Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)
@#$%
I'm convinced our
world, America, churches, school districts, families, and...are unraveling
because of increasingly reckless disrespect for theocratically ordered
authority (scroll down for a reminder of what is meant by theocratic order).
Solution.
Authority must be
exercised as necessary.
Problem.
Our world,
America, churches, school districts, families, and...embrace authority as convenient.
Prospect.
Slim to...
Conclusion.
"Come, Lord
Jesus!"
@#$%
Blessings and Love!
Scratching the Surface
of
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.”
2
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…”
3
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.
4
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.
