God's Love Story

Carolyn Arends, in an article on the film Evan Almighty notes that some Christians objected to the concept expressed in the film that the story of Noah’s Ark is a love story. She goes on in her article to reflect on this important question: “Is there any story about God that isn't a love story?” Upon reflection, she concludes that even the parts of the Bible that speak of God’s wrath and anger are really part of a love story.

Many Christians have grown up with two viewpoints about God that appear on the surface to be contradictory. God is a God of love. But God is also a holy wrathful God who hates sin. How do we keep these two viewpoints in tension? As Carolyn probed this question, she realized that she had always viewed God in a good cop bad cop routine, with the Holy Spirit acting as a sympathetic parole officer. While expressing that God was a God of love she concluded that there were limits to his love.

How does the concept of a vengeful God fit into a love story? As Carolyn wrestled with this, she found the following analogy helpful. If her young daughter started to dash out into the street into heavy traffic, grabbing her daughter, yanking her back from harm’s way and yelling “No!” would not be a sign of harsh anger, but of fierce love. She would even punish her daughter if it led to her future safety. She concludes that it is the same with God. His punishing us for sin is a sign of his fierce love, for he knows that the consequence of sin leads to ultimate destruction, an end he does not desire for us. .

We see this dynamic at work throughout the period of the Judges and in the writings of the Old Testament prophets. Each time God brings disaster upon or punishes his people it is for a purpose – to bring them back into a loving relationship with him. Nowhere is this message more clearly seen than in the book of Hosea. For most of the book Hosea talks about how God will punish Israel. But in the final chapter he reminds them that if they will repent, God will bless them and love them freely. The entire point of chastisement is so they will return to God and be in relationship with him. This is also the point of loving one’s enemies in order to heap coals of fire on their heads. St Augustine interprets Romans 12:20 to imply that one’s enemies, provoked by our kindness, will have their malice towards us burned away in repentance.

Christian parents discipline their children because they love them and desire them to live morally upright lives that are dedicated to God. Punishment stems from this love, with the goal that their children will understand that there are consequences to their actions and will live better lives as a result. In much the same way God disciplines us when we go astray, not because he is vindictive, but because he deeply loves us and wants what is best for us. At times he punishes us as a way to draw us back to a relationship with himself.

How often do we find ourselves, like Carolyn, trying to maintain a dual image of God? How often do we flit back and forth, between images of God as a God of love and as a wrathful God? How much do you really view the entire Bible as a love story?

Eager or Willing?

St. Paul, in his prayers for the churches that he was associated with, centers his prayers in four areas; that we would have an increasing intimate knowledge of God, that our love would constantly be growing, that we would live lives pleasing to God, and that we would be strengthened for endurance in living the Christian life. These are all areas worthy of our focus as we live out our lives. We should want to know God better, to grow in love, to please God and to maintain our faith as we go through life. A good question to ask ourselves is how willing are we to see these accomplished in our lives?

But a better question might be to ask how eager we are. The legendary basketball coach, John Wooden, in his devotional book Coach Wooden: One on One tells how his view of “team spirit” changed from a willingness to lose oneself in the group for the good of the team to an eagerness to lose oneself. He came to realize that our willingness to do something does not indicate our desire to do so. Eagerness is much more closely connected to desire. Turning to spiritual matters, Wooden notes that there is a huge difference between our willingness to pray and our eagerness to pray.

The same is true in the growth of our Christian lives. Are we willing to grow or eager to grow? Will we accept it if it comes our way, or do we desire to see it accomplished in our lives? Having only a willingness to grow indicates a cavalier attitude. It’s ok if it happens but we aren’t going out of our way to see that it happens. Willingness takes a passive approach to life, often avoiding the commitment which requires active involvement. With this approach, it becomes easy to just go through the motions. Eagerness, on the other hand, requires active engagement. It requires a definite resolve, to make an effort, and at times to even make a sacrifice. It refuses to accept the status quo, wanting more. Just as successful basketball teams have a high level of discipline in their play, the same is true in our spiritual lives. We must have an eagerness to spiritually discipline ourselves and be disciplined by God.

We face many of the same difficulties today that men and women faced in Jesus’ time. The rich young ruler and others were willing to follow Jesus as long as it didn’t cost them anything. But they had no eager desire to follow him, and in the end turned away. The disciples, on the other hand, displayed an eagerness to follow him, for they had found that there was no other place to go, for Jesus had the words of life. We can easily do the same as the rich young ruler, following Jesus as long as it’s comfortable and doesn’t place a burden upon us. We are willing to follow him as long as he doesn’t make demands upon our lives. But if he does, we may find our resolve to follow him weakening.

Eagerness is never content with willingness. It requires a steadfastness of purpose, an intense consuming desire to know and follow God. It demands a commitment to discipline and a refusal to allow obstacles to thwart our relationship with him. It calls for our constant involvement with the word of God so that we can know him better. How strong is your eagerness IQ? Are you only willing to follow God or are you eager to follow him?

Active and Passive Hypocrisy

In John Steinbeck’s novel The Moon is Down Alex Morden, an inhabitant of the town, kills an enemy officer. The commander of the enemy forces requests that the town mayor sentence Alex to death for the sake of maintaining order. The reluctant mayor finally asks the enemy commander how many of the enemy’s soldiers had been on the machine guns when they captured the town, in the process killing several of the town’s soldiers. Being informed that there were about twenty, the mayor says. “Very well. If you shoot them, I will condemn Morden.” Being told that his request is impossible, the mayor then says “And what you ask cannot be done.” The mayor’s help is requested to maintain order. Yet the enemy’s capture of the town caused the breakdown of order in the first place.


There is a hypocritical element to the story. The enemy commander desperately wants there to be order in the town. Yet he cannot see, or will not see, or could care less that it was his own country’s invasion that caused the breakdown in the first place. As long as the enemy controls the town there will never be order. But if they were to leave, order would quickly be restored.

We can often do the same things in our own lives. We can seek a particular result, but live our lives such that we make that result all but impossible to achieve. We may want to have a good marriage, but never work at having one. We may want to have a good relationship with our children, but are always criticizing them and never taking time to attend their activities or talk with them. We may counsel them to do what we say, but do just the opposite of what we tell them. We may want to have a relationship with God, but never put in the effort to have one. We can cause, by our own actions, the very thing we are trying to avoid. When we do, we live hypocritical lives.

Hypocrisy can be either active or passive. Active hypocrisy is more easily identifiable, for it is overt; like the pastor who preaches against homosexuality while engaging in a homosexual liaison, or who condemns adultery while in the midst of an adulterous affair. We observe it in the person’s actions. Their actions and words are not congruent. But hypocrisy can also be passive, often occurring when we lack desire. We may want something, but not enough to actually carry it through to completion. This type of hypocrisy is more insidious, for it is only observed in inaction. Since it is largely unnoticeable, it may take years before it is uncovered and brought out into the open. It is largely identified by later reflection on the impact of the inactivity, long after the fact. But it destroys relationships just as much as more active forms of hypocrisy do. We are often left with knowing that something isn’t quite right, but are unable to quite put our finger on the cause until later reflection brings it into the open.

A hypocritical lack of desire destroys relationships through inaction. We can want to know God while our closed Bible gathers dust on the bookshelf. We may want to build a relationship with our children, but find ourselves leaving for work before they are up in the mornings, and coming home after they have gone to bed at night. In each case our desire, and the accompanying resolve, are not strong enough to overcome the hypocrisy. How much do you see passive hypocrisy active in your life?

Hypocrisy

The early seventeenth century playwright and poet, Ben Jonson , in speaking of hypocrisy wrote “Many men believe not themselves what they would persuade others; and less, do the things which they would impose on others; but least of all, know what they themselves most confidently boast. Only they set the sign of the cross over their outer doors, and sacrifice to their gut and their groin in their inner closets.” Nowhere is the truth of his observations more evident than in Congress in the past year. We have seen Senators Nelson from Nebraska and Landrieu from Louisiana abruptly change their convictions on abortion when it became politically expedient for them to do so. We have seen the members of both the House and Senate, who were strong advocates of the health care reform, reject amendments which would require them to participate in the health care plan they have formulated for our country. Many of the legislators who have called for civility in language have been the most scurrilous towards their opponents. Leaders of both parties, while speaking against ethical abuse, have been caught up in ethics violations themselves. The same type of hypocrisy is evident in the consternation by Congress at the large bonuses paid to corporate executives while salaries for federal employees in Washington are escalating far out of line above similar salaries in the private sector. While talking about the need to reduce our use of energy, congressional leaders jet across the country and around the world on air force jets at public expense and use excessive amounts of energy in their own homes. While selectively railing against corruption, they turn a deaf ear against the abuses of organizations like Acorn. Whether Republicans or Democrats are in power, the abuses tend to be the same. Jonson’s words are proving to be prophetically true.

But lest we attempt to pull the mote from our brother’s eye while ignoring the log in our own, we need to look at ourselves. How often do we do the same thing Jonson describes? We can say that we believe in the power of prayer, but when facing difficulties try to keep them secret so that no one will find out we are experiencing them, never enabling them to pray for us. We can talk about the importance of obeying the law as we speed merrily down the expressway far above the maximum rated speed. Many parents strongly condemn the use of alcohol or tobacco by their children while abusing them themselves. The most difficult areas are those which have an impact upon our own lives. It can be very easy to take a stand for or against something as long as it doesn’t affect us personally. Then we may sing a different tune. But that is when we will discover the true nature of our character. That which is in the depths of our soul will one day rise to the surface and make itself known. Jesus warns that what comes out of a person is more dangerous than what goes in. What arises from our soul will determine whether or not we compromise our character in times of perceived crisis. Then we will discover who we truly are. Then we will find out whether or not we have disconnected our faith from the rest of our lives, living as Jonson describes. Are we as guilty as our legislators or the English citizens of Ben Jonson’s day in effectively proclaiming “Do as I say, not as I do?” May it not be so!

The Problem with Evil

In our modern world, evil has become ideological. Perhaps it has always been that way in the history of mankind, but the concept of evil as an ideological entity has certainly escalated in the past fifty years. Society considers something to be evil largely upon the extent that we identify with, or oppose the causes connected with the perpetrator of the action. For instance, during the Viet Nam war, protestors condemned our killing of the North Vietnamese, but were silent about the massacres perpetrated by the Viet Cong as they took over control of the South, as they also were silent about the bombing of campus ROTC buildings by their members. In the Middle East, those on the side of the Palestinians condemn Israeli attacks, but consider Palestinian suicide bombers to be heroes, while Israeli leaders, condemning the suicide bombings of the Palestinians, ignore excessive brutalities committed by their own soldiers. Some abortion protestors find little fault with the killing of abortion practitioners while pro choice advocates find no problem with denying the unborn a choice. Accepting that evil is ideological, we turn a blind eye to the evil perpetrated in our midst. By viewing evil in this way we divorce it from truth. What is right or wrong becomes relative. In society today, there is no absolute standard by which to measure what is evil. Without such, it becomes very easy to legitimatize evil, as happened to many people in Germany during the Nazi regime.

But in the biblical world evil is never considered to be ideological. It is always based upon absolute truth. When the Old Testament prophets speak against evil it makes no difference whether the perpetrator of the evil is Israel’s enemy or Israel itself. Frequently the prophets hone in on the transgressions of their own nation, whether Israel or Judah. Things are inherently good or evil and must be dealt with accordingly.

The mantras of political correctness and tolerance may be the areas causing us the most difficulty in today’s world, for they allow legitimatizing many questionable activities and prohibit condemnation of any sins associated with them. They turn a blind eye to and excuse immoral behavior by making it appear to be ideological. Their devotees champion political incorrectness as the greatest sin in the world, further distancing evil from truth as those who disagree are reluctant to speak the truth for fear of condemnation. Against them the prophetic words of Jeremiah ring out “Truth has perished. It has vanished from their lips.”

If we are to consider evil as the Old Testament prophets did, we must throw off the encumbrance of political correctness which is so prevalent in our society today. We must become like Jeremiah who, when contemplating succumbing to the political correctness of his day, concluded that he had to speak out because it was like a fire in his bones. We must be willing to speak the truth. We must speak out against all forms of evil. But we must do so in a spirit of love instead of hate. We must condemn the evil while showing love to its perpetrator. Too often we have been hypocritical, demonstrating more of the spirit of Lamech (Gen 4:23-24) than of Christ in our condemnation of evil. Basing the concept of evil on ideology leads to hatred. Viewing evil as Christ did, on its relationship to truth, leads to love. How do you view evil? Is it based upon the concept of truth or upon ideology? Can you speak against it in love?

Medium or Message?

Several years ago Marshall McCluen wrote that “The medium is the message.” While this has become increasingly true in today’s world, (witness the influential role of the media in swaying public opinion), his statement is far from true in the spiritual realm. In God’s eyes, the medium is a channel used solely to proclaim the message – the good news that Jesus came to save sinners and reconcile them to God.

But because of the constant bombardment of the primacy of the medium in today’s culture, we often find the medium too attractive. Thus we are always seeking the latest fad or program, constantly changing direction and focus. The Holiness Manifesto, produced by the Wesleyan Holiness Study Project points out two of the dangers associated with this approach.

The first danger is that we become ineffective in our ministry. The Holiness Manifesto” states “The power and zeal of churches has been drained by the incessant search for a better method, a more effective fad, a newer and bigger program to yield growth. In the process of trying to find the magic method for growing healthy vibrant churches, our people have become largely ineffective and fallen prey to a generic Christianity that results in congregations that are indistinguishable from the culture around them.” We can easily lose excitement about the latest fad knowing that we will soon be moving on to another one.

The second danger is that we can confuse the medium with the message. When this happens, we can easily corrupt the message. The Holiness Manifesto states concerning church leaders that “They have become so concerned about ‘how’ they do church that they have neglected the weightier matter of ‘what’ the church declares.” We can focus so much on the program that we lose sight of the fact of God’s holy love being declared through the life, teachings, death and resurrection of Jesus. We can lose sight of God’s desire that we live holy lives ourselves.

There are also additional dangers to be aware of. The third danger is that we can focus upon the form and lose the function. It is easy to emulate such programs as Rick Warren’s “The Purpose Driven Church”, or Willow Creek. What we often forget is that the form they are using was designed to serve a particular function in their particular church. Merely duplicating the form, without replicating the underlying function, will lead to frustration, and ultimately failure.

The fourth danger is that this approach can lead us into spiritual adultery. The book of Hosea points out how Israel, though very religious, was constantly chasing after foreign cultures and their gods. They sought to emulate the “successful” societies around them. Hosea refers to this as adultery. If we seek to follow all the church growth fads more than God himself, we are in the same danger of spiritual adultery.

If we are to reach out to those around us we must avoid the dangers listed above and focus on our own personal and corporate holiness. This must begin with repentance and humility. We must become a holy community with a strong message of the love of Jesus who died for our sins. We must be a community which demonstrates love for each other and the world around us. By focusing on living holy, transformed lives, we will become a magnet, drawing people to Jesus. By living this way, a program, while helpful, won’t even be necessary to see people coming into the kingdom. Which do you find more attractive, the medium or the message?

The Problem with Mimicry

In the natural world, mimicry is often used by a species as a form of protection. Although now it is felt that the monarch and viceroy butterflies mimic each other, for the prior one hundred years the prevalent thought was that the viceroy mimicked the monarch butterfly, a bitter tasting insect, which discouraged avian predators from feasting on a tasty morsel. A bird, seeing the monarch pattern in the viceroy’s colors, would bypass it for another, more tasty, insect. Several animals, such as the ermine and the snowshoe hare, which are brown in the summer and white in the winter adapt to blend in with their surroundings. Their adaptation provides safety from their larger predators. While this is very effective in the natural realm, in the spiritual realm, spiritual mimicry is disastrous. Christians who blend in with the surroundings of the secular culture in which we live are charting a very dangerous course for their spiritual lives.

C. Stacy Woods, in his semi autobiographical book Some Ways of God states “Our failure to emphasize the radical and essential difference between a Christian and a non-Christian, between the Christian way of life and the non-Christian way of life, is a root cause of today’s weakness and spiritual ineffectiveness. If the world ignores Christians and ignores the church, it is because we fawn before the world, seek its favors and delicacies, and strive to imitate its ways.” He goes on to say that, compared to the world’s standards, a Christians value judgments, goals, life orientation and reactions are to be different. A Christian’s worldview should be vastly different from that of the secular culture around us.

The temptation we face to mimic the culture around us should not be ignored. It has a powerful effect upon our lives. We are tempted to engage in several types of mimicry, all of which weaken and destroy our spiritual lives. Cultural mimicry is a way for us to blend in with the world and prevents our being ridiculed for living a Christian lifestyle. By blending in with the culture around us, no one will know that we really are a Christian, even if they might be aware that we attend church on Sundays. They see us as having the same values and mores as they do. Success mimicry tempts us to model our churches after successful churches or dynamic secular models for the purpose of obtaining the same results as they have had. But just because a particular program or model has worked elsewhere doesn’t necessarily mean that it will work for us. We are in a different place and God has a different plan for us. Peer mimicry is especially a problem among our youth as they attempt to identify with their friends. They can easily find themselves in compromising situations as they try to go along with and identify with the crowd.

The only mimicry acceptable in the Christian life is the mimicry of Jesus. He asks us to walk as he walked, to live as he lived, to pattern our lives after his life, and to have the same values as he did. He calls us to live incarnational lives so that others, seeing how we live our lives will see Christ through us. We are to be little Christs; imitators of God. We may be the only Christ they ever see. In this way we point to the difference Christ makes to our world. How we pattern our lives makes all the difference. Who are you mimicking, Jesus Christ or the world?