Kopp Disclosure

(John 3:19-21)

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Scratching the Surface

Authority

(A Brief and Incomplete Guide to Headship in the…)

You’ve seen the bumper sticker: “Question Authority!”

Our culture appears convinced anybody’s word is as good as anybody else’s word on any subject.

Actually, it started in the garden; sooooooo rebelling against authority is in our genes.

That’s why I rebelled when my wife asked if I would come to a Sunday School class that she leads to share my understanding of Biblical submission in marriage.

I responded: “I am reluctant to talk to your class or anybody else’s class about Biblical submission in marriage for two reasons. First, I need to be in Elder Ev’s Sunday School class because I have so much to learn and he’s an excellent teacher and often mentor for me. Second, most of today’s gender understandings have been so polluted by American ideologies masquerading as Biblical theologies that it’s like tinkling in the wind.”

Parenthetically, I’m increasingly disinclined to spend precious moments with people who contend with rather than attend to God’s will as personified in Jesus and prescribed in Holy Scripture: “I know that’s what Jesus and the Bible say…but I think…” I’m old school: “Trust and obey…for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus…but to trust and obey.” I believe it’s better stewardship to spend time/energy with people who wanna know and love Him by the book than with pretenders, contenders, and anyone else posing fidelity while rebelling against His revelations in Jesus by the book.

Buuuuuuut kinda proving my protesting point, I surrendered to my wife’s continuing insistences in a Proverbs 27:15 kinda way and spent Saturday morning, 8 February 2014, at a “Couples Breakfast” talking about headship in the home, church, government, and…

Repeating I’m just scratching the surface and don’t claim to be comprehensively correct on, uh, anything, here’s a summary of my brief and incomplete guide to headship in the…

Confessions

I’m a man with no interest in acting like a woman; meaning I acknowledge I don’t understand, appreciate, or even consider female sensitivities on too many occasions.

I’m categorically convinced my wife is a much better mother than I could ever be and I’m a much better father than she could ever be; encouraging me to conclude unequivocally that headship/authority in the family, church, government, and so on respects both gender functional diversity and gender value equality in a Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 kinda way: “Just as there are many parts to our bodies, so it is with Christ’s body. We are all parts of it, and it takes every one of us to make it complete, for we each have different work to do. So we belong to each other, and each needs all the others.”

Culture

Our culture is antagonistic to Biblical Christianity; again, today’s mantra: “I know that’s what Jesus and the Bible say…but I think…”

When it comes to gender, the marketing techniques/strategies of companies like Progressive Insurance, Southwest, State Farm, Toyota, and Wendy’s seem OCDed about portraying men as emotionally and intellectually inferior to women; accentuating as well as aggravating gender wars, confusion, aversion, and antagonism to Biblical models of headship/authority.

With headship/authority questioned, resisted, and defied in families, churches, government, and all of the rest, our culture is devolving into mobocracy in which decision-making becomes a contest for control rather than a mutually beneficial outcome of divine creation/order and charismata.

Rather than acknowledging divinely created/ordered functional diversity concomitant to divinely created/ordered value equality, we pretend some kinda unBiblical and illogical psychosocial unisexuality for all roles as the only way to respect value equality.

Buuuuuuut somebody’s gotta decide; noting positive, practical, and productive decision-making requires acknowledging and embracing divine creation/order and charismata.

Exaggerated examples: women are created/ordered and gifted to breastfeed while men are not…Tom Brady and Peyton Manning rather than their right guards call/change plays…sergeants not privates are better suited to direct firefights…Choir directors not Greek scholars should lead musical offerings in worship…Plumbers not beauticians should fix toilets…

The buck’s gotta stop somewhere; and Biblical and psychosocial common sense dictate the best headship/authority is provided by divine creation/order and charismata.

Context

For families, churches, governments, and so on who trust God by the book, here are a few texts for study and meditation that relate directly to headship: Genesis 1:26-27; 2:18-24; Exodus 1:17; Matthew 19:4-6; Acts 5:29; 1 Corinthians 11:1-3; 2 Corinthians 6:14; Ephesians 5:1-2, 22-33; Colossians 3:18-19; Hebrews 13:7; and 1 Peter 2:13-17; 3:1-2, 7-9.

Summary of Biblical Headship

Whether it’s in the home, church, country, or anywhere else, a person’s headship/authority is inextricably linked to God in Jesus as attested in Holy Scripture being the Sovereign and Savior of that person’s life.

Putting it another way, to illustrate, as Jesus by the book is Head of a father/husband’s life, he is head of the family.

The same Biblical principle is true for church, government, and…

Human headship/authority is only acknowledged/heeded if the designated head/authority submits to the ultimate Head/Authority of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit by the book.

Again, the emphasis for human headship/authority is on the qualifier for that headship/authority: “As Jesus is the Head of…”

Knowing God by the book only wants what is best for us, human headship/authority by the book can/must/will be embraced, practiced, and celebrated.

In other words, for example, fathers and husbands are not the heads/authorities of the house by gender but by their submission to God as the Head/Authority of their headship under His Headship: “Thy not my will be done…as a father…as a husband…in my marriage…in my family…in everything that I say and do and even think!”

It goes back to Actsual Christianity: “We must obey God not man!”

When our fathers and husbands and deacons and elders and teachers and preachers and police and presidents and…obey Him, then we must obey them.

As human heads/authorities submit to God as the ultimate Head/Authority, we submit to them.

If not, not!

When any human leader insults, ignores, and defies God by the book, that leader forfeits headship/authority; because only headship/authority in/through/for the ultimate Head/Authority compels submission by the book.

Here’s an exaggerated example of forfeited headship/authority: a father/husband, teacher, preacher, president, or…asks/advises/directs or tries to force us to say/do something/anything that is wrong by the book.

Legitimate headship/authority under the ultimate Head/Authority leads/loves by loving like Him by the book: “Love each other just as much as I have loved you.”

John Piper spells it out for families where Jesus is the ultimate Head of the house: “…the divine calling of a husband to take primary responsibility for Christ-like servant leadership, protection and provision in the home…the divine calling of a wife to honor and affirm her husband’s leadership and help carry it through according to her gifts.”

Mutual submission at His best is to affirm that functional diversity amid value equality.

As Jesus is the Head of a father/husband’s life, that man will exercise headship/authority in the home for the good of all in honor of Him: “The greatest among you will be your servant.”

Again, this principle holds true for all relationships in the home, church, country, and…

As our leaders/heads/authorities submit to God by the book, we submit to them.

Never forget that qualifier: “As Jesus is the Head of…”

Conclusions

While the preceding is God’s way to order, safety, and security in all relationships, those rebellious genes from the garden (aka original sin) against God’s way remain rigidly fixated to what’s not working.

It’s the SOSO rebellion with the SOSO results.

Does anyone really think our families, churches, government, and world are not falling apart?

How we are ordering families, churches, government, and so on ain’t workin’; and the definition of insanity is to keep doin’ what ain’t workin’ no how!

Heeeeeeelllllllooooooo! Our way ain’t workin’!

Ray Stedman: “The Bible indicates that any deviation from the divine plan inevitably produces weakness, division, strife, increasing fruitlessness, and, ultimately, death. The present low state of many churches is testimony to the effects of ignoring, over a long period of time, God’s way of working.”

From cover to cover, the counsel/caution of the Bible is consistently, compellingly, and conclusively clear: “God honors people who honor Him.”

Sooooooo doesn’t it make sense to try God’s way; unless our rebellion/defiance is sooooooo twisted and dark that we’d rather destroy our families, churches, and governments, and world by tryin’ to keep keepin’ on apart from Him?

Let’s go back to God!

Let’s go back to His way of ordering, preserving, protecting, and promoting our families, churches, government, and world.

2 Chronicles 7:14.

His way is sooooooo…divine.

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