Monthly Archives: August 2020

What Love Is

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“The culture around us has little to no idea about what true love is. In fact, what is often celebrated in our day is the exact opposite of love – a twisted, self focused and ugly thing. This is seen in even the music of our time with the “I love you, I need you, I cannot get along without you” kind of lyrics being all pervasive. Sadly, worldly thinking about love infiltrates the modern Church, but such should never be the case. True love is always other-person focused, and results in activity that with deliberate intention, seeks the good, the nurture and the welfare of another, without consideration for self. This is true in all relationships – in friendships, in marriage and in the church. To say ‘I love my friend.. I love my husband… I love my wife… I love the Church’ but then act in ways that puts the interests of self ahead of what would benefit others, our spouse or the church, is not ‘love’ – in spite of claims to the contrary. Love asks, ‘what could I do that would be the greatest benefit to ___________ (fill in the blank)?’ Love answers the question rightly and then acts in accord with the answer.”

John 3:16 teaches us this: God’s love for the world was demonstrated in the (self-less) giving of His Son, with the purpose being that everyone who believes in Him would in no way perish, but contrary to that, have eternal life.

1 John 4: 7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

Yes, I Take the Bible Literally

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On a number of occasions someone has come to me as a Bible teacher/pastor, pointed me to a particular passage of the Bible and asked me this searching question, “Pastor John, this passage here… do you take it literally?”

Each time I am asked this, I am quick to answer, “Yes, of course! We should always take the Bible literally.”

This usually leads to a look of confusion on the face of the enquirer, so I then explain what I mean.

The Bible is literature… inspired literature, as we know. All Scripture is God breathed (2 Tim. 3:16). That much needs to be said, but then again, more than that needs to be said.

To take something “literally” means to interpret it “according to its literature.” Let that truth sink in for a moment, because it is a truth that has profound implications. Let me repeat it once again, interpreting something (in this case, the Bible) literally means to interpret it “according to its literature.”

Practically speaking, to take the Bible literally, or “according to its literature,” means that we interpret each verse and passage according to the type of literature it is. Historical narrative passages should be interpreted as historical narrative; parables should be interpreted as parables, poetic passages as poetic, figurative language as figurative, and so on (I am sure you get the idea). This becomes vitally important when seeking to gain the true interpretation of a passage. It is the key to a right interpretation in fact.

As an example, the Book of Revelation is what we call “apocalyptic literature.” It is, by design, a highly figurative book. It is perfectly right to interpret things we find there figuratively, because that is the genre of literature before us in the book.

If I may, let me go further, and suggest to you that passages in the book of Revelation MUST be interpreted figuratively unless there are compelling reasons in the text for us not to. And this is what it means to take the Book of Revelation literally!

In this regard, this short video by Dr. R. C. Sproul is helpful to us in seeking to determine the promises we find in Psalm 91 and passages like them, which tell us that no evil shall befall us.