IS GOD LOVING? Answers to 12 questions from Sunday, July 26, 2015

Answers from Pastor David Staff * Christ Community Church, Ames IA

1.  What makes God’s perfect love feel less like that for so many?  Should I explain it, or show it to them?

People are at so many different “places” when it comes to their expectations of what God should (or should not) do, or whether or not they feel God is intervening in their lives with His love.  As I’ve suggested, so many expect God to UNCONDITIONALLY ACCEPT them (and what they choose to believe and do) while at the same time UNIVERSALLY PROTECT them (keep all the bad stuff).

God’s perfect love means He knows what each of us needs to happen in our lives.  He also knows how we’ll respond to what He is quietly arranging or allowing.  It takes them a while to realize what a perfect Father is doing toward them.  His goal, of course, is for us to be humbled before Him and to trust Him.  That process of learning to trust Him may or may not feel loving.

Of course, we should all join you in both explaining God’s love to someone else, but also showing it in the way we love them.  The explanation may not be accepted, especially if there is truth that stings in it.  But then again, when disinfectant is cleaning a wound of what infects, it may sting, but ultimately it heals, right?

Of course, persistently showing God's love to someone is the very best way for them to see the Lord Himself, and be drawn to simple faith and trust in Christ.  Love on!!!

2.  With the “innermost” love of God, is it possible in your view to move in and out of that love?

All of us vacillate through seasons of being disobedient to the Lord (in one season) and then being obedient to God (in a season of humility and repentance).  In the OT period of the JUDGES, God’s people would repent (and God would draw near and help), and then later they would rebel (and God would draw away and discipline).

Jesus’ John 14-15 promises are very simply stated.  Obey God in the things His Word and Spirit teach you, and you find yourself drawn into greater intimacy with the Lord.  Disobey and go your own, willful way, and it is likely you will experience a detached prayer life and a distance from your Father.

3.  What is the elevator-answer or summary on why horrible things happen to good people,  sometimes on a very large scale?

I’m a bit wary of “elevator” answers.  People ask important questions that are complex by their very nature, and unfairly expect a sound-bite response that satisfies.  Horrible things happen to good people because we live in a very fallen, sin-drenched world.  There is a complexity to the things that ripple through our everyday lives.  Hope for moving beyond our tragedies is found only in the Lord Jesus Christ, who rescues us from the penalty of our sin, and promises that accounts will be rectified and settled when God one day judges sin, and ushers us into a new world where righteousness dwells.

4.  How do you get someone to want to talk about how awesome God is?  How can you be a model for Christ?

One suggestion might be to have this friend read a book about the wonders of God’s creative hand.  Richard Swenson’s MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE: Fascinating Glimpses of God’s Creative Design would be a great book to read.  Tough to put down, and could be a real coffee-shop-discussion starter.

5.  How do we know the difference between what is God’s love vs. evil from the devil?

At one level, we may not be able to “tell” it right away.  For example, when all that stuff hit into Job’s life (OT Book of Job, chapters 1-2), he really didn’t know who was behind it.  He later laid the blame at God’s feet.  In Job’s case, God let the destructive power of the devil have some impact in Job’s life. 

It may not be, ultimately, important to know the source of the struggles.  More important to remember is that if we love God (Romans 8:28), God is “able to work all things together for the good…for those who are called according to God’s purpose.”  God is asking us to TRUST HIM no matter what happens, or where it comes from.  Even Job’s struggles had a limit because of God’s restricting hand.  And, in the end, God worked all things together for the good in his servant Job’s life.

6.  How do we embrace and receive God’s love?

First, we can embrace and receive God’s love by understanding what God has told us about His loving.  This is why I presented this teaching from Scripture on July 26.

Second, in the experiences of life, we embrace and receive God’s love by framing our experience with the truths that we know from the Bible.  Sometimes, we hear God tell us something, but then later in our experience, we forget what He’s said.  We fail to apply the truth in the situation in which we are living.  To not apply is to forfeit embracing God’s love.

Third, I think we best embrace and receive God’s love by sharing His love with others.  Being loving to others.  Doing God’s love helps us understand what it is.  Whom in your life is experiencing God’s love through you these days?

7.  If God is love, what is (the) devil?

Jesus said that the devil, whom He called “the thief,” comes only to steal, kill, and destroy (see John 10:10a, the 1^st ½ of the verse). The devil does not love people (i.e., sacrifice himself for their good).  His only objective is to take life from them, kill what is good in their lives, and destroy them through sin. 

8.  God’s discipline or punishment for my sin?  Isn’t my sin cleansed by Jesus’ blood?  How do we continue to accept that punishment and continue our faith?

I like these questions.  They are important.  Here are several words we need to be clear about. 

DISCIPLINE – this word speaks of God using difficult circumstances in living to shape and develop and strengthen Godly character.  There is no punishment involved.  Rather, difficulty is used to make better. 

PUNISHMENT – this is the death penalty that comes with sin.  You are right to remember that Jesus took our punishment for sin, fully, on the cross.  God never punishes his own children, who are declared righteous in Christ, for their sin. 

CONSEQUENCES – God’s children may experience the inherent consequences in their lives should they choose to sin.  For example, Proverbs says that a man who “commits adultery against his wife lacks sense…like someone who takes burning logs and hugs them in his bosom.”  The point – adultery destroys what is good in  a person’s life.  It’s an unavoidable consequence when anyone chooses sin. 

Summary – God doesn’t punish his children for the sin that Jesus paid for.  That debt is paid.  God may discipline his children, using difficult things which come into life, to mold and shape their character into godliness.  God will allow his children to experience the consequences of sin if they choose to do it, not a s a punishment, but to teach that chosen sin is indeed a foolish choice.

9.  Does the world not understand God’s love because they don’t know the battle is spiritual and not physical?

I believe the world often misunderstands God’s love because people in the world are not aware of the character of God nor why He does anything in the world.  It may be correct that they assume struggles are merely physical things, and thus think that they can simply manage the physical and life will be great.  Of course, we know that the world doesn’t work that way.

10.  How do we best recognize when God is trying to teach us through hardships?

James says, “If any of you lacks wisdom (about the trials you are going through), let him ask of God, and God will give it (wisdom) to him”  [James 1:2-4].   A simple direction – ask God for insight into your hardship.  He gives wisdom about these things generously, if we are willing to ask and wait for Him to speak.

11.  If God is love, why does He take the ones we love?  My brother died in a car crash at 27.  He was a great believer and man.

I’m sorry for the (temporary) loss of your brother.  No doubt the hurt and absence in your life is very real.  We don’t know why God’s hand takes some of his own special servant “home early.”  You’ll remember from Actds 7-8 that a very gifted and committed Christian, Stephen, was stoned to death and went home to be with Christ, whom he saw “standing at the right hand of God.”

Even in the tough, seemingly pre-mature losses of loved ones, God assures of this.  “It is very much better to depart and be with Christ” (Philippians 1:23).  Let me ask you – do you believe that?  That to depart and be with Christ is “far better” than staying here?  We struggle to accept that.  WE think that it would be far better for your brother to still be here.  Should we not, though, believe what God has said about this, rather than our cherished opinions.  I would nudge you to believe what God has said.  It is better – though hurtful for us – that He is with Christ right now…what could be better?

12.  If Christians don’t obey, are they Christians?   Matthew 7:18-21?

We know from the letters written to Christians in churches in the New Testament that very often Christians disobey?  Don’t you disobey sometimes?  To be sure, as Jesus points out, when a Christians lives disobedient lifestyles, they are not showing the fruit of Christ to the world.  Some pretending Christians may also be among those who show their true colors by not bearing any fruit in their lives.

But we mustn’t, I believe, deny the reality that very often, Christians struggle to obey.  This is why Paul wrote to the Ephesians, for example, and said, “Look, you have to take off the old man and put on the new man (Eph 4:20-24), replacing some very bad, disobedient habits (like laziness, filthy speech, etc.) with renewed-in-Christ habits (like hard work, pure speech, etc.).  Christians can disobey, and should be in a process of becoming more and more obedient to the Lord Jesus.