The Love of God

The Love of God

THE LOVE OF GOD “But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (1 Timothy 1:5) The cruelty of God is more loving than the love of men. If this were not so why do we need an entire Bible to teach us to love? In Christianity there are two “Gods.” The first is God as I wish Him to be and He is simply an extension of myself and He is very easy to love. He thinks and acts like I do but He does not exist except in my imagination. The second and true God is the One who is revealed in scripture and being quite unlike me is much harder to love, not because of a deficiency in Him, but of one in me. He violates my conception of love in a thousand ways and on every page of the Bible from causing calamity (Isaiah 45:5-7) to killing babies who have done no wrong (2 Samuel 12:13-18). And in this and countless other examples He demands that we affirm not just His right but His goodness in all of this. GOD IS LOVE! Love is a seamless garment and can only be defined by Him. Our’s is an all too human love. The commandments are the backbone of what it means to love God and man and when we ignore some of them that we don’t like we rend the garment that is love. The commandment to discipline the body of Christ is illustrative of this(Matthew 18:15-20 & 1 Corinthians 5). To discipline is to...
Peter’s Tribulation Manual

Peter’s Tribulation Manual

The book of 1 Peter, I would argue, is Peter’s “manual” for how not to embarrass Christ amidst Tribulation (as Philippians is Paul’s). An interesting passage to consider in regard to Tribulation is 1 Peter 4:12. In it Peter exhorts us, “not to think it strange”. 1 Peter 4:12 Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; Do you think it strange when pain, persecution, suffering, testing, trials, temptation… tribulation enters into your life? (although there are some slight differences in the meaning of the words above, for the purpose of these articles, I use these words essentially as synonyms) Some irony with this verse is that earlier in his life, Peter thought it strange concerning Jesus: If we look back in the Gospels in Matthew 16, Jesus is telling the Apostles His plans to go to Jerusalem, suffer many things and be killed. Peter responds and essentially says: “NO WAY, I WILL NOT LET THAT HAPPEN”. Thus he provokes Jesus’ rebuke in Matthew 16:23 But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” Jesus understood something that Peter did not at that point in his life. Specifically, that tribulation is normal in the life of God’s children. Are you more like Peter or Jesus in this manner? Do you understand that tribulation is normal in your life, even GRACIOUS? To the degree that you think tribulation is strange (to the...