Reflections on the Song of Solomon (2)

 

 

“May he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!” (SS 1:1).

 

“Hurry, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.” (SS 8:14).

 

The Song of Solomon begins with passionate love, and it concludes with passionate love.

 

The imagery throughout the Song is intimate and knowing.

 

“Let his left hand be under my head and his right hand embrace me” (2:6).

 

“Let his left hand be under my head and his right hand embrace me” (8:3).

 

This is a Song in which the Bride rejoices in the Groom, and the Groom rejoices in the Bride. The Groom only has eyes for the Bride and the Bride only has eyes for the Groom. It is sacred Song with a sacred Love. In one sense the love is exclusive, in another sense others are invited to bask in the love and to rejoice in the Bride and Groom.

 

In Revelation chapters 21 and 22 nations walk by the light of the Bride and Groom (21:24) and the leaves of the Tree of Life – which is now the union of the Bride and Groom - are for the healing of the peoples (22:2).

 

A very rich man recently remarried. For the wedding venue he rented a large section of an historical and culturally significant city. He did not invite the world to his wedding.

 

When our Lord Jesus and His Bride celebrate their wedding, when His glorious Bride descends from the unseen into the seen, from the invisible into the visible – all the peoples of the earth are invited to bask in the healing and light and glory that flows from the union of the Bride and Groom.

 

The Bride and the Spirit issue an invitation to all:

 

“The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost” (Rev. 22:17).

 

The Song of Songs is a duet of Bride and Bridegroom. While others make an appearance on stage and provide background music and singing, they are there only to highlight the passionate love of the Groom and His Bride – of the Bride seeking the Groom and the Groom seeking His Bride.

 

In the first verse the Bride sings of her Beloved, and in the final verse the Bride sings of her Beloved. Between the first and final verses is a Divine Duet of Love, Marriage, Consummation, Enjoyment – a Divine Dance into eternity…indeed, a dance that never ceases; a dance, I imagine, in which new steps and patterns unfold with Divine Life and Movement and Energy.

 

As we read the Song, let’s note how its core is the Bride focused on the Groom and the Groom focused on the Bride. Let’s ponder their descriptions of one another – descriptions born of intimacy, of love, of care, of tenderness, of giving – of union with one another.

 

“For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24).

 

“This mystery (Gen. 2:24) is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church” (Eph. 5:32).

 

Jesus left His Father’s house to seek His Bride; we are now bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, members of His Body (Eph. 5:30); holy and blameless before Him in love (Eph. 5:27; 1:4).

 

Ought we not to be wedded to Christ and only to Christ? (2 Cor. 11:2 – 3).

The King and His Bride...and the Shepherds: Conclusion

 

Months passed into years…and then one cold and snowy night, with the wind howling and the temperature plummeting…in a wooden house with rags stuffed between holes in the walls and small fire in a cast iron wood stove…with men and women and children huddled under worn quilts and blankets…with the Betrothed between two grandmothers to give her warmth…there is a knock at the door.

 

An aged and stooped pastor slowly rises and makes his way to the door…and then…and then…as he opens it…light fills the room, falling on the faces of all and warming them…caressing them with tenderness, and transforming them from weary to hopeful, from hopeful to joyful.

 

The Betrothed has her eyes closed, her face is wrinkled, her pulse weak, she sleeps in sorrow. A resplendent figure enters the room, and the eyes of all but the Betrothed are fixed on Him…and they know…they know who He is. With rising anticipation, they watch Him quietly walk to the Betrothed between the two grandmothers. The grandmothers? Well, they feel like giddy teenage girls again, for they know what is coming.

 

The King nods to the two grandmas and they leave Her side. Gently the King lifts the old quilt from his soon to be Bride.

 

He whispers, “Ishshah, My Beloved.”

 

“Come my dear, we have work to do.”

 

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“Many shepherds have ruined My vineyard, they have trampled down My field; they have made My pleasant field a desolate wilderness” (Jeremiah 12:10).

 

“Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of My pasture! Declares the LORD” (Jer. 23:1).

 

“I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you on knowledge and understanding" (Jer. 3:15).

 

“For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:2 – 3).

 

Well pastor, elder, deacon, trustee, teacher, small group leader, which will it be?

 

Which shepherds will you be found among when the King returns for His Bride?

 

Robert L. Withers, May 2, 2026

Ezekiel 33:1 – 9.

 

 

 

 

The King and His Bride...and the Shepherds: Part Three

 

From this point forward every day brought new delegations to the pastors, new offers for them to lend the future queen to various ventures (all of course with the very best intentions, for the greater good; and if the pastors should benefit, well, so much the better.)

 

The pastors formed their own company, King and Queen Enterprises. They had a marketing department, a fashion department, they launched a music industry, a construction company, an entertainment division, an investment firm. They used the images of the King and Queen to be on their letterhead and marketing material.

 

They kept the betrothed so busy and in motion that she could no longer think, all she could do is what she was told to do, with the learned pastors saying, “We know best. Trust us, we know best.”

 

Her ladies-in-waiting, who served out of love for both her and the king, were replaced by women from the City of Fashion, the City of Marketing, the City of Politics, and the City of Dollar. Her food was laced with sedatives one meal and stimulants the next meal. She was never allowed to rest. She was never allowed to contemplate the return of her beloved King. Her heart was never permitted to behold Him.

 

As the pastors’ wealth and power accumulated, they became convinced that the king would not return, at least not in their lifetime. Why not align themselves with the political and national and military powers of the region? Why not endorse them – of course endorse them in the name of the King – why not insist that all people give their hearts to power and might and national identity – rather than allegiance to the King of kings?

 

Well, dear reader…again, my heart breaks.

 

Now to be sure not all pastors and shepherds got caught up in the insanity, but if you had traveled to this land you will not have found them at the royal court – which had become an Imperial Court with an Imperial Cult, with its leader from the City of Dollar and its council from the cities of the World.

 

The faithful pastors could be found walking the streets and looking for the disenfranchised, the hurting, the sick, the refugee, the hungry, and those who remembered the good and kind and gentle King (Matthew 12:18 – 21). These pastors were binding up wounds and carrying the hurting to the inn for healing at their own expense (Luke 10:30 – 37).  These shepherds were giving their lives for the sheep (John 10:1 – 18).

 

And the bride-to-be? She was cast out of her royal lodgings in rags after she was used up by the faithless pastors (they had no shortage of women to replace her as a figurehead). She wandered the streets, eating from dumpsters, sleeping under bridges in cardboard boxes.

 

Yet, as the Father of the Great and Good King would have it, she was discovered by some nondescript faithful pastors in their search for the untouchable and unlovable, and they and their little flocks brought her in and clothed her and fed her and gave her shelter and love and care. Most importantly of all they spoke of her beloved, of the Great and Good King…for they loved Him with all that they had and all that they were.

 

The King and His Bride ...and the Shepherds: Part Two

 

Soon a delegation from the great city of Dollar arrived to speak to the pastors of the royal court. The rulers of Dollar had heard of the betrothed’s appearances at regal balls in the surrounding lands and they had a request. They were not requesting the beloved’s attendance at a ball, but rather a trade festival, for their city was all about commerce and making money – they loved money. They thought that if the queen-to-be would attend their upcoming trade festival that it would attract people far and wide.

 

They also had another request; they had brought with them various products their city was known for and wanted the young woman to try them and to endorse the ones she liked. In return, the leaders of the city would make a payment to the pastors.

 

By this time, the pastors were accustomed to displaying the betrothed to others, and they were enjoying the attention they received when they brought her with them to grand functions. Furthermore, compared to the pastors she was a child, and a trusting child at that. She was convinced that these learned men whom her beloved husband-to-be had entrusted her to meant the best for both her and the king.

 

The pastors saw no problem with the offer from the City of Dollar, instead they saw opportunity!

 

Needless to say, the Festival of Dollar was a great success for the merchants and manufacturers and…to the pastors. Within days of their return to the royal residence in the land of the great and good king a delegation from another city arrived to seek audience with the pastors; they were from the City of Fashion.

 

The City of Fashion was having its annual grand festival in just a few weeks and having heard of the astounding success of the City of Dollar, they had an offer for the pastors that shouted of innovation and opportunity. They would triple the payment the pastors had received from the City of Dollar, plus give the pastors a percentage of the profits from the sale of every dress and gown the betrothed modeled at the City of Fashion.

 

Furthermore, in order to ensure that the young woman displayed fashion in its best light, they brought make-up artists with them, and dress designers, modeling coaches, and dance instructors.

 

The offer was immediately accepted.

 

However, this time there were questions from others within the royal court. While there had previously been murmurings, now the questions were louder, the concerns more forcibly expressed. Why were the pastors doing this? Why were they putting themselves and their agendas ahead of the king and his beloved bride-to-be? What were they doing to her? Why were their bank and investment accounts growing? Why were they not being transparent about their finances? Why were they not paying attention to the welfare of the people? The poor, the widow, the immigrant seeking refuge, the sick, the prisoner, the hungry?

 

The pastors had a stock response, “You don’t understand. These things are best left to us” (John 9:34).

 

To those who continued to protest, the pastors and their servants paid them special visits and suggested that perhaps they would be better off moving to another land, to another kingdom; they need not think about returning.

 

Well, dear reader, my heart breaks as I write this, the visions in my head make me sick as Daniel was sick (Daniel 7:28; 8:27). For by the time the betrothed walked down the runways of the City of Fashion you could not recognize her as the innocent young woman who had once faithfully endured the imprisonment of the evil prince, she no longer looked and moved as the bride-to-be of the great and good king – I will venture no more description – considering our own society it probably would not shock us, but it should.

 

The King and His Bride...and the Shepherds: Part One

 

The King and His Bride…and the Shepherds

 

There once was a great and good king who was engaged to be married.

 

When his betrothed was younger, she had been kidnapped by an evil prince, taken to a far-off land, and imprisoned and tormented in an effort to force her to marry the evil prince. However, the great and good king disguised himself, traveled to the far-off land, and after many trials and privations, fought the evil prince and his wicked servants, freeing his beloved betrothed, and bringing her safely back to his Kingdom.

 

Before the wedding date, the good king had to leave on an urgent matter on behalf of his people. Keeping in mind the horror of the kidnapping, he called together a cohort of trusted servants, known as shepherds or pastors, and placed the safety and welfare of his bride-to-be in their hands. The great and good king was confident that these men would faithfully care for his beloved and that he need not be concerned for her well – being.

 

As for the betrothed, as she looked at the kindly faces of the shepherds, she was certain she had nothing to fear and that she could spend her days and nights looking forward to the return of her husband-to-be and preparing herself for that great wedding day and their marriage supper.

 

After the king departed, the first few weeks were quiet and restful. The betrothed enjoyed spending time with her ladies in waiting, gardening, walking in forests and by waterfalls and gently running brooks; and of course she was preparing, always preparing for the return of the king and the much-anticipated wedding day.

 

As for the pastors, at first they were content with fulfilling the king’s charge to them, but the longer the king was gone, the more restless they became.

 

“How long will he be gone? When will he return?” they asked one another.

 

As the weeks became months and as the months multiplied, they asked, “Why hasn’t he returned? Perhaps something happened to him? Maybe he is ill. He could have died of sickness or even been killed in battle.”

 

At one time these pastors spoke of the king and only the king. They talked to the bride-to-be of the king, they talked to the people of the king, they taught the children of the land about the king.

 

Then one day a messenger arrived from an adjacent land. The ruler of that land was giving a ball and was extending an invitation not only to the pastors, but also to the king’s betrothed; he wanted the pastors to bring her with them.

 

Such a thing was unheard of in all the history of the land of the great and good king. From time immemorial kings would only dance with their spouses or their intended spouses, and queens and queens to be would only dance with their husbands or husbands to be. The eyes of kings were only for their queens, and the eyes of queens were only for their kings.

 

The pastors thought, “Even though such a thing is unheard of, the king has been gone far longer than we thought he would be. He may come back, or he may not. The young woman must be bored waiting for him, we certainly are. If the king does return, would he not be pleased to know that we had brightened his betrothed’s life by taking her to a grand ball where she could shine before others? He would certainly appreciate our efforts.”

 

And so it began, for as word spread abroad that the beautiful betrothed of the good and great king was being escorted by the king’s pastors to balls and festivals invitations deluged the royal court. The shepherds convinced the young woman, after prolonged argument with her, that even though such a thing had never happened before in their kingdom, that these were exceptional times and that the king would not only understand, but that he would approve.

 

Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship Part II – Reflections (10)

 

“The body of Christ is his church – community. Jesus Christ at the same time is himself and his church community (1 Cor. 12:12)…To be in Christ means to be in the church – community. But if we are in the church – community, then we are also truly and bodily in Jesus Christ. This insight reveals the full richness of meaning contained in the concept of the body of Christ” (pp. 198 – 199).

 

“Since the ascension, Jesus Christ’s place on earth has been taken by his body, the church. The church is the present Christ himself. With this statement we are recovering an insight about the church which has been almost totally forgotten. While we are used to thinking of the church as an institution, we ought instead to think of it as a person with a body, although of course a person in a unique sense” (page 199, italics mine).

 

If what Bonhoeffer says is true, then we have much to unlearn and much ground to recover.

 

The Apostle John writes that he wants his readers to have koinonia with him and his brothers and sisters, because John and his friends have koinonia with the Father and the Son (1 John 1:3). In other words, to have fellowship with John and his associates is to have fellowship with God. Put another way, to be in the same fellowship as John is, is to be in the fellowship of God. To be in the church - community is to be in Christ.

 

As Bonhoeffer points out, this is not about an institution but rather about a Person.

 

We simply don’t think this way, we simply don’t see the church – community this way, we do not see Jesus Christ this way. Yet, the Church, the Body, the Bride, the Temple is portrayed as a living and organic entity throughout Scripture, an entity that far surpasses and dwarfs our parochial concepts of congregations, denominations, and traditions.

 

Let us recall that Jesus asked, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

 

“For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ” (1 Cor. 12:12). This is not a metaphor, this is an organic reality. This is Christ. As Bonhoeffer writes, this is a “person in a unique sense.”

 

Perhaps the following may help us. When you read the name “Israel” what do you think of in a Biblical context? Most people probably think of a nation, a people whom God brought out of Egypt, through the Wilderness, into Canaan, and who had a varied history in the Ancient Near East. However, that is not the only way to relate to the name Israel in the Bible, it is not the only thing the name Israel means in the Bible.

 

In Genesis 32:24 – 32 Jacob wrestles with God and at the conclusion of the encounter God says, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.”  Later, in Genesis 35:9 – 13, God confirms Jacob’s new name, “Your name is Jacob; you shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.”

 

When reading the Bible and coming upon the name Israel, sometimes it will mean the individual also known as Jacob, sometimes it will mean all of Jacob’s descendants, and sometimes it will mean the northern kingdom which came about after the death of Solomon. Beyond that, sometimes it will mean the People of God in Jesus Christ – from ages past to the present and into the future. Many times it will mean a combination! For now, I want to just think about the way “Israel” can refer to Jacob and also how it can refer to Jacob’s physical descendants.

 

When I say or write “Israel” do I mean the individual or the people? Context tells the listener or the reader which I mean. There is even a sense in which I can mean both at the same time because all of the physical descendants of Israel came from the individual named Israel. We might term this as seeing the body of Israel with Jacob Israel as the head of the body.

 

This imagery and way of thinking is found throughout the Bible, so don’t be too quick to give up on it, there is a lot at stake in understanding it. (Remember those passages in Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15 about “Adam” and “Christ”? You may want to take another look at them.)

 

In a similar fashion when I use the name Christ I may use it in the sense of the entire Body of Christ, such as in 1 Corinthians 12:12, or I can write, “I have been crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20) and thereby refer to the Person of Jesus Christ. Or we can have a passage in which we see both the Head and the body in a living and dynamic relationship:

 

“Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of every part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:15 – 16).

 

St. Augustine, in his wonderful expositions on the Psalms, beholds Christ the Head and Christ the Church in psalm after psalm. At times he writes in effect, “The unity of Christ and His Body is such in this psalm that I cannot distinguish between the two, nor should I.”

 

While we may be taken aback by such language and vision, we ought not to be, at least we ought not to be if we believe Jesus:

 

“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent me…I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and love them, even as You have loved Me” (see John 17:20 – 26).

 

We are called to be one in the Trinity, to know the koinonia of the Trinity, to share the life of the Trinity, to live in intimacy with the Trinity…and therefore with one another.

 

As the Bride of Christ the Church is bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh and one person with the Bridegroom; let us recall that Scripture begins with marriage and culminates with Marriage – let us embrace the glory of the Marriage of the Lamb and His Bride, that unfolding Divine mystery – there has never been a marriage march like that of Revelation chapters 21 and 22!

 

One of my lowest moments as a pastor was being in a Sunday school class that was reading Ephesians 4:11 – 16. The teacher read this passage aloud, paused a moment, and then said, “Let’s move on.” Since this passage has been a key in my life since the 1960s, since it has been an integral element of my vision, I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing…well, yes I could.

 

For this “leader” and this congregation were steeped in ethnic identity, they were imbued with worldly political thinking, the collective leadership was controlling, and it was most certainly “their church” rather than Christ’s church. (I suppose they were not that much different from many congregations in one way or another.)

 

This teacher, a leader in the congregation, could not “see” Ephesians 4:11 – 16, so blind was she to the Body of Christ…and therefore to Christ. But she is not alone, is she? From seminaries to denominational leadership, to pulpits throughout the land (including so-called nondenominational churches), we do not see the Body of Christ – this is the way we have been raised, educated, and the way many of us make our living.

 

Jesus says in John 17 that the key to evangelism, if we can call it such, is our unity in the Trinity; but we think we know better so we ignore what He says.

 

The Church is not an institution but a Person, yes, a unique Person, but a Person we see from Genesis through Revelation. We cannot define this Person, but we can not only live in this Person, when we live in Him we are one with Him and He is one with us and we are one with one another. We are “members one of another” (Rom. 15:5; also Eph. 4:25).

 

There is indeed a chasm between the Body of Christ, the Church, as portrayed in the Bible and as understood and practiced by American Christians (and beyond our shores). As Bonhoeffer writes, we’ve forgotten that the Body of Christ is a Person.

 

The Good News amid the challenge of recovering lost ground is that Jesus will teach us to “see” and live in His Body, He will teach us to see Him throughout the Scriptures. The Lamb will teach us to love His Bride and serve her. Jesus will teach us as individuals, as husbands and wives and families, as congregations…and beyond.

 

However, He does not promise that others will understand us. Some have given up on the Body of Christ, the Church, and no longer want to hear anything about us as a People whom Jesus loves. Others will allow nothing to threaten their parochial view of church, they will not permit anything, include Jesus and the Bible, to open their eyes to the communion of saints – nothing must threaten control. (I want to emphasize that this includes so-called nondenominational churches and affiliated groups, as well as more traditional movements and organizations.)

 

A telling passage of Scripture is 2 Timothy 2:10, “For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they also my obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory.” Consider that Paul writes this in the context of the following two statements:

 

“You are aware of the fact that all who are in Asia turned away from me” (2 Timothy 1:15).

 

“At my first defense no one supported me, but all deserted me; may it not be counted against them” (2 Timothy 4:16).

 

Paul’s commitment to the Body of Christ, to the Church, to those who are chosen, is not contingent on how he is treated by Christians. The Body of Christ which he once persecuted he now loves and serves whether or not his love and service is accepted. Christians may reject Paul, but Paul will not reject them.

 

The cost of discipleship, as articulated by Bonhoeffer, includes the cost of seeing and living in the Body of Christ, and there is a cost, make no mistake about it. The cost includes serving and laying down our lives for the Body of Christ (1 John 3:16; Colossians 1:24; 2 Cor. 4:12).

 

Bonhoeffer’s images and words and concepts are strange to most of us, but he is rooting and framing them in Scripture and in Jesus Christ. This ought to shake us, it ought to challenge us, it ought to cause us to wonder just what we believe and practice.

 

Does it?

 

“Since the ascension, Jesus Christ’s place on earth has been taken by his body, the church. The church is the present Christ himself.”

 

Is this how your congregation sees itself?

 

Is it how the members of your congregation treat one another?

 

Is it how your congregation relates to other groups of Christians?

 

Is it how your congregation relates to the world?

Married to Jesus, Faithful to Him (2)

 How To Biblically Read History

One of the heresies that is enveloping the professing church is a skewered way of reading history, including the history of our own nation, the U.S.A.  

The fundamental way to read and interpret history is through Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” We simply do not want to believe this when it comes to our own nation, we want to read history through various lenses that support our nationalistic, political, social, or economic notions. Since followers of Jesus are supposed to be citizens of heaven (Philippians 3:20) and since we are supposed to be pilgrims and strangers on earth looking for our home City which God has prepared for us (Hebrews 11:8 – 16), when any lens other than Jesus Christ is promoted, within the church, as the way to view history we have heresy. It is heresy because our hearts are to belong to Jesus and only to Jesus, we are to be His faithful Bride (2 Cor. 11:2 – 3). There is no room in our marriage to Jesus for another husband, another suitor, another lover. When we gather as the Bride of Christ, do we really want to invite other lovers into our Divine Bedroom?

The primary image of unfaithfulness to God in the Bible is that of adultery, it is not idolatry per se, but spiritual adultery. How have we lost sight of this? Is it because our hearts no longer belong to our heavenly Bridegroom?

This makes movements such as Christian Nationalism and the New Apostolic Reformation especially egregious for it encourages us to give our hearts to a nation, rather than give them to Jesus; these movements have an affinity with past movements that have brought tragedy on their churches and nations. God’s People are called to serve others, not to dominate them. These movements are founded and perpetuated on a false reading of history, a reading that cares nothing for the truth and which spins false narratives to accomplish their own ends. (Yes, yes, to be sure there are other movements within the professing church that are also dangerous, but I am addressing those with whom I am more likely to have a shared history.)

Now, should you take offense at the above, I will ask you why you should be offended? Why would a married person take offense at someone encouraging them to be faithful to their spouse? Why would a married person take offense with someone encouraging them to love their spouse with all that they have and not to share marital love and conjugal relations with anyone other than his or her spouse? 

When we are told by our Father not to have other gods before Him, He means that there are to be no other gods in His Presence; yet often our “worship” is syncretistic as we introduce flags and patriotic songs and political agendas into the bedroom of the People of God, the Bride of Christ. Of course, in a sense these things, as they have normally been practiced, pale before the super-charged nationalism engulfing much of the professing church. We have all but wrapped the Cross in the flag, and thereby obscured the Cross of Christ and the Christ of the Cross. 

The above is only Biblical common sense. After all, Jesus says that His kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36), and the Scriptures are clear that the nations are opposed to the Father and the Son and that they will all be brought low as the Rock fills the earth (Psalm 2, Daniel 2). Just as we are prone to sin as individuals when we think we are exceptions to the Bible, so we are prone to sin collectively when we think our own nation, whichever nation that might be, is an exception to the Bible. 

So again we come to Romans 3:23, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. If this is true of an individual, it is certainly true of a collection of individuals. 

Now I’m going to ask you to think about a few more things before I close this reflection. I’d like to ask you to consider the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah lived in a time when the rulers, the government, the priests and most prophets were teaching the people, “Look at our foundation. God established us and we are His special people. God will preserve us. God favors us. We are exceptional people above all other nations.”

However, Jeremiah was saying just the opposite. He was saying, “This is what God is saying. Don’t look backwards at your forefathers and think that somehow God will overlook your wickedness. Judgment is coming on you in the form of the kingdom of Babylon. Surrender to Babylon and God will spare your lives and your cities. However, if you do not surrender then God will destroy you in judgment.”

Jeremiah was persecuted and imprisoned and almost lost his life because of his faithfulness to God. 

Let me ask you a question, Who was patriotic in this scenario? Were the rulers and priests and prophets who had a false and arrogant trust in Judah’s exceptionalism patriotic? Or was it Jeremiah who told the truth at the risk of his own life? O dear friends, what is popular is seldom the truth. 

I am reminded of G. K. Chesterton and his opposition to the Boer War. Chesterton argued that Britain betrayed its values in this war, and most certainly in its treatment of Boer civilians. Approximately 30,000 Boer women and children perished in British concentration camps - this is not a typo. When Chesterton was accused of not being patriotic, he countered by asking what a true patriot is. Is a true patriot someone who loves his country enough to speak the truth, even if it means rejection? 

Do we love God enough to be faithful to Him? Do we love those around us, including those in our nation, enough to be a distinctive People in Christ as His Bride? Do we love our nation to the point where we will confess that it is sinful as all mankind is sinful? Will we read history through Romans 3:23? 

About the same time that Chesterton was speaking out on the Boer War, there were citizens of the United States speaking out about a military conquest our own government was engaged in. I am sure we have all read about it and were taught it in school. Of course I am speaking of our conquest of the Philippines. (You were taught it, right?) While Secretary of State John Hay called the Spanish – American War, “A splendid little war, begun with the highest motives” (a statement highly suspect), and while we have been taught about Teddy Roosevelt and San Juan Hill and Commodore Dewey and the Battle of Mobile Bay, I don’t recall being taught about our conquest of the Philippines. Were you taught about the Philippine – American War?  

How is it that we, people of the land of the free and the home of the brave, did not free the Filipino people after the war with Spain? How is it that we simply replaced the Spanish as lords of the Philippines? How is it that we, when the Filipino people sought their independence, in essence said, "Our own Declaration of Independence is window dressing, we don’t really believe it, and if you have any doubts, look down the barrels of our rifles.”  

According to the U.S. Department of State’s Historian, not only were about 4,200 American and over 20,000 Filipino combatants killed in the fighting, but as many as 200,000 Filipino civilians died from violence, famines, and disease. 

When we read history through Romans 3:23, we read all of history, and when we read all our history, we can say with the Bible, “There is none righteous, no not one.”

Would you be faithful to your spouse even if everyone around you was unfaithful to their spouses? Will you be faithful to Jesus even if everyone around you is seduced by “God and Country” or economic agendas and lovers or social agendas (whether from the right or left) or entertainment or sports spinning out of control or academia having lost it mind (including seminaries).

Will you have a monogamous and exclusive relationship with Jesus Christ? 

And here is what it seems we just will not see, even if all the lies being told were true (of course they are not, they are lies), they still would not be the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they would still be a false lover and a false god. Our hearts are to belong to Jesus and Jesus alone and the people of our home nation and all nations need Jesus Christ. 

To borrow an image from C. S. Lewis and The Last Battle, dead lion skins are being used to deceive much of the professing church, and because we are not looking at the real Aslan, we are being duped into worshipping false gods. 

Are we reading history through Romans 3:23? Psalm 2 and Daniel 2?

Is not Jesus Christ enough? 

Mark 8:34 – 38.

Married to Jesus, Faithful to Him (1)

Tension – What to Write? What to Say? A Dilemma. 

A friend once asked me, “What do you really enjoy writing about?”

I immediately replied, “The love of God.” 

I love sharing the love of God in Christ with others. I love pondering how much our dear Lord Jesus loves us. I have found that the greatest need in the world, and most certainly in the professing church (Ephesians 3:14–19), is for people to know the depths of God’s love for us in Jesus Christ. There is a reason John 3:16 was once the cornerstone of our message to the world and to one another within the professing church. I don’t think I ever heard Billy Graham preach without quoting John 3:16; there was a reason for that too. Yes, there is nothing like sharing the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.

If my friend had also asked me, “What do you least like writing about? Is there anything you avoid writing about?” I would probably have responded, “False teaching, heresy, and teaching which I wouldn’t term “heresy,” but which is enough off-base to affect others negatively, obscuring Jesus and the fulness of His life in us and our life in Him.”  

Now if you have either listened to me or read much of what I’ve written you won’t be surprised when I talk about the fact that we are not sinners but saints in Christ, nor should it surprise you if I say that we tend to live under the Old Covenant and teach the Old Covenant even though Jesus Christ is our New Covenant High Priest. Nor will you be surprised when I write about our pragmatic approach to the Bible and church life as opposed to living as the sons and daughters of God, or when I speak of us being people who are 100 miles wide and an inch deep. 

Whether you agree with me on these things, whether or not you see them the way that I do, I hope you do know that I love Jesus with all of my heart and that I want to love Him today more than I did yesterday. Presumably if you are reading this there is something God has given me to pass on that is helpful in your relationship with Him and with your relationship to our brothers and sisters in Christ. 

I think it is only by beholding Jesus that we are transformed into His image. Therefore, I want to focus on Jesus (1 John 3:2; 2 Cor. 3:17–18; Rom. 12:1–2; Col. 3:1–4).

Yet, what to do when false teaching and heresy permeate the church? What to do when dangerous thinking and practice deceive and tear down the People of God? What to do when these things are popularized? 

How to be faithful to our dear Lord Jesus in the midst of a tsunami of destruction? 

I would like to think that simply preaching the incredible love of Jesus Christ would bring professing Christians back to their senses, but the Bible does not teach this nor does experience demonstrate this. In the Gospels we witness conflict between Jesus and the religious establishment, with Jesus clearly denouncing the teaching and practice of the Pharisees (see Matthew 23). In the book of Acts there is conflict between legalists and those preaching the Gospel. Virtually all the New Testament letters address false teaching, some more than others. 

One of the benefits of preaching and teaching the books of the Bible is that we cannot avoid the hard passages about false teaching, we can’t cherry pick what we preach…well at least I hope we don’t. A steady diet of topical preaching and teaching eventually loses its way, Jesus is no longer its center and interpretive lens. Topical preaching seduces us into self-centeredness; our wants, our needs, our desires, our priorities. 

Why do I not care to write about false teaching? 

The first reason is that I want to focus on Jesus, always on Jesus. Again, it is in Jesus that we are transformed.

The second is that it is easy to get sucked up into negativity when thinking about false teaching and false teachers. I don’t want to be defined in terms of what I do not believe, I want to be defined in terms of what I do believe, I want Jesus and His love to define me. Another way to put it is that I want to be known for what I am for (Jesus Christ!) and not for what I am against. 

There are folks who style themselves as heresy hunters, always looking for what they think is error and being quick to criticize others. A steady diet of this distracts us from our Lord Jesus Christ, plus I think it sickens our souls. 

Then there is a very selfish reason why I avoid dealing with false teaching, it is a burden to me, it entails a heaviness. To ponder the works of darkness is hard, only a fool takes these things lightly. C. S. Lewis expressed relief when he completed The Screwtape Letters, and it took him a while to recover from the experience. Lewis paid a price for touching the realm of the enemy to help God’s People, that was the only way he could tell the story. 

Yet, to be faithful to Christ and His People we need to point out that the messengers of the enemy can transform themselves into apparent messengers of light (2 Cor. 11:13–15). O that it was not so.

I have tried both ways as a pastor. I have not said anything much about false teaching and practices and have hoped for the best, and then I have made a point of dealing with them in some measure (I can’t truly say that I have been completely straightforward – I tend to be oblique too often) and have also hoped for the best. I wish that I could say that one way or the other made a difference, but I can’t…I just don’t know. 

In the last church I attempted to pastor, there was such an ingrained heresy when I arrived that I wasn’t sure how to deal with it, other than keep pointing folks to Jesus and His Word. While toward the end of my time there I did try to illustrate the problem and point to Jesus as our Way out of it, the heresy was too ingrained. Jesus was simply a mascot, a tool of nationalism, there was no difference between the national flag and the Cross of Jesus Christ. Jesus was the spokesperson for a political agenda and He was the sanitizer for a nationalism where might makes right and we need not consider morals or ethics or the widow and orphan or stranger in the land. 

Above all else, the thought that Christians are citizens of heaven and that we are pilgrims and strangers on earth (Phil. 3:20; Heb. 11: 8–16) was a Biblical teaching stoutly rejected. 

From a young Christian I have known Ezekiel 33:1–9. This passage has been a burden to me, you could almost call it a “curse.” I can hear Paul say, “For if I preach the Gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the Gospel” (1 Cor. 9:16). 

So what am I saying and why am I writing this? I’m writing this to clarify my thoughts and seek direction, and I am saying that while these things are not easy and that they are fraught with tension, that for the sake of the Gospel I am going to write a thread dealing with false teaching and certain heresies. You see, dear friends, it truly must be all for Jesus or nothing for Jesus – are we not bought with a price? The blood of the precious Lamb of God.

So the Lord willing, on this blog we'll continue with the Upper Room, The Last Battle, and now this new thread, which I'm calling Married to Jesus, Faithful to Him. Much love! Bob