Tag: Philosophy

Male and female he created them

The first page of the Bible gives us much key information, vital for our personal self-understanding. A lot of unnecessary stress and confusion results from the inability to grasp the biblical basis for our identity and reality.

Some of that confusion has to do with our sexuality. Abandoning the sound basis of the Creator’s wisdom and guidelines leads human sexuality into all sorts of distortion, immorality, abuse, and perversion. Without the Bible’s light, human efforts have proved to be totally unable to invent better moral guidelines for their sexual behaviour.

The Bible’s foundational truth that God made humans “male and female” is no banal statement: it is one of immense importance. It means, to begin with, that men are not women. That was obvious all along, of course, but now it has scientific basis: God created the two sexes with different chromosomes that distinguish them from each other. There is an essential biological difference between the sexes. 

When God designed the human body, he made a distinction between the male and the female body. The woman’s body is unique in its capacity for giving birth to babies; the male body has the unique capacity of impregnating the female. God’s design is blatantly obvious in the way the sexual organs of the two sexes complement each other in sexual union. It is in this way that God planned for new human beings to come into existence. Indeed, his words of encouragement and blessing, right from the start in Genesis 1.28, indicate his plan for his human creatures to enjoy an intimate sexual relationship with a partner of the opposite sex, with a view to having children. That is not the only reason for sexual intimacy in marriage: it is also blessed as a means of expressing love between the couple.

The Creator and Designer of sex had a wise purpose in view – so his creatures would enjoy the blessing of his gift of sexuality as they follow his instructions.

Unsurprisingly, throughout the Bible, sins like adultery, homosexuality, prostitution, fornication, and other forms of sexual immorality are proscribed. These acts deviate from God’s will and purpose for his creatures, and they bring upon those who practice them a lot of dysfunction physically, emotionally, and psychologically. They also separate offenders spiritually from God’s blessing and cut them off from the highest human fulfilment God wants for them.

  How blessed, by contrast, are those who, following the Maker’s instructions, remain chaste before marriage and faithful within marriage! This is how sex was supposed to be enjoyed – free from all the fearful and harmful hang-ups that come from immoral behaviour.

Sexual temptations, the seductions of our uncontrolled desire, the weakness of our resistance to sin, and the pressures of an immoral society, are such that many fall into sexual misconduct and find sex to be a source of suffering. The number of cases of gonorrhoea has never been so high in the UK since statistics were first kept. Other sexually transmitted diseases cause people serious harm. Those abused and mistreated become bolder to go public with their sad stories. Too many broken marriages bring desolation and psychological stress to too many children. Couples just living together enjoy less peaceful trust that their relationship shall endure. And all who in any way fall into immorality have to manage somehow the guilt feelings that cause profound psychological distress, sometimes so deep in their subconscious they are scarcely discerned.

While God can forgive sexual sin, he would rather spare them from such agony, if only they paid heed to his instructions.

Clive Every-Clayton

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Implications of creation

It is not for nothing that the Bible begins with the story of creation and specifically that of the man and the woman in God’s likeness. This is a key factor for our very basic need to know who we are and what our life is all about. There are far-reaching and vital implications of that introductory statement in Genesis 1:26-27: “God said ‘Let us make man in our image’… So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them”.

The first is that God is actually the Creator of all that exists, as the context makes clear. This fact has further implications: God owns everything; he has rights over everything; he knows the purpose for which he made everything.

This leads to the further implication that God has a purpose for our human existence. He alone, as Designer and Maker, is able to give meaning and purpose to his creation. When we are confused about our raison d’être, we must refer to Him; our own guesses are not worth much, whereas he both knows and can correctly inform us about the aim of our lives.

Furthermore, he cares for his creation: he cares for us in providing the air we breathe, the life-giving food we eat, and human companionship – and a lot more besides. The further context in Genesis chapters 2 and 3 show how God is solicitous for his creatures, how he gives them instructions to follow and tasks to fulfil. He is not an absentee God: he is right there in communication with his personal creatures, talking to them and listening to them.

If human beings are made in God’s image, the Creator values them highly – indeed, they are the crown of his creative work. They are, one might even say, his pride and joy. Before they went astray, God was pleased to see his own image reflected in them.

Humans were made in the likeness of a God whose nature is holy, righteous, and loving. He would still like to see that holiness reflected in his image-bearers. If we are not holy and loving, we tarnish that image, we show off a false impression of our Maker. In other words, God is misrepresented by sinful humans. Sin cuts across our Creator’s purpose; sin displeases him and causes our dysfunction. Indeed, it brings about a whole lot of miseries that we suffer from. And it grieves God’s heart. He would like us to be better – not only in the sense of being good rather than sinful, but that we find true fulfilment which we will not know if we persist in our tacit or open rebellion against his will.

Will God stand by and wring his hands in hopeless sadness? No! He sets in motion a plan for recuperating and restoring his prize creature to its pristine glory. Even as he banishes the rebel human pair from his glorious presence, he promises he will find a way to bring people back into the harmonious relationship with him that they have lost. His kindness is such that he desires to restore them to an even more wonderful final end. 

That’s why the Creator came to earth to be the Saviour! And we will find true human fulfilment when we are saved by that Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was sent into the world to mend our brokenness. “Return to me,” he calls, “Come to me”. We can receive both mercy and true human fulfilment as we trust in him.

Clive Every-Clayton

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Religion, God, Bible, Church

Wise thinking requires correct assessment of the proper place and varying importance of Religions, God, Bible, Church.

Let’s begin with religions, which are man seeking after and trying to elucidate the Transcendent, the divine, the Absolute. This is expressed in a variety of particular doctrines, traditions, and practices proposed or imposed on believers. All religions except Christianity issue from the spiritual creativity of pious minds; but sadly, piety does not guarantee the truth of a religious philosophy. In the Bible God relativises the various religions and their gods: “They are all a delusion” (Isaiah 41.29 ESV) but “I made the earth” said the Lord, “and created man on it” (Isaiah 45.12).

God himself, therefore, is infinitely more important than human beings and their religions. It is vital to discover that he is there, and to know what he is like in his infinite Being, his majestic holiness, his divine wisdom, his immense power as Creator… As we hear from God himself, we have access to his revealed truth; that will enable us to discern what is true or false in all human thinking about him. He is well capable of making himself known. It is enlightening to read chapters 40 to 46 of the book of the prophet Isaiah, where the Lord himself speaks a lot about himself.

God makes himself known through the Bible. It is a book totally unique in the world, written over more than a millennium by about forty different writers – yet all inspired by the same Spirit of God and therefore able to convey a harmonious understanding of God. Much of the Bible expresses the very words of God himself, as in Job chapter 38, of which Rudolph Otto said, it “may well rank among the most remarkable in the history of religion”. In the Bible God gives his commandments, teaches his wisdom, reveals his love, and calls us to know him. All the Bible is centred on Jesus, the incarnate Lord and teacher, the Saviour of mankind, the Son of God sent by the Father to attest to God’s truth. The Bible itself claims to be God’s Word, inspired by God’s Spirit. By the holiness of its commandments, the profundity of its concepts, and the realism of its treatment of human nature, it certainly appears to be God’s Word. And it proves to be God’s Word when one puts it to the test of personal experience, committing oneself to the living Saviour who calls us through its pages. We find that God does in us what he promises in his Word; so we know it’s true.

The church is the worldwide family of believers, a vast brotherhood of men and women who, having heard or read of God’s self-revelation in Christ and realising he offers fullness of life to all who believe, have been led to agree that he is trustworthy. They do not, for that, make themselves the guarantor of religious truth; rather they merely testify that having received it, they have been intelligently persuaded of its Truth. Hence they do not set themselves up as authorities on religious issues; rather they bear witness to what they see as truth in the Bible. No Christian is infallible; we are all mere disciples, learners in Jesus’ school, followers of our Lord and Saviour. We simply want to know God better through studying Scripture, to please him by the way we live, and serve him by loving our neighbours and by sharing with them the wondrous offer of eternal life and fullness that God in his goodness offers to all.

Clive Every-Clayton

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Yes Christianity is the answer!

Justin Brierley has very judiciously recorded a fascinating swing of opinion among leading intellectuals like Jordan Peterson and Tom Holland. These thinkers and many others have recognised the radical necessity of a key statement in Genesis chapter 1:27 for the understanding of human nature today. This verse affirms “God created man in his own image”, and this and this alone, they realise, can properly undergird our necessary conviction that our human life has any value, significance, and purpose.

Without that basis, considering humans from a purely scientific perspective, we are nothing of importance at all. Juval Noah Harari has shown this: he is strong on analysis, but oh, so weak on hope – when he writes, for example, “to the best of our scientific understanding, the universe is a blind and purposeless process”; and “in a universe devoid of meaning, modern culture… is plagued by more existential angst than any previous culture”. “Scientists have reached the conclusion that there are no free individuals”. “Scientists cannot deliver ethical judgments”. He sums up, “as far as we can tell, from a purely scientific viewpoint, human life has absolutely no meaning”.

Wiser thinkers turn away from such purely “scientific” assessment, realising that our human reality cannot be reduced by such unliveable theories, to the level of animals or machines. So these new bright thinkers render a great service to us. Conscious of the inability of science and atheism to find any serious grounds for human value and meaning, these intellectuals are leading the way “back to the Bible”, returning to the marvellous concept of humans made in the image of God.

They are also confronted with a delicate problem, however: how can they benefit from this essential foundation of man’s true value without having honestly to admit the whole context of creation. If God created us, the necessary implication is that we are answerable to him. (That’s why many dislike the principle!)

This stresses out people like Jordan Peterson: he clearly sees this logical consequence and has oriented his life to live as if there is a God. This is honest, and he is a conscientious man. Others may still try to escape the inevitable logic, but if man is made in the image of God, God is our Maker. And we easily discern that the God who gave us a conscience will hold us responsible for our conduct. The same God of Genesis 1 is the God of Exodus 20 where he gives to humankind the Ten Commandments. The God who made us personal, with capacity for speech, is able to speak to us, and his Word is Truth, said Jesus. So here we have at last the key source of truth to understand our human value and to answer all our existential questions! To reject the rest of the Bible’s wisdom while holding to the foundation is illogical. You cannot agree to Genesis 1.27 and stay on the side-lines. Logical consistency demands that we give God his due place and listen to the whole biblical revelation. 

As leaders do that, they will see that many thinkers have got things wrong. If we are made in the image of God, our essential orientation must be towards God, receiving his love, learning his wisdom, obeying his will, and living in a right relationship with him. We came from the creative hand of God, and can only find our place when we put our hand in his.

Living consistently with the foundation of Genesis 1.27 is the only logical and hopeful course of action open to us. 

Clive Every-Clayton

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Three overwhelming things God did

Those who believe in God normally have some idea of what God is like. Though many imagine nice aspects of God and his character, it must be emphasised that God is not just a human idea. He is objectively there. He acts. He is capable of speaking. He loves. So we should expect to see some of his interventions and deeds, and hear or read some of his words. Otherwise he would be the God of deists who think God created the world, set it going, then vanished over the horizon never to be seen again (though somehow he maintains everything in existence.)

Against such feeble beliefs, the Christian Scriptures relate three overwhelming things that God has actually done (among many others). God has accomplished in our world, in history, these three mind-boggling deeds that are guaranteed to shake up anyone’s feeble and unclear ideas of the divine.
The first is the incarnation of God the Son. Luke, one of the best historians of his age, recounts the whole back-story of Jesus’ mother, Mary, being informed she would become pregnant and give birth to one who will be called the Son of God. Luke recounts how Mary checked out the truth of this divine message, and how she acquiesced to fulfilling this extraordinary project, having this unique baby without any sexual intercourse. Joseph, her fiancé, was informed and acted as a good father to the young Jesus. Their baby grew up to be the powerful preacher, miracle-worker, the greatest moral teacher of all time, the sinless man who gave his life for the salvation of men and women.

This leads us to the second astounding thing that God did: God the Son incarnate refused to use his miraculous powers or even to claim his human rights to obtain deliverance from death; he saw his mission as giving himself up to death on the cross – the most vile, shameful, humiliating, and painful death imposed upon him by those who thought they were acting according to law. Unknown to them, they were acting according to prophecy given centuries before, notably in the 53rd chapter of Isaiah which deserves close attention if you are not familiar with it. It explains that the coming Servant of God – Jesus Christ – would bear the sins of others, would be afflicted by God on their behalf, would intercede for them and obtain their justification, their forgiveness by his atoning death in their place. The fact that God, coming into the world, should suffer such agony in order to save us from the agony of hell is totally amazing and a demonstration of divine love.

The third thing is even more mind-boggling: God raised Jesus from the dead. Again the faithful historian Luke recounts how this took place and the apostle Paul recorded various encounters people had with the risen Christ. Despite the efforts of antagonistic non-believers to explain away Christ’s resurrection, it remains the major event which alone can explain both the extraordinary courage of the apostles who announced it as having been eye-witnesses, and the equally extraordinary expansion of the Christian faith as thousands right there in Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified, came to believe he was the risen Saviour and Lord.

Three outstanding accomplishments of what God alone can do: Incarnation, Atonement, Resurrection. Three pillars of the Christian faith. Three demonstrations of the fact that God intervenes in the world. Anyone wanting to prove that it’s true can entrust themselves to the risen Saviour; they will find in their experience that God’s power still works to transform sinners into saints.

Clive Every-Clayton

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What we’re missing

In the West, we have had the benefit for centuries of a culture impregnated with biblical wisdom that fashioned our worldview. When our Western society turned from that consensus over the last century, proud intellectuals thought they could do without that biblical backbone – indeed, they thought that without it society would be much better. They thought they could open up a different path without needing to acknowledge the Lord Jesus as “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14.6). Now as our society descends further and further into disgrace, some serious thinkers are realising what a big mistake those former bright minds made, when they led society to abandon the old paths.

Too many people suffer from the angst that shows itself in hopelessness, confusion of mind, and mental ill health. Too many young people grow up with insufficient moral guidelines to enjoy a full, balanced, and fulfilling life; rather they bring upon themselves guilt feelings without realising why they feel that way; more and more we hear of children knifing people, juveniles killing juveniles. While statistics show there is less sexual immorality, there remains a lot of sexual confusion in the minds of the young. The family breakdown has fostered a beleaguered generation of children struggling to understand themselves in this fractured society.

Intelligent thinkers search more seriously to understand where we went wrong and begin to see that the fundamental error of our Western society was the adoption of the false premise that we could manage better without God and his Word. There is now more openness to turn again to the wise Christian bases that former generations thrived on – or at least that kept society relatively stable.

We would do well therefore, to listen again to what our grandfathers took for granted as their common sense bases for their good living.

So what are these elements that we lack today?
That there is a Creator God who gives us value and purpose; that we are responsible to him; that he gives us the best and wisest moral compass in the commandments of the Bible that we ought to obey; that we will be called to account to him on the Day of Judgement which we cannot escape, and that while there is a rightful fear of hell, there is also a glorious hope of heaven; that God’s wisdom instituted marriage as a life-long unique commitment between a man and a woman, where children can be brought up and taught the ways of God; that the way of personal fulfilment and true lasting happiness is to follow the example and teaching of Jesus – whose wisdom has remained unsurpassed in twenty centuries.

And the unsuspected key to all this? Jesus’ insistence that it is in denying our selfish will and by engaging our powers to do good to others that we both find personal satisfaction and become elements of positive change in society. I sometimes think what a loss it has been that children for a generation have not followed teaching in Sunday Schools about loving their neighbour. Just think what a transformation would come on society if we all took Jesus’ teaching seriously, to love God and to love our neighbour as ourselves.

Is that not what we’re missing in society? Yet each of us can decide to do this and turn our “evil and adulterous generation” into a place where human happiness is much more the norm. Let Christians awake to give a better example, and let others learn to follow Jesus who can transform lives and cultures for good.

Clive Every-Clayton

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Don’t go down a dead end

It is amazing how often intelligent peoples’ thinking is self-contradictory. I have several pages of such contradictions – like this one that shows the impossibility of determinism: “If all our thoughts are determined, that must include the thoughts of neuro-scientists who hold to determinism. So determinism would mean we can never trust the conclusions of scientists as being true, including those of neuro-scientists”. Another one I like was put out in a TV advertisement for the Bank of Scotland, where a wise man said: “Some people say there are no right or wrong answers”. Then he added: “But what if they’re right? … Or wrong?”

So as we search for right answers, let us beware the dead end of self-contradicting theses.

It is normal to believe in free will – that our choices are real and that we have freedom to make our own decisions. Indeed, we consider it a “human right”, and we want the freedom of others to be acknowledged and respected. It is against this much-loved reality that determinism comes crashing.

The counterpart to freedom is responsibility: we may be held responsible for the use of our freedom. We will have to answer for any evil use of our freedom. There is unavoidable moral responsibility attached to human freedom. This instinct is written in our consciences and refers both to society’s and to God’s right to punish those who use their freedom to harm others. So freedom is not an absolute liberty to do all one may wish; it is best understood as the ability to do as one ought, despite the threat of those who would impede that liberty.

But there is a false form of freedom that is indeed illusory – and it is getting unfortunately quite invasive in society, though it will prove to be a dead end street: you don’t want to go down there, you’ll get nowhere. It is known as “expressive individualism”. 

This freedom, writes rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, “is embodied in words like authenticity, autonomy, self-expression, and self-realisation, to which we claim to have unfettered rights”. This extraordinary claim to quasi absolute freedom is a dead end street. It is at the basis of a lot of human pain in the lives of those who suppose they can define their own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life – of “who they are”, when this is in denial of what is “given”. It substitutes for the given-ness of our existence the mad dream that we can “invent ourselves”, alter the reality of who we truly are. Don’t go down that road.

If you want a different form of yourself, a better “you”, there is a preferable way, the right route to take. You can be “made over”, deeply and radically transformed into what you really ought to be. This is what Christian conversion is all about. When a person rejects his or her own reprobate inner self – those aspects of our personality that come under the description of “evil” – and when they turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, calling on him to be their Saviour and Master, a radical renovation takes place. Jesus called it being “born again”. When you invite Jesus to save you from all evil, to clean you up on the inside, it’s like being recreated – “old things are passed away and all things become new.” And all this is from God, “whose service is perfect freedom”. By such healthy transformation the Lord demonstrates that he is in the business of turning sinners into saints!

Clive Every-Clayton

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Do not be fooled!

There’s good news and there’s fake news: it is important to discern which is which!

Christmas commemorates the messengers from heaven announcing “good news of great joy that will be for all people” (Luke 2.10). The incarnation of the Son of God was – and is – “good news”. And it is universal truth, “for all people”. And it’s a source of “great joy” – deep happiness and human fulfilment.

Though “fake news” seems to be a modern concept, there have always been purveyors of falsehoods, and their fake news is folly that leads people astray. Fake news is actually bad news because it’s false, so people believe a lie.

In previous blogs I have insisted that only God knows all truth; only he can communicate that absolute truth to us; he sent his Son into the world to tell us the truth that he wants us to know; and that hearing Jesus’ teaching “you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free” (John 8.31-32). There alone is the source of real truth, good news, not fake. 

It is not polite to call another person a “fool”, but twice in the Bible God uses this word to describe two types of people. Two of our perplexing questions are: “Does God exist?” and “What happens after death?” It’s vital to obtain true and reliable answers to these fundamental questions. God himself both gives the answers, and condemns as “fools” those who think differently. Concerning the existence of the Creator God, Lord of the Universe, Maker of all things visible and invisible: to deny his existence is a big mistake: “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14.1). This is a foolish belief-statement for several reasons: first, it would require an exhaustive research of the entire universe to be able to make such an affirmation. As that is impossible, the statement merely expresses one person’s belief, or lack of belief. Secondly, it fails to consider seriously all the pointers to God’s existence in the amazing creation we observe all around us with its glorious beauty, the mathematical precision of its physical constants, and human beings themselves who, despite our fall into corruption, still reflect much of the personality of the God in whose image we were created.

So don’t draw the hasty and false conclusion that “There is no God”; if you haven’t found him yet, that’s no proof of his non-existence. Study the life and teaching of the One who came down to earth from Him at that first Christmas: you will see he is believable.

The word “fool” is also used in one of Jesus’ parables concerning the second big question – life after death. A farmer gets richer and richer until he no longer had enough space to keep all his goods. He decides to tear down his barns and build greater ones, saying to himself, “I have plenty of good things laid up for myself for many years; I will take life easy, eat, drink, and be merry”. Then Jesus adds: “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul will be demanded of you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’” (Luke 12.16-21).

Here is the folly of not preparing for eternity and the Day of Judgment that we must all face. Don’t believe the fake news that “when you’re dead you’re dead”. The Bible warns us: “Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9.27). 

Please, for the sake of your eternal soul, don’t be fooled!

Clive Every-Clayton

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Relationship with God?

Where can we find the perfect partner who will love us constantly with perfect love? Only in the God of love who made us. His creative design for humans is that we find fulfilment – whatever may be our principal activities – only when we are in harmony with him. 

The great tragedy of world history was when sin made its entry into the human race – as is depicted in Genesis chapters 2 and 3. The first couple rejected God’s order – thinking they could better judge what is right and wrong. (That same mentality reigns in many today who set aside God’s infinitely wise guidelines – his commandments – and try out some new man-made ethics). 

With the arrival of sin twisting the hearts and perverting the actions of the first couple, their marital harmony was damaged, and this continued down the generations to our day. Hence any life-partner that a man or a woman might find, turns out to be vitiated by an indwelling tendency to selfishness rather than love, to rebellion rather than union, to pride and anger rather than sweetness of temper. Such unloving traits render marital bliss a great challenge to accomplish – though mercifully, by learning to overcome one’s selfishness and to forgive one’s partner’s failures, it is possible for reasonably happy families to exist!

Human hearts nevertheless often suffer from the lack of that steadfast love which ministers to our inner hunger of soul. People still long for a deep and enduring harmonious relationship and can spend their lives unsuccessfully trying to find the perfect partner. Of course the children from such broken relationships begin their lives with a kind of handicap in the area of love and trust. To prevent such harm is one of the reasons why God is against adultery. God is also against adultery because unfaithful lovers do not reflect as they should the loving harmony of God’s own Trinitarian relationship. We were made in his image so as to show forth his divine kind of love, and our inability to do so grieves God, brings distress to ourselves, and trouble to our nearest and dearest. 

In the midst of our depressing failure, however, there is a gleam of hope, for true fulfilment of our passion for love can come when we know in our experience that God loves us very, very much.

Ultimately, the only truly satisfying relationship of love is for us to be in a harmonious relationship with God (as Adam and Eve were in Paradise before sin interrupted their blessedness). We can turn to God and find in him the forgiveness of our failures and an assurance of his eternal love as we enter into spiritual union with Christ. This is the essence of what Christians call salvation from sin: to be loved despite our wretchedness and to be assured of God’s full forgiveness. That is the relationship we were made for. It alone provides true human fulfilment. 

So how can a person get that? What we have to do is, first of all, realise how much our sin is serious before God; we really have no idea – that’s why we need the Bible to enlighten us. Then we need to realise how great the love of Jesus, God’s Son, was, in coming into our sinful world to seek and save us from all the pains that sin has brought on us. Then we need to open our hearts to Him, inviting him to wash us clean, be our dearest friend and helper, and confirm his love to us. He promises to do just that!

Clive Every-Clayton

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Relationships

What contributes most to human happiness? Surely loving relationships must come high, if not first, on the list. Of course, good health, sufficient finances, and a decent place to live contribute a lot to our happiness. But the Good Book says, “Better is a poor meal where love is than a great feast with hatred” (c.f. Proverbs 15.17). To experience true love is joy of a deep kind that seriously boosts our level of happiness.

The search for true love is therefore a big part of our existential quest, for human relationships can be the source of great pleasure if they are good; however, they can be the cause of much pain if they are bad. Either way, they are an intricate part of everyone’s existence and the object of the deepest human longing.

The first difficulty, of course, is finding that special someone to love. But even when he or she is found, the next difficulty is putting up with their negative traits! The problem is that whoever we love, they are never 100% good, kind, loving, faithful, truthful etc. all the time. Not only that, they see and criticise our faults too!

What the human heart really yearns for is to find a perfect partner with whom we could enjoy a deep and lasting relationship of mutual love. Have you ever wondered why we so long for that? It is certainly not because we have evolved to want to pass on our genes to the next generation: such a ridiculous suggestion demeans our human nature and debases the whole concept of love. No: rather, our passion for love issues from our having been created in the likeness of a God of passionate love. 

Why does Christianity alone declare that “God is love” (1 John 4.8)? Because it reveals a Triune Godhead where Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have existed forever in a relationship of love. Jesus said that the Father loves the Son and that he loves the Father; and the Spirit of God sheds abroad God’s divine love in the hearts of believers (John 5.20, 14.31, Romans 5.5). So love is of the very essence of God. He did not need to create in order to have someone to love; the love within the persons of the divine Trinity was totally fulfilling. He created humans capable of love so that he might have the pleasure of loving them and receiving love from them. This is one of the key reasons for our existence – we are designed so as to enjoy a loving relationship with God. If we do not experience that we suffer dysfunction!  

Not that God is against human love: he grants us also the relative joy of loving human relationships. Having created Adam, he insisted it was not good for him to be alone, because he was a loving person with no companion. So God instituted marriage and created Eve. Before they sinned, their relationship was a wondrous reflection of the loving relationship between the three persons of the Trinity. In that relationship, that first couple which was truly human like we are, was able to enjoy the gift of sexual union according to God’s intention and have a family, with a third little human to love and which would return their love. Thus the love of the Trinity would be even better reflected. 

So love is so vital for us because we are image-bearers of a God of love. But full satisfaction in love can only come from a loving harmonious relationship with our loving Creator and saviour.

Clive Every-Clayton

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