…Patience

I’ve had two conversations with as many people and in as many days that seem to have had the same central focus. Yesterday I had a rather long conversation with a close uncle of mine regarding theology and whatnot; today I had a conversation via text message with a good friend in which we discussed prayer amongst other things. But they both mysteriously ended up in the same place.

In the midst of the conversation with my uncle, we talked about spiritual gifts. Many spiritual gifts were mentioned, from the crazy, charismatic tongue speaking in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14 to the more critically acclaimed teaching, serving, and benevolence mentioned throughout the rest of the Bible. We discussed the beliefs that some churches have had in the past which state that one is only a true believer if he or she speaks in tongues. Between the two of us, we decided that, instead, the mark of a true believer is one who bears the fruit of the spirit. At this point, as if he knew I was about to write about patience, he noted that “patience just isn’t one of those things we’re good at, is it?” Not wanting to spend time arguing, I agreed.

Earlier today, a friend from college texted me asking if I could pray for patience for her. I confessed to her that I didn’t exactly know what patience was, but I would pray anyway. She alluded to a thought that patience, for her, was nothing more than waiting on the Lord, and submitting to His will. Not wanting to spend time arguing, I agreed.

The reality is over the past week, I have been receiving a revelation in which I came to the conclusion that true, biblical patience is, indeed, just that: waiting. Waiting on the Lord, perhaps. But waiting, nonetheless. Before I came to the revelation that patience was little more than waiting, I had intentionally looked for ways in which patience was not merely the act of waiting. I thought, “Surely the synonymy between patience and waiting is artificial and incorrect, much like that between joy and happiness.” But alas, I really don’t think it is. I’ve come to see lately just how much patience and waiting actually are alike.

Perhaps the reason why it took me so long to get around to writing this post is because I sought wrong answers. I sought for reasons why patience is not what it actually is, thus I was looking for an incorrect truth to disprove the truthful truth. Are you following me? Maybe?

I guess what I mean to say is that I was looking merely for answers instead of looking to discover the truth. I was looking for something to prove what I believed to be true instead of looking for the actual truth. I don’t think I can word it any plainer than that.

Anyway… I don’t even know if I’m still on topic anymore. All I’m trying to say is that patience is, in essence, equivalent to waiting. I think when it is written “the fruit of the spirit is patience,” what it means is that one who lives by the Spirit is one who waits. One who lives by the Spirit is one who waits on the Lord, certainly. But more than that, I think to be patient is to not act impulsively. One who is patient is one who is calm, and who exercises self-control. I guess that means I’ll have to elaborate more on that as we get to the self-control post. But still, consider this proverb: “A hot-tempered man stirs up dissension, but a patient man calms a quarrel.” (Proverbs 15:18 NIV). The ESV, instead of saying “a patient man” says “one who is slow to anger.”* I suppose that’s what I mean when I make a claim such as “one who is patient is one who is calm, and who exercises self-control.”

As I wrote in my last post, it is extremely important for followers of Christ to live out His calling for us both in the world and in private. We need to “let our lights shine before men” yet “go into our rooms, shut the door, and pray to our Father in secret.” And I think when we pray to God privately, we are supposed to wait on Him. Whenever Jesus rose “early in the morning, while it was still dark,” he appeared to do little more than receive direction from his Father. It was after returning from his prayers in the secret place that he decided he would move and preach in the next town, for example.

I know when I go through periods of time in which I don’t hear from the Lord, the reason is because I don’t make any effort to do so. In those periods of time, I don’t make it a priority to wait on the Lord and listen to Him. Instead, my prayers (if I pray) will be more of me saying “You should do this” or “Why…” or something similar, without me even giving Him a chance to answer me. I think that if we truly want to hear from God, we will keep two things in mind above any others. If we truly want to hear from God, we should remember that He won’t necessarily say what we want Him to say, and we won’t necessarily hear Him through means that we want to hear Him. Growing up in the church, most of us are taught from a young age that “God answers every prayer”, and that maybe the answer is “no” sometimes. But keeping in mind that He does, indeed, answer every prayer, we should note the ways in which He might answer.

Personally, I hear God speak to me directly more often than not. I don’t often hear an audible voice of His, rather I often receive something similar to a thought in my head. But occasionally, He’ll speak through someone else to tell me something. Just yesterday, in fact, my friend Jacob called me to tell me God loves me. That’s it. No spectacular God-wants-you-to-drop-everything-right-now-and-move-to-a-third-world-country or anything like that. Just “God loves you.” Somehow, it was an incredible thing to hear. It’s as if God was telling me He heard my prayers. I hadn’t even been praying to hear His love for me; nevertheless this word came to me as if to say God heard me anyway.

I think if I had my way, I would choose to hear God speak loudly and clearly to me through another person all the time. It’s easier to listen to things when they come from an audible voice, after all. But in reality, I have no power over the means in which God communicates. If I did, that would make me God. God is too great to be limited in any way, and He cannot be limited to one means of communication. We must be open to hear from God in whatever way He may speak.

But the first step is waiting. Sometimes God speaks to us in prayer, as such that we hear from Him immediately. Sometimes, we don’t hear from Him for days, months, or even years after. We must understand that God is greater than time, and that’s why the fruit of the Spirit is patience. Our concept of time is so unlike his. If we want to connect with the Father, we must learn to wait patiently for Him. As it is written in Isaiah 40:31, “those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.” And let us not forget the incredible testimony of King David, “I waited patiently upon the Lord, and He inclined and heard my cry.” (Psalm 40:1) I would like to note the word “patiently” that David mentioned. That implies time passed between David’s cry and God’s noticeable inclination.

I hope this made some sense. Those of you who know me personally surely know that my brain shuts down late at night, such as now (10:00? Wow!) but I think I’ve gotten my point across, at least somewhat. Just in case, here’s a recap:

• Patience is closely related if not synonymous to waiting
• We are called to spend time, perhaps daily, in prayer
• In prayer we should spend time listening for God, however we must be mindful that God speaks through His own means and in His own timing

*And on the “slow to anger note”, let us not forget that being slow to anger is one of God’s greatest qualities. All over the Bible, it is written that “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, rich and love, good to all generations, and just.” Maybe the fruit of the Spirit is patience because the Spirit continually exercises patience, and we are called to be like Him. That is assuming we are using “patience” and “slow to anger” to mean the same thing.

True to form, I have selected a song to accompany this post, as I have with every other post pertaining to the fruit of the Spirit. This particular song is the song which has been played more on my iTunes than any other song, and for good reason, too. This song is my constant prayer, and I hope you consider treating it as such as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qthv0L-NFo&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLE005896DE98838F4

Intermission

[Below this paragraph is a link to a YouTube video of a medley of two songs which correspond with the message of this post. I encourage you to listen to it during or separate from reading this post. I don't care how you do it, but please listen to these two songs! Make sure to right-click and open it in a new tab or page so you can keep this one open. That is all.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGnJXChmcT8

As my regular readers are surely aware, I have lately been working on a series of writings in which I have analyzed and discussed each individual fruit of the spirit as is mentioned in Galatians 5. The next one in the list is patience. My apologies, O expectant reader, but I must keep you waiting longer to read about that one. In this post, I will instead discuss something else that has been on my mind lately—a revelation about the gospel, I daresay.

It has occurred to me lately just how inclusive the gospel is. Of course, the content of the gospel is directed toward the whole community of believers. But I am referring to the gospel in relation to itself. Perhaps layman’s terms are more comprehensible.

As I have studied more on the topic, I have come to realize that the message of the gospel puts a strong emphasis on the word “and”. Were we to summarize the greatest command in a few simple words, we would typically say “Love God and love your neighbor.” God is described by Himself as a God “merciful and gracious and slow to anger and loving and just”.

But beyond that, when individuals establish their theology, I’ve noticed that most tend to swing a pendulum: either Calvinist or Armenian, either mercy-focused or justice-focused, etcetera. I pose the question, “Why?” Why should we go so far as to say that only one way—our way—is correct? Did Jesus die only for those with certain theological beliefs?

I know, I know. I’m over-exaggerating my point. I’m sorry. I don’t mean to offend; I don’t think that will do much. Instead, I wish simply to enlighten.

But, when I hear questions such as “Why did God punish people so visibly in the Old Testament if He is the supposed ‘God of love’?” I wonder what we think love is. Perhaps love isn’t happy feelings all the time, but rather the perpetual outpouring of unending, inexplicable emotions expressed toward an individual for the purpose of their welfare. Love itself is not one emotion; it is composed of likely the entirety of every strong emotion humans face. Love, in part, is made up of discipline, sacrifice, joy, happiness, good times, bad times, red fish, blue fish, and the like. For whatever reason, we like to think a love connection is little more than a “happiness connection” and then drop out of our relationships the instant a moment turns sour. That isn’t love. Love is too great to be limited to one emotion. Perhaps this is why “God so loved the world”, yet “in this world, [we] will have troubles.” Love is more than happiness. Love is the perpetual outpouring of the strongest of emotions. So then, “is God a god of love or a god of justice?” Both! God is a god of love and of justice. You can’t have one without the other. Love is too great to be limited to one emotion or characteristic. Sometimes God loves by being just and disciplining.

Lately I have been greatly exposed to a particular argument: “Do we live out the calling of God when we ‘go into our room, close the door, and pray to our Father who is in secret?’ or do we live it out when we ‘go out and make disciples of all nations as salt and light to the world?’” And I wonder why this argument exists. When we consider that Jesus called us to both “pray to our Father in secret” and “go and make disciples of all nations,” I think it goes without saying we are to do both. We are called to imitate Jesus, so let’s look at what he did. Throughout the gospels we see him daily praying to his Father alone. And then he went out into the world and shared the love of his Father. And we should do the same thing. And we must not think we should choose one or the other. If we truly have “quiet time” or “alone time” with Jesus to receive his love and blessings, we will soon discover that he is calling us to go out into the world. Yet, how can we go out into the world without first receiving the perpetual love of God? We cannot daily go out into the world and share God’s love if we do not daily receive it. To do so would be to lean on our own understanding, not on God’s love. We have nothing to offer but what we receive from God. So, “Is God a personal God found in the secret place, or is He a communal God found in the world?” Both! God is too great to be contained to a closet, and He is too powerful to only be held by the world. If we want to look for Jesus today, we must consider where He was as He walked around earth in the flesh. He was daily found in the secret place, and He was daily found with the poor.

I guess my point in saying these things is that we try to limit not just the power of God, but the message itself. The word of God has become flesh, and now we speak the word of God. Clearly any word that can become incarnate into one man and now dwells within every man cannot be contained. Thus, we should stop trying to contain it! We cannot choose who to spread the gospel to, and we cannot choose in which ways God can be found. To do either not only puts a limitation on God but divides the church, and that is counterproductive to our calling as the body of Christ. We are, indeed, the body of Christ. We are not the “bodies of Christ”. We must be unified in our calling. We, the church, are a collection of individuals. Therefore, in order to come together, we must each, individually, choose to come together. “Is God a communal God or a personal God?” Both! We must individually choose to unite in our calling. Jesus is more than our “personal Lord and Savior;” he is the Lord and Savior of us all. Yet, we still must each accept Him as such.

I suppose I’m just rambling at this point. All I mean to say is that to swing the proverbial pendulum either way is to limit God and divide the church. Therefore, we should not quarrel with ourselves and say to other parts of the body “your way is wrong” because, frankly, as long as it points to the Way, it can’t be wrong. God cannot be confined to a strict religious set of rights and wrongs. Mind you, if part of the body begins to stray from the Way and his calling for us, this part of the body should be corrected lovingly. Nevertheless, if our means point to Jesus, they cannot be incorrect.

As I said at the beginning of this post, the gospel is full of “ands.” God is Love and Just. God is found in the secret place and in the world. The gospel is for rich and poor, Jew and Gentile. Before any of us were around, the message was for us all, regardless of our theology. Friends, please stop creating divisions within the church by saying “you’re wrong and I’m right.” Doing so interferes with our call to “go and make disciples.”

Christmas day came recently. During the Christmas season we like to proclaim that we now have peace on Earth. Am I the only one who hasn’t seen it yet? Why don’t we have peace on earth if we have been preaching it for two thousand years now? As I mentioned in my post about peace, I believe peace isn’t the absence of conflict; it is the unity of spirit. (Part of love is conflict, right?) I believe in order to obtain perfect peace, we must all be unified in spirit. Let us be unified in the Holy Spirit of the Prince of Peace. Perhaps Psalm 85:10 is prophetic to our interaction with Jesus upon his second coming. This verse boldly states that “righteousness and peace kiss each other.” Well, we already know that Jesus is the Prince of Peace, and II Corinthians 5:21 says that we (the church) are the Righteousness of God… See where I’m going here? Ok. That’s a little weird. Still, we are, indeed, the body of Christ. We, the church, must live out our calling as the unified body if we want to truly be in love with Peace. We are the body, (thankfully, I am not the lips!) and as the body—as a collection of individual members—let us be united in our calling, because only one truly united bride of Christ can pursue peace, which is Christ.

I’ll say it again: the body of Christ must not quarrel amongst itself if we truly want peace on Earth. Therefore, stop! Let us come together and pursue peace together. The gospel is full of “ands” to signify that there is not one right way, except, of course, for the Way himself. If our methods lead to Jesus, they are right, and we should not argue with each other because the hands of the body of Christ connect with the Head (Christ) in a different manner from the feet.

Remember to check out that YouTube link from the beginning of the post!

The Fruit of the Spirit is Peace.

Part One—Peace on Earth

I have a great group of friends.

Those who I consider to be my closest friends are those who were in the same lifegroup as me ever since its conception two years ago. We are a group of people united in our pursuit of Jesus and live life—as opposed to just once or twice a week—pursuing a more intimate relationship with the Lord together.

Since its conception, we have expanded and “multiplied” to the point where we are now three distinct lifegroups. I’m not sure, but it seems to be that people saw our close community and wanted in on it. How incredible! Because we are such a close group of friends, other people have looked upon us and wanted to join us, and in doing such have pursued a closer relationship with the Lord together. How exceedingly exciting beyond all imagination!

The ones I consider myself to be closest to are the ones who, for the most part, have been around since the beginning. Thus, regardless of the particular lifegroup we are each technically affiliated with at the moment, my closest friends are the ones who were in the original lifegroup, with a few added along the way. My closest friends are members of now three lifegroups, in which we all seek to serve God better day by day. This is often done by pursuing those within our new communities, without losing contact with those in our old communities. It’s truly incredible.

I’ve come to know the true character of God more since joining this lifegroup than I had in the previous eighteen years of my life. I’ve discovered that God is indeed “merciful, gracious, slow to anger, rich in love, good to all, and just.” (Exodus 34:6-8). I’ve discovered this especially because my community, the church—which seeks to reflect the glory of God—is this way, too, to the best of our ability.

In being all these things, though, sometimes we have to have some hard conversations. We had one just a few days ago. This group of people, my closest friends, had to have a rather firm conversation. We had to get together and confess to each other that we had some feelings of anger and bitterness toward each other. We confessed to each other that perhaps one of us had wronged another. We admitted that we weren’t perfect people.

In doing this, we released from ourselves incredible bonds of sin in forms of jealousy, enmity, fits of anger, strife, and the like. You see, simply ignoring problems and living with them as if they weren’t there doesn’t get rid of them. It only allows them to grow in isolation until each problem is too big to hide in its designated closet anymore and breaks into our lives in a gigantic, disruptive manner.

Yet somehow we established peace.

In exposing our faults, in confessing that we had wronged each other in some way, we made way for peace to exist within us by kicking hostility out of the way. Sometimes, you have to work out problems in order to make room for peace.

This is why I don’t like the idea of coexisting very much. If everyone on earth—every tribe, tongue, and nation—were to all sit down in the same room and simply not fight, despite having hard feelings brewing up between us, what kind of peace is that? All you’re doing is letting feelings of hostility brew in isolation and acting otherwise. You’re not exposing your true colors because your true self has hard feelings toward someone, whereas you’re acting otherwise. I don’t think lying to someone is a good foundation for peace.

Coexisting implies peace in actions alone. But that’s not peace. That’s nothing more than a white lie. Peace isn’t simply being unified in action. Peace is being unified in spirit. If two people are unified in action but not spirit, they might be able to get along with each other for a time, but they’ll still have hard feelings against each other. All it takes to turn those emotions into actions is a simple argument. To counter this, if two people are unified in spirit, feelings of hostility likely won’t exist. And if they do, your unity in spirit will provide a means to work out the issues that might exist, as was the case amongst my friends.

This is why peace is a fruit of the Spirit. You can’t obtain peace from mere actions—flesh. You can only obtain peace from unity in spirit.

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Part Two—The Prince of Peace

I think the biggest problem with understanding what peace really is is our misconception of the term. We want peace to mean perfection. We want peace to mean something like “I want everyone to see things my way so that we don’t have to fight anymore.” But that’s not what peace is. Peace is a state of harmony between personal relations, so says Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary. Does any part of that definition imply selfish gain? Does that definition imply that obtaining peace is an effortless project? Like anything else desirable, peace on earth must be worked for.

Working for peace, I think, involves pursuing intentional relationships with those from whom you desire peace. It’s human nature to be wary of a stranger. Why do we often think we can establish peace with someone with whom we have never connected? Peace is unity in spirit, so how can we be unified in spirit with someone with whom you don’t know?

I am certain this is one of the main reasons Christ called us to spread the gospel to all peoples. How else can “world peace” be established? If indeed peace is unity in spirit, let us be unified in the Holy Spirit of the Prince of Peace.

Sometimes it’s hard to understand how Jesus can be the Prince of Peace. Jesus, the very man who called Peter Satan and flipped over the tables in the temple, is himself the Prince of Peace.

How can an angry Jesus be a peaceful Jesus?

It’s just that. You have to work for peace. Look back at my testimonial example. Had my friends and I not gotten together and shared a few hard words, our problems would have further escalated and, if still not managed, would have ultimately damaged (if not destroyed) wonderful relationships. Remember that peace is unity in spirit. You have to work for that. Anger and strong emotions are not always the best means of establishing peace, and I do not support the use of anger to establish peace in most situations. Usually anger is a sign that you want things to go your way. But just on occasion, be angry at the situation. Not the person. Hate the sin, not the sinner.

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Part 3—Benediction

“The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” — Numbers 6:24-26

“The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” — Romans 16:20

“Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.” — II Thessalonians 3:16

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foVRP07WOAg

The Fruit of the Spirit is Joy!

Joy will likely end up being the hardest thing I will have ever written about. I feel as though I know very little about joy; this may be a wonderful thing, and it may be terrible. Yet that I don’t know much about it doesn’t subtract from its importance.

One thing I do know is that we often confuse joy with happiness. This is a terrible calamity. As the past few centuries have progressed, the word “joy” has increasingly become synonymous to happiness. Originally, happiness referred to a state of financial well-being. Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary lists an obsolete definition of happiness as being prosperous. Though this definition is obsolete, it resembles the modern definition, which is “a state of well-being”. The original definition of the word stated that money is the cause of happiness, and the only thing different about the modern definition is that the cause of happiness is left open. Implied is that anything on Earth can make someone happy.

It is dangerous to assume that joy and happiness are synonymous. Since the Bible explicitly states that the fruit of the Spirit is joy (Galatians 5:22), we should not be made to believe that joy can be found in things of the Earth. Rather, since joy is a fruit of the Spirit, joy can only be found in the Spirit. Therefore, joy and happiness cannot be synonymous because happiness is found in money and other things created by the world, whereas joy is found in the Creator of the world.

Happiness of the world seems to revolve around what has been referred to as the “American Dream”. It is the dream of the average American—and for that matter, every other first-world citizen—to acquire more “stuff”—more cars, new cars, a bigger house, the next college degree, the next promotion, a boat, a dog, and maybe even a couple of kids. The foundation of the American Dream is that the key to happiness is prosperity. The American Dream says that prosperous people are happy people.

When you really think about it, though, the American Dream in itself is pretty ironic. Look at how much good the American Dream is doing for America! Each passing day we’re getting further into debt! The American dream is to be rich, and America itself is trillions of dollars in debt.

Friends, it is plain to see that it is dangerous to seek happiness. Happiness is contentment with the world and its possessions, and with each addition to our happiness—with each new purchase to increase our contentment with the world—it only puts us further into debt. It may make us temporarily content, but this contentment surely won’t be permanent. It’s much like the concept of sin itself—it instantly makes you content for the time-being, then it turns on you and makes you feel bad for having ever associating with it. Joy, on the other hand, comes from the LORD. Anything that comes from the LORD has eternal implications because the LORD Himself is eternal.

Rick Warren, pastor of the Saddleback Church, once mentioned via Twitter the relationship between joy and repentance. As he pointed out, “the message of Jesus was joy-based repentance, not fear-based repentance.” I think this further emphasizes that joy must come from the Lord, because repentance comes through the Lord, and there is joy in repentance.

In Matthew 18:3-4, Jesus mentions that the Kingdom of God is for those who “turn and become like children.” I don’t think this verse is saying the Kingdom of God is for people who leave behind their maturity and exchange it for whininess and temper tantrums. Rather, I think Jesus is saying in this verse that the Kingdom of God is for those who have an ultimate dependency on their Father, and who feel very alone without Him. Thinking back to when I was a young child, I got scared when I was without my parents. I had such a strong dependency on my parents that I felt really bad without them. Yet when I was with them, I felt so content with my life. As a child, I never had to worry about paying the bills or preparing my next meal; my parents did that for me. They provided everything I needed. And this is what Jesus desires of us—to be entirely dependent on Him.

Going along with this, think of how a child spends his or her recreation time. The first thing that comes to my mind is a little girl spinning around imagining she’s dancing at the ball. It didn’t take much for her to show up at the ball; she just put her mind on it, and she was there. And think of how joyous she is to be there! For this child, it didn’t take much for her to have joy. She didn’t have to go out of her way to buy something to give her joy; a child can’t buy anything. Rather she realized that joy can’t be purchased.

This is why Jesus said to have faith like a child, because joy only comes from complete and utter dependence on Him.

Let’s consider a few other places in the Bible, where joy is expressly mentioned:

• Nehemiah 8:10 says, “Do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” I like how this is worded: “the joy of the LORD”. It seems to be a clarification addressed to someone who might think joy comes from other places. Nay, I say, joy only comes from the LORD.

• Psalm 30:5 says, “Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes in the morning.” Toward the end of the Psalm, the writer expresses his emotions after the joy had come. He says in verse eleven, “You have turned my mourning into dancing.” In this passage, it is simply understood that joy comes from the LORD.

• At the beginning of His letter, James instructs us to “count it pure joy when you face trials of any kind, for the testing of your faith produces endurance.” You see, joy isn’t synonymous with happiness, rather joy is the sense one feels when in the presence of God. Being a follower of God doesn’t necessarily mean life will always be happy. Instead, being a follower of God means giving all that we endure, that is unpleasant—every trial, tribulation, danger, etc.—to God, so that He can bear the weight of it instead of us.

As I mentioned earlier, God desires a childlike faith from us, so that we will be totally dependent on Him. It is only then when we can truly experience joy.

The David Crowder*Band has a song which, in my experience, perfectly describes joy as it relates to our relationship to God. In their song “You Are My Joy”, they demonstrate how being in a place of worship is the key to being full of joy. I encourage you to listen to it, as they say more in those few minutes that I could have hoped to in these few pages. Sorry about that, but if I had told you that in the beginning, you wouldn’t have read this, would you? Anyway, here’s the link, so check it out!

The Fruit of the Spirit is Love…

The most important Fruit of the Spirit is probably the hardest to talk about. Love is found throughout the Bible. One could say that love is the greatest theme of the Bible. When asked what the greatest command was, Jesus said “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. This is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39) In saying this, Jesus was paraphrasing Deuteronomy 6:4-5, part of the old law. This, in a sense, validates his command, as if he needed any validation, considering he’s God.

Nevertheless, despite the fact that God so clearly desires love, for whatever reason there may be, it is often the hardest thing to do. In seeking a precise biblical definition for love, I stumbled across the third chapter of the book of First John. In verse eleven, he starts out his section on love by remarking that “the message we have heard from the beginning” is “that we should love one another.” But what does this mean? How do we do this? In verse sixteen of this chapter, he explains what love is. He says, “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.”

This isn’t to say that the only way to love someone is to be a martyr. We don’t necessarily need to sacrifice our lives; Christ already did. However, we are to live our lives as living sacrifices. We are to die to ourselves—to our way of living—and live like Christ. In doing this, we do lay down our lives, as John says, for the sake of others and for Christ. One cannot truly love his brother without first loving Christ, and this is why John says we ought to lay down our lives, just like Christ did, in order to love. This is also why God said loving one’s neighbors is the second greatest command, after loving the Lord. You can’t do this out of order. The only way to truly love someone else is to love Christ first.

Still, somehow the postmodern world of which we are a part seems to believe all we need to do in order to have “good lives” is to love others. We’re so obsessed with “coexisting” as a means of loving other people that we don’t even know what it means to love. In all honesty, I don’t understand how it’s possible to love without God in mind, because God is love. 1 John 4:7-12 says,

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only son into the world, so that we might live in Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent His son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God: if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.”

This passage explains how inseparable love is from God. Sure, verse eight bluntly states that “God is love.” Still, the rest of the passage explains just how it is impossible to separate love from God. I especially like the last verse, verse twelve, which claims that God will live in us if we love others. This is truly a beautiful verse. Because God lives in those who love others, if we want to see God, all we have to do is look at someone who loves His people, and we are all His people. It is very important, though, to not take this verse out of context. This verse does not say that it is okay to just love others without loving God. This verse does not imply that it is acceptable or even possible to love others without loving God. We already know that love doesn’t work that way, because we have to love God before we can love others. If God is love, how can we “God” others without first “Godding” God?

Still, what is even more incredible is how inseparable those who are in Christ are from His love. Romans 8:35-39 says,

“What shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For Your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither life nor death, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord!”

This is amongst the most powerful scriptures in the entire Bible. This passage explains how God’s love is so powerful that nothing—“neither life nor death”, “tribulation, nor distress”, etc.—can interfere with God’s love; rather because it is He that loves us, we more than defeat these things that try to separate us from God’s love. Angels—good and bad—cannot separate us from His love. Rulers of the earth cannot separate us from His love. They can say we can’t worship Him, but that doesn’t change the fact that God loves us.

Now then, knowing that God and love cannot be separated, nor can we be separated from love, this is why God lives inside of us when we love others. You see, when we love other people, we have God in us because God is love. When we have love, we have God. 1 John 4:12 doesn’t imply that loving others without loving God is sufficient. Rather it explains to us that we can’t claim to love God without loving His people. We are the body of Christ, and how can we love Christ if we don’t love His body?

With all this said, I want to make sure we know what “love” means. I believe the word “love” in today’s first-world society has an entirely different definition than it was ever supposed to. Nowadays, love in this context is more closely synonymous to either words like “accept” or “tolerate”, rather than how it was ever used in the Bible. The New Testament was written in an ancient Greek dialect which had four different words which are all translated into English as “love”. The Greek words for love are:

• Agápe—unconditional love
• Eros—passionate love, sensual love
• Philia—brotherly love, friendship
• Storge—affection

It seems as if our culture only recognizes two definitions of love: we certainly recognize Eros; we see it everywhere. Cultural media contains almost nothing but Eros. But the only other definition of love that our culture seems to ever have a part of was made up by our culture. I’m trying to figure out how toleration, such as of a race or sexual orientation, can be considered love. Does our society which is “accepting of all peoples regardless of race or sexual orientation” not even have the audacity to love, but only accept, anymore? It’s almost as if there’s a correlation between our society which is increasingly unreligious and our increasing replacement of “love” with “acceptance”.

Friends, let us not confuse love with toleration. God doesn’t merely tolerate or accept us; he outright loves us in every sense of the word. We need not fall under the impression that God loves us as if his definition of love is identical to our society’s. We need to understand that God actually loves us.

He loves us unconditionally. No matter how far we think we’ve run away from God, he still loves us. How can we run away from God who is everywhere?

He loves us passionately. We are the bride of Christ. (Hosea 2:19)

He loves us as friends. “No longer do I call you ‘servant’…but I call you ‘friend’, for all that I [Jesus] have heard from the father I have made known to you.” –John 15:15

He loves us affectionately, as a parent would love a child. And we are children of God.

Friends, God loves us. And there is nothing that we can do to change that! We can’t change his mind about us; He loves us no matter what we may have done. He loves us as a father would love his son who strayed away from truth for a little while, but eventually finds his way back (Luke 15:11-32). He cherishes us as a poor woman cherishes her last coin (Luke 15:8-10). God loves us. This is why we love our neighbors, because God lives in them, too. He lives in those who love. And he still loves those who might not know Him, and even they are still God’s children. If we love God, we love his creation, of which God is still a part. And when we understand as best as we can that God loves us, and we recognize it, we become aware of the amount of love God has for us, and we have no choice but to share it with our neighbors. “Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” And this is love, the love that God has for us.

Oh how sweet to me is the name of Jesus!
It is sweeter than the smell of fresh cut grass
on a sultry summer’s Saturday,
Fairer than the feeling of warm socks
out of the dryer on a snowy day,
Better than the aroma of baking bread
waking me up in the morning.

The Fruit of the Spirit: Prelude

Lately I’ve taken into consideration what it means to live by the fruits of the spirit. In Galatians 5, Paul gives the reader examples of how not to live, followed by characteristics of someone who is living by the Holy Spirit. As Paul says, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit,” (Galatians 5:25) meaning if we claim to follow Christ, then we should follow the fruits of the Spirit.

In Galatians 5:19-21, Paul tells us how not to live by listing characteristics of the flesh, or our own sinful nature. In these verses, he lists off “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity (hostility), strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy (some manuscripts also say here ‘and murder’), drunkenness, orgies, and other such things.” Paul then warns that those who take part in such acts will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Now, this does not mean that if someone participated in any of these acts once, twice, regularly, or even still continually, he or she is going straight to hell. By no means! This is not what the gospel is about. Rather, the gospel is that Christ was crucified with our sins so that we can enter the Kingdom of God after having done these things. As Paul mentions in another one of his letters, 2 Corinthians, Paul says that “for our sake [God] made him to be sin who knew no sin (this is referring to Christ) so that we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

If the gospel condemned everyone who took part in any of the things listed above, the Kingdom of God would be pretty empty. I for one have taken part in many of these things. Which ones, I am not sharing because it doesn’t matter. Nevertheless, I am excited to announce that I will share in the Kingdom of God because His grace is sufficient for me, (2 Corinthians 12:9) and I am made clean of my filth because Christ was crucified for my sake so that I may be the righteousness of God! 

In describing the fruit of the Spirit, Paul describes these things as attributes of one who is following God, and what every follower should strive for. As are listed in Galatians 5:22-23, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Thus, every follower of Christ should strive to live their lives in all of these things.

My intention at this time is to spend each of the next nine of my blog entries elaborating on what I believe it means to live in each fruit of the spirit. I will write after deep study and prayer so as to provide what is hopefully well-thought-out and theologically sound work. As always, though, I encourage any commentary or discussion on this or any other post. Until then, Psalm 67!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls68i1Y4Quw

22:45

 In 1517, Martin Luther essentially started a series of events which would split the church. While it is fair to say that this was probably not his intention, it was a definite result of his actions. The church was then split on the basis of theology, and has been ever since.

 When I read the New Testament of the bible, I find it evident that “the Church” is a term used in the singular form. This is why the Church is referred to as “The Church”, and not “The Churches”. In fact, the only time (that I have found) the phrase “The Churches” appears in scripture is in the book of Revelation, although the context is different. This refers to different locations of church buildings—different gathering locations for the Church, if you will. Still, the Church is one, unified body. The Church is named throughout scripture as the Bride of Christ. The Church, being one unified body, is the Bride of God himself.

 This led me to think about what a bride is. Of course, I didn’t have to think much because though a wife has innumerable roles in being a wife, her most important role is to love her husband. All of her other roles are derived from this love. Would a wife take care of her husband if she didn’t love him? Would she make him dinner, and iron his shirts (or whatever it is wives do) if she didn’t love him? With this established, it is clear that the role of the bride of Christ is to love Him. This is all. All we have to do as Christ’s bride is love Christ.

 If all we the Church has to do is love God, it bewilders me that we place things ahead of this, as if they were of higher importance. Most specifically, I’m thinking of theological debates. Ever since the bride divorced itself in the sixteenth century, the Church has been debating with itself things that really don’t matter. For instances: What does it matter if the Church uses instruments or not? What does it matter what the person who stands on the stage for half an hour every Sunday morning is called? What does it matter what the room in which people gather to worship is called? Do names really affect the reason for which the Church has gathered? Does using instruments mean you don’t have the same reason for gathering to worship as a person who prefers to worship in an A Capella format?

 A subject in which I personally have had a lot of self-conflict is song selection. If we the Church sing the same song a lot, I tend to get sick of it, as I do with songs that are played on the radio. I tend to notice that we might sing a song which had been sung last week, and I say to myself, “Oh, we did this last week. Can’t we do something new? This repetition is boring.” This is an indication of the core fault of the Church. I have placed entertainment and personal enjoyment ahead of spending time with God. I would ignore what the song is about, and only think about how annoying the repeated song actually is. A prime example of this is Matt Redman’s “Blessed Be Your Name”. This is one of the greatest worship songs that has ever been written. Obviously most people agree with me, because it is used often to praise God. Because of this, I equally as often discard this song as overdone and repetitive. However, when I look at the lyrics and really understand what they mean, I find that this is actually one of the most beautiful songs. The theme is that through the good times as well as the bad, God’s name will always be blessed. That is beautiful.

 Now, don’t get me wrong, I am strong believer that the list of songs sang in a church should be changed often. My primary reasoning behind this is to reach more people. For instance, I tend to connect to God more through songs that are humbling—songs that essentially say “God, You love me even though I don’t always love You back. I don’t deserve it, but You don’t care; You love me anyway.” Other people seem to feel more connected to God through happy, upbeat all-praise-all-the-time songs, such as anything that Chris Tomlin has ever written. These songs essentially say “God is good all the time, and I’m always happy because of this.” To say that one style of worship music is superior to the other is to place the music itself above what really matters, which is the interaction of Christ with his Bride.

 I suppose the primary reason churches remain different today is to accommodate everyone’s personal preferences. For instance, I enjoy a church in which the aforementioned “humbling worship” is practiced more than a church in which the “happy-all-the-time” worship is practiced. This is only a personal preference, and to say that one is better than the other is to take away the focus from where it matters.

 I would say, though, that there are some legitimate theological debates. They all, of course, derive from love. Sometimes people tend to place things above God, possibly without even realizing it. For instance: singers or members of a band at church. If the singers get too caught up with making sure they sing the right notes and “sounding good”, are they really praising God? If the band feels like it must be totally rehearsed in order to keep the congregation entertained, can they really be called a “praise band”? They would only be praising music with lyrics addressing God’s name. The purpose of church leaders is to connect people to God, not to appear pleasing to the crowd.

Anyway, I have ranted on and on about what I have seen happen. All I really want to say is that only one thing matters: love. The debates between denominations is about as silly as the debate between wireless carriers. Verizon says, “We have more 3G than anyone else”, AT&T says, “Oh, yeah? Well, ours is better!”, and Sprint laughs quietly to itself because it uses 4G. The debates between denominations really don’t matter. In fact, they distract people from the love of God, and often turn people who have not established a relationship with God away, because they don’t see how they can connect to God through the Church which can’t even connect with itself. Debating theology is only destroying the Church.

 As I have said, I enjoy how different denominations exist to accommodate everyone’s personal preferences. Individuals connect to God in different ways. But to say that one way is “better” or “sinful” is being judgmental, which is not what Christianity is about. Christians aren’t around to judge people; we’re around to love God. This is why He created us—to love Him.

 The song “Come Around” by Jimmy Needham comes to mind… Here you go:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2WvlP0Qh9A [music, with an Image of Jimmy staring at you]

http://www.cmt.com/lyrics/jimmy-needham/come-around/21140905/lyrics.jhtml [lyrics]

 Lately I’ve come to appreciate just how much people mean to me. I’m not necessarily talking about anyone in particular, although I certainly appreciate the company of some people more than others’. But I seem to be liking the concept of intra-personal interaction more now than I used to.

                The past few months I’ve been living back at “home” with my family while all of my friends are still 300+ miles away, half way across the state of Texas. For the first long while I was really upset about this. I was too caught up on how I was “taken away unfairly” from everything I know and love, and would dwell on that fact. Granted, it is hard seeing all of your friends grow closer together while you’re hundreds of miles away thinking, “that should be me. I should be one of them!” But I’ve come to see things in a different way.

                The last time I visited Abilene was a few weeks ago during spring break. I wasn’t able to see too many people (everyone had gone to their respective houses), but I was able to see some people. Mind you, this was at the peak of my time dwelling in hermit land, during which time I felt like I was a homeless man in my own house. So whenever I saw someone I knew, I would always tell them just how much I hated my situation, and how bad things were going for me. Usually they would sympathize, give me a hug, and make up some reason for me to feel better. But this time people prayed for me too. They asked the Creator of the universe to have somebody just so much as talk to me.

                The next day I returned to school, I had five different people talk to me. It was just simple small talk, such as, “Hey, do you know when the next test is?” or “What did he say?” or “Hey, you’re shoe’s untied. You should fix it so you don’t trip and fall into a manhole.” I returned to my house that day happy that people had finally talked to me. Previously I had disliked small talk in its entirely, calling it a mere interaction between two people done to make situations more awkward.

                Small talk can lead to friendships though. I mean, it will usually take a while, but it can happen. Think about it: When you first met your best friend, what kind of conversation went on between you two? Even if small talk doesn’t ever lead to an intense relationship, it can always brighten up one’s day through realizations of sorts. Allow me to elaborate: Last semester I would go to the “We Proudly Brew Starbucks” on campus for breakfast every day. Before long, the usual barista had my order memorized, and would start making it as I walked in the door (I’m consistent.) If ever I deviated from my usual order, she would act surprised and make a remark about my order. That’s as far as our relationship ever went. One time she wasn’t there. Someone else was taking orders and making the drinks. She asked for my name on the order, so I told her “Eric”. When my drink was ready, they announced my order, “Grande hot chocolate with whipped!” At that moment, I had a realization: you are what you eat. Since she said she would call my name when my order was ready, and she called out, “Grande hot chocolate with whipped!” I came to my realization. You see, small talk can not only lead to relationships, but it can also bring about epiphanies.

                I guess what I’m saying is that in the past I have made the mistake of taking small talk for granted. It’s true that you might not miss something until you don’t have it anymore. Now I realize this, and I appreciate how blessed I am to have friends hundreds of miles away, and how lucky I am to have discovered that the smallest of things can be blessings. I certainly appreciate small things more now than ever.

When I go back to Abilene, I bet I’ll be socially awkward.