Manhood is a Mindset. J. Colin Trisler

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СКАЧАТЬ authority stems from these three absolute truths:

      1 He is the sovereign Lord of everything he has created.

      2 You exist as a part of his creation.Therefore:

      3 He possesses a legitimate authority over you.

      The Bible tells us that God created humanity in his own image, according to his likeness (Gen 1:26–27; 9:6). This status confers upon us the unique responsibility of living as God’s standard bearers on earth. That means in everything we think, say, and do, we are to reflect the character of our wise and righteous Father.

      Son, keep this fact in mind as you make your daily decisions: You exist to reflect God’s image. He does not exist to reflect yours. As a child of God, you have a responsibility to submit to your Heavenly Father’s sovereign authority and do the job he put you on earth to do. We’ll discuss the biblical concept of submission in the next letter. But for now, I’ll use the example of a guitar and a guitar player to help you get a handle on the scope of God’s authority.

      A guitar exists to make music. But the guitar cannot play itself. It is an instrument that necessarily requires a musician in order to accomplish its created purpose. It’s the guitarist, not the guitar, who arranges the music. His mind develops the melody. His fingers strum the strings and glide over the frets to produce harmonious tones. The guitarist makes the guitar work. A guitar is productive as an instrument when it follows the guitarist’s lead and stays on key and produces the right sounds in the right moments.

      But what if the instrument refuses to cooperate? What if the guitarist plays the right notes but the guitar produces off-key sounds? At this point, the guitarist has a series of options. He can give the guitar a chance to correct its mistakes by tuning and re-tuning the strings until the guitar produces the harmony he desires. If the guitar remains consistently off key, he can go through the difficult process of removing the old strings and re-stringing the guitar with a brand new set. Or, if the guitar’s structural integrity is compromised beyond repair, he can trash that guitar and start strumming a new one. These are his sovereign rights as the guitar’s owner.

      In the real world, God is the musician and you are the instrument. Like a guitar in the hands of a skilled guitarist, your life rests in the wise hands of the Almighty God. He is the divine luthier who created you to live in harmony with him. He is the sovereign musician who strums your heart strings and moves his fingers over the frets of your mind to orchestrate an elegant melody of rationality and righteousness.

      Just as the guitar exists to accomplish the guitarist’s purposes, so we exist to accomplish God’s purposes. He holds the entirety of our lives in his hands. A wise man will respect the reality of God’s authority. He will submit to his direction and live in melodious concert with him.

The stubborn fool, however, refuses to cooperate with God because he despises wisdom and instruction as Solomon says. The fool’s disobedience produces disharmony. As a result, he lives his life perpetually off key; and like a deformed or unplayable guitar, he runs the risk of being condemned to the trash heap.14

      Son, once you realize the scope of God’s authority over you and your life, you will understand the role rational fear plays in your relationship with him. A healthy sense of trepidation is a reasonable response to the ultimate authority that by right belongs to the Lord of all existence.

      Fear motivates you to keep your priorities in order

      A rational sense of fear helps you develop the right attitude when it comes to knowing your place in God’s world. A proper attitude toward God fosters proper behavior toward God. A healthy fear is a necessary aspect of your quest for wisdom because it motivates you to live in obedience to your Heavenly Father’s established commands.

      At this point I will caution you to avoid applying a displaced and legalistic connotation to the concept of obedience. If you misunderstand the purpose of obedience, you will misunderstand the purpose of wisdom.

Obedience in and of itself is not the goal of wisdom. God did not create humanity just so he could have a group of employees to boss around. Nor did he establish his commands on a whim just to watch us jump through a series of arbitrary hoops. Obedience as an end unto itself is cold and robotic and compulsive. As theologian John Calvin once said, God does not desire a slavish, forced fear by which he can extort through the threat of judgment insincere behavior from us as his unwilling captives.15

      God’s desire is for us to relate to him as a Heavenly Father. Not as a cosmic tyrant. The difference between the two is this: A tyrant abuses his authority and uses force to oppress his subjects. A tyrant is a worthless man who isn’t skilled enough to build himself up. So he exploits his position of power to tear others down.

      Son, this is not the God we serve. God is not a divine despot. He did not create humanity to subjugate or exploit us. He does not need to hold us down in order to feel better about himself. Nor does he desire an emotionally vacant association with us, one akin to a taskmaster’s association with his slaves. Such an insincere existence would be one of drudgery for everyone involved. Including God.

      A good father, on the other hand, uses his authority to elevate his children, not to hold them down. In everything he does, he is motivated by steadfast love and affection. And the boundaries he establishes are set in place to protect his children—to steer them in the right direction, not to torment them. He corrects his children when they ignore those rational borders. In the same way, he rewards them when they act with wisdom and avoid those pockets of darkness that lie outside the boundaries of the light. In every way, a good father works for his children’s benefit, to help them reach their full potential and achieve the mantle of adulthood.

      God is indeed a good Father. And living in a covenant relationship with him is a privilege, not an obligation. But like every relationship, there are rules by which you must abide in order to maintain proper fellowship.

      With God, the two greatest rules are these:

      1 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

      2 Love your neighbor just as you love yourself.

      If a man keeps these two commands in their proper order, he keeps the entirety of God’s word (Mark 12:28–31; Matt 22:37–40). A healthy fear of the Lord motivates you to abide by these rules on a daily basis.

      The concept of rules rubs some people the wrong way. If you’re one of those people, then replace the word rules with the word promises. Every relationship is defined by certain promises. Take my marriage to your mother as an example. On our wedding day, she and I exchanged specific vows. I gave your mother my word when I promised to love and cherish only her, forsaking all others. I promised I would never harm her and that I would always treat her with respect and dignity as my wife—for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part. She made the same promises to me as her husband.

      We gave each other our word. The promises we made, the rules that we follow, they define our sacred union. Your mother and I value our relationship. We abide by these rules not out of obligation, but to nurture our shared love and preserve the sanctity of our marriage. These rules are in place not to oppress, but to protect. They establish healthy boundaries to ensure that we avoid those pockets of darkness that lie beyond the sparkling borders of our well-lit kingdom. They foster intimacy and promote happiness and establish a healthy home environment for our children. We follow these rules with gladness because we cherish our love and because we fear the far-reaching consequences of a failed marriage.

      The same philosophy applies to your relationship with God. Jesus said, СКАЧАТЬ