While obedience is the primary way we express our love to God, it is not the same as love. Love is essentially a motive; it is a verb. If I were married, I am to love my wife as Christ loved the Church (Ephesians 5:25). For every Christian, Christ Himself commands that we are to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44). In each instance, love is used as a verb; not a feeling. While Disney, Miramax, Chinese soap shows/movies and popular radio will tell us that love is a noun, something that we fall into… Scripture again paints us a completely different picture: love is something we do.
As a motive, love is that which prompts and guides other verbs and actions. For example, I love my enemies first by forgiving them of their harmful actions toward me, and then by seeking their welfare in appropriate ways. The verbs here are forgive and seek. Love always needs other verbs to give it hands and feet, for by itself it can do nothing. This is clearly seen in 1 Corinthian 13 where the noun love is used by Paul as the subject of a whole list of action statements.
Have you ever felt betrayed by a friend? You know, somebody whom you thought loved you and cared about you, whom you thought was on your side… Maybe you’ve been a disloyal friend like that to somebody else?
There is a saying that goes like… “What you don’t know can’t hurt you.” But the fact of the matter is, it will only stab you in the back eventually, and you won’t even have seen it coming.
But for Jesus, He saw it coming, and in a sense, He didn’t get stabbed in the back like we often are. He is fully God, and yet He was fully human; He felt the pain of searing loss of a beloved brother who said he loved Him. I am not talking about Judas, but about Simon Peter. This famous story is as recorded in John 21:15-19.
To: School of Theology Students
From: Dean Russell D. Moore
Subject: Theology Bleeds
Date: February 26, 2008
I’m concerned about something, and I’d like to ask you to join me in prayer and action about it.
It seems to me that too many of our churches—and too many of us—think of the Great Commission as little more than Jesus’ way of promoting a Christmas offering or of marketing an evangelistic video series.
Too many theologians—even pastor-theologians—tend sometimes to ignore the Great Commission. After all, isn’t it a “practical” exhortation, better left to denominational bureaucrats and women’s missionary auxiliary leaders? At the same time, too many missionaries and evangelists tend to ignore theology. After all, what does abstract theorizing have to do with Jesus’ ultimate church-wide missions emphasis—the Great Commission?
As a result, we are left with theologians who lust more for recognition by the American Academy of Religion than for the global expansion of the gospel. And far too many missionaries, evangelists, and church planters see themselves as the ecclesial equivalent of the civil service—organizing initiatives and promoting programs.
The problem, whenever the Great Commission is taken for granted, is the eclipse of Jesus. Read the rest of this entry »
There is a lot of talk about love these days, especially in the romantic sense. We live in a culture that is saturated with movies (which are generally all about love and relationships) and music (also about love and relationships) which convey the sense that this is something that we feel, a dreamy fairytale-like state-of-mind where all of life is hunk-dory, and prince charming flies in to sweep us of our feet and save the day!
In Scripture, however, we find the Divine foundation for love and the Biblical definition of love. Like Christ says in Matthew 22:37-40, the great commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind; and the second is to love our neighbor as ourself. In one sense, Jesus Himself is affirming the Old Testament mosaic law, (Deut.6:5) to love God with all our heart, soul and might, confirming that he came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it.
As we read God’s words in Deuteronomy 6, we find that the primary message is obedience to God, and not “love” per se. Notice such words like commandments, statutes, and rules (NIV: commands, decrees, laws) are prominent, and how obedience to these commandments, statutes, and rules is emphasized.
Or, maybe you’ve gone through an extended time of silence when it seemed like God was subtlely absent. Maybe it was something akin the inter-testamental period when the sons of Israel waited 400 years in silence for God to speak again, patiently expecting the fulfillment of the LORD’s covenantal promises, and anxiously hoping that the Ancient of Days would come forth and reign over the Kingdom of God. Have you ever felt like God Himself was putting you through a long period of deprivation?
Could it be that you are in the midst of this very time where God has deprived you explicitly of what you so desperately need. Certainly, you know there is a purpose to this divinely-imposed time of fasting, a reason why God has withheld from fulfilling His promises to you. May it be that the LORD was waiting until you finally got it, when you finally woke up from your slumber and finally realized that there is something greater and more important than that which you think you need. May it be that the Lord has sought to teach you ever so bluntly that desiring anything more than God Himself is idolatry.
And in this, we must confess our sin, repent, and return to the Lord.
I have gone through such times as that; and who knows, maybe I am still in the middle of that period of waiting and expecting.
If you are going through something like this right now or have experienced such in your past, may this be a reminder to all of us that God has spoken to us through His Son. Maybe Christ Jesus was not what you expected and did not come in the way that you had hoped. Nevertheless, be certain of this — all of your waiting, yearning, and desiring for God to manifest Himself to you in the most experiential way has already occurred. God has already spoken to us, and is speaking to us at this very moment. And He is here with us — right here, right now — working in us and through us by His Spirit, if only we would open our Bibles and hear what He would say:
1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
I don’t usually play these games, but this one seems interesting and not just fluff:
What translation of the Bible do you like best?
ESV (and secondly, NASB95)
Old or New Testament?
New Testament… quoting the Old Testament!
Favorite Book of the Bible?
Romans (c’mon, I am Reformed!), Hebrews (biblical theology of Jesus as our temple, high priest, and sacrifice)
Favorite Chapter? Galatians 6(a pivotal passage through which God called me to ministry)
Favorite Verse? Romans 10:14-15(again, important verse related to God’s calling on me)
Bible character you think you’re most like?
Timothy (like Tim, I sometimes few looked down upon because of my ‘young’ age; at other times I need to have my gift stirred up in me which has gone into disuse)
One thing from the Bible that confuses you?
The Genesis and the length of those 6 days; old earth vs. young earth dilemma.
Moses or Paul?
Paul (especially when he quotes/refers to Moses!)
A teaching from the Bible that you struggle with or don’t get?
The Doctrine of Sin — hamartiology: how all the sins of the regenerate are effectually forgiven by Christ and yet the redeemed can still sin even as new creations (sin has not been completely annihilated?)
Coolest name in the Bible?
Alexander (though not the heretic coppersmith!)
I came across the following last night, while reading for my Systematic Theology II class:
To be a human being is to be directed towards one’s fellowmen. Again we go back to Genesis 1. Note the juxtaposition, in verse 27, of “in the image of God he created him” and “male and female he created them.” More than sexual differentiation is involved here, since this is found also in animals, and the Bible does not say that animals have been created in the image of God. What is being said in this verse is that the human person is not an isolated being who is complete in himself or herself, but that he or she is a being who needs the fellowship of others, who is not complete apart from others.
This point is made even more vividly in Genesis 2, which describes the creation of Eve: “the LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him’ ” (v.18). The Hebrew expression rendered “a helper suitable for him” is ezer kenego.Neged (the word translated “suitable for him”) means “corresponding to” or “answering to.” Literally, therefore, the expression means “a helper answering to him.” The words imply that woman complements man, supplements him, completes him, is strong where he may be weak, supplies his deficiencies and fills his needs. Man is therefore incomplete without woman. This holds for the woman as wellas for the man. Woman, too, is incomplete without the man; man supplements woman, complements her, fills her needs, is strong where she is weak.
Hoekema, Anthony A. Created in God’s Image. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1994. (76-77)
Hoekema goes on to clarify that marriage reveals and illustrates more fully than any other human institution the polarity and inter-dependence of the man-woman relationship, whilst reiterating that it does not do so in an exclusive sense. For even the ideal man Jesus never married and there will be no marriage in the life to come.
Nevertheless, it is interesting… ironic even, to read this in one of my theology textbooks. What God is saying is clear as mud
