“Knock, knock.” “Who’s there?” “Dwayne.” “Dwayne who?” “Dwayne the tub, I’m dwowning.” There it is, my favorite childhood knock-knock joke. I had to just get that out of the way so I can get to what I really want to talk about, and it has to do with who is at the door. When I study the Bible these days, I find myself falling down some profitable rabbit holes. Yesterday, I was reading in Romans, and in chapter 6, a little line jumped off the page and wrapped itself around my head. One simple question came to mind, “What does that really mean?” Let me tell you about my treasure hunt.
“Do you not know that you are slaves to whom YOU SUBMIT? You are in submission to whom you PRESENT YOURSELVES as servants…” (Romans 6:16). Now, where we Christ-followers can run into trouble is when we gloss over these verses as if they don’t apply to us any more after we “get saved.” When we receive Christ, we have been set free, and who the Son has set free is free indeed! But, we have to choose freedom over bondage–and keep choosing it–like in all things and every single day.
Most of us have areas that we don’t even know we are completely bound up in. We have been deceived and we do not realize that we are little yes men to tyrant taskmasters. For instance, has Worry been giving you the runaround? Is Fear dictating your next move? Are Inferiority or Insecurity making you go sideways to demand you be heard? That’s what I’m talking about.
The Responsibility of Being Free
I believe the whole of the Christian life is pretty much a series of classes and experiences to help us learn how to live free. If we don’t learn this, we could instead get crushed in the freedom like the old guy in Shawshank Redemption who was a prisoner for so long that he hung himself when he was released because freedom was too much responsibility for him to steward. In not just the big things of life, but also in the seemingly small choices, thoughts and behaviors of every day life, we will be slaves to whom we submit to.
I looked up that word “submit.” I’m a sucker for word studies in the Strong’s Concordance so I can see what something actually meant in original Hebrew or Greek. Hidden truths are unearthed everywhere in this Word of God that is alive and active! So, the word “submit” there means “to listen, to harken, to obey.” Okay, I had gathered that already, but then there was this: “to be a porter–of one who on the knock at the door comes to listen who it is.” Whaaattt? All sorts of connections started firing in my mind. I had to see more. “A porter is a person stationed at a door or a gate to admit or assist those entering; one who waits at the door to receive messages.”
There is a huge spiritual truth here! In the Old Testament, a porter was a sacred officer of the temple or tabernacle. A porter was stationed at the gates. If thou shalt kick it old school with the King James Version, you will see Jesus talking about a porter: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out” (John 10:1-3).
Jesus does a similar thing in Revelation 3:20, “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.” This is an amazing picture to me. A porter is stationed to discern if the person on the other side of the door or gate should be let in. If it is friend, let him in, but if it is foe, sound an alarm to scoot this enemy, thief, invader, deceiver out. In biblical times, cities were fortified with walls and gates. The tabernacle itself had one gate, and it was the only way to enter in to worship God. Those who stood at the gates, those who guarded the doors, were essential.
Watching the Door, Guarding the Gate
The wild thing is that 1 Corinthians 6:19 says, “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself…” Here’s the deal, we have a vital role to play when we decide to serve Christ, and as we continue to serve Him. A lot of riff-raff will knock on the door of our souls. We are the porters who are charged with pausing to say, “Who is it?” when we hear a “spiritual” knock. Yes, there are spirits from the kingdom of God to be aware of that show up even after we have let Christ in to stay–messengers, helpers, warriors, deliverers of the “Fruit of the Spirit of the Month Club” that we definitely want to let in. But, there are also spirits that are from Satan’s kingdom that would love have us slip up and invite them in to bring with them worry, fear, oppression, troubles, cares of every kind and heavy, heavy burdens. The reality is that we obey and submit to whatever we let in. Train your ears to hear the knocking.
Our own lives experience enough invasion from thieves that we have to catch and throw out of our temple. As we go to work repairing cracks and allowing God to caulk the crevices, we gain more control over the actual gates. We realize we actually stand at a post of power where we identify who or what we say yes or no to. There is a place in God where we are not victims anymore to what comes to us. We choose to either open the door to God and what He wants to bring into our lives, or we start carelessly opening the door to what our devourer, the devil and his kingdom–or the ways of this world–would like to make us servants to. They will try to wear you down like the old salesmen that came a knocking with vacuums or encyclopedias or whatever, using slick talk to get them in your house. Once they’ve been allowed in, before you know it you’ve written a check for over $1,000 for something that sucks.
At the end of the day, we choose whom we will serve. We will be slaves to who we attend to after we have opened the door and presented ourselves to it. I want to live as Paul said, “For he who was called in the Lord while a slave, is the Lord’s freedman; likewise he who was called while free, is Christ’s slave. You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men” (1 Cor. 7:22-23).
Don’t be deceived, porters, it is the little decisions each day–not just the big ones–that will determine our status of participation in the “life to the full” Christ came to give us while navigating through the circumstances of life on this earth. You didn’t realize how important it was to answer back with “Who’s there” once you hear a knock, knock, did you? I didn’t.
Laleo Life with Tahni Cullen 