333 Words
333 WORDS….
Seems like the GOD-IS-LOVE-ONLY crowd within evangelicalism is growing.
Yes, God is love; the Bible says so. But God is not love only.
God is also justice, holiness, mercy, compassion, wisdom and many etceteras. He is all these at once. What does such look like?
He looks like Jesus. God became as we are, a man. He was called Immanuel, God with us. He alone perfectly expressed the will and ways and words of God.
GOD-IS-LOVE hung on a cross. Money changers faced the wrath of GOD-IS-HOLINESS. Children were attracted to GOD-IS-GENTLENESS. Debaters were beaten by GOD-IS-WISDOM. No, God is not love only; the life of Jesus clearly demonstrates otherwise.
CHRIST-IS-LOVE said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan.” CHRIST-IS-LOVE instructed the seventy to declare to any city rejecting them, “The very dust of your city which clings to us we wipe off against you.” CHRIST-IS-LOVE said to the Ephesians, “I will come quickly and remove your lampstand from its place – unless you repent.”
What does a CHRIST-IS-LOVE-ONLY evangelical do when he reads one of hundreds of quotations that is uncharacteristic to the Jesus of their imagination? Simple, he skips to the next verse.
A CHRIST-IS-LOVE-ONLY evangelical only says some of what Jesus said, and does only some of what Jesus did. He has no commonality with the reformer. His Jesus does not challenge, debate, correct or get angry.
A GOD-IS-LOVE-ONLY pastor can be just as detrimental to the purposes of God as a GOD-IS-JUSTICE-ONLY pastor. Or GOD-IS-THIS-OR-THAT-ONLY pastor. Since everyone’s perception of God is somewhat distorted, many sharing the pulpit is healthier than one or a few. Although the average of 100 evangelicals could never equal Jesus, that average is much closer than any individual.
Like the woman who forces her oversized foot into an undersized shoe, so the determined ‘only’ people manipulate scripture to fit their distorted Jesus. Scripture says what it says because its Author is who He is. We ignore parts and pieces to our harm, and those we influence.