Christian Love

The bible says that if we have all virtue but lack love then we have nothing. Love is the ultimate Christian ethic.

The faithfulness of our Christian life stands or falls on if we act in love. There are many aspects of living an ethical life, but love is behind all of these elements.

"Love God and do what you please" said St. Augustine.

If we truly live our lives with a desire to please God then we are living our faith to the fullest. Christianity is about fellowship with God.

Christians have the power to change the world when the joy from our fellowship with God overflows in the world.

Why Long-Time Christians Still Need to Hear and Think on the Gospel

The good news of the gospel always applies and affects Christians, even ones who've been Christians for a very long time.

I heard someone say once that he's heard the gospel story, so he'd rather not hear it again. He knows it. So why mention it again?

A major reason for needing to hear it again and again is that we all have a human nature. All of us have a nature that leans toward distraction and chasing after trivial things at times. So we need to be reminded of God's part in our lives then and now because of Christ's work for us.

Often when we hear how we were not worthy of fellowship with God but we are through Jesus's work and faith, we feel compelled to praise and worship and do good works.

We are also learning over time. When we read about certain accounts of Jesus in the gospels, we might see some detail that really shows us more the mind or love of Christ. Or how it relates to certain situations in our daily lives.

Not only in preaching or worship songs can we be reminded of the gospel, but it's important to include this in our devotional times too. Some devotions may only speak of how we need to do better--but really we need to be sure at times that we think about Christ being the reason we don't have to constantly think we have to do better. We can rest in him. We can know that everything will end well in a sense. And that often helps give us the peace and courage to do what we're commanded by God. There are times when we do need to think about doing better, but that shouldn't fill up the entirety of our devotional time. There is a place for worship too.

Our Way

One of the most common objections to Christianity is that elements of the faith do not please us. The objections rarely come in such a simplistic and honest form, but many objections if inquired further boil down to "I do not like a God who would ask this of me."

It is most common to believe what we like. It takes great fortitude to believe something to be true that we do not like. And this is the issue with faith in Jesus.

For all the attractive and compelling reasons to have faith in Jesus we do not like what he has to say about or lives. To accept the good news of the gospel we must first accept the bad news about ourselves.

It is abundantly apparent that we need the gospel. We are all fallen and sinful, but we do not like to accept our nature.

We always like to push things off and ignore the reality of things. It is easier to say that God is wrong about the nature of people than it is to deal with the fact that God is right about our nature and we have a lot to fix.

The gospel is abundantly good news. We are welcomed into eternal fellowship with God. But we first have to accept that God is right about our nature and that we are in need. The good news is only good once we accept the fact of our need.

Expectation of Fellowship with God

We should live our lives in view of fellowship with God. The bible says that God is high and lifted up and completely different from us. The gulf between God and sinful man is immense.

But through his Son Jesus, God has bridged the gap and beckons us to draw near. It is God's pleasure for us to come to him in faith and enter into eternal fellowship with Himself. People often make a caricature of the Christian God as someone aloof who does not seem to have a concern for people. Nothing could be farther from the case. God entered time and time again into history because of his concern for people.

God offers the solution to the issue between God and man. Of course maybe mankind thinks of God as aloof because God offers the solution on his terms. This is often the issue: man does not like God's solution.

God's solution is too hard, people say. Of course again this is nonsense. God's solution is only so hard because we simply need to take God at his word and accept his Son. You see the Gospel is difficult because we are not allowed to do anything to earn it.

It is a gift. As prideful people it is easy to scoff at the gift as hard because we are proud and earn our way. Of course the solution is a mirror of the the initial break apart from God and man.

Man thought he knew better than God and wanted things on his terms. God was not taken at his word and was believed to be holding something back. The solution is simply to take God at his word. There is a great parallel between the problem and the solution.

St. Augustine

The sum of all our goods, and our perfect good, is God.  We must not fall short of this, nor seek anything beyond it; the first is dangerous, the other impossible.

St. Augustine