An Authentic Faith

So my last entry may have been too hard-edged for some, but let's face it, trust within the community of faith is often measured and calculated. Why? Because we fear - fear of rejection, fear of failure, and probably fear of many things some of us can't imagine. Hey - honestly, I share in some of those fears. So what's the answer?

John tells us that we should "love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God," and, "God is love" (1 John 4:7, 16b, NIV). Now, there's a whole lot more there to get into and read, but John's words establish for us as believers, disciples, and followers of Jesus, the Son of God, that our community of faith [in Jesus] should first and foremost be a living testimony, really, a living manifestation of God's love. You might wonder how. Remember, John is no slacker. When John is writing this stuff, he must be drawing on his gospel, where, in the third chapter, he records for his readers Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus. In the context of that conversation, Jesus explains to Nicodemus that salvation is the fruit of being born anew by the Spirit [of God]. John is connecting his words about love and being born of God and knowing God to those earlier words of Jesus. Here's my attempt at some syllogistic logic: God is love. Christians have been born of God and know God. Therefore, Christians have God's love within them.

If this is so, many churches (gathered bodies of believing Christians) are sitting on an untapped motherload of "gold." Another way to look at it is that we are relying on hamsters on their little tread mills for power when all we have to do is plug into the local power company. No wonder the trust and love levels of so many churches seems so anemic.

I think the solution, the healing, is as easy as remembering who we are and whose we are. John has a lot to say throughout that fourth chapter, but I want to focus on three points he makes:

1) "We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit" (1 John 4:13).

2) "But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment" (1 John 4:18b).

3) "We love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19).

If we will remember who we are, the forgiven people of grace, the adopted children of God, then we can rest in our God-given love, and not be so fearful that we fall into comparing or judging other believer's spiritual ups and downs. If we will remember whose we are, God's, then we will realize that we have access to a love that is both limitless and eternal, because that love is God, and He lives within us. It's as simple as John says, "We [can] love because [God] first loved us."

It's not rocket science, and yet many Christians (including myself at times) look at God's love as if it were Einstein's theory of relativity - we recognize it, but we're not quite sure how it works.

When we give in to this God who loves us so powerfully, so scandalously, so completely, we can be authentic. That's the kind of person, the kind of Christian you and I can trust. That's the kind of Christian I want to be. That's the kind of Christian I'm seeking to be. With God's help. The cool thing is that we don't have to just imagine what that kind of church, that kind of community of faith would be like. We can be that church. Really, we are that church; we just don't realize it.

Let's pray for our churches, our congregations, our pastors, elders, and deacons, our families, our marrieds, our singles, our children, that all would see themselves authentically in Christ, and therefore, look upon one another with that perfect love that drives out all fear [and breeds trust and authenticity] to the glory of God!