Us For Them - Gungor

US FOR THEM
GUNGOR

When the lines are drawn
When you’re in or out
When it’s us or them
And we shame the doubt

It is all a lie
All we ever really need is love
There’s no need to shed more blood
Look upon the cross
Look upon the cross

See the face of Christ
See the mercy in His eyes
Every valley shall be lifted high
Now our enemies are blessed
The heavy laden rest
For His judgement is love
His judgement is love

There is no more guilt
There is no more shame
All our darkest sin
All our deepest pain

Blessed are the poor
All the lonely broken lost and torn
See a kingdom comes to us
A war that’s fought with love
Our only war is love

Prepare the way of the Lord
Wielding mercy like a sword
Every mountaintop will be made low
Know, He holds the earth like dust
And His judgement comes to us
And His judgement is love
His judgement is love

We will not fight their wars
We will not fall in line
Cause if it’s us or them
It’s us for them
It’s us for them

We reject the either or
They can’t define us anymore
Cause if it’s us or them
It’s us for them
It’s us for them

Cause if it’s us or them
It’s us for them
It’s us for them

Prepare the way of the Lord
Wielding mercy like a sword
Every mountaintop will be made low
Know, He holds the earth like dust
And His judgement comes to us
And His judgement is love
May our judgement be love

The Kindness of God Leads to Repentance

Justice: Everyone's Story Matters - Interview with Ingrid Chung

Ingrid Chung is a Quality Systems Supervisor at Bioseal Inc. in Placentia, CA and a Masters of Social Work student at California State University, Fullerton.

Does the Bible say, "Love the sinner and hate the sin?" - Josh Felts

Does the Bible say, “love the sinner and hate the sin?” 

I have grown up my whole life in the church and have heard the statement, love the sinner and hate the sin. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I have heard people say, “the Word of God says, love the sinner and hate the sin.” While this may be a popular statement to make, it is not in the bible. 

If it did not come from the Bible, where did this statement come from? The statement originated from St. Augustine in a letter he wrote saying, "Cum dilectione hominum et odio vitiorum," which translates, "with love for mankind and hatred of sins." It was later made famous by Mahatma Ghandi when he said, "hate the sin and love the sinner.”

I do want to make this very clear, the bible does not say, love the sinner and hate the sin anywhere in it. Many will then say, “love the sinner and hate the sin means loving someone while not agreeing with them.” If that is what was actually happening where we loved well regardless if we disagreed then that would be fine. However, many use this as a license to condemn, judge, and be hateful and finish it all up with the words, “BUT, I love you.” I have seen this over and over: You are absolutely evil, You are going to burn in hell, and so on…  BUT I am praying for you and love you.” I hate to break it to you, but that is not love. It is exactly what it sounds like, condemning, judgmental, and hateful nonsense.

I believe this would not be as big of a problem if we did not assume it is our job to correct everyone. I will say, if we are in relationship with someone and they trust us then I do believe it is okay to express our concerns. Many will argue saying, "but love corrects.” I believe my friend Caleb Miller answered this perfectly, “Well let Him correct then.” See, God is Love and our job as Christians is simply to love. If God finds the need to correct then He will.

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Q & A: The Parable of the Sheep and Goats - Brad Jersak

Q: I'm wondering how you read Matthew 25: 31-46. I recently attended a church that used this as a proof-text for eternal punishment, and I'm having a hard time reading it otherwise, though deep down inside I don't believe that is what Christ intended to be taught or understood. Would you explain your reading and/or point me to a study that might help me understand it more?

A: Thanks for this question. I do cover this in my book Her Gates Will Never Be Shut.

The bottom line is that interpreters bring their biases to the text, which then determines how they translate it and how they apply it. 

 

So the key phrase is eis kolasin aionion which the infernalist happily translates as 'everlasting punishment' and which tends to win the day in our translations. Meanwhile, believers who hold to some form of ultimate reconciliation point out that kolasin carries the connotation of corrective judgment, whereas the word for retributive punishment is timoria, which the Bible never uses to describe what God does with people. Further, they will point out that aionion may not to be best translated 'eternal' or 'everlasting,' but has to do with 'the age to come.' So some would insist that the most careful translation should say the sheep go "into the life of the age" to come and the goats are dismissed into "the [corrective] judgement of the age to come."  

 

Frankly, people see what they want to see there, but not without weight to both sides of the argument. Nor are these just modern distinctions. Clement of Alexandria, the head of the great catechetical school at the end of the second century, thought it important to explain the Greek (as a Greek speaking expert on biblical Greek and interpretation). Here's a little post that cites some of what he said confirming the latter interpretation.   

 

http://www.romancatholicism.org/clement-apokatastasis.html

 

However, this is not all the fathers saw, nor is it all we should notice.

 

The fathers said that it is obvious that on any given day, you may be a sheep or a goat. Everyone's heart has sheep traits (the spirit, the virtues) and goat traits (the flesh, the vices). And so you can recall many times when your compassion won the day and you visited the sick or clothed the naked, but also many times when callousness overcame your compassion and you walked right by the poor beggar or neglected the immigrant stranger. So this is what it means that the Word (Jesus) is sharper than any two edged sword -- because for each and every person, it cuts right to the heart, dividing soul and spirit, sheep and goats. So the parable was never meant to function as a some-day judgement involving two groups of people and two different eternal destinies. The judgement is immediate upon hearing this word from the Word: the krisis (judgement) is today, laying bare our sins of omission and calling for repentance and a response here and now, in this life. We get so hung up on debating what the words mean that we almost always fail to ask how they function. And this is esp. true for the parables. They weren't bits of information about the second coming, but ethical confrontations in time ... and no doubt contain dire warnings, which seem to me a rhetorical method meant to sneak past defenses and assumptions. 

 

This is the other element. I note that conservatives get so amped up about the outcome of the judgement that they forget to ask themselves about the very strange criteria. Jesus is imagining a final judgment that is completely different than anything that these same conservatives would allow for in that the criteria is not belief in Jesus Christ at all, but entirely focused on our compassion or complacency with the least of these.

 

Moreover, some are utterly surprised by their inclusion and had not even consciously recognized the presence of Jesus in these least, while others are surprised by their exclusion and can't recall a time when they had overlooked Christ. That is not at all the Evangelical understanding of the afterlife judgement ... and yet there it is. Jesus is describing a social gospel that conservatives have rejected, or even when they admit it's importance, would still deny that is the criteria for everlasting life or punishment. So again, the parable (and it is a parable, not an eschatology) is not just saying something; it is doing something (function). It is meant to jar people out of their status quo lives and subvert their assumption that they are the chosen. If ever there was a message for the Christian who assumes he's a Christian, yet for example is complicit in enabling our systems of poverty (who isn't, in Canada or the US?) ... including me ... what is our response to be? "Lord have mercy? And make me merciful!"

 

So in the end, the very worst approach to this parable is to stand over it, assuming we are sheep, and arguing the destiny of the goats. Rather, we ought to come under its sword and repent, saying, "I see the goat in my heart Lord; sit as my judge and send it out of me!"

Judging others is self-condemnation (Matt. 7:1-5) - Lazar Puhalo

Judging others is self-condemnation. 

Seek after the Light and find life. 

MATTHEW 7:1-5: 

Why are we equally judged when we judge others?

"Do not judge or you will be judged; for you will be judged by the same judgment with which you judge others; and it will be measured out to you with the same measure you have used" (Mt. 7:1-2).

If we judge others, we confess that we have a complete knowledge of truth and righteousness and can readily discern them. Nevertheless, not one of us actually fulfils righteousness and perfection in our own lives; thus we stand condemned by our own judgement, for the Saviour says elsewhere, "If you could not see, you would have no sin; but now you say, `we see;' therefore your sin abides."

To judge, we must see sin and failings in our neighbour. Since we can see sin and unrighteousness clearly enough to judge it in others, we confess that we have perfect knowledge of right and wrong, good and evil, truth and falsehood. Since we can see these things so clearly in our neighbours, we have no excuse in our own sins, and no hope of hiding behind ignorance and oversight in our own unrighteous deeds and thoughts. If we "see" so clearly, we are obliged to "fulfil" perfectly.

The moment we see the sins of another and judge them, we have stripped ourselves of all excuse and refuge. Our own judgment deprives us of all defence.

Since we ourselves, in judging, have set the standard of judgment, we must always be judged by our own standard. When we measure out condemnation to our neighbour, it is only reasonable that the same measure be used for us, and we cannot complain, since we ourselves have established the measure.

Not all judgment is wicked, however, nor does every measure come of a prideful heart. There is an evil judgment which seeks condemnation, and there is a loving judgment which seeks to help and uphold our neighbour, as Apostle Paul says, "Encourage one another daily so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin" (Hb.3:13). The judgment of condemnation requires a hypocritical self-righteousness, while a loving judgment requires a humble, repentant awareness of one's own bondage. This is precisely what our Saviour means when He says:

"Why do you see the splinter in your brother's eye, but pay no attention to the log in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, `Here, let me remove the splinter from your eye,' while you leave the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first remove the log from your own eye, then you will be able to see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother's eye" (Mt.7:3-5).

Here, you see, there is no condemnation of our neighbour. We confess that we see the splinter in his eye precisely because we are aware of the log in our own; we seek to help remove his splinter because we know the pain of our log and wish to spare him. We seek to help our neighbour because we know how much we need his help in return. Our own illness does not prevent us from reaching out a loving hand to others who are also ill and we can comfort them only because we know the pain of the same illness. 

If you measure out self-righteous condemnation to others, you may expect a truly righteous condemnation in return; if you measure out love, understanding, consolation and forgiveness from a humble heart, then God, seeing your sins, will measure out the same measure to you, for He says through His prophet, "Cast thy bread upon the waters and after many days it will return to you," as He says, 

"Do not curse the ruler in your heart, nor condemn the rich in your private room: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice of your thoughts, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter" (Eccl.11:1; 10:20).

Whose Side Is God On? - Greg Albrecht

Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you for us or for our enemies?" "Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come." Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, "What message does my Lord have for his servant?"— Joshua 5:13-14

Have you ever noticed how many individual Christians and incorporated religious institutions assume that God is exclusively on their side? Many seem to think that God is a member-in-good-standing of their denomination. Many seem to assume that God carries the same national passport they do and that he always supports their country in any military altercation. Some even act and talk as if God supports their favorite athletic team and their particular political party. 

But if you think about the whole idea of God being polarized and politicized for about three seconds, it really doesn't make any sense, does it? After all the Bible clearly teaches that God loves all mankind equally. 

The man who appeared to Joshua could have been an angel of the Lord, or this incident could have been yet another example of a theophany, an appearance of God himself. Whether it was the Lord or an angel of the Lord is really not all that important—what is important is the message given to Joshua and the context of that message.

As the book of Joshua begins, the nation of Israel (after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness) is poised to inherit the land God promised to them. Joshua has taken over for Moses as the national leader. As he is preparing for war against Jericho, the first city-state that he and the nation of Israel will conquer, Joshua has a visitor. In the midst of Joshua's military preparations the Lord (or his angel) appeared with a drawn sword. As the commander-in-chief of Israel's army, Joshua's first question is natural: "Are you for us or against us? Are you a friend or foe?"

The answer is profound. In effect God says to Joshua: "Whether I am on your side is not the real issue. The most important question is whether you are on my side. You follow my directions and decisions—not the other way around."

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