Jacob Ninan
When we realise who God is, one of the things that ought to happen spontaneously is for us to bow down in our heart before Him and submit our life to Him. When a man finds it difficult to submit to God, the real reason, whatever else people may say, is that he has not realised who God really is and who he is before Him. In other words, if we claim that we have come to know God, there is no excuse at all for us to remain centred around ourselves independent of God and to imagine that we can decide what we want to do! For Christians who recognise God with all His attributes, it should be easier to submit to Him than it is for others.
But what we find when we look around is that, for a large number of people who claim to be 'born again', Jesus is not on the throne of their lives. They themselves are the masters of their lives and they decide when they would like to obey God and when it will be out of place because of public opinion, customs and fashions of the times, what experts say, what they themselves consider to be convenient, etc. There are those who think they are 'believers', but who have never met with God or seen Him for who He is. As a result, even though they claim to know Jesus as their Saviour – whatever they mean by that – it is clear that He is not their Lord and Master. It appears that even their claim of salvation remains questionable with this kind of experience.
Then there are others who have been truly born again, but whose lives are only partly surrendered to Him. There are areas in their lives where they do whatever they choose, irrespective of what God thinks about them. When they read the Bible and come across instructions that would place them under some inconvenience, they find excuses such as saying those instructions are not applicable to them.
Jesus said that, unless we got converted and became like little children, we could not get into the kingdom of God at all (Matt.18:3). At another time, He said that the real truths of the kingdom of God would be kept hidden from those who depended on their own intelligence and understanding. Only if we are like children can we understand such truths (Matt.11:25,26). Just as children trust their parents and believe what they are told, it is those who humbly receive what God tells them through His word who get a revelation of spiritual truths. Others, whose confidence is in their own understanding and refuse to humble themselves and accept what God tells them, will never get insight into the laws of the kingdom of God. For them, the wisdom of God appears to be foolishness (1Cor.2:14). They neglect the instructions of God and prefer to follow what the ungodly experts of the world tell them, thinking that they are being very smart to keep up with the times!
Let us take two examples where we can see how the wisdom of this world has come in and pushed out the wisdom of God from many Christians, with dire consequences.
God gives a lot of instructions in His word about bringing up children. We are told that children need training if they are to become able to walk 'in the way they should go' (Prov.22:6). The most important thing that godly parents (and God) want for their children is that they should grow up and walk in God's ways. They know that the little baby they have received has a nature that has a tendency towards sin (Psa.51:5), and that therefore he needs a lot of training to protect him from following his sinful nature, and to lead him towards being born again one day (Jn.3:3) and growing up in that new nature from God. This training calls for passing on to the children the precepts of God which the parents have heard and learnt (Deut.4:10), and instilling in their hearts a love for God and His ways. Sometimes this training would call for loving and wise chastisements by the parents (Prov.13:24;22:15).
But this is not what the experts of the world say. In the 1960s a concept gained prominence among psychologists that emphasised that each child was a unique person and therefore, instead of the parents trying to mould their children into 'their own image' they should allow freedom for the children to develop their own personalities. Of course, there is some truth being brought out here; e.g., parents are not to force their children to become doctors or engineers contrary to the children's abilities and desires, but to find out the special abilities, aptitudes and interests that the children have and to guide them wisely to make appropriate decisions. But when this new concept became exaggerated, it resulted in children being left to themselves to do whatever they liked, with the parents not making any attempt to train them. Many governments have prohibited any form of chastisement, calling them 'child abuse'! Children in schools are not to be 'punished' and in some schools, no student can be declared 'failed'! Anyone can observe the negative results and how this is affecting society as a whole.
We need to also recognise the fact that much of so-called discipline of children has actually been abuse, when the parents vent their anger and frustration on their children without ensuring that discipline must come out of love and self-control (Heb.12:6) and must be aimed at training the children to become godly (v.10). The world has reacted to this abuse by broadening the meaning of abuse and indirectly preventing discipline by parents, teachers, etc.
God has warned us about this, "The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child who gets his own way brings shame to his mother" (Prov.29:15). And yet, many Christians would rather listen to expert psychologists than to the Creator Himself!
The second example is about the hierarchy God has set up in families – God the Father, Christ, husband, wife (1Cor.11:3). He did not do this because Christ was inferior to the Father or because the wife was inferior to her husband. He has given us an example in the Trinity where all three Persons of the Trinity are equally God and no one is superior to another. Yet, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit carry out different roles where the Son submits to the Father and the Holy Spirit exalts the Son. In a somewhat similar way, within the human family where both husband and wife are made equally in the image of God (Gen.1:27) and God makes no difference between man and woman (Gal.3:28), God requires the wife to submit to her husband (Eph.5:22;Col.3:18;1Pet.3:1). This is for the harmonious working of the different roles of the husband and wife and their living together in oneness.
It is obvious that this has not worked out in this way in many homes over all time. There has been much abuse by husbands, and women all over the world have suffered from it. It has not just been like this in families, but many men have generally treated women as if they were of less value, bought and sold them as if they were commodities, and given them no rights or voice to protest. Even in churches, many preachers have subdued the role of women by misquoting the Bible and telling them to just submit to their husbands, even in the face of serious abuse.
In such a context, it was natural that a women's liberation movement began to come up and demand equal rights in all areas of life and work. Apparently, towards the end of the Second World War in 1945 when millions of men had died in the war, the scene took a drastic change when, in the absence of the breadwinners, mothers/wives came out of their homes to take on the burden of providing for their family. Afterwards, it became a trend for women to work outside their homes, while trying to cope with managing the home too. The feminist viewpoint became stronger till it became unreasonable in many ways such as in trying to ignore the differences between men and women and their respective roles in the family and society.
With this cultural pressure coming on Bible interpretation, many Christians are confused about what God really wants in 'these modern times'. Some of them give too much freedom for their children and some aim to promote equality between the genders at all costs. But, because many sinful human beings choose to live selfishly and misuse their position, can we afford to go against the schemes laid out by God and think we will succeed?
For those who give God His rightful place, can there be a question about whether we will obey Him or experts (Acts.4:19)? But sadly, those who consider themselves as 'wise and intelligent' (Matt.11:25) act as if they are cleverer than God and they know the world better than the Creator.
-- Editorial in the Light of Life magazine, July 2019
I would welcome opinions and comments from you! Write hereTable of articles
Home page
Tweet