Skip to main content

Unity and Diversity


Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. (Deuteronomy 6:4-5) 

            We never do well to try to describe the Trinity. Every illustration fall apart. I'm reluctant to make the attempt, but these verses suggest something that might help us understand a little, with the help of something I learned from reading one of Dallas Willard's books. On page 38 of Renovation of the Heart, he has an illustration of concentric circles, with the spirit being the inner most circle, then mind (feeling and thought), body, and social interactions, with soul being the outer most ring. The soul is the whole person. We are more than any one of those rings, we are all of them together at one time.
            So when God commanded that we love Him with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our strength, He is commanding us to love Him not in three separate ways, but in one, with our entire self. There are times when it seems as if we are divided into parts. That is one of the effects sin has on us, but we are still a single entity. The body is not the heart (among the ancients, the heart was the will) but the body is no less (and no more) us than the will is. In our activities in life, each "part" plays some role. Sometimes we distinguish among them because it helps us understand or describe our experience but that doesn't mean the distinction is real.

            We become most like God when we not only live in right relation to Him (loving Him) but when we do so as a unified entity that is simultaneously diverse.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Birthday of
Niccolo Machiavelli

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

Think About These Things

                 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8) This passage is a major challenge for me. Like everyone else, I struggle to keep my thoughts from wandering off into the weeds, then wondering what possible benefits those weeds might have… Sigh. But as a writer, I have to delve at least a little into the ignoble, wrong, impure, unlovely, and debased. After all, there’s no story if everything’s just as it should be and everyone’s happy. As Christians, there are times when we need to deal with all the negatives, but that makes it even more important that we practice turning our minds by force of attention to what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. It’s just too easy to get stuck in a swamp. With my...
1 comment
Read more

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more