The Revelation of Jesus Christ to Paul – 1:11-24

Secrets. They don’t make friends, but friends do make them; or so the saying goes. It is interesting, therefore, to note what Jesus said to the disciples in John 15:15. “I do not call you slaves anymore, because a slave doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from My Father.” Jesus didn’t keep secrets from His friends. Jesus wanted his friends to be in on His business. So when Paul twice uses the Greek word transliterated “apocalypse” in Galatians 1:11-24, he wants to show that he was one of Jesus’ friends as well, and that Jesus revealed secrets to him also. The secret that is the point of this passage is the content of the gospel.

Galatians 1:11-24 says, “Now I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel preached by me is not based on human thought.  For I did not receive it from a human source and I was not taught it, but it came by a revelation from Jesus Christ.  For you have heard about my former way of life in Judaism: I persecuted God’s church to an extreme degree and tried to destroy it.  I advanced in Judaism beyond many contemporaries among my people, because I was extremely zealous for the traditions of my ancestors.  But when God, who from my birth set me apart and called me by His grace, was pleased  to reveal His Son in me, so that I could preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone.  I did not go up to Jerusalem to those who had become apostles before me; instead I went to Arabia and came back to Damascus.  Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to get to know Cephas, and I stayed with him 15 days.  But I didn’t see any of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother.  Now I am not lying in what I write to you. God is my witness.  Afterward, I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia.  I remained personally unknown to the Judean churches in Christ;  they simply kept hearing: ‘He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith he once tried to destroy.’  And they glorified God because of me.”

Paul’s goal here is to make perfectly clear that he did not receive his gospel from man. As such, his goal in all of this is to show that he isn’t out to please people. I find R. Alan Cole’s outline of the book particularly helpful at this point: “I. argument from experience (1:1-2:21); II. argument from theology (3:1-5:1); III. argument from results (5:2-6:10).”[1] And thus, we find ourselves in the epicenter of the argument from experience. And lest anyone try to say, “We can’t trust experience; experiences can vary, but God stays the same; so we must look to God alone as revealed in His Word,” I would ask what the point of a Christian testimony is then. That’s all Paul does here. He explains life before Christ, life as he met Christ, and life after and with Christ.

Verses 13-14 are Paul’s statement regarding life prior to Christ. They read, “For you have heard about my former way of life in Judaism: I persecuted God’s church to an extreme degree and tried to destroy it.  I advanced in Judaism beyond many contemporaries among my people, because I was extremely zealous for the traditions of my ancestors.” Two things are clear in these verses about Paul’s past.  Two things are what he reflected on more than anything else about his past. First, he was a violent persecutor of the church. Second, he was a champion of Jewish theology and practice.

The first thing that came to Paul’s mind regarding his past was his sinfulness. He was ashamed of the fact that he had harmed the church, the same church that he was now a part of. As believers (at least this is true in my case) we are quick to remember our sins. It might not necessarily be a problem (as Paul goes on to contrast this with the great grace of God), but it does say a lot about where our focus is. Does my focus on my sin lead to praising God for His grace, or does it lead to condemning myself for mistakes? If the latter, I need to repent and turn my gaze back on Christ.

For free: if you don’t yet know the Lord, I would urge you to reflect on your past. What are you doing these days that could be seriously harming a member of the body of Christ, or even a future member of the body of Christ (maybe you even are already a member of the body of Christ )? If you turned to Christ, or if that person turned to Christ, how would you feel about the way you’ve been treating them? Paul here feels intense remorse. He was actively persecuting the church and destroying it. In another passage it says,

In fact, I myself supposed it was necessary to do many things in opposition to the name of Jesus the Nazarene. I actually did this in Jerusalem, and I locked up many of the saints in prison, since I had received authority for that from the chief priests. When they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. In all the synagogues I often tried to make them blaspheme by punishing them. I even pursued them to foreign cities since I was greatly enraged at them (Acts 26:9-11).

And in another place he says, “Being zealous for God, just as all of you are today, I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women in jail, as both the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify about me. After I received letters from them to the brothers, I traveled to Damascus to bring those who were prisoners there to be punished in Jerusalem” (Acts 22:3b-5). Paul calls himself the chief of sinners (cf. 1 Timothy 1:15) because his life prior to Christ severely rocked him. I guarantee that not a day went by that he didn’t regret his actions against his brothers and sisters in Christ. So, my plea today is to think about others. If your life was dramatically changed, or even if someone else’s life was dramatically changed, would there be things that you would regret about your life beforehand? If so, cast them aside and don’t give Satan any more ammunition to use in accusing your soul.

And speaking of Paul’s former zealousy for God leads to the second main point of his life before Christ. He was advancing ahead of all his contemporaries and was more zealous for his ancestor’s traditions than anyone else. I’m sure he saw this partly as playing into the previous point, because his zeal for God led him to want to keep Judaism pure, and in his unconverted mind, Christianity was a pollution of Judaism. But at the same time it shows his zeal for the law. He was all about the law. Philippians 3:4b-6 would expand on this at a later time: “If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; regarding the law, a Pharisee; regarding zeal, persecuting the church; regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless.” It’s the circumcision point that will come up later in this letter, possibly one reason why he leaves that accomplishment collection out of this letter.

Paul’s point is that there is no way he made up this gospel that he preaches. He was too schooled in the law and too violent against Christians for him to join them on his own. So then he explains the divine intervention that occurred, that he initially introduced in verse 12. “For I did not receive it from a human source and I was not taught it, but it came by a revelation from Jesus Christ.”

Verses 15-16a are Paul’s statement regarding his conversion. They read, “But when God, who from my birth set me apart and called me by His grace, was pleased  to reveal His Son in me, so that I could preach Him among the Gentiles.” Paul is so adamant about the fact that his gospel is not from humans, or based on human merit that the subject of this passage is God.[2] Paul is the object. It’s very clear in the Greek as well. “The one who set me apart” is in the nominative case which means subject, or “the one performing the action.” “Me” is in the accusative case and is the object, or “the one who receives the action.”

God set Paul apart from his birth (if not before, cf. Ephesians 1:3-5). This means that before Paul had ever done anything good or bad, God had decided to set him apart for His work. The Greek word for “set apart” in this verse implies a setting apart for a specific use, which will come at the very end of 16a. Paul definitely highlights the grace of God when he says, “and called me by His grace,” because by the time Jesus called to him on the Damascus road Paul sees the reality that technically he could have forfeited the fact that God had set him apart. However, the grace of God is shown in that all those He set apart will be called, justified, sanctified, and glorified (cf. Romans 8:28-39). There is no “what if” in God’s sovereignty over salvation. Grace cannot and will not be forfeited.

God called Paul through the revealing of Jesus to him. Not only was Paul called through this revelation of Jesus Christ, but he was also given his gospel at the same time (cf. 1:12). Jesus was revealed to Paul because God wanted to reveal Jesus to Paul. Paul didn’t deserve to have Jesus revealed to him, just like you and I don’t deserve to have Jesus revealed to us. When Jesus was revealed to Paul, He gave Paul a commission to service, described to Ananias, the one who restored his sight, “Go! For this man is My chosen instrument to take My name to Gentiles, kings, and the Israelites.  I will show him how much he must suffer for My name!” (Acts 9:15-16). In the same way, every believer is called to be on mission for God. When was the last time you spoke to someone about spiritual matters?

But again, it is important to reiterate that Paul nowhere had anyone explain Jesus to him. Jesus revealed Himself to him and that was the source of Paul’s gospel. It will be even more clearly proved in the next 8 verses.

Verses 16b-24 are Paul’s statement regarding life after conversion. They read, “I did not immediately consult with anyone.  I did not go up to Jerusalem to those who had become apostles before me; instead I went to Arabia and came back to Damascus.  Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to get to know Cephas, and I stayed with him 15 days.  But I didn’t see any of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother.  Now I am not lying in what I write to you. God is my witness.  Afterward, I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia.  I remained personally unknown to the Judean churches in Christ;  they simply kept hearing: ‘He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith he once tried to destroy.’  And they glorified God because of me.”

Paul here explains some things that are vastly different from what we read in the book of Acts. Hopefully, by the time I’ve finished explaining it, you will see that they don’t contradict. In fact, I hope you’ll see that Paul’s story in Galatians is unique from any other Christian’s experience. Paul here writes that he didn’t consult with anyone after meeting Jesus, which on face value seems to directly contradict Acts 9:19b-20: “Saul was with the disciples in Damascus for some days.  Immediately he began proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues: ‘He is the Son of God’.”  However, what does Galatians say?  Paul simply writes here that he did not go up to Jerusalem to confer with the other apostles, but instead went to Arabia, and then came back to Damascus for three years. It’s safe to say that Paul travelled to Arabia between Acts 9:19a and 19b, and then stayed with the disciples in Damascus for three years.

Now before explaining anything (purely conjecturally) about Paul’s time in Arabia, it is important to make a point. There is a difference between Paul’s situation and ours. We can’t look at Paul here after we are saved and say, “I don’t need to go join a fellowship of believers.” Paul is making the point in Galatians that his gospel was purely from Christ and there was nothing that could have polluted it. In Acts, Luke is making the point that just like all believers should, Paul himself was part of a fellowship of faith. There is no contradiction, just a difference of emphasis. So please, if you haven’t already, join a church! You aren’t Paul. The canon of Scripture is closed. You need to fellowship with other believers, love them, and study the Word!

Arabia. Why does Paul go to Arabia? Since Arabia only occurs in the New Testament here and in 4:25, the only time we here about Paul’s trip to Arabia is right here in 1:17. So everything we can offer about what happened while he was there is pure conjecture. Some points seem to make sense though, and I will share them here.

In the second occurrence [of the word], Paul associated Arabia with the giving of the Mosaic law at Mount Sinai (Gal. 4:25). In an epistle where the law is depicted negatively with regard to justification and sanctification, it is natural to read 1:17 as colored by these themes. While not denying the apostle’s geographical movement from Damascus to Arabia and back, the impression is that Paul wanted believers to read that movement as part of his spiritual journey as well. In other words Paul united Arabia and Mount Sinai geographically in order to unite them theologically also. Shortly after Paul’s conversion he departed (“I departed, withdrew”) from Damascus (the place of grace and faith) to Arabia (the place of law). But he came back (“I returned once again”) to Damascus (the place of grace and faith). Paul wanted the Galatians to follow his example and return to grace and faith and away from their law-centered living.[3]

It is an interesting viewpoint, and it sheds important light on the debate over Romans 7 (pre- or post-conversion Paul), and while it would say, “Paul didn’t live a miraculous Christian life, he struggled with legalistic tendencies just like we do today even after salvation,” it need not necessarily mean that. J. B. Lightfoot explains,

Standing on the threshold of the new covenant, he was anxious to look upon the birthplace of the old, that, dwelling for a while in seclusion in the presence of " the mount that burned with fire," he might ponder over the transient glories of the " ministration of death," and apprehend its real purpose in relation to the more glorious covenant which was now to supplant it. Here, surrounded by the children of the desert, the descendants of Hagar the bondwoman, he read the true meaning and power of the law. In the rugged and barren region whence it issued he saw a fit type of that bleak desolation which it created, and was intended to create, in the soul of man.[4]

So while some would argue that Paul’s time in Arabia is supposed to be a symbolic way of saying that for a time he fell into a form of legalistic Christianity, others would say that his time in Arabia was literal and it was a time of meditation on the new task he’d been charged with. I have my doubts about supposing that Paul had a legalistic stint as a Christian, especially if it is Paul trying to find common ground with his readers, as the first quote above suggests. There is nothing in his tone throughout this letter that would indicate that he wants to say, “I’ve been where you are, but I got out; now it’s your turn.” The whole tone of his message in this book is, “Why are you so foolish?” So Paul travelled to Arabia literally, and likely was reminded of the powerlessness of the law to give life, which would be why he brings it up here. But again, this is all conjecture.

Paul then says in verses 18-20 that after three years in Damascus he finally went to Jerusalem and spent about two weeks with Peter, and also saw James, the brother of Jesus, while there. He makes it clear that this is the truth, that there was no one else he saw during this time, and the fact that he was only there for fifteen days would go to show that his three year theology foundation wouldn’t have been greatly shaken in such a short time period. Even in visiting other church leaders after three years didn’t change the fact that Paul received his gospel from Jesus alone. He even makes it clear that the point of his time there was “to get to know Peter.” He wasn’t going there to share his beliefs (cf. 2:1-2), but simply to make a new friend. His gospel, the one Christ gave to him, was not corrupted by men at any point.

Then Paul concludes his point of not being influenced by men by writing verses 21-24. He went away into Syria and Cilicia for fourteen years (cf. 2:1).Cilicia was a region more than 300 miles removed from Jerusalem, and also was the region in which Tarsus—Paul’s hometown—was located. (Maybe his first step, post-three years in Damascus, was to evangelize his own family and friends.) The region of Syria began about 100 miles north of Jerusalem and stretched another 200 miles before bordering Cilicia. So when Paul says, “I remained personally unknown to the Judean churches,” he isn’t lying. His first trip to Jerusalem was solely for the purpose of visiting Peter, and he stayed away from the churches. However, news of his transformation spread quickly. The man who had persecuted the church was now preaching the faith he had tried to destroy.

And lest anyone think that Paul preached a different gospel than the other apostles and early Christians, think again. What gospel did Paul preach? It was the same one that he had tried to destroy before. The one Stephen preached in Acts 7 was the one Paul preached as well. So while Paul didn’t get his gospel from men, he did get it from Jesus, the same One who gave Peter and James and John their gospels. Jesus is consistent enough to give everyone the same gospel; to say He gave Paul something different would be to say that Jesus doesn’t believe in His people being unified, which would go against John 17, and would mean that Jesus prayed for things He wouldn’t even work to achieve Himself, which would mean that Jesus didn’t say what He meant, which would mean that He was a liar and a deceiver, which would mean that He wasn’t sinless and couldn’t die for our sins. So, when Paul says in verse 12 that he received his gospel through a revelation of Jesus Christ, it is clear that Paul preached the exact same message that Peter and James and John preached, but maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. The proof of this will come in the next post.

Paul concludes this point by saying that the people who heard about him praised God because of him. This was his life goal. He didn’t want the praise for his transformation; that praise went to God alone. Galatians 1:5 says that it is to God that the glory belongs forever. This was Paul’s motto, and should be ours as well. What is your reason for wanting physically visible spiritual transformation in your life? Is it so you can pat yourself on the back? Is it so that others will pat you on the back? Or is it so that God will be seen as the gracious, glorious, powerful God that He is? Only the last option is viable. Let it be the story of your life. If our primary goal isn’t glorifying and pleasing God, we will never rightly relate to people; Paul glorified God with his life and was able to impact all of Christianity for almost two millennia to follow. Let’s do the same.

Til next time.

Soli Deo Gloria

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[1] R. Alan Cole, Galatians, Tyndale New Testament Commentary Series (IVP, 1989).

[2] I know there’s a variant here, but the fact that the “one who called [him] by His grace was pleased to reveal His Son in [him]” proves that the one who called him was God the Father. So whether God is included or not changes nothing and casts no shadow on the trustworthiness of the text.

[3] John F. Hart, "Paul as weak in faith in Romans 7:7-25," Bibliotheca Sacra 170, no. 679 (July 1, 2013): 332-333.

[4] J. B. Lightfoot, The Epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians, 88-89.

Shaken and Stirred – 1:6-10

Sitting at my desk, drinking a Dr. Pepper out of a can got me thinking about what happens if you shake a can of soda before opening it. It creates a huge mess that someone has to clean up (be responsible and clean up your own mess though!). And in this opening section of the book of Galatians, immediately following Paul’s introduction, Paul explains that there is a mess for him to clean up in Galatia because someone shook the people up.

Galatians 1:6-10 says, “I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from Him who called you by the grace of Christ ⌊and are turning⌋ to a different gospel— not that there is another ⌊gospel⌋, but there are some who are troubling you and want to change the good news about the Messiah. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel other than what we have preached to you, a curse be on him! As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone preaches to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him! For am I now trying to win the favor of people, or God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a slave of Christ.”

And right out of the gate it is clear that Paul is trying to solve a very big problem. The word for "turning away" can literally mean, "apostatizing from," and the weight of the whole sentence is, "I am amazed that so soon you are all apostatizing yourselves." Apostasy is rightly understood as decisively turning away from the gospel, thus as turning your back on Christianity, thus as proving that you never really belonged to Christ. Interestingly enough, Paul leaves the verb in the present tense because he trusts that his letter will restore them. They "are apostatizing," not "have apostatized." This is very important. Paul wants to prevent furtherance of apostasy. So a key fact to learn is that apostasy is a process. It doesn't just up and say, "I quit on Jesus." Rather, it starts to excuse sin or false ideas or lack of love for God, and then eventually ends up where sin is pursued exclusively, God is hated, and false ideas are accepted as true. (I for one am going to stop sugarcoating the problem of apostasy with the word backsliding, because backsliding makes it seems like less of a problem than it is.) John Owen counsels and exhorts us to watch ourselves closely so that we don't get to the point of complete apostasy:

[H]e who is spiritually sensible of the evil of his backsliding is unquestionably in a recoverable condition; and some may be so who are not yet sensible thereof, so long as they are capable of being made so by convictions. No man is past hopes of salvation until he is past all possibility of repentance; and no man is past all possibility of repentance until he be absolutely hardened against all gospel convictions (Nature of Apostasy, chapter 12).

The thing to note in Galatians 1:6 is that Paul is amazed. He is surprised. Apostasy shouldn't be common for Christians. Unfortunately though, in our day, it seems as if a good majority of those who are called Christians are in some measure apostatizing from the gospel. Paul would be astounded. Now while it is true that no believer should ever consider himself immune to apostasy until safely in heaven, it is also true that our lives shouldn't evidence signs of apostasy. In context this specifically refers to false doctrine, but false belief leads to wrong living, as Paul will prove in chapters 5-6, so let's stand our ground against sin and deceit.

Paul's amazement was in part that they were so quickly and easily seduced away from the gospel. He writes almost as if to say, "You didn't even object when the false teachers came in! You just bought their lies hook, line, and sinker." We need to know what we believe so we can stand up against this type of deceit. (There is a lot these days in the name of Christianity, Biblical Studies, and Theology that would encourage Paul to write another epistle if he were here today; so beware!)

One line of thinking that we should beware of in current evangelical "scholarship" comes in the area of Pauline studies. People spend more time trying to learn about Paul through his letters than they try to learn about Jesus through his letters. Paul preached (and wrote) Christ crucified; that was all. Some scholars will take the phrase that follows "turning away from" and say, "Paul is amazed that they are deserting him." This is foolishness of the ultimate degree. Paul could care less if people deserted him; look throughout his letters to find proof of that. Paul's ultimate desire is that people follow Jesus; the specific minister of choice is no big deal. The reason scholars even have an argument here is because of intrusions into the text throughout the history of its transmission. (I plan to write a whole post in the near future on the Bible's trustworthiness so this discussion here will be brief; just know intrusions and variants don't knock against us at all.) There are 5 main ways to take the verse:

•    From the one who called you by the grace of Christ

•    From the one who called you by the grace of Jesus Christ

•    From the one who called you by the grace of Christ Jesus

•    From the one who called you by the grace of God

•    From the one who called you by grace

Most English translations follow the first of the above list which is fine because it is basically the best of both worlds. However, most of the time the shortest text is preferred because it can explain the other variants. In this case someone was probably trying to explain where grace comes from, and then different people tried expressing it differently (some are Christ, some are Jesus Christ, etc.). It's theologically accurate, but it also makes Paul the one they were deserting. The truth is that the one who truly calls anyone by grace is Jesus, whether his name is in the text or not, and if someone is apostatizing from the one who called them by grace, then they are apostatizing from Jesus. No man can truly be apostatized from. Paul wasn't out to please man, and he wasn't seeking to be pleased by men either (cf. 1:10).

Then Paul explains where they are being apostatized to. This lasts from the end of verse 6 all the way through verse 7. It reads, "⌊and are turning⌋ to a different gospel— not that there is another ⌊gospel⌋, but there are some who are troubling you and want to change the good news about the Messiah." Paul explains that they've turned to a different gospel, but then explains that there is no other gospel. To believe anything but the gospel of grace through faith is to claim another gospel (good news about the way to salvation), but to say salvation is anything but grace through faith is not the gospel at all. And the great thing about the whole book of Galatians is that it defines and explains what the ONE and ONLY gospel is. (Keep reading the updates to this series to grow in your understanding of it.)

So Paul points out that they haven't really turned to another gospel, but he can't just leave it there. So he does something unique in all his letters. While he always has opponents, this is the only letter in which he goes after them explicitly. He gives a face to them. He says, "I disagree with these people and I want everyone to know it." I also think it's important to note that this was Paul's first letter. (As new believers who stumble upon a key point of theology, we are quick to call everyone else foolish and make a whole list of things we are against rather than things we are for; I don't think I'm alone in this at least...) Since Paul does it here, and since this is the Word of God, there is no sin necessarily in this tactic. "Necessarily" is necessary because of the words Paul uses to describe the "some" he is writing against. They are people "who are troubling you and want to change the good news about the Messiah." This is key. Most of the things we end up attacking others about are less than changes to the good news of the gospel. Timing of creation, events of the end times, and whether alcohol and tobacco are right or wrong for Christians are not things to debate and divide over. Paul was dividing from these people because they were changing the gospel—a change to the gospel ruins the gospel and makes the result not the gospel—and shaking up the Galatians. Since the Galatians were shook up and confused, they wanted to find footing for themselves, and also wanted to look good in the eyes of these new teachers so they gave in to the teaching. It created a mess, and Paul knew that they'd started the process of complete apostasy from the gospel and he was out to stop that.

Paul is so adamant about the fact that this is the only gospel that he says in verses 8-9, "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel other than what we have preached to you, a curse be on him! As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone preaches to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him!" Paul goes so far to prove that the gospel he preached was the true gospel that he says even he should be condemned to hell if he starts preaching anything else. The gospel is what saves, the only thing that saves; if works are added to the gospel, it can no longer save; if the message is in any way altered, it can no longer save; and since anything but the gospel can't save, then it follows that anything that isn't the gospel actually damns; and if the message damns, Paul says the messenger should be damned too. And he's consistent enough to include himself in there too.

Paul loved others enough to try to keep them from being damned (cf. Romans 9:1-5). He was amazed at the fact that anyone would abandon the gospel of grace for something more. But, it's understandable why they would want to add works. I (at least) am often guilty of the same. We want some proof that we have been saved, so we do things so we can look at them and say, "well of course God loves me. How could he not, when I do all these things?" However, that defeats the emphasis on faith in Christianity. God's righteous one lives by faith (Habakkuk 2:4) not works. This is the first step to a Christless Christianity, which is no Christianity, so let's love others like Paul loved them and warn people about trusting themselves instead of trusting God. Paul loved the Galatians enough to tell them they had been deceived, but he also loved the purity of gospel ministry enough to tell the false teachers they were wrong (cf. Titus 3:10-11; James 3:1). However, before getting back to either, Paul will elaborate on the fact that he didn't send himself or pull his gospel out of a hat.

But first, Paul makes a transitional statement regarding his ministry. He says in verse 10, "For am I now trying to win the favor of people, or God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a slave of Christ." God was his passion, humility was his method. Paul wants them to know that this letter isn't him blowing off steam. This letter isn't him just attacking people. He isn't trying to get people to like him more. His goal is to please Christ. His goal is to get himself out of the way and let the Spirit of God do its work. Paul loved God and wanted to glorify God, and that mindset led him to love people enough to want to see God glorified in them.

So that sums up verses 6-10 of chapter 1. We've seen Paul appalled at apostasy, and want to change people's minds. We've seen Paul appalled at false teaching, and want to get them silenced. And we've seen Paul appalled at accusations of man-pleasing, and his desire to only glorify Christ. Do we see people walking away from the faith, even if just maybe starting to dabble in some form of sin, and actually see it as a big deal and call them back to Christ (or even just remind them of the gospel of Christ, including the bad news that initiates it)? Do we see people propagating something less than the gospel and tell them to change? Do we try to please people or God? The answer to all of these questions will show us just how much we're living in love right now.

Maybe you don't know Christ. I speak of the gospel, how there's only one, but I haven't laid it out in these pages yet. Here it is: you've done things that seek to bring you glory and ignore the glory due to God alone. That's idolatry of self and it smacks God in the face. However, God loved you enough to send Jesus to the earth to live a life perfectly for God's glory, to die on a cross in your place, and to rise again from the dead. All He requires is that you believe that truth, and if you do, grace has been made yours, and you can walk in the new way of life that Paul will describe in chapter five of this book. We're getting there, but I beg you today to put your faith in Jesus, watch out for apostasy, and love others well.

Til next time.

Soli Deo Gloria

Greetings of Grace in Galatia – 1:1-5

“It was a dark and stormy night.” “I opened my eyes and confusion hit me like a semi-truck.” “A long time ago in a galaxy far far away.” Like any good piece of literature (I know the last quote isn’t from literature) the introduction sets the pace. The more solid the introduction, the more likely someone is to keep reading. Biblically, the case is true as well. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). “The historical record of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1). “How happy is the man who does not follow the advice of the wicked or take the path of sinners or join a group of mockers!” (Psalm 1:1). “The revelation of Jesus Christ that God gave Him to show His slaves what must quickly take place” (Revelation 1:1a). The opening statement lays out the point of the book in each instance. So, it follows, in the book of Galatians the introduction has been carefully crafted so that 1) we will be encouraged to keep reading the text, and 2) so that we will clearly understand the author’s point before diving into the particulars that take the rest of six chapters to explain.

Galatians 1:1-5 says, “Paul, an apostle—not from men or by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead—and all the brothers who are with me: To the churches of Galatia.  Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father. To whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”

In starting, the first thing to do is to see who is writing. Verses 1-2a say, “Paul, an apostle—not from men or by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead—and all the brothers who are with me.”

The first word is Paul. Paul is the man who was a persecutor of Christians. He hated the cause of Christ. He wanted to stamp it out. He saw it as a heresiacal sect of Judaism that was going to destroy Judaism. But all that changed that one fateful day on the road to Damascus when Jesus appeared to him and commissioned him as an apostle. Paul the Christian-hater became Paul the greatest-promoter-of-Christianity in history. Galatians is likely the first book he penned—the one that started the series of thirteen Pauline epistles that make up about 25% of our New Testament.

The first thing Paul does is say what he is not. A literal Greek translation would say, “Paul, not an apostle [sent] from men and not [an apostle] through [the agency] of men.” He instantly takes us back to the day on the Damascus road and says, “I’m not writing from my own authority. I’m carrying a much greater message. These aren’t my words. They come from Christ.”

And when he says who did send him with this message, he gets caught up in a sort of theologizing. He says, “Jesus isn’t the only one who sent me; God the Father sent me too—He’s actually the One who raised Jesus from the dead.” This is important for two reasons. First, it shows the 180 that has taken place in Paul’s life—he persecuted Christians because they worshipped a dead person; he hadn’t believed the message of resurrection until He revealed Himself to Paul. Paul now worships and serves a resurrected Messiah. Second, we see two-thirds of the Trinity right here, and give it two chapters and we’ll see the third person of the Trinity in 3:2 (the trinity was present in one of the earliest books of the New Testament; not an invention of the church fathers!).

And then verse two has him credit some other believers also with the writing of this letter. Too often we think that Paul was on his own with his theology of grace alone by faith alone apart from works, especially when we think of a verse like James 2:24: “You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.” But this verse says that other people agreed with Paul and helped him write this letter. Thus we should give Paul’s words in this letter great heed because they’ve been attested by more than two witnesses. We can’t excuse legalism and the like under auspices of, “That was just Paul’s theology.” We must live in the freedom of the gospel the way Paul declares. Many witnesses in his day and since would say that he was right on, and we have no right to say they were wrong. To do so is to say that God is wrong, because these words are God’s Word. But we’ll dive into that whole situation in the ensuing posts.

Verse 2b-3 says, “To the churches of Galatia.  Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul is writing to a whole region of churches in this letter. And it is very interesting that the first thing he says to them is “Grace and peace.” Glance at verse 6 which we’ll look at next week and you’ll see why this is interesting. This is the only letter Paul wrote that doesn’t contain an opening blessing (several verses of such) to the recipients. It’ll be discussed more next time, but the point is that Paul isn’t vehement in this letter just because he can be; rather, he wants the people of Galatia to experience the grace and peace of God. They can’t experience that when caught in the legalism that they were caught in.

Finally, in verses 4-5, Paul describes Jesus in more clear terms. Jesus, the one who grace and peace come from is the one “who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father. To whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” It is specifically the death of Jesus that grants grace and peace. It is the death of Jesus that frees is from this present, evil age. It was God’s will to rescue us. For this reason, God is the one who deserves the glory forever. Grace removes all chances of glory from us and instead places glory squarely in the possession of the one who showed it—in this case, God. When we try to save ourselves by law-keeping, we try to steal the glory from God.

Maybe you’re still trapped in this present, evil age. Turn to Jesus! He died for your sins. He can and will rescue you from it if you believe that He is who He claimed to be. Like Paul, make a 180 in your mind about Him, stop trying to save yourself by your good deeds, and let grace do its work. Maybe you already know Him, but maybe you still feel trapped in this evil age. Look to the cross. That’s where the work was accomplished. Stop beating yourself up about your past. Look forward to your future. Love God daily. Love people daily. Loving people sometimes looks like writing them a harsh letter out of love for them, with their ultimate well-being in mind. This is what Paul has begun in these verses. This is what Paul will continue throughout the letter.

Til next time.

Soli Deo Gloria

Living to Love (3 of 3)

My whole “theology” of “live in Love, find your true reward,” finds its root in 1 John 4:15-17. It reads, “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in Him and he in God. And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. In this, love is perfected with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; for we are as He is in this world.” Finally, I will explain my plan for the next few (many) entries to this blog at the end of this post. But first, it is important first to spell out the last aspect of what liL fytr entails.

Before moving to part 3, which will lay out the most externally visible application of this line of thought, it is important to review the ground we’ve covered in the previous two posts. In the first post, we explored the phrase “God is love” in verse 16 to try to understand something of God, to try to grasp the source of love, to try to grasp the only hope we have to ever live out this high calling. Last time, we looked at the love that should exist from believer to God—seen clearly in the words “the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him” in verse 16. However, it is important to note that the emphasis in the passage is on “God is love” and not “love God.” It is also important to note that verse 17 ends by saying, “we are as He is in this world.” The huge emphasis is on the external effect that the fact that “God is love” should have on our lives.

So let me propose a syllogism for you:

if God is love,

and

if we are as He is in this world,

then

therefore we are love also.

This is why in 1 John 4:8 we miss the point if we only focus on the words, “God is love.” That is John’s concluding argument in the verse. In its entirety it reads, “The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” Now a very easy accusation against this theology would claim, “All anyone in the world wants is to love, to be loved, and to increase in both; you’re proposing love-based salvation which is works-based salvation. You’re a false teacher.” And I would say, “yes, that is very true. But only if we rip 1 John 4:8 out of its context, if we make it say its inverse, and if we don’t define our terms.” Otherwise, it is very clear.

The context of 1 John 4:8 is in the middle of a letter to those who are confessing sin, finding cleansing in Jesus, and who ultimately have been born of God (1 John 1:9, 2:1-2, 3:9-10; cf. John 3:5-8). This new birth is what enables us to believe and to grow in knowledge and holiness and love. First John 3:9 talks about how believers have been born from God and do not sin; then verse 10 explains, “This is how God’s children—and the Devil’s children—are made evident. Whoever does not do what is right is not [implied: born] of God, especially the one who does not love his brother.” In a sense the only sin John is worried about in this letter is not loving other believers (though more is going on in verse 9 than we have time to talk about in this post). He is saying that someone who truly has been born of God cannot and will not continue to fail to love fellow believers.

The perfect inverse of 1 John 4:8 is, “The one who does love does know God, because God is not love.” However that is blatant heresy, which is why we should avoid inverting verses to make them say their opposite. Someone might claim the opposite of 1 John 4:8 is simply, “The one who does love does know God,” but that clearly isn’t all of the verse. Then they will claim that loving people is all that matters: food, and water, and shelter for the homeless; marriage seminars for bad spouses; “true love waits” campaigns for teenagers and college students; etc. And all of these are good and right, but too often we completely miss the point. If you make peoples’ lives better, help marriages work more smoothly, keep all your clothes on and hands to yourself until your wedding night, but aren’t told of the gospel of grace for people dead in sin, you’re really just having your road to hell padded down, making it a little more comfortable. The definition of love is much deeper than all of these things.

Jesus defines love very clearly in John 15:13. “No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends.” This is the kind of love that the majority of Christianity in America lacks today. Today it’s all about, “What can I get out of this?” “What can we gain from this?” “How does it make me feel?” I’m sorry, but when Jesus laid down His life, 1) He got pain, torment, and wrath from the Father; 2) He gained very little in those specific 6 hours, but gave up all; 3) He did not feel good at all! This is what love looks like. Love is not at all about what we can get, but about what we can give; love is not about what we can gain/want to gain short-term, but  rather about what we will gain long-term; love is not about feelings at all, but rather about actions. John said, “We must not love in word or speech, but in deed and truth” (1 John 3:18).

So, as Christians, what are the deeds we should do so that we can show love to others and so that we can be “as He is in this world”? There are two key ways to do this, but first it is extremely important that we realize what we aren’t doing. We aren’t loving others so that people see us as kind-hearted, social justice champions. We’re loving others because we’ve been immensely loved by God and our love-tank is overflowing and needs to go somewhere. The language of verse 15 is clear, “God remains in him and he in God.” There is a sense of oneness between the believer and God to where if we do something, God does something (it’s why Paul gets so riled up in 1 Corinthians 6:12-20). We are to be as He is in this world. The world will know we are His by our love (cf. John 13:35). Our love is to be shown in two key ways. First, by helping the needy, and second, by evangelizing the lost.

The needy have a huge place in God’s heart. Read Leviticus and see how God goes out of His way to make provision for widows and orphans and the poor—both physical provision and religious provision. Exodus 22:22-24 even says, “You must not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you do mistreat them, they will no doubt cry to Me, and I will certainly hear their cry. My anger will burn, and I will kill you with the sword; then your wives will be widows and your children fatherless.” Point taken, right? And lest you think that’s just the Old Testament—angry wrathful God—look at two New Testament verses. First John 3:17 asks, “If anyone has this world’s goods and sees his brother in need but shuts off his compassion from him—how can God’s love reside in him?” James 1:27 says, “Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” The Old Testament emphasizes not mistreating the needy. The New Testament raises the bar from “not harming” to “actively loving.” We are to help those in need. How do we define need? If someone has less of something than you they are in more need than you. Do with that what you will.

There is a high percentage of this world’s population that is lost and on its way to hell. What is more loving than to tell them about their problem and inform them of the only solution to their problem? Paul explains in 2 Corinthians 5:14 and 20 that, “Christ’s love compels us . . . we are ambassadors for Christ; certain that God is appealing through us, we plead on Christ’s behalf, ‘Be reconciled to God’.” Our message is a message of reconciliation. Our biggest need is reconciliation—with each other, but much more with God—and since we’ve been entrusted with the message of reconciliation (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:18), we are the ones responsible to spread it and exhibit it. If we claim to be reconciled to God, we should live reconciled with each other! If we want others to be reconciled to God, we need to be reconciled to God. If we fail to share with those who need to hear, then we are judging them unworthy, and we should take a good long look in the mirror to see what qualified us as worthy (hint: it was only God’s grace that is making us worthy; we haven’t even arrived yet!). A Christian’s love for others is even to extend to his enemies (cf. Matthew 5:43-47), so no one should be exempted from our evangelism. Society would turn around in a heartbeat if we’d live out the basic tenant of our religion (John 13:35).

The whole point of the Bible is love. Each of the 66 books in our canon emphasizes a different aspect, but they all describe and promote love. I have written more extensively on this topic elsewhere (though only focusing on the New Testament) and it can be accessed at:  www.academia.edu/25063760/Love_Wins. I need to dive more into the Old Testament aspect of this idea, but that is a project for the future.

John talks a lot about a new command in his letter. This is a reference to Jesus’ command in John 15:9-12. “As the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you. Remain in My love. If you keep My commands you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commands and remain in His love. I have spoken these things to you so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. This is my command: love one another as I have loved you.” The way to remain in Jesus’ love is to keep His commands. His command is to love others. Therefore, the way to remain in His love is to love others. This sheds light on John 15:7 and its comparable passage in 1 John 2:7-11. “If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you” (John 15:7). The way to remain in Him is to love others. The reason our prayers aren’t answered is because we aren’t loving others well enough. First Peter 3:7 then becomes very clear: “Husbands, in the same way, live with your wives with understanding of their weaker nature yet showing them honor as co-heirs of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.” Prayers are hindered when husbands don’t love their wives rightly; prayers are hindered when Christians aren’t loving people in general rightly. Perhaps our prayers should be more focused on the needs of others than our own. That’s one way to love others better.

In fact, all sin could be summed up as a lack of love. And if this is true—which a quick reflection on commandments 5-10 shows it is—then all sin is an area in which we aren’t living as He is in this world. He has nothing to do with sin, so we have a lot of work to do to imitate Him better. And if it’s a sin to not love others rightly, then when we aren’t loving people we aren’t loving God because we are sinning against Him. So if we’re to rightly love God, we must love people too. It’s all connected!

So the question I leave you with is, “How well do you love others? How much more—specifically in what areas—can you love others? And who can you evangelize today and thus show them that you love them?” Let’s walk this thing together, striving to love God by loving others!

Soli Deo Gloria

Future goal for blog = I’m going to choose a book of the Bible and go through it verse by verse using the hermeneutic I’ve laid out in these last three posts. For those of you that don’t know, a hermeneutic is an interpretation philosophy. I’m taking book recommendations in the comments below, and there’s a poll on the sidebar containing four books I’m personally interested in delving deeper into (if using desktop version). This will be my primary use of this blog, though some other posts and updates will also come up sporadically.

Living in Love (2 of 3)

My whole “theology” of “live in Love, find your true reward,” finds its root in 1 John 4:15-17. It reads, “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in Him and he in God. And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. In this, love is perfected with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; for we are as He is in this world.” Again, I will explain my plan for the next few (many) entries to this blog at the end of part 3. It is important first to spell out what liL fytr entails.

Before moving to part 3, which will lay out the most externally visible application of this line of thought, it is important to make another observation first. Last time, we explored the phrase “God is love” in verse 16 to try to understand something of God, to try to grasp the source of love, to try to grasp the only hope we have to ever live out this high calling. Next time, we will focus on the end of verse 17 which is the goal of the Christian life: “we are as He is in this world.” If God is love, then the call for a Christian is to reflect His love well to a watching world.

But this time, the focus is a step that must come in between. Because, it’s all fine and dandy to know that God loves you, but try taking that and immediately translating it into loving others, and you quickly realize two things. First, you’re being idolatrous. Second, it’s idolatrous because you skipped a step. You can’t properly love another human being if you don’t properly love God first (aside: Thank You, Lord, for letting her break up with me so I could finally realize this).

The Gospel of Mark describes the focus for the life of a follower of the Way as follows: “‘This is the most important [commandment],’ Jesus answered: ‘Listen Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength (cf. Deuteronomy 6:4-5). The second is: Love your  neighbor as yourself (cf. Leviticus 19:18). There is no other commandment greater than these’” (Mark 12:29-31). Jesus sees the greatest focuses of the believer’s life first as actively loving God (what we are looking at this time), and second as actively loving neighbors (which we will look at next time).

It’s definitely not the best way (inspired, authorial intent) to understand the book of Song of Songs, but the closing line can definitely help us understand somewhat what it means to love God. Song of Songs 8:14 has the bride saying, “Hurry to me, my love, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.” If we ignore the very likely present connotation of gazelles and stags, and if we focus on the first line, we see that true love actively desires another. And before anyone accuses me of making this weird, look at the next to last verse in the Bible—Revelation 22:20. “He who testifies about these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming quickly.’ Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!” This should be every believer’s cry. This is how much we should love God. We should desire His coming more than anything else.

I was convicted in the last few years when writing a song about my future wife, that maybe I was potentially being idolatrous; maybe my focus was misplaced, so the following verse came into being:

While I'm waiting for her, that ain't all

cuz maybe before then the trumpet will call

the heavens might fall--sinners appalled

please oh please LORD do not stall

I'm looking forward to meeting my future wife

but this line of thinking leads to strife

Matthew 22:30-- I should desire Christ

wives and marriage absent in next life

Christ be my all-- someday You'll come

blazing resplendent in glory to gather the sum

of those You died to redeem--sinners fear numbed

as all the saints shout, “Jesus please come”

so Christ be my focus-- Hebrews 12:2

Matthew 6:33-- I'm seeking only You

if you bring her to me, glory to You

Your timing’s the best, and this all is true

The things we long for the most are the things we love the most. The things we think about most are the things we love the most. The things we spend the most money on are the things we love the most. Song of Songs helps us understand the longing that should be there, but then the verse Jesus quotes about loving God helps us narrow it down and see specifically how we should be loving God.

Jesus says that we are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. John MacArthur says, “The use of the various terms does not distinguish among human faculties but underscores the completeness of the kind of love commanded” (John Macarthur Study Bible, note on Matthew 22:37). This is correct, but a few words still need to be said.

Love God with all your heart. Your desires must be for God. All your desires should be for God. No part of you should desire anything less than God. How far short of this do we all fall? It’s a point at which we must all repent and ask forgiveness.

Love God with all your soul. The Greek word for soul is the same as the Greek word for “life.” Our whole life should love God. Basically our motto should be that of Paul: “living is Christ and dying is gain” (Philippians 1:21). We should love Christ more than we love life. However, we are much too quick to cling to our lives, to cling to our comforts, to cling to our plans for ourselves than to love God with all our life. (My recent life situation change proves this one greatly for myself.) Christians in ISIS occupied lands are doing a much better job at loving Christ with all their lives than we are. We should praise God for our relative security from persecution in America, but lack of physical persecution can be yet another form of persecution that distracts us greatly from loving God with all our life. Again, it’s a point at which we must all repent and ask forgiveness.

Love God with all your mind. Christianity is a thinking religion. It’s not a matter of blind faith. We have been given 66 books from God that have been translated from the original Hebrew and Greek into many different languages that are still powerful to speak life into our lives. We aren’t Muslims where only the Arabic text of our holy book is from God. No! Our translations of the Hebrew and Greek are God’s Word too, “inspired by God and . . . profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). For this reason, we must love God with our minds and get His words in our heads. We must read books by authors throughout the ages that have honored and revered God and the Scriptures, and gain wisdom and insight and love for God from them. This is my favorite aspect of loving God, but I need to repent of making it my only aspect. Some may be in the same boat, but there’s plenty of others who don’t love God at all with their minds. If we’re to live out our Christian calling, we must repent of apathy and love God with our minds!

Love God with all your strength. This is simple. We should love God in our actions. We strive to honor those we love. If we love God with all our strength, we will strive to honor Him in all we do. We will live out Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, do it enthusiastically, as something done for the Lord and not for men.” This is the clearest area in which people fail to love God rightly. I’m sure guilty here. Thankfully, there is grace, because this isn’t a works based religion, but since God loves us so much, we should strive with all our effort to love Him back the best we can. When we sin with our strength, we should repent and keep going.

When we sin with our minds, we should repent and keep going.

When we sin with our lives, we should repent and keep going.

When we sin with our desires, we should repent and keep going.

God’s grace is so much greater than our failures. God’s love is so much more perfect than our love. But the call is large and weighty. Let’s love God with all our beings. He loved us enough to become one of us. We should love Him so much more than we do. I call it “living in love” because it’s all about a relationship with God.

So the question I leave you with is, “How much do you love Him? How much more—specifically in what areas—can you love Him?” Let’s walk this thing together, striving to love God as God! He’s returning soon.

Soli Deo Gloria

Living from Love (1 of 3)

My whole “theology” of “live in Love, find your true reward,” finds its root in 1 John 4:15-17. It reads, “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in Him and he in God. And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. In this, love is perfected with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; for we are as He is in this world.” The Greek word for “remain” in verses 15 and 16 is menō. It is translated by the NASB and ESV as “abide.” Thus we see that the one who abides (lives) in love abides (lives) in God.

However, I will explain my plan for the next few (many) entries to this blog at the end of part 3. It is important first to spell out what liL fytr entails. Living in love with the result of finding your true reward can come across like works-based salvation if we’re not careful. A quote from Martin Luther that David Platt shared on Friday during Secret Church 2016 helps to provide a check to this possibility:

“The law is divine and holy. Let the law have its glory, but yet no law, be it never so divine and holy, ought to teach me that I am justified, and shall live through it. I grant it may teach me that I ought to love God and my neighbor; also to live in love, soberness, patience, etc., but it will not to show me how I should be delivered from sin, the devil, death, and hell. Here I must take counsel of the gospel. I must hearken to the gospel, which teaches me, not what I ought to do, but what Jesus Christ the Son of God hath done for me: that He suffered and died to deliver me from sin and death. The gospel wills me to receive this, and to believe it. And this is the truth of the gospel. Most necessarily it is, therefore, that we should know this article well, teach it unto others, and beat it into their heads continually.”

If we focus on the fact that the one who lives in God is to live in love, but miss the point that comes prior: “God is love,” then we are doing a great deal of damage.

The Bible starts with the word “God.” His love is shown clearly in the first verse of the Bible. He wanted fellowship with someone other than the other members of the trinity (note “wanted” and not “needed”), so He created the world. In this world, the one thing that made it very good was when man and woman were created (Genesis 1:31), and this is because they were the ones He could love. (Now you might object: “animals were created on the sixth day too. I love animals! Don’t they have a part to play in the ‘very good’ thing?” I “love” lots of things: baseball, pizza, cats. But I can’t have a relationship with any of them. Not even a cat. When I say I love cats, it basically means I pity them for their misperceived sense of entitlement and think they’re cute. They can’t talk to me; I can’t really talk to them.)  God created Adam and Eve and had a relationship with them (cf. Genesis 3:8-10, and think about the same situation only pre-fall).

God wants a relationship with people. His very character is love (1 John 4:8, 16). The problem of course is that humanity is now (post-Genesis 3)—at our very core—unlovable. This is why relationships between people have friction and often fail. Selfishness—my wants and “needs”—is innate in our beings. (Proof: watch a child steal a toy from another child; you didn’t have to teach them that; it comes naturally.) But because of the three words in the phrase we are dissecting in this post (“God is love”), it doesn’t have to be a problem. God’s very essence is love. And that essence of love is from God. God means “Ultimate being; holy, holy, holy; on a completely different plane from the rest of everything.” So God’s love makes our love look like hate in comparison. God’s love can overcome the fact that we are unlovable. God’s love is described in Ephesians 2:3-5, “We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and by nature we were children under wrath, as the others were also. But God, who is abundant in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, made us alive with the Messiah (Christ) even though we were dead in trespasses.” We are alive because of God’s love. I call it “living from love.”

Paul continued in the book of Ephesians in chapter 3 to describe our response to the radical love of God. Verses 17-19 say, “I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know the Messiah’s love that surpasses knowledge, so you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” This is a charge that should occupy much more of our time than it does. God loves us as far as the east is from the west, farther than the north is from the south, beyond the moon, and deeper than the Mariana Trench. It should blow our minds all the time because He loves us so much. This is what it means to say that God is love. He loves you and He loves me.

“But how do I know that?” you ask. Both Paul and John answer that question. The beginning of 1 John 3:16 says, “This is how we have come to know love: He laid down His life for us.” Romans 5:8 and 8:32 make very clear the extent to which God loves us: “But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us! . . . He did not even spare His own Son, but offered Him up for us all; how will He not also with Him grant us everything?” We will look more in depth in the upcoming posts at what this means for our lives, but for now the Bible is clear that God loves you.

If you want to know how to know that He loves you, I would point you back to 1 John 4:15. God is love, so He sent His Son to die on the cross as the sacrifice to cover all of our lack of love (SIN). However, it’s not a free for all. There is a condition on this love. Faith is required. This faith leads to a confession. That confession is laid out clearly in 1 John 4:15: “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God.” Or, put slightly differently, “Whoever confesses, ‘Jesus is the Son of God’—God remains in him and he in God.” The confession is that Jesus is the Son of God. The confession is that Jesus is who He claimed to be. The confession is that Jesus is the most worthy being in the universe of our love and affection, and all else is a cheap imitation.

So the question I leave you with is, “Is this your confession? Do you know the love of God?” If not, make that your confession! I plead with you.

Soli Deo Gloria

The "Union" in Communion

So this blog is found at lilfytr.blogspot.com. As such it is to be a blog focused on "living in love" with the result that you would "find your true reward." For some reason though, throughout the years of keeping up (mostly not well) with this blog, I have lost sight of that purpose to the error of "let me fill you in on what's new in my life and maybe tack a verse or two on the end." Not saying there's anything wrong with that once in a while, but when I'm only posting once in a while, it can be problematic.

I'll fill you in on a greater breakdown of Live In Love Find Your True Reward next time, but today, I need to close out a chapter, and transition into the future point of this blog.

So I talked last time about how God had started convicting me in many ways about my bitterness towards Sarah (the fictional name of my most recent girlfriend [to protect her privacy and avoid the term 'ex']). At church yesterday morning I was urged in my gut to apologize to her. I didn't really want to, so I didn't take the first opportunity that came my way. After the sermon and during closing worship I felt led to take communion (since its available for individuals/groups who want it every week), but then was convicted by a passage in 1 Corinthians that is normally taken very dangerously out of context.

First Corinthians 11:27-29 comes in the midst of a section on church unity. Chapter 11, verses 17-19 explain the lack of unity that was going on. It involved the Lord's Supper. It involved people promoting themselves and devaluing others at the Lord's table. Paul concludes the problem by stating the goal: "For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes" (11:26). The Lord's death was the most selfless act of love to ever occur. That is Paul's point. 

So when verses 27-29 roll around, what is to be expected? Well, let me copy it here: "Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy way will be guilty of sin against the body and blood of the Lord. So a man should examine himself; in this way he should eat the bread and drink from the cup. For whoever eats and drinks without recognizing the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself."

Is Paul now saying, "Make yourself right with God before partaking of communion"? Is he saying, "You'll be judged if you take communion without confessing your private sin last night to God first"? Not at all. It doesn't fit the context. He's speaking of the body of Christ, the church. He's saying, "If you have a problem with someone in the church, let go of that bitterness, make amends with him/her, and then come take communion." The fact that the phrase "without recognizing the body" in verse 29 has a textual variant that reads, "Not discerning the Lord's body," helps prove the point, since most variants entered into the text as a way of explaining the original meaning. So Paul wants communion to be a visible picture of the church's unity. If there's hostility between members it would be a feigned image of unity. This is why Paul wants them to make things right before taking communion.

So I refrained from the communion table yesterday. As soon as service ended, I approached Sarah and asked for her forgiveness for the bitterness and anger that had built up inside of me over the previous few weeks. She forgave me, because her motto is Victorious Grace, and she exemplifies it better than anyone I know. I'm glad to know that hole is patched up in my local church's unity.

Soli Deo Gloria

Drama Queen or Drawn to the KING?

“I’m out here exposing all my private matters publicly,” raps Christian hip-hop artist Tedashii on the opening track of his album Below Paradise. And sometimes I feel like I’m a drama king. I say king, because as a male I’m not a queen. Recently, I’ve been guilty of the exact same thing that Tedashii speaks of: I’ve been confessing secret sins and struggles in very public arenas.

And I can almost convince myself that there’s nothing wrong with it. One complaint against Christians is that we act like everything’s great all the time. Plastered on smiles and holiness that turns those who aren’t happy or holy away. So, for me to say, “I’m struggling; I’m not happy; I’m not doing well in the holiness category,” is my way of showing a watching world that the reality is not a false front.

But then I talk to my dad on the phone, and he confronts me with Mark 10:42 where Jesus says, “Whoever causes the downfall of one of these little ones who believe in Me—it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.” My dad tops it off by getting extremely personal in the application of that verse to my life, and I almost started crying on the phone. That was never my goal, but it’s what I was accomplishing with my blog posts and facebook statuses. Earlier the same day, my pastor had convinced me of the same thing.

And the day before, my best friend in Missouri was preaching and convinced me that I was in sin regarding my attitude towards my now ex-girlfriend (even though that term “ex” leaves a bad taste in my mouth). He wasn’t preaching on it, but I had preached on it a month and a half ago; 1 Peter 3:8-9 talks about how to practically relate to those in the church (and outside) who hurt you, whether intentionally or unintentionally, and it was the first thing I thought of the moment she broke up with me: “All of you should be like minded and sympathetic, should love believers, and be compassionate and humble, not paying back evil for evil or insult for insult but, on the contrary, giving a blessing, since you were called for this.” At some point, though, I’d lost track of it, and it led to belittling and accusing on facebook and this blog.

Then I started reading 1 John on Sunday the 17th. I’ve been reading in the NIV this year, and it helps convict me, since it translates “brothers” as “brothers and sisters.” So everytime (which is a lot of times) John says, “The one who says he is in the light but hates his brother is in the darkness until now,” I read, “hates his brother or sister,” and am convicted of bitterness, anger, and spite for a girl that never did anything to hurt me. The post that I have now removed was clear proof that it was me that was the problem in the relationship; I was the one doing the hurting. 1 John 4:20 says, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother (or sister), he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother (or sister) whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.”

In God’s sovereignty, which has been running full steam ahead for the last year, I started reading Uprooting Anger by Robert Jones a few weeks ago. God used it along with everything else in this post to show me I was in error. He defines anger on page 15 as “our whole-personed active response of negative moral judgment against perceived evil.” He took the rug out from under my feet in chapter 2 by telling me (and any other reader) that our anger is most likely not righteous. He then convinced from chapter 3 to chapter 6 that it doesn’t matter if my anger is manifested in punching walls, cussing, or just clamming up and plotting imagined revenge, I need to repent of it and put it to death. (I usually fall into the category of the last two initially, until my simmering anger pot boils over.) Then he pointed out in his next two chapters that part of my problem is that I’m secretly angry at God (at least in a small part), and not so secretly angry at myself in a large part. Finally, he gave three reasons for dealing with my anger, “Dealing with anger God’s way will enhance your physical and spiritual health. . . . We must deal with it to love others and promote godly relationships. By doing so, we bring grace, healing, and hope to those around us. . . . Anger, as God-playing, is of the worst moral evil. To repent of anger is to acknowledge God’s rightful and sole place as King over your entire world” (157-164).

Throughout the book, Jones really enjoyed talking through the book of James. I was in James last week, and the same day I met with my pastor and talked to my dad, I was struck by 1:2, where James says, “Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials.” I wanted to throw my Bible, simply because I realized I had not even come close to doing that over the previous month. Paul is clear in Philippians 4:13 that it is possible, and the reason I opened this post with Tedashii’s lyrics are important. He has another song on the same album called, “Nothing I Can’t Do,” where he basically applies Philippians 4:13 to the situation he was facing. His situation was that of losing his infant son, and God gave him the strength to “go chasing You, trusting You, hope in You, forever,” which are the closing words of the album. The chorus to the closing song is the prescription to preventing anger at God in the midst of trials, and it was a very good reminder this past week: “You give and You take / Through it all I will chase / after Your heart, not Your hand / when my heart don’t understand.” I’m much too often guilty of chasing after God’s gifts (hand) instead of His self (heart). If there’s no other lesson He’s trying to teach me right now, it’s this: I need Him and nothing else.

So, please keep praying for me. But know that my goal is to make Jesus look good, not to push people away. It’s not about being real, so much as it’s about the reality of Jesus. Instead of posting about my drama, I’m going to post about being drawn to the King, and I hope that my posts will draw you closer to Him too.

As a song off my upcoming album states:

“Jesus, I love You; that’s what You see

Every single  time You look at me

You see a broken wreck who knows he needs You

You see a messy life, but Your love is still true

And we’re working through stuff—You and me

And on the last day I know I’ll come out holy

But for now You see me—weak and small

But You loved me enough to give me Your all”

If you belong to Him, He loved you enough to give you His all. If you haven’t already, trust Him today. It won’t solve life’s problems, but it will give you a looking-glass to view it through.

Soli Deo Gloria

What's Your Reputation?

So a coworker made a comment a few weeks back that has stuck with me to this moment. I've finally decided it's worth it to write down. Here's the comment: "He's got a reputation." Here's the background: it was said about a guy who I'd consider to be a relatively good friend. Now, I emphasize "relatively" because he isn't a super close friend, but it still got me thinking. I've always gotten along better with people who don't have everything together.

Several examples will suffice. My best friend growing up was always getting into trouble. I was always getting into trouble with him. At church, at school, at our houses, wherever he went we got into some sort of trouble. Then, he really ended up with a reputation when he went to juvenile hall halfway through sophomore year of high school. When released a month later, he let jail run his life and the reputation became, "I'm bad. I do drugs. I am a criminal. I'm not at all a good kid." I was still drawn to him, though I didn't want to end up where he'd ended up, and even though I never see him anymore, and rarely speak 5 words to him in a month, I have a 19 year long sense of commitment to my friend.

My current best friend is different. He has the same name as the prior, but those that know him best know that he doesn't have it all put together. He's got stuff he deals with and fights, and those that know him could judge him for it. But he's also given his life over entirely to Christ (unlike the previous), so he's confident in his standing there because Christ became sin for him.

And then there's me. I deal with everything it seems like. From anger and depression to lust and pride, it's all there. But the good news is this, and it's the point of this post: "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners" (Jesus in Mark 2:17, NIV). I get along best with people like me, who are jacked up and know they need help, and even those who don't know they need help. My knowledge of my need for help enables me to reach out in compassion to people like my childhood best friend who are lost and wandering in this world apart from Christ.

And then we come to the topic of girls. Before knowing Christ I was greatly drawn to those who had a reputation. I may have never acted on that knowledge or dated any who had a reputation, but I really didn't want anyone's input on my girlfriend choices. I was free to choose who I wanted. Even post-salvation I was in this same place. Finally, I decided I was sick of failed relationships and sick of hiding who I was talking to from my parents, so I decided to pursue a girl I knew they would approve of, who had a really squeaky clean reputation. She ultimately decided she wanted nothing to do with me (after about 2 years). Then I moved to Bolivar, Missouri for school, and pursued several girls who didn't pan out at all. Then, I decided to attempt another one with a really really good reputation known to everyone. I thought to myself, "There's no way this could go wrong."

Wrong. And don't get me wrong, she's still great. Whoever marries her one day is going to be very lucky (though not as lucky as I will be when I marry the woman who's out there for me). Let's just say that I had too many problems for her. It reminds me of my situation with my "near perfect" roommate this past summer. When you're a struggling, sinful wretch fighting to stay afloat, and those closest to you can't seem to figure out why it's so hard because they've "got everything together," it becomes too easy for them to blame you for the problems with the friendship.

My point is this. Jesus came for those who are sick. He came for me. I am more relatable to those who admit their sinfulness than I am to those who act like they're almost perfect. I wrote a song several years ago that contains the following lyrics:

"I'm praying for you, what I mean is this

I pray for people that I miss and right now that's you

You and only you though I doubt we've even met

Though one day we will, God already has the date set

I'm praying for you that you save yourself for me

Though if you once made a mistake don't worry about it--you see

God loved you first and forgave all your crimes

So since I truly love you too, I'll do the same and call you mine."

I'll just be honest. I'd rather marry a girl who's made many mistakes in her life, and who still feels the weight of them, but knows in her best moments that she's been forgiven and made new by Christ, then a girl who acts like all is well and pretends to be more spiritually mature than she actually is. Being real is very important to me. I try to be real with everyone I come in contact with. I don't try to put on a show to make others like me. And now that I'm coming out of a relationship, I have zero reason to put on a show for others. I have no one to impress but Jesus.

Jesus showed grace to people. Jesus forgave rapists, child molesters, thieves, homosexuals, heterosexuals, porn addicts, drug addicts, murderers, liars, parent-dishonorers, and much more. If I truly love the girl I'm going to marry one day, I say, "Bring on a negative reputation. Jesus loved you enough to forgive you. Who am I to not?" There is nothing she could have done before or after meeting Christ that is too bad for me to forgive. Jesus said in Luke 7:47, "Her many sins have been forgiven--as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little."

My prayer is that I would daily love everyone I come in contact with with the type of love that says, "I've been forgiven much!"