Monday, August 27, 2007

spiritual fathers

Each verse of 1 Jn 2.13-14 states that spiritual fathers "know Him who has been from the beginning." John MacArthur, in The Pillars of Christian Character, adds the following.
The apostle is saying that the most mature believers will begin to have a deeper knowledge of God. This is not some kind of mystical experience, but an understanding of Scripture that becomes deeper and richer as they progress from knowing facts and principles to knowing the God who revealed Himself through the words of Scripture. Knowing the Father more intimately involves such things as experiencing enough answered prayers that there's no doubt He does hear and answer, and experiencing enough of life's sufferings and trials to realize that God is always there to sustain and comfort.

As written I agree but there are several words/phrases that deserve some unpacking.

First, "mystical experience". I'm not sure what MacArthur defines as that. He is clearly promoting experience later in this paragraph so I'm not sure where he defines the boundary between Christian experience and non-Christian experience. I have seen this often applied to Christian equal to Evangelical and non-Christian equal to something such as Charismatic. If mystical in MacArthur's statement is equivalent to the experience of the Charismatic and that is what is not part of the "knowing of the Father", then I disagree with MacArthur. If he means some experience totally devoid of Scriptural explanation, then I am aligned.

Next is the phrase, "knowing the God who revealed Himself through the words of Scripture." I understand this "knowing" as an intimate, personal, relational knowing. MacArthur rightly says this is a progression from simply knowing facts and principles and he says that we will know God and that this God is the same God (the only God) revealed in Scripture. He did not say that the only way we can know this God is by what is in Scripture. If this is his intent, I agree. And I would add the only way we can know if the God we are knowing is the God of Scripture is to know Scripture. Without such, we run the risk of being misled.

The reason for the excessive clarity here is that I think some have argued that the only way to know God is through Scripture which is different than knowing the God of Scripture and I think they are incorrect.

I think it is key to note that MacArthur (again rightly) states that God hears and answers prayers. Some of his students seem to contradict that.

And finally, I would add to MacArthur's phrase "experiencing enough of life's sufferings and trials to realize that God is always there to sustain and comfort." I would want to say that it is not the suffering alone that brings the maturity. It is either the Father's deliverance from the suffering or the comforting in the suffering that brings the maturity.

MacArthur continues developing the concept of spiritual maturity with the following.

The key to reaching that ultimate level of maturity is to recognize and remember the crucial role obedience plays. The various levels of maturity are not absolute guarantees; they are linked to obedience. At any stage of our spiritual development we can either be obey God or the flesh. That means that whether we're spiritual infant, spiritual youth, or spiritual fathers, we can either be progressing in spiritual maturity or regressing. We cannot and must not rest in our perceived level of growth, thinking we're automatically mature when in reality our maturity is based on whether or not we're obeying God. Spiritual maturity, then, is the process that moves believers from being spiritual infants to spiritual youth to spiritual fathers during, and only during, those experiences in their lives when they walk in the Spirit and obey God's Word.

I like that - that is something we can and should live by. There is no time to relax. These are serious times. We are in battle with the enemy of the cross. We must live every day, moment by moment as ambassadors of the King.

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