Understanding Christian Love

Live from Salt Lake City, Utah, this is Heart of the MatterTGNN’s original show where Shawn McCraney deconstructed religion and developed fulfilled theology. where we do all we can to worship God in Spirit and in Truth. I’m Shawn McCraneyFounder of TGNN and developer of the fulfilled perspective—calling people to faith outside of religion., your host.

Show 48 525 Free Will? Part II November 22nd 2016 Prayer

And with that how about something from our “I’m so Board of Direction?

(RUN BOARD OF DIRECTION HERE)

Insights from 1 Corinthians

In 1st Corinthians 13 (the chapter on Christian love) at verses 8-10 we read something very interesting. It says:

8 Christian love never fails, but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

From there Paul continues on and writes about putting away childish things and becoming men. Most of the chapter, in its discussion Christian love, is really describing the putting away of selfish and self-centered behaviors and living in selfless love for the benefit of others. When Paul gets to elements like “prophesies, and tongues and knowledge,” he says plainly that “they will fail, they will cease and they will vanish,” because, “we know in part.” When will we know in full? When we die. There will be no need for tongues, or prophesies or opinions on matters which here we only know in part. I say opinions on matters because Paul makes it clear that here they are only KNOW IN PART. Did you catch that?

The Nature of Knowledge and Love

I would suggest that if “we only know in part” that it is apparent that lacking the full picture we are either ignorant of all things here or we are at least partly wrong on everything we think we know. Therefore we would do better by letting something far more eternal and lasting operate among us while we are on earth – and that would be the Christian love Paul describes. As stated, Christian love, detailed here in chapter 13, is a matter of putting God and His will (which includes the needs of others) ahead of self. This is why Christian love is described as:

“suffering long”
“is kind”
“does not envy”
“does not promote itself”
“is not rash” “Doesn’t behave badly”
“seeketh not its own welfare”
“is not easily provoked”
“thinks no evil”
“Rejoices not in iniquity,”
“rejoices in the truth”
“bears all things”
“believes all things”
“hopes all things”
“endures all things”

Love as Heavenly Currency

This all brings me to the point I am trying to make. If the heavenly currency is love, and the presence of it makes one rich – since everything else is going to go away – and love, as defined here in 1st Corinthians, is synonymous with selflessness, then earthly currencies – meaning what really, truly pays the bills here and has legs – (stay with me) seems to be built on non-Christian love or selfishness. In other words, real agape, Christian love – true selfless love – has very little buying power in this world – other than feeding the Spirit of the individual who possesses it.

In other words I do not think believers can expect genuine selfless Christian love to be rewarded here in the world. It just does NOT work that way no matter how much people tend to say it does. Self-centeredness, selfishness, self-absorbed love – this is the currency that pays the bills here – because it is part of this world’s economics.

(Listen) if a person actually and truly lives by agape loveSelfless love marked by patience, mercy, and humility—central to living in spiritual liberty. they WILL NOT find that this world will reward them. It will only take advantage of them, despitefully use and abuse them. It will take our forgiveness and trample over it. It will repeatedly take our longsuffering and make it suffer longer. It will rebuff our kindnesses, and capitalize on our humility. And we only need to look at the life and ways of Christ to understand this. So, the principle I am trying to suggest is this:

The more “self” here . . . The more Christian love here . . .

The more reward (currency) here. the less reward (currency) here.

THEN . . .

The more self here . . . The more Christian love here . . .

The less reward (currency) there. The more reward (currency) there.

Think about it. You have a chance to help a poor person move on a Saturday or to play golf with some clients. The first would require selfless love, the second contains some self-centeredness.

Free Will in Christianity

Which will pay off here and which will pay off later? Do NOT expect anything different, but trust Jesus when He directs us to “lay up our treasures in heaven.”

Okay, to our continued message for tonight from last week. There is an enormous debate on free will within the Body. We have been talking about the Good News and the question we asked last week was, “How is it received?” We noted that there are a couple camps within Christianity today – one says that there is no free will (the monergist view) and another says there is (the synergist view).

The Monergist position says God elects those whom He will to receive the Good News (thereby excluding most of the world from its benefits) and the Synergist says that receiving the Good News is a two-way street – God provides it to all and all of humanity chooses to receive it (or not). We also pointed out that the Monergist view did not really exist until Augustine and showed that prior to him (in late 380’s AD) the early church scholars and writers by all means taught the synergist view. This is so very, very important to our understanding of God, His ways, His will, and the way we view being Christian today.

Early Church Perspectives

My argument is the closer to the original apostles the information is the more likely it reflects the true apostolic teaching on the subject and the further out we get from the apostolic age the less “connected” the view would be to the apostolic church and therefore the more disconnected we might consider it. So let me walk through some quotes from more early church leaders regarding the topic of Free will – continuing with Justin Martyr, who said (somewhere between 100 and 165 AD):

1. “…God, wishing men and angels to follow His will, resolved to create them free to do righteousness; possessing reason, that they may know by whom they are created, and through whom they, not existing formerly, do now exist; and with a law that they should be judged by Him, if they do anything contrary to right reason: and of ourselves we, men and angels, shall be convicted of having acted sinfully, unless we repent beforehand. But if the word of God foretells that some angels and men shall be certainly punished, it did so because it foreknew that they would be unchangeably [wicked], but not because God had created them so. So that if they repent, all who wish for it can obtain mercy from God…” (Justin Martyr, Second Apology for the Christians addressed to the Roman Senate, chapter CXLI)

2. "But lest some suppose, from what has been said by us, that we say that whatever happens, happens by a fatal necessity, because it is foretold as known beforehand, this too we explain. We have learned from the prophets, and we hold it to be true, that punishments, and chastisements, and good rewards, are rendered according to the merit of each man’s actions. Since if it be not so, but all things happen by fate, neither is anything at all in our own power. For if it be fated that this man, e.g., be good, and this other evil, neither is the former meritorious nor the latter to be blamed. And again, unless the human race have the power of avoiding evil and choosing good by free choice, they are not accountable for their actions, of whatever kind they be. But that it is by free choice they both walk uprightly and stumble, we thus demonstrate. We see the same man making a transition to opposite things. Now, if it had been fated that he were to be either good or bad, he could never have been capable of both the opposites, nor of so many transitions. But not even would some be good and others bad, since we thus make fate the cause of evil, and exhibit her as acting in opposition to herself; or that which has been already stated would seem to be true, that neither virtue nor vice is anything, but that things are only reckoned good or evil by opinion; which, as the true word shows, is the greatest impiety and wickedness. But this we assert is inevitable fate, that they who choose the good have worthy rewards, and they who choose the opposite have their merited awards. For not like other things, as trees and quadrupeds, which cannot act by choice, did God make man: for neither would he be worthy of reward…"

The Teachings of Early Christian Fathers on Free Will

'…but were created for this end; nor, if he were evil, would he be worthy of punishment, not being evil of himself, but being able to be nothing else than what he was made.’ (Justin Martyr, First Apology, chapter XLIII)

‘For God, wishing both angels and men, who were endowed with free-will, and at their own disposal, to do whatever He had strengthened each to do, made them so, that if they chose the things acceptable to Himself, He would keep them free from deathSeparation from God—now overcome. Physical death remains, but it no longer separates us from life with God. and from punishment; but that if they did evil, He would punish each as He sees fit.’ (Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, chapter 88)

‘But yet, since He knew that it would be good, He created both angels and men free to do that which is righteous, and He appointed periods of time during which He knew it would be good for them to have the exercise of free-will; and because He likewise knew it would be good, He made general and particular judgments; each one's freedom of will, however, being guarded.’ (Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, chapter 102)

The Role of Free Will in Human Responsibility

‘In the beginning, He made the human race with the power of thought and of choosing the truth and doing right, so that all men are without excuse before God.’ (Justin Martyr, 160 AD, 1.177)

‘Unless the human race has the power of avoiding evil and choosing good by free choice, they are not responsible for their actions.’ (Justin Martyr, 160 AD, 1.177)

‘We maintain that each man acts rightly or sins by his free choice….Since God in the beginning made the race of angels and men with free will, they will justly suffer in eternal fire the punishment of whatever sins they have committed.’ (Justin Martyr, 160 AD, 1.190)

‘It was God’s desire for both angels and men, who were endowed with free will…that if they choose the things acceptable to Him, He would keep them from death and from punishment. However, if they did evil, He would punish each as He sees fit.’ (Justin Martyr, 160 AD, 1.243)

Free Will in Angels and Men

‘He created both angels and men free to do that which is righteous. And He appointed periods of time during which He knew it would be good for them to have the exercise of free will.’ (Justin Martyr, 160 AD, 1.250)

‘I have proved in what has been said that those who were foreknown to be unrighteous, whether men or angels, are not made wicked by God’s fault. Rather, each man is what he will appear to be through his own fault.’ (Justin Martyr, 160 AD, 1.269)

Then in 110 to 171 AD Tatian wrote: ‘The Logos…before the creation of men, was the Framer of angels. And each of these two orders of creatures was made free to act as it pleased, not having the nature of good, which again is with God alone, but is brought to perfection in men through their freedom of choice, in order that the bad man may be justly punished…but the just man be deservedly praised…Such is the constitution of things in reference to angels and men.’ Also, ‘…our free-will has destroyed us…Nothing evil has been created by God; we ourselves have manifested wickedness.’ (Tatian, Address to the Greeks)

Then in 177 Athenagoras said: ‘Just as with men, who have freedom of choice as to both virtue and vice, so it is among the angels…Some free agents, you will observe, such as they were created by God, continued in those things for which God had made and over which he had ordained them; but some outraged both the constitution of their nature and the government entrusted to them.’ – A Plea for the Christians 24.

Then Irenaeus in 130 – 202 AD wrote: ‘For He who makes the chaff and He who makes the wheat are not different persons, but one and the same, who judges them, that is, separates them. But the wheat and the chaff, being inanimate and irrational, have been made such by nature. But man, being endowed with reason, and in this respect like to God, having been made free in his will, and with power over himself, is himself the cause to himself, that sometimes he becomes wheat, and sometimes chaff. Wherefore also he shall be justly condemned because, having been created a rational being, he lost the true rationality, and living irrationally, opposed the righteousness of God, serving all lusts; as says the prophet, ‘Man, being in honor, did not understand: he was assimilated to senseless beasts, and made like to…

Human Liberty and Divine Judgment

them.’ (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, book 4, chapter 4, 3)

Then Irenaeus posits eight points, saying:

1. This expression [of our Lord], ‘How often would I have gathered thy children together, and thou wouldest not,’ set forth the ancient law of human liberty, because God made man a free [agent] from the beginning, possessing his own power, even as he does his own soul, to obey the behests (ad utendum sententia) of God voluntarily, and not by compulsion of God. For there is no coercion with God, but a good will [towards us] is present with Him continually.

And therefore does He give good counsel to all. And in man, as well as in angels, He has placed the power of choice (for angels are rational beings), so that those who had yielded obedience might justly possess what is good, given indeed by God, but preserved by themselves. On the other hand, they who have not obeyed shall, with justice, be not found in possession of the good, and shall receive condign punishment: for God did kindly bestow on them what was good; but they themselves did not diligently keep it, nor deem it something precious, but poured contempt upon His super-eminent goodness. Rejecting therefore the good, and as it were spewing it out, they shall all deservedly incur the just judgment of God, which also the Apostle Paul testifies in his Epistle to the Romans, where he says, ‘But dost thou despise the riches of His goodness, and patience, and long-suffering, being ignorant that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But according to thy hardness and impenitent heart, thou treasurest to thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God.’ ‘But glory and honour,’ he says, ‘to every one that doeth good.’ God therefore has given that which is good, as the apostle tells us in this Epistle, and they who work it shall receive glory and honor, because they have done that which is good when they had it in their power not to do it; but those who do it not shall receive the just judgment of God, because they did not work good when they had it in their power so to do.

Good and Evil in Human Nature

2. But if some had been made by nature bad, and others good, these latter would not be deserving of praise for being good, for such were they created; nor would the former be reprehensible, for thus they were made [originally]. But since all men are of the same nature, able both to hold fast and to do what is good; and, on the other hand, having also the power to cast it from them and not to do it,–some do justly receive praise even among men who are under the control of good laws (and much more from God), and obtain deserved testimony of their choice of good in general, and of persevering therein; but the others are blamed, and receive a just condemnation, because of their rejection of what is fair and good. And therefore the prophets used to exhort men to what was good, to act justly and to work righteousness, as I have so largely demonstrated, because it is in our power so to do, and because by excessive negligence we might become forgetful, and thus stand in need of that good counsel which the good God has given us to know by means of the prophets.

The Call to Righteousness

3. For this reason the Lord also said, ‘Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good deeds, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.’ And, ‘Take heed to yourselves, lest perchance your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and worldly cares.’ And, ‘Let your loins be girded about, and your lamps burning, and ye like unto men that wait for their Lord, when He returns from the wedding, that when He cometh and knocketh, they may open to Him. Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when He cometh, shall find so doing.’ And again, ‘The servant who knows his Lord’s will, and does it not, shall be beaten with many stripes.’ And, ‘Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?’ And again, ‘But if the servant say in his heart, The Lord delayeth, and begin to beat his fellow-servants, and to eat, and drink, and to be drunken, his Lord will come in a day on which he does not expect Him, and shall cut him in sunder.

The Independent Will of Man

All such passages demonstrate the independent will of man, and at the same time the counsel which God conveys to him, by which He exhorts us to submit ourselves to Him, and seeks to turn us away from [the sinMissing the mark of faith and love—no punishment, just lost growth or peace. of] unbelief against Him, without, however, in any way coercing us.

No doubt, if any one is unwilling to follow the Gospel itself, it is in his power [to reject it], but it is not expedient. For it is in man’s power to disobey God, and to forfeit what is good; but [such conduct] brings no small amount of injury and mischief. And on this account Paul says, ‘All things are lawful to me, but all things are not expedient;’ referring both to the liberty of man, in which respect ‘all things are lawful,’ God exercising no compulsion in regard to him; and [by the expression] ‘not expedient’ pointing out that we ‘should not use our liberty as a cloak of maliciousness,’ for this is not expedient. And again he says, ‘Speak ye every man truth with his neighbor.’ And, ‘Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor scurrility, which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks.’ And, ‘For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord; walk honestly as children of the light, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in anger and jealousy. And such were some of you; but ye have been washed, but ye have been sanctified in the name of our Lord.’ If then it were not in our power to do or not to do these things, what reason had the apostle, and much more the Lord Himself, to give us counsel to do some things, and to abstain from others? But because man is possessed of free will from the beginning, and God is possessed of free will, in whose likeness man was created, advice is always given to him to keep fast the good, which thing is done by means of obedience to God.

Faith and Free Will

And not merely in works, but also in faith, has God preserved the will of man free and under his own control, saying, ‘According to thy faith be it unto thee;’ thus showing that there is a faith specially belonging to man, since he has an opinion specially his own. And again, ‘All things are possible to him that believeth;’ and, ‘Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee.’ Now all such expressions demonstrate that man is in his own power with respect to faith. And for this reason, ‘he that believeth in Him has eternal life while he who believeth not the Son hath not eternal life, but the wrath of God shall remain upon him.’ In the same manner therefore the Lord, both showing His own goodness, and indicating that man is in his own free will and his own power, said to Jerusalem, ‘How often have I wished to gather thy children together, as a hen [gathereth] her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Wherefore your house shall be left unto you desolate.’

Arguments Against The Concept

Those, again, who maintain the opposite to these [conclusions], do themselves present the Lord as destitute of power, as if, forsooth, He were unable to accomplish what He willed; or, on the other hand, as being ignorant that they were by nature ‘material,’ as these men express it, and such as cannot receive His immortality. ‘But He should not,’ say they, ‘have created angels of such a nature that they were capable of transgression, nor men who immediately proved ungrateful towards Him; for they were made rational beings, endowed with the power of examining and judging, and were not [formed] as things irrational or of a [merely] animal nature, which can do nothing of their own will, but are drawn by necessity and compulsion to what is good, in which things there is one mind and one usage, working mechanically in one groove inflexibiles et sine judicio), who are incapable of being anything else except just what they had been created.’ But upon this supposition, neither would what is good be grateful to them, nor communion with God be precious, nor would the good be very much to be sought after, which would present itself without their own proper endeavor, care, or study, but would be implanted of its own accord and without

The Struggle for Immortality

Their concern. Thus it would come to pass, that their being good would be of no consequence, because they were so by nature rather than by will, and are possessors of good spontaneously, not by choice; and for this reason they would not understand this fact, that good is a comely thing, nor would they take pleasure in it. For how can those who are ignorant of good enjoy it? Or what credit is it to those who have not aimed at it? And what crown is it to those who have not followed in pursuit of it, like those victorious in the contest?

The Kingdom of Heaven

7. On this account, too, did the Lord assert that the kingdom of heaven was the portion of ‘the violent;’ and He says, ‘The violent take it by force;’ that is, those who by strength and earnest striving are on the watch to snatch it away on the moment. On this account also Paul the Apostle says to the Corinthians, ‘Know ye not, that they who run in a racecourse, do all indeed run, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. Every one also who engages in the contest is temperate in all things: now these men [do it] that they may obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.

But I so run, not as uncertainty; I fight, not as one beating the air; but I make my body livid, and bring it into subjection, lest by any means, when preaching to others, I may myself be rendered a castaway.’ This able wrestler, therefore, exhorts us to the struggle for immortality, that we may be crowned, and may deem the crown precious, namely, that which is acquired by our struggle, but which does not encircle us of its own accord (sed non ultro coalitam). And the harder we strive, so much is it the more valuable; while so much the more valuable it is, so much the more should we esteem it.

And indeed those things are not esteemed so highly which come spontaneously, as those which are reached by much anxious care. Since, then, this power has been conferred upon us, both the Lord has taught and the apostle has enjoined us the more to love God, that we may reach this [prize] for ourselves by striving after it. For otherwise, no doubt, this our good would be [virtually] irrational, because not the result of trial. Moreover, the faculty of seeing would not appear to be so desirable, unless we had known what a loss it were to be devoid of sight; and health, too, is rendered all the more estimable by an acquaintance with disease; light, also, by contrasting it with darkness; and life with death.

The Path to Perfection

Just in the same way is the heavenly kingdom honorable to those who have known the earthly one. But in proportion as it is more honorable, so much the more do we prize it; and if we have prized it more, we shall be the more glorious in the presence of God. The Lord has therefore endured all these things on our behalf, in order that we, having been instructed by means of them all, may be in all respects circumspect for the time to come, and that, having been rationally taught to love God, we may continue in His perfect love: for God has displayed long-suffering in the case of man’s apostasy; while man has been instructed by means of it, as also the prophet says, ‘Thine own apostasy shall heal thee;’ God thus determining all things beforehand for the bringing of man to perfection, for his edification, and for the revelation of His dispensations, that goodness may both be made apparent, and righteousness perfected, and that the Church may be fashioned after the image of His Son, and that man may finally be brought to maturity at some future time, becoming ripe through such privileges to see and comprehend God.’ (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, book 4, chapter 37, paragraphs 1 – 7)

“In the previous books I have set forth the causes for which God permitted these things to be made, and have pointed out that all such have been created for the benefit of that human nature which is saved, ripening for immortality that which is [possessed] of its own free will and its own power, and preparing and rendering it more adapted for eternal subjection to God.’ (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, book 5, chapter 29)

Then Tertullian 160 – 220 AD) ‘…it is not the part of good and solid

The Doctrine of Free Will

Faith to refer all things to the will of God…as to make us fail to understand that there is something within our power. (Tertullian, Exhortation on Chastity, 2)

‘I find, then, that man was constituted free by God. He was master of his own will and power….Man is free, with a will either for obedience or resistance.’ (Tertullian, 207 AD, 3.300, 301)

‘You must necessarily correspond to the seed from which you sprang – if indeed it is true that the originator of our race and our sin, Adam, willed the sin which he committed.’ (Tertullian, 212 AD, 4.51)

Clement of Alexandria's Perspective

Clement of Alexandria (153 – 217 AD)
‘So in no respect is God the author of evil. But since free choice and inclination originate sins…punishments are rightly inflicted.’ – Stromata 1:17.

Also, ‘This was the law from the first, that virtue should be the object of voluntary choice.’ – Stromata 7:2.

‘A man by himself working and toiling at freedom from sinful desires achieves nothing. But if he plainly shows himself to be very eager and earnest about this, he attains it by the addition of the power of God. God works together with willing souls. But if the person abandons his eagerness, the spirit from God is also restrained. To save the unwilling is the act of one using compulsion; but to save the willing, that of one showing grace.’ – Salvation of the Rich Man chap. 21

Free Will and Responsibility

‘Neither praise nor condemnation, neither rewards nor punishments, are right if the soul does not have the power of choice and avoidance, if evil is involuntary.’ Miscellanies bk. 1, chap. 17

We…have believed and are saved by voluntary choice.
(Clement of Alexandria, 195 AD, 2.217)

Each one of us who sins with his own free will, chooses punishment. So the blame lies with him who chooses. God is without blame.
(Clement of Alexandria, 195 AD, 2.226)

Neither praises nor censures, neither rewards nor punishments, are right if the soul does not have the power of inclination and disinclination and if evil is involuntary…. In no respect is God the author of evil. But since free choice and inclination originate sins,…punishments are justly inflicted.
(Clement of Alexandria, 195 AD, 2.319)

We have heard from the Scriptures that self-determining choice and refusal have been given by the Lord to men. Therefore, we rest in the infallible criterion of faith, manifesting a willing spirit, since we have chosen life.
(Clement of Alexandria, 195 AD, 2.349)

To obey or not to obey is in our own power, provided we do not have the excuse of ignorance.
(Clement of Alexandria, 195 AD, 2.353)

Sin, then, is voluntary on my part.
(Clement of Alexandria, 195 AD, 2.362)

The Lord clearly shows sins and transgressions to be in our own power, by prescribing modes of cure corresponding to the maladies.
(Clement of Alexandria, 195 AD, 2.363)

Their estrangement is the result of free choice.
(Clement of Alexandria, 195 AD, 2.426)

Believing and obeying are in our own power.
(Clement of Alexandria, 195 AD, 2.527)

Nor will he who is saved be saved against his will, for he is not inanimate. But above all, he will speed to salvation voluntarily and of free choice.
(Clement of Alexandria, 195 AD, 2.534)

Choice depended on the man as being free. But the gift depended on God as the Lord. And He gives to those who are willing, are exceedingly earnest, and who ask. So their salvation becomes their own. For God does not compel.
(Clement of Alexandria, 195 AD, 2.593)

Next week we will get out to Origen and then talk about the ramifications to the doctrine of free will.

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