Monthly Archives: April 2022

WHAT IS HATRED?

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WHAT IS HATRED?

Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. And He has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must love their brother and sister (1 John 4: 20-21).

What comes to mind when you read the word “hate”? Do you think of actions like insulting, swearing, ignoring or deliberately harming the person you hate? Hatred may include treating someone cruelly, for example, but the Bible’s version of hatred is more explicit than that.

Jesus connected anger with murder.

You have heard that it was said to people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment (Matt. 5: 21-22a).

Hatred, like anger, begins in the heart. When one is angry with someone, for whatever reason, one has an underlying attitude of contempt. It is impossible for one person to make another angry. “You make me angry!” is not true. A person chooses to respond in anger when another provokes him.  If he dwells on the offence long enough, he will begin to hate the offender.

However, hatred is more than an attitude towards another person. One does not have to hold malice in the heart to hate. Hatred is as much indifference to another’s need as ill-will is towards that person.

Jesus told a parable in Matt. 25, which illustrates this point. At the end of the age, when He gathers the nations for judgment, He will measure righteousness by an unexpected standard. How did the individual treat his brother? God recognises that people express their love for Him by the way they treat one another. If someone sees a brother in need and does nothing about it, He interprets their neglect as hatred.

“But isn’t that a bit harsh?” you may ask. In what way can we show our love for God? We cannot do anything for God to express our love for Him except love His people. How can we love His people? We can do whatever we can to make their lives comfortable. Jesus said that we ought to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, visit the sick and the prisoner and relieve suffering wherever possible. He does not expect us to save the world. However, there are simple things we can do meet people’s need where we are.

Assisting people in need does not mean that we must only give them money or goods. There are many ways to show God’s love to those who cross our path every day. A kind word or a word of encouragement goes a long way to lift the spirits of a disheartened individual. We can offer practical help in many different ways by giving our time and attention or, sometimes, just to listen. A listening ear often does wonders for a downcast soul.

What does Jesus ask of us, His children? He wants us to be aware of the people around us. We are often so self-absorbed that we are oblivious of the pain others suffer. We have much to give if we turn our attention away from ourselves. Becoming aware of others and intervening where we can is the right thing to do.

However, Jesus did not instruct us to become busybodies. We need to respect the dignity and privacy of others. We must step in and help only when people value our assistance, not when we become interfering or controlling.

We can just as easily steal from another when we withhold help from him as when we take what does not belong to us. We need to be aware that we express our love for Jesus by our obedience to His commands. He summed up every detail of His desire for our lives in the two great commandments of the New Covenant:

And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 1 John 3:23

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

NO FEAR IN LOVE

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NO FEAR IN LOVE

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment. In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because He first loved us (1 John 4: 16-19).

God is love! The world refuses to believe this one truth about God. It places the blame for all the evil in the world at God’s feet as though He were the one who opened the “Pandora’s box” of misery and released it on the human race. People blame God for every hardship they suffer. “Why did God allow this to happen?” she whines when she discovers she is pregnant after a one-night stand. She forgets that she made the choice by submitting to lust.

“Why did God do this to me?” weeps a teenager when he stares at the mangled body of a child whom he has just run over while driving under the influence of alcohol.  Did God force the drink down his throat and shove the car keys into his hand? Why do people blame God for tragedies that happen when they never give Him a thought at any other time? Have they not thought of taking responsibility for their choices?

Satan will do anything and everything in his power to cast doubts on the character of God. He tricked Eve into believing that God was withholding from them their “right” to make their own rules. He was crafty. He questioned God’s love for the first pair by suggesting that he knew better than God what was good for them. If they just tasted the fruit of disobedience, they would be free from God’s restrictions.

It did not occur to them that God set up boundaries around their choices to protect them from harm, not to restrict their enjoyment of what He had given them. Why did he place restrictions on our use and enjoyment of sex, for example? He made marriage, i.e., the union of a man and a woman for life, the fence within in which they can enjoy His perfect gift of physical love. He created us with our physical and psychological make-up. He knows how He put us together to resemble and reflect Him. When we defy His boundaries, we damage ourselves.

No responsible mother would allow a toddler to play in the garden if she left the gate onto a busy highway open. Why would God allow His beloved children to play with sex without closing the gate on the danger of promiscuity? People foolishly believe that they can “play in the street” without being damaged by their disobedience to God’s “boundary fence”. God has set up His warning signs, to change the metaphor, at the edge of every precipice to prevent us from stumbling over the edge. Why blame Him when we fall?

God loves His offspring enough to warn us of danger before we ruin ourselves, but we still blame Him or doubt His love when “stuff happens”.  Every time we defiantly ask “Why?” when we experience trouble or tragedy, we are inadvertently demanding to know what we have done to deserve such treatment from God. We question “why” because we are expressing fear. We are suspicious of God because we do not believe that He loves us. Of what are we afraid?

Punishment! John stated that we do not experience the perfect love of God when we are afraid. Slaves, not God’s children, fear punishment. We fear punishment when we are not convinced that God punished Jesus for all our sin once-for-all. In any legal system, no one can be punished twice for the same crime. Why, then, would God punish His children for their sin again when He punished Jesus for all sin when He died on the cross? 

But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time He waits for His enemies to be made His footstool. For by one sacrifice, He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy (Heb. 10: 13-14).

Gods’ love provided the sacrifice for sin – the life blood of His own Son. There can be no greater demonstration of love than this. God’s love gave us to solution for our sin, but God cannot prevent us from ignoring His boundary fences if we choose to do so. We must face the consequences if we defy His instructions. He does not treat us as puppets.

How must we interpret the adversities we experience that we did not cause through disobedience? Is God responsible for hurting us? Can we blame Him when we suffer hardships despite our faith in Him? There are two valid reasons for continuing to trust God even when we are going through hard times.

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as His children . . . God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in His holiness (Heb. 12: 7: 10b).

God wants to expose and get rid of everything that causes us to mistrust His love.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew He also predestine to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters (Rom. 8: 28-29).

God is removing everything in our lives that hinders us from becoming replicas of Jesus. He wants us to be His true sons and daughters just like our elder brother.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

THE TEST OF A TRUE BELIEVER

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Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us. This is how we know that we live in Him and He in us; He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Saviour of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God (1 John 4: 11-15).

How can we identify true believers against the backdrop of so much spurious Christianity in the world today?

Some preachers tell us that we must subscribe to the doctrines of their denomination or persuasion to be authentic Christians. As long as we believe, for example, that we have a passport to heaven if we have signed a decision card or answered an altar call and have “accepted Jesus as our personal Saviour”. Any of these actions guarantee that we have been “saved”.

The Bible’s criteria for assurance that we the true sons and daughters of God are somewhat different from what these preachers present. John wrote that the test of a true believer lies not in what he says but in what he is and does. The first test of authentic faith is love for God and love for one another. God’s love in us comes from the Holy Spirit. He makes our dead spirits live when we believe and confess that Jesus is the Son of God and the God raised Him from the dead.

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (Rom. 10: 9).

He pours the love of God into our hearts.

God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom. 5: 5b)

He changes us from selfish and greedy rebels to loving and obedient children and reassures us that we are children of God.

The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by Him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children (Rom. 8: 15-16).

Peter explained the meaning of the strange behaviour of the first disciples on the Day of Pentecost. God was fulfilling His promise to “pour out His Spirit on all flesh”, just as Joel had prophesied. The people of Jerusalem were witnessing the culmination of God’s promise to save His people from their sin and to fill them with His presence.

Peter did not invite them to “accept Jesus as their personal Saviour” to save them from the penalty of their sin. He declared the truth that Jesus Christ is both Lord and Christ

Therefore, let all of Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah (Acts 2: 36).

Peter’s statement electrified the people. They responded with the conviction of what they had done and a cry of alarm.

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do (Acts 2: 37).

Peter reassured them that God would save them if they changed their minds about what they had done to Jesus and received His forgiveness of sin.

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2: 38-39).

Peter’s hearers understood his words. He commanded them to change their minds about Jesus. They crucified Him as a blasphemer. God proved them wrong by raising Him from the dead. He was not an imposter as they believed; He was the Son of God. What they had to do was to acknowledge Him as Lord and confirm their allegiance to Him by submitting to the ritual of baptism into His name. Baptism initiated them into Jesus and identified them with Him and His Body of believers.

Let’s get back to the Word of God!

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

REAL AND UNCHANGING LOVE

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REAL AND UNCHANGING LOVE

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love. This is how God showed His love among us. He sent His one and only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. This is love; not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4: 7-10).

This is one of the most profound passages of Scripture in the whole Bible. Strange that it should come from the pen of one who was once nicknamed, together with his brother James, “Boanerges”, sons of thunder. These two brothers were real hotheads.

Jesus had to rebuke them for wanting the fry the Samaritans in a certain village in Samaria for refusing hospitality to Jesus. It’s quite understandable that the Samaritans didn’t want this Jew in their village. After all, it was the Jews who despised the Samaritans, not the other way around. Why would they accept Him into their homes and then have Him ridicule them to their faces? Of course, they did not know Jesus. 

This same hothead wrote these words, Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. What brought about the transformation?Just being with Jesus and being loved by Him! Three years in the Master’s company did wonders for the disposition of these two brothers, but it was even more than that. John himself was loved – deeply loved by Jesus. Jesus loved him not only for who he was but also despite who he was. Did you get that? That’s the miracle of God’s love. It’s so different from human love.

We love those to whom we are drawn because of their looks, their personalities, their way of treating us etc. Our love is mostly reciprocal. Have you ever watched a new father gazing into the face of his new-born baby? There is nothing but wonder and love in his eyes. He holds in his arms a helpless little person who is utterly dependent on him, and he rises to the occasion. He resolves in his heart to protect, provide, and care for the little one for the rest of its life.

However, gradually things change. The helpless baby becomes a stubborn, self-willed toddler who throws temper tantrums, refuses to obey, and causes the father great frustration and embarrassment, especially when the child kicks and screams in rage on the shop floor when he cannot get his way. The same father who adored his baby son now beats him mercilessly or shouts at him endlessly when the child begins to show the same characteristics that are in him.

By the time his son reaches teenage, father and son have lost connection with one another. Love has given way to indifference or ever rejection. Why? Because the child did not come up to the father’s expectations, or even worse, the son was so like his father that the father couldn’t bear to have him nearby. Where is the love for his child now? 

The love of God is not like that. God loves because He cannot help it. Love is the very essence of who He is. God loves us, not because of but despite who and what we are. We are His offspring, made in His image, alive by His breath in us. He loves us because of Himself, not because of us. Nothing we do or do not do changes or affects His love. He cannot love us any more or any less than He loves us now.  

Is it any wonder that the devil works so hard to keep us from believing in the love of God? Who would run from a love like that if we really grasped the enormity and the reality of a love that embraces the worst of us and transforms us from hotheads to lovers of God?

How can we be sure of this love? Love is an action, not an emotion word. Love reveals its nature by what it does. God’s love reached its highest point in the gift of His Son to a world that hated and rejected Him. How great that love gives, but what about a love that gives the very best you have, to have it thrown back in your face? That’s what His people did to the Father. He knew it would happen, but He gave anyway.

It was not only the Father who gave. The Son also gave – His life for the sins of the world. No one will ever know what He endured for the sake of love. His love was written in blood on the soil of His beloved land, spilled at the feet of those who hated and crucified Him. How reciprocal was that!  No, God’s love is pure giving love.

It is this love that melts our hardened hearts and calls for a response of love. We love because He first loved us. It was this love that melted John’s heart and transformed a hothead into the apostle of love. It was this love that changed Paul from a murderer to a passionate lover of Jesus who was unafraid to pour out his own life blood for his Master.

If you gaze at this love long enough, you too will be transformed. 

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

TRUTH IS INDESTRUCTIBLE

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TRUTH IS INDESTRUCTIBLE

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognise the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood (1 John 4: 4-6)

Really, John! Are you so arrogantly cocksure of yourself? How can you say that you are from God and that anyone who knows God listens to you? What about the times you said things that drew a rebuke from Jesus?

No, John was not being arrogantly cocksure but calmly confident for several reasons. Let’s examine them one by one.

  1. John was a disciple of Jesus. He was not chosen simply to trail around behind Jesus for three years. Discipleship in Jesus’ day carried with it some very specific privileges and responsibilities. He was chosen because his rabbi believed that he could become more than his rabbi did. He was to learn to imitate his rabbi in everything Jesus said and did until he was an exact replica of his master. He was to learn His teachings (His yoke) and pass them on without adding or taking anything away. He would eventually do more than his rabbi did because Jesus was at the Father’s right hand representing him to the Father (John 14:12).
  • As a disciple of Jesus, John carried His authority to interpret His yoke in the spirit and disposition of his rabbi. Jesus taught His disciples that His yoke (His interpretation of the Torah according to God’s original intention) was mercy and His disposition was gentleness and humility (Matt. 11: 28-30). This was the yoke John was to pass on to those who believed in Jesus through his witness.
  • John was equipped with the Holy Spirit who was poured out on the believers on the Day of Pentecost. Jesus promised His disciples that the Spirit whom He would send in His place, would lead them into all truth and would remind them of everything He had taught them. They could rely on Him to represent Jesus and His teachings accurately.   
  • John was writing under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Although, at the time he was writing this letter, he may not have been aware that it would be included in the Holy Scriptures. It was nevertheless recognised as inspired and authoritative by the early church fathers as they accepted the writings of the apostles and others into the canon of Scripture.

For these reasons and perhaps more, John had the right to claim authority to write these words with confidence, not arrogance and to claim that he and his fellow disciples were from God and spoke for God. Unlike the claim of the papacy down the centuries who believe that they are the vicars of Christ and whose words carry more weight than the very Word of God, John wrote, not to contradict the words of Jesus and set up his own standards but to affirm and expand on Jesus’ teachings in the spirit of Torah and in harmony with the nature and teachings of his rabbi.

The Spirit of truth in John would never allow him to set up his own standards. John was assured that, if he taught the truth revealed to him by his Master, and in harmony with the nature of Jesus, he could be sure that he was in line with the revelation Jesus brought about the Father and His work through Jesus. Those who received his teaching as the truth became part of a fellowship of believers in whom the Holy Spirit resided and continued to reveal the truth about the one in whom they believed.

Truth is indestructible. Those who received and believed the truth Jesus taught, and steadfastly obeyed His words, could not be caught up in the ways of the world and stray from the path of obedience to God. The world represents beliefs and ways that are contrary to the kingdom of God. It is impossible to think and behave like those who are in the world’s system and to live as citizens of the God’s kingdom at the same time.

John assured his readers that their citizenship in the kingdom of God nullified the world’s power over them because they had, living within them, the Holy Spirit with all His power and truth. No number of false beliefs propagated by unbelievers could overpower and neutralise their confidence in the truth of God. They had the edge because lies will never outlive truth.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.