Proverbs 16:15 ESV
In the light of a king’s face there is life, and his favor is like the clouds that bring the spring rain.
[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+16%3A15&version=ESV]
The role of a Christian in this world has no real easy spots, however great its joy. We are to be priests, seeking God continually by the grace of our great High Priest, the Head of the church, Jesus Christ. In this role, we tend each to his own temple, our bodies, and to his own life, the praise by which that temple is sanctified. We are to be prophets, declaring first to ourselves and then to every man, woman, and child the truth of God Almighty, that He “rules all mankind and always has” (Beowulf, ln 701-702). This role demands of us a clear-minded devotion to the truth, a continual search for wisdom to declare that truth in a manner befitting its joy and its terror, and a constant enmity with all the sin of the world in all its power.
The role which today occupies us, though, is the role of king. It may sound odd to declare that every Christian should act the king, but the statement is not so strange as it sounds. 1 Corinthians 11:1 clearly calls us to imitate Christ, the “the King of kings and Lord of lords” (1 Tim. 6:15), and once we consider what ‘kingship’ is, we will see it is implied also in the Dominion Mandate (Gen. 1:28), and the Lord’s Prayer (Matt. 6:9-13).
The call to kingship is not a universal call to governmental authority, to lord over every man as the kings of men do or to demand tribute from our fellows. The kingship we are called to exercise differs from His kingship as our prophetic calling differs from His. He proclaimed the truth and by His nature was the guarantee of its truth; we receive the truth from Him and are called to proclaim it as coming from Him, not from ourselves (Matt. 7:29). His kingship, likewise, is original and total. He is Sovereign over all, as 1 Timothy 6:15 lays out, and He is king over every man, woman, child, molecule, emotion, thought, concept, action, word, and equation. Nothing exists which His dominion does not extend to.
Our dominion is not infinite. We are called to a dominion proper to our stature, a dominion formed out of a thousand relationships. We are given the dominion of a spouse, of children, of vocation, of house, of citizenship, of artistry, of friendship, of kindness to strangers, of our own thoughts. Each dominion differs according to its nature; we have a different dominion over ourselves than over any other, and with a child than with a friend. In many cases, the dominion includes very little direct authority; in many cases (with our own property, for instance), the authority is predominant. In all of them, we must seek to love according to the love the relationship’s nature justifies.
This dominion is kingship. As under the kingship of God, we are given stewardship over ourselves and our lives, to use them for His glory and our joy (1 Cor. 4:1-2), a stewardship which is His kingship delegated. Thus, it is an act of kingship to do a job well, to discipline or to teach a child, to comfort a spouse, to counsel a friend, to produce art of true beauty, to praise the Lord, to engage properly with art, to complete a mathematical equation, so long as each is done in righteousness, in wholehearted pursuit of Him.
The responsibility of this calling should both rejoice and sober us. We are given the authority to seek that His will “be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:10), a full instantiation of dominion, and so it is our favor which can be ‘like the clouds that bring the spring rain.’ Think back with me, remember the truly beautiful points of spring, when the rain appeared, when the grass grew green and the trees shivered with life, when you could not but smile for the sight of it. Add to that, now, as the original readers of this verse would have, the relief of your crops, on which your life and your family’s life depends, beginning to sprout, the gratitude towards heaven for continued provision brought in those spring rains.
This is the joy we are given the calling to bring upon all, upon our family, our church-kin, our neighbors, our co-workers, our acquaintances. It is not a favor of mere humanitarian benevolence but a favor which cultivates true fruitfulness, its tools both gentleness and that truth which is a sword (Deut. 32:2; Heb. 4;12). This is our high privilege, and let us rejoice in it. More, let us seek its origin and its only possible foundation: the grace and the favor our the Lord in heaven, the King of glory, Head of heaven and High King of the world, He whose love never ends.
God bless.
Written by Colson Potter.
Quote from Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf.
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
