UNBELIEVABLE TRUTH #6: God Wants Us To Love Our Enemies

In our previous installment of this series we talked about how hard it is for Christians to believe that God really loves filthy sinners like killers and rapists and terrorists.

This article examines a very closely related truth which Christians equally struggle with; the idea that God really wants us to love our enemies too.

Because we can't accept that God would love evil people, it just follows that we can't believe that God would expect us to love them either. Of course, the truth is that God really does love evil people and that means that He really does expect us to do the same.

Even if we can accept this teaching in general, or in theory, it is much more challenging to actually take the step of loving our enemies or sincerely pray for these people to receive forgiveness or mercy or grace.

So, when we see the face of a terrorist or a murderer on the news our first impulse is not to stop and pray for that person to be saved and healed and forgiven. But that is what we should do if we are truly followers of Jesus.

Jesus commanded us specifically and in no uncertain terms to love our enemies and to bless those who curse us, and to do good to those who hate us. If we are to treat people who directly harm us and hate us like this, how much more should we love and bless those who have harmed others? Especially since the basis for these actions is found in the character of God. In other words, Jesus appeals to the loving and forgiving nature of God as our model for showing this same kind of love and mercy.

"But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Matt. 5:44-45)

One of the main reasons that we find it so hard to love our enemies, I believe, is that we're more influenced by our human nature than by our spiritual nature. We also make the mistake of thinking that loving our enemies is equal to approving of their behaviors, but that's not the case. We can show love to people and extend mercy to them without accepting their actions. For example, my wife and I routinely help and serve people who are homeless. Many of them are addicted to heroin or meth. Do we approve of their drug use? Or their prostitution? Of course not. But that doesn't prevent us from showing them love and mercy and extending the grace of God to them.

If we really hope to be ambassadors of Christ to a world full of imperfect people, we must admit that we are among the imperfect, and then we must allow God to fill us with His perfect love for others, especially those who (in our opinion) do not deserve it.

If we stop and think we'll realize that none of us deserves the love and mercy of God, but we all need it very, very much.

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UNBELIEVABLE TRUTH #5 - God Really Does Love The Filthiest Sinner

For some reason there are Christians who find it difficult, even impossible, to accept the idea that God really does love terrorists and rapists and murderers. Even though they all quote scriptures like "For God so loved the world..." and "While we were yet sinners Christ died for us" and many other verses, the idea of actually believing that God loves those evil people is too much to bear.

When we say that God's love is unconditional, that's exactly what it means. He loves us because He is love, not because of anything we have done to deserve that love. God's love for us is not based on our goodness, in fact it's in spite of our lack of goodness. His love is unmerited. His grace is lavished upon the filthy. That's what makes it "Amazing Grace". Because if we were basically good people then His grace would only be "Nice" it wouldn't be "Amazing."

The truth is that if God can't love Osama Bin Laden, or Hitler, or the Umpire who blew that call in the World Series, then He can't love you and me. We're all sinners. We all deserve punishment. We all sent Jesus to that cross. And what did Jesus say to those who nailed him there? He forgave them. He forgave us all.

Granted, not everyone has received that love and mercy. But if those of us who have received His mercy and amazing grace do not extend it to those who have yet to taste of it, then how else will they ever see it? If those of us who have been forgiven don't love those who don't deserve it, then how will they ever know His unconditional love?

See, it's not just that God loves those filthy sinners, it's that you and I are also commanded to love them too.

"If you love those who love you," Jesus said, "What credit is that to you? Don't the pagans do that?"

We are called to love our enemies, and to pray for those who do evil, and to show mercy and grace and compassion to those who don't deserve it, because we don't deserve it either.

Jesus shared a parable about this once. He told a story about a man who was forgiven a massive debt and then went out and demanded payment from another person for a very small amount. When the Master who had forgiven the large debt heard this, he called the man back into court and said, "I showed you great mercy, and yet you were unwilling to forgive someone even a small debt? Because of this I will throw you into prison and you will not get out again until you have payed me back every penny you owe." (See Matt. 18:21-25)

See, if we really believe that we are sinners saved by grace, then we need to love and forgive others in the same way. Not just those who insult and injure us, but also those who harm others.

Just listen to what the worst sinner of all has said about this:

"Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.” – Paul the Apostle, (1 Tim. 1:14-16)

So, God really does love the filthiest of all sinners. We need to learn to accept this unbelievable truth, because if we can't accept that, then we're lying to ourselves about our own condition. We believe that we are better than everyone else if we can't accept that the worst of all sinners is the one who looks back at us in the mirror each morning. Either God's love is unconditional or it's not. What do you really believe?

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"One who has been touched by grace will no longer look on those who stray as "those evil people" or "those poor people who need our help." Nor must we search for signs of "loveworthiness." Grace teaches us that God loves because of who God is, not because of who we are.” – Philip Yancy; “What’s So Amazing About Grace?”

 

 

UNBELIEVABLE TRUTH #4: God Really Lives Within Us

There is an incredible reality to be discovered in the Gospel. One that should revolutionize the life, boggle the mind, and transform the behavior of every single Christian who fully perceives it. However, the sad thing is that, while many Christians are aware of this reality in theory, they mostly live lives that effectively deny it on a daily basis.

The reality? Simply that God lives within every single person who has placed their trust in Jesus as Lord and Messiah.

Think of it. God, the Creator of the Universe, the Great I Am, the Alpha and the Omega, actually lives within you. Not just when you’re praying. Not just when you’re at Church. Not just when you’re doing something Holy or Spiritual, but all the time.

If we really took this truth to heart, it would radically transform our daily routine. Unfortunately, we behave as if this essential element of the Gospel isn’t actually true. We behave as if it’s a metaphor, but not as if the very same presence of the Holy One that used to hover over the Ark of the Covenant in the Jewish Temple is actually residing within our ribcage.

Now, I can go through a fairly extensive list of scriptures right now to prove this reality, but if you don’t already accept this as an actuality, it will only support this idea in theory, not enhance your reality.

As God Himself alluded early on, “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be?" (Isaiah 66:1)

When King David wanted to answer that question personally by building a house for God, he was told that God would be the one to build Himself an acceptable dwelling place. The one who would accomplish this was the promised Messiah.

But the problem is, when Jesus arrived there was already a very large Temple standing in the center of Jerusalem. So, what Temple did Jesus build? He built the acceptable house "not made with human hands" that is “made of living stones" - the Church.

And who is The Church? We are. Those who follow Jesus are the living temple of God.

This means that we are His resting place. We are house that God has built for Himself.

"I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth." (1 Timothy 3:15)

So, this is more than hyperbole. This is not a nice metaphor. This is reality. God abandoned the physical Jewish Temple in Jerusalem the very moment that Jesus fulfilled the promise by offering himself as the Lamb of God as the High Priest of God in the Temple of His Body when he died on the cross.

Next, God tore the veil in the Temple to emphasize that He would no longer reside behind that veil or hover over the Ark of the Covenant, as He foretold through the prophet Jeremiah:

"In those days, when your numbers have increased greatly in the land," declares the LORD, "men will no longer say, 'The ark of the covenant of the LORD.' It will never enter their minds or be remembered; it will not be missed, nor will another one be made." (Jeremiah 3:16)

Where would He reside from now on? Within the heart of every single member of the Body of Christ.

“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” (1 Corinthians 3:16)

Over and over again in the New Testament, Jesus and the Apostles affirm the glorious truth – God has come to live in the hearts and lives of every man, woman and child who loves Him.

In fact, this is what the New Covenant (or New Testament) is all about!

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.” (Jeremiah 31:31)

And what was this New Covenant all about?

“This is the (new) covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord.”  (Jeremiah 31:33-34)

See how amazing this is? If you have surrendered your life to Christ, God is actually alive within you right now.

This means that you and I cannot ever escape God’s presence. He is with us this very moment. In fact, one of the names of the Messiah was “Emmanuel” which means “God with us” so it should come as no surprise really.

God’s greatest desire is to make His home in your heart. He wants His thoughts to be your thoughts. He wants your desires to be His desires. He wants to make you His Bride, which as Paul expresses is a “Profound Mystery” for the ages.

What’s sad is that we don’t really believe this is true. We read the words and we say “amen” at the concept, but in actual point of fact we just don’t buy it.

But just imagine for a moment if we did believe it. How would this awesome truth change your attitude, affect your behavior, influence your actions?

If you were fully convinced that every breath and heartbeat was inhabited with the actual Holy presence of the Creator of the Universe, you’d probably love people more, have more patience, treat people with more respect, trust God with your anxieties and fears more, and be more careful about the things you said out loud – and the things you muttered under your breath.

I’m not sure about you, but I think it would be a much better world if we all really believed that God was alive within us every moment of every day.

What do you think?

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*NOTE: This article originally appeared in Yoke Magazine under the title: "An Incredible Reality" and was the inspiration for the series, “Unbelievable Truth” here on this blog.

UNBELIEVABLE TRUTH #3: God Is Trustworthy

One of the hardest truths for Christians to accept is the idea that God is trustworthy. They can believe in Him – that He exists and that He created the Universe – but to surrender control of their lives to Him? Not so much.

To me this is the most tragic of all the unbelievable truths, because if we cannot trust God then who can we trust?

Our inability to trust God, I think, says more about our need to be in control, or our fear of relinquishing control, than it does about our belief that God isn’t worthy of our trust.

In other words, if we think about it, God is the most trustworthy being in the Universe. He created us. He laid aside His power to become one of us. He allowed us to have power over Him. He forgave us as we were killing Him. He loved us enough to die in our place. He rose again to ensure that we could spend eternity together. He’s preparing a place for us to be with Him forever. So, how could we ever consider someone like this to be unworthy of our trust?

I think it has to be because we just prefer to be the ones in control of our lives. We don’t like the idea of letting go of the steering wheel for anyone else, not even a God who went as far as this to demonstrate His complete and utter trustworthiness. Which is sad.

If we could actually believe this truth that God is trustworthy, and prove it by surrendering our lives to Him, then we’d experience all the sweet joys and wonderful blessings that He intends to share with us. We would rest in Him and trust that He has everything under complete control.  We would experience the sweet peace that only comes from allowing this loving Father to take us with Him on an amazing adventure of life that He has planned in advance for us to follow.

A person who truly trusted God with everything in their life would have no worries about tomorrow, no stress about finances, no concern for what will happen next, and have nothing but complete peace and joy on a daily basis. Much the same was how we imagine winning the lottery might make us feel, actually. Except that those who win the lottery seldom find actual peace and those who are wealthy and famous have just as much (if not more) angst and pain and worry in their lives.

If we believed that God was trustworthy we could obey Jesus when He says that we should “not worry about tomorrow” or about “what we will eat or drink, or about our body and what we will wear” but simply trust that “Your Heavenly Father knows that you need these things” and let go of our worry in order to “seek first the Kingdom of God”.

If only we could trust God with everything. If only we really believed that He was trustworthy.

If only.

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UNBELIEVABLE TRUTH #2: THE HUMANITY OF CHRIST

When we think of Jesus we usually imagine him as the God-man who was perfect in every way. We don’t tend to think of him the way the disciples thought of him – as a man who walked with them, talked with them, ate with them, slept alongside them and occasionally kept them awake with his snoring.

While it’s true that Jesus was by nature divine, we also are told that Jesus was “made flesh” and that he humbled himself to become one of us. What’s more, Jesus affirmed to us when he was here in the flesh that he was just as powerless as you and I are now.

Jesus also affirms that he does nothing under his own power, nor does he teach anything apart from what the Father tells him to.

“Then Jesus answered them and said, "Truly, truly, I say to you; the Son can do nothing of himself, but only does what he sees the Father do. For whatever things he [the Father] does, these are also likewise done by the Son.” (John 5:19)

“Of my own self, I can do nothing. I judge only as I hear; and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the Father who has sent me.” (John 5:30)

Jesus also affirms that the great words of wisdom and truth that he spoke were not his own words, but that he was hearing them from His Father:

“These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.” (John 14:24)

“For I do not speak of myself, but from the Father who sent me and commanded me what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that to obey his command is life everlasting. Therefore, whatever I speak is just as the Father tells me to speak." (John 12:49-50)

“But so that the world may know that I love the Father, I only do exactly as the Father has instructed me to do.” (John 14:31)

The point seems to be that Jesus lived a life of humility and surrender. It’s clear that Jesus didn’t live out a perfect life on Earth out of any power of his own. Actually, according to the New Testament, Jesus let go of all of his power when he came in the flesh.

What this means is that we cannot say, “I’m not like Jesus so don’t expect me to live the way he lived.” On the contrary, it was because Jesus emptied himself of his glory and power and took on flesh to become nothing that he was capable of doing what he did:

“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:5-8)

Plus, the New Testament writers also told us that those who claim to be Christians must behave like Jesus:

“Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.” (1 John 2:6)

This is precisely why most Christians do not believe that Jesus was fully human during his life on this Earth. If Jesus could do those things as a mere human who was fully surrendered to the Spirit of God, then the implication is that we should all be capable of living such an others-focused life. But, of course, that’s exactly what the New Testament does teach us.

It’s why Jesus tells his disciples:

“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:12)

The whole point is that we can do what Jesus did because he was like us; fully human.

If Christians today actually believed the truth about the humanity of Jesus, then they might actually take his call to follow him seriously. We might actually start realizing that it is actually possible for us to love our enemies, and pray for those who hate us, and turn the other cheek, and serve the poor, and everything else that Jesus commanded us to do.

Sadly, it’s so much easier to elevate Jesus into a state of unapproachable holiness so that our ability to reach such heights of perfection is forever out of reach.

But, just imagine if we really did believe this amazing truth? Wouldn’t our churches be filled with people who were more humble and totally dependent upon God daily for the grace necessary to live a life of service? Wouldn’t the poor and the prostitutes and the orphans rejoice that the world was filled with people who took the pattern set by Jesus and truly lived out his example of radical, sacrificial love?

I can’t help but believe that this is exactly the sort of thing that Jesus intended us to do. It’s certainly what his disciples did after his ascension. It’s certainly what the early church did for hundreds of years. Why not now? Why not you and I?

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Unbelievable Truth #1: God Really Loves You

*I'll be publishing a new series of articles called "Unbelievable Truth" here  over the next few days. These articles will each examine a different Biblical truth that most Christians don't actually believe, but should.

Unbelievable Truth #1: That God Really Loves You

God’s love for mankind is an incredible thing. The idea that God, who knows the end from the beginning, would know in advance how much pain and suffering He would have to personally endure as the result of creating the Universe and yet still say the words, “Let there be light” is staggering.

The scriptures are replete with example after example of God’s endless declarations of love for every single person on the planet. Usually these statements are about nations, or about general populations of people, but Jesus goes even further with this idea and affirms that God actually loves each of us individually. This is why Jesus urges us to call God our “Abba” or “Daddy” when we pray. It’s why Jesus says that God loved the world (and that means everyone in the world, and therefore you and me) so much that He sent Jesus to give us life and set us free.

Paul the Apostle encouraged all of us to meditate on God’s incredible love:

“ I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:17-19)

God’s love is wider than we can imagine. It’s longer than we can comprehend. It’s higher than we can reach. It’s deeper than we can fathom. God’s love surpasses knowledge. This means it’s beyond knowing. It’s too great for us to wrap our minds around. It means that if you had all the knowledge in the Universe you’d still not be capable of fully knowing God’s amazing love.

God made you in His own image. Just think of how that makes Him feel everytime He looks at you. [Genesis 1:27]

His thoughts about you are more numerous than all the grains of sand on all the beaches on this planet. He is actually thinking about you. Right now. [Psalm 139:17-18]

God has plans for your life. They are good plans. Plans to bless you and not to curse you. Plans to give you a future and fill you with hope. [Jeremiah 29:11]

God is singing over you. Right now. Just try to imagine what His voice sounds like as He opens His mouth and sings a song of love about you. [Zeph. 3:17]

God loves you so much that He would rather die than live without you. How amazing is that? [John 3:16]

The only thing more amazing than God’s awesome love? The fact that you and I can take it for granted, or worse, not fully receive it.

Most Christians don’t really go through their lives with the awareness of God’s astounding love in their hearts. They walk around looking tired, or feeling bored, or stressed out; totally oblivious to the endless showers of love that God is pouring down over them night and day.

I think I understand why we don’t believe that God loves us like this. It’s because deep down inside we’re convinced that we don’t deserve that kind of love, and certainly not from someone as Holy and Perfect as God. But that’s the whole point of God’s love – we don’t deserve it and yet He pours it all over us because of who He is, not because of who we are.

Just imagine if Christians really did believe that God loved them? Wouldn’t they be happier? Wouldn’t this love fill them up and spill out of them like light from under a basket? Wouldn’t a greater awareness of God’s unconditional, endless, boundless and fantastic love change them forever? Wouldn’t this love help them to love others more? Wouldn’t this love make it easier to forgive those who hurt them most? Wouldn’t this love transform their hearts, and their minds, and transform them from the inside out?

There’s only one way to find out.

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Can you think of a truth that Christians don't actually believe in practice? Please post your thoughts in the comments below.