Adorn

This week in Teen Church in I preached through 1 Timothy 2. It was a sweet time together as we looked at the way Paul tells Timothy to order life in the church. Men are to raise their hands in prayer not anger, women are to focus on their hearts and not their appearance. I told our young men to stop getting angry (not that they necessarily have a problem with that) and our young women not to dress to draw attention to themselves (not that they necessarily have a problem with that either, i'm thankful for the work the Lord is doing in all of our teens' hearts.)

As an aside, can i tell you that young people can handle serious Bible teaching, so stop trying to sell me fluff curricula. 

But what really grabbed my attention was this, women are to adorn themselves... with good works. I read it again this morning in Titus 2:10, and Paul tells the slaves in the church to work hard, so that they may adorn the doctrine of God (their) saviour. To adorn something is to decorate or add beauty to something. Don't decorate yourselves with expensive earrings, but with good works. Decorate your faith with what attracts people. With good works.

So good works should decorate right belief. Paul wants Timothy to know that if the women in his church are saved, they'll be at least as attractive on the inside as they are on the outside. He wants Titus to know that slaves who are saved will be harder working and more obedient.

Our good works are our faith made visible. Almost. It's not quite that simple is it, because you can have the good works without the faith. Someone could be pinning apples on a dead tree. But the opposite is a more troubling problem. If we don't have good works? Where's our faith? There's no dichotomy here, your works decorate your faith. They don't make it objectively better, but subjectively more attractive. People will see your good works and give thanks to your Father in Heaven.

So could the women in Ephesus be saved and still dress to be the center of attention? Maybe. If they showed up the next week in sackcloth and ashes is that a way to show that they are following Jesus? Maybe. If slaves steal, is their baptism void? Maybe. Should only the hard working slave receive communion? Maybe. What about men who get angry? Once a week? Three times a week? Every time they get in a car?

And this is the marvel and the mystery of Christian ministry. This is what makes our work so indiscriminate, we can't read hearts, we just look at the adornments and pray they're not made of straw. How do you know when you're going in the right direction? Probably when the liberals are calling you a legalist, and the legalists are calling you a liberal.