RevGrant's blog

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Thank you for your understanding!

It's hard at times to resist overstating a point - especially when our traditional thinking about an issue is entrenched so deeply that we revert to patterns of speaking and acting without thinking about their real basis at all. Sunday was such a time - I overstated the case (did I?) for viewing everything in life as spiritual. Unlike the Greeks, who saw the material world and everything associated with it as evil, the Biblical picture is of a material cosmos created good by a good God who gave it to us for our benefit and enjoyment.

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." (John 13:34). Surrounded by His disciples as He was preparing to face betrayal and the cross, Jesus seemed to feel that this instruction was worth repeating - He says it again in John 15. Apparently the concept of love is found in John's gospel over 39 times (haven't counted myself). The newness of the command is loving as He has loved us, not the instruction to love one another itself - that one is found throughout the Scriptures.

One or two people have pointed out that I am perhaps overly concerned with the difference between Greek and Hebrew thinking, particularly as it relates to our understanding of the Bible. I cannot escape the idea, however, that I have been schooled to think about life and reality primarily from a Greek frame of reference with its particular approach to the divide between the spiritual and the material. This affects our view of God, the spiritual world, and what it means to live as spiritual Christians.