Comments on: Why Would God “Command” Us to Love? http://inamirrordimly.com/2009/06/03/why-would-god-command-us-to-love/ An imperfect and sometimes sarcastic perspective on following Jesus by Ed Cyzewski. Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:35:49 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Truthbringsfreedom http://inamirrordimly.com/2009/06/03/why-would-god-command-us-to-love/comment-page-1/#comment-4124 Truthbringsfreedom Sun, 26 Sep 2010 11:06:54 +0000 http://inamirrordimly.com/2009/06/03/why-would-god-command-us-to-love/#comment-4124 God's love:    "Then I heard the LORD say to the other men, "Follow him through the city and kill everyone whose forehead is not marked.  Show no mercy; have no pity!  Kill them all – old and young, girls and women and little children.  But do not touch anyone with the mark.  Begin your task right here at the Temple."  So they began by killing the seventy leaders.  "Defile the Temple!" the LORD commanded.  "Fill its courtyards with the bodies of those you kill!  Go!"  So they went throughout the city and did as they were told."  (Ezekiel 9:5-7 NLT) God’s love:    “Then I heard the LORD say to the other men, “Follow him through the city and kill everyone whose forehead is not marked.  Show no mercy; have no pity!  Kill them all – old and young, girls and women and little children.  But do not touch anyone with the mark.  Begin your task right here at the Temple.”  So they began by killing the seventy leaders.  “Defile the Temple!” the LORD commanded.  ”Fill its courtyards with the bodies of those you kill!  Go!”  So they went throughout the city and did as they were told.”  (Ezekiel 9:5-7 NLT)

]]> By: The Greatest Commandment and Christian Idolatry http://inamirrordimly.com/2009/06/03/why-would-god-command-us-to-love/comment-page-1/#comment-3059 The Greatest Commandment and Christian Idolatry Sat, 16 Jan 2010 22:37:51 +0000 http://inamirrordimly.com/2009/06/03/why-would-god-command-us-to-love/#comment-3059 [...] this week Ed Cyzewski wrote about the question: Why Would God "Command" Us to Love? The Greatest Commandment is to "love God and love others," so why this command? Ed [...] [...] this week Ed Cyzewski wrote about the question: Why Would God "Command" Us to Love? The Greatest Commandment is to "love God and love others," so why this command? Ed [...]

]]> By: ed http://inamirrordimly.com/2009/06/03/why-would-god-command-us-to-love/comment-page-1/#comment-2394 ed Wed, 03 Jun 2009 15:42:40 +0000 http://inamirrordimly.com/2009/06/03/why-would-god-command-us-to-love/#comment-2394 Yeah, syncretism hits us in ways we often don't expect, making it all the more dangerous for the church. Yeah, syncretism hits us in ways we often don’t expect, making it all the more dangerous for the church.

]]> By: Thom http://inamirrordimly.com/2009/06/03/why-would-god-command-us-to-love/comment-page-1/#comment-2393 Thom Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:23:35 +0000 http://inamirrordimly.com/2009/06/03/why-would-god-command-us-to-love/#comment-2393 I have been thinking about idolatry recently after yesterday's OT lectionary reading of Deuteronomy 12. We so often see idolatry as the antithesis of our worship of God, the worship of a false God, but yesterday as I read I noticed the syncretism warned against in the passage: [2] You must demolish completely all the places where the nations whom you are about to dispossess served their gods, on the mountain heights, on the hills, and under every leafy tree. [3] Break down their altars, smash their pillars, burn their sacred poles with fire, and hew down the idols of their gods, and thus blot out their name from their places. [4] You shall not worship the LORD your God in such ways. We are commanded because not only do we slip into idolatry and chasing after false gods, but we also can stumble into worshiping God "in such ways" as greater society, creating a syncretism of our worship with how the world worships. In today's evangelical landscape there are so many instances of this in the way we worship and celebrate God: through rock concerts, conferences, building gigantic sanctuaries, erecting church campuses, huge church staffs, etc. Most egregiously, we have concocted the shrewd and calculated idea to hire huge church staffs so that they can be our "love liaisons" for us, getting the congregation off the hook from worshiping God the way he wants to be worshiped so that we can worship him on our own terms. I have been thinking about idolatry recently after yesterday’s OT lectionary reading of Deuteronomy 12. We so often see idolatry as the antithesis of our worship of God, the worship of a false God, but yesterday as I read I noticed the syncretism warned against in the passage:
[2] You must demolish completely all the places where the nations whom you are about to dispossess served their gods, on the mountain heights, on the hills, and under every leafy tree. [3] Break down their altars, smash their pillars, burn their sacred poles with fire, and hew down the idols of their gods, and thus blot out their name from their places. [4] You shall not worship the LORD your God in such ways.

We are commanded because not only do we slip into idolatry and chasing after false gods, but we also can stumble into worshiping God “in such ways” as greater society, creating a syncretism of our worship with how the world worships. In today’s evangelical landscape there are so many instances of this in the way we worship and celebrate God: through rock concerts, conferences, building gigantic sanctuaries, erecting church campuses, huge church staffs, etc.
Most egregiously, we have concocted the shrewd and calculated idea to hire huge church staffs so that they can be our “love liaisons” for us, getting the congregation off the hook from worshiping God the way he wants to be worshiped so that we can worship him on our own terms.

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