, but we are all one in Christ (Gal. 3:28).
But in terms of order and structure, the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. We still live our lives within the good created order that God ordained by his good and perfect will.
What is Paul saying about angels in verse 10?
It is for this reason Paul states,
That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels. (1 Cor. 11:10)
In Corinth, for a wife to be uncovered while praying in public does not just dishonor her husband, but it also disrespects God’s ordained order in the church. The praying and uncovering woman says, "she is like a man, officially representing God.” So the authority on her head is for her to be in submission to the God-ordained structure of headship of 1 Corinthians 11:3.
By the phrase “because of angels,” Paul most likely is referring to the truth that when the church worships, it is taken up to a heavenly plane. On this heavenly plane of worship, we are with the angels. The angels join in with our worship of God on the Lord’s day. Therefore, for a woman or a man to throw off the headship order in the presence of angels is especially shameful, since God’s heavenly servants are witnessing such a flagrant denial of God’s good order.
Paul’s point about hair length has to do with gender differences in the Corinthian culture.
Paul brings up hair length in verses 14-15 to make a point about gender differences. For it was the common presupposition for both Romans and Greeks that men have short hair and woman have long hair.
Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace for him, but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering. (1 Cor. 11:14-15)
By nature, Paul means “the customs of a given society or culture.” This is clear if you think about Old Testament Israel. The Nazirite had long hair by law. Absalom was famous for his long, thick hair. And if you saw pictures of the Assyrians, the men’s hair was down to their shoulders (probably close to Israel’s length). Israelite priests especially wore their hair longer.
Paul is referring to the cultural norm of the Greeks and Romans, who thought a man with long hair looked effeminate and weak. Thus, in their art, the Romans often pictured the barbarians being defeated with long hair as sign of their effeminate weakness, more like a woman. So also, for a woman to cut her hair short was for her to disguise herself as man.
Paul picks up this cultural norm in order to make the point: if a man looks like a woman it is shameful, and if a woman looks like a man, it is shameful. Her long hair is her glory and a sign that she is a woman, rightfully in her place of order. The Corinthians are cross dressing in worship, flaunting all norms of cultural modesty and decency. And their cross-dressing is destroying God’s created gender distinctives and the order of headship.
Paul affirms the equal worth of men and women.
Even though Paul is stressing the proper order between men and women, even though he stresses the proper order of headship, he nonetheless is clear about equal worth of men and women:
Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman; for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman. And all things are from God. (1 Cor. 11:11-12)
There is a mutuality and interdependence between man and woman. Woman came from Adam’s rib, but man is born of a woman.
In the Lord, we are not independent of each other. The body needs the head, and the head is dead without the body. In marriage and in the church, both sexes are essential and necessary. In the Lord, men and women are fully equal as members of his covenant and heirs of his salvation. Everything is from God, so we must live in the order he has given.
How should Christian men and women dress today?
From our discussion of Paul, it becomes pretty clear what it means for us today. It means we should not cross dress. Men should dress and act like men, and women should dress and act like women. And especially in worship, the minister should not look like a woman.
The issue is not whether the minister has a hat on per se. Aaron had to wear one, but Paul forbids it in Corinth, for it is what women did. Hence, to fully appreciate Paul here, we must think critically about cultural norms. Culture is not sovereign or untouchable. We must be critical of our culture, and yet we cannot be a-cultural. We are always products of our culture.
So women should dress respectfully and modestly in their society, but this doesn’t come with a transcultural standard—such as her hair must be 15 inches long. In some cultures, the women have quite short hair. Many women can’t grow long hair, especially when they get older.
Likewise, with men short hair is not always a sign of manhood. If you were an Assyrian, men wore hair down to their shoulders and a full beard. Think of the debates in our country during the last fifty years. One decade, long hair is down to your ears; another, it is shameful to have a beard; and in another, it is fine to have facial hair.
Nevertheless, aside from these variations, it is pretty clear in a particular culture what is cross-dressing. It may be fine to wear a kilt in worship in Scotland, but in many other places, a man should not do this. Whatever culture you are in, men should dress as honorable men.
And women should not dress like prostitutes but as modest and respectable women. Whatever the specifics, we must uphold God’s structure of headship and the created differences between the genders. Indeed, this is what Paul is doing in the context of Corinth. He is telling the Corinthian church not to offend outsiders by acting dishonorably through cross-dressing in worship.
Christ uses his headship for our good.
This order—that man is the head of woman, and the head of man is Christ and the head of Christ is God—should be precious to us, for it is the very order that Christ has revealed himself to us. Christ is the head of us as his church. Christ is our Groom, as we are his bride.
This headship of Christ is the sweetest thing, because in it we find the very gospel. As Paul says elsewhere, “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”
Christ’s headship of us is summarily comprehended in the gospel of our salvation. He rules us not with a rod of iron, but with the tenderness of his love and grace. Christ uses his headship for your good. He uses it so that you can be his glory.
Yes, you are the glory of Christ, as Christ makes his perfect righteousness and love manifest in and through you, as his body. Christ became poor so that you might be rich in him. Jesus humbled himself, taking on the shame of the cross, so that you might be glorious in him. Thus, the key attribute of being a head is to seek the good of the other.
As the God-man, Christ died so that you might have life and glory in and through him. Thus, as we keep to God’s structure of headship with its distinctions between the genders, we actually image and testify to the glorious work of Christ done for us and in us. As we submit to God’s order, we bring glory to our only Head and Savior, Jesus Christ. May God give us the grace to glorify Christ in this way.
This is the great message of the Joseph story: a world-wide catastrophic famine was coming, and God appointed a savior. By two dreams God showed seventeen-year-old Joseph—and his family—that he was the one. Here are two ways we see a type of the Savior Jesus Christ in Joseph’s life.
1. Joseph was chosen to be the savior of all the land; Jesus was chosen to be the Savior of the world.
Joseph would save his family, the family of Abraham. Yet this was not an end itself. God chose Abraham to be a blessing to all nations (Gen. 12:3), and in Joseph this began to be fulfilled. This is why at the end of chapter 41 we read that “all the world came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was severe everywhere” (Gen. 41:57). God chose Joseph, the descendant of Abraham, to bless many nations.
“All the world” translates וכל־הארץ (ve cāl hā eretz) “and all the land.” הארץ (eretz) sometimes refers to land in general, sometimes to the Promised Land, sometimes to a nation, and sometimes to the earth in general. Context must decide how it should be translated in each case, and here things are not conclusive. The adjective כל (cāl) “all” indicates breadth, however, and the context shows that the famine extended at least across all of Egypt, the Sinai, and into Palestine. And so we have a range of translations that all highlight the very wide breadth of Joseph’s saving work: NIV84 “all the world”; NIV11 “everywhere”; KJV “in all lands”; ESV, NASB “all the earth.”
Thus, in Joseph we see a type—a dim picture—of the coming international Savior who would ultimately bring salvation to people from all lands and places across the globe.
The salvation that Jesus brought was for people spread all over the earth (see Rev. 5:9). This is why at the birth of Jesus, Simeon sang:
“For my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and the glory of your people Israel.” (Luke 2:30-32)
God had prepared a savior for the Gentiles and Israel. And that is why the apostle John continually raises our eyes to see that Jesus is a worldwide savior.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:2)
2. Joseph preserved life for a time; Jesus provides a new world for us to live in forever.
While Joseph provided food for a famine lasting seven years, and even a place for his family to relocate, his salvation points to the great salvation of Jesus who will provide an eternal rest of blessedness and goodness for his people forever.
At the end of time, we will see that Jesus’ salvation will have brought about the consummation of the new heavens and new earth, which is why John is able to call Jesus “the Savior of the world” (John 4:42; 1 John 4:14). Not everyone will be saved, but at the final judgment we will nevertheless look back on a “saved world”: a completely renewed heaven and earth where God’s people will live and worship. (I urge everyone to read “God’s Immeasurable Love”, a sermon on John 3:16, by the great Presbyterian theologian Benjamin Warfield.)
Living Out of Gratitude to the Savior
Just as the people coming in to Egypt for food and life submitted to Joseph, so we must remember the Great Savior and what is his due. We must never forget that God appointed Jesus to be the Savior of the World, and the only Savior:
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
Jesus has saved us from more than simply dying in this body; he has saved us from captivity to sin, eternal death, and Satan. The Savior of the world does not adapt himself to the untold religious and philosophical viewpoints of the world. All of our beliefs, actions, and ideas (no matter how popular they may be in the world) must be laid down before him. We submit entirely to him.
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I recently asked a group of church members if they had ever struggled with assurance of salvation. There was an overwhelming affirmation that all had struggled in the quest for that sweet subjective assurance for which believers often long in their souls. This is not at all a strange thing in the history of the church. Many of the Reformers, Puritans, and other Reformed theologians wrote volumes to address the intricacies of this important subject.
For instance, John Owen’s The Forgiveness of Sin, William Guthrie’s The Christian’s Great Interest, John Colquhoun’s Spiritual Comfort, David Dickson and James Durham’s The Sum of Saving Knowledge, Gisbertus Voetius and Johannes Hoornbeeck’s Spiritual Desertion, and D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones’s Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure were all products of pastoral concern to help believers gain and maintain the assurance of salvation.
How can a true believer commit a particular sin—sometimes repeatedly—after he or she comes to Christ?
Many who have trusted in Christ struggle deeply in their consciences over their post-conversion sins. How can a true believer commit a particular sin—sometimes repeatedly—after he or she comes to Christ? How do I know whether I have really repented of my sin if I have committed it on a recurrent basis? Have I really and truly repented if I fall into it again?
How do we reconcile the fact that the apostle John says, “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning” (1 John 3:9) with the fact that the apostle James says, “We all stumble in many ways” (James 3:2)? These and a myriad of other questions are bound up with the issue of the subjective assurance of salvation.
God has redeemed us so that we would walk in paths of righteousness. Jesus died to both the guilt and the power of sin so that those for whom he died can walk in newness of life. “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,” writes the apostle, “training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age” (Titus 2:11-12). Paul reminds believers, “for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:20). The apostle Peter explains,
And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. (1 Pet. 1:17-19)
We should have the singular goal of pursuing holiness since Christ has set us free from
the guilt of sin, and condemning wrath of God, the curse of the moral law…this present evil world, bondage to Satan, and dominion of sin; from the evil of afflictions, the sting of death, the victory of the grave, and everlasting damnation. (Westminster Confession of Faith 20.1)
The reality of indwelling sin is something with which every Christian has to grapple throughout life.
While no serious-minded Christian will ever dismiss the severity of the sin in his or her life, the reality of indwelling sin is something with which he or she will have to grapple throughout the entirety of life.
The greatest saints have been the first to acknowledge the greatness of their sin. David, on more than one occasion, admitted the variegated dimensions of his sin. For instance, in Psalm 31:10, he wrote: “For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away” (Ps. 31:10). When considering just how much sin he had committed, David concluded,
For evils have encompassed me beyond number; my iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see; they are more than the hairs of my head; my heart fails me.” (Ps. 40:12)
And, when he finally came to confess his post-conversion sin of adultery and premeditated murder to the Lord, in Psalm 51 he confessed: “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me” (Ps. 51:3). The Prince of the Puritan theologians, John Owen, wrote, “As no man had more grace than David, so none had a greater instance of the power of sin, and guilt upon the conscience.”[1]
When our hearts are weighed down with a sense of the guilt of our sin, we must necessarily turn the eyes of our hearts to Christ crucified.
Owen himself battled for assurance of salvation throughout various seasons of his life. It was on account of this that he wrote his magnificent discourse on Psalm 130. Toward the end of that work, Owen wrote:
Notwithstanding all your sins, all the evil that your own hearts know you to be guilty of, and that hidden mass or evil treasure of sin which is in you, which you are not able to look into; notwithstanding that charge that lies upon you from your own consciences, and that dreadful sentence and curse of the law which you are obnoxious unto; notwithstanding all the just grounds that you have to apprehend that God is your enemy, and will be so unto eternity;—yet there are terms of peace and reconciliation provided and proposed between Him and your souls….There is a way whereby sinners may come to be accepted with God; for “there is forgiveness with Him, that He may be feared.”[2]
When our hearts are weighed down with a sense of the guilt of our sin, we must necessarily turn the eyes of our hearts to Christ crucified. Owen illustratively painted the grounds of forgiveness when he wrote, “Pardon flows from the heart of the Father through the blood of the Son.”[3] The apostle John emphasized this truth when he wrote,
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness….But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” (1 John 1:8-2:1)
When we return to God in brokenness and in confidence in Christ, we will make it our renewed aim to be well-pleasing to him.
Believers must be confident in the fact that “there shall be a fountain opened…to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness” (Zech. 13:1). David was confident in the promise of God to forgive and cleanse through the blood of Christ, when he cried out, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Ps. 51:7). Jesus holds forth the cup in the Supper to assure the hearts of his people that his blood was shed for the remission of sin (Matt. 26:28).
The more we are convinced of the truth that the Father has already provided legal forgiveness through the shedding of the blood of the Son, the more readily we will go to him for the paternal forgiveness of our particular sins. The apostle Peter explained that when growth in grace and holiness is lacking in someone’s life it is because he has “forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins” (2 Pet. 1:9).
When we return to God in brokenness and in confidence that he has already provided forgiveness in the blood of Christ, we will make it our renewed aim to be well-pleasing to him. And, we will repeat this process again and again, all the days of our life, until we are “saved to sin no more.”
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Eating the body and drinking the blood of Christ is a powerful image we find in Scripture. In John 6:50-56, Jesus proclaims:
“This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.”
We know that Jesus’ body is no longer physically on this earth; he is in heaven, with a real glorified human body. Is Jesus referring to the Lord’s Supper here? How do we make sense of this statement?
What does it mean to eat the crucified body of Christ and to drink his shed blood?
The Heidelberg Catechism, first published in 1563, is a highly regarded summary of the Christian faith and has the following to say about Jesus’ words in John 6:
Q. What does it mean to eat the crucified body of Christ and to drink his shed blood?
A. First, to accept with a believing heart all the suffering and the death of Christ, and so receive forgiveness of sins and life eternal. Second, to be united more and more to his sacred body through the Holy Spirit, who lives both in Christ and in us. Therefore, although Christ is in heaven and we are on earth, yet we are flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones, and we forever live and are governed by one Spirit, as the members of our body are by one soul. (Heidelberg Catechism, Q & A 76)
Believers are connected to Christ by the Holy Spirit in a real, spiritual way.
This eating and drinking to which Jesus is referring in the above Bible passage have to do with spiritual realities in a believer’s life. These verses are about having faith in Christ, believing that he suffered and died for you for the forgiveness of your sins. They are about how the Holy Spirit brings you into a closer relationship with Christ and his people. Believers are connected to Christ by the Holy Spirit in a real, spiritual way, so much so that we are called Christ’s very own body and we are governed by the Spirit.
We look to Christ by faith as we partake of the Lord’s Supper.
Jesus has left us tangible, visible, and real means of growing closer to himself and to each other. The Lord’s Supper is not magical—simply eating it does not make one closer to God. Rather, it is a means of grace from which we benefit as we look to Christ by faith, and the Holy Spirit applies to us the blessings of this Supper as we trust Jesus. Rejoice that Christ himself invites you to feast upon himself—the only source of our eternal life and joy.
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I have hated my body for as long as I can remember. As soon as I was old enough to be aware of my figure, and how it compared with the figures of my peers, I was unhappy. Being a five-foot-tall, muscularly-built Asian girl in Southern California made me feel like I was drowning in a sea of tall, thin blonde beach babes. And so began that dull ache from deep within. That feeling of inadequacy that we are all familiar with to some degree or another. That yearning to be beloved and accepted. If I wasn’t going to be the pretty one, how would I get by?
Some days I feel like I haven’t grown at all.
We humans are very resourceful. I grew thick skin. I hid behind humor and quick wit. I looked for validation through achievement. I was the straight-A student and the good girl. I was the first to graduate college in my family. I sought a career in sales so that my success could be very tangible in a glowing sales report or a fat commission check. But still, the dull ache continued, as well as the striving to run from it.
I am now approaching 40, a wife and a mother of three precious girls. On some days, it seems I have matured much from that insecure, striving young girl. And on other days, I feel like I haven’t grown a bit, still looking for validation and trying to prove my worth. By God’s grace I have learned that the only way to change the horrible talk-track in my head that says “I am not enough” is to have the true narrative about who I am spoken to me to crush the lie for what it is.
Our happy faces and smiles for the camera may be hiding the burdens we silently carry.
So maybe your issue isn’t body image. This is a game of “fill in the blank” of which I have heard far too many versions. Maybe you feel invisible as a stay-at-home mom and are constantly looking for ways to validate yourself. Maybe you aren’t the Pinterest mom who posts picture-perfect photos of memories you are making with your kids. Maybe you hate cooking and feel guilt when you are served gourmet meals at your friends’ homes.
Maybe you see your flaws in your children and feel hopeless because you are a failure of a parent. Maybe you feel like you are a different person than your husband married. You look at yourself in the mirror and see a distant memory of the woman you once were, and you feel shame. These are just a handful of whispers that have come to my own mind over the years or from confessions by dear friends I admire who have confided in me. These are the burdens we silently carry with us while we put on a happy face and smile for the camera.
We need to remember that God loves us just as we are now.
If we have embraced the gospel for the promise that it is, that we are truly forgiven, redeemed, righteous, and bought at a price, then why doesn’t it feel like it? If every sin I have ever committed—or will commit today—has been paid for, why do I carry this shame and feeling of inadequacy?
Imagine how different our experience would be if we could really believe God loves us just as we are now—not the version we strive for in our minds. Not the person we will be once we get our act together. Me, today. Then we would stop asking ourselves, Why don’t I feel like I belong? Why do I feel like an outsider, always coming up a bit short?
“Imagine how different our experience would be if we could really believe God loves us just as we are now—not the version we strive for in our minds.”
We live in the “already-but-not-yet” season of our journey. Yes, Christ has already died and paid for our sins. We are already redeemed and considered righteous by our heavenly Father. But we are not yet perfect. We still have a sinful nature and live in a world ravaged by sin and broken in so many ways. Although we know the glorious ending to our story, it is not yet complete. Until we reach our final home, we will not know true wholeness. But there is hope for us in our current state as well—he isn’t finished with you!
Even though we know the glorious ending to our story, it is not yet complete.
Although we are already justified through faith in the work Jesus did in his life and on the cross, God’s work of sanctification is ongoing. As we grow in the love and knowledge of God through study, experience, and suffering, our Father is molding us into the likeness of his Son. Although the change might seem indiscernible at times, he never sleeps and he is always at work:
Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 1:6)
We continue on through this pilgrimage of faith, holding on to these truths that will come into fruition in God’s perfect timing. But what can be done in the meantime? Here are two things to keep in mind that can help us along our way.
1. Attend a Bible-believing church every week to hear the gospel preached.
It seems like such an obvious and simple task, but it is one that is often overlooked. The busyness of life can easily get in the way of church attendance. Schedules get hectic, we want to “relax” over the weekend, and it takes effort to bring small children to church. But there is a reason God requires it of us—it is of life and death importance.
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Eph. 4:11-16)
How can we possibly hope to cling to the truth if we are not hearing it regularly? The devil is a cunning and deceitful enemy, and he whispers lies to us constantly. We are bombarded every day with messages coming from within and without telling us who we are and what we need. The truth we hear on Sundays is our compass and reorients our direction upward. It reminds us that we are not ultimately of this world, that we are travelers passing through.
“The truth we hear on Sundays is our compass and reorients our direction upward. ”
We need to hear the Word preached to us to help us grow in the grace and knowledge of our Savior. If we really believe that the Bible is God’s word and the method in which he speaks to us today, what better way is there to spend our time than hearing it preached? One of my favorite verses reminds us of just how powerful God’s word is:
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Heb. 4:12)
2. Cultivate the skill of preaching the gospel to yourself.
You are at church on a Sunday morning. You hear a wonderful sermon and are reminded of who you are in Christ. You are moved by his love for you and assured that the work has been done for your salvation. Your sins have been put to death on that cross. “It is finished.” You have a glorious day of rest with your family. And then Monday hits.
There is a to-do list a mile long, and you feel like you are drowning. You argue with your husband and snap at your children. The relentless pressures of life are weighing you down. That night you collapse into bed, playing the movie reel of the day in your mind. You start to tally up your performance as a wife, mother, and follower of Christ. And you come up very, very short. The feelings of inadequacy and failure come crashing down. And the truth of Sunday morning is but a distant memory.
This common, everyday scenario is where the importance of preaching the gospel to yourself is critical. You take the solid teaching you hear on a Sunday morning, tuck it into your heart, and tap into it all throughout the week. You remind yourself that your forgiveness and redemption is not subjective—it is not based upon how you feel about yourself or how you are performing.
Beloved child of the King, remember your worth and continue to seek out the truth. Run from the enemy and his lies. You are precious, irreplaceable, and bought with the precious blood of Jesus.
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 8:38-39)
This article was originally published on October 24, 2019.
