Skip to main content

Love and Faithfulness


My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you prosperity. Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. (Proverbs 3:1-4)

            In yesterday’s blog, I made it clear that what I discussed wasn’t really what the Solomon was talking about. It’s not that I don’t think the things I said are true, it’s just that they weren’t really there to be drawn from the passage. I put them on the passage. I even said so at the time. What I was saying really had nothing to do with what Solomon said. I meant well, but I apologize for the misappropriation of Scripture. 
          Today’s passage is of a sort that I think is often misappropriated. People see the words “love” and “faithfulness” and put on them what they want them to mean. There are quips about real friends helping hide the bodies. There are calls out there for us all to demonstrate unconditional love, meaning that we support the behavior of those we love because that is supporting the person. No matter what a loved one does, we are to aid, abet, and support that thing because it makes our loved one happy. That, they say, is love and faithfulness. 
           It’s not, or if it is, it is not Scriptural love or faithfulness, because Scriptural love and faithfulness always begins with God’s love and faithfulness as the model and follows with our love and faithfulness to God before it ever gets to our love and faithfulness to another human being. 
          If you have read the Old Testament, you’ve seen that God corrects the Jews. He corrects the other nations, too. Those that persist in misbehavior, He punishes. Abraham, Moses, and at least one of the prophets confront God about His behavior. Will He destroy the righteous with the unrighteous? What if there are fifty…forty…ten? What will the nations say if God forsakes the people He promised to take to the Promised Land? It’s OK to confront God about His behavior, but not our fellow-man about hers? 
           In the New Testament, we’re given guidelines. First, we address the issue one-on-one. Second, we stage an intervention with two or three witnesses from the Church. If that doesn’t work, we take the person before the Church. If that doesn’t work, the person is excommunicated until such time as the person repents. That is Scriptural love and faithfulness. You don’t hide the bodies. You suggest that the person turn himself in, and if he doesn’t, you call the police.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

Listen To Him

              The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him . (Deuteronomy 18:15)           Today, we switch from Jesus’ claims of “I am” to prophecies made about Him. My Bible platform is starting in Deuteronomy. I’d start in Genesis, where we would learn that the one who would save us would be a descendant of Eve (Genesis 3:15), of Noah (by default), Abram and Sara(Genesis 12:1-3). Isaac (Genesis 17:19), Jacob (Genesis 25:23), Judah (Genesis 29:8), and David (II Samuel 7:12-16). There were also references to a new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:22-32). In addition, there were prophecies about when and where the prophet/Messiah would be born and what would happen to him.           Of course, naysayers will claim that Jesus’ life was retrofitted or reverse enginee...
Post a Comment
Read more