Tag: righteousness

Kindly Uncle or Loving Father (Father Complex Pt. 1)

By Ife J. Ibitayo

“I like Jesus, but I don’t like the God of the Old Testament. He’s too angry.” I’ve had this conversation with many of my non-Christian friends. They gravitate toward the humility and gentleness of the Christ. But they shy away from the wrath and fury of the Father. But I believe these are twin facets of the same coin engraved in love.

One of the most memorable moments of my childhood was when my little brother slapped my mom. My father was standing right next to her. And I still remember the terror in my little brother’s eyes as he dashed into our game room and slammed the door. My father stomped after him. And my older brother and I weren’t sure if he was going to survive the night! Of course, the youngster survived to rebel another day. But because of that discipline he never laid a hand on our mother again. Now my father’s righteous anger demonstrated two things: first, his care for his wife; second, his care for his son.

The Justice of Love

My father loves my mom as he loves himself (Ephesians 5:28), so love compelled him to defend his wife when she was so viscerally disrespected. In like manner, God loves us all as His children, and He hates to see us mistreated. In the book of Isaiah, God says, “Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless. What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar” (Isaiah 10:1-3)? When God witnesses injustice, He responds with righteous indignation, just as we should.

When I saw a police officer kneeling on George Floyd’s neck, I was furious, and I yearned for the justice that my hands were incapable of delivering. But because God is all-powerful and all-loving, that same anger pushes Him to bow down the heavens and act on behalf of those who’ve been wronged (Psalm 18:6-9).

The Discipline of Love

Secondly, my father loved my little brother too much to allow him to continue down the rebellious path he’d taken. Even Dr. Benjamin Spock, one of the most influential 20th century voices against corporal punishment, still knew that discipline was necessary. Whether through words or deeds, a loving parent must communicate their love by disciplining their children, so how much more our heavenly Father?

The author of the book of Hebrews said, “For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness. No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way (Hebrews 12:10-11).”

Therefore, when we as individuals, churches, or nations suffers the consequences of our wicked actions, this is not a sign that God doesn’t care for us any longer. Rather, it shows that He cares too much to allow us to keep going astray. As famous writer C.S. Lewis once said, “God shouts through our pain.” And sometimes that pain is the only restraint between us and death.

Conclusion

God so loved the world that He gave His only Son to us (John 3:16). But He also loves us so much that He doesn’t leave us to our own devices. He defends the needy, He disciplines the wayward, and He destroys the wicked. Without this aspect of God’s character, He’ll only be our kindly but distant Uncle rather than our present and loving Father.

“My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke because the Lord disciplines those he loves as a father the son he delights in.”

(Proverbs 3:11-12)

https://open.spotify.com/track/1GroB3cEZTvfhKQ7PebPas?si=af7457e9ba924d71

Double Standard (How Christians Kill Christianity Pt. 2)

By Ife J. Ibitayo

Last week, the Lighten Group announced that they are shutting down. What is the Lighten Group? It is the ministry of Ravi Zacharias’ daughter.

Ravi Zacharias was one of the most well-known Christian apologists of the 21st century. He passed away two years ago, but the fallout from his sexual misconduct continues to cast a long shadow over his entire ministry. Recent investigations have also revealed a startling history of libidinous behavior and inexcusable coverup throughout the Southern Baptist Convention, America’s largest Protestant denomination.

The Standard for Others

Why is it so damaging when priests and pastors commit sexual scandal? If a famous actor and a famous pastor both sleep around, both will be condemned for their actions. But the blowback for the pastor will surely be greater. Why? Because the standard of right living that the pastor puts forth will (likely) be far higher.

From the Ten Commandments (“Thou shalt not commit adultery”) to the Sermon on the Mount (“I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart”), the Bible is filled with appeals to purity. Visit church once and you’ll be lucky not to hear a message against fornication and pornography.

So when a famous apologist writes, “sexuality is sacred, and using it for amusement brings diminishing returns“, but he secretly stores hundreds of sexual pictures on his cellphone for his own pleasure and amusement, the fallout will rightly be tremendous.

The Standard for Ourselves

The apostle Paul said, “We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Therefore, we are called to live up to a standard that none of us can attain. The Bible’s answer to this is grace, but many of us Christians respond with self-righteousness instead. Speaking about His chosen people in the Old Testament, God said, “All day long they insult me to my face by worshiping idols in their sacred gardens…Yet they say to each other, ‘Don’t come too close or you will defile me! I am holier than you!’ These people are a stench in My nostrils, an acrid smell that never goes away’” (Isaiah 65:3, 5).

When we uphold “purity culture” where young women are condemned for exposing their thighs but male pastors are protected when they expose themselves, we surely become an acrid stench in the nose of the world too. As Jesus Himself said, “We’re straining out a gnat while swallowing a camel” (Matthew 23:24).

Conclusion

So what’s the answer then? Should we throw out the Bible with the bathwater of hypocrisy? Or Should we accept the fallibility that lies within all of us and stop calling people up and calling people out?

We can’t, otherwise we will cease being the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Matthew 5:13-16). Rather, we must be willing to call ourselves up and call ourselves out. We must look on others with eyes of grace and ourselves with eyes of justice, and only then will our two standards become one.

“‘Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?'”

(Matthew 7:3)

Bad Pain, Good God, Righteous People

By Ife J. Ibitayo

“Why does a good God allow bad pain?” Christians and unbelievers alike have grappled with this tough question for generations. Our human condition makes us struggle to find purpose in pain. That is why in a parable Jesus said, “The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word” (Matthew 13:20-21 NLT). We all have a Judas within us, and this traitor reveals himself when suffering arises.

Bad Pain

Judas cuts right to the heart of one of the main reasons we suffer. We are broken people living in a broken world with broken hearts. The English poet Alexander Pope once said, “To err is human.” The only consistent thing about us is that we’ll consistently fall short of other people’s standards, our own, and—above all—God’s.

Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” And to fall short of God’s glorious standard is to be subject to His holy wrath. As Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and were condemned to death, we all have also taken a bite, and we’re subject to a thousand little deaths each day. We chronically overeat and, and the doctor diagnoses us with diabetes. Our friend sleeps in, and we miss our final exam. A stranger is texting while they’re driving, and they swerve into our lane. We suffer bad consequences because we commit evil deeds.

Good God

Yet bad things in this life cannot nullify God’s good promises. “I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end” (Jeremiah 29:11 KJV). This promise means that all suffering—caused by our sins, the sins of others, or unlucky happenstance—are part of God’s “expected end”–plan for our lives.

Romans 8:28, one of the most famous passages of scripture, reads, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Unfortunately, it is often divorced from the following verse: “For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters” (Romans 8:29 NLT).

Righteous People

The crucible of suffering, tuned to the right heat and extended for the correct duration, most quickly produces righteousness in us. Consider some of the most famous moral leaders of the past century–Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King Jr.). These leaders did not become the spiritual compasses of their respective nations in spite of the suffering they endured but because of it.

Mother Teresa ministered her whole life in some of the greatest squalor in the world. And she struggled for decades with an acute sense of abandonment by the same God she professed to serve. Martin Luther King Jr. was beaten by cops, bombed by segregationists, and terminated by a bullet to the brain.

The Son of God too was subject to a hard life. He had no place to call home (Matthew 8:20). He was rejected by his family and hometown (Mark 6:4) and persecuted by the religious leaders of His day (Matthew 12:23-24). And that’s not even mentioning the crux of Jesus’ greatest suffering here on this earth: the crucifixion.

If the Father found the crucible of suffering to be meaningful for His own perfect Son (Hebrews 5:8), how much more for His other imperfect children like us?

Conclusion

The world we live in is broken, and we are too. Bad news and bad circumstances may threaten to kill our faith. But if we can come to trust our heavenly Father “who works all things according to the counsel of His will” (Ephesians 1:11), our faith can grow along with our character.

“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”

(James 1:2-4 NLT)