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“Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
John 14:21
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
John 13:34-35
“At all times it is works and actions that we need, not a mere show of words. It is easy for anyone to say or promise something, but it is not so easy to act on that word or promise…”If you love me,” Christ said, “keep my commandments.”…..I have commanded you to love one another and to do to one another as I have done to you. To love me is to obey these commandments and to submit to me, you’re beloved.”
Chrysostom: Homilies on the Gospel of John 75.1
Submission. It is something most, if not all of us instinctively hate. This aversion to submit is perhaps the greatest fruit of the flesh. Even pride, which for most of my life I have considered the root of all sin, is simply the refusal to submit to the glory of God. Submission is at the heart of what it is to be Christian. Note however that this is not the submission of Islam, which is a submission of fear and ignorance. This is a submission of love and thanksgiving.
This submission is twofold. First and foremost we submit ourselves to God and his Holy Word. As Christians, this is our one and only pillar. We must submit ourselves to God’s commandments (Scripture) in our daily routines, thoughts, speech, politics, theology, church, charity, peace, and war. All things must be brought under the authority of Scripture.
But as the gospels clearly demonstrate, from our submission to Christ comes submission to others. To love our neighbor is synonymous with submitting to our neighbor. Now I imagine at this point red flags are going up. How do we submit to others without being taken advantage of? And how can I submit to a fellow Christian sinner, or worse a pagan? If this is a concern then you must remember where this command of submission comes from. We are commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves. We submit ourselves to the pagan by earnestly sharing with him the gospel and praying that the Holy Spirit will draw them into the kingdom. What greater act of service can there be? We submit ourselves to our fellow sinful Christian by walking along side them as they struggle, speaking truth in love so that together you can draw closer to Christ-likeness.
I hope to continue this theme of submission, but until then ponder this: How have you been submissive today?
I have never really liked political polls. It all just comes down to numbers. Numbers, like a woman, will seduce you with its sights and its scents and its touch, and then it breaks your ankle, also like a woman (This is a slightly modified quote from the West Wing, the best TV drama ever). Numbers can be twisted and contorted to pretty much say whatever the author or interpreter wants them to say. So when we look at the current poll numbers on presidential contenders we should treat them with a healthy disrespect. In fact The Gallop Poll organization has published an article any political observer may find interesting. Here are some excerpts that clearly demonstrate what I mean.
“In June 2003, Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman outpolled the pack of Democratic hopefuls, with 20% of Democrats supporting Lieberman for their party’s 2004 presidential nomination. Fifteen percent supported Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt, while 13% supported the eventual nominee, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry. No other Democratic candidate received double-digit support that month.”
“In the summer of 1991, New York Gov. Mario Cuomo was at the top of the polls for the Democratic nomination, with 22% of registered Democrats’ support, followed closely by Jesse Jackson at 18%. Bill Clinton, who eventually won the party’s nomination and the general election in 1992, only garnered 5% of the vote among registered Democrats in August 1991.”
“In June 1995, Bob Dole, the Republican Party’s eventual nominee, led Gallup’s Republican nomination ballot by a wide margin over any other candidate. Fifty-one percent of Republicans supported Dole for their party’s nomination at that time.”
Notice that the above examples all occurred in June of that particular election cycle. Sometime early leaders were clearly the victor, but more often they were not. So for those of you out there supporting front runners because they are front runners be prepared for an upset. For those of you who are supporting those barley toping the double digit mark there is hope. For those of you like me who are deciding between men who have not even declared they are running yet, well perhaps we can prove the campaign establishment wrong and show them that it is the voter that matters not an artificial election calendar.
With the 2008 Presidential election swinging into full gear (way to early I might add), I thought it would be helpful to begin a discussion on what it means to be conservative in the political sense. I can find no better way to start us off than with some excerpts from an editorial by George Will of the Washington Post. The full article can be found here.
“Today, conservatives tend to favor freedom, and consequently are inclined to be somewhat sanguine about inequalities of outcomes. Liberals are more concerned with equality, understood, they insist, primarily as equality of opportunity, not of outcome.”
“Conservatism argues, as did the Founders, that self-interestedness is universal among individuals, but the dignity of individuals is bound up with the exercise of self-reliance and personal responsibility in pursuing one’s interests. Liberalism argues that equal dependence on government minimizes social conflicts. Conservatism’s rejoinder is that the entitlement culture subverts social peace by the proliferation of rival dependencies.”
And this is the money quote:
“Conservatism embraces President Kennedy’s exhortation to “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country,” and adds: You serve your country by embracing a spacious and expanding sphere of life for which your country is not responsible.”
I hope you enjoy the full article. More to come on this topic over the weekend. Have a blessed day.
Bishop Joe
Well I have decided to return to the blogging world once again. My hopes for this blog is to have more of a focus on theological and political issues of our time, rather than the soap opera that has become Southern Baptist Convention internal politics. I say this with the convention on our very door step, but hopefully it will hold true. Whatever the outcome I look forward to sharing with you what is on my mind, listening to what is on your mind, and then telling you how you are wrong! [Insert laugh here] Until next time I leave you with these words from Paul:
Ephesians 4:25-32 (ESV)
25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. 29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
