A Contradiction in Terms

I remember a riddle from way back in my Junior School days – one that I’ve also heard in different forms from many older and cleverer people: ‘If God is omnipotent, can he create a stone that is too heavy for him to lift?’ Most folk struggle with this one. If he can, then he is not omnipotent: and if he can’t, then he is not omnipotent either. So how can there be such a thing as an omnipotent God? Actually, it’s really just a clever play on the meaning of words. Could there ever be such a thing as an immovable stone? No; it’s a purely abstract (i.e. non-existent) concept. And what does the word, ‘create’ mean? To bring into existence. So can you bring into existence something that, by definition, cannot exist? No. The nature of the thing and the action defined makes the entire question a logical self-contradiction. Now consider this…

The Nature of Love

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God, and knows God. He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love. (1Jn 4:7-8)

Jesus said to him, ” ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. A second likewise is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” (Mat 22:37-40)

We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. (1Jn 4:16)

This is one of the most profound theological concepts in the Bible; but, as just stated, it is vitally important to understand that no word in the English language has ever been more dangerously devalued than this word, ‘love.’ There are many kinds of behaviour or feelings that we call ‘love’; and the Greek language actually uses several different words to distinguish them. ‘ But the love being spoken of here is the Greek word, ‘agape‘ (pronounced ‘agapay‘). In Old English this was called ‘charity:’ though nowadays the meaning of that word has been changed almost beyond recognition. Satan is desperately concerned to keep us from understanding the true meaning of this word. I would strongly recommend that you read the whole of 1John 4:1-21, followed by 1Corinthians 13:1-13; John 13:34-35 & John 17:1-26, in order to get a better understanding of what it really is.

‘Agape‘ is a love that is willing to give and keep on giving, no matter what the cost to the giver. It is God’s fundamental nature; the very foundation and currency of heaven. Without it, heaven could not be heaven. The opposite of this love is not hatred: it is self-centredness and indifference. That is the deadly poison that destroys love; and to which God is therefore implacably opposed.

But the inherent weakness of love – the seeming flaw that causes so many to believe that self-interest is the easier alternative – is, how can it be enforced? There’s a double moral problem here. If there is an enforcer, will not that one be accused of acting out of self interest? And how can a person act out of love unless they are free to choose? The first of these issues we’ll tackle later: but right now, let’s think about the second.

Why Love Can Never Be Compelled

When someone acts in a loving manner because they have been threatened with punishment if they don’t; that is not love: but self interest. If they have been so conditioned that they automatically act in a loving manner, that isn’t really love either. It might result in a Utopian society: but they might just as well be unthinking robots. And if they evaluate the situation and conclude that a loving choice will work out better for themselves in the end, that is also self-interest. The only true acts of love are where people make a free and conscious choice to benefit another, at some personal cost to themselves, because of the value they place upon the thoughts and feelings of the other.

Our Phoney Ideas of Heaven

We often think naively about Heaven as if it were a place where everything is organized for our personal satisfaction, rather like a luxury retirement resort. There will be no squabbling or theft, complaining or jealousy because all our wants will be supplied. There’ll be no more sickness or fatigue, so we won’t get grouchy. There will always be new wonders to behold, so we won’t get bored. There’ll be no Devil! (Hip, hip hooray!) So there’ll be no temptation to sin any more, will there?

But it’s not that simple. If it were, where is the opportunity for us to exercise the love that God values so much? Why would we need the enduring faith and hope described in 1Cor 13:13? Remember, Adam sinned in the garden of Eden (Gen 3:1-8); and Satan himself sinned even in God’s presence, and was cast out (Luk 10:18, Rev 12:7-9).

In fact, heaven is no retirement home: its a place of mutual co-operation and service – a community of love – where those who serve best are rewarded with positions of greater trust and responsibility. It’s an ‘upside-down’ hierarchy; where those who have the highest rank are the most devoted to caring for others (Mk 10:42-45).

The first came before him, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made ten more minas.’ “He said to him, ‘Well done, you good servant! Because you were found faithful with very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.’ “The second came, saying, ‘Your mina, Lord, has made five minas.’ “So he said to him, ‘And you are to be over five cities.’ (Luk 19:16-19)

Jesus summoned them, and said to them, “You know that they who are recognized as rulers over the nations lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you, but whoever wants to become great among you shall be your servant. Whoever of you wants to become first among you, shall be bondservant of all. For the Son of Man also came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mar 10:42-45. See also Jn 13:12-17; Lk 22:26-27.)

The truth is that, even when things are going well – when we are perhaps relaxing on holiday in the sun – we would still struggle to go a single day without some kind of sinful, critical or self-centred thought or reaction creeping in! And we all know how quickly and easily one bad deed leads to another bad reaction. How long do you really think you could last? We sort of hope that God will be prepared to overlook our ‘little’ sins: but Scripture reveals God as a being of such absolute holiness and power that even angels have to shield their eyes! (Isaiah 6:2-3). It’s going to require some very fundamental changes to our character to make us fit to live in such an environment.

We Must Choose Who We Want to Be

Frankly, we are a long way from really understanding just how far-reaching those changes have to be. Of course, God could just ‘throw a switch’ and render us incapable of ever making wrong choices again. But, if love is to be love, and is to become the primary motive for our lives, this transformation has to be the result of conscious, unforced choices on our part – of our really wanting to be more like Him. Love has to be voluntary: or it isn’t love at all.

In Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man pleads with Abraham:

” ‘I ask you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house; for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, so they won’t also come into this place of torment.’ “But Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.’ “He said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ “He said to him, ‘If they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one rises from the dead.’ ” (Lk 16:27-31)

The crucial issue is that the rich man had been living in a state of luxurious indifference to the needs of those around him. This was in spite of the fact that every Jew had been taught since childhood that such behaviour was unacceptable to God. The rich man’s thinking was, ‘Surely, if people really knew that what the Bible taught was true, then they would do the right thing.’ But Jesus is telling us that the real problem is not that they don’t know what they ought to do: but that they don’t really care. Providing additional proof of the penalty that awaits them might scare the brothers into action: but it will not make them any more loving.