How to Rise Above Abuse (Counseling Through the Bible Series) (15 page)

L—Lord

Examples:

•
The congregation that judges another congregation because of their manner of dress, style of worship, or the Bible translation they use

•
The spiritual leader who looks down on some in the congregation, perceiving them to be spiritually immature and inferior

•
The religious people who put confidence in “the flesh,” which means living out of their own resources and their perceived achievement of a self-imposed standard of righteousness that causes them to despise others and to develop a prideful spirit

However, God alone knows the heart of a person. Only He can judge motives. The Bible says,

“All a man’s ways seem innocent to him,
but motives are weighed by the L
ORD
”

(P
ROVERBS
16:2).

Every organization, including churches, schools, businesses, and even homes, has rules and regulations. These are necessary for the organization to function properly.

Example:
The apostle Paul instructed the church in Corinth about how the people should conduct their religious meetings: “Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged. The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. For God is not a God of disorder but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:29-33).

God established authority figures in the church, home, and government
for our good. These individuals are to meet the needs of those under their authority and provide them with leadership, guidance, protection, and accountability.

Example:
The writer of the book of Hebrews explained the function of authority and how Christians are to relate to their leaders: “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you” (Hebrews 13:17).

Within the boundaries of biblical absolutes, God gives us the responsibility to choose how we will live our Christian lives. The choices we make throughout the day as to how we will present ourselves to others and how we will conduct ourselves around others reflect our standards.
Making choices
to live by biblical standards is not legalism, even if the choices we make are more conservative or restrictive than the choices of others.

Example:
Through Joshua, God gave the Israelites the choice as to whether they would serve Him or not: “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…But as for me and my household, we will serve the L
ORD
” (Joshua 24:15).

The Unfortunate Fame of Eufame MacLayne

Unbelievable…inconceivable…absolutely unthinkable! When I first heard this story, I had to ask, “How could this possibly happen?”

The horrific incident took place in 1591 after Scottish noblewoman Eufame MacLayne, a lady of rank and refinement, became pregnant with twins. Her concerned midwife provided an herb to ease the painful delivery of the twins. But when church leaders learned she had taken the herb, they believed she had violated the law of God, showing deliberate contempt for the truth of Scripture. Thus, Eufame was condemned to die.

The church leaders reasoned that after Adam and Eve had sinned, God issued judgments, and specifically to the woman He pronounced, “I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing” (Genesis 3:16). Because Eufame had sought relief from agonizing labor pains, the church leaders deemed her act as sin and declared that what she
had done was worthy of death. (Yet nowhere in Scripture are women forbidden to take herbs or medicine during childbirth.)

When the official crown bailiff arrived at Eufame’s home, she clung tightly to her twins…but they were pulled from her. Eufame was forcibly dragged to Castle Hill in Edinburgh, where she was to be burned at the stake. Chains were wrapped around her kneeling body, and in less than an hour ashes were “all that remained of Eufame MacLayne.”
⁶

Her murder was a tragic case of woefully misguided spiritual leaders who failed to consider the whole counsel of God and therefore committed spiritual abuse. Rather than gleaning wisdom from the Bible as a whole, one isolated Scripture text became the foundation for a distorted and dangerous theology.

Sadly, for hundreds of years and in many countries this one Scripture passage—read in isolation—was used erroneously to verbally attack, severely punish, and kill countless people, including physicians seeking only to alleviate the pain of childbirth. In my research on this matter, I came across the following fascinating account.

As late as 1847, British physician Sir James Simpson—who discovered the anesthetic properties of chloroform—was denounced mercilessly for trying to circumvent God’s Genesis chapter 3 judgment on women who suffer pain during childbirth. Interestingly, his greatest defense for using anesthesia was found in the preceding chapter—Genesis 2. He reminded his opponents about the written “record of the first surgical operation ever performed and that text proves that the Maker of the universe, before he took the rib from Adam’s side for the creation of Eve, caused a deep sleep to fall upon him.”
⁷

Fortunately, Dr. Simpson was well-grounded in both theology and logic. Theologically, he knew the Genesis account of God’s judgment extended not just to women, but to men as well—for survival, man’s labor would require “painful toil” and “the sweat of your brow” (Genesis 3:17-19). He answered his critics’ accusations of heresy with this irrefutable reasoning: Based on God’s curse in Genesis 3, if a woman sinned each time she eased her labor pains by using medicine, “then a man sinned each time he eased his labor by using an ox, a plow, or even fertilizer to enrich the soil.”
⁸
Thus he countered that any effort to eliminate the pain of labor for men was as much an
avoidance of the Lord’s curse as was alleviating the pain of labor for women through an anesthetic.

With this sound logical and biblical defense, Dr. Simpson finally silenced all the critics.

Christians and the Law

Q
UESTION
:
“Is there no law for Christians to live by?”
⁹

A
NSWER
:
The Bible says that under the New Covenant, God will put His law in the minds and the hearts of every Christian. In addition, everyone has an internal law that is not the law of Moses but rather the Lord’s personal law for each of us. According to Romans 2:14-15, “When Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.”

Because Christ indwells every true believer, we who are Christians naturally have both His will and His supernatural power to do His will:

“ ‘This is the covenant I will make with them
after that time,’ says the Lord.
‘I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds’ ”

(H
EBREWS
10:16).

•
He prompts
you to desire and to do His will.

“It is God who works in you to will
and to act according to his good purpose”

(P
HILIPPIANS
2:13).

•
He provides
you with the power to do what He calls you to do.

“The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it”

(1 T
HESSALONIANS
5:24).

They were at it again, trying to trip up the Teacher.

The religious leaders of the day rejected the teaching and ministry of Jesus and were doggedly determined to disgrace Him publicly by asking complicated, manipulative questions. He silenced them each and every time with perfect wisdom, but still they persisted.

Early one morning in the temple courts, during the quiet of dawn, Jesus sat down to teach. While He spoke, commotion broke out. The Pharisees brought a woman before Jesus and made her stand in front of the crowd in utter humiliation, claiming she was caught in the very act of adultery. It was an opportune moment, the Pharisees connived, to “catch” Jesus once and for all and curtail His ministry. They would do anything—and use anyone—to satiate their sinful quest.

And so they asked Him: “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” (John 8:4-5).

The difference between law and grace was about to be displayed. While the Pharisees kept firing away with questions, Jesus was silent. He bent down and wrote on the ground with His finger. Then He stood up and replied, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7).

Wisdom spoke and silenced once again His adversaries. And one by one, the people left the temple courts. When Jesus and the accused woman were the only ones who remained, again grace was dispensed. Jesus told her He did not condemn her, and He exhorted her to repent and pursue righteousness. He said,

“Go now and leave your life of sin”

(J
OHN
8:11).

They were spiritual leaders devoid of the Spirit. They claimed to esteem the law of Moses, but they desecrated it daily by their pride and hypocrisy. The Pharisees, Israel’s supposed spiritual shepherds, frustrated their flock by requiring them to follow man-made traditions they themselves didn’t keep.

Jesus taught a new and different way to please God in the power of the Spirit, to engage the heart, mind, and will in obeying God’s commands. But
the Pharisees would have none of it. Their rejection—their rebellion against the very God they claimed to serve—prompted harsh rebuke from Jesus Himself.

“Woe to you, blind guides!…
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!
You clean the outside of the cup and dish,
but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish,
and then the outside also will be clean”

(M
ATTHEW
23:16,25-26).

Right or Wrong?

Q
UESTION
:
“Is the law wrong?”

A
NSWER
:
No. The law is the revelation of God’s perfect standard of righteousness. The Bible says,

“The law is holy,
and the commandment is holy,
righteous and good”

(R
OMANS
7:12).

Abolished Law?

Q
UESTION
:
“According to Scripture, was the law abolished?”

A
NSWER
:
No, Jesus didn’t abolish the law. He fulfilled it. That means the standard still exists. The law reflects God’s perfect standard of righteousness, a standard we cannot keep because we’re sinners. That is why salvation is by grace alone.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets;
I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them”

(M
ATTHEW
5:17).

The Law Fulfilled

Q
UESTION
:
“What does ‘Jesus fulfilled it’ mean?”

A
NSWER
:
The law was a covenant, an agreement, a contract. Just as a builder is under a contract to build a house, once the house is complete, the contract is fulfilled. The builder does not continue to work at building the house any longer. Likewise, Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the contract (the law) through His teaching and actions. He accomplished what we could never do by our own efforts. Then the Law Keeper became the sacrifice for us, the lawbreakers. The Bible says,

“Christ is the end of the law so that there may be
righteousness for everyone who believes”

(R
OMANS
10:4).