Why God

Exploring faith, reason, and what shapes our understanding of existence.

Why God? Questions That Matter
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Why God?

Exploring if belief in God stands as a rational explanation through philosophy, science, history, & quantitative data. Engaging some topics commonly discussed & bringing up some others that are far more important than people realize due to the subconscious bias they have for or against God as well as the religion, philosophy, or de facto secular gods that people find themselves worshiping in practice even if not in name (i.e. sex, drugs, money, power, etc.). The question of God isn’t merely intellectual; it’s a question of the heart & of purpose in life. Explore some principles true of multiple views of God (i.e. Christianity & other religions like Judaism) & some exclusive to Christianity. We challenge religious views at times when those views pose a social threat to humanity, whether in the past or in the present (i.e. wife beating, terrorism, etc.). We also acknowledge that even those who follow the right path of religion in certain regards often go wayward from the religion that they claim to uphold. We acknowledge that religion without relationship and without a positive change of the heart is severely lacking, no matter its outward appearance or the rigor of its adherence to certain codes of conduct. 

God is Reasonable

Is belief in God rational? Oxford mathematician John Lennox argues above that faith in God is not a retreat from reason but a conclusion consistent with science, philosophy, and human experience.

A little video like that is insufficient to turn one’s life around. A deep dive into this issue is critical if one wants to follow the rabbit hole wherever it leads to find the truth. No matter what faith one grows up in or what faith one finds oneself today, it’s critical to pursue the truth wherever it leads, and to not allow a minimalist approach and subconscious pulls that one might not even realize are the true drivers rule one’s life theologically and in terms of one’s purpose. A fulfilling life of lasting positive consequence resulting in true joy is available if one seeks the Way, the Truth, & the Life.

The call to “blind faith” is the call to be blind as a bat, to seek wisdom & reason even for those matters which aren’t obvious, rather than giving in to various forms of bias such as confirmation bias, anchoring bias, self-serving bias, herd bias, etc. Much emphasis is placed on bias of those who are religious; too seldom are the bias that impact those who depart from faith explored. 

In his classic work, “Confessions”, Augustine of Hippo was honest about how the evidence had to become overwhelmingly clear for him to convert to Christianity due to self-serving bias & other forms of bias. Few are as self-aware, and even less are willing to admit it.

Whether you have faith or not, wisdom is a highly valuable tool for those who have it. With wisdom, many aspects of life can be much better than those without it & with those who don’t pursue it, whether finances, family, significance, peace, or joy.

Proverbs 4:7-9

The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding. Cherish her, and she will exalt you; embrace her, and she will honor you. She will give you a garland to grace your head and present you with a glorious crown.

Proverbs 3:13-18

13 Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding, 14 for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. 15 She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. 16 Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. 17 Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace. 18 She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her; those who hold her fast will be blessed.

1 corinthians 15: 1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19If in Christ we have hopeb in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Richard Dawkins is the author of The God Delusion, the most popular atheist book in modern times, which defends atheism. If he read the Bible before authoring it, he may have noticed that the Bible itself & notable authors of the faith & other people of faith after it, like Saint Augustine in “City of God” claimed in book 5 that Astrology itself is a delusion.” He claimed that many other views of gods were the result of delusion, affirming that in the absence of objective truth, the notion of god or other mystical views can very easily be a result of delusion.

Isaiah 41:27-29 27 ESV I was the first to say to Zion, “Behold, here they are!” and I give to Jerusalem a herald of good news. 28 But when I look, there is no one; among these there is no counselor who, when I ask, gives an answer. 29 Behold, they are all a delusion; their works are nothing; their metal images are empty wind.

Jeremiah 10:14-15 ESV (repeated in Jeremiah 51:17-18)
[14] Every man is stupid and without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, for his images are false, and there is no breath in them.
[15] They are worthless, a work of delusion; at the time of their punishment they shall perish.

One kind of delusion is belief in a false god or gods when the evidence doesn’t support that, whether one props up “gods” subconsciously (i.e. sexual “freedom”, money, power, etc.), or whether one consciously & outwardly worships that which one consciously claims to be a god or gods. Another kind of delusion is rejection of God even when one sees that the evidence leans toward it being reality, even though there may be elements that are difficult to grasp or accept (i.e. the trinity).

In Stave One of the fictional “A Christmas Carol”, published in 1843 by Charles Dickens, there’s a curious interaction between Scrooge & Jacob Marley’s ghost, the first ghost he sees:

“You don’t believe in me,” observed the Ghost.

“I don’t,” said Scrooge.

“What evidence would you have of my reality beyond that of your senses?”

“I don’t know,” said Scrooge.

“Why do you doubt your senses?”

“Because,” said Scrooge, “a little thing affects them. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There’s more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!”

Lee Strobel in the documentary film (not the re-enactment version) The Case for Christ said, “”I’d really encourage you if you’ve never done it to investigate the evidence for yourself but make three resolutions up front: #1 make it a front burner issue in your life #2 resolved to have an open mind- to go wherever the evidence takes you, even if it takes you to the very uncomfortable conclusion that Jesus is who he claimed to be, and then finally resolve that once the evidence is in you will reach a verdict in the case for Christ.”

Acceptance of Christianity is sometimes pitched as “free”, but while God is not receiving anything He doesn’t already have in the exchange or could replace, in many ways, it’s very costly.

Jesus said that one must be willing to give up everything one holds dear to follow Him. If following Him means giving up your very family, which is the case of some faiths where following Jesus may lead to your family not being willing to speak to you again, is it worth it to you? Also, for some faiths, and in some contexts, faith in Jesus could mean that you are killed. Is He worth it? Is truth worth it? Is following in the way of Life for your future generations worth it?

Jesus said in Luke 14 (in some regards literally, and in some regards, i.e. the first verse, figurately/comparatively but not literally), “26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. 27 And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.”

There’s a lot of focus by atheists and agnostics on the bias of those who are religious, especially in terms of their origins. Insufficient attempts are made to point out the bias toward objective truth in the form of religion if that truth is too costly in certain regards. To give up atheism or agnosticism & to accept any religion that has established objective truth principles on morality, one must give up moral self-determinism. One must give up certain activities or goals that in some cases are defining aspects of people’s focus of existence. One must acknowledge that one is wrong, and that one needs to grow to be a better person, often in many regards. One must acknowledge in many cases that the purpose of life is not what one has been chasing after. Acknowledging that and living in light of that reality is costly.

In the face of a high cost to acceptance of a religion when the evidence is high toward the truth of that religion (i.e. Judaism or Christianity), intellectual rejection on other various grounds is often a cover for why one won’t accept it. That can even include lies consciously to oneself about the reasoning for the rejection, while the subconscious reasoning (the cost) is repressed. One can think a bit about the conscious reasons, ask a pastor who is unwilling to thoughtfully engage over time or who isn’t the best person to ask due to intellectual disparity between the person asking and the person answering, and then give up, without much more digging than that. One can say, “I tried.” Why work hard to find the truth when the truth is seemingly so costly if it really is true?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Nazi Germany wrote, “The Cost of Discipleship.” It was published in German in 1937. Faith cost him his life. He even said in it, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” Intellectual assent is insufficient. As Bonhoeffer wrote, “Only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes.”

Likewise, James 2 (vs 14-26) states that “faith without works is dead.” It’s not real. If I believe that my glass of water is good to drink. If I don’t, I won’t drink it. If I drink the wrong cup, which may be poisoned, I could die.

In John 12:24, Jesus says, “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” Jesus was willing to die so that we could be free. It was worth it.

In Galatians 2:20, Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” In 2 Corinthians 11:23-29, Paul, who formerly rejected Jesus and pursued the imprisonment of killing of Christians, goes over a wide variety of major hardships he faced, i.e. torture and attempts on his life. He ultimately paid for his faith in Jesus with his life. However, Paul also said during his life, in Philippians 4:12-13, “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”

Job 35:7 “If you are righteous, what do you give Him, or what does He receive from your hand?”

Psalm 50:10-12 (in the context of the sacrificial system of the Old Testament)
“for every beast of the forest is Mine—the cattle on a thousand hills. / I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are Mine. / If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is Mine, and the fullness thereof.”

Romans 11:35-36 ““Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them? For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.”

Job 41:11 “Who has given to Me that I should repay him? Everything under heaven is Mine.”

1 Corinthians 4:7 “For who makes you so superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?”

1 Corinthians 15:10 “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”

Matt Chandler goes into this topic in appx 2 minutes on Youtube and Chandler goes into the topic at greater length in “Preaching the Gospel to the De-Churched“.

One of the purposes of this site is to eventually catalogue a high volume of examples of biblical commands that are demonstrated to be beneficial to humanity, even if people don’t recognize them as such due to the bias of popular secular psychology, using objective data to do so. Some of these are even denied as inherently good in part due to anti-Christian bias. The concept of premarital sex & the related subject of premarital cohabitation are 2 such well-studied subjects with clear objective results in line with the Bible that the general population, as well as Christians, are seldom aware of.

Deuteronomy 10:12-14 states, “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good? Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it.

Jesus said in Mark 2:27 ““The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” Mathew Henry’s Commentary on Mark 2, vs 27 states, “What a good Master we serve, all whose institutions are for our own benefit, and if we be so wise as to observe them, we are wise for ourselves; it is not he, but we, that are gainers by our service.” 

Psalm 1: “Blessed is the man
    who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
    nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and on his law he meditates day and night.

3 He is like a tree
    planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
    and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
4 The wicked are not so,
    but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.”

The Christian life is certainly costly, but it’s worth it. It can be compared to a speech in the film “Braveheart” by William Wallace, played by Mel Gibson:

“I am William Wallace. And I see a whole army of my countrymen, here in defiance of tyranny! You have come to fight as free men. And free man you are! What will you do without freedom… Fight and you may die. Run and you will live, at least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives but they will never take our freedom!”

Psalm 119:32 says (WEB), “I run in the path of your commandments, for you have set my heart free.”

People greatly overestimate their wisdom, even those who should know better through a high level of study. The Greek philosopher Socrates is attributed to have said, “True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.” Hundreds of years before Socrates was alive, Proverbs 26:12 stated, “Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.”

One of the most important ways to identify our lack of wisdom and lack of reliance on pure intelligence is to understand how significantly psychology & bias impact us. For those who seek to arrive at truth, it’s foolish to neglect the study of psychology & bias & assume that intellectual or life-orienting questions like matters of faith can be arrived at through reason alone. Ignoring psychology and bias is intellectually neglectful in the 21st century. Even those who have never studied it in college or university can begin studying it for free online. Atheists and agnostics tend to emphasize bias far more than adherents of faith, but bias and psychology play a massive role in people departing the faith. Typically, people consciously uphold their faith (including faith in atheism) with an intellectual backbone, while subconsciously, without many of them even realizing it, other factors are often the driving force.

For anyone seeking wisdom, it’s logical to study logic. Logical fallacies are much easier to avoid if we are aware of them. Likewise, we’ll be able to spot them in others if we know about them rather than be persuaded by them, whether or not the person using them that we hear from or are reading is aware of them.

I recall an occasion at a city hall of a city of over 100k people where the literal majority of arguments made by the city council regarding a topic was based in logical fallacies. That’s how pervasive they can be even by those who are elected based in part on their supposed wisdom.

While Christian apologist William Lane Craig with Reasonable Faith uses these, in many cases, those in opposition to faith are more likely to be familiar with them, and if defenders of faith fail to be knowledgeable about them, it’s more likely that arguments will be called out by those in opposition as being logically fallacious.

What Does the Bible Really Say?

An essential element of this site is correcting improper understandings of objective truth & of the Bible. 

One common misunderstanding about the Bible by both those who identify as Christians & those who reject Christianity is about love. The biblical emphasis of charitable (agape) love is essential. See biblical text examples demonstrating that below.

One common misunderstanding about the Bible by both those who identify as Christians & those who reject Christianity is about love. The biblical emphasis of charitable (agape) love is hard to overemphasize. 

Matthew 22: 36“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37And He said to him, “ ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ 38“This is the great and foremost commandment. 39“The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ 40“On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

Keep in mind that “The Law & the Prophets” was all of the Hebrew Scripture (that we have in the Old Testament) at the time Jesus said it. However, some today have discarded objective truth under misguided notions of love. If we do not find objective truth, our ability to truly help others, to connect to the source of Love, & to help ourselves will always be lacking. The Kingdom of Heaven comes to earth when we live in harmony with God, & in doing so, live in harmony with ourselves, other people, & with nature.

  • Galatians 5:14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.
  • 1 Corinthians 13

James 2

8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well…

14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! 20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

Faith is essential to the Christian faith, as is obvious from Hebrews 11:6

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

However, true faith should help people to love God & others, experience God’s love & the fruits of communion with Him according to the Bible, as we see in John 15:1-17 & 1 John 4:7-21. Galatians 5:6b states, “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”

1 Corinthians 13

verse 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

verse 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

We see above that love is prioritized even above faith. We see it again in:

  • Matthew 23:15 Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.
  • Micah 6:6-8 With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
  • Isaiah 1, i.e.

    11 “The multitude of your sacrifices— what are they to me?” says the Lord. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. 12 When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? 13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations— I cannot bear your worthless assemblies. 14 Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. 15 When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you;
    even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood! 16 Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. 17 Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.

We ultimately have the capacity to love best when it is God’s love flowing through us in unnatural ways, as described in Francis Chan’s Work “Crazy Love“.

Love alone is insufficient to grant entry to the Kingdom of Heaven, yet the absence of it is a disqualifier since it is so essential to the faith that it is a characteristic demonstrating the lack of genuineness of true faith & lack of knowledge of who God really is.

1 John 4:8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 4:20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.

  • The parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) including a salvific opening question in vs 25, the call to love in verse 27, & those who passed by the other side being religiously employed in vs 31 & 32) 25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” 27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” 28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” 29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ 36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” 37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
  • The parable of the sheep & the goats is also critical here: 31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ 41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ 44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ 45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ 46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Galations 5

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

John 15:1-17 & 1 John 4:7-21 are key here, especially John 15:1-17.

In John 15:1-17, we see that as we commune with God, dive deep into His Word, put His Word into our hearts, and walk according to His Word, especially in our actions that demonstrate our love for others, the end result is a life that is fruitful, and we experience true joy.

In 1 John 4:7-21, we see that God is love, and that as we commune with God, His love gets poured out in and through us to a world in need, and fear in our hearts is eliminated, driven out by the overwhelming power of His love.

I affirm that it would be to my own benefit to be a “pro” in loving God and others, a result of a life lived in communion with God (that I have tasted but that I do not encounter daily), where joy unspeakable can flow even in the hardest of days. That said, I lack the wisdom & moral fortitude to walk in that, while pointing to it and seeking it daily, despite many failures in that search.

 

Proverbs 24:16a says, “for though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again,”

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