A Fresh Perspective - 05/09/08
According to Matthew's Gospel Jesus said, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven" (see Matt. 5:43-48).
Jesus called for a radical new vision of love. Even enemies - those who would wish and will our harm - are to be loved. Why? Because this is how God loves; this gets at the very heart of who God is. Christ is instructing his followers to behave and act like God. God "causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." In other words, God makes no distinctions between the righteous and the evil when he bestows grace upon the world. He is equally generous to all.
Jesus didn't come to his theology of God by simply reading the Bible. Certainly, in the Hebrew Scriptures (Jesus' Bible) there are many expressions of God's grace and love toward the unrighteous. Perhaps the most definitive revelation of this is in the book of Jonah. It's a fascinating parable/story of how God's prophet is sent, against his will, to a wicked people, inviting them to repent and be spared judgment.
Jonah does not want to go because he does not share God's heart for this wicked people. Once the people repent and are delivered he says to God: "That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity" (Jonah 4:2).
This poignant story of God's love for the wicked must, however, be set against other stories that depict God in very different ways. The story of Jonah stands in direct contradiction to the story of God commanding Moses and Joshua to commit genocide, to completely obliterate an entire people, women and children included. These two stories/pictures of God are irreconcilable and yet both are in the Bible.
Jesus did not begin with the Bible in his understanding of God. Jesus began with his own experience of God as "Abba," a loving, compassionate Parent, which in turn, guided his discernment and interpretation of Scripture.
If Christians would begin with Jesus and his understanding of God, and apply his hermeneutic (interpretational method) of discernment to the Bible, we would find a corrective to some Christian beliefs and practices that simply contradict the life and teachings of Jesus. For example, Jesus' understanding of the character of God reflected in God's love of all people, even those set against God, is completely irreconcilable with the traditional Christian teaching of hell as a place of eternal torment. They cannot logically and morally stand together. The judgment of God cannot contradict the love of God, but must be interpreted within the context of God's unconditional love for all people, the righteous and the wicked.
Jesus is our guide to understanding the Bible. If we take Jesus seriously then anything that contradicts God's love of all people is not of God, even if it's in the Bible and purports to be of God.
Chuck Queen is Pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church, Frankfort (CBF affiliated). You can access his sermons and past articles at www.ibcfrankfort.com. He welcomes your comments at cqueen@fewpb.net