A taproot.
It is the strength of many plants and where a lot of the nutrients come from. You can break the plant at the top, but if you don't get the taproot, it will always come back. You can even pull the plant, get many of the off shoot roots, but if you don't get the taproot, it will come back - even if you pull the taproot. If you don't get it all... Yup. You guessed it! The plant will come back.
When Jesus came, with Paul teaching after Him, the concepts taught took spiritual Round-Up to many obvious weeds that had been planted by the Enemy to choke out humanity. The obvious ones were the first to die. Salvation without works was provided to everyone through the cross and the work of Jesus. Salvation of our soul was complete through our faith in Christ, not by anything we could do. Ephesians 2:8-9 states, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Even that took a long time for the taproot to fully be laid bare.
(Thank you, Luther! I'd nail letters to doors any day with you.)
Some of those taproots - they have taken a LOT of work to unroot. To dig up. To come to the realization of just what Jesus and His follower, Paul, laid the foundation for. For centuries, people used the Bible out of context – culturally, biblically, and historically - to justify slavery. One of the main Scriptures they quoted was Ephesians 6:5-8, which tells slaves to obey their masters. However, they stopped there. The very next verse was the biblical poison to the taproot of slavery. Ephesians 6:9 calls masters to treat their slaves as unto the Lord. When applied, it is spiritual Round-Up to the whole thought of owning slaves. Slavery lives on today, but thankfully people no longer use the Bible to justify it like they did - not even that long ago. The Church is on the frontlines of battling this stain in our broken world, bringing life and hope to those in captivity.
There is at least one big taproot remaining.
Today, the taproot lives on as approximately 60% of the Church is told they do not have equal standing to serve God in certain ways due to their genitalia. Just like in times of slavery, the Bible is being abused and used out of cultural, biblical, and historical context. What is the scriptural Round-up? Honestly, there is a lot of biblical poison for this taproot – more than I can cover in a blog. However, recently the Holy Spirit pointed out a new one to me.
Let’s look at it quickly together:
Ephesians 5:25-33 commands, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church — for we are members of his body. ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ This is a profound mystery — but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, [so that the wife will respect]* her husband.”
What is the biblical taproot poison?
God is calling men to treat their wives, their daughters, their sisters in Christ as Jesus did His church. How did Jesus treat His ‘church’? Who was His ‘church’ while He was on Earth? It was the disciples – the 12, the 70, the 120. He called them, He equipped them, He entrusted them, He empowered them, and then He expected them to minister - male and female released in their calling. He instilled in them the realization of their true identity as children of the King! He told them to be filled with the Holy Spirit and called them to preach – male and female.
The Heavenly Father wants to see His sons and daughters worshipping and ministering in Spirit and in Truth – TOGETHER! I am so grateful I had an earthly father who told me to "fly with the eagles." That I am married to man who is secure enough in our relationship and his relationship with Christ to speak life into the ministry God is calling me to.
The weed of hierarchy threatens the Church. We must be unified on an even field - men and women - to see the taproot killed for good. Just like Christ, do not let pride, fear of being surpassed, or your misunderstanding due to cultural teachings, allow the devil to keep resurfacing this weed that threatens to choke the growing church. God has been calling us to better - and He has already provided the way to deal with this taproot. Let's get digging!
*I used the correct grammatical meaning of this Scripture. There is a lot of research that has been done on this which can be found online and in written theological books on the original Greek.
