Unfinished Faith: Relearning God.

Week 32:

The bit where I introduce:

Following on from last week’s deeper theme, I’m going to attempt to delve into another, bear with me. This is where the theological framework for how Christians wrestle with sexuality begins. By no means will this devotion settle every contemporary question of sexual ethics, but it gives us a foundation from which to thoughtfully engage with them.

Few subjects expose the tensions within the Christian faith quite like sexuality. We can talk about love, grace and acceptance quite comfortably, until sexuality enters the conversation! It touches something deeply personal, our bodies, our identity, our relationships, our desires, our experiences in life and sometimes our wounds.

Suddenly words like holiness, sin, freedom, identity, obedience and truth become much harder to hold together. We need to approach this subject carefully, not by beginning with a list of rules, but by beginning with God. But in amongst the fiercest of debates, have we started in the wrong place? What if the question asked by Christians isn’t simply, “What does God allow?”

What if the deeper question is, “What does it mean to live and love as people created in the image of a God who is love?”

And perhaps the answers will challenge all of us, not just those whose sexuality looks different from our own.

The bit where I refer to the Bible and ask a few questions:

1 John:4-7, 16-21 (NLT)

⁷ Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. ⁸ But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

⁹ God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. ¹⁰ This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

¹¹ Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. ¹² No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.

¹⁶ We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love.

God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. ¹⁷ And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So, we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.

¹⁸ Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. ¹⁹ We love each other because he loved us first.

²⁰ If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer,that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? ²¹ And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers.

This selected passage, (there were many to choose from… took me a while) I wanted to connect God’s love with Jesus, sacrificial love, loving others and obedience.

 In the intro, I said we need to begin with God, where the current debates lands, I think is this: we need to prevent the sub text of “God is love” becoming simply “God approves whatever we call love.” I think a key idea in where to begin with is to say We don’t get to define love on our own terms; God’s character teaches us what love truly is.

God is Love, this point isn’t up for debate, but what does it mean? In 1 John 4 in researching John isn’t simply giving us a comforting statement about God’s love and kindness to hang our hearts on. He shows us what God’s love looks like:

God loved us first, sent His Son to die for us and calls us to love one another. In other words, love isn’t something we get to define however we choose, it begins with Him. God’s love in Scripture is sacrificial, faithful and active. It moves towards people with grace, but it is never detached from who God is, from truth, or from his call to live differently. If we want to understand what love looks like, then John points us back to the God who loved us first. But…

This is where the conversation/ debate becomes more challenging! If God is love, then what does God’s love mean for the way we understand our bodies, sexuality, desires and relationships? It is I think tempting to begin with rules, what is permitted and what is not, helps us frame these ideas but I think the bible can allow us to begin somewhere deeper: with God’s character.

An aspect of the debate falls with this: If God’s character shapes our understanding of love, then our sexuality cannot simply be defined by culture, feelings or personal preference. But neither should sexuality be discussed only through shame and fear.

Remember that question I posed in the beginning, “What does it mean to live and love as people created in the image of a God who is love?”

What does our sexuality look like when it is shaped by the God who is love?

I don’t think Christians should be afraid of wrestling with difficult questions. God’s love leads us to God’s character. God’s character shapes how we understand human dignity. Human dignity helps us consider God’s purposes for sexuality. If every person bears the image of God, then no person’s sexuality makes them less worthy of dignity, compassion or respect and no person’s sexuality places them beyond the call of discipleship.

These purposes invite us to examine our choices. And when we inevitably fall short, we encounter not a God who abandons us, but a God whose grace calls us back.

It’s not about pretending the Bible has nothing difficult to say, nor is it about reducing a debate about sexuality to a set of rules. It is I think an invitation to wrestle honestly with the bible, with our assumptions and perhaps even what we have been taught, all the while keeping our eyes on the God who is both Holy and Love.

We are created in God’s image, our bodies and relationships matter, our choices have meaning and none of us gets everything right. For me, faith must hold together truth, holiness, dignity and grace.

Sexuality is part of our story, but never the whole of who we are.

The bit where you get to think about stuff: Questions for the week.

 Where might God be challenging your understanding of love?

What might it look like for your understanding of sexuality, relationships and choices to be shaped by God’s character rather than simply by culture, feelings or fear?

Where do you need to receive God’s grace, or extend it to someone else, instead of carrying or communicating shame?