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On February 17, 2022 By In Counseling/Piety, Discipleship, Men, Wisdom

Resisting Harlot Folly

Fighting sexual temptation has never been easy. There have been times in which societies such as ours helped by having and enforcing laws discouraging sexual deviancy. There were also general cultural mores that disparaged sexual immorality so great social shame was the lot of the sexually deviant. Temptations didn’t disappear, but cultural pressure at least encouraged restraint.

Studying history, you will see that these societies were few and far between. Our present Western culture is probably more in line with the way many cultures have treated sexual relations; that is, there are few cultural guards that help us with temptation. The lack of cultural sexual restraint that has ingrained itself over the past century or two combined with present-day technology has only increased temptations. I don’t think that we can say, “It is more difficult for us than it ever has been,” but the force of the battle is growing. None of this, of course, is an excuse for sexual sin. In fact, it is a call to arm ourselves all the more with the appropriate discipline to fight an enemy that is growing in strength. We must match our enemies’ strength with greater strength.

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On February 10, 2022 By In Men, Wisdom

The Tactics of Harlot Folly

One obvious truth about Harlot Folly in Proverbs is that she is a woman. She is an “evil woman” (Pr 6.24). She is the inverse of Lady Wisdom, who is also a woman. Harlot Folly is not “all women,” but she is a woman. Whatever secondary applications we make or whatever metaphors we explore (and there are many), Solomon is writing to his son, a man, about a certain type of woman to avoid.

I belabor this point because there are cultural mindsets that have become practically unquestioned assumptions that being a woman per se is original righteousness. As Feminism has grown and helped spawn intersectionality, anything a woman does, even if appearing to be wrong, is not her fault. She did not sin. She is always innocent. She is an all-powerful yet impotent moral agent whose actions are controlled by entrenched patriarchalism. She is not responsible. She is not to blame. #MeToo.

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On February 3, 2022 By In Culture, Discipleship, Family and Children, Men, Wisdom

Sexual Mission

Sexual restraint in our Western culture is not a virtue. To deny your urges for sexual expression is, at the least, a passé morality of a puritanical by-gone era or, at most, abusive. Sexual expression is practically a sacred right, codified by law-making bodies and upheld by the courts under the constitutional privilege of “right to privacy.” Even so-called conservatives become libertarian when it comes to questions of sexual morality. What people do in the privacy of their own bedrooms or how they want to identify themselves sexually should be up to them, and no one should be able to say anything negative about them or deny them any privileges that those who live out “traditional sexual morality” enjoy. This lack of personal and authoritative discipline seems fine until you are dealing with sexually transmitted infections, rampant illegitimacy, homosexuals demanding to be “married,” and Johnny proclaiming himself a female so that he can shower with the girls whom he recently beat in some athletic competition.

Our sexual lives are not private. They are a part and parcel to the world-building, dominion project that God gave us as his image from the beginning. For this reason, they are public; not in the sense of being open to voyeurs, but rather in the sense of having public ramifications. Our sexual lives are created to serve our mission as humanity. When unrestrained by that context, sexual expression becomes bondage to sin leading to death. For this reason, God has called us to discipline our sexual appetites.

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On January 27, 2022 By In Discipleship, Wisdom

Self-Discipline: No Pain. No Gain.

We are living in an ever-increasing fragile world. Many in our society are not tough-minded or self-disciplined anymore. They are slaves to the comforts of their own minds and desires. The origins of this problem are many. Parents have coddled children, not allowing them to face any sort of discomfort, always rescuing them immediately when they express pain, giving into their every desire, and certainly not painfully challenging their children in any way. They let them fall to pieces and are “understanding,” and, consequently, they never learn any sort of mental toughness. If someone disagrees with them, challenges their view of the world, they become “Karens,” yelling and screaming and seeking to eliminate the one who is making them uncomfortable, making the entire world a safe space. Institutions have kowtowed to these adult-sized infants and institutionalized this mental bubble-wrap. These undisciplined minds can’t face the challenges of the real world. Because of this, they will eventually be crushed, whether through the weight of reality that they can’t control, or they will implode because they are ticking timebombs of fear, anger, and discontentment. Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt have documented and evaluated these phenomena in their book The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up A Generation For Failure.

God has called us, in one sense, to be anti-fragile, which means that he wants us to grow up and be able to handle the challenges he puts before us. If we are to accomplish the mission of dominion, he has given us, there must be some degree of anti-fragility that comes through self-discipline.

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On January 20, 2022 By In Family and Children, Wisdom

Parental Discipline

The way of wisdom in Proverbs is the way of discipline. Solomon’s concern for discipline is heard from his opening words. We don’t pick up on it too readily because translations render the Hebrew word musar as “instruction” in some places and “discipline” in others. “Instruction” is not a bad translation, but we tend to reduce instruction to the verbal communication of truths from one brain to another. The Hebrew word, however, more literally speaks of a “chastening lesson,” which, I believe, is better rendered as “discipline” (though even that translation has connotations in English that may be misunderstood). Solomon desires that his son know wisdom and discipline (1.2), to receive the discipline of wisdom (1.3), to hear the discipline of his father (1.8). Fools despise wisdom and discipline (1.7).

The discipline of wisdom is the training of mind and body to produce a specific character that will cause you to fulfill your God-given purpose and enjoy God’s promised rewards. There are numerous sources for discipline, people and situations that are aimed at shaping our character. A primary source for discipline in Proverbs is parents. Parents are exhorted by Solomon not to neglect the discipline of children (19.18; 23.13-14). This training involves positive examples of discipline in the lives of the parents themselves, making the truth of God beautiful in their own lives. Parents must train also with positive, purposeful habits that give direction to their children as well as instructing them through teaching. Because the hearts of our children are bound up with foolishness (22.15), discipline also involves correction.

One parental tool that is prominent in Proverbs for this corrective training is the rod. It is not an exclusive tool. The rod and reproof–verbal rebuke and instruction–give wisdom (29.15). However, the rod is a tool, an obviously necessary tool, in the training of children.

Images come into our head when we read or hear “the rod.” Maybe the switch that you had to cut from the tree for your daddy to spank you comes to mind. You might think of a wooden spoon, paddle, belt, or some other instrument of pain that was applied to your seat of learning. If you’ve ever been spanked well, it is understandable that the instrument and its effects are all that come to mind.

Those images are not absent from the biblical use of “the rod,” but they are incomplete. The rod is the instrument of a shepherd and, therefore, a king (see Ps 23.4). In fact, it can be translated “scepter” (see Pss 2.9; 45.6; 89.32). While it can be used to destroy (see Ps 2.9), that is all a part of a larger purpose: to put the world in proper order.

Parents are rod-bearers, shepherd-kings of our children. We are shepherd-kings with God-given authority and a God-given instrument to be wielded to set put our children’s worlds in order; to train them so that they relate properly to God, others, and the non-human creation. The rod is not used arbitrarily or for selfish purposes. It is not an instrument of frustration that divides you from your children. The rod is used to set relationships right, which means that it must be applied in such a way in parent-child relationships that reconciliation and peace are the aims. Your child is not your enemy and should not be treated as such. You are not out to destroy him with the rod. Yes, the rod is an instrument of pain, and corrective discipline, just like all discipline, is painful (see Heb 12.4-11). But the pain is aimed at positively shaping your child’s character so that he avoids what is destructive and embraces what is life-giving.

Avoiding physical pain in corrective discipline is popular in some circles. If any pain is involved at all, these parents believe that psychological pain is sufficient. Scolding, isolation, removal of privileges, and things as such are seen as adequate applications of the “rod principle.” While these methods can be useful at times, we shouldn’t discount what the Bible says about physical pain in correction. Our children are not disembodied psyches. Training the mind through the body and the body through the mind are both needed. Enduring physical pain helps train the mind as much as enduring psychological pain trains the body. The two are interrelated. Neither should be neglected.

The aim of all our discipline is to shape the character of our children so that they embrace the way of wisdom with all their hearts. Parents, God has given you the authority and tools to do this. Wield them wisely.

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On January 13, 2022 By In Culture, Family and Children, Politics, Pro-Life, Theology

Blasphemy Laws

While people condemn the blasphemy laws in God’s law as being barbaric and severe, every society has blasphemy laws. These are the laws that tell you what you can and can’t say about certain people and subjects; “gods” you must worship or, at least, refrain from criticizing. These laws are not arbitrary. They tell you who defines the culture and what the culture is. They tell you who the gods of the culture are; that is, what or who is worshiped.  Sometimes these laws are codified and enforced by authorities. At other times they are general cultural practices that are endorsed by the authorities’ unwillingness to stand against injustice. Pressure by activists is put on companies to conform to their morality. If they don’t conform, they will be canceled or attacked. Whether codified or passive among government officials, or a loud, powerful, cultural movement, blasphemy laws exist, and violators will be prosecuted.

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On January 7, 2022 By In Discipleship, Theology

Jesus’ Baptism & Ours

If we would not be too proud to admit it, many of us American Protestants are scared of water. Whenever people start talking about what happens in baptism instead of what doesn’t happen in baptism, many of us start twisting in our seats. Images of superstitious priestcraft and mechanical guarantees of salvation start to swirl through our heads, and we have violent reactions like any good Protestant.

Some of us have seen people presume upon God because they have been baptized. That kind of abuse of baptism has caused us to go to the opposite extreme and reject any effect of baptism at all. Besides that, we know that God wouldn’t use water on our bodies to do anything substantive in regards to our salvation. That all happens directly by the Holy Spirit without any sort of means.

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On December 30, 2021 By In Church, Theology, Wisdom

The Church: The Manifold Wisdom of God

The created order was in disarray. This disorder was deeper and more serious than the unformed and unfilled state of the original creation. While the darkness and the deeps required a great amount of wisdom and power to overcome, they were not hostile. Sin changed all that. Sin introduced a death-sting that fought to keep things separated that God intended to be unified. The sleep of Adam from which he awoke to the glory of Eve became a sleep from which he would not awake. He would lie there ripped in half without resurrection glory. He would return to the dust from which he was made.

Sin’s death was not limited to our individual bodies. This death was the enemy of life as God intended. Anything that separated what God purposed to be joined together was death that needed to be overcome. From the beginning, God purposed that all humanity be caught up in his eternal fellowship as Father, Son, and Spirit as one worldwide family. Proverbs 8.30-31 poetically allude to this as Yahweh and Wisdom mutually delight in one another and in the sons of men. This delightful union and communion are what Paul speaks of to the Ephesians when he says that God’s eternal plan revealed in Christ Jesus was to unite all things in Christ (Eph 1.9-10). Without the presence of sin, this would have been a friendly process of maturity (a truth I explained in the article Incarnation Anyway). Sin latched on to this process, fighting it tooth-and-nail, refusing to allow death to move into the resurrection of unity between God and man and man with man.

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On December 23, 2021 By In Theology, Wisdom

Incarnation Anyway

Was the Incarnation of the eternal Son “Plan B,” an aberration of God’s original intent for his relationship with creation? We know that because God works all things after the counsel of his own will (Eph 1.11), sovereignly determining the course of history, that there is no “Plan B.” Even sin was somehow a part of the original good plan of God. I am speaking in terms of the trajectory of creation and God’s relationship to it had sin not entered the world. To put it another way, is the Incarnation only a rescue operation? Did the eternal Son become flesh only for the purpose of rescuing man and the created order from sin? I don’t think so. I believe that the Incarnation would have happened even if sin had not entered the world.

The Incarnation reveals God’s fundamental intent for his relationship with creation: union and communion; God dwelling in/with man and man dwelling in/with God. Hints of this are given in Proverbs 8 where pre-incarnate Wisdom’s relationship with Yahweh and the creation are poetically described. Wisdom is beside Yahweh. He is a master craftsman, forming and filling the created order. There is a mutual delight and rejoicing between the two Persons. But there is also rejoicing and delight in the inhabited world, in the sons of men (Pr 8.30-31). The delight and rejoicing that Yahweh has with Wisdom eternally is the delight and rejoicing in which he wants the creation to share. Creation’s fundamental purpose, even apart from sin, was to get caught up in the life of God himself.

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On December 16, 2021 By In Discipleship, Wisdom

Discipline Is Freedom

“People look for the shortcut. The hack. And if you came here looking for that: you won’t find it. The shortcut is a lie. The hack doesn’t get you there. And if you want to take the easy road, it won’t take you to where you want to be: Stronger. Smarter. Faster. Healthier. Better. Free. To reach goals and overcome obstacles and become the best version of you possible will not happen by itself. It will not happen cutting corners, taking shortcuts, or looking for the easy way. There is no easy way. There is only hard work, late nights, early mornings, practice, rehearsal, repetition, study, sweat, blood, toil, frustration, and discipline. Discipline. There must be discipline. Discipline: the root of all good qualities. The driver of daily execution. The core principle that overcomes laziness and lethargy and excuses. Discipline defeats the infinite excuses that say: not today, not now, I need a rest, I will do it tomorrow. What’s the hack? How do you become stronger, smarter, faster, healthier? How do you become better? How do you achieve true freedom? There is only one way. The way of discipline.” (Willink, Jocko. Discipline Equals Freedom: Expanded Edition. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2020)

This may be something of the wisdom of the sons of the east and Egypt (1Kg 4.30). I don’t know the status of Jocko’s relationship with Christ, but much of what he says here lines up with the picture of the life of discipline that Solomon paints for us in Proverbs.

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