Do I love God for nothing?

Richard Sibbes: "Many men will be glad to own Christ to be great by him, but as Augustine complains in his time, Christ Jesus is not loved for his own sake but for other things that he brings with him, peace, plenty etc. as far as [owning Christ] stands with these contentments. If Christ and the world part once, it will be known which we followed. In times of peace this is hardly discerned." (Second Sermon on the Song of Songs)

This is basically what the Book of Job is all about. Does Job love God just because of what He has given him or because of who the LORD God is in Himself? "The Satan, for all his malice, is doing something necessary for the glory of God. In some deep way it is necessary for it to be publically seen by the whole universe that God is worthy of the worship of a man and that God’s worth is in no way dependent on God’s gifts." (Christopher Ash, Job: The Wisdom of the Cross, Crossway)

Jonathan Edwards, after commenting on Job 1:9-10 concludes: "the first foundation of a true love to God, is that whereby he is in himself lovely, or worthy to be loved, or the supreme loveliness of his nature... How can that be true love of beauty and brightness which is not for beauty and brightness' sake? How can that be a true prizing of that which is in itself infinitely worthy and precious, which is not for the sake of its worthiness and preciousness? ...They whose affection to God is founded first on his profitableness to them, their affection begins at the wrong end; they regard God only for the utmost limit of the stream of divine good, where it touches them, and reaches their interest; and have no respect to that infinite glory of God's nature... A [merely] natural principle of self-love may be the foundation of great affections towards God and Christ, without seeing anything of the beauty and glory of the divine nature." (Religious Affections emphasis added)

How much is my religion still infected with self-love? Lord have mercy and open my eyes to Your beauty.

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What to do with the Song of Songs?

There seem to be two extreme positions on interpreting the Song of Songs in our context – either it’s purely about Christ and the Church, or it is purely about human relationships. And the second of these seems to be much more common. And perhaps more common than either is a reluctance to even attempt to preach from the book.

And then the other day I was reading a Christian book on marriage when the author suddenly felt the need to argue strongly at some length against the idea that the Song of Songs can be interpreted allegorically of Christ and the Church. So maybe it’s worth going through the key arguments the author made there against what is the traditional interpretation through church history that the Song is primarily to be taken as referring to the relationship between Christ and the Church.

1. The topic of the Song of Songs is obviously sex. Solomon is plainly writing about human, romantic relationships. That is his theme. Not Christ and the Church. In answer: That’s a fair …

Both the Scriptures and the Power of God

Jesus replied, "Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? (Mark 12:24)
I've been coming across a lot of Both-Ands recently. Here's another great pairing.

The danger of knowing the power of God but not the Scriptures. There are branches of the Church which have a strong and living trust in the strong and living God. They truly believe that our God is the creator of the heavens and the earth, for whom nothing is impossible, who can raise the dead and heal every disease and still any storm and part any sea. They know this God not simply from systematic theology but in personal relational knowing - in their experience. They pray with fervency and they see answers and they praise God. Make no mistake, that is a very good, God-honouring posture. The problem is when it is not combined with a knowing of the Scriptures then it is untethered and potentially very dangerous. It is the Scriptures which tell us the passions of God (what pleases him…

On the pitfalls of over and under contextualising

Zim Okoli leads New Life Catford with Remi Adedire. Here Zim brings to bear research on the history of the Nigerian church on the issue of contextualisation.

“To over-contextualize means you can make an idol out of their culture, but to under-contextualize means you can make an idol out of the culture you come from.” (Tim Keller, interview 2010)
What does it mean for a church to be rightly contextualised? What does it mean to have a ‘native church’? A Lithuanian church that is rightly Lithuanian? A church for Catford which is appropriate to Catford? Two indigenous missionaries of the 19th and 20th century, Samuel Crowther and Garrick Braide, pioneers of early evangelicalism in Nigeria, represent different ways to go about contextualisation and helpful ways into answering the question of what does it mean to establish a church which is both biblical and culturally appropriate?

Samuel Ajayi Crowther is a great figure in the history of evangelical ministry in Nigeria.A former victim of t…

Looking at Christ

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