Title: Love Alone
Scripture: John 14:15-21
Author: Christopher B. Harbin
I grew up amid conflicting takes on God, Jesus, and the gospel. Among more conservative voices around me, I heard of a God whose primary interests were accountability for sin, condemnation, and punishment. God's default position was the active condemnation of people to eternal hell. From others like my dad, I heard of God as primarily loving and caring for all of humanity. On the one hand, God's will made little sense and there was little hope of actually understanding it. God's logic lay beyond human reach and comprehension. One needed to memorize the rules to escape condemnation. On the other hand, the rules originated and flowed from God's character of love. Love came first, then the rules explained what love looked like in our lives and interactions with others. In this second instance, God's will was simple to understand, as it was always in support of life, peace, and community.
Proponents of both concepts looked to the Bible to underwrite their understanding of God and God's purposes. The biggest difference fell along this line of how they understood God's character. Was God the all-powerful ruler dictating and directing life according to whim or an unseen agenda, or was God foremost the loving Creator who wanted us to learn love as God's character and design for our living? In the midst of that conflict, people on both sides were convinced the gospel called them to act in faithfulness by calling people to salvation in Christ.
No one highlighted this basic difference in perspective. No one taught me to navigate the waters of these competing notions of God, though that was where I lived. I could embrace what I learned from my dad and his Wesleyan background, but it came in tension from competing voices and notions about God, Jesus, the Bible, and salvation. These concepts remained at odds, even as folks on both groups were represented among my lar ...
Scripture: John 14:15-21
Author: Christopher B. Harbin
I grew up amid conflicting takes on God, Jesus, and the gospel. Among more conservative voices around me, I heard of a God whose primary interests were accountability for sin, condemnation, and punishment. God's default position was the active condemnation of people to eternal hell. From others like my dad, I heard of God as primarily loving and caring for all of humanity. On the one hand, God's will made little sense and there was little hope of actually understanding it. God's logic lay beyond human reach and comprehension. One needed to memorize the rules to escape condemnation. On the other hand, the rules originated and flowed from God's character of love. Love came first, then the rules explained what love looked like in our lives and interactions with others. In this second instance, God's will was simple to understand, as it was always in support of life, peace, and community.
Proponents of both concepts looked to the Bible to underwrite their understanding of God and God's purposes. The biggest difference fell along this line of how they understood God's character. Was God the all-powerful ruler dictating and directing life according to whim or an unseen agenda, or was God foremost the loving Creator who wanted us to learn love as God's character and design for our living? In the midst of that conflict, people on both sides were convinced the gospel called them to act in faithfulness by calling people to salvation in Christ.
No one highlighted this basic difference in perspective. No one taught me to navigate the waters of these competing notions of God, though that was where I lived. I could embrace what I learned from my dad and his Wesleyan background, but it came in tension from competing voices and notions about God, Jesus, the Bible, and salvation. These concepts remained at odds, even as folks on both groups were represented among my lar ...
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