Is God the Father of all? The answer from the previous post forces us to conclude: "Yes and No". This is a tension - and it challenges our tendency to want to see everything in the Bible in "black and white" terms.
Why does it matter? One very important reason is that if we only look at the non-Christian as "children of the devil" - we will not see them as they truly are. We will not see that they are prodigals who have taken the riches that God has given and squandered it on themselves - but, for whom there is genuine hope based on their relationship with God as their true father. And then we become the elder brother who cannot share the Father's heart and long for the return of the lost son.
We will also be able to account for the "good" that we see even in non-Christians (yes, I know that there is "none good" - I will address that later) - i.e. that it is not always simply "wood, hay and stubble" - a mere facade of self-righteousness or "works righteousness"- but that it can be the presence of God at work within and through His child - that child who "is not far" from God - and who may worship Him, even under another name (e.g. Zeus) in ignorance (Acts 17). (Have you ever wondered at the fact that Jesus uses the "heretical" Samaritan as a supreme example of what it means to love ones neighbor? - and how many non-Christians, say, on the field of battle, have laid down their lives for their fellow-soldier - attaining to the high estimation of Jesus who says of them, "Greater love hath no man..."?)
I distinctly remember how I once saw all humanity (apart from believers) as a cauldron of evil - such that behind every good deed lay the most wicked of ulterior motives. I no longer see others in that way. Instead I see, as Peter must have seen, "34 I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35 but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right." (Acts 10). And perhaps something of this is reflected in Paul, "From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh." (2 Cor.5)
This is no denial of sin - or of the possibility indulged in by many of giving oneself over to the evil propensities of the "flesh". But it is to affirm that there is something that God placed in His "offspring" that He loves - deeply and profoundly - and that He longs to fully redeem.
What do you think? Please feel free to leave your comments :)
So, we are confronted here with a very important interpretive principle: Sometimes the truth is paradoxical. Another example of this is found in Romans 9 where Paul distinguishes between those of Israel that are not of [the true] Israel - "For they are not all Israel which are of Israel". He goes on to explain in Romans 11 that some of Israel are the "elect", but the rest (of Israel) were hardened. Then, after making this distinction, he later (in the same chapter) turns around and speaks of those who by implication are not Israel (the "hardened") as objects of God's love ("beloved") - and who will be, in the end, objects of His mercy! And what does he call them? "Israel" - "And so ALL Israel will be saved."
So it is with our being children of God: it's possible to be children of God and not children of God - at the same time. Matthew 5:45 says, "that you may be sons of your Father in heaven" - This phrase reveals yet another example of tension: It's like it assumes as a given fact that we have a Father - by using "your Father" - but then we are commanded to love our enemies that we "may be" his children. It seems to be alluding to the idea of "actualization". We become what we already are - the genetic "seed" is there - now we must "die" and let that reality come into fruition.
In both cases, what is important is primacy. By that I mean - what is most true - or true first - or fundamentally true? For mankind, each human individual is the "offspring of God" (Acts 17:28) before all else. (A related subject is the fact that, though fallen, we remain the only thing in God's creation that is made "in the image of God".)
Why does it matter? One very important reason is that if we only look at the non-Christian as "children of the devil" - we will not see them as they truly are. We will not see that they are prodigals who have taken the riches that God has given and squandered it on themselves - but, for whom there is genuine hope based on their relationship with God as their true father. And then we become the elder brother who cannot share the Father's heart and long for the return of the lost son.
We will also be able to account for the "good" that we see even in non-Christians (yes, I know that there is "none good" - I will address that later) - i.e. that it is not always simply "wood, hay and stubble" - a mere facade of self-righteousness or "works righteousness"- but that it can be the presence of God at work within and through His child - that child who "is not far" from God - and who may worship Him, even under another name (e.g. Zeus) in ignorance (Acts 17). (Have you ever wondered at the fact that Jesus uses the "heretical" Samaritan as a supreme example of what it means to love ones neighbor? - and how many non-Christians, say, on the field of battle, have laid down their lives for their fellow-soldier - attaining to the high estimation of Jesus who says of them, "Greater love hath no man..."?)
I distinctly remember how I once saw all humanity (apart from believers) as a cauldron of evil - such that behind every good deed lay the most wicked of ulterior motives. I no longer see others in that way. Instead I see, as Peter must have seen, "34 I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35 but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right." (Acts 10). And perhaps something of this is reflected in Paul, "From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh." (2 Cor.5)
This is no denial of sin - or of the possibility indulged in by many of giving oneself over to the evil propensities of the "flesh". But it is to affirm that there is something that God placed in His "offspring" that He loves - deeply and profoundly - and that He longs to fully redeem.
What do you think? Please feel free to leave your comments :)
