Using God’s Gifts to Rule

The writer of Hebrews says that the church gathered together in worship constitutes Mt. Zion, the city of the Living God, a heavenly Jerusalem (Heb. 12:22). In Ephesians Paul says that we are citizens with the saints and members of the household of God (2:19). In other words, the Christian Church is a new city, a new kind of political and social reality. This means that among other things, the Christian Church is concerned with cultivating a distinctly Christian culture. This does not mean that we are supposed to retreat from anything and everything that non-Christians do or say or wear. God created the world full of all sorts of treasures: computers, cell phones, automobiles, clothing, television, music, and electricity, among many others. But as Christians one of the things that we confess is that sin has cursed our attempts to use these gifts wisely, and that only in Jesus Christ can we take dominion and rule as God intends. This means that Christians must take dominion by thinking through how they rule with these gifts and recognize that we cannot just copy whatever the god-haters around us are doing. There are many practical applications of this. Do you rule your television and movie consumption such that you are bringing edifying, true, and lovely stories into your home? Or is the television ruling you, constantly telling you lies about sex and beauty and happiness? Are you ruling the clothing you buy and wear, using it as a means to serve others? Or are you longing to look like the loose women in the magazines who despise the marriage bed which God says is holy? Is your computer a means for service to your family? Or do you spend hours staring into that blue screen, wasting your time in pointless chat rooms, or looking at pornography, all the while ignoring your children, brothers and sisters, and parents. Paul says in a slightly different context that whatever you do whether you eat or drink, do it all to the glory of God. The church is a new polis, a new city, a new family, and here at the center is the worship of the Triune God. This affects everything. You are not first and foremost an American. You are first and foremost a Christian. Therefore put away your idols; put away your sin. We are ascending into the heavenly places now. So come, worship the Lord.