Sabbath Law and Christian Freedom

 In the New Testament, many of the Christians were slaves. It is interesting that Paul does not completely abolish the Ten Commandments in his letters. 

Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, 
idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, 

envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Gal 5:19–21 NRSVue

(See also 1 Corinthians 6:9–10.)

Paul forbids idolatry, adultery, theft, greed, etc., but in no letter does he forbid work on the Sabbath.

Why?

Many Christians were slaves. If a slave was ordered to work on the Sabbath, he could be killed on the spot for disobedience. 

Paul claimed that we must be faithful to the ethical principles in the Old Testament, but we are no longer like the Jews under the law. 

In the Roman Empire, slaves had no human rights. A slave was the property of his master, just like a tool or a donkey. Some slave owners valued their slaves as human beings, but they were not obliged to do so.

There was a woman from Canada in Saudi Arabia. Her husband was Arab. She wanted to leave him and return to her homeland, but she was not allowed to because in Arabia a wife is the property of her husband.

The situation is similar for young Arab women. If they emigrate and want to lead a free and independent life in the West, they can be abducted or murdered because they are considered the property of their father.

When I read in a Christian devotional that I belong completely and unreservedly to God. I felt intimidated. 

As a young Christian, I attended churches where the pastors ruled over the members in a very authoritarian manner. It was like the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages. If the priest or bishop condemned or excommunicated you, you thought you were lost and damned. 

I was excommunicated as a young Christian. I panicked and despaired. It took me years to learn that a pastor was not my master, that I was not an unemancipated child, that I did not have to tremble before God like a slave.

For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 
For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” Rom 8:14–15 NASB95

Abba means daddy or papa. 

What does it really mean to be God's property?

But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me, And the Lord has forgotten me.” 
“Can a woman forget her nursing child And have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. 

“Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me. Isa 49:14–16 NASB95

God wants to help you.

 Jesus left Judea and returned to Galilee. It was a long walk, and at noon he took a break at a well in Samaria. 

There he found a woman drawing water from the well.

 It was taboo for Jews to talk to Samaritans. Jesus was also a Bible teacher, and no rabbi was allowed to speak to a woman alone. 

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”

Jesus was alone with this woman because his disciples had gone to the nearby town to buy supplies. The woman was surprised that Jesus spoke to her.

So the Samaritan woman said to him, “How do you, being a Jew, ask from me water to drink, since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jn 4:9 LEB

Jesus answered and said to her, “If you had known the gift of God and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me water to drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” Jn 4:10 LEB

Are you a little religious, virtuous and idealistic? That's a good start, but there's more. Many pastors preach humanistic philosophy, and their listeners have nothing more than vague ideas about God and eternal reality.

Are you a Christian? Do you expect an eternal future in heaven? That's good. But if you knew what Jesus wants to give you here on earth, you would pray from the heart and expect miracles.

Are you entangled in drug addiction, prostitution, pornography or the occult?
 
The woman in this story was despised in her society, but she may not have been to blame.

The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband,’ 

for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” Jn 4:17–18 NRSVue

In this society, only the man had the say. Five husbands had rejected her? Why?
Was she unable to bear sons? 
Had she been sexually abused and was unable to satisfy her husband? 
Was she extremely depressed, traumatised and moody?

How could she survive as a woman who had been divorced five times? As a beggar? As a prostitute?

Jesus did not look at her sins, but at her need. He simply loved her.

Jesus died on the cross for you and your sins. He simply loves you.

No matter where you are, Jesus wants to bless you.

When you entrust your life completely to Jesus, God's Spirit comes and dwells in your spirit.

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, Eph 3:20 NRSVue

Why do we expect so little from God? What is your problem?
Have you failed? Jesus can give you strength and wisdom to live a new life.

Are you caught up in a colourless, decent religious routine? Jesus freed the decent Jews of his time from their religious treadmill. Jesus gave his disciples a new life filled with joy, freedom and adventure.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. Jn 10:10 NRSVue

Are you addicted to pornography? You can never enter God's heaven with pornography, but Jesus can set you free.

Jesus was tortured on the cross. Through his suffering, he took the punishment for all your sins upon himself.

If only you knew how God can and wants to help you, you would cry out for God's help and have a new life.

Supernatural Gifts Today

 A conservative Bible-believing preacher in Australia was travelling through the country. As he left one village, the local tribal elders waved goodbye to him.

When he drove into the next village forty minutes later, the same tribal elders greeted him. He was driving his car, but they had already arrived using magical powers.

The preacher knew that he had failed as an evangelist. The indigenous people looked down on him because their witchcraft was more powerful than the theological doctrines preached from the pulpit.

The frustrated evangelist went to a charismatic preacher and sought advice. He had come to the conclusion that charismatic gifts of the Spirit are still necessary today.

In the Bible, we repeatedly find spiritual warfare. Sorcerers persecute the believing Jews and, in the New Testament, the Christians, but the prophets and later the apostles prove through miracles that the true God is stronger.

When Moses stood before Pharaoh, he threw his staff on the ground and God turned the staff into a snake. The Egyptian magicians also produced snakes, but Moses' snake swallowed the Egyptian snakes. 

In Acts chapters 2 and 3, God used amazing miracles to bring thousands of Jews to faith. In chapter 2, 120 disciples proclaimed the gospel in various languages they had never learned.

In chapter 3, Peter and John healed a paralysed man in Jesus' name.

In Cyprus, the mission was hindered by an evil sorcerer.

Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, 
“You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? 

Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind for a time, not even able to see the light of the sun.” Immediately, mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand. Acts 13:9–11 NIV

During the Cold War, a faithful Christian wanted to bring a shipment of Bibles to an Eastern European country. At the border, he had to go through customs. The customs officer looked directly into his car, where there was a stack of Bibles, but he could not see any Bibles. 

From the first day of Pentecost, the spread of the gospel was accompanied and confirmed by signs and wonders. God has never ceased to reveal His miraculous power.
 
In our time, millions of Muslims are converting to Christ. 
Numerous Muslims experience or observe miraculous healings in Jesus' name.
Countless Muslims are visited by Jesus in dreams and visions.

What is God's key to opening this seemingly locked door?
Signs and wonders. What is behind them? God's love for lost souls.
How is God's power released in such a wonderful way? The passionate intercession of faithful Christians.

God's Love like Mother and Father

 We have a lovely baby granddaughter. She is nearly 9 months old. She is so wonderfully loved and cared for. Our son and his wife adore her, and they care for her with all of their heart, all their soul and all of their strength. 

She is a really happy child because she is so loved and cared for. If only all babies were loved and cared for like her. When I think about this, I feel sad for all the babies who don’t have this kind of love and care. 

It is often not the fault of the mother. The mother is overwhelmed by economic pressures, relationship tensions, other children to manage. She has to go back to work when the baby is only two or three months old because she needs the income to pay the rent or the mortgage. 

As I thought about this, I felt God was telling me that he loves me with the kind of love that our granddaughter is loved. He delights in me. He does not focus on my faults. He cares for me with deep devotion. He wants me to be aware of this and respond to his love.

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 Jn 4:10 NIV

Shout for joy, you heavens; rejoice, you earth; burst into song, you mountains! For the LORD comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones. 

But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.” 
“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! 
See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me. Is 49:13–16 NIV

Can Women Teach Men?

 Can women teach men? Can a woman teach a man? Can a wife teach her husband?

Smith Wigglesworth was an evangelist who healed the sick and raised the dead. He never went to school and he was illiterate until his wife taught him to read the Bible. 

Carl Benz constructed the first car but he lacked the confidence to test drive it. Two years later, his wife took it upon herself to drive the car from one German city to another.

In World War Two, a team of British women worked out how to defend convoys of ships against German submarines. Many seamen owed their lives to the lessons they learned from these women.

In the Bible, the prophetess Deborah governed Israel, sat in judgement in legal disputes and taught the ways of God to all the people. She was called and gifted by God to do this.

There are fundamentalist legalists today who use proof texts to give women even less freedom in the church than some women had in the Old Testament. 

This whole mindset is contradicted by Paul’s writings.

There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. Gal 3:28 NRSVue

Pursue love and strive for the spiritual gifts and especially that you may prophesy. 1 Cor 14:1 NRSVue

This was addressed equally to men and women. The proof of this is in the following verses.

Any man who prays or prophesies with something on his head shames his head, 
but any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled shames her head—it is one and the same thing as having her head shaved. 1 Cor 11:4–5 NRSVue

Clearly women should prophesy if they are decently dressed according to the customs of the day. Otherwise the text makes no sense.

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Gal 5:1 NRSVue

The Prime Minister of Australia was a family friend who valued the advice of my grandmother. Many prominent men owe a part of their success to the advice of their mothers, wives, sisters or secretaries.

The cardinal rule of Christian love and fellowship is mutual submission.

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Eph 5:21 NIV

This means that wives should submit to their husbands but husbands should also submit to their wives. This can be difficult to understand if you leave out the loving guidance of Jesus over both marriage partners. 

Mutual submission is not always easy. It cannot be taught with simple formulas. Every couple has to learn how to apply it. It takes time, effort and practice.

If a man lords it over his wife, he dishonours his wife but he also dishonours Jesus.

If a man is not willing to learn from his wife, he is very misguided and he will suffer the consequences.