Truth Project #7 – Sociology
The basic synopsis of this week’s lesson is that God has ordained an order to all of the units within a society: The Family, Labor, State, Community, Church and the God/Man relationship. It is not that he sat around and thought to himself, “I wonder how a marriage would work best?” or “What type of role should church leaders have within the church?”
The order prescribed by God comes from the very Nature of God himself. This falls in line with the lesson we learned earlier which taught us that the laws of God are not random or made by God, but his choice as much as they are made by God because of His very nature. For example, it is wrong for us to lie, because it is against God’s nature to lie.
Part of God’s nature, from the beginning, from the infinite past measure of time, is what we call the Trinity.
In this relationship God – The father is the head. Jesus, the Son, though He is God lowers himself, and submits to the will of God the Father. They both send out the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit obeys and honors both God the Father and Jesus, the Son. God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are one, but they have different functions. It may not be crystal clear in the trinity, but if we compare this to God’s prescription for the family it begins to make sense.
The Husband is the head of the family. The wife, though equal to the husband submits to the husband. The husband loves the wife as himself. The children come from the husband and wife, are to obey the husband and the wife and are to honor the husband and the wife.
The relationship repeats itself in the church:
Jesus Christ is the head of the Church. He loves the church and gave up Himself for her. The Church is called the bride of Christ. We are in the position where we are called to submit to the authority of Jesus himself. Within the church there is the leader / congregation relationship that mimics the Jesus / Holy Spirit or Parent / Child relationship. The congregation is to honor and obey Jesus and they are to honor and obey the church leadership.
Once again, the main point here is that within these societal structures there is an ordained order. There is a prescription for how they are supposed to work. Society, however, is set on undermining anything that is ordained or prescribed by God. This husband /wife / children model is under attack.
The other societal structures mentioned above are to be discussed in subsequent lessons.
July 21, 2009 at 1:02 pm
The command to be continually filled (i.e. controlled/directed) by the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 5:18 is fulfilled by five participles in Ephesians 5:19-21. The last one says ‘Submitting to one another our of reverence for Christ.” This submission is male to female, female to male, old to young, young to old, white to black, black to white, master to slave, slave to master, etc. Jesus said His leadership style was not as a boss, lording it over others as among the ‘Gentiles’ (i.e. CEO, military, business leadership styles), but as a slave, washing feet, as a table-waiting servant. Headship for Jesus was servant-hood, actually slave-hood, without rights or privileges…so husbands, so pastors, so church leaders, so all Christians! Be like Jesus!