Matt Chandler - Sanctified Together

Okay, there are chunks of scripture over the last two millennia that have been removed from their context and used to beat up, malign, and harm others, and this is one of them. This passage is a beautiful passage in its context; it is a hopeful passage in its context, and it is a life-giving passage in its context. It actually beckons women to leave abusive situations, not to stay. Wherever this passage has been twisted to harm you, like if you grew up in a house where, as a little girl, you saw a domineering and abusive father, I am sorry. I hope that the Holy Spirit will minister to you today and perhaps heal some of those wounds. Anyone who has ever used this passage to imprison a woman in a place where she must keep her mouth shut while being beaten is far outside the heart of God and the truth of this text. You can see what happens when you pull this out of context. Can you understand, for example, the rural Pentecostalism that makes you wear a long dress and forbids braiding your hair? I know we were reading the passage, and I saw someone thinking, «Oh no, wrong day!» Yet, rightly placed in its context, I think this passage not only protects women and children but is literally a seed that was planted, leading us to this moment where women are seen as fully human. You can find pockets where they are still treated like they were in the first century under what is called the «paterfamilias,» which we’ll discuss shortly. I know you are eager for that. But for now, you just need to hear me say that I know this passage, for many of you, in a very real way, might trigger something primal and genuinely hurtful that happened in your past or might be happening right now. I want you to know that I am in no way being cavalier by attempting to approach this passage faithfully. The reason we do things as a church, like the training program and the classes we offer, is so that you might read the Word of God rightly and be shaped by it rather than the strange evangelical practice of cherry-picking verses that fit your own compulsions. This text says something—it cannot be what you want it to say. It actually conveys a message. Right? It’s not like you should be asking, «What does this text say to you?» Stop asking that question! The text doesn’t say anything to you; the text communicates something, and then the Holy Spirit will reveal how you should be shaped and molded by it. The idea that this text can mean a thousand things to a thousand people is nonsensical and leads to the abuse of what is beautiful instead of allowing that beauty to shape us. Are you tracking with me? We haven’t even started the sermon yet; we’re in trouble today.

The context of this passage—and the context of all passages—matters, but the context of this one is especially important since it has been historically abused. You know where we’ve been; we’re talking about 1 Peter. We’re discussing how we, as Christians, should live in an environment that isn’t persecuting us but is somewhat put off by us. Nobody’s getting arrested, imprisoned, or beaten, but we are certainly seen as an obstacle to the direction the predominant culture wants to take, right? It’s more acidic than anything else; we are misrepresented more than we are persecuted. We are painted, even with verses like this, as archaic and as the root cause of power abuse in our day and age. Unfortunately, the church has earned some of that reputation. This passage sits in a longer section of 1 Peter that discusses how you and I should live in an imperfect, broken, fallen world as Christians. If you remember, the primary thrust of this section has been about how we, as believers, should live under the authority of unbelievers, right? That’s been the last three weeks of discussion. So, this idea is how we, as believers, are meant to sit under the authority of unbelievers and do so in a way that doesn’t betray our identity as children of God and disciples of Jesus Christ. How do we harness our power into meekness in order to reflect the beauty of Jesus’ way to the world? We said over the last three weeks that the primary way we do this is by living lives of beauty and goodness, for you and I have been called into the moral law of God. Unfortunately, we live in a time where that might be called legalism; however, it’s only legalism if you try to do it to get saved. It’s not legalism if you submit to King Jesus because you are willing to. Are you tracking with me? God has a moral law and a moral plan for human flourishing, and He asks us, despite our compulsions, to submit to that so that the world might smell the aroma of Christ. You and I might become a plausibility structure for the world where they see us and think, «I guess it doesn’t have to be like this.» We begin to reveal what is possible, redemption—that our worst moments don’t define us but are instead redeemed and made whole. Right? That’s what we…