Heaven is a World of Love

The title of this post is from Jonathan Edwards and the title of one of his essays. It describes a world in which love is pure and unsullied. Heaven is a world of love. We don’t have that now.

I would like to address just one aspect of the problem of an sullied love (definition: defiled or tainted, soiled or stained). But first we must remove a common error. “The opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s indifference.” That is a quote that I copied a couple weeks ago. I didn’t keep the source since it is a common observation. Love and hate are not opposites. You can imagine a person, perhaps a spouse, who has been betrayed by his/her partner. They have loved this person, and they continue to do so. But they also hate him/her. Love and hate can coexist in the same person and at the same time. Some would be surprised to note that the Bible calls upon us to love, but it also calls us to hate - to hate the things that God hates.

No, the opposite of love is indifference. There were very few Valentine cards shared last week that said, “I love you will all my heart, and I couldn’t care less.” Garrison Keillor from Prairie Home Companion had a sketch where he claimed that it was disinterest that drew him and his wife together in the first place. Likewise, we would never say that indifference is the glue that holds us together.

Can you imagine being a patient in a care facility, perhaps a hospital? And can you imagine that there would be a difference between a nurse or attendant who did their job with clinical efficiency, but with personal disinterest; and then contrast this with another caregiver who functions with the same clinical skills, but who provides that skill combined with love for you, the patient? Would you notice the difference? I believe you would. Why? Because they care. Caregivers are those who care. They love. It makes a difference.

But caring and loving is hard. It is painful. When you love a person, there is no guarantee that they will you love back. Or, given the illustration above, maybe they will die. I suppose the first, uncaring “caregiver” could say, “Oh well, another one bites the dust.” But not the second. He/she will grieve. It hurts to lose in love.

And so we have to ask, how was it that Jesus served us? He had the unique ability to provide redemption to sinful humanity because he was both divine and human. Only God can save, and only One can save who can walk in our shoes and die in our place. He had the ability to do the job. Now did He do so with disinterest? The beginning of John 13, describing Jesus in the Upper Room just before He was arrested, was described like this: “Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” There was no disinterest on the part of Jesus.

And so, if we claim to be followers of Jesus; if we claim to be Christians, we cannot give ourselves over to indifference. We must love, which will help prepare us for heaven, because heaven is a world of love.

How many couples do you know who continue to live with each other as they grow older, but they live with indifference toward each other? Wouldn’t it be something if Christ were welcomed into their relationship, that they might once again discover an unsullied love?

All Paczki; No Ash

All Paczki; No Ash

It was interesting to me that Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday both shared the same day this past week. It seems that valentines won out over ashes. But more importantly is the distinction between “Fat Tuesday” and Ash Wednesday. I don’t think that there is any doubt that there were many, many more people with paczki in their  bellies than ash on their foreheads. 

Why is it that we think we can choose one and just ignore the other? Paczki may be a Polish expression of the approaching Lenten season, but it clearly has a religious connection, as does Ash Wednesday. Can you really just take one without the other? The only way to do so is to entirely remove the religious element.

Here’s another example: heaven, and hell. Many more people talk about heaven than hell. Many more people believe in heaven than hell. But can you have one without the other? If heaven is the place/state of God’s eternal favor, isn’t there then a place/state of God’s eternal disfavor? The Bible is pretty clear about this.

Biblically, this ties in to the distinction between the divine verdicts of condemnation or justification. We are not talking about self-condemnation or self-justification. This is about having a broken relationship with God or a restored relationship with God. It is something that God fixes for us through Christ, thus, justified, or that He doesn’t, thus condemned. Yes, we have a decisive part in this, but God is the Judge, not you, and if you are not one, you are the other, either condemned, or justified. There is no middle ground. 

Ignoring the issue is not a strategy. It is an option, but a foolish one, as if one approaches a debt problem as if it will work itself out all by itself. To drift through life with a broken relationship with God, thinking that it will fix itself, is the height of foolishness. We get frustrated with people when they do not address their foolish financial practices or miserable health habits, but scarcely think about the masses who fail to address a broken relationship with their Creator and their eternal destiny. 

I wonder if faith and repentance are just a little like paczki and ashes. A lot of people talk about faith in rather doughy terms, but have no category for repentance, the practice of addressing wrongs wherein we agree with God about His standards of right and wrong and seriously admit our failings. But can you have one without the other? True faith in God is only possible when we look to God rather than ourselves because we finally admit that we are broken and damaged people. Justification (a right relationship with God) is only possible when we reach out to Christ due a solemn conviction that we are under condemnation without Him. Heaven is our hope only when we understand that Hell is our deserved destiny as those who stand under condemnation and that our so-called faith has been mostly just talk. 

Regret over the paczek (singular) or paczki (plural) you consumed on Tuesday doesn’t get you to Wednesday, does it? It goes deeper than that. One must seriously consider not just one’s own appetites and feelings, and consider what God has to say about these things.

Thinking Out Loud

Thinking Out Loud

Baboons don’t think. They may have excellent instincts, but they don’t reason. It is one of the ways that humans are different. I should say, it is one of the ways that humans should be different.

Not all humans think. Many of our responses are more reactions than they are reasoned responses, almost more like a reflex. I have noticed some other instances when I’m pretty sure people are not thinking. One is rehearsing. When a person recites for me what they heard on the news show last night, they are not thinking. They are reporting. Now reporters can think, but many reporters just say what they have heard

Also, if you tell me the same story over and over, I don’t think you are thinking. It’s the first thing that comes to mind, and you are telling a story that pretty much bypasses the thought process.

But how is it that we think? Some people are gifted, having developed the interiority of their minds so that they can build a thought structure that continues to get developed over time. Most of us are not like that. We’ve got to write things down. We are helped by talking to others about it. We need to think out loud.

Also, thinking takes time. We need to turn things over in our minds, and consider other facets of a truth or theory to see if it really works out. Taking time to think is something that our culture does rather miserably because we tend to be in such a hurry.

The other question that I would mention is this: about what should we think? And the answer it limitless. We live in a world that begs to be examined, to be thought about. What makes a person righteous and what makes a person wicked is worth thinking about. The role of the sovereign and infinite God over against the roles of temporary, finite humans is worth thinking about (and, we tend to overestimate ourselves, and underestimate God, both damaging errors). And we should think out loud about these things. Find people with whom you can actually talk something serious.

I would hope that churches are places where this can happen. Hopefully, the person up front isn’t just reading what he got off the internet or now, ChatGPT. Hopefully the people will engage with one another over more issues than health and politics (though I admit that health and politics are worth thinking about - but there’s got to be more than that). Let’s use the minds that God gave us for their intended use.

If you only think about the weather, you’re probably not really thinking. If you only think about money, maybe you are just counting and measuring. If you bypass the wonders of the world and the deep things of God, then it seems to me, you are living more like a baboon.

The Christian Economy

The Christian Economy

This article is not about money. It is about “household rules,” which
is what the Greek word, transliterated, economia, means in the
New Testament. Oh, it might have a bearing on what money is and
how it is used. But it is about the way that a family, in this case, the
family of God, conducts itself.

Jane and I listened to a podcast while driving. A man interviewed is
participating with others in seeking to construct an alternate
economy where the products are home-grown, and thus the
purchases benefit local people and thus our own society.

But what struck me is how this speaker is seeking to do what
Christians have always been meant to do: living as Christians in
an ungodly world. We are to carefully adopt Christian values
using Christian patterns of speech and utilizing Christ-like
relationships to accomplish lives and service that glorify Christ.

We have been very sloppy about this. There seems to have been too
much to gain by imitating the world in the pursuit of “the good
life” for us to diligently follow the Christian text and Spirit and
marry it with distinctively Christian practices, or, to pursue “the
God-life.” Now, when I say that we have been very sloppy, I
understand “sloppy” is not a Biblical term. The Bible doesn’t say
“sloppy.” It says “sinful.” When we are more intent in profiting from
the world’s economy than living according to God’s
“economia,” we are guilty of being involved in, as the Old
Testament says, spiritual adultery.

Humility rather than arrogance. That’s part of God’s economia.
Love the things that God loves, and hate the things that He hates.
Be bold in faith, but show restraint in how we express ourselves,
being careful to live pure and holy lives. Serve the Lord before or
instead of serving self. Love people even when they do not love
back. Forgive, and forgive again. Repent, again and again. As you can
see, God’s economia is different from the world’s economy.

Titus 2:11-14 instructs Titus how to lead a group of Christians on the
ungodly island of Crete: “For the grace of God has appeared,
bringing salvation to all men, 12 instructing us to deny ungodliness
and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and
godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and the
appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, 14
who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed,
and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession,
zealous for good deeds.”