God is love... Love keeps no record of wrongs
Sunday, February 10, 2013
God is love.
If that's true, then Paul's famous hymn of love in first Corinthians 13 can be read like this:
God is patient, God is kind.
God does not envy, God does not boast, God is not proud.
God does not dishonor others, God is not self-seeking,
God is not easily angered, God keeps no record of wrongs.
God does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
God always protects,
always trusts,
always hopes,
always perseveres.
God never fails.
Wow. God does not envy? God does not boast? That might make us reconsider some of the songs we sing to him on Sunday morning then. God does not boast.
God keeps no record of wrongs? Do we dare to just sit and let that be, without immediately protesting "yes, but..." Can we simply allow God to love all of who we are (and all of everyone else!), no matter how broken, ugly and helpless we may feel? God keeps no record of wrongs. Selah.
Why is it so hard for us to accept that this is what God is like? Is it that we do not really believe with Paul that "love never fails"? Do we think that we should try love... until it fails and then pick up our swords?
When Paul talks about us trusting, hoping, and persevering, what that means is that we are trusting in the way of love, hoping for the victory of love, persevering through the means of love, and we can have that hope, perseverance, and trust because love never fails.
That does not mean we sit passively and accept abuse. Because, as Paul says here, love always protects. But it protects through the means of love, by "overcoming evil with good, instead of being overcome by evil" (Romans 12:21).
Right after John declares that God is love, he tells us that God demonstrated that love for us in Jesus. That's our model, seen in God revealed in Christ. That's why we are supposed to have Jesus-shaped lives too. "Dear friends" John writes, "since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." (1 Jn 4:9-12). No one has ever seen God, but we know too that God looks like Jesus. When we love, we make the invisible God visible.
So don't listen to those toxic voices that say love is not enough, that promote fear. As John says "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." Fear and punishment here are set up as polar opposites of God's very nature. Sit with that a moment. It's so important that we get that deep down in our bones. There is no fear in love. God is love. God drives out fear. The closer you are to God, the further you will be from fear and punishment. To the extent that we embrace fear and punishment, we push God out.
"If we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us" John says. God's love is made complete in us when we do not envy, because God does not envy. God's love is made complete in us when we keep no record of wrongs, because God keeps no record of wrongs. When we truly understand what love looks like, then we understand what God looks like. God is love.
So we trust in love, hope for love, and persevere in love. But since God is love that equally means that God believes in you, God has hopes for you, God relentlessly perseveres for you, and of course it goes with out saying that God loves you. And that love never fails.
So we trust in love, hope for love, and persevere in love. But since God is love that equally means that God believes in you, God has hopes for you, God relentlessly perseveres for you, and of course it goes with out saying that God loves you. And that love never fails.
Labels: Bible
9 Comments:
The Father of the Prodigal
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The closer you are to God, the further you will be from fear and punishment. To the extent that we embrace fear and punishment, we push God out.
So true! This is why the Reformers' theory of Penal Substitution (not objecting to the "substitution" part here) is such a problem. Atonement theory in the Western theological tradition is what drove me for refuge into the Eastern Orthodox Church! Penal Substitution theory bifurcates the nature and motivation of God toward his Creation into two competing and contradictory principles--one illustrated by Jesus as Self-giving/all forgiving Victim in our stead and the other proposed of the Father/the Godhead's equal need to avenge his "honor" and uphold "justice" by visiting his angry retributive punishment on Jesus, the Human, for our sin (with this "punishment" being a seen as a sort of end in itself).
I totally agree with your vision of God. However, in conversing with my more conservative brothers and sisters in Christ, I find that they often point to Revelation (or God's violence in the OT) to point out that God is not just touchy-feeling warm and fuzzy.
As one friend put it, "In the first coming, Jesus came as a suffering servant. But in the second coming, He says 'I'm bad!' He comes with a sword sticking out of his mouth, and comes as a destroying conqueror."
I feel that unless we seriously and honestly engage with these texts folks reference, people's narratives about what God is like may not change significantly.
Samurai,
Yes I agree that this is crucial to address. In fact, I'm working on a book right now that is focused on doing this! The short answer however is that we need to learn to read the Bible like Jesus did, and not like a Pharisee. Most conservative evangelicals read the Bible like the Pharisees did, and end up missing the entire point of the gospel and instead becoming cheerleaders for violence and judgement rather than ambassadors of grace and enemy love.
I use to struggle with these very same issues as you when dealing with the problem of evil and suffering. In arguing about the problem of evil and suffering I use to try to place God in a human category and say He must behave a certain way. What I failed to take into consideration is the holiness of God. Holiness when applied to God not only refers to moral purity but also to everything that sets God apart from His creation and His creatures. We are to imitate God in certain ways but there are also ways we cannot be like God. For example: God is self-sufficient, God is all-powerful, God is all-knowing, God is infinite in wisdom. These are just a few ways we are not like God. To try to be like God in every way leads to pride and arrogance.
The Bible says God is love. It doesn't say He is ONLY love. And while it says God is love it's a Holy love. This is no mere human love. For the Bible says God is Holy, Holy, Holy. The Bible also says God has a Holy hatred as well. So, it's my contention that the problem of evil and suffering doesn't even get started. For God's love is a Holy love. This isn't the same omnibenevolence that we try to ascribe to God. For God has a Holy hatred as well. Nonetheless, God is completely Holy and deserves our worship.
.Many times I've wondered why God would allow suffering and bad things to happen. It is good to question and try to figure things out. But I think when we are dealing with a Being who is infinite in wisdom and knowledge we must realize our limited capacity to understand and grasp things and all His reasons for doing what He does. God is in a category all by Himself. I also don't see God as something to try and figure out. Rather, I trust in His infinite wisdom and goodness to run things no matter what they may look like at the present moment. I believe He brings beauty out of ashes. For I trust He causes all things to work together for good. His business is His business. My job is to trust Him, clean my own house, and help others as I persue to love and seek justice.
People who complain that God could have created things differently fail to realize that the laws of physics are based on symetries and those symetries are based on mathematical necessity. God would have to make those mathematical truths false. Hence, God couldn't have created things differently. He is a God of truth as well as infinite wisdom and perfection.
As I already stated, God's wrath or justice is holy. However, His anger doesn't last forever. But it will not turn back until He accomplishes the desire of His heart - the salvation of all. While I believe there is a remnant chosen by grace in this lifetime called the firstfruits there are also the second fruits. They will be purified in the fires of God's holy hatred as God restores all to Himself. That is, God's Holy Wrath destroys sin and the sinner in hell. They are then made new by grace and brought up into more of God's love and grace. God does sometimes have a Holy hatred towards sin and certain sinners. This is why He destroys them and makes them new as He is driven and motivated by His holiness.
Cole, interesting thoughts I never heard before. What exactly does it mean/look like for God to destroy a sinner, and make her/him new?
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I'm not sure what it looks like. It's my belief that God's judgments are eternal. He destroys the old forever in hell and makes new by His grace. Christ is the first fruits. The second fruits are those chosen by grace in this lifetime. The third fruits are those who receive no forgiveness in this age or the age to come. They must suffer eternal destruction of the old person in hell. God then makes them new. I base my understanding on how God judges in the O.T. It is said to last forever but He does make new. All will eventually confess Christ as Lord to the glory of the Father. It is only Satan and his angels that are tormented forever. After all, hell was created for them.
Isaiah 32:
10 In little more than a year you will shudder, you complacent women; for the grape harvest fails, the fruit harvest will not come. 11 Tremble, you women who are at ease, shudder, you complacent ones; strip, and make yourselves bare, and tie sackcloth around your waist. 12 Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine, 13 for the soil of my people growing up in thorns and briers, yes, for all the joyous houses in the exultant city. 14 For the palace is forsaken, the populous city deserted; the hill and the watchtower will become dens forever, a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks; 15 until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest. 16 Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field. 17 And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. 18 My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. 19 And it will hail when the forest falls down, and the city will be utterly laid low. 20 Happy are you who sow beside all waters, who let the feet of the ox and the
Thank you for sharing this message. It is awesome to realize 1 Corinthians 13 is describing God's character. 1 Corinthians 13:5 states "Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking," Therefore we need to recognize that because God IS love He cannot prevent all evil or He would be removing angels and peoples freedom of choice. He would be the universal dictator. When sin comes to and end we will all know that it is sin that destroys, not God. (Romans 6:23)
Some of the other comments brought up these thoughts for me.
In Revelation the sword coming out of Christ mouth is what? (Psalm 149:6;Rev 1:16;Rev 2:12-17) Could we say it is the truth about His character of love. Could we say that God's Holy hate is for sin that destroys our relationship with Him, and destroys us? Can we say that sin is not believing God is for us?(Gen 3:4-5;Romans 8:31)
Perhaps we misunderstand God's justice as punishing sin rather than freeing the oppressed.(Deuteronomy 10:18;Deuteronomy 24:17; Psalm 10:18; Psalm 33:4-5;Psalm 82:3; Isaiah 1:17; Isaiah 5:7)When He transforms us He truly frees us from the oppression of sin. John 8:34-36
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