"God is Love"

"God is love." God revealed this central truth about Himself in both Old and New Testament times. It's why 1 John 4:8 says, "Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love."

So, would a loving God ever describe His human children with names like wicked, fools, or stupid?

As Dave Branon points out in this piece, the loving God of the universe Who ultimately disclosed Himself in the crucified and risen Jesus, has used these names for some people.

I hope that you'll read Branon's piece, especially if your notions about what the Bible means in saying that "God is love," has created a false image of God as an indulgent grandparent who doesn't care how we defile ourselves, hurt others, or dishonor Him.

Take it from someone who has done lots of wicked, stupid, and foolish things, for which God still calls me out each day, if God didn't love you, He wouldn't call you out for sins or willful ignorance of His will.

It's when God calls us out and we dare to hear what His Word tells us about His will for human beings, that we can exercise the gift of repentance and experience a fuller relationship with Christ.

Two other passages of Scripture come to mind as I think about the tough and tender love of God that loves you just as you are, but loves you too much to leave you there.

One comes from King David, the adulterer and murderer who the Bible describes as a "man after God's own heart." David knew all about having his deeds exposed for being wicked, foolish, and stupid. Remember that David had an affair with another man's wife and then arranged to have that man murdered. For two years, David went on merrily with his life before being confronted for his sins by the prophet Nathan. David repented. Psalm 51 is his song of repentance. But, here's something he wrote for the benefit of his fellow sinners who may be less than inclined to accept God's judgment of them for wickedness, foolishness, or stupidity:

Do not be like a horse or mule, without understanding, whose temper must be curbed with bit and bridle, else it will not stay near you.

And then there are these words, from the same New Testament book which reminds us that, "God is love." (Some of what's said in 1 John 1:8-10, will be familiar to most Lutherans, who hear words drawn from this section of Scripture regularly in our liturgy):

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

God's enduring will for the human race is laid out clearly for us in what scholars call the Mosaic Law, the Ten Commandments, here. Unlike Old Testament ritual and civil laws, the Ten Commandments are valid for all time.

They're well interpreted for us in 1 Timothy 1:8-10.

It's wicked, foolish, and stupid for us to willfully flout the law of God because doing so separates us from Him and His desire to be with us forever.

But when we confess our sins--when we acknowledge that God is right in calling us out for our sin--and seek and accept the forgiveness God freely offers in Jesus Christ, God not only forgives us, God also gives us the power of the Holy Spirit to resist our inborn inclinations to sin.

God is love!

Faith Tidtbit #54

As Christians gather to worship this coming Sunday, they'll likely remember what we call "the first Pentecost," an event that happened fifty days after Jesus' resurrection. But strictly speaking, Pentecost, or what the ancient Jews called Shavuot was already a firmly established feast day on the Jewish religious calendar.

Shavuot celebrates the giving of the Ten Commandments by God to Moses. This accounts for why in Acts 2:1-42, the New Testament passage that recounts the Jerusalem events that Christians will remember this Sunday, there were Jews from throughout the Mediterranean basin, particularly the eastern Mediterranean region, present in Jerusalem at that time. Shavuot, also known as the Festival of Weeks, is mentioned, among other places in the Old Testament scriptures, in Deuteronomy 16:16, and also was a celebration of the harvest. It was one of the three great pilgrimage festivals on the Jewish calendar, referred to as the Shlosha Regalim, along with Pesach (Passover) and Sukkot (Booths or Tents), when pious Jews would travel to the temple in Jerusalem.

The events of the first Christian Pentecost, which we'll discuss in more detail in the next few installments, couldn't have happened at a more strategic moment for spreading the message about Jesus. Jesus' first followers--disciples--were all Jewish and believed Him to be the Messiah (Anointed One in English, Christos in Greek) for whom Jews had long waited. On the first Pentecost after Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension, the disciples were empowered to tell Jews from throughout much of the known world about Jesus so that they, in turn, could carry that news back to with them to other Jews in their adopted homelands.

The term Pentecost comes from Greek, the language in which the New Testament was originally written and means fiftieth, as in fiftieth day.

More tomorrow, I hope.