The Lordship of Christ Over Every Square Inch (Pt 2)

Or, Sphere Sovereignty, Ordered Loves, and the Nature of Reality

We're back for part two, working through the title that was given to me for a conference talk. We took a whack at the first two protein packed piñatas last week.

The Lordship of Christ
Over Every Square Inch

Abraham Kuyper’s quote hits it well:

"Oh, no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not one square inch/[thumb’s-width] in the entire domain of human existence, over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, 'Mine!'"

The goal continues to be to show how comprehensive our confession of faith is, and to increase our confidence in that confession.

Sphere Sovereignty

It turns out that Kuyper's famous quote came in an address titled, "Sphere Sovereignty." Convenient! Kuyper was speaking at the inaugural convocation of the Free University of Amsterdam in 1880.

In his context, the state funded, and so the state controlled, almost every sphere of life. There was a state church (which Kuyper eventually left and then started a new denomination in 1887, that not only called/installed but paid for their own pastors). Likewise, all education, primary and secondary, was under the state, and so the "free" part in the Free University meant free--before God and uncontrolled by state or church--to study and learn.

Because there is a Lord above the state, the state is not sovereign. There are two implications:

the state has limits to its authority and jurisdiction
the state has direct responsibility to submit to the greater authority, who is the Lord Jesus

It's reasonable to question if Kuyper got all his application correct with political pluralism, but this basic principle of the spheres is gold (maybe we could call it, General Equity Kuyperianism, ha).

There are three big spheres of authority as made clear in God’s Word: the family, the state, and the church. While Kuyper never gave one complete list of additional spheres, he certainly thought Education, Science, Art, Journalism and Media and Entertainment, Business/Economics, Military, and more were spheres (or worlds) of life that, while overlapping in some ways, all have their own principles and that all answer directly to Jesus as Lord.

Some think we’re trying to make the church the Lord of all. But that’s not it.

Kuyper started his vocational life as a pastor, but he eventually quit pastoring for other important things. He started a daily newspaper, a university, and a new political party. He was in parliament and then served as prime minister in Holland for a term from 1901-05. He did not get everything right. I mean, he mocked Chiliasts (i.e., Premillennialists, let alone Dispensationalists), can you imagine? But he wore himself out in building and fighting in Jesus' name. From the same talk:

[God's sovereignty or man's sovereignty are] the only two mighty antagonists that plumb life down to the root. And so they are worth people risking their own lives for and disturbing the lives of others."

The Nature of Reality

Though out of order from the title, I think we should consider reality then loves.

One of the sincere, but short-sighted, emphases of MacArthurian preaching is what I might call Epistolary Evangelicalism. It's more or less the same narrow vision found in a Desiring God mindset, a 9 Marks movement, the Together for the Gospel and Gospel Coalition guys. And I get it. Christians are supposed to be devoted to the apostles' teaching (Acts 2:42), and we get that in the New Testament letters. The church is a big deal, the Bible is the only inspired book and ultimate authority.

But the Bible is bigger than the epistles. What’s more, the Bible itself says not many should be teachers (James 3:1), which means that it must be possible to be a mature, complete in Christ sort of Christian (Colossians 1:28), and not have that spiritual maturity defined by how you can lead a Bible study. (In fact, those without the calling or gifting to teach would be less Christlike in trying to do so.)

I'd add to that, most of our good new worship songs are almost entirely about redemption, which is worth praising God about, amen! But is salvation the end, or are we saved unto better image-bearing in our bodies on earth, being equipped to work and rule in the coming kingdom?

I know Genesis 1 was before the Fall, but that is where we learn the story of nature's beginning. What is the most significant word in the creation account? You could make a case for the word "day," but I think more significantly is the word "good" (7x).

We've got some Christians today arguing that family/spouse/kids are not good, that they are idols. We've got Christians who act like God was wrong to give us bodies, or extreme cases of professing Christians questioning God-given gender and sexuality. We've got Christians failing, in rebellion, to call good what God calls good.

The nature of reality is that nature is real, nature is God's, nature is good. Reality is not limited to good being only in the invisible or heavenly. While adjusting for certain distinctions, the blessings of God as sung about in the Psalms are not so heavenly minded to refuse to recognize earthly good. (“Blessed the Man That Fears Jehovah”)

We take the comments about creation as a display of God's power, which is right (Romans 1:20), but not complete. We should also take the comments about creation as a revelation of God's pleasure. He has power to sustain the cosmos, and He has sustained interest in it. God likes telling the sun every morning, “Come up again!” (Per Chesterton).

The Lord cares how the grass grows in fields no man can see and how hair stops growing in places a man himself can’t see. The Lord is interested in how generations honor each other, how neighbors, even in a nation, love each other. He likes how many hours are in a day, what type of clouds form in the sky. He likes thumbs that strum guitar strings, He likes thumbs that hold pencils and hit the spacebar, He likes thumbs that snap and pinch and hold paintbrushes and put bandaids on your kids knees.

Ordered Loves

As image-bearers made to reflect God, what does "likeness" to God look like? Or we could ask more specifically for believers, what does it mean to be "complete in Christ"? Confess that He is Lord, submit to Him as Lord, yes, and amen. And there is more.

Think about the great ministry mission in Colossians 1:28, to preach Christ, teaching and warning in all wisdom so that we and our people are like Christ. It’s near the end of the same chapter that includes verses 15-17.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:15–17 ESV)

Why does that context matter?

I used to think that it proved His preeminence, so you better pay attention, and that it demonstrated His power, so you better pay attention...or else. It’s a brute fact of brute force.

Those things are true, but isn’t it also to reveal what He cares about? If we are to be complete in Christ, won’t we care about what He cares about? We are finite, so we’ll never quite catch up. But our delights ought to grow in extent and depth more and more.

This is not exactly what ordo amoris refers to, but it is not unrelated. Ordo amoris means “order of love.” The idea is often credited to Augustine, who did use the phrase (and who was also one of the first and most influential Christian dualists, ironically, prioritizing the “spiritual” over the material). But it means there is a hierarchy of affections. We should love things according to their true worth in relation to God.

“it is a brief but true definition of virtue to say, it is the order of love.” (City of God, Book XV, Chapter 22)

Augustine’s Latin is: virtus est ordo amoris.

Love God first, love those who are in front of you next: your wife and your family and your neighbor, even your enemy. Love the ones whose sin affects you. Love the ones in the spheres God has you in. Love the ones you can put your thumbs on. Love local politics first, then your own nation's.

Conclusion

The Lordship of Christ over every thumb's-width matters as a first principle, and it’s comprehensive. So as a first application, remember that you answer to Christ in every sphere of life because He made the world to work one way not another, and He is causing our love to abound still more and more in reflection of His own cares. You not only are allowed to love what Christ loves, you must.

The ground is His, every thumb’s-width is His, and we are with Him. This is what drives courageous Christians for battling and building.

Charge

Don’t punt your loves. You will be tempted not only just to go through the motions, you will be tempted to see the weight of the glory of loving what God loves and think it too heavy. Christian, it is what He made and saved you for. Love the Lord, love all the things of the Lord.

Benediction:

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abou...