Sunshine Mary has done a service to all thoughtful Christians by exposing the reaction of the US evangelicals to the USA allowing women to serve in the front lines. Where most of us do not belong — most men cannot meet the requirements for the elite groups that spend most of their time in the field in NZ — as if being able to fly a plane or shoot from a forward base are similar. Since my Son-in-law serves (not in NZ nor the US) I’m quite aware that these things are different.
But this is what happens when you try to please two masters. Two of the authors were military chaplains — in the military. They were advocating for that which pleases their superiors. And we are not here to please men.
We are not here to please the elite.
1Paul an apostle — sent neither by human commission nor from human authorities, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead — 2and all the members of God’s family who are with me,
To the churches of Galatia:
3Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,4who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
6I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel — 7not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed! 9As we have said before, so now I repeat, if anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that one be accursed!
10Am I now seeking human approval, or God’s approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
11For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin; 12for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
13You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it. 14I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. 15But when God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was pleased 16to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with any human being, 17nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were already apostles before me, but I went away at once into Arabia, and afterwards I returned to Damascus.
Paul was clear that his salvation was not by his own hands. And he was quite aware that religion was not the answer — for he spent his youth pleasing his teachers and then the masters of the Jewish council by becoming one of their activists — visiting terror on the Christians.
If the gospel is about pleasing men it has no power. If it is of God, it does. — and if we account our actions around pleasing men, the elite, our bosses we lose power. This is quite obvious int he example SSM gave us, but the same process occurs when the church training organization is attached to a university (and the need to have your citation index or H factor in your CV). Or when your success is measured in traffic, or attendance (bums on seats).
The gospel is of God, and from God, and we must not let it be diluted. Avoid being foolish. The Galatians were, and this scripture is there as a warning: Don’t be like them.