I've been listening to a lot of theological material recently ( sermons, lectures {go Reformed Theological Seminary Online!} and conversations with various church-related small groups) and I'm coming to the realization that defining your terms is VERY important.
Here's a couple examples of what I mean:
Food-kids think candy, anorexics shudder, addicts salivate, I think of my food favs
Sad- some think pathetic, pet lovers think dead kitten, refugees think of their dead family members and war-torn country
Love- kids think parents always saying "yes", teenagers think constant togetherness or maybe sex, males think sex, females think emotional needs met.
That last word is one that I've been considering lately. We toss around the phrase "God's Love" often without defining what that means. Why do we do this??? Why do we give people something so profound as the infinite truth of His glorious love with no context and no Biblical definition.
This was brought to my attention in the passage 1 John 4:7-21. I have always taken the word love in this passage to mean kindness to those around me. But, if you read the passage carefully the love he's talking about is only given to those who are believers (know God). So, it can't be kindness.
If you look at verse 9 I believe it holds the answer of what Love means. In this passage love refers to God saving those He's written in the Book of Life from deserved death! That realization caused me read the whole passage in a new light. Whew! I would love to go on and on about how cool this passage is, but this post would get very rambly.
I fly home from Nicaragua tomorrow...I've been here visiting Dawn since Sunday. Ah, nothing like flying standby.
This was brought to my attention in my own reading of Scripture a couple of weeks ago. 1 John 4:7-8 is often quoted without context and I've often heard it implied that it means:
