Today we are continuing on from last weeks passage to look at a very famous but not always easy to interpret parable of Jesus regarding how we should live as we wait for his return. Remember, we are still in the context of answering the disciples questions regarding the destruction of the temple and the coming of the Son of Man.

“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.

Watch Therefore

A story like this can be made to say many things depending on the meaning you assign to the various elements in the story. So, to keep our interpretations from running completely amok,(which is always a good idea) first let’s look at the moral of the story according to Jesus.

“Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour”.

Last week we discussed what “staying awake” looked like for the disciples and for us. But this week the characters in this parable actually all fall asleep, but they do not all have the same outcomes, because some are wise and some are foolish. This is a very interesting expansion of the teaching on being prepared for the coming of Jesus. Beyond being told to simply stay awake it seems that wisdom prepares for a longer than expected wait. It shows us something of a difference between legitimate rest and the dangers of the drunken and careless deeds of the night that Paul was referring to in the passage last week. This story also takes a slightly different tack on the contrast between the good servant and the debauchery of the evil servant described in the passage just before this one.(I have included that story below)

The Bridegroom was Delayed

In this parable Jesus is adding to his previous warnings to, “stay awake” and remain “faithful servants”, the idea that his return may well take much longer than we expect and therefore, we should be watchful for we do not know how long it will be. In this story Jesus talks about the importance of preparing for a possible extended wait. The question today is then, “how should we live in light of an unexpectedly long delay in the coming of the Son of Man(Jesus)?” who is here depicted as the “Bridegroom”.

In this story wisdom was preparing for a long wait and foolishness was not preparing at all. The difficulty in this story is trying to understand the nature of the oil and the lamps that the wise virgins brought. They all fell asleep so unlike the earlier metaphor of sleep, the difference here is not that they stayed awake, but their preparation. They all brought lamps, they all fell asleep, but five of the virgins came prepared for a long wait and five did not.

The Oil

Now Jesus could be telling them to simply be prepared in their hearts for a potentially long wait. And maybe so, but even that begs the question, “what does being prepared in your heart for a long wait look like on an average day”?

So what are our options for the extra “oil” in this story. One way might be to consider the oil to be our salvation by faith, meaning that 5 had faith and 5 did not. While that might be a simple solution it does not really fit the story very well. Did the 5 foolish virgins run off to find some more faith? Taken as faith then, this story could be told as, “10 virgins came to wait for the bridegroom, 5 had extra faith and 5 had only the faith they came with”. This seems a bit odd to me and if you make the oil the Holy Spirit it gets no better. Remember the point of the story according to Jesus is, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour”. He is telling this story to his disciples who are all believers, so what is the extra oil really talking about?

What else could it be?

What other options are there? Let’s get this story back into the context of the other stories in this group of parables. We just examined what the life of a fully awake disciple of Christ looks like, sobriety, faith, love, and hope. Let’s look at the oil as our preparation for the return of Jesus. That seems to fit well with the moral of the story that Jesus provides. Perhaps we could understand this preparation as, we fill our lamps with the works that flow from faith, love, and hope. These good works provide the light that we walk in. That is why there is no time to do this when the bridegroom returns, this oil is prepared before the return. When the Bridegroom returns there is no time to get more “oil”. That is why the oil is there even when they sleep, it was prepared beforehand by their walk of faith, knowing that there was no telling when the Bridegroom would come.

You might be thinking, “but isn’t that a type of works salvation?”. To this I would once again appeal to context. In the previous story, Jesus compares a faithful and an unfaithful servant, I have included the text below. In the parable following this one we see three servants that were given money and expected to make profit with it. They were expected to be fruitful with the gifts they were given, the servant that was cynical, selfish, and lazy was not fruitful and his gift produced nothing. He was rejected upon the return of the master while the faithful servants were blessed. After that parable, Jesus describes the final judgment. Here he explains the difference between those that he “knew” and those he did “not know”. Those Jesus did not know did not act on their love and faith and hope when they had the chance, those he knew and rewarded - did.

In this story the rejection of the foolish virgins by the Bridegroom is worded in the same way as the rejection of those in the final judgment story, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ So I think this story illustrates the difference between an “end of the world prepper”, to use a pop culture phrase, and a true servant of God. True servants of God and disciples of Jesus will be serving, and loving until the end. Even if they fall asleep from fatigue their works will follow them, they will awake to find Jesus, they will be prepared, and Jesus will accept them into eternal joy.

This Week

So what are we to do with this parable? Do we out of fear scramble to make sure we have enough “good works” to be accepted by Jesus when he returns? Absolutely not. Our salvation and new birth in Christ are a gift of pure grace received through faith alone. On the other hand our good works do flow out of our faith, in fact they are inseparable. If a fruit tree bears no fruit it is not a good sign. A thoughtless, careless, unexamined and unexpressed faith may in fact be no faith at all. With that in mind, I think it is wise to take Paul’s advice to the Corinthians seriously.

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!   (2 Corinthians 13:5 ESV)

Our hearts are quick to abandon faith and sink back into selfish unbelief. This week let’s encourage each other to love and good works. Works that are not born of fear, or pride, or unbelief, but in true faith and a genuine love of others. As we do this we will have fellowship with both God and people and we will have nothing to fear no matter when our Bridegroom returns. In a world increasingly hostile and violent to faith in Christ we must all the more lean into fellowship and encouragement.

So to sum up, to be watchful in the way Jesus commands in this passage is to tend to our faith, keeping it fueled by practicing truth, and allowing it to burn brightly in this dark world as we wait for Jesus to return.

Remember the simple things like faith, hope, love, and encouragement, and have a great week!

Today I am going to get a bit more technical than usual since a lot has been written and said about the second coming over the years. I would like to slow down a bit and really look at this passage and its context to see what it says and also what it does not say. But don’t give up, before I finish I will bring this back to walking the way of Jesus.

“But concerning that day and hour no one knows,

This passage is part of a much larger dialog that Jesus had with his disciples regarding the destruction of the temple, his second coming, final judgment, and the coming full realization of the kingdom of God. This whole conversation starts with a statement by Jesus that the beautiful temple the disciples were admiring was going to be thoroughly destroyed. This set of prophecies and parables in Matthew 24 and 25 are in response to the following two questions from the disciples.

...“Tell us, when will these things[the destruction of the temple] be,

As we go through this passage today and many of the passages in the weeks to come it’s important to remember what questions Jesus was answering for his disciples. Since two questions were asked, it’s not always obvious what Jesus is referring to in his responses. I think it can be shown that he is responding to both of these questions, but he alternates from one to the other. For example, in the two passages just prior to this one he says the following things, I will summarize because the passages are a bit long.

In verses 29-31 he speaks of the sun and moon being darkened, a sign in the heavens of the Son of Man, he describes how the tribes of the earth will mourn, how the Son of Man will come in the clouds, and that his angels will be sent out to the four winds to gather the elect.

It is hard to see this language as a description of the destruction of the temple, no matter how fanciful your interpretation. So this clearly is in response to the second question they asked regarding the sign of His coming and the end of the age.

However in the very next paragraph he changes his focus. In verses 32-35 his focus is not on the tribes of the earth but something much closer to home as he says, when you see [the things he was describing earlier regarding the destruction of the temple and the tribulation surrounding that event] then you know he[not me] is at the gates[of the city presumably]. He goes on to say that this[present] generation shall not pass away until all these things are accomplished[that generation was in fact still around in 70AD].

So in the course of two consecutive paragraphs Jesus has discussed the answers to both of the disciples queries. The question then becomes which event is Jesus discussing in the paragraph we are examining today? Is it the hour of destruction that awaits Jerusalem, or is it the hour of Christ’s return that is being described? In today’s passage Jesus repeatedly states that it is the time of the “coming of the Son of Man” that is unknown. He is describing a normal day where people are working and getting married, not a gruesome siege that ends in the fiery destruction of the temple and the city. And, as in the earlier passage where the angels were sent out to gather his elect, we see in this passage that some are “taken” while others are “left”. And the passage closes with a strong warning that the disciples(and we) must “stay awake” because the Son of Man is coming on a day we do not expect(the fall of Jerusalem came as no surprise after a terrible three year siege by the Roman army).

How are we to live in the light of this unknown day?

There are many more details in this passage to be sure, but the gist of this prophetic warning is very clear and it is directed to the disciples, not the city of Jerusalem that is about to be judged. I always like to work from the big picture down to the details so let’s start with the main idea of this passage. The simple overarching message is to “stay awake”. The uncertainty of the day underlines how important it is to stay awake at all times. But what is “staying awake”? This passage does not really elaborate, but Paul gives what I consider to be commentary on this teaching of Jesus in his first letter to the Thessalonians:

While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.

So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,  (1 Thessalonians 5:3-9 ESV)

Paul is speaking to a church far from Jerusalem consisting of mainly Gentiles, so I think it is safe to say Paul was not describing the fall of Jerusalem. But this day will come without warning according to Paul and he gives the Thessalonians the same advice that Jesus gave his disciples. His advice is simple, Paul describes “keeping awake” as sobriety, faith, love, and the hope of salvation.

Faith

Faith in the all sufficiency of the work of Christ. This is the beginning and the end of our walk on the way of Jesus. We must never stray from this fundamental truth. Faith connects us to the grace of Jesus and moves us to action to extend that grace to others.

Sobriety

While the meaning of this is obvious in the sense of excess alcohol consumption I doubt that is all that is intended here. The world is in darkness, the world is asleep, the world is intoxicated with any number of distractions that blunt its awareness of and response to the truth. We must remain sober in a world that would rather think about anything other than the coming kingdom of God. We must stay focused on Jesus and his coming kingdom in a deeply distracted world.

Love

Love as we have discussed many times before is, “benefiting others at my expense”, the love we give to others is one of the main channels of God’s love in day to day life. As we love others we reflect the love of God and demonstrate the reality of God’s kingdom to the world. Love is the primary “work” of the believer. It is the outward sign of our inward faith and a demonstration of our hope in Christ.

Hope

As we discussed last week hope lies underneath our Christian walk in many ways. We take hope for granted often I think, because it is such a big part of our motivation to do anything - everyday. Everything we do that involves the future whether it’s later today or 100 years from now is based on a hope of some sort. We literally can’t live without hope.

But the hope that is in Jesus is on a whole different level, this is an eternal hope, this is a hope with substance. Our hope is more than just a vague belief that things will work out. We hope in the one that died and rose again, the one that healed the sick and raised the dead. The eternal Son of God who was the pattern of creation and the foundation of the age to come. The Jesus who humbled himself and gave his life for us so that we may have eternal life, there is nothing more to prove, our hope is sure.

This week, let’s encourage each other to excel in the daytime works of faith, love and hope keeping each other awake and sober as we navigate together the madness of a world living in denial of the God that created it, and his Son who gave his life to save it. Jesus is going to return and although we have no idea when, it doesn’t matter, because until then we have plenty to do - if we stay awake.

So once again, have a great week!

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Whenever times get difficult and uncertain enough to generate fear it seems that people start talking about the return of Jesus, or at least what people now call the “apocalypse” (though that word has in recent years come to mean something completely foreign to its original meaning in biblical literature). Our current days are fearful and very uncertain. To those that are a bit older it often feels like we no longer live in our world at all, but have somehow been transported into an alien and frightening world. As the world teeters and rocks many people are beginning to wonder if this really is, finally, the end of the age.

To be clear, I don’t think it’s bad to reflect on the second coming, I don’t think we ponder this reality enough in fact. Jesus gave repeated and explicit instructions on how we were to live as we wait in anticipation for his return. But this series will not focus on the usual second coming fare of, “Who is the Antichrist?” or “What day will he return?”, as we look at the actual teaching of Jesus we will see that Jesus does not even speak on the subject of the Antichrist and specifically declares that we are not to know the day of his coming. Instead this series will focus on how we should live in the time between the 1st coming of Jesus and his ultimate return. We will focus on how this hope can help and encourage us as we wait for that glorious day.

I am hoping to make this series more practically focused as well, concentrating on how we are to act while we wait, and what our attitude should be. We will focus on the hope that lies ahead and the work that is still undone, instead of dreading each passing day. We work in hope because with the return of the King will come the final consummation of the Kingdom of God as well. The barrier between God and Mankind will finally and forever be removed and we will live with him forever. For the believer this is not a dreadful fear, but a blessed hope and a source of strength in these troubled times.

With this introduction let’s begin with the following passage from John:

“Let not your hearts be troubled.

This passage is one of the passages that inspired the creation of this entire site. “On Walking the Way” was intended from the beginning to be an encouragement to action, not simply another discussion of Jesus’ words. It is to be a motivation to walk in his way. But as we see in the broader context of this passage, the way we walk is built on a very specific and powerful hope, the hope of the return of Jesus our King.

Let not your hearts be troubled

Jesus says this on the heals of telling his disciples that he is leaving and he is about to be betrayed, so he is asking them to trust fully in him through the time of uncertainty that is about to come. Of course this puzzles the disciples for many reasons, not the least of which is that they were pinning their hopes for the coming kingdom of God on Jesus, and if he is leaving what is their hope? Thankfully Jesus does not just say he is leaving he explains that he is coming back for them as well. It seems he has mentioned the fact that he is going to prepare a place for them before, but the shock of his blunt announcement that he is leaving without them has caused them to forget.

I will come again

…and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. This is really the hope Jesus was trying to get the disciples to embrace in their shock and grief at the thought of his leaving. Jesus was leaving for a reason, to prepare a place for them (and us) so that, we can be with him forever. But he further confuses poor Thomas with the next thing he says, “you know the way to where I am going”. Thomas was baffled, he didn’t know where he was going so how could he know the way?

I am the Way

The secret to this passage, if you can call it that, is understanding where Jesus was going. He was going to the Father. But more than that he told them, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” This is why Jesus is the way to the Father, because Jesus and the Father are one. As this dialog goes on we learn that the goal of his leaving is not only reuniting with his Father and preparing a place for them. Jesus tells them all, “In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you”. He was not leaving them alone until he returns, he was sending them a helper, the Holy Spirit. It was through the work of the Holy Spirit that they would know and understand what Jesus was saying. But more than this, Jesus and the Father would come and make their home in them(and in us).

Walking in this Hope

For the disciples who heard this, all of this was still a future hope and honestly pretty confusing, but for us only the second coming of Jesus remains a future hope. The Holy Spirit has already been given to teach us all that we need to know to walk the way of Jesus to our eternal hope and destiny. We now have the fullness of God indwelling us, so we do not need to fear even death.

So our hope now consists of two parts, our present fullness in the Spirit of God and our coming hope for the return of Jesus and our eternal home. I think the perfect close for these thoughts is in John’s first letter.

See what kind of love the Father has given to us,

May this hope inspire and strengthen us this week as we face the uncertainties of the future knowing that the Father and the Son reside in us through the Spirit. And may we use the strength we have in the Spirit to walk in His purity, for we are never alone and our future is with Jesus forever!

Have a great week!

So far, we have been discussing the nature of love, the foundational necessity of love, and the characteristics of love. But in this last episode(for now) on love I want to get down to the reality of love. Love is not something you think about and discuss, love is something you do for others. So I want to begin with a very famous story.

But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus,

How would Jesus tell this parable today?

If Jesus were telling this story today I think the characters would vary depending on the audience he was teaching. There are 4 main characters in this story, the victim, the priest, the Levite, and or course the Samaritan. The fun part is imagining who these characters might be in the modern world. Some might think of the priest as the modern clergy or maybe the big denominations. Some might think since the priesthood was corrupt and political that the priest might be better played by a politician. Some might think the Levite might be a better candidate for the clergy or the self-righteous religious person. But what about non-religious self-righteousness? Would Jesus really give them a pass if he were here? I doubt it.

As I read this it seems to me that Jesus was saying it does not matter who you are, the true neighbor would help the one in need. He does not say why these people just walked by instead of helping, it doesn’t matter why(though I am sure they had their reasons). The point is, they did walk by instead of help. The fact that he made a Samaritan the loving neighbor in this story just made it sting a little, Samaritan’s were more or less despised in that culture. If he were telling this tale today in many American churches he might have made the hero a Muslim or an Atheist or even a blue-haired political activist. The point he was making was, love is as love does. The true neighbor is the one that actually helped the man.

It is also worth noting that although the motives of those in the parable are not explained the motives of the one asking the question are. The questioner was, “desiring to justify himself”. I don’t know about you, but many times in my life I have spent more time and effort explaining to myself why I should not help than if I would have just helped in the first place. And every time I tried to justify myself I somehow never felt justified, instead I felt a sick nagging guilt.

You go and do likewise

So the moral of this story is not subtle, nor is its application. Neighborly is as neighborly does - plain and simple. So Jesus told his hypocritical critics to go and be neighbors rather than wonder who their neighbor really is. And this advice continues to hold down to the current day regardless of our culture and circumstances.

John is even more blunt

John in his first epistle picks up this idea and expands it in several ways. Consider this verse:

If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.  (1 John 4:20 ESV)

In this verse, and 1st John is loaded with verses like this, John makes it clear that there is no such thing as a “love of God” that does not translate into a love of people. The language in this passage is insultingly strong, he calls those that don’t love their brother(or neighbor) liars if they claim to love God.

I think the real force of the story of the good Samaritan should never be diverted toward “those self-righteous people”, the point is clearly intended to help us never become those self-righteous people that say they love God but do not love people.

I am convinced that if the “Good Samaritan” of this story were a real person he would have gotten home a bit later and had a bit less money in his pocket, but he also would have had a genuine peace in his heart knowing he did the right thing. This has been my experience whenever I have ignored my inner selfishness and focused on serving others instead. It is usually not hard to know what is right, but it often comes at a personal cost. Doing what is right generally means we have to set aside our selfish interests and do something about the needs of others.

The good news is this, we can do this. It is the very thing that the new life Jesus has given us wants to do, but we need to silence that selfish, self-justifying voice in our heads that wants to figure out who our neighbor really is.

This week let’s not waste our time and energy trying to figure out who our neighbor is and simply help those that Jesus puts in our path.

Have a great week!

We have been looking at love in recent weeks. We have seen how love is neither trivial or necessary(in the deterministic sense), and is in fact absolutely foundational to knowing God. We have been using a working definition of love which is based on the love that God has shown to us through the cross of Jesus. We have said that love is, “benefiting others at my expense”. This is sometimes called “agape” love after the Greek word ἀγάπην used in these passages. It is a special selfless kind of love that is best demonstrated and understood by the love of God for us. But this special kind of love has other attributes beyond being selfless and “other” focused. The following passage in 1 Corinthians 13 gives us a more detailed look at “agape” love and includes some of its other characteristics.

Love is patient and kind;

Love is patient and kind

When love is not based on what I feel or what I am getting out of the interaction, love can be both patient and kind. Patient because the outcome does not ultimately depend on me and kind because I have been the recipient of this same undeserved love from God. It was the kindness and patience of God that brought me, however slowly, to repentance. This love which is from God will work through us to overcome anger and remain patient and kind, even when others fail us.

Love does not envy or boast

The love of God comes from God. And since the source of this love is inexhaustible so is this love. We are eternally secure in this love because it can never fail, because God never fails. Therefore, this love does not fall to the usual sins of insecurity, such as envy or boasting. The love of God in us gives us a sense of peace and satisfaction that allows others to succeed without wishing it was us. We don’t need what someone else has, nor do we need to prove anything to anyone. This love is a gift and we have it, there is no need to brag or pretend. We can be certain of God’s love for us and in us. Therefore we can give it away generously and with confidence knowing we will never run out.

Love is not arrogant or rude

To know the love of God is to understand our unworthiness of it. To know God’s love is to understand that it is a gift of God’s mercy and grace alone. The more this love invades our hearts the more we understand our own evil and selfish motivations. The contrast is shocking to us and helps us to see others in a very different light. When the love of God shines a light on the darkness of our souls we can see the faults of others without imagining that somehow we are superior to them. And as we shed the superior attitude - the rudeness goes with it.

Love does not insist on its own way

This attribute of love takes us back to our earlier definition, “Benefiting others at my expense”. The love of God, this “agape” love is wholly focused on the others benefit. It is the love that carried Jesus through abuse, disdain, torture, and ultimately death at the hands of the very people he came to help. His singlehearted focus on our eternal good carried him through all of this because of his “agape” love for us. In the garden of Eden we essentially said to God, “not your will but mine be done”, and at the cross Jesus reversed that by saying, “Father, not my will but yours be done”.

In this day of “self-care”, “establishing personal boundaries”, finding that elusive “proper work/life balance”, and often just downright hedonism and narcissism it is hard to even hear, must less take seriously, the call of love to lay our lives down for others. To the modern mind our personal health and well being is paramount. We often hear absurdities like, “if I don’t love myself, how can I love others?” This love of self is not “agape” it is a profoundly selfish desire. If there is one thing our culture does not lack it is the love of self. And if self-love truly made you more loving toward others we should be living in paradise already, but I think we have all seen what this fixation on self has produced. True love shows us a very different way.

Love is not irritable or resentful

Love is exactly what is missing in our, “that triggers and offends me culture”. There is no love in forming tribes and blaming all of our problems on the other tribe. Resentment is taught from early on through constant harping on the injustices of the past, or inequities of the present, and the notion that we do not deserve to suffer in any way. And when we do suffer it is caused by the injustice and privilege of others we are never personally to blame for our unhappiness. To call the current culture irritable and resentful is like calling the ocean wet. As our culture has increasingly rejected the love of God in Jesus it has unsurprisingly become much less loving. Thus more irritable and resentful.

Love does not rejoice in wrong but in the truth

Our appetites tell us a lot about our hearts, I say this with a deep sense of my own failure in this regard. What do we hunger for? What fills us with glee? The truth, or is it the thrill of “getting away with something”. Do we celebrate good people who try to follow the truth? Or do will follow those that cynically play to our lower natures? There are many more questions of this sort and they all come down to the same question. Do we love? Do we love others? Do we seek the truth? Or do we rejoice in evil? Each of us has to answer these questions for ourselves.

Love bears, believes, hopes, and endures all things

As I look at this final list of attributes I realize that a whole article could be written on each one. But for today, I think I will look at them together because when taken together they paint a very profound picture of the kind of person that love creates. Previously we mentioned John Lennon’s song “Imagine” but instead of imagining a world without religion imagine a world filled with faith, and hope, and patience and endurance and fortitude. I’d much rather imagine a world like that than the soulless, godless, hopeless world of Lennon’s imagination. Without God there is no love, without love there is no faith, without faith there is no hope, without hope there is no future worth imagining.

Love never ends…

In this passage Paul talks about the transitory nature of nearly everything but this one thing remains, and that is love. The Darwinist and the materialistic naturalistic scientist will never explain the origin of love. So in a very real sense love has no beginning or end its source is God and God has no beginning or end. Whatever else goes right or wrong, over time this one thing we can always count on.

Love never ends.

Have a great week!

In previous articles I have talked about faith and works and how as modern people we tend to want to separate things into neat little piles that do not touch, including faith and works. Theologians are also guilty of this notion at times as they strive for the ultimate systematic theology. Analysis is good, but you need to know when to stop. Because there are topics that break if you try to completely disassemble them. C.S. Lewis was once asked, which is more important, faith or works? And his reply I’m told was, “That is like asking which blade of a scissors is more important”. Lewis understood that the question itself was wrong-headed. A pair of scissors ceases to exist if you separate the blades.

Similarly, today, I want to talk about love and knowing God. I don’t think you can separate those two things without breaking them either. They are inseparable if you are to know either one. So, let’s begin by looking at a passage from 1st John.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God,

This passage ends with the statement that we “ought to love one another.” I know it’s a bit odd to start at the end, but I think it will help us in this instance. The word “ought” in modern usage is a pretty weak word. We often use it in sentences like, “I ought to stick to my diet.” Something we should do but often we don’t, but we ought to. We have a lot of vague guilt for such vague responsibilities.

But it would be a mistake to read the word ought in this passage in that “ya I probably should” sense of the word. The word ought here speaks of obligation not inclination it is an imperative conclusion given the love of God described in the previous verses. Consider the following passage to give this phrase a bit of context and a bit more bite.

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?

Now that we have a better feel for the weight of John’s words let’s go back and look at it again. First, we learn that love is from God. Love is something special; it has no earthly source. Whether it is a bear with her cubs, a mother with her child, or a father laying down his life for his family this all has the same source. Wherever true love exists it does not spring from itself. It is a reflection of the God that created all things. There is nothing more pathetic and sad than a true believer Darwinist trying to explain the origin of love or beauty or reason for that matter. It seems the obvious is totally lost on them. What is the chemical composition of love? What does it weigh? Why not catch some in a jar and synthesize it so it can fill the world?

No, love is from God and whoever truly loves is born of God and knows God, but whoever does not love does not know God. This may sound a bit jarring to our theology but it shouldn’t. In fact, the final judgment scene in Mathew 25 is hard to understand without this understanding of love. In that scene, people were saved or not saved based solely on their love for each other or the lack thereof.

My point in bringing this up is not to start a kerfuffle about the true nature and essence of salvation but to reassert the absolute necessity of love in the life of every believer. I am trying to show that love of others and knowledge of God are two blades of a scissor. And maybe to give a bit of pause to any believer that assumes that they are a cut above the rest because of their “faith” or “knowledge,” when, in fact, their love is no greater than an unbeliever’s. Faith and love can not be separated into two distinct piles. And love is not a feeling. It is an action taken for the benefit of others, this is plain in the Matthew 25 passage. Love is benefiting others at my expense.

Getting back to where I started, knowing God can’t be separated from love for others as this passage makes clear. Since God is love you can’t know God unless you know love. And to know love is not to simply understand love it is to actually love, much like to know the guitar is to actually play the guitar.

Love is foundational

So, love really is the foundation of everything. It is the foundation of God’s salvation through Jesus and His grace towards us. And it is the foundation of our knowledge of God. It could even be argued that love is more fundamental than faith since arguably it would be hard to truly trust someone you do not love. Or from another point of view, the ability to trust anyone at all, depends on the ability to love. I offer this as food for thought. In everyday Christian conversation it seems faith is talked about so much more than love. But verses like this make me wonder if I really have the right priorities in my life.

How do we walk along this way?

As always this is the hardest question of them all. For Jesus, the way of love led him to the cross, where he paid the ultimate price to benefit us all. But Jesus told us that to follow him we must pick up our cross daily. So, I think we can safely say we are not expected to literally die every day on a cross. Actual crosses are definitely a one-and-done kind of event, not something you do daily. So, what does picking up my cross look like daily? It looks like benefiting others at my expense. This kind of love may take a million forms, but it must always be our first concern. Because...

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love,

So, to walk the way of Jesus and to pick up our cross is nothing more or less than daily looking for ways to benefit others at our expense. This love is not necessarily dramatic or flashy, but it is something we can all do every day, even to our enemies.

Have a great Week!

Imagine a world where everything happens just as it must. No choices, nothing but the necessity of existence. Each piece playing its part no more, no less. Complete harmony of motion, nothing out of place.

John Lennon wrote the song Imagine about a world like this(though I doubt he realized what he was suggesting). And people ask all the time, “If there is a God, why didn’t He create the world without evil?.” So, let’s look at that question as we begin our discussion of love. Couldn’t God create a world where no one did anything wrong, where there was no hate, greed, division, or violence?

In our age of computer simulations, we think we know the answer to this. Of course, he could! So why didn’t he? I mean, if we can create a simulated world where everyone behaves just as they should, why would God create this one? Many would argue that since we don’t live in a world like that, then either there is no God or maybe God is not great, as the famous atheist Christopher Hitchens once wrote.

Here’s the thing: we have all wondered about evil, and we have all asked why. But if you are like me, we do not always think about it very deeply, and when we do, we do not always think about it very objectively. Do we really want to be Sims in a world where we only do what we must? Did Christopher Hitchens want that? I doubt it since he made his entire career out of being a critic of culture, politics, and religion. Those are all things that would have to go to make this Utopian dream a reality. To have a created world of perfect order seems to require a world where living beings are reduced to simple cogs in a machine, with no meaningful choices available, doing everything just as they must to maintain the perfect order.

What does all this have to do with love?

Love is a lot of things, but one thing it can’t be is coerced. Love can’t be forced, and it can’t be taken. Love can only be given. Consider these passages:

...God shows his love for us

For this reason the Father loves me,

Love is benefiting others at my expense. This is what God did by giving us His Son. And it is what Jesus did by laying down his life for us. Love is a choice we can all make. If someone else forces, coerces, or simply creates a world with no other available choices, there can be no love.

Simply put, evil is necessary if love is possible. If non-love(evil) is not possible, then neither is love. If non-love is possible, it will happen, but then so will love. The price of love is very high, but so is its value. Valuable things are always expensive. Love was so valuable to God that he was willing to give his Son. It was love that caused Jesus to value our restoration to the Father so much that he was willing to give his life for us. In fact, love was so valuable to God that he was willing to endure ages of evil for the eternal good that love would make possible. God was not creating Sims in a game for His entertainment. He was creating children. Children in His image, with the ability to choose, create, and love. That same ability to choose good and love is the very ability that gives us the ability to choose evil and hate.

Now, there are many in both the atheist and theist camps(Christians included) that would have us believe that free will essentially does not exist. That all things are either mechanically determined if you’re an atheist or divinely determined if you subscribe to certain forms of theism. Either way, though, it seems to me that the entire concept of love is destroyed by determinism. With no free choice to love(or not), there can be no love. Love can not be coerced or determined by others. Oddly enough, evil also becomes a meaningless concept without the ability to choose. Since everything is what it must be, there can be no violation and, therefore, no evil in a deterministic world. It is what it is, as the saying goes.

Without love, everything that makes life meaningful and valuable ceases to exist. This is what I meant by subtitling this article, “love is not trivial.” God is love, and this world reflects that reality. We reflect that reality by our ability to love. We live in a world where love is possible, but for such a world to exist, evil must also be possible.

God is love, but he is under no obligation to love. The thing that makes God’s love amazing is its very unnecessary nature. For God is also just and righteous. God, in His justice, could have rightly ended us long ago. It was God’s unnecessary love that motivated Him to find another way to satisfy the demands of His justice. And it was the same unnecessary love that motivated the eternal Son of God to become human and die in our place to satisfy the demands of justice.

In doing this, Jesus not only satisfied the justice of God but also showed us the true nature of love and of God. Love is giving of yourself for the benefit of others.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son,

God’s gift of His Son Jesus was not necessary for Him. It was a gift of His love to us. And our response to that gift is not necessary either. But thankfully, now, by the grace of God, we can respond by turning back to God, recognizing and confessing our true state before God. And by that same gift of grace, we can believe in the One that God has given to save us - Jesus. And now, through this faith by His grace, we have been set free to live and to love again.

This week, read John 3 again, but this time in the light of the unnecessary nature of love, and let God’s Spirit overwhelm you with a fresh revelation of the love of God. I pray that this week, we all allow that same unnecessary self-sacrificing love of God to flow through us to others as we go about our daily lives.

Have a great week!

“Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”

Success is by far more dangerous than failure,

When you do a careful reading of the Gospels a strange pattern begins to emerge around the miracles of Jesus. Very frequently Jesus tells those that he helps not to tell anyone about it. Now, to be fair, there is a lot of room for discussion about why he would do this, but the bare fact remains that he did do this and he did it often. This story does suggest at least one reason though, Jesus preferred to help people one on one to having huge crowds following him just for the novelty of it.

The crowds brought fame and fame brought constant pressure and criticism and this in many cases made his work harder not easier. However, the crowds were a reality and the way Jesus handled his popularity is interesting to me, especially in light of how many famous and popular Christians operate today.

Intentional time with the Father

As the crowds grew larger we see Jesus very intentionally taking time to be alone with his Father. In spite of the pressure he did not, like so many would tell you today, look for ways to reduce the load. Instead he looked to his Father for strength and direction by finding private times to be alone with Him. Consider this incident recorded in Mark.

That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons.

Jesus was successful and in high demand but he did not pull away from the people he was called to serve. Nor did he embrace the celebrity and praise. Instead, he intentionally pressed into God in prayer and as a result he was ready for the challenges of the next day. He heard the voice of God and had a plan for the day. He was not listening to the voice of the crowd nor was he working to establish his “brand”. He was not inflated by praise, dissuaded by criticism, or withering in self-pity. He never gave into the pressures and temptations of success and fame instead he saw them as a distraction.

How did he do it? He kept this clarity of mind and purpose through intentional time with the Father and remained focused on the needs of the people he was called to serve.

No other gods before me

Jumping to the topic of idolatry may seem like a radical change of direction in this article. However jarring the language of idolatry might seem though, in my opinion, this is the difference between Jesus and far to many pastors, leaders, and teachers today. Idolatry is not some ancient set of customs irrelevant in today’s modern world. Idolatry is holding something other than the true God as ultimate in our lives. Idolatry is trusting anything other than God. Idolatry is anything other than God that becomes the focus and ultimate goal of our lives.

What we see in Jesus is an absolutely wholehearted desire for God, that works itself out in every aspect of his life and ministry. Consider the following verse from John.

So Jesus said to them,

We fail when success, or anything else, becomes the goal instead of union with God. If we are in Christ and this verse describes the posture of Christ, then out posture must be the same as His. Today we hear so many stories of preachers and leaders who rise to great prominence only to tragically fall later on. The thing that trips up many of these preachers, is some form of idolatry. At some point something other than God became their principle desire. They followed that desire and failed.

Glad I’m not a leader!

But it is a dangerous to think this sort of mistake is simply a famous preachers mistake. The reason so many are damaged by the fall of these leaders is that so many of their followers are as idolatrous as they are. While those preachers may have idolized success or fame or influence or pleasure or all of the above for all I know, their followers idolized the preachers. They thought that these leaders were somehow different than “regular people”. They became the one to follow they had “arrived”. They were the ones “doing it right” they had the “secret sauce” for success. But we all share the same self-seeking desires and rebel’s heart. The moment any of us forget that, we risk the same type of fall into sin, even if we don’t get the notoriety of a famous preacher or leader when we do.

Which takes me full circle again,

Success is by far more dangerous than failure,

May we all this week follow Jesus whether in good times or bad. May we all remember that no matter what is pressing us, we need to do as Jesus did and take time away to spend with God. We need to refocus on the one who never changes. He is the only God, and the only one worth following wholeheartedly and unreservedly. He is our only solid point of reference in a world that seems to take delight in removing all points of reference. In these quiet times with God may we all find peace and direction for each day, and the strength to do it.

Have a great week!

Beloved, do not believe every spirit,

Worst Time ever?

Some say that these are the most evil times in history. I don’t know. How do you even assess such a statement? I’m sure that during the black plague people thought things were pretty bad. Living in Europe during either world war was pretty bad. Living in Uganda or Rwanda during their genocides was pretty bad if you were there. I am not sure that trying to assess if these are actually the most evil times ever in God’s eyes is even worthwhile. Because what good is such knowledge, if it does not tell us how to live?

What do we know?

According to the passage above (and the news) we know that the world is full of lies. We also know these lies are not all as random as they seem. There is a spiritual wickedness behind these lies. And what’s more, the forces behind these lies have an agenda. I know, I know, this sounds like conspiracy stuff. But it’s not a conspiracy in the normal sense of that term, it is simply the reality of spiritual evil at work in this world. It is the spirit of antichrist according to the text and it has been at work in the world since John’s time, so it is safe to assume it is still at work.

We also know from this text that the one who is in us (as believers) is greater than the one that is at work in the unbelieving world. Namely, the antichrist spirit that has made pawns of all those who do not believe.

How do we know?

This is the whole point of this article. John has given us a way to discern between the true and the false, the spirit of antichrist and the spirit of Christ.

They are from the world;

They are from the world

The spirit of antichrist is not some unusually evil thing as many expect. It is a very common and ordinary thing for the most part which is why it is so influential. It is of this world, it speaks to this world, and the world listens. It is a perverse kind of common sense, something the whole world knows and understands. But it is anti-Christ and anti-God, it is a very human centered and physical world focused spirit.

We are from God

We often shy from even speaking like this because it sounds proud to us. But when properly understood, it is the exact opposite of proud. Being “from God” is not a status that we have earned, our life and new life is a gift from God it is the Spirit of God in us. Those who are for God will hear us, those who are not will only hear the spirit of antichrist, that spirit of this world that opposes God and Christ. What makes the difference between those that can hear and those that will not? That is an old argument that many theologians have fought about, I do not have time for those kinds or questions today. Not that anyone can answer them definitively anyway, and I’m not sure the answer really matters in the end. The fact remains, there are only two kinds of people in the world. Those that listen to God and those that will not. We see these two groups interacting from the Gospels to Revelation.

By this we know

“By this we know the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of error.” Those motivated by the spirit of error will not listen to the truth of God and those motivated by the spirit of God will. Ironically, this holds true whether they claim to be believers or not. There are those that have ears to hear and those do not. Jesus spoke and still speaks to those that have ears to hear.

Now that we know, what do we do?

As always “what to do?” is the toughest question of all. Is this bit of discernment meant to give us the smug self-satisfaction of being a bit smarter than others? Well, if we go there it is very questionable if we even know the Spirit of truth. Smug, superior, self-righteousness is the spirit of this world, which is the spirit of antichrist. We see it everywhere today. It is the spirit that thinks it does not need Christ or God. It is truly anti-Christ.

No, the knowledge that we belong to God and that our life is now only to be found in Christ should take us in a very different direction. The knowledge that many others are led by a different spirit should move us as well. If you read the broader passage in 1st John you will see that the church was being influenced by those that were motivated by worldly thinking, by the spirit of antichrist. John wanted them to be wise and discern what they were listening to, who they were really listening to. They were not hearing the Spirit of God but the spirit of antichrist in all this worldly (though often religious) chatter.

Today the Church and by “the Church” I am not referring to some denomination or local fellowship I am talking about the entire body of true believers in Christ. Today we need to think carefully about who we listen to. Their proclaimed allegiance to a group or the lack thereof is not enough to give anyone credibility. The real question is, “Do they hear and respond to truth?”. Or do they, reject it when they hear it? There are many claiming to be Christians that through their actions and teachings deny Christ. And ironically many that have no such stated beliefs that will respond to the truth and even defend it when they hear it. Today more than ever we need to listen and watch and judge our observations not on a persons stated beliefs or allegiances, but rather assess those speaking on their response to the truth of Jesus.

And we need to pray, Jesus opens blind eyes, he always has. He opened our eyes, if we can in fact see. This new found sight is a miracle and a gift, and we must pray for that miracle in others as well. We must lead people to Jesus so that he can do this miracle for them. And to lead them we first need to go ourselves.

May we all, as we live and work this week, allow the Spirit of God to so motivate us that anyone that would follow us would be walking toward Jesus. And may God grant us the grace to know the difference between His Spirit and the lying, self-serving, spirit of antichrist. Jesus is still Lord of all and He that is in us is still greater than he that is in the world.

Have a great week!

Little children,

There is something about a child that makes us all feel young and free. Their wide-eyed wonder at everything they see makes all of us feel that wave of innocent freedom, even if only for a moment. But all too often our experience is nothing like that child’s innocence and freedom. Too often our experience is one of guilt, regret, and the persistent feeling that we are not doing enough. What is this? It is, at least in part, our damaged conscience.

Conscience is something people don’t talk about that much anymore. Sometimes it feels to me like people have given up on maintaining a clear conscience. I often wonder if people have given up on trying to maintain a clear conscience because they feel that achieving a clear conscience is impossible.

Well, I guess that makes sense. Without Jesus, a clear conscience is impossible. We are often told that guilt and shame are only cultural constructs. But that is simply false, or at best incomplete, it assumes that humanity is the last and only word on right and wrong. The truth is, right and wrong have been established by the one who created all things. That is not us. There are cultural constructs of course, but they are nothing like the last word on anything. Jesus is the first and the last word on everything, and his sacrifice balanced the scales of justice once and for all, for anyone that wants to be forgiven and set free.

The upshot of all of this is that in and through Jesus, a clear conscience is now possible to attain, and more to the point, to maintain. We can believe and put our trust in Jesus and we can love one another. Love is, as I have said before, benefiting others at my expense. It is what Jesus did for us, and it is what we can do for others - even our enemies.

According to this passage in 1st John, to maintain a clear conscience we need to love one another with deeds rather than empty words, and if we do that in faith we will have a clear conscience that will result in confidence before God. A pure love for others through faith in Jesus does not calculate the cost to itself, or make projections on potential gain for itself. A pure love is concerned only with gain for the other. The cross of Jesus is our model, and the Spirit of God is our strength. The Christian has no excuses (though we often look for them) because, as Peter says, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence...”.

So this week instead of living in fear of the next news cycle or living in regret of past failures, let’s repent of our past failures and receive the grace of Jesus. We can truly walk along his path, in the real world - today. His path leads us to love others through faith in the power of His cross and resurrection. His path, His way, is love for others which produces a clear conscience as we walk on to eternal life in Him. Jesus is the beginning of the path and the destination. And along the way we love others with a clear conscience.

Have a great week!