1 John 4: The Measuring Cup is to Love like Jesus. Do I?

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. - 1 John 4

"This is how love is made complete among us ... In this world we are like Jesus." When I pour out salt for a recipe, I check that the salt reaches the lip of the measuring spoon. Too much and I am saltier than I should be. Too little and I am tasteless. I know that I often don't measure up to the completeness that is Jesus. Some people must have an incredible imagination to think that their Jesus matches the attitudes that they express. I don't have that kind of creative imagination. But, as the song says, "Through some clever thinking and a strong imagination I could twist the truth into any configuration, find myself doing things that I never dreamed I could do" (CP, Almost Threw it All Away)

John doesn't let us off the hook: "Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar." I can come up with all sorts of linguistic gymnastics to say that what I am doing is not "hate", stating that my attitude is just a misdemeanor, not a "true" criminal offense. But I wonder, who am I lying to. Instead of admitting the truth of my sinful desire to hold on to my bad attitude. Instead of falling once more upon the mercy of God and grieving on it. Instead of working diligently against my own tendency to justify and never change. 

One day I will grow up. As Paul says

"I pray that you ... may have power 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" - Eph. 3:18b-19

Psalm 76: Being On God's Good Side Is Not Anything I Did

God is renowned in Judah; in Israel his name is great. His tent is in Salem, his dwelling place in Zion. There he broke the flashing arrows, the shields and the swords, the weapons of war.

You are radiant with light, more majestic than mountains rich with game. The valiant lie plundered, they sleep their last sleep; not one of the warriors can lift his hands. At your rebuke, God of Jacob, both horse and chariot lie still.

It is you alone who are to be feared. Who can stand before you when you are angry? From heaven you pronounced judgment, and the land feared and was quiet—when you, God, rose up to judge, to save all the afflicted of the land. Surely your wrath against mankind brings you praise, and the survivors of your wrath are restrained.

Make vows to the Lord your God and fulfill them; let all the neighboring lands bring gifts to the One to be feared. He breaks the spirit of rulers; he is feared by the kings of the earth. - Psalm 76

The NLT translates verse 10 as Human defiance only enhances your glory,  for you use it as a weapon.

Fear of God is downplayed in Christian circles, partly because we don't like to think of our loving God getting angry (v. 7) and partly because we are taught we don't need to fear God. After all, perfect love expels all fear (1 John 4:18) But Psalm 76 shows what an encounter with the living and powerful God when he is angry. For God to sit back and do nothing while people hurt those who he loves, would he truly be loving? Justice says that we get what is appropriate and fear is when we face that judge while in our own guilt knowing that he has full within his own power to carry out judgment. 

Since I am in Christ, I no longer have the fear relationship with God but I have full respect of what God should rightfully do to me if it weren't for his declared love for me in Christ.  

1 John 4:20b: If Holy Is Other

For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. - 1 John 4:20b

Holy is set apart. They are kept apart, called other. The spiritual wallflowers of the gospel. Not seen. He is set apart, called holy. Not seen. Can only one be loved or is it all paper roses?

James 2:18: Being and Doing

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. - James 2:18b

What is the role of mysticism--the direct experience of God--in the Christian faith? Through the centuries there have been writers and saints who have emphasized this, but not often within the evangelical or Reformed tradition. Even titles such as Henry Blackaby's Experiencing God or J.I. Packer's Knowing God seem to hold God at the distance of a dear friend-someone to be watched and emulated but not really experienced. The closest we've (Helen and I) found in our (admittedly scattered) readings comes from Tozer or Chambers, or further back from the Puritans John Owens and Jonathan Edwards.

Our tradition is skeptical of anything related to encountering God directly in any meaningful way because it is inherently subjective. Rather than relying on or seeking after the subjective, Reformed writers have preferred to stand firmly on revealed, propositional truth and suggest that the "experience" or "encounter" with God is as He is found in that truth. This skepticism can likewise be seen in the how the Spirit's role in the Christian life is treated. Scared by the potential anarchy of "new revelation" they confine the Christian experience of the Spirit to whispers in a small quasi-Scriptural box.

There are two things that came to mind as Helen and I discussed this the other day:

• Being/Doing. This is the being/doing, are/appear-to-be, faith/works tension that we all wrestle with. Some faith traditions may focus on who we are in Christ, the transformation happening internally and the trust relationship with God. Other faith traditions may focus on our changed lives, how we shine out our renewed life in Christ, and how God uses our lives to change the world. Bit, this is not a either/or, it is a both/and. But to what degree?
• Integrity. Integrity is the unity between who we are on the inside and who we appear to be on the outside; the faith that is on the inside and the matching works on the outside; the life-giving transformation by the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit. James calls those who lack this integrity double-minded (James 1:8). Jesus termed it hypocrisy (cf. Matthew 6:5).

Does truth lead to closeness with God (the route familiar to me in my upbringing)? Or is it a closeness with God that brings us to the truth?

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. - 1 John 4:16b

Fundamentally, the Christian life is a trust relationship, not in a proposition ('Gravity won't let me down'), but in a person ('God will neither abandon nor forsake me.'). However, the moment we describe a person, propositions are attached. "God is love" is a good example. There is a person behind the proposition.

...that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. - John 17:21

The Bible says there is potential for an incredibly close relationship between us and God. Mysticism seeks to describe what that connection looks like; what resonating with the heartbeat of God teaches us; what it feels like; where takes us. Some Christian mystics assert more: a connection with God separate from the thoughts and emotions. Seems tenuous to me.

Romans 8:15-17: The Cast of Characters Called "Father"

"In the absence of a real father, I had a cast of characters that were at times hilarious, pitiful, perfect, kind and wise." - Donald Miller, Father Fiction, p. 5

How many of those I care about grew into adulthood without a father in the house? Several. The stories are different, but the emotions are similar. Many of those struggle themselves in their relationships, priming the cycle to repeat. It also makes it difficult to understand our relationship with God the Father, forcing us to rely on other analogies and descriptions. Consider Paul's powerful call to spiritual freedom in his letter to the Romans:

The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. - Romans 8:15-17

When Jesus purchased us from sin and death, where we were slaves,  he did not merely make us slaves again under a new, more benevolent regime. Rather he adopted us as children and co-heirs of the vast privilege conferred upon Jesus.

But is that a good thing? For those whose experience within families has been generally positive, it may be hard to even understand this question. "Of course its a good thing!" But for those whose relationship with parents has been painful, confusing or absent the idea of placing God into the Father role may not seem so appealing.

In fact, the slave role may seem simpler and less emotionally risky. Commands are given on one hand and carried out on the other. I don't have to like the Master, I just have to obey the Master. Do what He wants, no one gets hurt, I pay a well-defined cost resulting in well-defined benefits, and my emotions are my own.

The role of Father (or, worse, Abba or Daddy!) carries with it the expectation that I should love God, that I should feel something for God, that I should long to be near him. Uncertain about fathers in general, some might wonder whether they want to slot God into that role in their lives.

There is fear there. Fear of putting any person or institution or idea into such a powerful role within our lives. We try to protect ourselves by never filling that vacancy, never ceding authority or emotional significance to a "Father". But we have to recognize it for what it is: fear. Fear of what God might do, what disappointment he might inflict, what foolishness he might get us into.

It is exactly the role of Father that casts this fear out. Not the type of father we might have experienced or which we might still dread, but the type of father we were designed to be in relationship with. For those of us with a less-than-perfect family landscape, it is unfamiliar territory but the journey through that territory is one worth making.

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. - 1 John 4:18