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When Obedience Is Evil · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Have you ever wondered when obedience becomes compromise? There's a
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  Speaker 1: line here, a line in the sand, and we all
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  Speaker 1: meet that line at some point in life, and the
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  Speaker 1: Bible's teaching on authority and freedom explains to us where
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  Speaker 1: that line is at. How do you honor people without
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  Speaker 1: betraying God? Today? On as Pastor John, when obedience becomes evil?
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  Speaker 1: The question is from a young man looking at Second Corinthians,
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  Speaker 1: which is in our recent readings and the Navigator's Bible
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  Speaker 1: reading plan joined along. If you haven't, we're reading May
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  Speaker 1: eleventh readings today. That's month five, day eleven on the chart,
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  Speaker 1: and that has us in Second Corinthians ten today. Our
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  Speaker 1: question is about chapter six, which we read last week.
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  Speaker 1: Our young man writes to us, Pastor John, I live
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  Speaker 1: in India with my parents, who strongly insist I marry
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  Speaker 1: a non Christian woman and for cultural reasons, but I
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  Speaker 1: am a committed Christian Sewo Corinthian six fourteen says, do
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  Speaker 1: not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. How can I honor
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  Speaker 1: my parents without compromising my faith? If I refuse, they
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  Speaker 1: threaten to disown me. Is there ever a point when
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  Speaker 1: obedience to parents becomes partnership in their idolatry. What should
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  Speaker 1: I do if God's will conflicts with my culture's traditions.
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  Speaker 1: I presume there are examples of this happening in the Bible.
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  Speaker 1: How do I know when obedience would be a sin?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, there are examples in the Bible where honoring proper
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  Speaker 2: authority and honoring God come into conflict. But before I
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  Speaker 2: mentioned any of those, it's really important that we remind
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  Speaker 2: ourselves of the Biblical framework of who we are as
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  Speaker 2: Christians in this fall world and how we relate to
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  Speaker 2: the world's social structures like family, or parenting or state.
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  Speaker 2: So first, we are fundamentally new creatures, a new creation
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  Speaker 2: Galatian six fifteen. We have been delivered from the domain
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  Speaker 2: of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of God's dear
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  Speaker 2: son Colossians one thirteen, which means that in this world,
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  Speaker 2: whether in India or the United States, we are sojourners
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  Speaker 2: and exiles Verse Peter two eleven. This world and its
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  Speaker 2: structures are not our primary home, and they are not
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  Speaker 2: our primary allegiance. Then the question is, well, how do
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  Speaker 2: we relate to structures of this fallen, sinful world, like
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  Speaker 2: family or the civil state or business structures, church structures.
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  Speaker 2: And the basic answer of the New Testament is that
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  Speaker 2: we are called to live in the world, but not
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  Speaker 2: of the world, John seventeen. This includes the posture of
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  Speaker 2: submission to all rightful authority, families, church, business, state, first
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  Speaker 2: Peter two and three, Colossians three, Efhesians five and six.
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  Speaker 2: We are to honor our parents Ssion six two. Honor
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  Speaker 2: our pastors first the Salonians five twelve, honor real widows
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  Speaker 2: one Timothy five to three. Honor the king one Peter
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  Speaker 2: two seventeen. In fact, according to that same verse one
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  Speaker 2: Peter two seventeen, we are to honor all mens is
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  Speaker 2: all people, which clearly implies there are different kinds of
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  Speaker 2: honor that we are to pay to different kinds of people, people,
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  Speaker 2: or different roles of people, different spheres of life. You
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  Speaker 2: don't honor a rapist and a righteous king in the
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  Speaker 2: same way you honor the king with respectful deference. You
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  Speaker 2: honor the rapist with a fair trial instead of shooting
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  Speaker 2: him like a dog. He's not a dog. And then
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  Speaker 2: the question arises, are there limits to this honor and
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  Speaker 2: this deference to others, especially to authority like parents and
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  Speaker 2: the state. And the answer is already built right in
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  Speaker 2: I think to our identity as exiles. Peter states the
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  Speaker 2: basic reality like this, right after saying that we are
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  Speaker 2: to submit to every human institution. That's chapter two, verse
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  Speaker 2: twelve of his first letter, he says, verse sixteen, live
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  Speaker 2: as people who are free. Oh, that's powerful free, which
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  Speaker 2: means that we are not submitting to earthly structures like
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  Speaker 2: parents and state because they have intrinsic authority over us.
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  Speaker 2: They don't intrinsic authority, No, because God has authority. And
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  Speaker 2: it's because of God's intrinsic authority. It doesn't borrow from anybody,
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  Speaker 2: it's in him. Because of God's authority, he has sent
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  Speaker 2: us back into those structures as exiles, and so journals
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  Speaker 2: governed by His will and for the sake of his glory,
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  Speaker 2: do good. He wants to get glory by our doing
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  Speaker 2: good in these structures accud verse fifteen. So the answer
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  Speaker 2: is yes, there are limits to the authority of this world,
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  Speaker 2: and the limit is the revealed will of God, the
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  Speaker 2: word of God. In other words, we do not follow
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  Speaker 2: the authority structures of this world into sin. That's the
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  Speaker 2: basic framework work of the Christian life. As I see
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  Speaker 2: it in the New Testament. And now we're ready for
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  Speaker 2: some biblical examples of the conflict that arises between human
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  Speaker 2: authority and divine authority. In Acts four seventeen, the governing
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  Speaker 2: Jewish Council in Jerusalem tells the apostles, you shall no
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  Speaker 2: longer speak or teach in the name of Jesus. And
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  Speaker 2: to this Peter and John answer, well, whether it is
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  Speaker 2: right in the side of God to listen to you
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  Speaker 2: rather than to God? You decide, we cannot but speak
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  Speaker 2: of what we have seen and heard x four nineteen.
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  Speaker 2: In other words, when human authority contradicts God's word, the
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  Speaker 2: Christians follow the higher authority, namely God's word. The same
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  Speaker 2: thing is true of how we are to honor our parents.
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  Speaker 2: There are indeed special kinds of respect, esteem deference that
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  Speaker 2: we should always give our parents, even to parents that
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  Speaker 2: are unkind, unfaithful, neglectful, abusive. And the reason I say
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  Speaker 2: they are special kinds plural is that this respect will
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  Speaker 2: look different, won't be the same for a godly, humble,
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  Speaker 2: helpful parent and an ungodly proud, hurtful parent. There will
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  Speaker 2: be a kind of respect, but it won't be the same.
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  Speaker 2: The respect and honor that we give even to the
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  Speaker 2: best of parents. However, will not include submitting to their
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  Speaker 2: will if their will brings us into disobedience to God.
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  Speaker 2: Gideon tore down the altar of bail that his father
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  Speaker 2: had just built Judges six, twenty five. Jonathan went against
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  Speaker 2: his father Saul's will again and again to defend and
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  Speaker 2: protect David against his father's unjust murderous intentions. For Samuel
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  Speaker 2: twenty thirty five, Hezekiah was a good and righteous king,
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  Speaker 2: unlike his father AHAs, who was just about as bad
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  Speaker 2: as they come. And Hezekiah removed the high places, broke
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  Speaker 2: down the pillars, cut down the ashira which his father loved.
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  Speaker 2: Second Kings eighteen four. And Jesus said, whoever loves mother
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  Speaker 2: or father more than me is not worthy of me
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  Speaker 2: Matthew ten thirty seven. And in Luke it's even stronger.
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  Speaker 2: If anyone comes to me and does not hate his
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  Speaker 2: own father and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers
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  Speaker 2: and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be
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  Speaker 2: my disciple. Which does not mean we should have malicious
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  Speaker 2: hatred for our parents. It means that often we must
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  Speaker 2: make choices that the world and even our parents will
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  Speaker 2: not understand because we're motivated by Christ and they don't
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  Speaker 2: get Christ. They won't understand, and they may even call
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  Speaker 2: it hate because our actions are so contrary to the
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  Speaker 2: ordinary human relations they're expecting. Just don't understand kingdom realities,
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  Speaker 2: kingdom priorities, which brings us now to the very issue
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  Speaker 2: of a Christian marrying and unbeliever, because it's what the
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  Speaker 2: parents want. Paul said in First Corinthian seven point thirty
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  Speaker 2: nine that a Christian widow is free to be married
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  Speaker 2: to whom she wishes only in the Lord. That means
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  Speaker 2: only to a Christian, to one who is in the Lord.
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  Speaker 2: And he says in two Chrintian six fourteen, do not
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  Speaker 2: be unequally yoked with unbelievers, For what partnership has righteousness
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  Speaker 2: with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? So
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  Speaker 2: I think the answer is that you count the cost
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  Speaker 2: and you follow God's will not to marry an unbeliever.
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  Speaker 2: But let me close with this. In my pastoral experience,
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  Speaker 2: when we have faced conflicts like this, and it's pretty common,
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  Speaker 2: I have urged young people to pray earnestly that the
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  Speaker 2: God who splits the red Sea makes the sun stop
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  Speaker 2: in the sky, raises the dead, brings out of nothing
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  Speaker 2: things that are creates new possibilities where none seem to exist.
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  Speaker 2: That this God, we pray to this God that he
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  Speaker 2: would actually create a possible way forward that no one
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  Speaker 2: presently can see, that would enable the relationship to be
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  Speaker 2: preserved and God to be obeyed.
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  Speaker 1: Amen. It can be hard to walk this line to
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  Speaker 1: honor everyone, parents, kings, bosses, but that honor has a
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  Speaker 1: ceiling because we are free. We are free to not
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  Speaker 1: submit to human authority just because they demand it. We
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  Speaker 1: submit because God is our final authority, and the moment
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  Speaker 1: those human authorities ask us to disobey God, our allegiance
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  Speaker 1: locks onto God himself. Instead, we must choose to honor
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  Speaker 1: the greatest King. In other words, yes, God is dishonored
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  Speaker 1: when the believer Mary is an unbeliever. And if that
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  Speaker 1: concept is new to you, see the Ask Pastor John
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  Speaker 1: book on pages one seven to nine for more on
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  Speaker 1: why believers Mary believers very important. Thank you Pstor John,
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  Speaker 1: and thanks for listening today. If you have a question
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  Speaker 1: and find our complete episode archive, all at the same place.
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  Speaker 1: Ask pastor John dot Com, Well, is our mind material
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  Speaker 1: or is our mind immaterial? When we pass away, does
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  Speaker 1: the light of our consciousness get extinguished or do we
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  Speaker 1: continue to exist in a conscious state? The very interesting
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  Speaker 1: conversation up next time. Why are minds cannot die? I'm
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  Speaker 1: Tony Ranky. I'll see you on Thursday.