Posts Tagged ‘love’

Who Does God Love?

July 22nd, 2009

Comments welcomed and encouraged.

In his blog posting, Smile, God Hates you, Jesus Saenz asks whether it’s accurate to say that “God loves the sinner but hates the sin.”

He’s asking some valid questions. For example, where can this be found in the Bible? Why is it that we seem to exalt some weak, incomplete version of love as the highest “virtue” of God? Finally, how can we say that “God loves the sinner but hates the sin” in light of Psalm 5:5-6?

Let’s take a quick look at the Scripture that Mr. Saenz is using.

Psalm 5:5-6
The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong.
You destroy those who tell lies; bloodthirsty and deceitful men the Lord abhors.

Before we go any further, I would like to say that I have never found the phrase “God loves the sinner but hates the sin” in the Bible. However, in contrast to Mr. Saenz and the video he posted, I do believe that God loves sinners and desires their redemption through Jesus of Nazareth and that a case can be made to this end from the counsel of Scripture. » Read more: Who Does God Love?

Be Excellent to Each Other

June 28th, 2009

by decadence

by decadence

Sometimes we find spiritual truths in the most unlikely places. As Christian philosopher Arthur F. Holmes puts it, “All Truth is God’s Truth.” And such was the case with my recent viewing of Bill and Ted’s Excellent adventure.

When Katherine and I sat down last week for a movie night, I had no idea that God was going to remind me of something. Something so very central to our collective Christian life.

In Bill and Ted’s Excellent adventure, our two bumbling “heroes” ride a telephone booth time machine through history, gathering up key historic figures for an oral report and reminding people to “be excellent to each other”. And at first pass, their catch phrase seems like nothing but moronic drivel. But a deeper look reveals that’s not the case – this is exactly the kind of thing that Jesus told us to do. » Read more: Be Excellent to Each Other