There are a number of false dichotomies out there concerning the Christian faith. In the previous posting, I addressed the false dichotomy that you can't be loving and confront evil. Another false dichotomy is that if my focus is on heaven, I will disengage from the world and be no good to anyone. In other words, I will be too heavenly minded to be any earthly good.
I think that actually it is the opposite. I contend that the more heavenly focused the believer is, the more good fruit he will bear on earth. Jesus told us that if our treasure is in heaven, then our heart will be there as well (Matthew 6:21). And if our heart is heavenly, it is good. And, as Jesus said, A good tree bears good fuit (Matthew 7:17). Listen to what the apostle John says:
1 John 3:2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears,we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
And listen to the Apostle Paul, who basically says the same thing:
Colossians 1:3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints— 5 the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel 6t hat has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth.
The heavenly hope that we have in the gospel purifies our heart. And purity in the heart means more love and selflessness which means more fruit. On the contrary, the mind that is earthly focused moves toward impurity which means more unloving and selfish:
Philippians 3:18For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.
We will move toward becoming that which we focus on. If our minds and hearts are on heavenly things, then we will become more heavenly. If we focus more on earthly things, than we become more worldly. We are told that the things of this world (cravings of sinful man, lust of the eyes and self-boasting) come not from God and will pass away (1 John 2:15-17).
I think this image of being too heavenly minded to be earthly good comes from those who act overly spiritual and condescending toward others. But spiritual pride is still pride which is of the world. Self-promotion is of the world, even if it is cloaked in spirituality. Condescension toward others is not heavenly but worldly. All of this is simply the worldly person, whose mind is on earthly things, putting on a mystical, spiritual facade. This was the spirit of the religious rulers in Jesus' day that he condemned. True heavenly focus of the heart will work in us love, gentleness and humility--fruits of the Holy Spirit.
Friday, November 30, 2007
Thursday, November 15, 2007
How does love face evil?
Suppose I meet a profane person who is bad-mouthing people that I know don't deserve it. Suppose he slanders both God and man without hesitation. Is it loving for me to go along with him and give creedance to what he says so that he would feel accepted. I am being a good and kind person if I were in some way to bless him just to show him I am loving? What if the people he were slandering we right in front of me? Would it be loving to agree with him? No, it would be unloving toward the innocent who were being slandered.
Yet I hear this approach at times promoted within the church. More and more, in certain circles, the way to witness is to show that we are loving by accepting the ungodly as they are. I hear it preached that God accepts everyone just the way they are. Therefore, we are not to warn them of their error not oppose what they stand for. Rather, we are just to love them. We are told that we are being unloving and intolerant if we talk about the coming judgment of God or of the need to repent and turn from evil.
I believe there is a certain "unbelief" that is rearing its ugly head with Christian circles. It is the error of liberal thinkers who deny the truth of Christ and teach only partial truth. I propose the following is the biblical view of responding to evil:
The unbelieving world is under the wrath of God. For God has loved the world and been gracious to all people in abundance. Yet God is rebelled against. He is hated, spurned and ignored. His rightful authority over his creatures is rejected. Man erects idols of his own making and replaces the true God with them. The idols may be gods of his own making after his own image. His idol may be himself.
Yet our God is loving. He has so loved the world by sending His only Son to make atonement for sin. And he has commanded all people to repent and believe the good news. The message is that the worst of sinners are being freely forgiven in Christ, adopted into God's family as his children and given the gift of eternal life. This gift is offered by God graciously without regard to race, gender, age, circumstance. It is offered to whoever will believe. But the gift is not received if it is rejected. What else is left if the blood of Christ is treated as an unholy thing? If the Spirit of grace is rejected?
God is not accepting people as they are! He is offering His love, he is called for reconciliation with His enemies. In this way he is being loving. He is holding out Christ in love to unloving sinners who are his enemies. But he is not accepting them as they are. He is not winking at our evil. His wrath burns against our evil yet he calls for us to receive the free gift of forgiveness and love by faith.
Likewise, we are not to share Christ by saying God loves you without any warning of the consequences are rejecting that love. We can not leave out the truth that Christ died for sin to save us from hell and eternal condemnation. The good news is indeed good news. But the good news doesn't make sense without the context of the bad news. What good is forgiveness if there is nothing to be forgiven of? What is so good about the good news of salvation if there is nothing to be saved from? What is so awesome about being adopted into God's family if we are already God's children regardless of whether we believe or not?
It is a false dichotomy that we can not be both loving and oppose evil. We are being loving by opposing evil. We are being loving by offering the full gospel that Christ died for your sins to save you from eternal condemnation.
Let the light of his love shine!
John
Yet I hear this approach at times promoted within the church. More and more, in certain circles, the way to witness is to show that we are loving by accepting the ungodly as they are. I hear it preached that God accepts everyone just the way they are. Therefore, we are not to warn them of their error not oppose what they stand for. Rather, we are just to love them. We are told that we are being unloving and intolerant if we talk about the coming judgment of God or of the need to repent and turn from evil.
I believe there is a certain "unbelief" that is rearing its ugly head with Christian circles. It is the error of liberal thinkers who deny the truth of Christ and teach only partial truth. I propose the following is the biblical view of responding to evil:
The unbelieving world is under the wrath of God. For God has loved the world and been gracious to all people in abundance. Yet God is rebelled against. He is hated, spurned and ignored. His rightful authority over his creatures is rejected. Man erects idols of his own making and replaces the true God with them. The idols may be gods of his own making after his own image. His idol may be himself.
Yet our God is loving. He has so loved the world by sending His only Son to make atonement for sin. And he has commanded all people to repent and believe the good news. The message is that the worst of sinners are being freely forgiven in Christ, adopted into God's family as his children and given the gift of eternal life. This gift is offered by God graciously without regard to race, gender, age, circumstance. It is offered to whoever will believe. But the gift is not received if it is rejected. What else is left if the blood of Christ is treated as an unholy thing? If the Spirit of grace is rejected?
God is not accepting people as they are! He is offering His love, he is called for reconciliation with His enemies. In this way he is being loving. He is holding out Christ in love to unloving sinners who are his enemies. But he is not accepting them as they are. He is not winking at our evil. His wrath burns against our evil yet he calls for us to receive the free gift of forgiveness and love by faith.
Likewise, we are not to share Christ by saying God loves you without any warning of the consequences are rejecting that love. We can not leave out the truth that Christ died for sin to save us from hell and eternal condemnation. The good news is indeed good news. But the good news doesn't make sense without the context of the bad news. What good is forgiveness if there is nothing to be forgiven of? What is so good about the good news of salvation if there is nothing to be saved from? What is so awesome about being adopted into God's family if we are already God's children regardless of whether we believe or not?
It is a false dichotomy that we can not be both loving and oppose evil. We are being loving by opposing evil. We are being loving by offering the full gospel that Christ died for your sins to save you from eternal condemnation.
Let the light of his love shine!
John
Monday, November 05, 2007
Why is it by Faith?
Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
I find it amazing that although the Bible says that love is greater than faith (1 Corinthians 13:13), it is faith through which a person becomes justified by God. Does it not seem strange that God does not look at how loving a person is in order to judge them as acceptable in his sight, but whether the person has faith? It is faith that makes the difference between eternal life and condemnation.
I find it amazing that although the Bible says that love is greater than faith (1 Corinthians 13:13), it is faith through which a person becomes justified by God. Does it not seem strange that God does not look at how loving a person is in order to judge them as acceptable in his sight, but whether the person has faith? It is faith that makes the difference between eternal life and condemnation.
I have a couple thoughts on this. Faith is the one attribute that glorifies God in salvation instead of man. One truth that has helped me through the struggles with assurance of being accepted by God through my Christian life is that it is all about God's glory not mine. If God accepted me on the basis of how loving, righteous, holy, obedient, good, devoted I was, it would be to my glory. But God's purpose in salvation is to glorify his love, his mercy, his goodness, his righteousness. God doesn't save us because he is impressed with our goodness. He saves us so we can be impressed by his goodness.
If righteousness came by my goodness, then I would have to look to myself and have faith in myself. But faith through which we are justified looks at God's love and mercy and grace in Christ proclaimed in the message of the Bible and says I believe. It is an act of receiving a gift not of earning a reward. God wants to demonstrate His love to us in salvation.
Not that our love is not important. It is. But we don't have true spiritual love without faith. That kind of love comes with faith. We love because God first loved us. It is in comprehending the love of God through faith that we love back. He doesn't love us because we love him. We love him because he loves us.
How does he love us first? Well, while we were enemies and sinners, Christ died for us. And then he poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit that we could comprehend the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. The same Spirit that brings us to faith is the same Spirit that pours out God's love into our hearts.
The spiritually reborn believer has faith and love at the same time to some degree. They are inseparable. You can't believe but not love God. And you can't love God without faith. They both come from the same Spirit who raises spiritually dead sons of Adam to new life.
In the Christian life, the Spirit works through faith. Our hearts are filled with love by the Spirit to more we fix our minds on the love of God in Christ. So our faith works through love. The heart that loves God because God is lovely also inherently trusts in Him because, being Love, he is faithful and trustworthy.
I sure would not want my eternity based on how loving I was. For although the love of God is poured out in my heart through faith, I still have the stain of selfishness and unloving-ness in my character. When my heart convicts me, it is not through trying to be more loving that I achieve progress in the life of love we are called to. But it is in focusing my heart and mind of the love of Jesus that the power to love will come.
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