Kelly - Ephesians 5

Okay - I was chugging along through this chapter with some pretty interesting thoughts on what I was reading...when I hit the end and realized that this is probably my ABSOLUTE LEAST FAVORITE CHAPTER in the ENTIRE Bible.

I'm with him up through purity, and children of Light, and wisdom...but then we hit that nasty little "submit" verse. Have you met me? It's not bloody likely to happen...nor is Marcus likely to play that role. (And I don't know all there is to know about your marriages...but I wouldn't hold out high expectations for Heidi or Erin to submit, either.)

To me this is just one of those places where the social context of the author supersedes the Word of God in the Bible. What may have made sense 2000 years ago just doesn't work anymore...and isn't central to the Gospel or God's work in this world.

So what do we claim is important that is more about our social context than about God's will? What things are ingrained in our own faith lives that are about our expectations, not God's? It's easy to look at "others" and see some ideas, even easy to look at the congregation as a whole and see some ideas...but rather hard to look at myself and see these blind spots (which is a big part of why we are called to live our faith out in community).

I think I see my own blind spots best when I look at how I raise my children, and increasingly how my children mimic my own values and attitudes. My biggest non-Gospel truth is probably about the mind. If I were to write an Epistle to the XXXians, it would probably include at least a chapter on developing your God-given intellect and using that to approach God. It is my truth...but not a universal truth. It is about our culture to some extent - and my viewpoints to some extent. But not the Gospel...not the core.