Cindy K

Don,

Your statement is beautiful.  I really don’t understand the “my way or the highway” approach to some of these matters that some camps hold, and it applies to a great many different doctrines, not just interpretations of the Word concerning gender.  You’ve made points like this one before concerning the advanced Greek language that Paul used, one who was a trained expert in the Law and devotee to it before his conversion.   One need not know Greek to recognize how learned he was, even quoting secular poetry back to those he met at Mars Hill.

I thought I was so studious and dedicated when I embarked upon the study of NT Greek.  I approached it so that I could have fewer questions about doctrine rather than more.  Ha!

I did learn more, and my understanding of the Word and its impact on me did deepen tremendously in ways I did not expect.  But there were certain Scriptures which seemed to suddenly become far more complicated.  I also studied with someone who was raised as a Jew, and he added to that complexity of Paul’s Greek the added benefit of how much of the New Testament refers to the Law and to Jewish Tradition.  It left me feeling like little more than a snot-nosed brat who only developed a greater appreciation for how complicated some of these Scriptures and their exegesis can be.  Not to say that we can’t know what the Word tells us, but it drove home to me that one can’t rightly approach certain Scriptures with the idea that only your interpretation can be the only accurate option.

In many ways, that is why I fell back to a (very soft) complementarian interpretation from an egalitarian one concerning some Scriptures, because I’d rather not make presumptions.  This was especially true after I gained such an appreciation for Paul’s Greek that if I wanted to begin to approach certainty on many of the things I sought certain answers for, I’d better become a full-time Greek language student and plan on studying for about the next 10 years.  What translation, what Lexicon, what teacher, what grammar, what theology, what was the context, ect., ect…  For me, it had a quality of what Job or Habakkuk must have felt when YHWH showed up to answer their prayers and frustration.  Fear of the Lord and an appreciation took on new meaning for me.  (For me, that’s how the Holy Spirit leans on my heart right now.  To that I must be true and that is not the standard of another who might see things differently than I do.)

How remarkably gracious is God to tolerate us and allow us liberty as we learn to figure out exactly Who He is?  Jesus meets us where we are in our understanding just like Jesus meets us where we were in our sins.  That’s what differentiates us from those who followed the Lord in the Old Testament.  He lets us be wrong as He gently and lovingly transforms us, leading us and guiding us into more and more truth about Him.

And then we take that liberty and freedom, and turn to one another as believers to demand cruel accuracy in a demanding spirit of intolerance, bereft of love.  Apart from the Spirit opening our eyes to see the truth about what He’s really telling us in the Word, we aren’t much further ahead of the demons who know the Word of God well.  All I can pray is that God is merciful with me when I do stand before Him for my years of being sure of this doctrine or that one, some of which could drive me to put a bag over my head for the rest of my life because of embarassment.  (But we are not to cover God’s glory with our shame.  The real shame would have been to stay in my former ways of thinking.)

Some people twist Scripture, but some people are just still coming into a greater knowledge of the truth.  So much of this I just don’t get.  I think human fear rather than faith in God and love for one another accounts for far too much in these matters.   It breaks my heart, as for many, this is all just about winning the day.