God is not (just) love

If, as the title provocatively suggests, one describes God as primarily love, then such a description of Him is not only incomplete but fails to accurately communicate Him as He has revealed Himself to us. And it creates enormous barriers for us to understand why He acts as He does.

Christianity in this century appears to have swung the pendulum into an extreme position where we almost entirely focus on and talk about God's attribute of love. Love is everywhere. God is love. Love, love, love. The most important thing you must believe about God is that He is love. And then we scratch our heads and can't understand large parts of the Bible and what they reveal to us about God because it sure doesn't seem like love!

May I suggest it is because we've made God into our own chosen image, an image that we want to see, an image that we want to worship, and an image we want to share, instead of Who He actually is? We want a God of love because that is tame and safe and friendly. We're kind of embarrassed at some of the things God did in the Bible. God needs a better sales strategy. Let's focus on love. All you need is love, right?

Except not.

Most (all?) of the time someone comes into the presence of God, their reaction is not warm fuzzies. It is terrifying, woe-is-me fear! This includes the "apostle of love", John, who when He sees Jesus (JESUS!), falls down as if he is a dead man in terror (Rev. 1:17-18)! And he's the "disciple whom Jesus loved," the guy who wrote that "God is love."

If we want to know God, we must accept Him as He has revealed Himself, not as we would have Him. God is all of His revealed attributes, all of the time, in all their fullness, in everything that He does, in their maximum perfection. He is holy, righteous, just, merciful, good, infinite, all-knowing, everywhere present, all-powerful, and love (to name a few). I will note that the seraphim around the throne of God do not sing "love, love, love, is the LORD God Almighty" day and night -- they sing "holy holy holy" (Isa. 6; Rev 4)! When we focus on one attribute of God to the detriment of the others, we fail to know Him and honor Him as God!

If a passage of Scripture doesn't seem to make sense, ask yourself if perhaps it is showing you a bigger God than you currently imagine, who is way more than just love.

Faith Seeking Understanding

This is the third post in a short series I am doing on the subject of doubt in the Christian life. I want to continue the idea introduced in the previous post about learning to be comfortable with not having absolute certainty, for certainty is an impossibility! But going even further, I think it is important to recognize that the very nature of Christianity involves questions that remained unanswered, unknowable realities, and, to quote a professor of mine, faith seeking understanding and sometimes not getting it!

We must acknowledge that because we follow God who is completely infinite in all that He is and does, we will 1) lack understanding in many things He does and is because of our finite and limited nature, and 2) what we do understand and know about God is entirely due to His gracious revelation of Himself.

If you recall God's response to Job in the Old Testament, what is possibly implied is that Job cannot understand God's reasoning for allowing the pain and suffering in Job's life! God asks Job a series of questions, asking Job to explain how God created, how God designed, how God eternally existed, to name just a few of the questions. We would be wise, as Job was, to recognize that such knowledge simply isn't possible for us! It is beyond us!

I know you (and I) don't want to hear this. Seriously. I want to know. I want to be able to know. I think myself fairly smart and surely I can understand! But can I explain to the God of the universe how He made even the simplest of organisms? Can I create a simple living thing on my own, with matter and energy that I created, without using the materials He has made? Good grief, no!

I have a dog who is quite a joy to have and spend time with. In one of our first walks, as I have related previously, she picked up a saw blade thinking it something fun to chew on. I quickly removed it from her mouth and we moved on. I was (and still am) unable to explain to her why I took it away from her in a manner that she would understand. Notice the conundrum. I want my dog to know that I am good in taking away this blade, but I am unable to do so, because of limitations in both of us. I would need to make myself a "dog" to speak to her in a language she could understand, and I'm not sure even as a dog she'd understand what "good" actually means when something is removed that she wants. She must simply trust me, without understanding. Jesus Christ, the second Member of the Trinity, became fully man, speaking our language, that we might know Him.

Now, the intellectual difference between my dog and I is nothing---nothing---compared to the difference between God and I. So anything God does, if I am to know any part of it and understand any part of it, will be entirely due to Him communicating to me. And I will only know in part, but not in whole. I simply do not have the capacity of mind to comprehend all of the wisdom of God.

To put this in a much more elegant way, let's turn to the great Anselm of Canterbury, in his famous Proslogion:

I acknowledge, Lord, and I thank you, that you have created in me this image of you that I may remember you, think of you, and love you. Yet this image is so eroded by my vices, so clouded by the smoke of my sins, that it cannot do what it was created to do unless you renew and refashion it. I am not trying to scale your heights, Lord; my understanding is in no way equal to that. But I do long to understand your truth in some way, your truth which my heart believes and loves. For I do not seek to understand in order to believe; I believe in order to understand. For I also believe that "Unless I believe, I shall not understand." (my emphasis) [Classics of Western Philosophy, 8th ed., Steven M. Cahn, 2012, Hackett Publishing]

The Grace of No

I am studying the book of 1 Corinthians with some friends and we discussed chapter 7 on Monday, which is on marriage and singleness. For a group of all singles, this can sometimes be a tough topic, especially when the desire for marriage is present, but years have gone without its fulfillment. I graduated college at 20 and fully expected to be married within a couple of years; now, in my upper 30s, I am still single, having never married, and am content with where I am at right now. Had you told me this when I was 20, I would have nearly died. Perhaps one reason God does not (usually) tell us the future is because we can't handle knowing it. I wouldn't have chosen this path in my 20s and certainly had no idea I'd be where I'm at today. God hasn't given me much of what I have asked for and I am better off because of it! He has spared me some catastrophic marriage choices that, while the breakup was painful, following through with the relationship would have been worse. I am incredibly grateful that He continued to say "No" despite my earnest pleading and crying. It is a reflection of His goodness that He has graciously said "No" and given me what I need, not what I wanted or thought I had to have.

Celebrate the grace of the "No" answers that God gives in your life, for His goodness is just as evident in those as it is in His "Yes" answers.