Jim Berkley made a comment, which I posted below on the "Dilemma" entry. I quote it again here: "We would all like ease and peace. But this is a fallen world, and we have another task: withstanding evil. We ignore and neglect that responsibility to our own peril, and especially to the peril of the most vulnerable." (Jim Berkley) You may not have gotten the full meaning of that quote if you didn’t click and follow the links to where it was discussed. But, here is my understanding: For those who are mature in the faith...,at least relatively so, if you up and jump ship...what about those as depicted in the cartoon below...."the most vulnerable". Who will be left to warn..that the "steamroller cometh", that is, when the "steamroller cometh"? When the laws and rules of the larger body..effect the smaller body..that is, the local congregation...,who would be left to point out to the less mature brothers and sisters the folly of bad decisions? Can a throne of destruction be allied with You, One which devises mischief by decree? Ps 94:20 NASB If this were to happen...who would sound the alarm?
"Do you, the members of this congregation, as those who are already under the obligation of this covenant, welcome into your fellowship these who have now professed their faith in Christ and their purpose as His disciples, and do you promise to encourage and help them in the Christian life?" As members of our local congregation we make this vow (or something similar) upon reception of new members and those baptized.
These are the ones Jim Berkley, I believe, see as the most vulnerable and if we abandon...would be neglecting our responsibility. Just thinking out loud......!
(click to enlarge)
2 comments:
Soon after I became a Christian I learned that there were not-so-good (Bad!) shepherds. I spent quite a bit of time arguing with sheep about the shepherds, and never making much headway.
Eventually I realized that when God says "not many should teach because those who teach will be more accountable..." (James 3.1) that that means there are real differences between sheep and shepherds.
Bad shepherds are rightly blasted by the prophets and the Lord. Lost sheep are sought.
I of course took a different way by fleeing to a conservative Presbyterian denomination. But these past few years have started my thinking on this issue again.
When we are sheep, we actually do have responsibility to look after who is shepherding us and how he is doing it. There are dangers in this (one reason accusations cannot be brought against and elder apart from 2 or 3 witnesses). But there is still responsibility.
You get what you want might be another way to say it. (Better tha getting what we deserve for if that were the case who could stand?)
Still there remains the 'warning' question of Ez 3 and 33. Woe to the shepherds that warn not the sheep.
grace
“When we are sheep, we actually do have responsibility to look after who is shepherding us and how he is doing it. There are dangers in this (one reason accusations cannot be brought against and elder apart from 2 or 3 witnesses). But there is still responsibility.” (Dan)
It is hard to imagine the three characters in the following verse...playing out in the Church today....:
And he (Apollos) began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. (Ac 18:26)
And....we all have the responsibility to remain...teachable.
Post a Comment