Thursday, February 20, 2014
Definitions
Justin Taylor quotes Charles Hobbs:
Doesn't that limit God? Who are we to place constraints on God? Cannot God have in His fold those whom He chooses? What constrains the almighty constrainer?
I know that without such definitional constraints things become so indistinct as to be meaningless. At some point everyone would end up Christian. That's no good either. I think the key is not our definition, but how we hold them. Are we willing to understand that they are not set in stone? Can we use them, but not abuse them? It is at that point that God moves from our heads to our hearts - and our hearts is where He truly wishes to reside.
constraints definitions
A Christian is oneDefinitions are important, I know. Without them words mean nothing. But they are also constraints. That not only tell us what something is, but they also tell us what is not something. For example, by this definition someone who acknowledges Christ as Lord, but not in a Trinitarian sense, and even lives their lives in the same fashion as a Trinitarian Christian would not be a Christian. But I wonder, is God more interested in our theology or our behavior?
who recognizes Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, as God manifested in the flesh, loving us and dying for our redemption;
and who is so affected by a sense of the love of this incarnate God as to be constrained to make the will of Christ the rule of his obedience, and the glory of Christ the great end for which he lives.
Doesn't that limit God? Who are we to place constraints on God? Cannot God have in His fold those whom He chooses? What constrains the almighty constrainer?
I know that without such definitional constraints things become so indistinct as to be meaningless. At some point everyone would end up Christian. That's no good either. I think the key is not our definition, but how we hold them. Are we willing to understand that they are not set in stone? Can we use them, but not abuse them? It is at that point that God moves from our heads to our hearts - and our hearts is where He truly wishes to reside.
constraints definitions
