Augustin, 04/22
Ever try to fit a square peg in a round hole?
That’s a good
description of what happens when people pick and choose their favorite
biblical passages about God and try to make the rest of the Bible fit
accordingly.
Things can get very inconsistent and messy as we
find we must cut corners, throw away inconvenient truths, ignore or
discard what doesn’t work, and force meanings on passages out of context
in order for them to fit our designer theology.
All that mess
describes my conversation with Augustin, who has very strong but
inconsistent beliefs that “God is love”; that God would never judge or
punish; and that positive and negative “vibrations” determine morality.
So much of the Bible only makes sense in the context of the
broken relationship and curse God placed on mankind shortly after the
Fall, where Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden, and the
history of God choosing a people through which a Savior would enter the
world to redeem a people for Himself from that curse.
Take, for
example, Augustin’s repeated references to the “God is love” mantra. I
don’t deny that it’s in the Bible – it’s right there, repeated twice in 1
John 4. It’s such a simple statement, why bother with context? How
could it ever be complicated?
Multiple sermons and whole books
could be written about this one chapter in the Bible, but maybe a couple
simple questions might help here. First, who is it written to? And
second, what is the purpose of the chapter in which these verses are
found?
Should any casual reader of the Bible assume it applies to
all people universally? Does this mean that God’s automatic response is
love in any and every situation?
This chapter is found in 1
John, a circular letter meant to be read in Christian churches for the
purpose of discerning evil spirits and false teachers and encouraging
believers to love one another. It references God’s attribute of perfect
love, but this in no way limits God’s character to just one overriding
attribute. God’s other attributes – His mercy, patience, and justice
for example – are in no way diminished by His love, for He is perfect in
every way.
And this creates a paradox, for while “God is love”
and loves to shower that love on people, God is also just, and by this
very perfect attribute must justly punish sin. So how can God love
people, yet carry out the just punishment we deserve? The answer is in
the same chapter, which explains how God’s love is demonstrated: “This
is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as
an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
In the same chapter where we
find “God is love”, we find the demonstration of that love in the
context of our sin and the just punishment we deserve – all the things
Augustin was so desperate to deny.
We need to read the Bible in context, and stop trying to put square pegs in round holes!
Thanks, Augustin, for allowing me to record our conversation! It can be seen at https://youtu.be/QRowqiHUv6g on my YouTube Channel.
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