Member Interviews, Intimidation, and Well-Being

By the time most of you read this, the OPC membership interviews will have already begun. Over the next several months members of our congregation will meet with a committee appointed by the Presbytery of Southern California in preparation for reception of our entire congregation into the Orthodox Presbyterian Church later this year. A number of you have expressed some anxiety about the interview process, and I am happy to discuss the process, help you “prepare,” and do what I can to put your mind at ease.

Most of you who feel intimidated are imagining this interview as being more than it really is. It is not an interrogation. It is not a theological examination. It is simply a conversation. The OPC does not require members to be Presbyterian in their convictions. You do not have to believe in Calvinism, covenant theology, or infant baptism. You do have to be a Christian. The membership vows are intended to ensure we believe in the God of the Bible, trust in Christ, are repentant, and will endeavor to serve the Lord faithfully. You do not need to be concerned about having the “right answers” to the committee’s questions; you simply need to give them honest answers.

This process is unfamiliar and a little frightening because so few have ever been in a well-ordered, biblically shepherded church. Many of us have come from churches that did not have formal membership or whose membership standards were so low they basically amounted to saying, “I believe in Jesus.” Of course, a Mormon or Muslim or Jehovah’s Witness could make that claim, so it is important to ask what people actually believe about Jesus, who he is, and whether they trust in him alone for their salvation.

Think of these membership interviews like going to the doctor for an annual check-up. (Don’t worry. There will not be any bloodwork or invasive exams.) It can be a little intimidating to go into an interview like this, but you are not there because there is a problem. You do not have to be afraid of what the committee may say. Our elders have already done their due diligence with regard to the membership of this local congregation. These conversations are to demonstrate to the OPC that we belong and to satisfy their duty to be diligent. The committee is there to welcome and get to know us, not to terrorize or judge us. These are brothers in Christ and friends.

How important are processes like these? I would argue they are very important. We have seen in this congregation’s own history the problems that develop when people are received into membership (or leadership) without a credible profession of faith. The committee is simply doing what the elders of this local church already do and will continue to do in the future: ensure that to the best of our knowledge the people we receive as communicant members are believers in Christ and endeavoring to be faithful to him. None of us can know perfectly what is in another’s heart, and each of us is responsible to God for our own salvation. But as shepherds of the flock, our elders are responsible to know, feed, guide, and protect the sheep (Acts 20:28; 1Pet. 5:1-4). Not every true church is well-ordered, healthy, and faithfully shepherded, but being part of such a church is truly a blessing and a joy. –JME

A Life Centered on Torah

Most who study biblical Hebrew and Koine Greek in seminary, like most who study Spanish in high school, do not retain the skills they are exposed to in those classes. It is unfortunate so many who invest time, energy, and money in learning the biblical languages would not continue using them and growing in the understanding of them, but it is particularly lamentable that ministers fail to do so. Knowledge of the biblical languages should be a prerequisite, in most cases, to ordained Christian ministry, and maintenance of them should be an important part of the minister’s work.

Ezra’s example as a scribe who “set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules” (Ezra 7:10) ought to be a model for all who aspire to be teachers in the church (cf. Jas. 3:1). How are we to teach what we do not understand? How are we to understand what we cannot read? How are we to know what is written if the language in which it was first revealed remains a mystery to us?

Psalm 119 powerfully and prayerfully describes the righteous man’s devotion to God as he has revealed himself in the Scriptures. It is not merely God’s person or God’s truth that the psalmist treasures; it is the very words God has spoken. The psalm uses many different terms to describe the written word of Yahweh. God’s Word is communicated in words, and while those words can be translated and their essential meaning communicated in other languages, the servant of God who aspires to teach God’s Word ought to treasure and pursue the very words which God spoke by the Holy Spirit through holy men of old.

Unfortunately, the demands of ministry and the modern, American context of it often leads ministers to focus more time and energy on programs and pleasing people than on pursuing serious study of God’s Word. Some ministers and pastors are content simply to pass the required language classes (or never take them at all) and then move on to more pragmatic pastoral practices; others might desire to sustain a working knowledge of the biblical languages but find themselves unable to do so because of the significant demands placed upon them. Yet Scripture itself indicates the minister’s first priority must be on the faithful handling of the Word of God (cf. 2Tim. 3:14-4:5). Paul exhorts Timothy:

Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.…  Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. (1Tim. 4:13, 15-16)

Pastoral needs are certainly important, and no minister should be commended for attending to the Word to the neglect of the flock under his care. But every minister ought to recognize the greatest need of his flock is to hear the Word of God in purity and with clarity, and in order for this to be done their shepherd must devote himself to the careful study of it.

Many people today seek a local church where their felt-needs will be met, a church where they will feel welcome, where the worship is a satisfying experience, where their children can enjoy entertaining programs, and where they can feel more encouraged than convicted. No doubt, many are led to Christ in churches just like these, and we can rejoice that the gospel is proclaimed, even if we sometimes regret the context (cf. Php. 1:15-18). But many are liable to attend such churches for most of their lives and end up in Hell because they never knew Christ (Matt. 7:21-23). What people need is not entertainment but enlightenment, not to be satisfied with themselves but to be satisfied with Christ, not to be happy but to be holy. In order for this to be so, we must hear God’s Word. The church needs ministers who can stand up and faithfully proclaim, “Thus says the Lord.” This requires more than reading the Bible in its original languages, but it should not require less. –JME

John 3:18 - An Excerpt of Exposition

This is an excerpt from a sermon manuscript on John 3:17-21. It is not as polished as an essay would normally be, and it is written for oral delivery. Nevertheless, it is my hope it will be of some value, even on this platform. This portion is concerned with expounding verse 18. -JME

Faith and Eschatological Judgment (John 3:18)

Verse 18 extends this idea of eschatological judgment which is so important in John’s Gospel. The salvation or condemnation which every person will experience is not something merely at the end of our earthly lives or at the end of time. These are spiritual realities which begin now. Whoever believes in him is not condemned (or, is not under judgment), but whoever does not believe is condemned already. Let that sink into your mind for a moment. Put it in the crockpot and turn it on slow-cook. This is a verse worthy of much meditation.

Those who believe in Christ will be saved because they are saved, right now. They have eschatological life in the present. The new creation has already begun for them; it has begun in their hearts. This theme we have already been introduced to here in chapter three, and we will have many more opportunities to reflect on and give thanks for it before our survey of this Gospel is complete.

But this is not only true of those who are saved. Eternal damnation also begins in the present age. Those who will be condemned on the Last Day already are; they are condemned because they do not believe in the Son of God. This comes up again in 3:36, but this text has much to say about it as well.

No one is lost because he or she has not heard the Gospel. They are lost because of sin. We are all born in sin; we come into this world under its power (Rom. 3:9), and because of this original sin, we also commit ourselves to the practice of it, renewing in our lives every day God’s just judgment against us. If we read v. 18 as saying men are only lost because they do not believe in Christ, we are not reading it properly in its context. Men are already lost. We were lost before Christ ever came into this world. Believing in the name of God’s Son is the only hope we have of redemption and salvation. So obviously anyone who does not believe in his name is lost and will be lost because they already were lost and because they have rejected the only means of being saved.

Unbelief is a particularly egregious sin, and so it is associated here in v. 18 with the judgment of the lost. Imagine for a moment a terrible virus infected the human race and rapidly spread across our nation. This virus turned men, women, and children into a kind of zombies, crazed and vicious and absolutely out of control but retaining basic cognitive functions. They can see and hear and think and speak. They can even discern certain categories of right and wrong and feel guilt and shame when they commit some wicked act. But they continue to do wicked things anyway. They are driven to it. It is their passion. It is what they live for. You might almost feel pity for them except you know that they know, deep down inside, that what they are doing is wrong. Yet they do it anyway. They are violent and hateful because they want to be; they want it more than they want anything else. You don’t have to imagine it, because that is very much how the Bible describes the human condition. We sin because we are sinners, but before you feel bad for us or think it somehow is not our fault, remember that our wickedness is willful and is exercised in the face of a definite awareness of right and wrong. We are sin’s victims, but we are not only its victim, we are its perpetrators.

Now imagine someone who is not sick, someone from outside, comes to our nation. He is exposed to the virus, but amazingly he is not infected by it. He walks among the dead and dying but is not contaminated by their condition. Instead, he works to help the dead among whom he dwells. Finally he takes decisive action. Only by sacrificing himself, by pouring out all of his blood, can a medicine be created that will destroy the virus and end the plague forever. The savior gives his life, and his blood is given to save the human race. But as the cure begins to be administered, something remarkable happens. No one wants it. Indeed, they become angry and violent and even seek to kill those who offer the medicine to heal them. They want to destroy the cure, and they do everything in their power to do so. They would rather remain in their wretchedness than receive the medicine which can cure them of it.

Here is, by way of a vulgar analogy, a description of the human condition. This is who we are. Those who are infected by the virus are dead men walking around, but they are willing participants in their condition, and they will violently refuse aid whenever it is offered. Why are they dead? We could answer that in two ways, and to some extent, Scripture does so. They are dead because of their original condition. Men are condemned because they are in sin, under sin, and continue to sin (Rom. 3:9-20). But they are also dead because they refused the one way that they could have received healing and life. They are under judgment because they do not believe in the name of the Son of God.

Make no mistake. Anyone and everyone who believes in Jesus will be saved. The Gospel is that simple. It is that beautiful. But if you do not believe in Christ, if you are not trusting in Him alone, and if you love your sin more than you long for freedom from it, then you are already under judgment and you are headed straight for Hell. While there is life, there is opportunity. If you will repent and turn to Christ in faith, even now, you can be saved. But if you do not turn and trust him, there is nothing that can save you, and no one will, because you have condemned yourself. -JME

Context and Semantic Range

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, 

that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

“Do not love the world or the things in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15)

Have you noticed the seeming conflict in the two verses above? Both are written by the same inspired author. Both use the same Greek words for the relevant terms (love and world). Yet what God does in the first, believers are forbidden to do in the second. Are Christians not to love what God loves? How do we reconcile this apparent contradiction?

Bible study is a very important discipline. We are not only to read Scripture but to meditate upon it, to seek understanding from it, in other words, to study it (Psa. 1:2; 119:97-105; Eph. 3:4; 2Tim. 3:14-17). First and foremost this deeper study ought to be facilitated and directed by the teachers God has given to the Church (Eph. 4:11-16; 1Tim. 4:16; 2Tim. 4:1-2). It is not that pastors and teachers study instead of us, but their study helps direct our study so that the Church is built and nourished by the sound doctrine delivered by Christ (cf. 1Tim. 1:5-11; 2Tim. 2:14-18). But there is also a place for personal and private Bible study, particularly in reflecting further upon the teaching delivered in our corporate assemblies and classes. This is why it important for every Christian to know basic principles of Bible study.

One of the most important principles of Bible study is context, i.e. the text that is “with” the text you are studying. This includes the verses immediately before and after, the chapter in which a verse appears, the section of the Bible book, the entire book, the rest of the author’s works, and even the entire Bible itself! We interpret Scripture with Scripture because the Bible is inspired and inerrant and teaches a coherent system of doctrine. Every verse of Scripture must be read and understood in light of its context, i.e. the rest of Scripture, not interpreted in a manner that contradicts it because such an interpretation is not of God.

Another important aspect of Bible study is recognizing semantic range, i.e. the various possible meanings of a given word. The same word does not mean the same thing in every place. The two verses above are a perfect example. Does God love the same world in the same way that we are forbidden to? No! How do we know the words carry a subtly but significantly different meaning? We know because of context.

In John 3:16 the writer is emphasizing God’s love for the ungodly in every nation, not just the covenant nation of Israel. God loves the ungodly by giving his Son so that they might be saved. In 1 John 2:15 the world which the writer has in mind is that which is characteristic of ungodliness, the lusts of the flesh and eyes and pride (v.16). Loving the world in this case is not a redemptive act of sacrifice but an idolatrous attachment to that which is anti-God. To love the world in this sense is to defy the love God has shown to the world in the former sense.

Most people intuitively understand the difference between these two verses but fail to apply the same principles of context and semantic range when interpreting other passages. Words do not always mean the same things in every use, and the best determiner of what a word means is not the dictionary or lexicon but the biblical context. Remembering this will not only help us understand the Bible but will help us recognize many misguided interpretations of it. –JME