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John Wesley Sermons – On Obedience to Parents (Colossians 3:20)

The original sermon can be found in: The Works of John Wesley, Volume 7 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1996), 98-108.

Language edited and updated by J. Thomas Johnson – Sunday, June 19, 2022

[Given that today is Father’s Day on the secular calendar, I wanted to choose a sermon to revisit in which Wesley discussed parenting or children. I narrowed my search down to three sermons: “On Family Religion,” “On the Education of Children,” and “On Obedience to Parents.”

There are perhaps few practices that have changed more in western cultures between the 1700s and today than those involved in the raising and educating of children. For this reason, it is extremely difficult to revisit Wesley’s sermons on family and parenting today. Much of the language he used and the assumptions he held are not only different than those employed today, but the assumptions of 16^th century England about parenting were often in contradiction to the assumptions of today. Therefore, of the three sermons I was considering, I chose the one I felt was the least cultural and most Biblical.

Even so, I have had to update Wesley’s language, and perhaps in updating it, I could be accused of having changed it. For instance, Wesley often spoke about breaking a child’s will. Hearing that language today, it sounds as though Wesley was encouraging parents to exercise a type of abusive control of their children. However, given that Wesley believed and taught frequently on Biblical love as the inheritance of all Christians and that love was patient, kind, self-controlled, not given to fits of rage, and so on, it seems impossible that Wesley meant that parents should be abusive, short-tempered, or out of control with their children. So, I have translated Wesley’s commendation to break a child’s will into the language of curbing a child’s self-centered willfulness or rebelliousness. I’m convinced this is essentially what Wesley meant, but perhaps I have altered his meaning a bit with that translation.

Also, in the midst of this sermon, Wesley spent considerable time condemning the wearing of elegant clothing, encouraging parents both to model and to instruct their children in the virtue of dressing plainly. Again, this is a subject that is out of step with most contemporary assumptions about Christian behavior. However, I think there is something deeply wise and deeply biblical about what Wesley was commending. Therefore, when we get to that part of the sermon, I will provide some explanatory comments that I hope will help to bring Wesley’s concerns to today’s issues. Well, without further ado, let’s consider Wesley’s sermon “On Obedience to Parents.”]

²⁰Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is pleasing to the Lord.
Colossians 3:20, NASB

Are there any innate principles shared by all people? [Is there such a thing as natural law? Is there a sort of a universal conscience that is present in all people, in all places, at all times?] This subject has been disputed over many centuries, perhaps millennia. Even so, one principle that seems to have been embraced in a great diversity of cultures throughout history is the idea that children should honor their parents. . . .

And wherever God has revealed His will to humans, this teaching has been a part of that revelation. In fact, it is in the revelation of God that the principle of honoring one’s parents has been re-affirmed, enlarged considerably, and enforced strongly. In the Covenant of Sinai, those who did not honor their parents were to be put to death. And this was one of the laws that our blessed Lord Jesus did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. Therefore, Jesus, [in Mark 7:9-13,] severely reprimanded the Scribes and the Pharisees for nullifying the command to honor one’s parents through their traditions. Jesus’ teachings should, therefore, reveal to us that the obligation to honor one’s parents applies not only to Ancient Israel, but also to Christians.

This is substantially what the Apostle Paul was communicating to the Ephesians when he wrote:

¹Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
Ephesians 6:1, NASB

And, again, in writing to the Colossians:

²⁰Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is pleasing to the Lord.
Colossians 3:20, NASB

We can see that Paul supports this responsibility with three reasons. First, in his letter to the Ephesians he added, “for this is right.” In other words, obeying one’s parents is a matter of righteousness, not simply of mercy. Obedience is what parents are due—it is what we owe them for the life we have received from them. Secondly, “This is pleasing to the Lord.” It is especially pleasing to the great Father of humans and of angels that we should pay honor and obedience to our earthly parents. Thirdly, it “is the first commandment with a promise” (Ephesians 6:2, NASB). This is the first commandment of God in which God attached a promise—namely, “so that it may turn out well for you, and that you may live long on the earth” (Ephesians 6:3, NASB). This promise has been generally understood to include health, earthly blessings, and long life. And we have seen many evidences that it belongs not only to the Covenant of Sinai, but also to the promises of God to Christians. Many remarkable instances of God’s faithfulness to this promise can be seen today.

But what did Paul mean to commend when he said, “Children, obey your parents in everything?” I will endeavor, with the assistance of God, first to explain Paul’s meaning, and then to apply it.

First, I will endeavor to explain the Scripture’s meaning, particularly because so few people seem to understand this teaching. Look around the world—and not the non-Christian world, but the Christian world specifically—, among Bible-believing Christians who have access to the Bible in their own language, and how many appear to have ever heard of this teaching? Here and there a child obeys his or her parent out of fear or perhaps out of love or affection. But how many children can you find that obey their fathers and mothers out of a sense of duty to God? And how many parents can you find today who consistently place this responsibility upon their children? I wonder if a vast majority both of parents and of children are totally ignorant of this whole subject. For the sake of those who may be unaware of God’s requirements in this respect, I will discuss it as plainly as I can. But still, I am quite aware that those who are unwilling to be convinced will not understand me at all. It will be as though I were speaking in Hebrew or Greek.

It is quite clear that by parents the Apostle Paul meant both fathers and mothers, as he referred his readers to the fifth commandment, which names both the one and the other. However human laws throughout history may vary, the law of God does not distinguish between mothers and fathers. The obligation given to children is to obey them both.

But before we consider how we are to obey our parents, perhaps we might first ask how long we are to obey them. Are children to honor and obey their parents only until they can walk, or until they go to school, or until they can read and write, or until they are as tall as their parents, or until they graduate from high school or college? No. If children were to obey their parents only because they were afraid of punishment, or because they depended on them for food and shelter, what honor would there be in such obedience? Only those who honor and obey their parents when they can live without them, and when they neither hope nor fear anything from them, shall receive praise from God.

But is an adult man or woman or a married man or woman under any further obligation to honor and obey his or her parents? With respect to marriage, it is true that “a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24, NASB); and by the same reasoning, a woman is to leave her father and mother and be joined to her husband. Consequently, there may be some instances in which the responsibilities of marriage must take precedence over one’s responsibility to parents. However, I do not see either in the Scripture or by the scrutiny of reason that marriage either cancels or diminishes the general obligation of children to their parents. Much less does our responsibility to our parents diminish because we have reached twenty-one years of age.

I certainly never behaved as if this was the case myself. When I was in my thirties, I considered my relationship with my father to be the same as when I was ten. And when I was in my forties, I considered myself just as responsible to obey my mother in everything lawful, as I did when I was learning to walk.

But, what is implied in Paul’s instruction: “Children, obey your parents in everything” (Colossians 3:20)? Certainly, the first point of obedience is to do nothing which your father or mother forbids, whether it be a major thing or a minor thing. Nothing should be more obvious than that the prohibition of a parent should bind every conscientious child—unless, of course, that prohibition were to cause us to disobey God.

But, there is more. Obedience can be understood a bit further. A gentle parent may totally disapprove of something that s/he does not expressly forbid. What is the responsibility of a child in these instances? How seriously should this disapproval be taken? Whether a parent has prohibited a behavior or not, a person who wishes to have a clean conscience should be safe and avoid offending a parent unnecessarily. The most honorable decision is certainly to avoid behaviors of which you know your parents disapprove. To do otherwise would imply a degree of disobedience which those of tender conscience would wish to avoid.

The second thing implied in this teaching of Paul is that we should do everything which our father or mother asks, whether it is large or small, provided that what is asked is not contrary to any of the teachings of God. In this way, God has given an honor to parents which even governmental authorities do not have. The Queen of England, for instance, is a sovereign ruler, yet she does not have the power to ask me to do anything unless the law of the land requires it of me. For the queen has no power but to execute the law. The will of the queen is not law to a citizen of England. But the will of a parent is a law to the child, who is bound in conscience to submit, unless submission would result in rebellion against God.

It is with admirable wisdom that God has given us this teaching. When children are weak, the strength of their parents can support them, and when children are ignorant, the wisdom of their parents can guide them until children have strength and understanding of their own. In the same way, the will of parents may guide the wills of their children until they have wisdom and experience to guide themselves. This is, therefore, the very first thing which children must learn—that they are to obey their parents, to submit to their will, in all things. And this must be put into effect long before children can understand the reason for it, and, indeed, long before they are capable of understanding any of the teachings of Christianity.

This is why the Apostle Paul directs all parents to bring up their children “in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4, NASB). For their self-centered willfulness can be curbed by proper discipline, even in their early infancy, long before they are ready for instruction. This, therefore, is the first responsibility of all parents: From the time a child is able to begin to reason in any degree, parents must curb their self-centered willfulness by accustoming them to submitting to your will, which will prepare them for submitting to the will of their Father Who is in heaven.

But how few children do we find, even at six or eight years old, who understand anything of this? Indeed, how could they understand it, seeing that they have no one to teach them? Are not their parents, both father and mother, as ignorant of this submissiveness as they themselves? Whom can we find, even among Christians, who have the vaguest idea about it? Haven’t we all witnessed this ignorance ourselves? Haven’t we been present when a father or mother has said to his or her child, “Do so and so,” and the child, without any second thought replied, “No,” and then the parent quietly passed it by without comment? Do we not see that by this cruel indulgence, we are training up our children, by brazen rebellion against their parents, to rebel, eventually, against God? Therefore, we are raising up our children for the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels! If any parent really understood this, they would neither eat nor drink nor sleep until they had taught their children better lessons, instilling in them the fear of ever giving that diabolical answer again.

For those parents who fear God, allow me to explore this a little further. If we do fear God, how can we allow a child above a year old to say, “I will do,” what we have forbidden, or “I won’t do” what we have asked and to go unpunished? We must confront this self-centered will in our children right away, so that they may be deterred from making a habit of rebelliousness. Have we no compassion for our children, no regard for their salvation or destruction? For those of us who do not allow our children to curse or swear in our presence, we must realize that disobedience is as certain a way to destruction as cursing or swearing. Confront him, confront her, in the Name of God. In the words of Samuel Butler, do not “spare the rod and spoil the child.” Do not surrender your child to his or her own self-centered willfulness, for that will be to surrender them to the devil himself. The Scriptures say:

Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
1 Peter 5:8, NASB

As painful as it may be for us, we must pluck our children out of the lion’s teeth. Teach your children submissiveness that they may not perish. Curb their self-centered willfulness that you may save their souls.

I don’t know how to emphasize this sufficiently or to impress it on you more strongly. Permit me to add part of a letter on this subject which was printed some years ago.

In order to shape the minds of children, the first thing to be done is to curb their self-centered willfulness. To educate them takes time and must progress slowly, but curbing the self-centeredness of their wills is something that must be done from the beginning—the sooner the better. For if we delay to teach this, they quickly develop a stubbornness, which is extremely difficult to curb later, and often cannot be curbed later without methods we would be loathe to employ. Therefore, I call those parents cruel who are often considered kind and indulgent, who permit their children to develop habits which they know must eventually be broken.
I insist on curbing the self-centered willfulness of children early, because this is the only foundation for a religious education. When this has been accomplished, then a child becomes capable of being governed by the wisdom of his or her parents until his or her own understanding matures.
And there is still more to consider. Self-centered willfulness is the root of all sin and misery in the world, so whatever encourages this in children ensures their future misery and faithlessness. Consequently, whatever discourages and restrains it, promotes their future happiness and faithfulness. This should be obvious to those of us who realize that religion is nothing else but doing the will of God, and not our own. So, since self-centered willfulness represents an enormous impediment to both our earthly and eternal happiness, no indulgence of it can be trivial and no curbing of it can be unprofitable. Heaven or hell depends on this alone. So, the parent who works to curb this in his or her children, works together with God in the saving of a soul. But, the parent who indulges self-centered willfulness does the devil’s work, makes Christian faith more difficult, places salvation out of reach, and does all that is in them to condemn their child forever!
Therefore, I must earnestly repeat what I have already said: curb their self-centered willfulness early, begin this work before they can walk, before they can speak clearly, or perhaps even before they can speak at all. However hard it may be, resist their stubbornness and curb their self-centered willfulness if you would not condemn your child. I beg you, parents, not to neglect this responsibility, nor to delay it! Therefore, let a child from a year old be taught to respect our discipline and not to throw tantrums. In order to accomplish this, we should commit to never allowing our child to have anything he or she cries for—absolutely nothing, large or small, or else we will sabotage our own efforts. From that early age we must, at all costs, ensure that our children do as they are told, no matter how challenging or strenuous we find the endeavor. Don’t let anyone convince you that these efforts are cruel, for it is cruel not to discipline our children’s rebelliousness. If we teach them to curb their self-centered willfulness early, then the call of Jesus to self-denial will be understandable to them later, and perhaps in the future our children may come to bless our sacrificial efforts for all eternity.

On the contrary, how dreadful are the consequences of that accursed kindness which gives children freedom to follow their own desires and does not teach them the virtue of submissiveness from their infancy? It is primarily due to this that so many Christian parents raise children who end up as atheists or agnostics—even more, children who, as adults, often have no respect for them as parents at all. Why is this? Because their self-centeredness and rebelliousness was not curbed from the beginning; because they were not required from early infancy to obey their parents in all things and to submit to them as unto the Lord; because they were not taught from the time they began to reason that the will of their parents was, for them, the will of God and that to disobey their parents was rebellion against God, and an open door for all manner of ungodliness.

Having explained the teachings of the Apostle Paul in these verses, I will now proceed to apply them. And permit me, first, to apply this text to you who are parents and are concerned with the proper instruction of your children. Do you understand these things yourselves? Are you thoroughly convinced of these important truths? Have you taken them to heart yourselves? Are you putting them into practice with regard to your own children? Have you disciplined your children before they were capable of instruction? Have you confronted their self-centered willfulness from infancy, and do you continue to do so in opposition both to their nature and to this culture’s customs? Did you explain to them, as soon as they began to comprehend instruction, your reasons for raising them in this way? Have you taught them that the will of God is the sole law of every intelligent creature, and have you shown them that it is the will of God that they obey you in all things? Do you repeat this over and over again until they perfectly understand it? Never be weary of this labor of love, for your labor will not always be in vain.

At the very least, we must not teach our children to disobey by rewarding them for disobedience. Remember that you do this every time you give them anything because they cry for it. For children are quite intelligent in that if you reward them for crying they will certainly cry again. There will be no end to it unless we make it a sacred rule to give them nothing for which they cry. And the easiest way to accomplish this is never to tolerate their crying aloud out of desire or want. Train them up to obedience in this area, and you will find it easier to bring them to obey in others.

Why not begin today? Certainly, we can see that this is the better way, both for them and for us. Why then do we disobey the Scriptures? Because we are cowards; because we lack perseverance; and because this certainly requires a great deal of patience, far more than we have by nature. But the grace of God is sufficient for us. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13). This grace is sufficient to give us both diligence and resolve. Otherwise, laziness will be as great a hindrance as cowardice. For without suffering, we cannot overcome. Nothing can be accomplished with carelessness or sloppiness. Labor on, never tire, teach lesson after lesson until patience has completed its work.

But there is another obstacle that is as difficult to overcome as either laziness or cowardice. It is called fondness or affection, and it is usually mistaken for love. But, O how different from it! Fondness or affection is, in actuality, hate, and hate of the most mischievous kind, leading to the destruction of both body and soul. Do not give way to it any longer, no, not for a moment! Fight against it with all your might, for the love of God, for the love or your children, and for the love of your soul!

I have one more word to say to parents. If, in spite of all the Apostle has said, you encourage your children by your example to adorn themselves with “gold or pearls or expensive apparel,” (1 Timothy 2:9, NASB), you and they must drop into the pit together. And even if they do it despite your having set a good example, the fault is still yours as well as theirs. For, even if you have not put any ornament on your child that you would not wear yourself, they would not have done it themselves if you had required them to obey you from their infancy and taught them the responsibility of submissiveness from at least two years old. Whenever, therefore, I see the gaudy-dressed child of plain-dressed parents, I see at once that the parents are defective either in knowledge or in faithfulness. Either the parents are ignorant of their own or their child’s responsibility, or the parents have not practiced what they know.

[Wesley’s concern here strikes me as a Biblical one. The concern of 1 Timothy 2 is that of a façade that is intended to distract an onlooker from the true heart and character of a person, drawing their attention instead to superficial beauty or affectations. In Wesley’s day (and in Paul’s day), this was mostly accomplished through dress—clothing, hairstyles, and external adornment. For the Apostle Paul, plainness of dress was not a virtue in and of itself, but it was a means to an end. The point for Paul was that Christians should be clothing themselves with good works, calling attention to their character and not to superficial masks which project beauty where no true godly beauty exists.

Today, we, too, often dress in such a way as to project something about ourselves that has little to do with our character. But, even more, we also often hide our true character behind branding, profile pictures, social media handles, and so on. Many are very careful to conceal their character, and instead spend a great deal of time crafting a public persona that presents the face to the world that they want the world to see—often an idealized version of who they wish they were or think they should be. Paul’s point, and Wesley’s was that we should be laboring to be people who do not distract attention from our character with masks, but whose true character is available for all to see and is consistent with that of Jesus. So, Wesley attacked gaudy-dress, but what he was really attacking was the superficial construction of a false-persona that may look godly, but in fact concealed a corrupted heart. In fact, for Wesley, the very desire to adorn oneself with external extravagance was itself an indication that the heart was not being formed by faithfulness to Jesus.]

Wesley continued…

I cannot dismiss this subject yet. I am pained continually at seeing Christian parents allowing their children to run into the same folly of dress as those who are not Christians at all. In God’s Name, why do we allow them to vary a hair’s breath from the Scripture’s teaching? “Because they’ll do it anyway.” Of course, they will. Whose fault is that? Why did we not curb their self-centered willfulness from infancy? At the very least, we must do it now. It’s better late than never. It should have been done before they were two years old. It may still be done at eight or ten, but with far more difficulty. However, do it now and accept the difficulty of it as the just reward for past neglect.

Now, at least, follow through whatever it costs. Do not be wishy-washy like foolish Eli, who said to his wayward sons, “No, my sons; for the report is not good which I hear the Lord’s people circulating,” (1 Samuel 2:24, NASB), instead of restraining them with a firm hand. Rather, speak as calmly as possible, but firmly and preemptively, “I will have it this way,” and then follow through with what you say. Instill in them consistently the love of plain dress and the hatred of finery. Show them the reason that you choose to dress plainly and explain to them why the same should be true of them. Defy laziness, cowardice, and foolish affection, and always follow through with what you say. If you love your children’s souls, make and keep them as plain as yourselves.

And I charge you, grandparents, before God, do not hinder your children’s efforts in these respects. Do not dare to give your grandchildren what their parents deny them. Never take the side of your grandchildren against their parents, and never criticize parents in front of their children. If you will not strengthen their authority, as you ought to do, at the very least you must not undermine it. If you have any true devotion to the Christian faith, help your children in the work of loving their children in these ways.

Permit me now to apply the Apostle Paul’s teachings to you, children, particularly to you who are children of Christian parents. In fact, if you do not fear God, I am not speaking to you right now. But if you really do fear God and if you have a desire to please Him, then you will have a desire to understand all His commandments, the fifth in particular. Do you understand it now? Do you now understand what your responsibility to your father and mother is? Are you now considering that by God’s will your parents’ will should be a law to you? Have you ever considered the true extent of the obedience to your parents that God requires of us? The Scriptures say, “Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is pleasing to the Lord” (Colossians 3:20, NASB). There is no exception to this command unless what your parents require is illegal or against God. Have you done this? Have you even meant to do this?

We must be honest with ourselves. Is your conscience clear in this matter? Do you do nothing which you know to be contrary to the will either of your father or your mother? Do you never do anything which he or she forbids? Do you avoid doing everything which they dislike, as far as you can in good conscience? On the other hand, are you careful to do whatever your parent asks? Do you pay attention to them in order to learn how to please them, to make their lives as easy and pleasant as you can? Whoever here practices this responsibility in their daily lives in order to please God in all things, blessed are you of the Lord. As the Scripture says, “it may turn out well for you, and you may live long on the earth” (Ephesians 6:3, NASB).

But as for those who remain unconcerned about this teaching of the Scriptures, who do not consider it a responsibility before God to obey our parents in all things, but choose when and if to obey based on our own sensibilities, who frequently do those things they have forbidden or of which they disapprove and fail to do what they ask, suppose that you awake in the night, begin to feel the weight of your sin, and begin to cry out to God for mercy? Is it any wonder that you find no answer from God while you are guilty of this unrepented sin? How can any of us expect mercy from God until we obey Him by obeying our parents?

But suppose I have, by an uncommon act of mercy, experienced the forgiving love of God. Can I expect, even though I hunger and thirst after righteousness, after the perfect love of God, that I should ever attain these things while I am living in outward sin—that is, in the willful transgression of a known law of God—in disobedience to my parents? Is it not rather amazing that God has not yet withdrawn His Holy Spirit from me, that He still continues to strive with me, though I am continually grieving His Spirit?

Don’t grieve the Spirit of God any longer! By the grace of God, we must obey our parents in all things from this very moment. As soon as we get home, as soon as we set foot within our doors, we must begin a new way of living! We must look upon our parents with new eyes. We must see them as representing our Father Who is in the heavens. We must learn and study, looking forward to pleasing them, to helping them, and to obeying them in all things. We must behave not simply as their child should behave, but as their servant for Christ’s sake, as the Scriptures have taught us. In this way we will truly learn to love one another in ways we did not know before! God will respond by making them a blessing to you and you a blessing to them. And all who witness your relationship will see that God is with you. Many will see your love of each other and praise God, and the results of your love will remain even after you have passed away from this life and into the arms of God. [Amen.]

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When the Deliverer Comes (1 Samuel 30:1-31)

Cain killed Abel because Abel’s sacrifice was pleasing to God and Cain’s was not. Esau sought to kill Jacob because Jacob had swindled his birthright and his blessing. But, as with Cain, we were told at the beginning of the boys’ lives that God had chosen Jacob and had not chosen Esau. So, Esau’s vengeance was born of envy, as was Cain’s.

Over a millennia later, the story was repeating itself again in the persons of Saul and David. Saul had forfeited his anointing due to his failure to obey what God had told him to do through the prophet Samuel. David had been anointed to replace Saul, and, though Samuel never told Saul whom he had anointed to succeed him, Saul realized quickly that David was the most likely candidate. So, as Cain conspired to kill Abel and Esau conspired to kill Jacob, Saul conspired to kill David who, at that time, was one of the most successful soldiers in his army.

And yet, despite Saul’s repeated attempts to end David’s life, David refused to take any hostile action against Saul, even when given the opportunity. And, perhaps more surprising still, David also continued to fight the enemies of Israel on Saul’s behalf while Saul was pursuing his life. But, David could not carry out his campaign while living in Israel due to the threat of Saul. So, David lived amongst the Philistines and pretended to fight for them, while, in fact, he continued to raid Israel’s hostile neighbors.

While playing this dangerous game, David resided in Ziklag. And during one of David’s excursions, Ziklag was raided by a band of Amalekite warriors. The events that follow are preserved for us in 1 Samuel 30:

¹Now when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had made a raid on the Negeb and on Ziklag. They had attacked Ziklag, burned it down, ²and taken captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great; they killed none of them, but carried them off, and went their way. ³When David and his men came to the city, they found it burned down, and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. ⁴Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept, until they had no more strength to weep. ⁵David’s two wives also had been taken captive, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel. ⁶David was in great danger; for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in spirit for their sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.
1 Samuel 30:1-6, NRSV

After inquiring of the Lord and receiving assurance from God of victory, David pursued the Amalekite raiders. He set out, at first, with six hundred men, but two hundred dropped out before the search was completed. After having found an informant who revealed the location of the raiders, David and his remaining four hundred men descended upon the Amalekite camp.

¹⁶When he had taken him down, they were spread out all over the ground, eating and drinking and dancing, because of the great amount of spoil they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. ¹⁷David attacked them from twilight until the evening of the next day. Not one of them escaped, except four hundred young men, who mounted camels and fled. ¹⁸David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken; and David rescued his two wives. ¹⁹Nothing was missing, whether small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that had been taken; David brought back everything. ²⁰David also captured all the flocks and herds, which were driven ahead of the other cattle; people said, “This is David’s spoil.”
1 Samuel 30:16-20, NRSV

Having recovered what was taken, David also decided to share the bounty with the two hundred men who had neither completed the journey nor fought in the battle. Needless to say, a number of those who had remained to the end objected to David’s decision, but not only did David share the spoils anyway, but he also sent some of the proceeds to the elders of the tribe of Judah in whose territory the Amalekites had been operating.

When reflecting on a story like this it is tempting read oneself into the story in the role of David. But, the canon of Christian Scriptures cautions us from reading this story in that way. Why? Because David was the anointed king of Israel. He may not yet have ascended the throne, but God had already anointed him through Samuel. We cannot anoint ourselves king. We are not David. In fact, only one is truly the heir of the promises made to David; only one is the true Messiah who has been anointed by God to rule His Kingdom—Jesus, our Messiah.

When we read the tales of David, it is important to understand that Jesus is the fulfillment of David. And though it is true that David’s story includes moral and legal failures to which Jesus did not succumb, it is Jesus who fills the role of the true King of Israel in the Christian Scriptures. Read in that way, this story from 1 Samuel 30 finds fulfillment in the second coming of Jesus.

As Adam and Eve found themselves alone with the Serpent in Genesis 3 and as the people of Ziklag found themselves alone with the Amalekites in 1 Samuel 30, so, we too, have found ourselves alone with the enemies of God since Jesus ascended into the heavens. Of course, the Holy Spirit has been poured out on the Church, and God has not left us as orphans in the world. But, the Kingdom of God is not yet manifest and the King is not yet with us in the flesh. Our Messiah has not yet returned.

And while Jesus has been seated at the right hand of the Father in the heavens, the book of Revelation tells us that the Serpent has been pursuing the woman who gave Him birth—Israel—and her children—those who have become children of God by faith in Jesus, our Messiah, our King. We are those in Ziklag, and we have been taken by the enemies of God while our King has been away.

Some of us know we are now living in enemy territory, whereas others have forgotten that we were kidnapped at all. Some seem convinced that the Amalekites are working for David. But such convictions are folly. The children of God have been kidnapped, and the second coming of Jesus, the gathering of the remnant, the awakening of those who are sleeping are ways of saying that just as David led an army to liberate those who had been stolen, so Jesus is coming to deliver His children from their bondage to the enemies of God.

Wherever we live—in whatever nation or tribe or culture—we who follow Jesus must remember that we are exiles in a land not our own. We are citizens of another Kingdom—a Kingdom not of this world. And though we are enslaved by the enemies of God in bondage to our captors, both human and spiritual, our King will not leave us in exile. Our King is coming to deliver His children; our Shepherd is coming to gather His scattered sheep. The enemies of God have prepared themselves for Jesus’ coming, and they will not surrender to Him. So, as God did battle with the gods of Egypt in the events of Exodus, God must do battle with our captors, as well.

For those who have not followed Jesus and have not given their allegiance, both body and spirit, to Him, the days to come will be terrifying. But, for those of us who know we are living in slavery to foreign leaders and false gods, we will shine as lights in the darkness, rejoicing in the suffering of those days for the joy set before us will embolden us. As David rescued the captives of Ziklag, so Jesus is coming to gather His children. Do not waver in your faith in the days to come, children of God. However powerful the Amalekites, as God assured David of victory, so the Father has declared victory for the Son. Do not turn back, children of God. Jesus is coming.

~ J. Thomas Johnson ~

Reflecting on Justice

A few years ago I had the privilege of reading Fleming Rutledge’s The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ. To say that the book was challenging is to put the matter mildly. I felt as though I had been wrecked theologically, emotionally, and behaviorally in only the first third of the book.

For the purposes of this blog, I wanted to focus on a section from Chapter 3 of The Crucifixion, “The Question of Justice.”

The reign of Sin and Death over the kosmos is inseparable from the question we are asking in this book: Why did God in three persons agree on such a peculiarly gruesome manner of death for the second person? What does the method itself tell us about the meaning of the death? There is no quick and easy answer to that question. The biblical account offers hints and suggestions rather than worked-out solutions.
Pushing this train of thought to its most radical application, however, we arrive at a point that is all too rarely acknowledged. In the final analysis, the crucifixion of Christ for the sin of the world reveals that it is not only the victims of oppression and injustice who are in need of God’s deliverance, but also the victimizers. Each of us is capable, under certain circumstances, of being a victimizer. Václav Havel, president first of Czechoslovakia and then of the Czech Republic, was imprisoned several times for his dissident activities under the Communist regime, the longest stretch being from 1979 to 1983. He wrote extensively about life in the Stalinist galaxy. Here is one of his reflections: “The line [between good and evil] did not run clearly between ‘them’ and ‘us,’ but through each person. No one was simply a victim; everyone was in some measure co-responsible. . . .Many people were on both sides.”
Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ

This is a challenging passage, and it is situated in a context in which Rutledge is contending for the idea that the cross is about more than forgiveness. For Rutledge the cross is also about justice, and it is a justice for and against all of us.

Recent events in our culture have reminded me again how easy it is to draw our enemies very flatly. As a Christian, I find the convictions of those who believe that one race or another is superior to any other to be a flat out rejection of the Gospel of Jesus. In the context of the Scriptures, the specially chosen people group were the Hebrew descendants of Abraham, and their election, as Romans 9 makes fairly clear, had nothing to do with them and everything to do with God’s purpose in election—that is, the deliverance of all nations of the earth from the tyranny of Sin and Death. For this reason, it is easy for me to paint those who judge others by superficialities like skin color as an uncomplicated and thoroughly corrupted enemy.

However, what Havel has suggested to the world is that at the root of the gravest of deceptions and at the foundation of the worst horrors of humanity’s cultural history is the conviction that some of us are thoroughly on the side of the angels, while others are entirely demonic. This de-humanizing of our adversaries and even our enemies is a useful tool of hate and of war because it paints those with whom we disagree as somehow non-human, as somehow less deserving of basic human considerations.

This very human tendency toward de-humanization was manipulated to devastating effect by the Nazi leadership in World War II Germany. In that context the Jewish people were cast as sub-human demons, devoid of any human complication. And ironically, in many of the responses to the systemic evils within our own culture we are witnessing, even among our own Christian brothers and sisters who rightly recognize the abominableness of the principalities and powers that permeate the world, the rush to flatten, to demonize, and to dehumanize those with whom we disagree seems at times as pernicious as the propagandizing of World War II Germany.

The line [between good and evil] did not run clearly between ‘them’ and ‘us,’ but through each person. No one was simply a victim; everyone was in some measure co-responsible. . . .Many were on both sides.
Václav Havel

Perhaps these sorts of realizations lie at the heart of Jesus’ instructions to “love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.” Of course we must speak and stand against evil, and our outrage against tyranny and poverty and racial superiority and corruption is godly and Christlike, in my view. But, evil is never as simple as the totality of an individual. Evil is a power in which each of us participates and which runs through the heart of each of us. Our moral outrage can become as much a tool of the tyrannical powers of Sin and Death as our hate and self-centeredness. In fact, there may be no more infectious type of evil than the evil done in the name of justice.

However criminals are prosecuted and unholy philosophies and ideas are countered and adjudicated, we must never lose sight of the fact that the knowledge of good and evil runs through every human heart, and our enemies are never any less human or deserving of human dignity than our friends and loved ones. Perhaps this is the hardest of the teachings of Jesus and His Apostles to accept. It is easier to oppose people than to oppose Sin and Death as powers that run through the middle of all of us. Individual people can be tortured, defamed, humiliated, and killed. But Sin and Death survive every human life, and continue to hold even those who oppose them in sway long after human justice is done.

For Rutledge, and increasingly for me, this is part of why Jesus not only died, but was crucified. In His manner of death He exposes what lies within even the righteous justice of humanity. Jesus was condemned by the religious leaders of His culture for blasphemy, and it was in how we executed this one blasphemer that who we really are has been revealed. Jesus on the cross is an indictment not only of human sin, but of the corrupting influence of justice; of the fear that causes us to torture and dehumanize those deemed too evil to be treated as human, as beings made in the image of God. The best of intentions crucified Jesus, and the deepest of zeal for right and rightness played out on His flesh and Person. Truly the line between good and evil does not run between us and them, but through each of us.

Let the people of God beware.

~ J. Thomas

Creation and the Church

~ J. Thomas Johnson ~

Today I begin by reflecting on a section of the foreword to Dr. Jordan Peterson’s best-selling book 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. The foreword was written by Dr. Norman Doidge.

Rules? More rules? Really? Isn’t life complicated enough, restricting enough, without abstract rules that don’t take our unique, individual situations into account? And given that our brains are plastic, and all develop differently based on our life experiences, why even expect that a few rules might be helpful to us all?
People don’t clamour for rules, even in the Bible…as when Moses comes down the mountain, after a long absence, bearing the tablets inscribed with ten commandments, and finds the children of Israel in revelry. They’d been Pharaoh’s slaves and subject to his tyrannical regulations for four hundred years, and after that Moses subjected them to the harsh desert wilderness for another forty years, to purify them of their slavishness. Now, free at last, they are unbridled, and have lost all control as they dance wildly around an idol, a golden calf, displaying all manner of corporeal corruption.
“I’ve got some good news…and I’ve got some bad news,” the lawgiver yells to them. “Which do you want first?”
“The good news!” the hedonists reply.
“I got Him from fifteen commandments down to ten!”
“Hallelujah!” cries the unruly crowd. “And the bad?”
“Adultery is still in.”
So, rules there will be—but, please, not too many. We are ambivalent about rules, even when we know they are good for us. If we are spiritual souls, if we have character, rules seem restrictive, an affront to our sense of agency and our pride in working out our own lives. Why should we be judged according to another’s rule?
And judged we are. After all, God didn’t give Moses “The Ten Suggestions,” he gave Commandments; and if I’m a free agent, my first reaction to a command might just be that nobody, not even God, tells me what to do, even if it’s good for me. But the story of the golden calf also reminds us that without rules we quickly become slaves to our passions—and there is nothing freeing about that.
Dr. Norman Doidge, foreword to 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, by Dr. Jordan Peterson (Random House Canada, January 23, 2018).

Individualism teaches us to take responsibility for our own lives, not to blame people or circumstances for our predicament, to evaluate the situation, to take decisive action, and then to take the long road of responsibility and hard work toward the ends on which we have set our eyes. And to go farther, individualism in the church encourages us to seek a personal relationship with God for which we are personally responsible, irrespective of our culture or our particular community or our particular circumstances. Each one must deny himself or herself, take up her or his cross, and follow Jesus.

This mentality has proven beneficial in many ways throughout history. And if you meet such a person, you likely have found a peace in being in his or her presence…at least initially. But there is a dark side to individualism, particularly when each person feels the responsibility to become a law unto themselves. When this occurs other people become subhuman, serving either as obstacles or as tools to them.

There is no doubt that law and structure inhibits freedom to a degree, but the Scriptures teach us that structure and law actually create life precisely by curtailing freedom. Unbridled freedom, in the Scriptures, is called tohu and bohu—formlessness and emptiness. It was the state of the universe when God began to create. No boundaries, no rules, no laws, no structures, no life. Everything was everything. Everything was nothing. This is natural and free, and it is, at the same time, darkness and death.

God interrupted this unbridled freedom by speaking—by imposing law and structure on the chaos. And as God speaks, creation takes shape. With each new command of God, new structures are created and new possibilities are unleashed. Light is created and separated from darkness. Imagine if God had not imposed that on us? The chaotic waters are separated and caged so that land and atmosphere can be separated out. Then living things are organized and unleashed, and cosmic entities are placed in proper balance. Finally, God commands humanity to rise from the dust of creation and breathes life into us after God’s own life.

Provided these structures are maintained, life will thrive. If these structures are eroded, the chaos will return. And yet, throughout history the people of the earth have pursued life on the other side of God’s boundaries.

That’s what happened to Israel. So, in due time God sent the prophet Jeremiah to them. Through Jeremiah, God evaluated the state of Israel. He gave them His verdict in Jeremiah 4:19-28:

¹⁹My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh, the walls of my heart! My heart is beating wildly; I cannot keep silent; for I hear the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. ²⁰Disaster overtakes disaster, the whole land is laid waste. Suddenly my tents are destroyed, my curtain in a moment.
²¹How long must I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet? ²²For my people are foolish, they do not know me; they are stupid children, they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but do not know how to do good.
²³I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light. ²⁴I looked to the mountains, and lo, they were quaking, and all the hills moved to and fro. ²⁵I looked, and lo, there was no one at all, and all the birds of the air had fled. ²⁶I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert, and all its cities were laid in ruins before the Lord, before his fierce anger.
²⁷For thus says the Lord: The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end. ²⁸Because of this the earth shall mourn, and the heavens above grow black; for I have spoken, I have purposed; I have not relented nor will I turn back.
Jeremiah 4:19-28, NRSV.

How had this happened to Israel, to creation itself? Sin–the desire of humanity to become a law unto themselves, to seek life on the other side of God’s tents and curtains. And creation followed. Life depends on God’s order, on God’s structure, on God’s law. We see the necessity of this orderliness in nature, but we so often fail to see its utility in culture or in our individual choices.

It’s easy to curse the wind when it exceeds the speeds our structures can withstand, and it’s easy to wail against the waters when they go where we did not prepare for them to go. Chaos is held back by structure, and destruction ensues when chaos breaks its bonds.

The same is true in human life. In fact, the Scriptures indicate that the two are not to be separated from each other—creation and human life. And people of faith—true faith—recognize this truth. The church in Philippi began quite organically, which is to say, naturally. Paul spoke to some who were already following the God of Israel, and he told them about Jesus. One believed and followed. Then, a demon-possessed girl harassed Paul, so he set her free in the name of Jesus. This act landed him in prison. While he was in prison, there was an earthquake, but Paul did not take the opportunity afforded him to escape his bonds. This decision saved the life of his jailor, which then gave Paul another opportunity to share the story of Jesus. And the jailer, too, believed. Seems very spontaneous and free, doesn’t it? Very little planning or deliberateness.

Yet, once these folks followed Jesus and began to grow as a community of faith, they began to organize themselves. By the time Paul wrote the letter preserved in the Christian Bible, he addressed not only the believers generally, but also two sets of leaders. The first he called overseers (episkopoi), and the second he called deacons (deaconoi – servants). Already, the church in Philippi had begun to create an organizational structure.

During my time in vocational ministry, I have had quite a number of Christians tell me that structure, rules, policies, and such inhibit ministry—red tape, they often call it…sometimes hoops or rigamarole. That’s a belief of the worldly. Of course, things can get out of hand, as we saw with the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day. Jesus called them blind guides who “strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.” That, of course, was a less a comment on structure and more a comment on the values that informed it. But, it’s an important reminder. The structure must be rooted in the Words God has spoken.

Even so, all of life depends on law, on structure, on order. Those who seek to be a law unto themselves, to be trusted to create and tear down boundaries unilaterally, are not following the God of Christian Scripture. Those impulses are of the flesh and of the devil. This is a spirit wishing to be free of law and oversight and accountability. At the bottom such an impulse wishes to be free of any authority outside of oneself—free even of God.

But, the Philippians demonstrated their faithfulness to Christ, not only by what they professed to believe, by in how those beliefs had begun to structure their life together. They had tasked some within their community with keeping watch over the people of God, and they had tasked others with serving the needs of the kingdom in an organized fashion. These are good impulses.

Their structures weren’t perfect, of course, as the rest of the letter makes clear. But, this desire to organize is a reflection of the God they worshipped. As Paul reminded the Corinthians (a group of churches much less inclined to order and structure than the Philippians) in 1 Corinthians 14:26-33:

²⁶What should be done then my friends? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation! Let all things be done for building up. ²⁷If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn; and let one interpret. ²⁸But if there is no one to interpret, let them be silent in church and speak to themselves and to God. ²⁹Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. ³⁰If a revelation is made to someone else sitting nearby, let the first person be silent. ³¹For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and be encouraged. ³²And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets, ³³for God is not a God of disorder, but of peace.
1 Corinthians 14:26-33, NRSV.

We are living in a time in which the voice of chaos is gaining ascendance. Remember, always, people of God, that our God is a God of order. The people of God have always organized their communal life. Just as the life of creation depends on the laws of nature, so the life of Christian community depends on Christian structures. Of course, most churches today have taken their organizational cues from culture, which is a risky game to play. But, at its core organization is godly, both in nature and in community.

And, finally, this is true in our personal lives, as well. The Scriptures tell us that the very definition of sin is living as though there are no rules outside of ourselves—in other words, lawlessness. The Apostle John explains this in 1 John 3:4-10.

⁴Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. ⁵You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. ⁶No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. ⁷Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. ⁸Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. ⁹Those who have been born of God do not sin, because God’s seed abides in them; they cannot sin, because they have been born of God. ¹⁰The children of God and the children of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters.
1 John 3:4-10, NRSV.

We don’t like rules, unless we make them. This is sin. It is what sin is. This is the way of the devil. “Did God really say that you couldn’t eat of that tree? Oh, come on, you won’t die. Make up your own mind. You’re smart; you’ve got the spirit of God breathed into you; you’re wise, wiser than these dummies anyway. You don’t need laws or leaders. You can lead yourself.” Satan…every time.

This spirit is being revealed in these days, both in the world and in the church. And some of us are being shamed because we follow rules, because we embrace structure, because we refuse to be a law unto ourselves. Of course, Paul reminded the Philippians in verse one of the letter he wrote to them that they were (and we are) first and foremost slaves of Jesus. So, we don’t submit to requirements that are disloyal to Him. But, short of that, let me encourage us: we are of God. Our accusers, in this instance, are not.

In fact, this desire to be a law unto oneself is explained by Paul as a sign that a society is nearing its end. This is what Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:1-5:

¹You must understand this, that in the last days distressing times will come. ²For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³inhuman, implacable, slanderous, profligates, brutes, haters of good, ⁴treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ⁵holding to the outward form of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid them!
2 Timothy 3:1-5, NRSV.

Avoid those who tell you that they don’t need rules and regulations—that law and structure and organization and accountability and orderliness are inhibiting to life. That is the enemy talking. The opposite is true. Avoid those who want to be a law unto themselves and refuse to submit to anything but their own scruples and discernment. They are not of God.

The people of God seek accountability, community discernment, and laws and authority outside of themselves. The people of God seek to make it easy to govern us, so long as we are not led into disobedience to Jesus. The people of God are not kings, nor do we wish to be such. We are slaves of Jesus, servants of each other, and sent to the world.

We seek to respect others. We do not seek respect from others. We forgive those who sin against us. We do not demand forgiveness from others. We repent of our own sins. We do not demand that others repent. We seek to live within structures and boundaries in the world, in our communities, and in our lives. We recognize that life and freedom depends on law and boundaries.

To those who have ears to hear, let them hear. Do not become discouraged, people of God. Your labor in the Lord will be richly rewarded.

The Breath of God

~ J. Thomas Johnson ~

Reflecting on John 20:19-31

In the beginning God fashioned humanity out of aphar—out of dust. There was nothing special about the material. Today we might say, protons, electrons, and neutrons. It was common, unsubstantial stuff. But God breathed on it. God shared his life with the dust, and a nephesh—a living being—was born.

And God spoke to Adam. God gave him tasks to accomplish. God had planted a garden, and God instructed him in how to tend it. And then God entrusted him with the authority necessary to carry out His word. This was creation. And, for a while, humanity walked in the direction God had sent us.

But, we know the rest of the story from there. Humanity turned from life and embraced what we were before God had breathed on us. We clung to the flesh—to the aphar—and our spirits became divided, soiled, unclean. And out of that heart came founts of violence, indulgences, envies, and destructiveness. Rather than tending the garden, our ancestors consumed it. Rather than bringing forth life, they brought forth death. And in the days of Noah, God gave them the fullness of the world they had chosen. Only Noah and his family survived the destruction that ensued.

Noah survived because he walked with God, and God protected him. And again, God breathed out a covenant. Again God gave humanity responsibilities. And again humans were set on a path out of darkness and into the light.

But, Noah and his children did not continue in God’s way. By the days of Abraham, none walked with God. So, God called to a man who did not know Him, and God breathed on him a covenant. Several times God breathed on Abraham, and with each new breath God gave him additional responsibilities in the world. Abraham walked with God, and then Isaac, and then Jacob, and then the children of Israel. In each generation God breathed His covenant, and in each generation some walked with God.

Then God breathed on Moses, and God gave him the responsibilities of speaking—breathing—on Pharaoh, and of delivering God’s people from Egypt, of breathing out the Torah that God had breathed into him, and of leading God’s people through the wilderness.

After him, God breathed a covenant on Joshua, and then on the judges of Israel, and then on Samuel, and then on Saul, and then on David, on whom God’s covenant, God’s breath, God’s spirit came to rest. David, too, walked with God, and God breathed on his descendants.

God continued, after David, to breathe on prophets, who breathed out on God’s people what God had breathed into them. And then God rested, and God waited. The breath of God’s mouth drove the people of Israel into exile because, like in the days of Noah, and as in the days of Babel, they had turned against God’s word, God’s breath, and they had fought to return to dust.

In due time, God breathed on their captors and gave them the responsibility of returning the people of Israel to the land of David, but God did not breath again on His people. God sent a few, last prophets before He fell silent, and then, God’s people waited. But, they grew impatient, and in their impatience they poured over what God had breathed on their ancestors. They were greedy for the breathing of God, and they worshipped the breath of their ancestors. Yet, still, God did not speak.

But then, God breathed again. God spoke to John the Baptist, and John breathed out what God breathed in. He called the people of God to turn and walk with God as Adam had, as Eve had, as Enoch had, as Noah had, as Abraham had, as Samuel had, and as David had. Some were deaf to God’s word. Some heard but did not understand. And some heard and breathed in what God had breathed out. They followed John.

But God had given John the responsibility to speak but not to lead or to guide. That responsibility God reserved for Himself. As God Himself had walked with Adam and with Eve, God determined to walk with humanity again. And again God would breathe on the dust, and again God would entrust His people, His children, with responsibilities in His world.

John baptized God as He journeyed among us in the flesh of Jesus. God walked amongst His people, and God breathed on them. God fought their ignorance and violence with the breath of His mouth. God again made a covenant with them and spoke to them of what it means to tend the garden—the kingdom of God. He taught them how to walk with God.

The Father entrusted twelve with His breath, His words, and two failed to receive them. The first embraced the darkness before God would breathe on him again. The second failed to remain with his brothers. But ten had received the word that God had spoken, and they stayed together, despite their fear and doubt.

So, God breathed on them again. God made a covenant with them. They were to remain in Jesus, keep His word, and, on this night, God entrusted His breath to them. And with that breath came reconciliation with God (forgiveness) and condemnation. They were sent into God’s garden to breathe on the dry bones of God’s people what God had breathed into them. And God has entrusted the forgiveness or condemnation of their brothers and sisters to the word God gave them to speak.

They have breathed out, what God has breathed in. At Pentecost God entrusted their breath to the church, but God would make no new covenant with humanity other than that He made with them. Their word is the final breath of God, and the fate of all who have followed after them is to be determined by response to their testimony.

Do not come to God, people of the earth, without them. God’s word is their word, and their word is God’s word. God entrusted Thomas and later Matthias and later Paul with the bearing of this same word, as well, but these ten were given this unique responsibility, and with them it remains.

Each of us has received this breathing through them. God’s testimony comes to us through theirs. These books are written that just as we share our life with our children, the life God breathed on them might be shared with us.

Now God is breathing again. God is bringing judgment on the darkness. The judgment God brings is light. All that has been hidden is being revealed. For those who will receive God’s breath, the light will be a refiner’s fire. For those who cling to the flesh and to the dark, God’s light will prove terrifying and destructive to the fabrication they have built.

God is tearing down the idols—in churches, in culture, and now in homes. Purify your homes, people of God. Remove all leaven. Tear down all idols. Make yourselves no more graven images. Dwell on the light and no longer on the darkness.

For those who hide their idols in their homes as Rachel hid her idols beneath her saddle and as Achan buried his idols beneath his tent, the light will bring only despair. For those who bring their idols outside their homes and cast them to the rubbish heap, the light will be their joy, and they will rejoice at its coming.

But, God’s people have said, “We have no idols. We have only the worship of the Lord our God.” But, we have deceived ourselves. Everywhere God looks He sees His people worshipping the works of their own hands. God sees flags and statues, crucifixes and cathedrals, achievements and children worshipped and praised and celebrated while God’s word goes unheeded and God’s people perish for lack of knowledge of Him.

We must receive what God has breathed into these men, and we must breathe out what we receive upon our children and our neighbors and our nation. Why will we remain in darkness? Will those who have pursued life and salvation in Jesus grab hold only of ash and dust? Will those who God has called and convicted and spoken with listen only to the works of their own hands and the products of their own bodies?

Our God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. There is no other. We must open our eyes and see the darkness within us. God is breathing on us now, why will we not receive? We must deny ourselves, despise all but God’s breath and we will live. But, if we cling to the darkness and the lies of the nations of the earth, we will not withstand His coming.

We must purge our houses of leaven by tearing down the idols we have made. Let the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Who became flesh in the Person of Jesus be the Lord of your household and worship no longer the work of your hands or the generation of your bodies. For the Day of the Lord is at hand. And the Morning Star is rising with healing in His wings.

Now is the hour of salvation! To those who cling to the flesh, light is dawning, and who can endure its rising? But, to those who will forsake their idols and worship the Lord our God only, the hour of our healing is drawing near.