Evangelical Outpost has a regular feature called “Thirty-Three Things”. I’m not there yet. I hope to be consistent with three things for now.
(1) I’ve been hearing and reading a lot lately about how when Jesus said “on earth as it is in Heaven” he wasn’t just talking about “thy will be done”, but also “thy kingdom come.” While that is a true and worthy assertion, what about “hallowed be thy name“? Many (please forgive my vague and largely inexcusable use of the word “many”) who point this out are advocating social justice that “lives out the Gospel” but doesn’t preach it.
But is the name of the Father to be hallowed on earth? Can we truly do that if we don’t “teach them to obey everything [Christ has] commanded”? Then we must preach and practice putting Christ above all else, including our good works.
(2) In related news, “Love God” and “Love your neighbor” are two separate commands. They are not, together, the Greatest Commandment. One is subordinate to the other. Loving your neighbor without loving God isn’t sufficient…can you hallow His name without acknowledging it? without recognizing the power and sovereignty?
Is loving God without loving your neighbor sufficient? In the most sterile sense, yes. Sola fide. But in the more useful, organic sense, if you love God you will love your neighbor.
The two are not interchangeable. You can’t love God by loving your neighbor, or vice-versa. This is a clear both/and situation.
(3) Wade did a couple of posts recently about a “good” reading of Scripture, here and here. His basic point is that a technically incorrect reading that leads to Christlike service is better than a technically correct reading that does not. In the first post he says this:
Truth must be defined more by its ability to transform than its theoretical correctness. Biblical truth that doesn’t transform isn’t really true.
This way of putting things places an awful lot of authority in the response of the reader. Is that where the responsibility of defining truth belongs, or does it belong with Christ? As one commenter asked, what if a Biblical truth transforms one person but not another?
Another commenter posted a pertinent C.H. Spurgeon quote (gotta love guys named Charles, right?) that I think describes my perspective well.
If we’re talking about an alternative reading that doesn’t conflict with the “plain meaning”, as Spurgeon calls it, then its importance will be tied to its ability to move us to action. But the truth doesn’t become untrue because we don’t move to action.
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2 responses so far...
Thanks for the positive review 
Blogs4God
Hi Charles,
Interesting post. And you raise a number of interesting points. Gotta love how “3″ seems to be the flavour of the month. Check out http://www.layguy.com/2008/05/04/3-responses/ - my current post.