A clever college student recently asked me this question. He was in a philosophy class studying Plato's account of Socrates' trial, and the question came up in class - is the virtuous thing virtuous because God loves it (i.e., His love of it makes it virtuous), or does God love the virtuous thing because of the fact that it's already virtuous (i.e., it possesses virtue, therefore God loves it).
On the one hand, if something is made virtuous by God's love for it, then the "goodness" of something is not an absolute attribute - it is not good apart from God's love for it. Furthermore, whatever God chooses to not love would thereby be made "bad," and God becomes the cause of evil.
On the other hand, if God loves something because it is good, then we have something that is good apart from God. This would mean that something other than God defined it to be good, and then we would have someone telling God what to consider good and what to consider bad. Someone would have taken away one of God's attributes.
Either way, we end up with a scenario we don't like.
After tossing this idea around for a bit, realizing that learned philosophers could very quickly and easily show me where my ideas are full of holes, I came to the opinion that my friend was facing a false dichotomy. He was given "A" and "B" as the only two possible answers - that it must be "A" or it must be "B." I think there is a better option than these two.
Something is "good" only as much as it resembles God's character. An act of kindness is only as good as its resemblance to God's kindness. A generous act is only as good as its resemblance to God's generosity. Love is only as good as it resembles the God of love. By the same token, something is "bad" to the degree that it departs from God's character. A lie departs from the character of the God of truth. Hatred departs from the character of the God of love.
The goodness of something does not exist apart from God, but is defined by God's character. Goodness is not a quality that exists apart from God's existence and nature. God loves something because it resembles His own character, not because it possesses its own good character apart from Him.
So, neither option is true. Something is not made good because God loves it. God doesn't love something because it has the independent quality of being good. The goodness of something is determined by its resemblance to God, and God loves the things that have that resemblance.
What does this matter? Is this just a philosophical treadmill, upon which you run and run, but never get anywhere?
I believe it's important at least in the point that God also loves us sinners, but not because we're good! That's how amazing grace is! He loves us anyway. He love us despite the fact that we don't strongly resemble His character. We are naturally quite unlike His character, and yet we are still the objects of His love. Furthermore, if we become more "good" by resembling Him more, He loves to see that, but He doesn't love us more because of it. He already loves us completely. We cannot garner more of God's love by becoming more "good" (even though He loves to see us become more "good").
Grace, then, allows us to be treated as perfectly "good," perfectly like God's character, even though we don't resemble Him that much (yet!). And then in Christ, His love for us will eventually make us that good - He will cause us to resemble Christ (1 John 3:1-3).
God's grace is truly amazing! Scandalous even.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
More on Structure
Last week, we looked at Eph 1:3-14 to see how seeing the structure of a passage can help us to understanding it more fully. In that passage, we saw a threefold structure to highlight the work of each Person of the Trinity. I mentioned then that the next article would look at Eph 2 to look for a structure and see how it helps us understand the passage.
First, read Eph 2. Some of your Bibles likely have some section headings, which were added by the translators or publishers. They are not part of the original text, and sometimes they are not always placed where I would place them. They can be helpful at times, but always check to see if perhaps you think they might be misplaced.
Answer the question (without the help of the added section headings): What is Eph 2 about?
Eph 2 has two main parts to it. Look for them. They might be marked by a topic change, by a phrase that starts a new idea, or other clue that helps the reader know that there's a new thought coming. Try to find the two major sections before continuing.
In this case, most of your section headings are likely correct. The first section is from v. 1 through v. 10, and the second is from v. 11 through v. 22.
These two sections have parallel structures to each other! Each half of the chapter has two subsections. In this case, there's a repeated idea in each section to mark off the beginning of the second half of each section. Look for a repeated key idea that subdivides both vv. 1-10 and vv. 11-22. Try to find it before continuing.
The repeated key idea is "but God..." (in v. 4, "but God," and in v. 13, "but now in Christ Jesus"). So now we have the main structure: vv. 1-10 (with subsections 1-3 and 4-10) and vv. 11-22 (with subsections 11-12 and 13-22).
Now, look at the subsections, and look at how the "but God" idea changes things from one subsection to the next. What was true in vv. 1-3 and 11-12? What is now true in vv. 4-10 and 12-22? What is it that God did so that "but God" changes us from what was true to what is now true?
Now, re-answer the question. What is Eph 2 about?
First, read Eph 2. Some of your Bibles likely have some section headings, which were added by the translators or publishers. They are not part of the original text, and sometimes they are not always placed where I would place them. They can be helpful at times, but always check to see if perhaps you think they might be misplaced.
Answer the question (without the help of the added section headings): What is Eph 2 about?
Eph 2 has two main parts to it. Look for them. They might be marked by a topic change, by a phrase that starts a new idea, or other clue that helps the reader know that there's a new thought coming. Try to find the two major sections before continuing.
In this case, most of your section headings are likely correct. The first section is from v. 1 through v. 10, and the second is from v. 11 through v. 22.
These two sections have parallel structures to each other! Each half of the chapter has two subsections. In this case, there's a repeated idea in each section to mark off the beginning of the second half of each section. Look for a repeated key idea that subdivides both vv. 1-10 and vv. 11-22. Try to find it before continuing.
The repeated key idea is "but God..." (in v. 4, "but God," and in v. 13, "but now in Christ Jesus"). So now we have the main structure: vv. 1-10 (with subsections 1-3 and 4-10) and vv. 11-22 (with subsections 11-12 and 13-22).
Now, look at the subsections, and look at how the "but God" idea changes things from one subsection to the next. What was true in vv. 1-3 and 11-12? What is now true in vv. 4-10 and 12-22? What is it that God did so that "but God" changes us from what was true to what is now true?
Now, re-answer the question. What is Eph 2 about?
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
The Other Valuable Lesson on Bible Study
In my previous article, I talked about one of the toughest classes I ever had, and the valuable lesson I learned about studying the Bible by learning how to ask good questions about the Scripture. There are plenty of ways to find the answers, but asking good questions first will help lead you to the most valuable answers. I mentioned that this was one of two highly valuable methods I've learned to study the Word.
The second method sounds more scary than it really is. I have learned that finding the basic structure of a passage is tremendously helpful in studying what it means. Yikes! That's sounds hard and complicated! It can be, depending on how deep you want to go, but it doesn't have to be all that complicated.
Learning how to do this is more than a single article can teach, but I want to at least give you a favorite example of mine. Read Ephesians 1:3-14. Take a second to answer the question, "What is this passage about?"
There's a three-part structure to this passage. In this case, the three-part structure is marked by a phrase that is repeated. Look for it - see if you can find a phrase repeated three times in the passage. It's not verbatim the same, but it's close, and it's important to the passage. (Look for it on your own, but if you get stuck, keep reading for a hint.)
(Hint: Look in verses 6, 12, and 14.)
The repeated phrase is "to the praise of His glory," or something similar. If you didn't find it, stop and look for it until you see it.
Now, who is each one of these phrases talking about? (It's not the same person in each case.) Take a look before continuing.
That phrase occurs once for each person of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And that gives us a basic structure of Eph 1:3-14 (vv. 3-10 are about the Father, 11-12 are about the Son, and 13-14 are about the Holy Spirit). Furthermore, each section tells us something about the unique ministry of each one. Plus, the passage as a whole shows us the Trinity (without even using the word "trinity").
Now, re-read the passage and re-answer the question we asked before, "What is this passage about?" Did the structure give you a deeper answer to the question (even a little)?
Finding the structure of a passage can help us understand it much better. Next week, we'll look at the structure of chapter 2 and how that helps us understand it better.
The second method sounds more scary than it really is. I have learned that finding the basic structure of a passage is tremendously helpful in studying what it means. Yikes! That's sounds hard and complicated! It can be, depending on how deep you want to go, but it doesn't have to be all that complicated.
Learning how to do this is more than a single article can teach, but I want to at least give you a favorite example of mine. Read Ephesians 1:3-14. Take a second to answer the question, "What is this passage about?"
There's a three-part structure to this passage. In this case, the three-part structure is marked by a phrase that is repeated. Look for it - see if you can find a phrase repeated three times in the passage. It's not verbatim the same, but it's close, and it's important to the passage. (Look for it on your own, but if you get stuck, keep reading for a hint.)
(Hint: Look in verses 6, 12, and 14.)
The repeated phrase is "to the praise of His glory," or something similar. If you didn't find it, stop and look for it until you see it.
Now, who is each one of these phrases talking about? (It's not the same person in each case.) Take a look before continuing.
That phrase occurs once for each person of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And that gives us a basic structure of Eph 1:3-14 (vv. 3-10 are about the Father, 11-12 are about the Son, and 13-14 are about the Holy Spirit). Furthermore, each section tells us something about the unique ministry of each one. Plus, the passage as a whole shows us the Trinity (without even using the word "trinity").
Now, re-read the passage and re-answer the question we asked before, "What is this passage about?" Did the structure give you a deeper answer to the question (even a little)?
Finding the structure of a passage can help us understand it much better. Next week, we'll look at the structure of chapter 2 and how that helps us understand it better.
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