December 07, 2009
Wait Until Your Father Gets Home
What mother at the end of her rope hasn’t uttered the phrase, ‘You just wait until your father gets home.’? Deep within exasperated hearts we want the disobedient child to experience fear and dread, and then to receive the punishment they deserve. Sometime we have similar thoughts about one another’s spiritual disobedience. We may get so exasperated with a wayward brother that we anticipate their penitence, repentance and yes, admonishment. It’s interesting that we all seem to forget that our Father is always home…
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----The charge to your child, “Wait till your father gets home,” must be both a warning and an assurance. Paul writes much about our flesh being at war with our renewed spirit. The Christian refers to the flesh as “the dead man”, and depending upon the situation, often fails to recognize either this dead man or the renewed spirit. When the child is caught in disobedience, attention to the renewed spirit may wither. When the child is being an obedient blessing, awareness of the lurking dead man may falter. Both failings are dangerous. Although we have been made alive in spirit, we have not been removed from this world marinated in evil and disobedience. Our imperfect human nature has not yet been laid aside. It is never healthy to diminish the awareness of either condition, our living spirits, or our dying flesh.
-----So the father, having come home, must not only deal the consequences of disobedience to the misbehaved child, but he must also dispense the blessings of forgiveness, kindness, and support for the actual life of the child’s spirit. It is from this response that the child learns to live in a life of tension between the lure of disobedience and the sway of obedience. For there will come a time in the child’s life when he will be an adult, making decisions for himself, and being responsible for both the starving of the dead man and the feeding of the living spirit. If the father dispenses both consequences for misbehavior and nourishment for obedience, the child will grow into a healthy adulthood of self-control.
-----But no father is perfect, nor is any child. So as brothers and sisters, we meet the imperfections of one another through the odious flavors of the dead men touching us. When we perceive an odious flavor, we must be careful in our response. For at first thought it may be entirely unclear as to which dead man has done the touching, theirs or our own. Forbearance must be the first of our responses, so that we may think with minds clear of animosity and ripe with the kindness and gentleness of love. Only in this atmosphere does bias diminish enough for truth to become perceptible. Then if it is truly found to be the dead man of your brother at hand, we will be able to react with the consequences of withdrawal from the misbehavior as well as attraction to the brother’s actual new life. Thus our behavior towards him will be joined with our Father’s behavior, and the brother will be edified.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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