A Logical Case for the Existence of God Part I: First Cause

Scenario #1: A homicide detective is investigating a murder. He begins his search for the murderer at the end result of the action (i.e. the crime scene). He uses blood splatter evidence to trace the trajectory of the bullet. He finds the bullet and analyzes the firing pattern to determine the gun it was fired from, etc., working his way back to the murderer (watch any episode of CSI to see this in action).

Explanation:

Scenario #1: In this scenario, a major assumption that the homicide detective makes is the belief that every action has a cause that precedes it, and thus the series of events leading to the murder can be reconstructed and traced back to the originator of the crime, i.e., the first cause of the murder. Whether that is an affair, or money, or abuse as a child, whatever it is, there is the assumption that something (or some-things) happened. And that something(s) set in motion a chain of causal events that led ultimately to the resulting action, i.e. the murder. 

This basic premise can be taken even further, because everything that exists in the universe can be traced down the chain of causality all the way to the beginning; one event causes another, which causes another, which causes another, ad infinitum.  In other words, the whole universe is a vast, interlocking chain of things that come into existence because other things cause them to be. Our murderer would not be here to murder anyone without billions of causes, from the marriages of his parents and their parents all the way back through the development of the first protein molecule to the cooling of the galaxies and the Big Bang.

Everything that comes into existence must either exist by itself (i.e. by its own essence or nature), called an Independent Being, or it must exist because of something else (it was brought into existence/caused), called a Dependent Being. If it is an Independent Being and exists by its own essence/nature, then its being-ness is sufficient to explain its own existence, and it cannot have been created because that would mean it was caused to exist by something else, and thus it exists eternally. It cannot not have these qualities and still exist as an Independent Being, just as a triangle cannot not have three sides and still be a triangle.

If, on the other hand, something is a Dependent Being and exists not by its own essence, then it needs a cause, a reason outside itself for its existence. Dependent Beings cannot cause themselves. They are dependent on their causes. But does the universe as a whole have a cause? Is there a First Cause, an uncaused cause of the whole chain of causality in the universe? If not, then there is an infinite regress of causes, with no first link in the great cosmic chain. If so, then there is an eternal, necessary, independent, self-explanatory being with nothing above it, before it, or supporting it. It would have to explain itself as well as everything else, for if it needed something else as its explanation, its reason, its cause, then it would not be the first and uncaused cause. Such a being would have to be God. If we can prove there is such a First Cause, we will have proved there is a God.

Why must there be a First Cause? If, as previously mentioned, the universe contains only Dependent Beings, then the whole universe is unexplained without a First Cause. If there is no First Cause, each particular thing in the universe is explained in the short run by some other thing, but nothing is explained in the long run, and the universe as a whole is not explained. If there is no First Cause, then the universe is like a train moving without an engine. Each car's motion is explained proximately by the motion of the car in front of it: the caboose moves because the boxcar pulls it, the boxcar moves because the cattle car pulls it, etc. But if there is no engine to pull the first car and the whole train, the train cars cannot move of their own accord. The universe as a whole existing wholly independent of some First Cause is like a train moving without an engine.

Therefore, the universe must have a First Cause, since everything that exists in the universe is dependent (not in its nature sufficient to explain its own existence), and that cause must be an Independent Being. If there is no Independent Being, then the whole chain of causality in the whole of the universe is dependent on nothing and could not exist. But it does exist. Therefore there is a First Cause, that First Cause is itself uncaused and must then be an Independent Being, and this Independent Being is necessarily eternal and explained and justified wholly by its own being-ness, i.e. God.

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The Things of Man

Matthew 16 recounts two contrasting interactions between Jesus and Peter. In the first, Jesus calls Peter blessed because he recognizes and confesses that Jesus is Messiah. In the second, Jesus calls Peter "Satan" the tempter. What happened? How did Simon Peter go from being the rock to the stumbling block?

It all has to do with what Peter's mind was focused on, as Jesus states in verse 23: Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."

When Peter's mind was on the things on God, he recognized Jesus as the Son of the Living God, but when his mind turned to the things of man (perhaps how it affected him for Jesus to talk about going to Jerusalem to die, or perhaps what it would mean to Peter who had given up everything to follow Jesus if Jesus were to then be killed) Peter became a hindrance to the Kingdom.

The same is true for us. When we have our eyes fixed on Jesus and our mind on the things of His Kingdom, we move within that realm, and we hear and know the truth from God, just as Peter had it revealed from God that Jesus was Messiah. Contrast that with when we have our eyes fixed on ourselves and our minds focused on our circumstances, the things of this worldly realm. We cannot, in that position and from that perspective, be fully and truly alive. For when we focus on the things of man, we are bound again by the things of man: earthly concerns, daily distractions - even fear of death (like Peter).

Jesus goes on to teach His disciples what it means to live in His Kingdom instead of focused on the things of man:
24Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25For whoever wants to save his life[h] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. 26What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 27For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. 28I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."

Here, Jesus presents the paradox of living for Christ. From the viewpoint of the things of man, we believe we are gaining when we focus on ourselves. Our safety and self-protection, our best interests, and our own position as author of our own lives are paramount - driving our decisions (based on fear of loss and fear of death) toward what we think we want. But Jesus is pointing out that in so doing, we lose our lives (our true selves), for whoever would gain his life will lose it. Jesus is not just referring here to trying to be our own savior, although this is certainly part of how this plays out in our lives. He is referring to all choices based on the things of man. And He is not talking about debasing ourselves or seeing ourselves as useless, worthless, or unimportant. That would be the perspective of the things of man also, that to be valuable we have to be about self, and to not be about self means we do not matter. No, in fact, Jesus is referring to the paradox that when we lose our lives for His sake (when we focus on Him) is when we actually FIND ourselves. It is through living for Him and with Him in all things, focusing our mind on the things of the Kingdom of God, that we are fully alive, and can be our true selves as intended to be at our creation. What we see (in the eyes of man) as a loss is actually the gain of everything that matters. Paradoxically, it is in our own best self interest to let go of the things of man, and to focus our minds on Jesus.

C. S. Lewis says it beautifully: “Your real, new self (which is Christ's and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him. Does that sound strange? The same principle holds, you know, for more everyday matters. Even in social life, you will never make a good impression on other people until you stop thinking about what sort of impression you are making. Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it. The principle runs through all life from top to bottom, Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.” 
― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

The Kingdom of God is already come. We are not called to wait for life after death to experience life. Jesus offers us life (more abundantly) now. In order to gain that life, we must let go of the things of man as our focus, and fix our eyes on Jesus. What appears from worldly eyes to be losing is actually to our great gain. "Taking up our cross" from an earthly perspective is a terrible form of punishment; from Jesus' perspective it is love. It is Jesus' profound love for us, the love demonstrated on the cross that He was describing was coming when Peter focused on the things of man and became a stumbling block, that fills our hearts with the Kingdom NOW.  The Kingdom of God within us is the living presence of Jesus in our hearts, and if we fix our eyes on Him, we are already in His Kingdom.  That means that He is everything to us, and the only thing that matters.  The perspectives of this world fade away as we focus on Him and Him alone.  Love becomes the central force in our lives, both from the position of recipient and giver.  This IS the Kingdom of God.

Thoughts on Isaiah 61 and Revelation 21

For me, Isaiah 61:1-11, and Revelation 21:1-27 are some of the most beautiful, most hopeful and encouraging, and most touching messages to us from God. Isaiah 61 is the proclamation of the promise of God that He is coming to set His people free. Revelation 21 proclaims, “It is done.” In Jesus, we see the fulfillment of both of these chapters of Scripture. As promised, He came to heal the brokenhearted, to set the captives free, and to give sight to the “blind” – meaning opening our eyes to truth. As promised, now the dwelling place of God is with(in) His people, and He Himself is with us. He brings the Kingdom of God down to us to reside within our hearts. We are His bride, made brilliantly beautiful and precious by His hand. He (and He alone) sets us free.

I believe prophesy speaks to every level of our experience. Isaiah prophesied to those who lived in his time about their circumstances, but his words of promise also proclaimed simultaneously the promise of God of the coming Messiah, and the promise of God for our personal experience of His presence in our hearts and the change within us individually that comes from that presence. Although Revelation is often interpreted solely as a predictor of a future event or hope, I believe it also reveals to us truth about our experiences now (explaining why multiple generations have believed they were in the end times – in terms of application, the prophesy matches any time frame, such that no one knows the day or hour, and He comes as a thief in the night) and reveals to us truth about our personal salvation, redemption and restoration through the presence of God in our hearts. Therefore, I believe it is a mistake to read Revelation only as a future event, risking missing what is available to us right now.

Let me emphasize: available to us right now are the promises given in both of these beautiful chapters.

What are the promises? Beginning with Isaiah, we see the promises of healing for our broken hearts, freedom from our captivity to sin, and release from darkness. Our inner devastation will be restored and renewed. Our shame will be removed and we will rejoice in our inheritance (which is the Kingdom of God, as heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ). From Revelation, we see the promises of being made new (the old order of things has passed away), the end of death (no longer any sea), and God Himself wiping away our every tear. All of this is given to us freely, without cost to us (because God Himself paid for us). His presence within us removes the need for any other, external source of “light.” We are made into His beautiful bride, a gleaming city in which He resides.

Isaiah 61 tells us to anticipate a crown of beauty, oil of joy and a garment of praise. Revelation 21 describes in exquisite detail the beauty that is our hearts once inhabited by Jesus. Notice in both Scriptures the analogy of the bride and bridegroom is used to express our joining with Jesus into a partnership of love. What is produced by that joining is beauty beyond beauty, splendor expanding and flowing out into the world – in other words, the Kingdom of God is now, and the Kingdom of God is within us. But we can miss it. 

The most usual ways the "Kingdom Now" is missed are:
1) not getting to know Jesus intimately and personally (not listening)
2) looking to my own self for my salvation (I am the center of my universe, god of my life)
3) relying on my strength to handle things on my own (it is all up to me to do it)
4) looking ahead into the future with a wish for what is to come (when I get to heaven…)
5) accepting less than what Jesus truly offers so I don’t look for more (settling)
6) keeping distance in my partnership with Jesus (God is “up there” instead of in my heart)
7) letting the lies of the enemy carry weight in my heart (fear and shame)
8) giving up or giving in (resignation)
9) not having love as my primary motivation (self-focus instead of other-focus)
10) allowing circumstances to determine how I feel (an external instead of internal focus)

Each of these ten items (and I am sure there are more that can be added to the list) deserves an entire chapter, or perhaps a whole book, of its own. However, for the purposes of this writing, I am going to center in on #10. When I think about the struggles of individuals, I usually see a common thread: externalization. What I mean by this term is the empowering of circumstances to determine how we feel, what we think, how we respond or react, what we do, and what we believe.

We give great weight to the perceptions of our senses – even though, as Scrooge so eloquently observes, “a little thing affects them. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats.” We act as if what is tangible to our five senses is the end-all, be-all of reality. In Isaiah 61, however, we see that darkness and blindness are our state of being without Jesus, so although we perceive that we see, we do not truly see – not without Him bringing sight to our blindness. His presence allows us to see an internal and a “heavenly” reality, a spiritual realm that once you can see it carries much more weight than the physical world. Thus, the impact of the world pales in comparison to the incomparable presence of Jesus and His life within us. Paul describes this truth in Romans 8:9 – “You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you.” Jesus in our hearts gives us new eyes and new ears, a new sense of smell and taste and touch. Those who do not know Jesus may not be able to “see” Him with their physical eyes, but I have seen the deep, indescribable love in His eyes as He looks at me; I have felt His touch on my heart, and experienced His comforting, holding me in His arms. Those experiences are more real, and much more powerful, than anything of this world.

In addition, we give great weight to the perceptions of others. What we hear them saying about us becomes how we perceive ourselves. We look to others for affirmation, for validation, and for our identity. Instead of listening within our hearts for who Jesus says we are, we listen to and seek outside sources. Revelation 21 lets us know that we need no outside source. He is our Light and our Lamp. Whatever we need to know about ourselves, as our Creator, He knows, certainly more expertly than anyone else could ever know. Thus, Jesus Himself, “despised and rejected by mankind” (Isaiah 53:3), knew Who He was and stood in that truth, free from the weight of the perceptions of others. If not, when facing death on the cross, He would have listened to the advice of the disciples and never entered Jerusalem. He knew (just as we can know) that the perceptions and actions of others toward us do not determine who we are. His resurrection is absolute proof that nothing of this world has power over Him, including death. Now, He has given that gift to us as well.

Finally, we give great weight to events in our lives. Someone doing something “to” us that we deem is “unfair” can send us into a tailspin. A loss, a hurt, a disappointment, or sometimes even change, can discombobulate us. We get into a mode of thinking as victims or victimizers, both of which, of course, have to do with power and control and have nothing to do with love. None of these concepts are present in Isaiah 61 and Revelation 21; in fact, freedom from those very concepts is what these chapters describe. In truth, no outside circumstance has the power to impact in any way the presence of Jesus in our hearts. As Paul states in Romans 8, beginning here in verse 31: “If God is for us, who can be against us? …34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?.... 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” It is in this way that the promises of Isaiah 61 and Revelation 21 are fulfilled in our hearts – the loving presence of Christ: making all things new, setting us free, opening our eyes to see, and being our source of all. Through His presence and His love, we are enabled to focus our eyes internally, on the Kingdom of God within us.

What does it mean to forgive?

Forgiveness, often misunderstood in a variety of ways, is an extremely important element of our relationship with Jesus. It was important enough that Jesus gave forgiveness a prominent position in teaching the disciples how to pray. It is a topic of much discussion between Jesus and His disciples, and between Jesus and the Father, even from the cross. Obviously, it is an issue we need to see with clarity and truth, one the enemy will use against us in accusation if it is unresolved, and distort into an exchange economy, permission for sin, or worse if we are not standing on solid ground.

Our starting point for understanding forgiveness is to understand completely in our hearts what all we have been forgiven. This statement is a version of “remove the log from your own eye before you try to pluck the splinter from your brother’s eye,” but is presented from the perspective of being forgiving because we have been forgiven much. The parable of the unmerciful servant illustrates this idea very clearly (Matthew 18: 21-35, NIV):
‘21Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"
22Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
23"Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. 25Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
26"The servant fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.' 27The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
28"But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded.
29"His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'
30"But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.
32"Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' 34In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
35"This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."

We don’t necessarily like the ending of this story, but it is a warning from Jesus. Who are our “jailers”? I would say we are “bound” by our sins and the sins of others when we are unforgiving, so let’s say sins are jailers for us. Then in this parable, Jesus is warning us that we will be tortured by our sins and the sins of others until we can repay the debt owed – which, of course, we can never do, as is true for both the unmerciful servant and his fellow servant, since while in “jail” we cannot work off the debt. So what does this warning mean? Jesus is teaching us that when we do not forgive others, as we are already forgiven, we leave ourselves in bondage to the sins of the other person. This is an important idea, so let me repeat it: unforgiveness attaches us to the sin of the other person in such a way that we carry the burden (“tortured” by the “jailers”) of the other’s sin as if it is our own. It is a horrible burden to bear, to carry the weight of another’s sin. Forgiving others sets me free. I release the other into the hands of Jesus, and allow Him to deal with their sin. It is a question of who “owns” the problem of their sin: will I carry it, or do I allow them to own it and deal with it with Jesus?

You will notice in the parable that the original debt of the unmerciful servant was forgiven by the master completely as a gift of mercy, and the master was not involved in the transaction between the unmerciful servant and his fellow servant at all – until that fellow’s debt was called due and he was imprisoned. In the same way, forgiving sin against me is not something done between the sinner and me; it is something accomplished between God and me. The sinner is not involved in the transaction, because it is not the actions of the sinner that matter here in meriting forgiveness; it is instead the actions of Jesus that matter. See how in the parable the master is angered not because of the debt but because of the lack of mercy? He specifically mentions how he had mercy on the original servant. This is the case with us. Having received the greatness of the mercy of Jesus for all of our sins, do we truly understand the depth of His forgiveness if we are holding others accountable to pay for their debts to us? Can they pay those debts? In truth, Jesus is the only one Who can pay for those debts. In releasing those debts into Jesus’ hands, I am acknowledging this truth, and setting myself free from any bondage to the sin committed against me.

Another terrible distortion of forgiveness is the idea that forgiveness and reconciliation are the same thing. Scripture makes it clear that reconciliation of relationship requires repentance, and a working out or working through of issues between the two parties. Just before sharing the parable of the unmerciful servant, Jesus teaches this lesson on dealing with a brother who sins against you: “15"If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. 16But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' 17If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
18"I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 18:15-18, NIV).
So we have two separate but related issues here: related from the standpoint of both issues starting with a sin against you, but one discussing reconciliation and the other discussing forgiveness; the two are not the same. In this Scripture, Jesus describes dealing with a problem face to face with a brother, and winning the brother over by sharing your feelings directly with him. Jesus then provides a process to walk through to reach reconciliation if reconciliation is possible. Following this lesson is when Peter asks how often a brother should be forgiven. As is often the case, Peter is making the same mistake we do – confusing the reconciliation process with forgiveness. Jesus tells the parable of the unmerciful servant to make it clear that forgiveness is accomplished not through relationship with the sinner or debtor, but through relationship with Jesus, while reconciliation is accomplished through interaction with the brother who sins against you.

One of the most damaging distortions of forgiveness is the belief that forgiveness is the same as acceptance or excusing a sin. In other words, we are led to believe that when we forgive we excuse the sin committed against us as acceptable. This is absolutely not the case and is a lie from the pit of hell. Jesus never stated that any sin was acceptable. In fact, He stated quite the opposite: “But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea” (Matthew 18:6). Imagine the pain in the heart of an abused child, if he or she believed in order to forgive his or her abuser, he or she must excuse the actions of abuse from the parent. This would be the same as saying the feelings of that child do not matter! Jesus would never say that. I have seen Him weep as He held a child being abused; weeping at the pain the child was suffering, weeping at the pain in the abuser, but emphatically not excusing the sin. Forgiveness is not the same thing as acceptance. Sin has no excuse.   Forgiving a sin is handing that sin to Jesus, and letting His be the one to deal with the individual who sinned against you.  The purpose is to set you free from their sin, not to excuse their sin against you.

Jesus’ forgiveness is simply the grace and mercy offered through the blood of Jesus, that He would pay our debt. As Paul asks, “1What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6:1-11, NIV).
Forgiveness sets us free from the sins of others against us, so that we can truly live the new life of freedom and peace offered – and paid for – by Jesus.

What is love?

Love is often defined in terms of what we “do” but I believe we need to be careful not to confuse the evidence of love with love itself. I Corinthians 13 tells us: “1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love” (NIV).

Verses 1-3 are clear that what we do, if not undergirded with love, is nothing. Thus, love is not the action, love is the motivation; the heart of the matter. Paul goes on to describe love based on the evidence of its presence, but again, he does not assume to define love here, just to describe love.

One thing we can know for sure is that love is vitally important. Verses 8-13 explain that love is everything, the greatest thing, the main thing.  Verse 13 also explains that three elements abide together: faith, hope, and love.  If in my heart I lose hope, I begin to lose faith and I lose my connection with love, and my ability to love.  If I lose faith, I cannot love and I lose hope.  And, if I do not love, I have not faith and no hope.  In order for these three centerpieces of life to remain in me, they must abide together in my heart.  Hopelessness, despair, negativity, doubt, faithlessness, and self-centeredness are all enemies of love.  

I am going to suggest that love is the presence of Jesus. Further, I am suggesting that without Jesus, there is no love. I am saying that love is not an action, it is His presence. Most importantly, I am saying that love behaves as His presence behaves. In other words, love looks like love.

What does Scripture say about these contentions? I John 4 states: “7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (NIV).

Alright, so we love each other because God’s love lives within us. Our actions, if motivated from love, will present as Jesus presents Himself to us.  In the mirror of Jesus, we can see what love creates.  

The cross is the ultimate expression of love - not love itself, because that love existed in the heart of Christ from the beginning of creation - but the product of love, and the evidence of love, true to His heart, given freely for us.

The Sad Prophet

Jeremiah was called on by God to be the prophet who spoke the truth of Judah’s impending captivity. God was not asking Jeremiah to call the people to repentance, like Isaiah had done. Jeremiah was simply stating the truth of the consequences of their refusal to repent when urged by God to do so.

It would not be a pleasant task to do what Jeremiah was asked to do: to stand before God’s people and pronounce the loss of their land, their freedom, their homes, and their place of worship. Predictably, the people did not want to hear what Jeremiah had to say. Denial abounded in Judah during that time. People were asserting peace when there was none; false prophets were claiming God would never take the land away from His people (in spite of prior warnings and opportunities to repent); the nation believed in a false security of birthright instead of recognizing the consequences of their actions and choices. They felt “entitled” instead of responsible. They rejected righteousness of heart in exchange for hedging their bets with false gods – pretending to still worship the One True God but failing to see the hypocrisy in that position. Simply put, the people of Judah were living in lies. Here is what God told Jeremiah about the hearts of the people:

3 "They make ready their tongue
like a bow, to shoot lies;
it is not by truth
that they triumph in the land.
They go from one sin to another;
they do not acknowledge me,"
declares the LORD.
4 "Beware of your friends;
do not trust your brothers.
For every brother is a deceiver,
and every friend a slanderer.
5 Friend deceives friend,
and no one speaks the truth.
They have taught their tongues to lie;
they weary themselves with sinning.
6 You live in the midst of deception;
in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me,"
declares the LORD.
7 Therefore this is what the LORD Almighty says:
"See, I will refine and test them,
for what else can I do
because of the sin of my people?
8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow;
it speaks with deceit.
With his mouth each speaks cordially to his neighbor,
but in his heart he sets a trap for him.” (Jeremiah 9:3-8)

Look at the repetition of the lies, the deception, the deceit, and the lack of truth! “You live in the midst of deception” brings to mind an image of people living in a cesspool and calling it a garden. Darkness covered them, embraced them, cloaked them, oppressed them, and choked the life from them.

Are we now, in this time, in a similar state to those in Judah at the time of Jeremiah? I am reminded of II Timothy 3, where Paul also predicts a time when mankind will descend anew into the cesspool: “ 1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. 6They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, 7always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. 8Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth—men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected.”(II Timothy 3:1-8)

I look around our postmodern, relative truth-believing, secular humanistic, blaming, responsibility-rejecting, and so-called (man-made) “social justice”-focused society and see exactly what Paul was describing, and I feel like Jeremiah must have felt. Jeremiah called out to the ones God called the remnant – those who would still be following God, even in captivity. In the same spirit, I call out to those whose hearts still desire the truth of God – the real truth, not the false prophecies of “peace peace” and the cheap, loveless grace we so often see now – and I urge you to stand firm. As Paul wrote, “¹³ Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. ¹⁴ Do everything in love.” (I Corinthians 16:13-14)  And, “⁵⁸ Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”  (I Corinthians 15:58). 

Seek out others who also desire God’s truth, share in love and growth and the strength of prayer and God’s presence, listen to His voice and His voice alone – and in all things, stand firm, as Paul repeatedly calls us to do. “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1).  “¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. ¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” (Ephesians 6:10-18). 

Remember: there is no truth apart from God.  Humans are incapable of goodness or decency or peace without God’s Spirit within our hearts, since “every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father” (James 1:17).  Keep Love as the highest value.  Jesus is everything - and He is the only thing.

What Does It Mean to Love God?

Mark 12: 28One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"
29"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' 31The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
32"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
34When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God."

What does it mean to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength? We have reduced this most important commandment to something more akin to acceptance than love. It is as if we think it is enough to believe God exists. But these words of Jesus reveal a much deeper meaning, an all-encompassing oneness with God that includes some significant statements to us about us as well. So what can we uncover in a deeper examination of this commandment?

First, in order to truly love God with all of our hearts, souls, minds and strength, we must be whole ourselves. While on the surface, this may sound like a simple element, the presence of sin in the world due to the fall of man results in internal fragmentation and disconnection. For most of our lives, we are striving to find ourselves – what is termed “self-actualization” in psychological terms – and to create a sense of being whole. We spend a lot of our lives presenting facades, putting on masks, and trying to be what we think people want to see or expect us to be. We can lose ourselves in the process of trying to be acceptable to others, or good enough ourselves to feel worthy of love. Additionally, difficult and painful experiences in our lives are like rocks hitting against our personhood, chipping off pieces of ourselves that get left behind. For some extreme cases, the trauma is so severe, they lose themselves completely, resulting in the soul going into hiding in a protective internal “cave” that becomes a prison. On top of that, we have the “18 inch division” between our head and heart that is considered the longest 18 inches known to man. What we “know” in our heads we often do not “know” in our hearts; in other words, what we think is true often feels false to us, and what we know in our heads is false often feels true to our hearts. And ultimately, we cannot be whole without our Creator, so we need God to complete us, to pick up the pieces of our soul, and to make us whole again.

Second, the only way we can love God with our whole selves is to be our true selves, as God created us to be. We can re-translate the first and greatest commandment as God saying to us, “Be who I made you to be.” Within each of us is some aspect of God’s nature, as we are all made in His image. None of us, except Jesus, holds the entire nature of God within us, which means we are imperfect in our nature. This limitation also means we experience the “downsides” of the element of His nature that He placed within us. As an example of this, in my case, my warrior nature (the face of Jesus standing on the steps of the Temple confronting the Pharisees with their hypocrisy) can be harsh toward others, lacking in the balance of His grace; however, in Jesus the warrior was completed and balanced by His mercy and compassion. Still, my warrior nature reflects one aspect of the face of God. That light, or “diamond” within me, is who He created me to be. When I am born into this sin-based world, my diamond begins to be covered over with dirt – lies from others, false interpretations of my experiences, and generational false beliefs of my family are all examples of the dirt that can cover the diamond within me. If I am living another life, another self, another “face” then I am unable to love God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. I need God’s help and His truth to uncover my diamond and to remove the dirt that has piled onto my heart from the world. This is the “transformation” offered to us through an intimate relationship with Jesus. Thus, I have two needs toward being my true self in order to love God with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength: I need Jesus to provide through the presence of His Spirit within me the aspects of God’s nature that I lack (in the above example, the mercy and grace that I lack as a warrior woman); and, I need Jesus to remove the dirt from my diamond. We need to be aware that it is God’s deepest desire that we be fully and wholly who He created, and diligently seek Jesus to meet those needs. It is His truth that sets me free.

Third, if we are to fully love God, we need to hate sin. Again, this may seem a simple concept, but I hear Christians and non-Christians alike talking about what they must “give up” to be a believer, including the statement that it is “hard” to be a Christian. My contention is that if we feel like we are “giving up” something to be a Christian, that “something” is an idol that displaces our love of God. Therefore, our hearts and souls and minds are not fully invested in God. What are we really “giving up”? What of the world is better or greater or more worthy than our Lord? What does it really provide for us? I do not have an answer for these questions. Loving God means being “all in” for Him, and Him alone. Knowing God’s love and His provision, I am unwilling for anything else to supplant His love, peace and joy – anything, period. Nothing I have known compares to being with Jesus. There is nothing I want more, or even coming close, to His presence with me. I am told to “fix [my] eyes upon Jesus” – and this is truly the primary desire of my heart. 

One of the “idols” we put before God is self. We want to be god for ourselves, sometimes knowingly, like when we choose to pursue a sin based on fleshly desire instead of pursuing Jesus; and sometimes unconsciously, which is the source of our sin nature from the original sin of man in Genesis 3. Honestly, many people would deny that they want to be their own god, but this is the foundational element of the sin nature. It is a belief we all share. As with the rest of the dirt on our diamond, we need Jesus and His Spirit within us to transform the sin nature. Our part in this transformational process is willingness to partner with Jesus and willingness for Him to change us.

Remember Jesus’ response to the teacher of the law: if we truly understand what it means to love God with all of our selves, we are not far from the kingdom of God.

Now putting it all together: Our "moment of truth" occurs when we come face to face with Him, when we let go of our strangle hold on ourselves as god of our own lives, and when we face our whole selves, the good and the bad, the diamond and the dirt, the upside and the downside, before Him and give our whole selves to Him - it is only then that we can be truly free. It was this face to face encounter that Paul experienced on the Damascus road, that Peter experienced when the cock crowed and when Jesus asked him, "do you love me?" This experience, looking into the eyes of Jesus and honestly seeing ourselves through His eyes, is the "moment of truth" - maybe the first truth we have ever known.  It is surely the truth we need in order to love God with all our hearts.