Theological Ethics: A Mustard Seed Approach

"God is light, and in Him is no un-Christlikeness"--Graham Cole

Take a few of Paul's commands to the church in Rome: "Love must be sincere.  Hate what is evil; cling to what is good" (12:9); "Do not repay anyone evil for evil; respect what is right in the sight of all men.  If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men" (12:17-18).

Do God and Jesus adhere to these ethical commands?*  Is it odd to consider that God himself clings to good, doesn't meet evildoers with evil and seeks peace with his creation?  Or that Jesus loved sincerely and did what was right in the sight of men? (I find that last bit especially interesting).

*I'm sorry I left out the Holy Spirit.  I'll try to make it up to him in a later post.

I Love Books...

...because I am a sinner.

I love them because they impress people when they see how many I have.
I love them because they give me information I can use to impress others.
I love them because when I read them I can assert my knowledge and opinions above the author and even rebuke him for his weaknesses.
I love them because I can take the information I want and ignore the wisdom and insight that confronts my sins and shortcomings.
I love books because they can take me away from God.


*Note: This post was not written to attack or convict others who like books. This post is pure autobiographical reflection, intended to display the sins of my heart in one specific area (books). I am also not saying that books are inherently evil; it would be pure, undiluted foolishness to say that--and I don't believe that anyway.

Thoughts on the Love of God

1 John 4:8 is the religious trump card. Regardless of one's degree of religiosity, appealing to this verse elevates the card player's speaking to ex cathedra-l status, thereby promptly ending the discussion and leaving the loser physically and theologically tongue-tied.

After a few months of iterative thought regarding this verse, I felt like I should try to clarify my thinking on this topic and maybe provide some responses to illegitimate use of this verse which has led to a falsely-constructed theological system (which I shall refer to as hyperagapism for now on). This is by no means comprehensive, and sometimes it will be for my own sheer ejoyment. But I hope most of all that my comments will be edifying and that a fuller view of God and His character may be attained.

First of all, I must point away from myself before I get ahead of myself. I am in debt to A.W. Tozer's The Knowledge of the Holy and D.A. Carson's The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God for first bringing these issues to light for me. Read them and become just like me (the latter comment is false).

Looks like we're out of time. Stay tuned for more.