My Appeal to Apathetic and Abusive Authority

I'm not going to sugar coat the truth by engaging is politically correct and culturally relevant jargon. 'Hands-off parenting' in order to raise resilient and resourceful children is an excuse for many self-absorbed parents. And name calling, such as 'helicopter' parents and 'sheltered' children, is often a cowardly coverup for conviction concerning complacency.

God is NOTHING LIKE parents who withhold affection and neglect proactivity toward sons and daughters, hypocritically claiming intentionality toward nurturing independent offspring, blatantly treasuring attention and investments for themselves, deserters of the fight for the souls of their offspring, and AWOL as soon as they turn 18. 

God is NOTHING LIKE a husband who neglects his bride or is bitter and unmerciful toward her as a pretense of justice or awaiting his 'right' to attentions, disguising his own selfishness and laziness under the brutish misrepresentation of his position as ‘head’, presumptuously claiming to avoid damage that supposedly accompanies a 'spoiling' of those he, by his own actions and inactions, considers no more than his own personal property.

The tenets of genuine Christianity dictate that...

"Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her...

In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church... THEREFORE a man shall LEAVE his father and mother and HOLD FAST TO his wife, and the two shall become one flesh... 

Let each one of you love his wife AS HIMSELF..."

(Ephesians 5:25, 28-33 ESV)

God woos HIS bride with gentleness while proactively and carefully steering circumstances, both pleasant and unpleasant, for the benefit of those under His care. This is NOT manipulation, which is "devious management for one's own advantage". Rather, it is the loving discipline of the heavenly Father.

"...I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, that she shall not find her paths. Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will betroth thee unto me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in justice, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness; and thou shalt know Jehovah."

(Hosea 2:6, 14, 19-20 ASV)

Oh, that Christian men would learn from and mirror the true character of God demonstrated in Christ rather than excusing a callous and selfish disposition misrepresented as God-like: mistakenly justifying their presumed position AS god over their family... a position belonging ONLY to God.

"Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

(Matthew 11:29-30 ASV)

A patient and humble disposition is what a man should reflect toward his family.

Paul wrote,

"Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." (Ephesians 6:4 ESV) 

Fathers ought to literally bring to mind how the Lord has fathered THEM today and yesterday and the many days prior before they erupt at their wife or children.

"...the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom he receives...

God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons...

We have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them... They disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but God disciplines us for our good..." (Hebrews 12:5-11)

"He will not always chide, nor will He keep His anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities...

As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust."

(Psalm 103:9-14)

Do you, man or woman, enjoy striking fear and coercing compliance, or do you aim to merit the respect of those who depend upon you? Holding bitterness and pounding one's point 'home' are NOT characteristics of our heavenly Father.

The Bible says,

"Husbands, love your wives, and DO NOT be harsh with them."

(Colossians 3:19 ESV)

AND...

"Ye husbands, in like manner, dwell with your wives according to knowledge, giving honor unto the woman, as unto the weaker vessel, as being also joint heirs of the grace of life; to the end that your prayers be not hindered."

(1 Peter 3:7 ASV)

The "in like manner" part of that verse is...

"...a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious... if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening."

(1 Peter 3:4, 6 ESV)

NOT being gentle and understanding toward your wife will hinder a man’s prayers. I think this would apply across the board.

"...Jehovah hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee that thou shalt be no priest to me (enjoying that communicative relationship to and from God), seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God... 

 

I will not punish your daughters when they play the harlot, nor your brides when they commit adultery; for the men themselves go apart ...and the people that doth not understand shall be overthrown."

(Hosea 4:1, 6, 14 ASV)

"Their doings will not suffer them to turn unto their God; for the spirit of whoredom is within them (they have other 'loves' in their life they are more dedicated to), and they know not Jehovah... 

Oppressed, they are crushed in judgment; because they were content to walk after man’s command. I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me earnestly."

(Hosea 5:4, 11, 15)

And like the good Father He is, God will father all who are content in their complacency by hedging up their way with thorns and building a wall against them (Hos.2:6), so that they can't find their way, and waiting until, when finally suffering the consequences of their choices, they decide to earnestly seek God. If one doesn’t ever get to this point - if they stay mean and brutish - God Himself will bring an end to the suffering caused by that one's selfish existence (see the accounts of Nabal and Pharaoh and the future days of the Antichrist).

“…I will punish the men who are complacent, those who say in their hearts, ‘The Lord will not do good, nor will he do ill.’ Their goods shall be plundered, and their houses laid waste. Though they build houses, they shall not inhabit them; though they plant vineyards, they shall not drink wine from them.”

(Zephaniah 1:12-13 ESV)

The Bible says this about the affairs of that man named, Nabal...

"…the man was harsh and badly behaved..."

Abigail testified truthfully concerning how to deal with her husband...

"Let not my Lord regard this worthless fellow, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name, and folly is with him..."

 

"And Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. So, she told him nothing at all until the morning light.

In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. And about ten days later THE LORD struck Nabal, and he died."

(1 Samuel 25:3, 25 and 25:36-38)

Jesus said,

“Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But IF that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and becomes abusive, self-serving, and succumbed to addiction, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful."

From Luke 12:42-46 (my paraphrase)

Being assigned an eternal space with ‘the unfaithful’ should be a sobering thought for many who become ‘drunk’, controlled by their addictions and selfishness, resulting in the mistreatment of anyone in their vicinity.

Jesus, risen as the Alpha and the Omega (Rev.1:13, 17-18), dictated again this warning to John,

“‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. WAKE UP, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent.

IF you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.

The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life..."

(Revelation 3:1-3, 5 ESV)

If one regards this word of God as true, then the converse of the previous passage is also true. Those who don't wake up and obey the instructions received from God through His Word risk having their names blotted out of the Book of Life. God’s ‘book of remembrance’ lists the names of...

"...those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed His name. 

'They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.

Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.'"

(Malachi 3:16-18 ESV)

The white garments referenced in Revelation 3:5 are "...the righteous deeds of the saints." (Rev.19:8) granted to friends of Jesus.

Jesus said,

"You are my friends IF you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you."

(John 15:14-15 ESV)

There will be many who availed themselves of the name, Jesus, or ‘CHRISTian’ while living disobedient to God and apathetic to His Word (see the stories of the five virgins and the miracle workers). They will be assigned a place with unbelievers and with the selfish and apathetic religious people. There will also be those who truly believed in Jesus, but never cared about the evidence of their works or the sincerity of their love.

“...when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless.

Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’"

(Matthew 22:11-13 ESV)

(next: Conscious Eternal Torment or Annihilation?)