Luke 7:2-3 (ESV) Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him. 3 When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant.
According to Webster, one definition of secondhand is to receive something indirectly. When we read a newspaper or watch TV news, we’re receiving the news indirectly and is, therefore, secondhand.
When we share Christ with others, it too can produce a secondhand effect. I was talking with a woman who had accepted Christ but was swept into the Watchtower organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses. She was about to be baptized, and her husband asked me to speak to her. During the time I spent explaining and defending the gospel, she came back to Christ. The secondhand effect was, unbeknownst to me at the time, her husband also came to Christ through listening to what I had shared with her.
If we are active and open Christians, I think this effect, the secondhand effect, may occur more often than we might think. This may well have been the reason Nicodemus came to Christ: he had heard someone talking about Him and was intrigued enough to seek Him out.
Nowadays even simple acts of courtesy may be enough to catch someone’s attention as a Christian act. A simple “God bless” or “How can I pray for you?” which is overheard by others could as well. Even saying grace at a restaurant may well not only give boldness to other Christians to do the same but is a secondhand witness to those around us.
I spend a lot of time on social media defending the faith and trying to encourage fellow Christians. Secondhand witnessing is broadly effective here. While I may be defending the truth of God’s Word with a recalcitrant antagonist, it is not he alone who is reading my remarks. He may be there to attack the gospel, but there are dozens of “lurkers” reading our conversation and hearing the Truth being defended and expounded: secondhand witnessing.
There have been times when we have visited a friend in the hospital and prayed over them for a quick recovery. Those walking by the room and seeing this are reminded of a power greater than that of the medical professionals on staff. I know when I see others praying in a hospital, it is a testimony to me of God’s great power.
When we were first married, the neighbor, also a young husband, and I were working on some project and needed to go to the hardware store. We took my car, and when I started the engine, the radio came on and was set to a local Christian radio station. My neighbor sort of mumbled under his breath, “Sheesh, even his radio station is Christian!” I don’t remember ever sharing Christ with him or doing anything overtly Christian for or with him. Somehow he understood our faith – Secondhand Witnessing, I guess. People are watching us.
I’m happy to say the church I attend is a praying church. On a weekly basis I see people praying for one another on the patio in front of the sanctuary: sometimes one-on-one, sometimes in fairly large groups. Others who witness this see we rely not on ourselves but on the God we pursue in prayer.
Why is this important?
Whether it’s a hospital visit that turns out to move a passerby, a witness overheard by someone else, even a bumper sticker, tee shirt, or hat that carries a Christian message, we effect the world around us by our life, our attitude, and how we show Christ in us, these all speak to others secondhand.
I sometimes wonder if when we all are seated at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, someone or several people will seek us out to tell us something we unknowingly did or said moved them to consider Christ and were saved or encourage in their walk. Perhaps someone will come to us and say “I saw you standing firm during a tough time I could never face. I was inspired. And it was that faith and courage which caused to look again at Who your God is.” – Secondhand Witnessing.
Sometimes when we try to share the gospel with others, we end up in an angry argument. This isn’t the way we should be behaving according to Scripture:
1 Peter 3:15 (ESV) but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
I find this instructive. We are not told to run from discussions, in fact seven times in Acts, Paul is seen reasoning with the Jews in the synagogues as well as with the general population in Ephesus at the hall of Tyrannus. The passage says “This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.” (Acts 19:10)
Acts 17:2 (ESV) says And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures. It was Paul’s custom to seek out places where he could start discussions, but not arguments.
When we begin discussions, we need to be sure we do so with “gentleness and respect” for the others involved. My wife and I occasionally went to the Los Angeles County Fair. One year, a splinter group from the Watchtower called the International Bible Students, had a booth at the fair answering “Bible” questions. Since their beliefs are closely aligned with Jehovah’s Witnesses, I stopped by the booth to discuss some questions I had. I spoke with a man for ten minutes or so before he called over others in the booth. “Listen to this guy.” He said, ”He doesn’t agree, but he isn’t getting angry either.” As a result we had an audience of a few rather than just the each other and I was allowed to share the truth.
I walked away with two important lessons: people will listen if you can keep the discussion on a friendly level, and most Christians this man had met that day had gotten angry with his beliefs. That’s not “gentleness and respect.” The Holy Spirit through Paul has good reasons to tell us to be gentle and respectful.
When people see you respect them enough to hear them out, they will offer the same respect to you. Getting angry and throwing dozens of Bible verses at this fellow at the Fair would have accomplished nothing but to convince him Christians are angry and argumentative.
We need only look at how Paul handled the philosophers in Athens to see how this is masterfully done (Acts 17:22-34). With Paul’s efforts and the work of the Holy Spirit on the hearts of men, some became believers.
Why is this important?
We all get into discussions about our faith whether we mean to or not. We need to understand it is not a sprint but a marathon, a relay race really. We share with someone, maybe someone at work will do the same later, then a family member, and so on. Our job isn’t to save people but to inform them and let the Holy Spirit do His work of salvation. We’re all in it together. Paul talks about this process in First Corinthians:
1 Cor. 3:6-9 (ESV) I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
When we talk with someone about our Lord, we mustn’t think we’re necessarily going to see them drop to their knees and confess Christ. While that will happen at times, our job is to plant and water. Greg Koukl describes it as putting a pebble in their shoe, give them something to think about that will lay the groundwork for the Holy Spirit to speak to them.
When we give long drawn out presentations, there is so much content, and person hearing the presentation could never remember it. Often the best thing is to offer a point or two. If they ask questions, the rest of the discussion should be to answer those not present new points. We want to drop a pebble in their shoe not fill it with gravel. And remember it’s a discussion, two sided discussion. We need to listen at least as much as we speak – maybe more.
1 Cor. 12:12-20 (ESV) For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
Gal. 5:22-23 (ESV) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
These passages of Scripture speak of the unity of the church, the body of Christ. Together we show each other and the world Christ in a very physical sense. Elsewhere in the passage, Paul gets into instruction about spiritual gifts and how they edify the church itself, but I’d like to talk about how the body of Christ is also displayed before the world. There are traits, fruit, I see in the church which give us and the world a glimpse of the God we serve.
A lot of years ago, we belonged to a Southern Baptist church in California, and there was a share night, a sort of talent show. Some members of the congregation sang songs, one gentleman whistled all four stanzas of Amazing Grace, some recited Scripture from memory, and I had written a pretty poorly constructed poem to express my relationship with God, His church, and me.
I recited the poem at a men’s group this past week, and they thought it was significant enough to ask for written copies. Being me, it occurred to me I could do this by sharing it here to see if it might help some of the readers of this blog better understand Christ and His church, and it would give a written record of the poem for those who asked. Please remember this was written to be given to a group within a church sanctuary setting:
When I was a boy
I asked God to show Himself to me,
Not in a spiritual sense
Something tangible I could see.
He didn’t appear to me that night.
He wouldn’t show Himself.
So, just to show Him who’s the boss,
I put His book back on its shelf.
As the years went by,
His book came down.
Now I know Him as my Lord.
But He never forgot my prayer.
He remembered every word.
As I look around the room,
I see some very dear friends of mine
Who show me through their lives and loves
God’s qualities divine.
In some I see the joy of God:
His patience and His kindness.
While others share His love in Truth
To cure the World’s blindness.
With some, it’s His authority that comes bursting through.
With other, His sense of humor in the funny things they do.
So if you ever prayed a prayer like that
On some dark and lonely night,
Just look around.
He’s wall-to-wall.
Behold the body of Christ.
Why is this important?
Although the gifts of the Holy Spirit are most certainly awesome, wonderful, supernatural, and even necessary for the health of the church, the fruit that display God’s joy, love, and compassion come every day nearly unnoticed through the people who make up His body. This fruit is important for the world to see. People can better discern Christ in us because He lives in us, lives through us, and exhibits His person by us. It is through us they see the body of Christ.
I had the privilege of teaching from John chapter 9 this week and thought I’d share some of the blessings I found. The full chapter appears at the end of this post.
I’m one of those guys who just loves to dig into the “nit picky” portions of Scripture: the ways Greek words are used, the great theological truths, the nuances of doctrine, but John chapter 9 doesn’t give much of that. What it does give is a study in the human condition.
There are really five parties in this passage. First is the man born blind who was given his sight by Jesus making mud and smearing it on my eyes and telling him to wash in the pool of Siloam. Second are the neighbors who argue about who this fellow really is. Third are the Pharisees, the arrogant, cold-hearted Pharisees. Fourthly are the man’s parents. And last, but certainly not least, is Jesus Himself. I think we can learn a lot about how we should and shouldn’t act from each.
I’ll keep the blind man himself for later. Let’s look at the neighbors. Some of them knew this was the man who sat at the temple begging. They had probably been regular or semi-regular givers. Then there were those who weren’t sure: maybe he is maybe he isn’t the man. No doubt these folks were less familiar with him. They most likely had seen him in passing but failed to really notice him.
How often can we do this with people we see every day, with people at the market, in the neighborhood, and even at church. We don’t know if they’re hurting or how we might help, how we might pray for them. We’ve just become so self-involved that others suffer alone with their troubles. Let’s not do that.
Next come the Pharisees. Boy how we can slip in the legalism these boys display so often in Scripture. Here they are much more interested in someone may have broken their rules by working miracles on the Sabbath than the fact God had healed this man. Interestingly the man’s sight wasn’t restored, but was created. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary puts it this way: “Since the blindness was congenital, the healing would be creative rather than remedial.” Yet, the Pharisees didn’t throw a party for this fellow to celebrate his new power of sight, they threw him out of the synagogue instead, excommunicated him because they couldn’t deal with a fact that stood against their central belief: No work could be done on the Sabbath.
I had a friend who refused to join in a community evangelism effort because he had differences with some of the churches. They were charismatic. This is a form of legalism. How about Christians who won’t sit next to a homeless person or a known person of loose morals? Jesus dined with these shorts of folks, He sought them out just as He did with this man who received his sight. Do we think we’re so much better than anyone else? Are our sins “cleaner?” Let’s get off our high horse and reach out to those Jesus reached out to.
Next are the parents. These two are an interesting set. They feared being excommunicated so much they would not say who healed their son or how He did it. “He’s of age. Ask him” was their response passing the buck. Do we love our church or our pastor more than we love our Lord? Are we afraid to question things that might be said from the pulpit that just don’t sound right to us so as not to anger anyone? Let’s get a little backbone. We should know our Bible well enough to spot error.
A pastor where I attended for years denied the Trinity indirectly twice from the pulpit saying Jesus ceased to exist for the three days He was in the tomb. This would mean, at least for three days, God was no longer triune, He had changed in His nature. This goes directly against a central doctrine of the Bible. I spoke with him after the first time and pointed out my problem with what he said. He apologized and said he was wrong. A few weeks later, though, he did it again. I then went to the board of elders with the issue. The problem was dealt with in a loving manner. The point is, we should never be afraid to bring up things we disagree with. Someone will have their theology “sharpened” whether the pastor or the congregant.
Lastly, I’d like to point to the man who was born blind. What an amazing guy. His day started with the usual begging at the temple. Then the most wonderful thing happened: he met Jesus Who gave him sight. Now he could see color, see his family, see the beauty of creation, maybe get a job, a girlfriend, get married and raise a family. This was an awe inspiring event in his life. He wanted to praise God, thank Jesus, tell everyone of the wonderful thing that had happened. Instead he was questioned about how this was done. Then comes my favorite part of the story:
John 9:30-34 (ESV) The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. 32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” 34 They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out.
The man born blind gives the Pharisees a theology lesson, and they kick him out. He started the day as an outcast but, at least, he was a Jew. Now he’s been excommunicated, a worse outcast. But then there was Jesus, the seeker of outcasts who sought him out and gave him new life. He did this for me nearly 50 years ago, and if you know Him, He’s done this for you as well. Let us live like another who was healed in Jesus’ name “walking and leaping and praising God.” (Acts. 3:8)
Why is this important?
We spend so much of our lives worried about ourselves and not about the people we pass every day. We reject those who disagree with us, we cling to man rather than God. In the noise raised around us against what we know to be true, we can momentarily lose our memory of Him who healed us, the one who gave us sight where there was no sight, the one who loves us so much He has carved our names into the palms of His hands. (Isa. 49:16) His love for us is boundless, and He loves us all. To paraphrase Anthony Campolo, “God has a wallet with everyone’s picture in it.”
John 9 (ESV)
9 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud 7 and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing. 8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” 10 So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” 12 They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.” 13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14 Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15 So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” 16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them. 17 So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.” 18 The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight 19 and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” 20 His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. 21 But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” 22 (His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.) 23 Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.” 24 So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” 25 He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” 26 They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27 He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” 28 And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” 30 The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. 32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” 34 They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out. 35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” 38 He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. 39 Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” 40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.
2 Tim. 3:1-5 (ESV) But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.
Of late, I’ve seen people in the news and in my own life claiming to be Christians but exhibiting some or all of the above traits. They often point their fingers at politicians, for instance, but ignore the same traits in themselves. We need to guard against that for a number of reasons.
Firstly, Scripture directly commands us not to be like this:
2 Tim. 2:23-26 (NASB) 23 But refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels. 24 And the Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, 25 with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.
Secondly, the devil loves to distract us. As Dr. Walter Martin used to say, “For Satan, the next best thing to a lost soul is a sterile Christian,” and misdirecting me with things other than truth, righteousness, and Christian living makes me that sterile Christian.
Thirdly, our behavior is used by God to show the world how we are different, “contrary to the world” as my pastor likes to say. We should live contrary lives, but when the lost look at us and see only the same things they see in each other, there is no reason to change, no reason to look into why we are different, no reason to turn to Christ.
Do we really want to stand before Christ one day having not shared the truth with others, not shown Christ in our lives? Do we think God will not hold us accountable for this? If we think that, we are misinformed:
Ezek. 33:6 (NIV) But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes the life of one of them, that man will be taken away because of his sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood.’
Maybe we’ve told people we’re Christians. Maybe we’ve even invited them to church, but do they see Christ in our lives daily? Have we shown them as well as told them? I don’t know about you, but I learn much better when someone shows me how something works than when they just tell me.
I never took auto class in school. I knew generally how an engine worked, and general maintenance procedures, but it was helping my brother work on his car that showed me how it all came together. Telling without showing is not to fully inform someone.
This theme of giving the full counsel of God is not exclusive to the Old Testament:
Acts. 20:26-27 (NKJV) Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. 27 For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.
When we tell people we’re Christians, and they see we don’t follow the commands of Christ, we’re lying to them. We are being two-faced telling them one thing but doing something else. Some call that hypocrisy. Jesus speaks against this very type of hypocrisy often:
Matt. 15:7-9 (ESV) You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”
We’re supposed to be different. We’re supposed to entice the lost by our behavior. If we are only interested in the “fire insurance” of accepting Christ then continuing to live as the world does, have we truly made Jesus Lord of our lives? Or have we just become Christians in name only? Have we broken our Lord’s heart?
This was a little harsh I know, but sometimes harshness is useful. I’m not speaking to the reader alone but to myself as well. Let’s reach out to one another, hold one another accountable to walk on the narrow way. Iron sharpens iron.
1 Tim. 4:12 (ESV) Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.
1 Peter 3:15 (ESV) but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
Sometimes when preparing to write this blog, I will search the web for things like “Questions Christians can’t answer” or “How to stump a Christian,” and I come up with some gems. This week, I found a site with 99+ Christianity Questions That Cannot Be Answered. Here are the first ten questions:
Why did God punish the entire Egyptian soldiers for the refusal of their King? Some individuals over the years have wondered why God decided to do that. However, no one can provide a good answer.
The men of Egypt had a choice to serve the pagan king or refuse to fight against the God of the Jews. They were destroyed for the same reason “good” people today will be eternally punished if they do not accept the gift of salvation offered by the God of the Bible.
Why is God mean in the Old Testament?
The God of the Old Testament is the same God as the God of the New Testament. The Old Testament (Old Agreement) is provided through the Law, and man is expected to obey the Law or be punished just as we are in civil matters today. The Jews were held accountable for their actions. God showed them they couldn’t live holy lives simply by their own efforts – by following the Law. In the New Testament, God now offers salvation by grace. The punishment due for sins committed were now laid upon Jesus’ sacrifice of Himself in our place.
If God possesses two wills, why does the Bible condemn double-mindedness?
Not sure where the idea of God having two wills comes from unless it is in the Garden where Jesus says “Not my will but yours be done.” In this case, while remaining divine, Jesus took on human form(Phil. 2:5-8) and with it a human mind. Jesus didn’t want to be separated from the Father on the cross (Matt. 27:46) but yielded to the Father’s will. As a man, Jesus had human fears and wants. He, as a man, did not want to die a painful death, but as God the Son, His will was to face the cross (Heb. 12:2).
If God loves us, why is there a need for hellfire?
Hellfire is not meant for man. It is where those who reject God will end up: Satan and his demons (Matt. 25:41). Men of like mind will suffer the same fate.
Is God partial?
No. God is not partial (Matt. 5:45; Romans 2:11)
Who created God?
This is what is called in logic a category error. This is when we mix categories of anything. Asking for the color of the number six, for instance, is a category error. Asking who made God is asking who created an uncreated being – another category error. God created us, though, and we are not answerable God’s creator, if there were one, but to ours.
Can God end himself?
God is by nature eternal, so no, God cannot end Himself. There are things God cannot do. I’m assuming this is where the question is coming from. God cannot learn because He is omniscient (all knowing). He cannot sin because He is holy by nature. He cannot do things which are illogical such as creating a rock He cannot move. So Christians will happily agree there are things God cannot do.
Why can’t God show us Himself?
God did show Himself 2,000 years ago in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, and they killed Him.
Why do we suffer if we have God?
Suffering is the result of sin, not God. The Christian will suffer for several reasons. The first, of course, is sin – yes Christians sin. Sinning doesn’t stop just because we have asked Jesus to take control of our lives. We still have free choice, and free choice allows us to sin. Sometimes God allows us to suffer as a learning process. Sometimes we suffer because God wants non-believers to see how Christians are different in how they handle suffering. If suffering stopped the moment we accepted Christ, all would ask Jesus to save them to end suffering not because they love Him. God loves us and seeks our genuine love in return.
Is God a male or female?
Jesus in His human nature is male. The Father and the Holy Spirit are neither. Neither has genitalia. God usually presents Himself as male, but there are passages where He uses female metaphors (Luke 13:34; Num. 11:12; Deut 32:18)
Why is this important?
God has commanded us to have an answer for everyone who asks of us a reason for our faith (1 Peter 3:15), so we should have ready answers. It’s also good to look at how non-Christians see us and be able to answer sincere questions like those above.
We may look at more of these “questions that cannot be answered” in the future of God doesn’t direct me elsewhere.
1 John 4:7-8 (ESV) Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love
Let me start by saying a teacher once told me I had the ability to make difficult concepts easier to understand. This blog may prove him wrong.
As the title says, this is a blog on Trinitarianism, so you might ask how these specific verses apply. It’s just the last three words of the passage I’d like to concentrate on, actually: “God is love.” I’d also like to establish early on that God’s love is perfect:
1 John 4:18 (ESV): There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
So, God is love means God is by nature, love. He’s not just loving but must by nature love. God is also an infinite being, so His love is infinite, and that love is perfect. The word for perfect in 1 John 4:18 is teleios and means “complete.” The Greek word for love in these verses is agape, unconditional love for someone else: man. Throughout the Bible, God’s love is directed at someone or something. My point is that love, at least perfect love, requires an object to be loved whether it’s man or righteousness or something else. Love isn’t love unless it is expressed toward something or someone.
Now, if God is love, is eternal, and prior to creation, was only one person, and was alone, He would not have had an “object” at which to direct His love. His love would then have been imperfect, so God would have been imperfect at least in His love nature. But, if there were a second person, the Eternal Word, say, at whom to direct His love, that love would have been more perfect. “But,” you say, “that only gives us two persons in the godhead,” and you would be right. We’re seeking perfect/complete love here. There is another requirement of love we need to include if we want perfect/complete love. That would be the practice of two loving individuals directing their common love at another, a third person. We see this in a family where parents will say they didn’t know what love was until they had a child. The communion between parents in their common love for a child, in this case, results in perfect love.
“But,” you say again, “why not just continue on with a fourth, fifth, sixth, person and so on?” This isn’t necessary since the common love shared by a first, second, and third person doesn’t require a fourth to be complete. It only adds objects, not features to perfect love. Three will make it perfect, and since God is perfect and perfect in love, three is enough.
So, to lay this out logically, it would go something like this:
God is love.
God’s love nature must be perfect and complete.
For God’s love to be perfect and compete, there must be an object for that love.
Adding one person or object to be loved still leaves open a need to love another together.
Adding that third person completes the perfection of love as it adds a shared communal love of two toward another.
An additional person, a fourth person, does nothing to perfect that love.
Therefore, if God is perfect, efficient, and eternal love He must be three divine persons.
Is the Trinity logical?
We’ve all heard poor explanations of what the Trinity is and how it can be explained like the egg example: shell, white, and yoke. As a child, my son had a book explaining the Trinity in a similar manner using an apple: peel, meat, core or seeds. Both of these explanations make God out to be three parts. God is a simple being not made of parts, so we need to find a better explanation. How about this one:
Mary is going to try out for the Rockettes, but when she shows up at Radio City Music hall for the audition, no one is there. She decides to run through her routine anyway. When she finishes, she slips into a time machine and goes back in time to one minute before her dance routine began and joins her other self. They both dance the same routine, and when they’re finished, Mary reenters the time machine again and goes back in time to one minute prior to the start of the dance routine and joins her other selves.
Now, is each of the three dancers the same Mary? Yes, they are all Mary. Can they be distinct from one another? Yes they can. We can have the Mary on the left, Mary on the right, and Mary in the center. They can communicate with one another, move independently, etc. So, what we have are three distinct dancers but only one Mary. This principle can be applied somewhat to God. We have one God but three distinct persons all sharing the same nature. Therefore, the statements “God is one God” and “God is three persons” are not contradictory any more than saying “There is one Mary but three dancers.”
Why is this important?
It is sometimes important to present philosophical answers to questions about our beliefs because not everyone will accept direct biblical answers.
Most of what I have presented here is taken from the chapter on the Trinity in An Introduction to Christian Philosophical Theology by Davis and Yang (2020, Zondervan Academic)
2 Tim. 3:16-17 (ESV) All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
So, by what Paul says here, Scripture is our source for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. What do people do who either don’t have the Bible or have rejected the Bible as uninspired?
In their book, An Introduction to Christian Philosophical Theology, Davis and Yang give four probable outcomes of a society without the Bible should they wish to understand salvation and how to arrive at salvation without Scripture:
“Legalism: A religious system that consists only of a set of rules that must be stringently followed.
“Ritualism: A religious system that prescribes ceremonial practices, perhaps to placate the gods or to engage in a trade in goods or services – for example, sacrifices for plenty of rain and crops.
“Relativism: The view that no particular set of beliefs or practices is correct or privileged – as long as you are sincere in what you believe and how you live, you are doing well.
“Nihilism: There is no answer to the question or no way of knowing the answer, so there is no hope of salvation – it is merely wishful thinking.” (Davis and Yang, p. 29-30)
As most of you know, there are two divine sources for information about God: creation and the Bible. These are called general revelation and special revelation respectively. We can learn a lot about God through His creation: God is orderly, creative, logical, caring, greater than the universe He created, and so on. It is our dependence on God’s Word which teaches us about God’s chosen people, their interaction with Him throughout their history, and, of course, the sacrificial death, burial, and resurrection of His Son in order that we might be offered eternal life.
Special revelation is not necessarily Scripture, though. It can also be dreams, visions, any sort of direct communication from God to man. Of course, these communications must be compared with the Scriptures themselves and discarded if they do not align.
We do seem to have evidence of some direct divine contact with men as long ago as perhaps 3000 b.c. Some of the names found in the ruins of Ebla, a city which thrived between 3000 and 2000 b.c., contain the name Ya, perhaps Yahweh. Names such as mi-ka-ya (“Who is like Yah”) and ish-ma-ya (“Yah has heard”) were found on tablets in the ancient city and may point to a public knowledge of Yahweh. The abbreviation of God’s name, “Yah,” is used throughout the Bible in the term “Hallelujah” where the “j” is pronounced as a “y.”
This might indicate God had contacted us through some sort of special revelation prior to Moses in order to guide men in righteousness even then. It could also have been passed down to their descendants by Adam and Eve through word of mouth.
Why is this important?
We see the need for some sort of contact whether written, as in the case of the Bible, or some sort of direct communication from God in the form of dreams or visions, for us not to wander off into some of the errors listed above by Davis and Yang. Scripture is the standard, the one true and reliable source for our knowledge of God and His will in our lives. It tells us specifically what God has done for us and how we please Him through obedience and displease Him through sin.
If there were no Bible, so much of what we know of God and of ourselves might never been realized.
John 8:1-11 (NASB) But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 And early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people were coming to Him; and He sat down and began to teach them. 3 And the scribes and the Pharisees *brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the midst, 4 they *said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. 5 “Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?” 6 And they were saying this, testing Him, in order that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down, and with His finger wrote on the ground. 7 But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 And again He stooped down, and wrote on the ground. 9 And when they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the midst. 10 And straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” 11 And she said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go your way. From now on sin no more.”
This story of the woman caught in adultery is an interesting passage of Scripture as are all passages of Scripture. This one is disputed as to whether it is actually Scripture, though. The story doesn’t appear in the earliest manuscripts of the New Testament but is possibly referred to by the Church Father, Papias (60 – 130 a.d.). Since it doesn’t appear in a New Testament Manuscript until the fifth century, many scholars believe it was not included in the original text. Greek Scholar, F. F. Bruce, doesn’t even include it in his commentary on the Gospel of John because of this belief.
Other scholars believe it appeared in the original autographs but was removed because the early church thought it treated adultery less severely than it should. Adultery was apparently a problem in the early church perhaps due to the Roman and Greek culture of having a wife and a mistress.
A third camp believes this is a not Scripture but is a true historical event in which Jesus did address the adulterous woman and her Pharisee accusers. They believe this because the story appears in early extrabiblical writings such as Papias (60-130 a.d.), Didascalia Apostolorum (c. 230 a.d.), Ambrose of Milan (c. 340-397 a.d.), and Augustine (354-439). It also appears in the Latin Vulgate translated in the late fourth Century. The earliest it appears in a New Testament manuscript is in one of our earliest full version of the New Testament, Codex Bezae (c. 400 a.d.) and Codex Washingtonianus dated about the same time and contains most of the four gospels.
The story doesn’t always appear in John chapter eight either. Sometimes it appears in chapter 21 and even in Luke. Again, this leads some to think either it was removed and copiests didn’t know where to reinsert the story, or it was a non-biblical but actual historical event which some copiests wanted to include in the gospel.
I’m going to take the view it is Scripture until proven otherwise. Now let’s look a little at the text. There are some fascinating points to make here.
In verses six and eight, Jesus writes in the dirt. This is the only place in the New Testament where Jesus writes anything. In Exodus 31:18, God (YHWH) uses His finger to write His Law in stone: (NASB) And when He had finished speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, He gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God.
Leviticus 20:10 says the Pharisees in our story should have brought the man who was committing adultery as well, and they were both to be stoned: (NASB) “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.”
According to Deut. 17:7, the witnesses to the offense were to be the first to cast the stones:
(ESV) The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
So, legally, there was no one to pass judgment on the adulteress. Her accusers had left. Remember she was still under the Law. Jesus had not died and risen yet to bring on the New Testament Age. And, there was to be no divine judgment either since Jesus did not condemn her.
On a lighter note, the last sentence in the passage, “From now on sin no more,” bothered me. I asked Jesus several times in prayer why He would say that. The woman was born with a sin nature just as you and I were. She was going to sin again, maybe not commit adultery again, but she would sin.
I sometimes think my questions are Jesus’ current main source of laughter. He finally told me “Did you expect Me to say, ‘sin no more, and please cut back on the adultery?’” I got the point. Absolute holiness is our goal, and we can only achieve that through God’s forgiveness.
Why is this important?
We receive criticism from all sides as Christians. Many of these criticisms are directed at the reliability of Scripture. Some will say we have included disputed passages in our Bibles, and we need to have an answer for them. This is one.
Mark 10:17-18 (ESV) And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”
The question, “Is Jesus good?” seems pretty elementary. Of course Jesus is good, but the question has some application to the above verse. Some would say Jesus is denying His deity here, but is He? If we see Jesus is good, then the question He asks is whether the man who knelt before Him recognized who Jesus truly was: God the Son. At the same time, it would be an admission of deity, godhood, by Jesus. Let’s see if Jesus is good.
Hebrews 4:15 says Jesus is without sin:
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
So, Jesus is without sin. If that doesn’t prove He is good, at least He isn’t bad, is He? But does Jesus ever claim directly to be good? Well, in the Gospel of John, He claims to be the good shepherd:
John 10:11 (ESV) I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
This shows His love for his sheep (followers). That certainly points to His goodness, at least in His role as Shepherd. There is another passage that might demonstrate more clearly just who Jesus is:
Col. 2:8-9 (ESV) See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,
This passage in Colossians would seem to present a major logical problem for those who would claim Jesus is denying His deity in Mark 10:17-18. Let’s look at the logic of it: If all the fullness of God dwells bodily in Jesus and God is eternally and infinitely good, then Jesus is eternally and infinitely good. If Jesus is eternally and infinitely good and the only being which is eternally and infinitely good is God, then Jesus is God. (If you’re into standard form categorical syllogisms, I’ve presented this argument in that form at the end of the post).
Why is this important?
I’m sure somewhere in the last couple of sentences, you might have said, “Boy, Mike, you’re sure getting nitpicky.” Well, sometimes we have to get nitpicky with those who can’t see the truth right in front of them. Jehovah’s Witnesses and others believe Mark 10:17-18 shows Jesus is denying that He is God. From what we have seen above, both biblically and logically, it’s obvious this is not what Mark is telling us Jesus is asking.
Going back to Mark 10:17-18, the traveler is simply being asked if he recognizes Jesus as God incarnate: (ESV) And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”
I agree with the psalmist:
Ps. 34:8 (ESV) Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!
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Syllogisms
Premise #1a – In Jesus, all the fullness of deity dwells bodily
Premise #2a – Deity (God) is eternally and infinitely good.
Conclusion #1a – Therefore, Jesus is eternally and infinitely good.
Premise #1b – If Jesus is eternally and infinitely good and
Premise #2b – And the only being which is eternally and infinitely good is God,
Believers Armed and Dangerous 