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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 26, 2022 By In Culture, Wisdom

The Guru of Common Sense and the Christian Call

The Peterson/Rogan interview is blowing up the interwebs. Four hours of conversation ranging from climate change and the significance of the Bible in shaping language and culture. I made mention to someone that Peterson channeled the great Francis Schaeffer when he spoke of the Bible as truer than true. The late apologist wanted to speak of truth as something more foundational; something more rooted. He coined the phrase “true truth” to convey this sense of certainty in the God of Scriptures. Of course, to be clear, Peterson is not yet a member of First Baptist of Pascagoula. If anything, he’s embraced a sensical priestly role in our secularized society.

The interview is fascinating on a number of levels, but more importantly, in my mind, is the closeness to sanity I see abounding in sundry platforms, especially on the world’s largest, namely Joe Rogan. Now, I am aware of the traps that certain purists warn us about and I despise the kind of generalism associated with the media. Observations about “God” generally don’t mean much, and I try to develop allergic reactions to such instinctive. Nevertheless, as one who observes and follows social trends, there is certainly a shift in orientation taking place in our society.

Bill Maher’s atheism affords him a little dose of common grace here and there, but if you told me that Bill Maher was going to be a voice of reason in 2022 on matters pertaining to COVID, I would have said you are as high as Bill Maher on a typical Saturday. But alas, sanity is prevailing. There is less stupidity going around.

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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 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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On December 9, 2021 By In Counseling/Piety, Discipleship, Wisdom

All Hat And No Cowboy

In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.

~Proverbs 14.23

Originally, the cowboy hat was made to be functional for those who spent long days in the sun working cattle. The wide brim protected the head from the sun’s rays. Eventually, that rim was turned upward on the sides so that the swinging of a rope would not be impeded or knock the hat off. The pinch at the top of the hat made the hat easier to grip.

As with many articles of clothing, fashion followed function. People who have romantic visions about cowboy life, love country music, or like the style of headwear incorporate the cowboy hat into their wardrobe. The hat says “cowboy,” but they ain’t no cowboys. Real cowboys have a saying for this: “He’s all hat and no cowboy,” or “All hat, no cattle.” For all of you city slickers out there, this means that a person is all talk and no action.

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On December 2, 2021 By In Discipleship, Theology, Wisdom

Hands On Wisdom

“The sluggard buries his hand in the dish and will not even bring it back to his mouth.”

~Proverbs 19.24

The image is a comical one. A platter of food rests in the middle of the table. If the dish to which Solomon refers is a common one for that day, it doesn’t have any sides to negotiate. It is not a bowl that one would have to reach into and pull out of. Those at the table could simply reach and retrieve food with a minimal amount of effort, scraping it to themselves if they had to. Here is this man who has exerted just enough effort to get his hand to the plate of food, buries his hand in the food, but now he has neither the will nor the energy to bring it back to his mouth. All that he needs to sustain him and bring him joy is literally at his fingertips (actually, all over his fingertips), but his torpor keeps him from it. He will starve even though everything he needs is easily accessible.

He started the whole arduous process of eating, but he didn’t have the energy to finish it. Not finishing what one starts is the way of the fool. Solomon characterizes this as having a “slack hand” in Proverbs 10.4 He puts his hand to something, he takes hold of a commitment and, therefore, a responsibility, but then he lets it go before the job is complete. Maybe he had good intentions. He made commitments. He may have even been excited at first about what he was going to do. His hand might have been the fastest to get to the dish, but he quit on the project as quickly as he started.

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