Love is one of the concepts often misunderstood where the Bible and the Christian life are concerned. Expressing love, it is thought, cannot include anger, invoke bad feelings, or result in emotional pain. Love, in the modern or perhaps post-modern sense must include all feelings of wellness, goodness, and general pleasantness. Even the Bible, it is pointed out, describes love in terms of positive emotional states that bring out positive feelings in others. Certainly love can be and do all of these things, but love is also much more – and much less.

The Bible’s most well-known passage on love is I Corinthians 13:1-3. Both scholar and student have remarked that there is not a single more eloquent written passage in religious literature about love than the Apostle Paul’s homily in I Corinthians 13. That may well be true, but there are many more things the Bible has to say, and demonstrate about love. Let’s take a look at Paul’s description of love from I Corinthians 13, and what other Biblical writers had to say about this single most important characteristic of the Christian life.

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (ESV).

The scripture is replete with commands and admonitions to “Love the Lord your God,” (Deuteronomy 6:5), “Love your neighbor as yourself,” (Leviticus 19:18), “Love your enemies,” (Matthew 5:44), “Love the brothers,” (John 13:35, I John 3:14), and to love the church (implied in Ephesians 5:25). Love is given as the first Fruit of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23, signifying its primary importance among Christian character traits. Jesus remarked that people would understand us to be His disciples if we “have love for one another” (John 13:35). And yet for all of these admonitions of love, including Jesus’ command for us to love one another as He loved us (John 13:34), there are times when love is inappropriate, even wrong.

Paul’s words in I Corinthians 13 describe the attributes of love from both a positive and negative view. From a positive view: “Love is patient and kind…[love] rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all thing.” But notice also Paul’s negative admonitions about love: “Love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoings.” In fact Paul says more about what love is not than he does about what love is. And herein is an important instruction for Christians today.

Love is not unlimited.

The characteristics of love in I Corinthians 13 are only a partial list, not a complete one. In the context of the passage Paul is refuting the notion from I Corinthians 12 that service to God with our gifts – even miraculous service – is a sign of spiritual maturity or spiritual acceptability before God. In fact, as Professor Wayne Grudem points out, “Neither Jesus nor Paul nor John point to activity in the church or miracles as evidence of regeneration. They rather point to character traits in life…Prophecy, exorcism, and many miracles and mighty works in Jesus’ name (to say nothing of other kinds of intensive church activity in the strength of the flesh over perhaps decades of a person’s life) do not provide convincing evidence that a person is truly born again” (Systematic Theology, Chapter 34: “Regeneration,” pages 705 and 706). Love, the scripture teaches, is limited in its scope and expression. This is especially true of God’s love. In I Corinthians 13 Paul’s model for love is Jesus Christ. Jesus performed all of the miracles and signs often touted by the so-called miracle workers today (such as those in the Word of Faith movement). He had all of the gift-traits of I Corinthians 12, but also had all of the traits of I Corinthians 13. While we sometimes think that Jesus’ love was unending (as some think Paul hints when he says, “Love is unending” or “never fails”), in fact God’s love, while superior to our feelings and expressions, is still a limited love. Let’s take a look at what we mean by limited love from the scripture.

Look again at I Corinthians 13. Paul notes that “Love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoings.” We can sum up these things by saying that Love does not sin. Sin is the violation of God’s character portrayed in the Bible as the breaking of His law. Jesus said the whole law was summed up in this, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39-40). Therefore, love does not sin. This is the first, most important limitation on love, or more specifically, on love as expressed by God’s character. Indeed, if God’s love was unlimited, then God Himself would also be unlimited, and this is just not true. God is limited by His character – He cannot sin. If God could love anything by the sheer force of His will and thereby change his eternal nature, then He could love sin, which clearly the scripture rejects. Since the scripture declares the supremacy of love as an attribute of God (“God is love,” I John 4:8), love must also be limited.

Secondly, while God may love all of humankind as His creation (“For God so loved the world…” John 3:16), there are passages in which God expresses or implies that He does not love certain people because of His sovereign choice to do so (Romans 9:19-23), but perhaps also because of the degree to which they have embraced sin in rejection of His grace. “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated” (Malachi 1:3). In this sense God is speaking comparatively of his actions regarding Jacob and Esau. He decimated Esau, but gave rich undeserved blessings to Jacob (Israel). To be sure, neither Israel or Esau was deserving of God’s blessings, yet God chose to bless Israel and make him an object of His love while Esau was an object of His scorn. According to the New Bible Dictionary, “[God] took the initiative and chose Israel because he loved him. This love is spontaneous, not evoked by any intrinsic worth in its object, but rather creating that worth. The corollary is also true, that God hates those whom He does not love (“Love, In the Old Testament: God’s Love for Men,” page 711, emphasis mine).

That God’s love is limited in expression (though perhaps not feeling), and thus provides a model for our own expression of love, can also be seen in who He chose for salvation and whom He did not. “It is clear that the Triune God’s redemptive love is not unlimited or universal from the undeniable fact that it does not embrace fallen angels…although they are creatures as much in need of redemption as are fallen men” (A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith, Dr. Robert L. Reymond, Chapter 18: “The Divine Design Behind the Cross Work of Christ,” page 675).

Personally, I find these truths to be utterly and completely terrifying, but also completely liberating. Terrifying because these truths mean that there is nothing that I (or you) can do to gain God’s favor. I can never be good enough or “make up for” something by doing something better – even over a lifetime. If God has not chosen me (or you) to be an object of His love, then there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. We are doomed. We have no hope. Period. Finis. Enjoy what time you have left because it ain’t much. Yet this truth is also comforting because I am assured by the testimony of God’s word that in fact He has by His expression of unmerited favor He has chosen me as an object of His love (as the Holy Spirit also testifies), not because there is anything good in me (indeed there is not one good thing worthy of salvation), but because as the New Bible Dictionary points out, He is creating that worth in me because of His gracious sovereign choice to make me an object of His love – and perhaps (hopefully) you too? Of course the only way to find out is to embrace the Lord Jesus with all of your heart. Question answered.

So what does this mean for the average Christian who is trying to work out what it means to love as Christ did? Does it mean that we must withhold or refuse to love certain people? Some might remark that such a notion is ludicrous as we are commanded to “Love our neighbor,” (Leviticus 19:18). Fair enough, yet there is a difference between the feeling or emotional expression of love, and practically demonstrated love. “Do not give what is holy to dogs,” Jesus said (Matthew 7:6). Jesus sometimes expressed His heart of love for the lost, while at the same time withholding his practical (or miraculous) expression of that same love, such as the rich man who refused to follow Jesus because of something so small as his money. “Jesus, looking at him with sadness…” (Luke 18:24) because He loved him (if he did not feel love or compassion there would have been no sadness), but Jesus offered no other demonstration of His love to help bring the man over to obedience, and thus we assume the man was eventually lost.

Love can express itself sometimes in harsh ways, such as punishment for sin that results in changed character (Hebrews 12:6-11); in such cases the expression of love can be painful, and even cause suffering, but it leads to a godly result. However, the scriptures are clear: Love is not infinitely patient, neither God’s love nor human love.

Though this is a difficult teaching it is one we should take to heart. Many Christians approach the subject of Christian love with the idea that they must always and never fail to express their love even to the worst of men. Jesus commanded us to “Love your enemies,” (Matthew 5:44), but even His own expression of love for His enemies (Romans 5:6-8) had limits. As the Apostle Peter noted, “Christ died ONCE for sins” (I Peter 3:18). Though He died for “the sins of the whole world” (I John 2:2), His redemptive death is apparently only applied to those to come to Him in obedience (Hebrews 10:26), to those whom God has “chosen from the foundation of the world” to receive eternal life (Ephesians 1:4-6).

There are natural times when the believer will want to continue to express love despite the circumstances facing him. Good. As they used to say in the 70s, “Keep on keeping on.” But when love hits its limit don’t despair. Everyone has their limits, even God. Just keep in mind that the only people whom the Christian is called to love in an unlimited fashion is the fellow believer in the Lord Jesus who has received the same love from God as you. In such cases love must never fail, for “If anyone says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen” (I John 4:20).

For several weeks I’ve been thinking through the issue of Christian unity. In Mongolian culture the idea of unity is very important. In fact it may be the single most important value. I see this at virtually all levels, from politics to general society, and even in the Christian church. Most analysts consider that for a society to be healthy it must be unified around a set of principles or a history that defines what that unity looks like. Most importantly, unity is seen as agreement on important issues – especially controversial ones.

However, the idea of Christian unity as presented in the Bible is different from the secular unity that is often promoted in culture and politics. This is true not just in Mongolia but also worldwide. Most secular unity is achieved by reaching agreement on common ideas. Those who are not in agreement on those ideas not unified, or perhaps even viewed as divisive. Examples include business partnerships or political platforms. For some nations, such as those of the Islamic world, a common religious heritage is the driving force of perceived unity. For many in Mongolia, especially during this year’s 800th anniversary of the Great Mongolian State, unity often revolves around a history – Chinggis Khan, and the unity of the Mongolian tribes into one nation. These are all examples of a secular-focused unity.

The unity that the Bible prescribes for Christians is very different. It is a unity that transcends ideas and opinions in pursuit of something far greater. The idea of unity in Christ, as presented in the Bible has very little to do with a common set of ideas, and almost nothing to do with agreement on practical or controversial issues. Rather, biblical unity always centers on behavior. Psalm 133:1 declares, “Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity.” Conspicuously absent from Psalm 133 is any reference to philosophical agreement. In fact, it is absent on purpose.

The Bible provides the only authoritative model of unity for Christians. While many passages touch on the subject, it is best modeled in Ephesians 4:2-3 when the Apostle Paul says, “With all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forgiveness to one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” It is no coincidence that the idea of unity is tied to the Holy Spirit and issues of behavior. In fact, in almost every New Testament passage a Christian’s behavior and the Holy Spirit are linked when the idea of unity is discussed. And there is another subject not far behind: Truth.

Continuing on his theme of unity, Paul later says in Ephesians 4:13-15, “…until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the Head, even Christ.”

I’ve emphasized the words in the above passages because of the focus on truth. In fact biblical unity always looks like this: TRUTH + LOVE = UNITY. Where else does the Scripture provide this model? One book earlier in Galatians 5:22-26 Paul ties the “Fruit of the Spirit” (moral behaviors) with a life empowered by the Holy Spirit. But earlier in the chapter as he prepares to touch the topic Paul rebukes the Galatians for abandoning the purity of the Gospel message in Galatians 5:7 by saying, “You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?” What “truth” is Paul referring to? He reveals it in Galatians 5:1; “It was for freedom that Christ set you free.”

Paul also makes these connections in his famous love chapter in I Corinthians 13 when in verse 6 he notes that love “does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth.” The entire chapter is part of a much larger context from chapters 12 through 14 about how the Holy Spirit expresses Himself through the life of the believer and the church at large. Paul’s focus in these chapters in spiritual unity among people of different motivations, gifts, and talents, based upon the simplicity of Christ’s identity and expressions of love.

The model presented in Colossians 3 is the same, with a much heavier emphasis on personal behavior along with Paul’s note that in Christ there is “no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all” (Colossians 3:11). The implication – and application – for our modern times is that it doesn’t matter if you are Mongolian, or American, or Chinese, or Russian, Korean, or any other nationality. In Christ such temporary distinctions are to be washed away in favor of a much higher citizenship in the Kingdom of God.

Jesus Himself also tied together this notion that TRUTH + LOVE = UNITY. In John 16:13-14 Jesus revealed, “When He, the Spirit of Truth comes He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever he hears He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you.” With this important background on the Holy Spirit’s role in revealing truth, Jesus then prays for unity and truth in John 17:11, asking God, “Holy Father keep them in your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are,” then in verse 17, “Sanctify them in truth, your word is truth.”

At this point the real question becomes, “What is truth?” Pilate asked the same question just before Jesus’ trial, not understanding that the truth was standing before Him. That truth refers to the fact that we are all sinners equally reprobate before a Holy God. Just before speaking of unity and truth Jesus said in John 16:8-9, “And He, when He comes (the Holy Spirit), will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment, concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me.” Even the passages in Galatians 5, Colossians 3, and I Corinthians demonstrate that we are sinners in need of unity with Christ that comes first by recognizing our sin and embracing Jesus as the only solution to our sin.

So while the secular model of unity is based upon heritage, or philosophy, political principles, or some set of ideas, the biblical model is different – so different as to be foreign to the way the world works. Biblical unity is not a unity of ideas, but a unity of behavior based upon the identity and work of Jesus Christ. Even Paul’s example of marriage in Ephesians 5 and 6 reveals this as each person is different, and can have different motivations and even be in disagreement, but their behavior toward one another unifies them as a family.

Christians can have many different ideas and disagree on a wide range of issues. We always have and we always will. Jesus didn’t say people would know we are His disciples because we agree, rather because of our love for one another. Disagreements don’t need to be wiped away to unify the church – only the sinful behavior that elevates personal opinion to the status of godly conviction and thus dishonors the brother or sister for whom Christ died.

TRUTH + LOVE = UNITY.

I’ve been reviewing data today from a Mongolian government publication in a chapter on, “Education, Science, Culture, and Art.” I was interested to learn more about the growth of various religious systems in Mongolia over the last few years, especially since my last two Friday Fundamentals series have been comparisons of Christianity to Animism and Buddhism. Along with the Mongolian government data I reviewed some data from Pillar International and a few numbers kindly provided by the Mongolian Evangelical Association. After I put all of the source numbers together I was a bit stunned – but very encouraged – to learn that the number of Christian churches in Mongolia outnumbers Buddhist temples by a ratio of nearly 3-to-1.

Christianity’s growth in Mongolia is no secret. As hundreds and thousands of people turn to faith in Christ they naturally form cell churches, and even full-blown church buildings to establish a visible presence in a neighborhood or district, which in turn helps lead others in an area to want to know more about Christ. (Eagle TV also actively promotes church attendance on Sunday mornings by running screen crawls with church locations and service times.) While Mongolia’s constitution states that the government shall favor Buddhism, the trend among the people of Mongolia appears to be an openness to talk about and embrace Jesus Christ. As a result Christianity can no longer be considered a “foreign religion” when Mongolian churches outnumber Buddhist temples by 3-to-1.

Yet more interesting is that Buddhist monks outnumber Mongolian pastors by nearly 20-to-1, and people employed by Buddhist institutions outnumber those employed by Christian churches by nearly 3-to-1, yet the number of churches being established is far out pacing the number of Buddhist temples. Perhaps these precious few Mongolian pastors are doing the work of 20 men!

In what was once considered the “most Buddhist nation on earth,” people are finding that faith in Christ is becoming more and more preferable to that which they previously knew. And if our Bible distribution is any clue, yet thousands more want to study the Bible and unlock the truths from the scripture that can transform their lives. In the last two months 500 families received New Testaments from us.

Thanks for remembering Eagle TV in your prayers and giving.

This week’s offering contrasts a few of the basic ideas between Animism and Christianity. The idea of what Animism is, is hard for some westerners to wrap their minds around. It seems to many western observers that Animism is similar in many ways to Buddhism, Hinduism, Shinto, and even many Native American religions. The answer of course is yes, it has many similarities, but it is also different. The ideas of Animism are often mixed with other philosophies and religious beliefs, changing their fundamentals or turning them into something like magic formulas for the benefit of the adherent. Animism is not exclusive to non-Christian religions. The concepts of Animism can be found, most notably, in what is commonly referred to as the Word of Faith or Prosperity Gospel movement.

I just came out of a nearly two-hour meeting with our Steppe-by-Steppe field ministry team listening to testimonies about what God is doing through our field strategy using Eagle TV movies in the countryside. I never imagined when we conceived of the strategy a year-and-a-half ago that so much would be accomplished so quickly, and how it would begin to change people’s perceptions of the Bible and Jesus Christ.

From whole families who have received Christ, to communities that turn out by the hundreds to learn about the Bible, amazing things are happening, but none more important than the change in attitude about the Bible.

Again and again our team members are being told that they have great difficulty understanding the Old Testament they have. As a result they quickly give up reading it and only read the New Testament, and often times not even that. Even then they often don’t understand certain things because the New Testament is filled with references to Old Testament characters, events, and principles. Yet after watching our Old Testament series of movies and attending the corresponding Bible studies a two-fold response always takes place: (1) People gain a new understanding of the Old Testament and its meaning opens up to them for the first time, which (2) Drives them back to the Bible to study God’s word and learn again from the treasure within its pages. This is exactly what we hoped for!

One of our staff shared with me that the communists used to travel the countryside in the 40s and 50s showing Russian movies about communism. The older people remember those days. So to have a group now traveling to these same areas bringing the message of God’s love and forgiveness instead of the cold, unforgiving brutality of atheism and oppression, is welcomed and greatly anticipated.

In the last 5 months our team has delivered 108 presentations with thousands attending movie showings, and thousands attending the corresponding Bible studies from start to finish to learn more about Jesus. Hundreds of New Testaments have been given out, and lives are being transformed for Jesus Christ. Virtually every community we have visited has asked for a return visit and for our team to continue teaching them about the Bible.

What a wonderful privilege to be associated with these men from our Steppe-by-Steppe team. Their work is transforming thousands of their countrymen for Christ.

While beginning a study on the biblical definitions of love, I ran across an interesting list by Professor Wayne Grudem from his book, Systematic Theology, on the “Signs of a More-Pure Church.” In this highly esteemed volume, Professor Grudem defines a pure church as, “[The] degree of freedom from wrong doctrine and conduct, and its degree of conformity to God’s revealed will for the church” (Chapter 45, page 873). Two things about this definition and Grudem’s list of church attributes caught my attention.

First, Grudem places doctrine and behavior hand-in-hand. Improper doctrine does not naturally or organically work itself out to become proper biblical behavior in a Christian’s life. Jesus remarked about this is Matthew 7:17-20 when He said:

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits” (ESV).

Second, Grudem’s list (presented below) can be used to not only help determine if a particular church is near biblical standards, but also if individual believers are near those standards as well. Before I comment on this it behooves me to point out that not all Christians are mature (no matter how old they are or what their position is – that goes for pastors and missionaries too). Christians are all over the scale when it comes to spiritual understanding, insight, biblical knowledge, practical application, and the Fruit of the Spirit. However, a Christian as well as a church body should be growing toward the attributes listed below.

I’m going to take a liberty and rename this list from Grudem’s “Signs of a More-Pure Church” to:

Attributes of a Spiritually Mature Church

1. Biblical Doctrine (or right preaching of the Word)
2. Proper use of the sacraments (or ordinances)
3. Right use of church discipline
4. Genuine worship
5. Effective prayer
6. Effective witness
7. Effective fellowship
8. Biblical church government
9. Spiritual power in ministry
10. Personal holiness of life among members
11. Care for the poor
12. Love for Christ

That’s a whopper of a list and its certainly true that not many churches that I am aware of are at the top of their game when it comes to meeting all of these standards. Every church has a mixture of believers who are following Christ, believers who struggle with sin or live defiantly in sin, people who think they are believers or are pretending to be believers, and unbelievers. All of these affect what a church body looks like from the outside in. But a genuine church that is seeking to know God and live obediently to Christ is a church that is pursuing these attributes.

I won’t spend an entire article on each attribute, that’s something you can do on your own. However, I want to point out what Grudem mentions is the one thing that can corrupt these attributes and lead to the spiritual downfall of a church: A focus on the ideas and concerns of man rather than the ideas and concerns of God. This comes (in part) when we define our Christianity and service to God first by our culture or national heritage rather than approaching the Bible for what it instructs regardless of, or transcendent of what our culture or heritage teaches us. God is transcendent of culture and above it. Sometimes He calls believers to embrace certain cultures and norms, and other times he calls us to transform culture in keeping with His attributes of holiness. Grudem wisely asserts:

“When a church begins to stray from faithfulness to Christ, this will be evident not only in the shift to impure doctrine but also in the daily life of the church: its activities, its preaching, its counseling, and even casual conversations among members will tend to become more and more man-centered and less and less God-centered…The conversation and activities of the church will have very little genuine spiritual content [prayer, scripture, forgiveness of sin, trusting Christ]. Where there are admonitions to moral reforms, these will often be viewed as human deficiencies that people can correct by their own discipline and effort, and perhaps encouragement from others, but these moral aspects of life will not primarily be viewed as sin against a Holy God, sin which can only be overcome by the power of the Holy Spirit working within” (emphasis mine).

Grudem then goes on to drop this nuclear bomb: “When such humanistic emphases become dominant in a church…it is moving in the direction of becoming a false church” (Chapter 45, page 876).

Boom.

As Christians, even as corporate church bodies, we can be mistaken in our doctrine, exhibit a few bad behaviors from time-to-time, screw up church discipline and our witness. We can get all of the attributes wrong. We are human, sinful, prone to going our own way rather than God’s. But when we keep our attention upon Christ and obedience to the scriptures, even if we get it wrong we will still be in a process of maturing to become like Him. But when our focus is on ourselves, our culture, our ideas, we will always go astray. Always.

We may take as an example the lives of kings Saul and David. If you read carefully about Saul’s life you discover that he really wasn’t that bad a guy, in fact, he was a pretty good guy. He kept his zipper shut (unlike David), he raised his kids to be loyal and trustworthy (unlike David), he didn’t use his political power to amass wealth to himself (unlike David), he wasn’t known for cruelty to his friends or enemies (unlike David), he was not given to bouts of misjudgment that resulted in injustice (unlike David). Yet God said of Saul, “You have rejected the Word of the Lord” (I Samuel 15:23), and called David a “Man after my own heart” (I Samuel 16:7, 13:14). Of course it is true that Saul had many serious faults, however, considering the violence, immorality, and chaos of David’s life, what was the difference that set him apart as a man of God instead of Saul who seemed to have so many of the right behaviors? A hint is found in Saul’s confession in I Samuel 15:24:

“I feared the people and listened to their voice.”

Saul was a people pleaser instead of having a life focused on pleasing God. For all of the good that Saul did to establish his nation (read: church), his primary attention was his service to his people to benefit his people rather than his service to God, which would have brought greater benefit.

Look carefully at the lives of Saul and David and you will see one attribute of David too often missing from Saul – repentance. David was always screwing up – big time – so his life reads like a movement from one moment of repentance to another, signifying that his focus was always on his Lord. As a result God used David to far outclass the work and reputation of Saul. He built a mature nation, but under Saul the spiritual life of Israel was withering away until even Saul himself consulted a spiritist medium to learn his fate – a fate that God had declared to him long ago.

When our focus is on obedience to Christ through the scriptures, we can rest in the understanding that though we make mistakes and sin, God can redeem each moment for His glory and purposes. Then we will know that we are growing into the attributes of maturity, whether as an individual believer, or a community of believers. When our faces are bowed in repentance, God always gives us a look from Heaven.