Where does one draw the boundary?
I don’t know about you, but this is something I struggle with daily … where’s the boundary gone … is my eyesight failing, am I growing confused? It seems that when I was younger everything was so clear, in black and white. I would argue with passion for this or that, knowing with absolute certainty where the boundary lay, and what was right and wrong.
Nowadays it seems to me that I am less certain. I still have all the passion, but on some issues (only some), I grow less pedantic, and less dogmatic. Maybe the brain is failing, or perhaps the wisdom of age is finally getting a slight grip on my emotions of yesteryear.
Jesus never struggled! Huh, but of course He had the advantage of Godly perfection. It’s not fair, and it makes me want to complain sometimes. But then I remember that He made me this way, to walk with finite vision, to not try and be God. It’s a humbling that comes as a gift if I will only receive it, and allow myself to recognize I can’t always draw the boundary in every circumstance, I can only turn and gaze at Jesus.
So I was emailed this poser: “What does the bible teach about elders? Can women be elders? A church we visited was appointing elders, but they were all men. And the guy showed all these scriptures about how it was the men who should lead. But then what about all the gifted women? What about Joyce Meyer and Beth Moore?”
Well, wherever there’s contention of interpretation and the Bible is not emphatic (like “you shall not murder”… that one’s pretty clear!), then we need to have grace! I’m not going to draw a boundary on this one because I see in the bible woman prophetesses (there are at least 6) and other woman of great godliness and decision. Now, if God has chosen woman in the past to speak in authority and give the word of God to people, I’m not going to say they can’t today (plus woman can be scary – I wouldn’t want to face off with a woman!). What I can say is that God has created men and woman differently (not of greater or lesser value, but differently). There are roles that in generality seem to suit men and woman differently.
So if someone is willing to draw the line in the sand and be emphatic, dogmatic, fanatic, even catalytic and any other kind of ‘-tic’ about something that God obviously allows flexibility for, then I’ll choose to give them a wide berth, and say “Bless you, but I think God is calling me along a slightly different path”.