NavNight Talk--[29.3.2011]

Title: The Nature of True Biblical Love

All love hath its foundation in relationship.
--John Owen

Introduction--

In Matthew xxii.34-40, Jesus sums up the entirety of our obedience in two commands: Love God, and love others. This certainly seems easy. And in fact, a religion built upon love has a great deal of cultural resonance. Why, then, is it so difficult?

Thing of the great variety of acts that are claimed to be done in the name of love. Both Jonathan's service to David and Amnon's rape of Tamar were acts motivated by the emotional experience of love. Very different in their outcome. Love is difficult because its true nature is little understood.

Part I-- The Nature of True Love

I John iv.10--This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sin.

From this passage, we can arrive at the following definition of love:

Freely willing the best to another

Let's examine this definition as displayed in God's love to us, and also in that which claims the name of love but is actually counterfeit.

1) "to another"--God's love is set upon an object, this object being an external person. All love goes out to another person.

Counterfeit love convinces us that we have set our love on another. However, the ultimate object is ourselves, and only secondarily others.

2) "willing"-- God's love acts. It is not an emotional expression (indeed, God being immutable does not experience passionate love), but an act, a decision. He sent his Son.

Counterfeit love exists primarily in the emotions and only secondarily in action. It may rise up to action, but not necessarily. This is why counterfeit love is so changeable, so temporary. Emotions change, and love which exists primarily in the emotions will change with them.

3) "the best"-- God's love is an exalting love, or a love that gives to its object that actual best. In this case, it is the reconciliation with God that atonement brings.

Counterfeit love generally desires good for its object (few men will evil as evil to another and call it love). However, it is a good that concurs with the good of the one loving, and not necessarily the best. The example of this is the parent who shirks the pain of discipline. He may give a good thing to his child (some pleasure, some desired thing), but in robbing him of the benefits of discipline, he does not give him the best.

4) "freely"-- God's love is without cause, spontaneous. It is not dependent on anything in the one loved. "Not that we loved God" John says, indicating that his love came not in response to our motions of love. It initiated. This is a universal declaration of Scripture. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Counterfeit love is most clearly delineated from true love here. Counterfeit love is dependent, conditional, and need-based. Counterfeit love asks first for something from the object of its love. We love because we are first loved.

Now then, since we are dependent creatures, capable of no truly free act, it stands to reason that all our love is counterfeit love. We can not move into love without asking for something back from the one we love. This is often obscured from us because we are receiving back from the other person what we want. This asking, this demanding from others some desired emotion, some need, this is generally not a conscious act.

So then, we are confronted with this paradox concerning love: True love must be free. Our love cannot be free. What resolves this?

John again makes it clear in his epistle: We love because he first loved us.

Part II--How to love others, and God

A foundation, and three steps:

Foundation

We must first be reconciled to God in Christ. Excluded from the presence of God by our sin, we are cut off from him whom we were meant to live upon. Christ came to bring those who were far off near to God. All those desires, all the needs which we ask the world around us to satisfy, were meant to be satisfied in God. You cannot love unless you have been born again.

In Christ, you are at peace with God. In Christ, God loves you. This love is a completing love that satisfies. This is the foundation you stand upon in this world, this word of peace spoken to you which meets your every need so fully that you are free to move outward in love towards the world around you.

This is the foundation. If you are not reconciled to God, your love will never be free.

Step 1

Seek to satisfy all your felt needs in Christ.

Though all needs are objectively met in the gospel, the weakness of our flesh and the turmoil of our worldly life daily disturbs us. We may seek from others a need that is properly met only in Christ. The human heart has two primary nees

1. To be known and understood

Objectively you are know by God. Pour out your heart to him.

2. To be loved and cherished.

Objectively you are loved by God. Speak to yourself this truth.

The pathway of satisfying our needs in Christ is a process of preaching to ourselves truth. Bring yourself daily to his presence.

Step 2

Know the limitations of your love, and seek to remedy them.

There are two limitations to our love.

1. Power-- We are limited by our ability to accomplish that which we want. We cannot bring all the good we want to others.

Remedy: Pray. God's power is not limited. Our model here is the group of friends who brought their paralyzed friend on a mat to Jesus.

2. Knowledge-- We are limited in our knowledge both of what is the best for others, and in the best way to bring it about.

Remedy: The Word contains all sufficient information for us. This is the meaning of Paul's prayer in Phillipians

May your love abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight

Step 3

Act.

Two warnings as you act in love towards others.

1. Loving another person may cause immediate pain to him or to you (or both). So the pathways of love may be difficult.

2. You may be wrong about your motives and the purity of your love. You must be humble, self-searching, and meek in your love. Seek sincerity (Paul: Love must be sincere)

Part III--The patterns of love

Here are a few short tips on improving your knowledge of the pathways of love. The duties of love change based on the nature of the relationship between lover and beloved. We see two general patterns in Scripture, modeled for us in the trinitarian relationship.

The love of protection or correction-- (the love of the Father for the Son), (a disposing love)
The love of obedience or respect-- (the love of the Son for the Father), (a submitting love)

These patterns exist first in our love to God. All love for God has the nature of obedience. We cannot love God apart from obedience. The emotional experience of our love must follow in this train, accompanying and making sweet the obedience that we render. Scripture is very clear that God is not loved unless he is obeyed. Jesus says the same thing! If you love me, you will obey my commands. Christ exist in relationship to us as the husband to the wife. Thus, as a wife to her husband, we must obey and submit to him.

These patterns are expressed in all human relationships. There are four primary human relationships.

1. Government-citizen (both civil and religious government)
2. Master-servant (we would say, employer-employee)
3. Husband-wife
4. Parent-child

Peer relationships should be defined by mutual submission, so that we sometimes express love to peers through protection and correction, and at other times by submission and obedience.

Part IV--A brief word on emotions

Most of us associate love very strongly with its emotional component, and it would be easy to assume from this sermon that I am entirely discounting that aspect of it, as if true love were cold and dispassionate, assessment based, coolly rational. Let me be clear in saying that the emotional experience of love, or the investment of our heart in the object of our love, is a glorious and beautiful thing. Indeed, God has seen fit to increase the emotional delight in others as relationship grow closer and closer, so that the nearest we will experience the joys of full relationship with him in heaven is represented to us by the husband-wife union.

However, the sweetness and joys of emotional love are meant to accompany and complete the physical actings of it. We must strive to bring our emotions into line with the Word of God and with our rational experience. Actions must lead emotions, not vice versa.

NavNight Talk--[22.3.2011]

Title: The Nature of True Biblical Faith

All faith respecteth a testimony.
--John Owen

There are two ways that faith may fail us.

1. It may fail (that is, it may never have been true). This is daily evidenced to us by apostasy of false Christians, but is noticed most particularly in cases where faith tested by trial or persecution fails.

2. Faith may be misplaced. This faith often has a false strength, because the devil often declines to assault it. All false religion in the world is a misplaced faith. An example of this is the multitude of Byzantine Christians who died to defend iconography. Brave in the face of suffering, but for a cause that God actively opposes.

How can we ensure that our faith is neither failing nor misplaced? What even is faith?

(Side tangent--I am sick of people speaking vaguely for effect, or describing their Christian life in terms that they cannot define. If I ask someone to live by faith, I want them to know clearly what that means. This is real communication. [Side side-tangent--why does everyone think Rob Bell is such a good communicator if he does not do this? He is a communication inhibitor! He discourages real communication])

Part I--The nature of faith in general

Faith has three parts

1. A testimony about the future
2. A person(s) giving this testimony
3. An implicitly or explicitly requested response

What does this look like in action? Here is an example.

When you board an airplane, you have no guarantee that the plane will get you safely to your destination.

1. However, the testimony given is that the plane will take you safely to your destination.
2. This testimony is given by a wide variety of sources: the airline's reputation, the reputation of American airline travel, the safety record, your past experience, the experience of others, perhaps the principles of aerodynamics themselves.
3. Your response (if you find these testimonies convincing) is to board the plane and venture upon the testimony.

From this, we can establish a simple and practical definition of faith.

Faith is the faculty of our soul that connects the truth of a testimony to our will.

Perhaps you don't think that is so simple. Here is another.

Faith is our "sense of truth" (think, sense of smell or sense of hearing) that enables us to act in response to a testimony or promise.

Several important observations from this:

1. Faith always has to do with something that is not seen. Faith looks to the future, or present the future to the mind. Thus, faith is "being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." The KJV here presents an interesting alternate translation: Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith brings the future outcome and presents it to our minds in the present.

2. Faith is weak or strong based on our perception of the trustworthiness of the person giving the testimony. Thus if the plane we are thinking of boarding is old and rickety, and this same airline has recently had a string of fatal crashes, our faith will be weaker, and may entirely fail.

Part 2--Types of Faith

1. Natural or scientific faith

A) The testimony here is given by the laws of the natural world. These are orderly and can be trusted to give accurate testimonies about the future.

B) This type of faith is very strong in the modern world.

C) The limitations of this type of faith:

--Though the laws themselves are orderly, our understanding of them is imperfect.
--They are confined in the subject of their testimonies. They can speak about only created things. They can tell us nothing of anything above themselves.

2. Human/Institutional faith

A) The testimony here is given by a human or group of humans. If the origin of the testimony is not known, it is called tradition.

B) The strength of this faith depends on our perception of the speaker. In general, institutional faith is quite weak in the modern world. We are more willing to trust the personal experience of those we know deeply. It should be noted that this was not always the case, and that in the past institutions have commanded a lot of faith.

C) The limitations of this type of faith:

--The self-interest of men, who rarely tell the whole truth
--The fallibility of men, even when motives are pure

Human faith is often strong when it is traditional, or when the speaker of the testimony is not known and thus it is easy to imagine pure motives.

Note: The faith you have in your own conceptions is human, and thus limited by your fallibility and self-interest. There are few men in this world that have the humility to distrust their own foolish conceptions.

3. Biblical faith, or divine faith

In almost every instance, when the Bible talks about faith and belief, this is the type of faith it is indicating. Important passages to study for understanding these things are II Corinthians 3 and John 5.

A) The testimony here is the voice of God himself, spoken in two ways.

Hebrews 1:1-2

In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.

OT through the prophets, at various times. Then a final and complete testimony delivered all at once (and recorded by those he taught himself, the apostles). This is the NT.

B) The testimony is received strongly or weakly according to the perception of the voice itself.

Here is important point, because it is only the Holy Spirit speaking through the Word itself that enables the fallen understanding of man to perceive the voice of God. Thus Paul's prayer that God would give the Ephesians "the Spirit of wisdom and understanding," and that God would "open the eyes of their heart so that they may see the hope to which he has called them." Christ himself instructs us, "he who has ears let him hear."

For this reason, divine faith is said to be a gift of God, for it requires a work of God. We are not saved by our faith, but rather through our faith (instrumentally).

C) This faith has no limitations. The God who speaks it is both omnipotent and omniscient. His knowledge is not limited, and so what he speaks about can be trusted as fully true. His power is not limited, and so what he says will come to pass he is able to perform.

Part III--Signs of weak faith

1. Disobedience to God

2. Contrary obedience to human authority

Part IV--How to strengthen faith

1. Pray: Open my ears to your voice as I read the Scriptures.

2. Labor to know God deeper, especially to know his power, love, and wisdom.

3. We must know also the testimony itself, it must be written on our hearts so that the Holy Spirit may continually speak through it. (In other words, read the Bible more and memorize it)

4. Labor to know God's Word as a guide for all your actions, as the control for all your thoughts about God, and as a channel for your emotional experience of God.

The good old days

When people used to comment on my blog.

Love Wins

Question: Do you believe in hell? Tell us plainly.

Answer: Yes, I believe in hell.

Q: Excellent! So you believe in a place of eternal conscious torment where God will punish the unregenerate.

A: No of course not.

Q: (confused surprise)

A: I am sorry, when I say I believe in hell, I am of course referring to a radical redefinition of hell that has no Scriptural foundation and which I have invented based on philosophical assumptions about the nature of God's love. I think hell as a place of eternal conscious torment is offensive and evil.

Q: But when I asked the question, "do you believe in hell," you must have known that I was referring to the Biblical conception of it.

A: Yes I did.

Q: Then why did you say yes? Because you actually do not believe in that, or anything remotely resembling that. You actually think that it is evil. For you to say yes to my question when you clearly knew what I meant was actually deceptive.

A: Yes. My conception of hell is so far removed from what everybody means when they say hell, that it would be constructive to clear communication if I called it something else. After all, the way I have defined hell is more or less equivalent to "pain and suffering as a result of living in a fallen world."

Q: Why don't you call it something else then? Since the goal of writing and preaching is clear communication, it would greatly help all of your listeners understand what you really meant if you didn't toy with words.

A: Yes.

Q: So why don't you? The only conclusion that I can make from this is that you don't actually particularly care about clear communication.

A: That is true. I find if I can use ambiguous words, or redefine words, it gives me a great deal of latitude in dealing with criticism. For example, if someone accuses me of saying there is no hell, I can say that I do believe in hell. This takes the winds out of the sails of his criticism. Then if he tries to pin me down to a precise meaning of words, I can accuse him of being needlessly critical and obsessed with doctrine at the expense of charity.

Q: But this isn't helpful to the church at all! If I asked you if you were allergic to peanuts, and you said yes, you'd expect that when I said peanuts, I meant the thing that you are actually allergic to. If I had redefined peanuts to mean wheat, I could actively harm you through my miscommunication! Communication is difficult enough already in this fallen world, why hinder it further?

A: I don't know. I like being popular. I am afraid of total rejection by the evangelical world.

Q: Why do you have such a great reputation as a communicator? Even your enemies say this. But communication is about preciseness of language and the actual exchange of ideas. You seem more interest in ambiguous impressions that your audience can interpret however the will, or at least, that gives you flexibility to defend yourself from critics on both sides.

A: The root of my reputation is from my story-telling ability and my personal charisma. Both of those are undeniable.

Q: Such qualities are possessed by many in the world. Both are neutral gifts which the possessor has an obligation to use for the glory of God. True communication, after all, is an unfolding of the mind of God by the power of his Spirit. This done only through the Word of God. It is practical, for the aid of the listeners, to encourage them unto obedience and perseverance. It is done with humility and care.

A: I use the Scriptures in my preaching and writing.

Q: Do you use them to defend a position you have already arrived at? Or do you develop your argument exegetically?

A: Without question the first.

Q: Then you have no power in your words, since they are your own. They may have a form of power, a temporary response to your natural giftings. But the true power of all teaching and preaching is the Holy Spirit operating through his Word. You are but an instrument.

A: I don't have the same motivations for my writings and my preaching. I am interested in helping people, but in a slightly different way. I want to create a form of Christianity that allows men to silence their conscience while giving their sin free reign.

Q: Come now, even your harshest critics don't accuse you of that. Surely that can't be your conscious object!

A: No, not my conscious object, but since this is the result of all false religion, it is what ultimately motivates my heart. I have a hard time telling people that haven't repented and sought salvation in Christ that they will be punished for it. Also, many of the people in my church who are attracted to my doctrine-light and permissive form of teaching struggle to comprehend such harshness. Since they think little of their own sin, they have trouble thinking much of it in others.

Q: But you will be judged not on the attractiveness of your doctrine, but on its fidelity to God's Words! These aren't small things that you are trifling with!

A: Well, to comfort myself, I would rather believe in a God who would show mercy to me in all things, even over and against his Word.

Q: What do you make of the many warnings against false teachers and the specific warning to teachers, that they will be judged more severely? Don't these give you pause?

A: No. I trust in his mercy.

Q: But faith goes out to a spoken word! We trust his mercy because of the assurance he gives in laying hold of the means by which he shows us grace! We trust his Word first, and foremost!

A: Why do you challenge my vague sayings? Why do you disturb the peace I have spoken to myself?

Q: Because the minister is not under obligation to falsely comfort his listeners, but to guide them safely to Christ! How dare you speak peace to men where God has not?

A: I knew that there would be doctrine police who would try to pick apart my teaching!

Q: Do you distrust my motives? Do you think I am trying to score points for myself here? Do you think that I might be legitimately concerned about the effect of your teachings? Could you extend charity also to me and assume that if I criticize your writings it is out of concern for your soul and the souls of your many readers?

A: That is the charity that I ask of you. I see no reason to extend it back.

The Theologian

His words are careful and precise.

He does not tolerate studied ambiguity.

He desires to place himself in the stream of the thought of the church, and so he must also be a historian.

He is suspicious of novelty and wild claims of rediscovery.

He knows, with Solomon, that there is nothing new under the sun, that heresy is constantly repeating itself.

He is familiar with his sin, knowing that the ears that itch are his own.

He fears wide-spread acclaim.

He writes not to write but for the good of those who read.

His writing is approached with fear and trembling.

He knows that not many should teach, and has carefully come to the conclusion that he may permit himself to do so.

He knows that theology is about living, and that living must be done in knowledge.

He knows that his words must be practical and true.

He fears dryness.

He submits every thought to the Word.

His words are plain.

He despises the dilettante, the lover of mere words, the frivolous pursuer of ideas.

He must pray.

He feels (the weight) and knows that one day he will be accountable for every word he has said.

NavNight Talk-- 1.3.2011

We return to Jesus's earthly ministry:

Jesus went
Jesus taught
Jesus preached
Jesus healed

This week we will focus on the third part of his ministry, his preaching. Remember that teaching and preaching can be distinguished by the part of the soul that they address. Teaching is compared to light in a dark place; it addresses the mind. Preaching, however, addresses itself to the will, drawing forth the conclusions brought to light by the teaching.

Preaching is where they offense comes in, preaching is where Jesus entered the lives of the people he spoke to. Preaching has the character of a command, or instruction, and as such it cannot be passively heard. To be passive under preaching IS to respond. This is the nature of things. If I say to you, "Do this," it is impossible for you to stay neutral. You either do it or you refuse. Inactivity is refusal. Jesus denied everyone the opportunity to remain neutral towards him by preaching.

Text: John vii.37-38

37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them."

Jesus's preaching is general but not universal. He speaks generally to the masses in the temple for the Passover feast. However, his preaching by nature of being confined to one place and one time is not universal.

1. The condition of those he address: "If anyone is thirsty..."

Thirst has four parts.

A) A lack of moisture--This is an intolerable condition leading to death.

B) An awareness of it--No matter how dire a man's condition, we cannot say he thirsts unless he is aware of his lack. Hence Christ, "Blessed are the poor."

C) An awareness of the possibility of being satisfied--Simply the awareness of a lack of moisture does not breed thirst; it would breed simply despair. Thirst also stirs the soul into seeking a remedy.

D) Knowledge of the location of this satisfaction--Water will satisfy our lack of moisture. Therefore thirst motivates the soul to seek after water.

Now, the sum of Christ's teaching is to create in man a thirst. First, he revealed to man the dangers of his spiritual condition, his extreme poverty through sin, and the death that awaits all who disobey the law. Second, he presented himself as the Messiah, the sent one, the one through whom forgiveness and new life would come.

His message: You are thirsty and I am water.

If his listeners were not convinced of these two things, all his preaching was useless.

2. The call, or the invitation

In two parts:

A) The voice

Every call has a voice, every command comes from a commander, a speaker. In this case, it is the voice of God which addresses us in the call. When we read Jesus say, "Come to me," in the Word, it is the voice of God itself which addresses us.

Now, not everyone perceives it to be God. Hence the diversity of responses. Jesus says, he who has ears let him hear. If Christ calls, and you hear in his voice the summons of God, you will respond. Our response to any voice is based on our perception of the authority of the speaker.

B) The command

We can call this a command, because the one who speaks it has the authority of a king. But we can also call it an invitation, because the one who speaks it is filled with tenderness and love surpassing our understanding. He entices and commands in the same words.

The words of his command are simple: "Come to me and drink." This is to believe in him with the faith that ushers to soul into his presence. This is to seek in him the remedy for what bestirs the soul. Are you thirsty? Here is water. Are you hunger? Here is bread. Are you weary? Here is rest. Are you sick? Here is healing. Are you enslaved? Here is freedom.

Come to me and drink, you who are thirsty. Why would we summon them thus unless in him WAS the water that could satisfy their thirst? This is metaphor of course, a powerful one because of the nature of thirst, but to the soul in need of life, Christ summons you. Here is forgiveness and the new birth. Here is hope. He calls because he possesses it to give, and because he is willing to give.

Anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists, and that he rewards those that seek him. Believe these two things about the call:

--The call comes from God, it is an invitation from him who has all power.
--That in responding, you will receive full satisfaction. Your needs will be fully met.

--------------------------------

This is not once, but constant. What is it to come to Christ?

1. To seek in him the satisfaction of all desires (and its corollary: to not seek in other things the satisfaction of any desire).

To whom does your heart belong? Life is given only by Christ. Where else do you seek it?

2. To take the yoke of Christ upon yourself.

To come to Christ is to be his, and to not come to other things. No one who places one hand on the plow and yet looks back is fit for service to the kingdom of God. His yoke is easy because it is a conformity to the design in which he made us. A thing longs to be as it was made. And so you long to fill yourself with that which alone can fill us. Insatiable desires set upon eternal things give eternal fulfillment. A desire satisfied, said Solomon, is a tree of life.

Come to him once and forsake all other things. Throw off the world, which entices with empty lies. Throw of the flesh, which fogs the senses in empty and vain pleasures. Throw these off and pursue the greatest thing. Come to Christ, once, constantly, forever.