13 April 2023
Everyone serves someone else.
The God of the Bible presents Himself as an eastern potentate, a shepherd warlord, a nomadic barbarian sheikh. This is the image He chose for Himself. His Son is the heir, currently serving as co-regent. Don't present Christ as a Western monarch; that's misleading to the point of being an outright lie, almost blasphemous.
Throughout the Ancient Near East, and for a time at least, the Greco-Roman Civilization operated under the assumption that every human was under some kind of feudal authority. The only question is whom you claim as your sovereign. The notion of political democracy is from Hell; it confuses things and deceives people into thinking they aren't under someone else's authority. Instead, we are all together under some abstract authority of the whole. It's impersonal, which ends up being dehumanizing.
I'm not going to tell you how to put across the actual biblical gospel message, but the foundation of what the Apostles carried throughout their world was that God Himself is offering to make us His feudal servants as family through covenant adoption. Part of the reason so many rulers were hostile to the gospel is that they understood it as an alienation of their subjects, making them subjects of a foreign ruler. Thus, for several centuries, the official Roman policy on Christians was that they were rebels against Roman authority.
The only reason the New Testament says much at all about going to Heaven is that those who truly embrace the Covenant and become loyal feudal vassals of Jesus can do so only because they were appointed by God. It's not that a spiritual birth (a figure of speech in the first place) is what's offered, but that it's a necessary precondition of the Covenant. You can't really desire that covenant of adoption without Him taking the initiative. And He did, before He even created this world.
There's no point in discussing how any of us become Chosen. It was a miracle and wholly in the hands of God; no human can possibly understand it. The Scripture never says much about all those who end up in Hell as being not-Chosen. There's no practical use to discussing it. From our fallen mortal position, it's totally out of reach. What is within our reach is talking about how your heart is a separate facility from your intellect, and that the heart should rule over the head.
Now, at this point we always have to stop and note that if English is your first language, talk of "the heart" is loaded with false baggage. In the Hebrew world, your heart was the seat of your will, your faith and commitment to God. It's a part of your eternal nature, whereas your intellect is part of your fallen fleshly nature. In English, "the heart" refers to sentiment, the accretion of experiences, emotions, traditions, customs, etc. It's your fleshly value system that you cannot explain easily. That's not the same thing as what's in the Bible.
So, referring to the biblical symbol of the heart, we talk about how we can build a covenant community of people who demonstrate a testimony that their hearts belong to Christ. You should know that a great many Chosen out there are still trying to figure out what it's all about, and they don't belong to the Covenant. And on top of that, a great many Chosen have not yet realized that they are Chosen. They are all potential covenant family, but not yet there. Claiming to be a Christian does not mean they are actually following Christ. It's a burden on us to develop a sense of covenant boundaries so we can discern who's in our covenant family.
Almost everyone around you is functionally dead in their hearts. Evangelism isn't a matter of chasing down the lost; that's the wrong image. It's presenting a testimony that isn't likely to appeal to anyone except those who are far enough along in the development of faith to recognize you as spiritual family, or who are on the threshold of that. Your offer, via the whole package of who you are, is to help others present themselves to Christ as His vassals.
In dealing with anyone, you will be called on to make an initial assessment and act toward them accordingly. Are they family, allies, servants of enemies? You'll run into very few genuine enemies, so don't start imagining horns on everyone who fails some superficial test. The vast majority will be rather like slaves in a sheikh's household who don't really have a clue what's going on, knowing only what gets them the human comforts they like. Most people serve God's purposes without a clue; He uses them, but they never inherit anything.
Allies are people who are no trouble, and sometimes quite useful in your service of the Lord, but who don't have a family interest in things. They aren't fully aware of God's plans. Frankly, most church folks you encounter will fit this definition. It could well be they are supposed to be family and just haven't gotten that far down the path yet.
And then there's family, folks who share your commitment to faith, covenant and convictions. They might be near kin or distant kin, but you sense in your heart that they are the real deal. You'll share with them the things in your life reserved for covenant family. These are quite rare. Make sure you distinguish in your own awareness who holds what privileges and claims on you and the things God has granted you.
It's time we quash once and for all the false claim that we as humans are all in this together. Most of humans are doomed, and God plays favorites. Don't give pearls to swine. You must discriminate. The persona you show to others depends on your contextual assessment, which may evolve as more is revealed over time. Still, your duty to God as your Sovereign Master is to use His resources -- yourself -- according to His agenda. There are layers of privilege that you must assert.
It's between you and Christ what and how much you show to others.
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