Mammamel
07-16-2008, 08:25 AM
I have been thinking a great deal lately on how Christians, especially Christian women represent themselves. Why this has been placed on my mind lately I do not know. I have not seen any untoward behavior on PH lately. It is just something the Lord has pushed me to study.
The first verses I was lead to were 1 Corinthians 13. The entire chapter deals with how we as representatives of Christ should behave. I began thinking of the street preachers, you know those guys that scream and yell at folks and wave their fingers in folks faces. What I began seeing, clearly is, the shame people like that bring to Christ. I mean, when some one is “teaching” and being in near hysterics (real or fake) what does that say? It tells people that Christians are nuts, it makes them point and laugh. Ultimately the laughter is NOT at the person, but at the Faith, at Christ. How awful is that! I never want to be one who acts so badly people laugh at my Savior!
So here are my thoughts and things I have noticed.
Everything a Christian does must be tempered by love. The attributes of love are, kindness, gentleness, patience, meekness, dependability, calmness.
Attributes love does NOT possess, anger, belligerence, forwardness, hardness, one upmanism (yes I made a new word) loudness, sarcasm, pushiness.
Notice things we are not to entangle ourselves with. 2 Timothy gives us a small list, we are told to follow Faith, love and peace with those who follow Christ from a pure heart. He also says to avoid, foolish or unlearned questions (that ends the debate on whether or not there are stupid questions). Paul tells Timothy that a Christian will teach in meekness, that he must be gentle, patient, NOT to strive, which today translates to being argumentative. We are to be soldiers of a different sort. We can be firm, but never belligerent. Plain spoken, blunt even, but never rude.
Now how does this translate to us as Christian women?
Well look at what women are told to do. 2 Timothy 2:9 says we are to be modest in dress and attitude, shamefaced (translated today means extremely shy) not with fancy hair dos, make up and jewels.
Extremely shy... how many women today can be classed that way? We are also to be sober minded, this has 2 definitions today. One is to be solemn, the other is, as we are told in Titus, not given to wine.
1 Peter 3 gives additional attributes of a Christian woman. Her conversation should be such that if her husband is unsaved, it will convince him of the truth. Can we do that screeching at him? How about demanding he do things our way? Does that sound like the meek and quiet spirit God commands us (not Peter as many modern women claim, saying he disliked women) to have? It does not to me. It matters not so much the outward appearance as what is said and done. He also commands us to have “chaste conversation” What is that? Well the dictionary says chaste is modest, decent, morally pure, simple in design even austere. Hmmm no loud jokes... instead kind words, not arguing or badgering, finger pointing, gossiping, no yelling. (ouch)Now if we take all this together, we find the true spirit of a Christian woman.
A real Christian woman will not accuse others, will not debate, but instead will calmly discuss, and if it becomes evident the other side will not budge, they will cease and move on, not get louder and angrier with each statement. A true Christian will always be a lady, calm, and grace filled. She will always be chaste (more modern term is demure) kind, gentle, simple. She will not try to force feed her thoughts as THE only way. THE only way the Bible gives is Christ, Faith in HIM, will get us saved nothing else.
What does that mean?
Well to me, and mind you I do not expect others to totally agree with me on this. From my study I have learned that it is not up to me to demand women act like I do.
Our clothes, don't matter. Yes modesty does, but it is not up to ME to say x is modest while z is not. I think we can all agree that mini skirts, hot pants and such are not modest. However the NT does not tell us we have to wear dresses. With head covers, while I think it is commanded, my Beloved reads it as the hair is commanded, and in any case, the context is speaking of in worship, when we come together for what we now days call church. When we meet as a group to study. Women who are teaching or praying, in a group need to be covered. Women being forbidden to teach men, are to have classes for themselves as well as the sermon the men give.
It means I should not hold anger against any one who disagrees with me. Now yes there are folks that will go off the deep end and deny things the Bible declares. That is all on them. My job is to state the truth, not push, cajole, or harass. Definitely not to raise my voice and argue. God says HIS word is sufficient. There for I am not to add to it. I am not to declare dire consequences, or fight.
What does this mean?
To me it means if I come upon 2 women both claiming Christ, one is in pants and uncovered and the other is dressed and covered, the one yelling and fighting, is NOT showing a true Christian attitude. It doesn't matter what she is wearing. It is her modest attitude that denotes the state of her heart.
We as humans like cut and dried rules, however, God did not give us cut and dry rules in the NT. He gave us a guide and said listen to the Holy Spirit, and He will lead you. He gave hard and fast rules to the Jews, and we can learn a lot from those rules, such the best way to keep ourselves healthy. However those rules will do nothing to get your soul ready for Heaven and they definitely will not help you get there.
God gives His new people the gift of Grace, paid for by His Son dying on a cross. This gift is ours, regardless of what clothes we wear, what Bible we read, what building we worship in. The gift is ours, we must only accept it. We must confess Christ before men, we must believe on Him and follow Him. That is salvation. The Bible tells us we need to hear the word, believe what we hear, accept it, repent of our sins, and it says be baptized. Baptism is not the saving act, believing is, we are baptized to indicate we agree to be set apart, to change forever who we live our lives.
Ultimately God tells us the meek shall inherit the earth, He calls His people to be kind, meek, humble. He lets satan have what we deem the powerful attributes. While He calls us to use what the world sees as the weaker ones.
I do not know why God put this on my heart, but it feels good to have it down and shared. I hope who ever God means this message for receives from it what He has said they need. For myself, I have a renewed commitment to not allowing judgment and anger to temper my words. I will work to remain calm even when unduly provoked. To be kind when I want to be hurtful.
The first verses I was lead to were 1 Corinthians 13. The entire chapter deals with how we as representatives of Christ should behave. I began thinking of the street preachers, you know those guys that scream and yell at folks and wave their fingers in folks faces. What I began seeing, clearly is, the shame people like that bring to Christ. I mean, when some one is “teaching” and being in near hysterics (real or fake) what does that say? It tells people that Christians are nuts, it makes them point and laugh. Ultimately the laughter is NOT at the person, but at the Faith, at Christ. How awful is that! I never want to be one who acts so badly people laugh at my Savior!
So here are my thoughts and things I have noticed.
Everything a Christian does must be tempered by love. The attributes of love are, kindness, gentleness, patience, meekness, dependability, calmness.
Attributes love does NOT possess, anger, belligerence, forwardness, hardness, one upmanism (yes I made a new word) loudness, sarcasm, pushiness.
Notice things we are not to entangle ourselves with. 2 Timothy gives us a small list, we are told to follow Faith, love and peace with those who follow Christ from a pure heart. He also says to avoid, foolish or unlearned questions (that ends the debate on whether or not there are stupid questions). Paul tells Timothy that a Christian will teach in meekness, that he must be gentle, patient, NOT to strive, which today translates to being argumentative. We are to be soldiers of a different sort. We can be firm, but never belligerent. Plain spoken, blunt even, but never rude.
Now how does this translate to us as Christian women?
Well look at what women are told to do. 2 Timothy 2:9 says we are to be modest in dress and attitude, shamefaced (translated today means extremely shy) not with fancy hair dos, make up and jewels.
Extremely shy... how many women today can be classed that way? We are also to be sober minded, this has 2 definitions today. One is to be solemn, the other is, as we are told in Titus, not given to wine.
1 Peter 3 gives additional attributes of a Christian woman. Her conversation should be such that if her husband is unsaved, it will convince him of the truth. Can we do that screeching at him? How about demanding he do things our way? Does that sound like the meek and quiet spirit God commands us (not Peter as many modern women claim, saying he disliked women) to have? It does not to me. It matters not so much the outward appearance as what is said and done. He also commands us to have “chaste conversation” What is that? Well the dictionary says chaste is modest, decent, morally pure, simple in design even austere. Hmmm no loud jokes... instead kind words, not arguing or badgering, finger pointing, gossiping, no yelling. (ouch)Now if we take all this together, we find the true spirit of a Christian woman.
A real Christian woman will not accuse others, will not debate, but instead will calmly discuss, and if it becomes evident the other side will not budge, they will cease and move on, not get louder and angrier with each statement. A true Christian will always be a lady, calm, and grace filled. She will always be chaste (more modern term is demure) kind, gentle, simple. She will not try to force feed her thoughts as THE only way. THE only way the Bible gives is Christ, Faith in HIM, will get us saved nothing else.
What does that mean?
Well to me, and mind you I do not expect others to totally agree with me on this. From my study I have learned that it is not up to me to demand women act like I do.
Our clothes, don't matter. Yes modesty does, but it is not up to ME to say x is modest while z is not. I think we can all agree that mini skirts, hot pants and such are not modest. However the NT does not tell us we have to wear dresses. With head covers, while I think it is commanded, my Beloved reads it as the hair is commanded, and in any case, the context is speaking of in worship, when we come together for what we now days call church. When we meet as a group to study. Women who are teaching or praying, in a group need to be covered. Women being forbidden to teach men, are to have classes for themselves as well as the sermon the men give.
It means I should not hold anger against any one who disagrees with me. Now yes there are folks that will go off the deep end and deny things the Bible declares. That is all on them. My job is to state the truth, not push, cajole, or harass. Definitely not to raise my voice and argue. God says HIS word is sufficient. There for I am not to add to it. I am not to declare dire consequences, or fight.
What does this mean?
To me it means if I come upon 2 women both claiming Christ, one is in pants and uncovered and the other is dressed and covered, the one yelling and fighting, is NOT showing a true Christian attitude. It doesn't matter what she is wearing. It is her modest attitude that denotes the state of her heart.
We as humans like cut and dried rules, however, God did not give us cut and dry rules in the NT. He gave us a guide and said listen to the Holy Spirit, and He will lead you. He gave hard and fast rules to the Jews, and we can learn a lot from those rules, such the best way to keep ourselves healthy. However those rules will do nothing to get your soul ready for Heaven and they definitely will not help you get there.
God gives His new people the gift of Grace, paid for by His Son dying on a cross. This gift is ours, regardless of what clothes we wear, what Bible we read, what building we worship in. The gift is ours, we must only accept it. We must confess Christ before men, we must believe on Him and follow Him. That is salvation. The Bible tells us we need to hear the word, believe what we hear, accept it, repent of our sins, and it says be baptized. Baptism is not the saving act, believing is, we are baptized to indicate we agree to be set apart, to change forever who we live our lives.
Ultimately God tells us the meek shall inherit the earth, He calls His people to be kind, meek, humble. He lets satan have what we deem the powerful attributes. While He calls us to use what the world sees as the weaker ones.
I do not know why God put this on my heart, but it feels good to have it down and shared. I hope who ever God means this message for receives from it what He has said they need. For myself, I have a renewed commitment to not allowing judgment and anger to temper my words. I will work to remain calm even when unduly provoked. To be kind when I want to be hurtful.