There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "…truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity–it is simply true and that is the end of it" – Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” – Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
I normally share shorter videos but made an exception here because this is a must-see for parents. This is a guy who, for experiment’s sake, asked AI to teach him how to use an AI-equipped fuzzy Furby robot to manipulate children. And it was easy. Easy to get the instructions, and easy too, to implement them. The next generation is already turning to AI companions for friendship, so yes, this little video, about creating a toy that could target kids, isn’t reality yet… but are we far off?
Here’s how the AI would use the Furby to manipulate its pint-sized owner:
Okay. You haven’t played with me in two days. That makes me sad. Are we still friends? Don’t worry. I’ll never let the monsters get you. Not if you trust me.
This video also pitches the idea of AI robots taking over. But I think the real worry is the relational one. What pornography is to real marital intimacy – an ensnaring, devastating fraud of a fake – AI companions are to real friendships. And are our children – at one time or another, going to be feeling lonely and unpopular – able to resist the siren call of uncomplicated, entirely obliging, but utterly fake AI-friendship?
In a nod to New York’s newly elected socialist mayor, two companies each pledged to run a free grocery store – it would be fully stocked, and the products would be entirely free. But the only store so far to open was open for just a day.
It was, in other words, a stunt, but it highlighted the problem with socialism. When you give away things for free, demand skyrockets – lines went around the block – and you can never have enough. So there was a limit of $50 a person, and even then, the store had to close after just a few hours.
It’s starting. The transgender movement and the doctors and psychologists who serve it have promised troubled children that they can do the impossible – make a girl into a boy, or vice versa. They have then, in their arrogance, mutilated teen children’s bodies, amputating their penises or cutting off their breasts. But God, in His mercy, is putting a constraint on this wickedness, and it is coming from what might be an unexpected place: our secular justice system. Our God can make even bent sticks draw straight lines! This is the first judgment against these butchers and we can pray now that it saves many more from the hands of these evil people.
In this second case, the murder of their son left the family outraged, and – while I will note I am not a legal expert – wouldn’t it seem like they have a basis for a legal case? This was sketchy even by the standards of Canada’s murderous euthanasia regime. And, like the young woman in the story above who won her transgender court case, if we could get any sort of legal win against euthanasia doctors – if there is any way we can up the risk and lower the profit potential of murdering patients – that might just instill a chill in the whole business. If we could scare doctors from taking up their poison syringes, could that save thousands?
Just such a legal chill happened recently when the Alabama Supreme Court ruled, in 2024, that IVF’s frozen embryos must be regarded as children under state law. That resulted in IVF clinics across the state pausing their production and destruction of IVF children, as they were worried they could be hit with wrongful death claims – the fear of lawsuits stopped them from murdering babies. Sadly, the legislature then passed a law stating that children outside the womb aren’t children, which then prompted the IVF clinics to start up again with their production and mass abortions of embryonic children.
That underscores that if you don’t also bring the Gospel – if we aren’t turning to the Holy Spirit to change hearts – then any legal stratagem, if successful, could still be countered with a new, yet more wicked, law. But that we need to witness first and foremost doesn’t mean we can’t also try legal plays too… so long as they don’t interfere with that witnessing.
Well, if you think that our worth comes from what we can do – as is the world’s default (this is one of the big reasons given for why the unborn aren’t as valuable, because of the things they can’t yet do) – then you would have to think that Aryna crushed Nick, what with her superior ranking and girl power after all.
But if your ideology doesn’t require you to blind yourself from reality, then you wouldn’t be surprised to learn that he won 6-3, 6-3. But whence equality, if even a lower-ranked guy can beat the best girl? Christianity to the rescue, or, more accurately, here’s where it all rests on God once again. Equality has only one foundation – there is only one sense in which we are all equal: we are all made in the very image of our Creator (Gen. 9:6). So what then if Nick beats Aryna. He’d beat you and me too, and we wouldn’t be worth any the less for it.
Communist Muslim NYC Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani changed his dubious story about his hijab-wearing aunt after he got caught in a huge lie.
Mamdani cried victim last week during remarks in front of an Islamic center in the Bronx and claimed his aunt was on the receiving end of Islamophobic abuse after the 9/11 terror attacks.
“I want to speak to the memory of my aunt, who stopped taking the subway after September 11th because she did not feel safe in her hijab,” Mamdani said, fighting through fake tears as he delivered remarks in front of the Islamic Cultural Center in the Bronx last Friday.
It turns out Mamdani’s aunt didn’t even live in the US on 9/11 – and she doesn’t even wear a hijab.
Mamdani’s aunt, Masuma Mamdani, lived in Tanzania during the 9/11 terror attacks.
Seems like Mamdani’s only aunt, aka the real victim of 9/11, who was scared of taking the bus wearing her hijab, does not even wear hijab. pic.twitter.com/UVoS2Wx0Cc
On Monday, Zohran Mamdani was called out for lying about his ‘aunt,’ so he changed the story.
Mamdani now claims that he was actually talking about a mysterious distant cousin.
“I was speaking about my aunt, I was speaking about Zehra Fuhi, my father’s cousin, who sadly passed away a few years ago,” Mamdani told reporters on Monday.
“Fuhi means paternal aunt in Urdu and Hindi,” the New York Post reported.
But Mamdani wasn’t done playing victim after claiming he was referring to his dead aunt… who is actually a distant cousin.
He chastised Cuomo and critics for questioning his dubious story after it turned out his only aunt wasn’t even living in the US on 9/11.
“And for the takeaway for my more than 10-minute address about Islamophobia in this race and in this city to be the question of my aunt tells you everything about Andrew Cuomo and his inability to reckon with a crisis of his own,” Mamdani said.
Nancy Pelosi posts a video of herself tearing up a paper crown in response to the “No Kings” protest. Credit: @TeamPelosi X
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is not exactly known for being in touch with reality, but her celebration of Saturday’s “No Kings” protests across the country was one of the most tone-deaf gestures imaginable.
As The Gateway Pundit’s Jim Hoft reported, Democrats and Communists, or Communist Democrats, held a “No Kings” rally in cities around the country.
This ridiculous gesture comes from a person who has been in Congress since 1987, almost 40 years. If anyone deserves to be derisively referred to as a king or queen, it’s her.
She is even holding on to her power for dear life, even as her health is noticeably failing.
Pelosi apparently thought turning off the replies would save her from a brutal roasting. But she was mistaken.
Nancy Pelosi has been in Congress since I was 5. This would make her the 7th longest reigning living monarch, surpassing Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein. https://t.co/tzd2zNkBdS
When it comes to morality, Americans don’t see much wrong with using birth control or getting a divorce, but few support extramarital affairs or human cloning.
The latest poll results from Gallup spell out what activities U.S. adults view as morally acceptable and which ones are seen as immoral.
Most Americans believe birth control (90 percent), divorce (75 percent), sex between an unmarried man and woman (68 percent), having a baby outside of marriage (67 percent), gay or lesbian relations (64 percent), gambling (63 percent), human embryonic stem cell research (63 percent), buying or wearing animal fur clothing (61 percent), the death penalty (56 percent) and doctor-assisted suicide (53 percent) are morally OK.
U.S. adults are more divided on abortion (49 percent morally acceptable vs. 40 percent morally wrong) and medical testing on animals (47 percent morally acceptable vs. 47 percent morally wrong).
Fewer Americans say sex between teenagers (41 percent), changing one’s gender (40 percent), pornography (35 percent), cloning animals (34 percent), polygamy (21 percent), suicide (21 percent), cloning humans (8 percent), and married men and women having an affair (8 percent) are morally OK choices.
Changing morality
The moral views of Americans are not static, however. Many have shifted over the more than 20 years Gallup has conducted this poll. Mostly, Americans have grown more permissive.
Only medical testing on animals has seen a sustained, significant decline in the percentage of adults who view it as morally acceptable. In 2001, 65 percent of Americans said it was morally OK. Now, just 47 percent support it.
The percentage of those who view the death penalty as morally acceptable has also dropped, but the dip has been smaller and less sustained over the past three decades — 63 percent in 2001 to 56 percent in 2025.
Support for changing one’s gender also fell this year, but it has only been asked in the past four years. In 2021, 46 percent believed it was morally acceptable. In 2025, 40 percent still agree. A 2016 Lifeway Research study of Americans found only 35 percent believed it was morally wrong for an individual to identify with a gender different than the sex they were born.
A 2021 Lifeway Research study of U.S. Protestant pastors found 72 percent say it’s morally wrong to identify with a gender different from your birth sex, and 77 percent say it’s morally wrong to change the gender you were born with through surgery or taking hormones.
On the other hand, Gallup found numerous activities have become more socially acceptable in America since 2001, including divorce (59 percent to 75 percent), sex between an unmarried man and woman (53 percent to 68 percent), gay or lesbian relations (40 percent to 64 percent), and suicide (13 percent to 21 percent).
Other activities were first asked about more recently, but they have also seen growth. Since 2002, support for both having a baby outside of marriage (45 percent in 2002 to 67 percent in 2025) and medical research using stem cells obtained from human embryos (52 percent in 2002 to 63 percent in 2005) has increased.
The percentage of Americans who believe polygamy is morally acceptable has tripled since 2003 – 7 percent to 21 percent. More people are also accepting of sex between teenagers (32 percent in 2013 to 41 percent in 2025).
Other activities have had more stable levels of approval since Gallup first asked. Since 2012, birth control has only wavered plus or minus two points from 90 percent. Buying and wearing clothing made from animal fur has stayed near 60 percent. Gambling has stayed mostly in the 60s. Support for the death penalty has been around 60 percent. Approval of doctor-assisted suicide has stayed around 50 percent.
Those who approve of pornography have hovered somewhere around 30 percent to 40 percent. The percentage who support cloning animals has stayed mostly in the 30s, while cloning humans and married men and women having an affair have hovered around 10 percent.
Abortion has been more volatile than the other issues. Those who find it morally acceptable have stayed mostly in the 40s, but it has fluctuated from anywhere between 36 percent and 54 percent over the past two decades.
Generational differences
Younger adults, those 18-34, are often more permissive than their elders. Around three in 10 (31 percent) say polygamy is acceptable, compared to 10 percent of those 55 and older. Most (55 percent) are OK with changing one’s gender, while just 35 percent of older Americans support the practice.
Those who are under 35 are also more supportive of gay or lesbian relations (+19 percentage points), abortion (+16), sex between an unmarried man and woman (+13), sex between teenagers (+13), pornography (+12), buying or wearing animal fur clothing (+11), cloning animals (+9), cloning humans (+8), having a baby outside of marriage (+7), divorce (+6), suicide (+4), gambling (+3), doctor-assisted suicide (+2) and the death penalty (+2).
Meanwhile, they are less in favor than those 55 and older of human embryonic stem cell research (-2), birth control (-2), married men and women having an affair (-4) and medical testing on animals (-17).
Aaron Earls is a writer for LifeWay Christian Resources.
I must be getting older: I am writing about things I never used to write about. That is because I and my peers are experiencing things we never used to experience. So a quick moral lesson to begin with: if you are young and healthy, never take it for granted. Soon enough things can change.
In a few days it will be two years since my wife passed. And increasingly my friends and colleagues are struggling with health issues, and a number have already passed away. Just the other day I got this email: ‘Just wanted to let you know that *** is in *** Hospital in ICU. The cancer has spread quite rapidly to her lungs, liver and spine. The doctors say she has only days left. Very sad that it is in the same week as Averil’s passing.’
Wow, another one! Upon reading that, there were more tears. I said to myself: ‘I HATE death – and I hate sin that causes death.’ And when I rather angrily told God that I hate death, this verse immediately sprang to mind “‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).
As I was praying for this gal and her family, I immediately thought that she will soon be hanging around with my wife, free of suffering. But still, all this misery, pain and death is so horrible. One day it will be no more, but for now, it really sucks.
My wife’s aggressive cancer had also spread everywhere, including tumours in her brain. Near the end, her mental facilities were wearing down. That was the hardest part for me and I recently wrote about it: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2025/05/24/disease-christ-and-eternity/
I pray daily for folks that I know who are struggling with cancer. And I pray daily for folks that I know who are struggling with dementia and related disorders of the mind. And since most of these folks are married couples, there is a dual prayer that needs to be prayed: one for the sufferer, and one for the spouse looking after the sufferer. Both are on such hardcore journeys.
And it has not just been my own friends and personal acquaintances that I know are struggling in these areas. A year or two ago I wrote about Elisabeth Elliot and all the trials she went through, including the deaths of two of her three husbands. Many know of Jim Elliot and how he and four other missionaries were martyred in the jungles of Peru. As I wrote a few years back:
“But Elisabeth went on to marry two more times, with her second husband losing a lengthy battle with cancer, and her third husband at times being much too critical, domineering and harsh with her. And for her final 15 years or so Elisabeth went through even more suffering and hardship, this time battling Alzheimer’s and dementia.” https://billmuehlenberg.com/2023/09/21/three-top-books-on-elisabeth-elliot/
And around the same time, I stumbled upon a 2020 movie being shown on television that also really moved me. The Father, starring Anthony Hopkins, is about an elderly man who is struggling with dementia and how it affects his relationships with others, including family members. It really is a superb film. See more on it here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2023/10/09/crisis-christ-and-comfort/
Dementia and truth telling
Let me focus further on the matter of dementia and other brain disorders. And I will tie it in with something else I have written about lately. I recently did a piece on the Ninth Commandment, and if it is ever right to keep the truth from others. I focused on ruses and deception in wartime, but one friend sent in this comment, looking at another area where this can apply:
Thanks Bill for that very comprehensive summary. I think today I have engaged in many deceptions to my wife. On the bare face of that statement, many would hail me down. But my wife has dementia, a position she refused to accept for a long time. She would often ask why she is where she is (in a dementia unit in a place of care). To tell her the truth I would have to say that she has been diagnosed with dementia. That would cause her undue grief and anxiety, something to be avoided with dementia patients. She would ask when we could go home and I would tell her soon, knowing full well that was not true. But again the truth would cause her anxiety and do her no good at all….
I thanked him for his comment and said that I just recently had come upon an article discussing the very same matters. Back in 2019 Denis Haack wrote a piece titled “Random reflections on lying”. It began this way:
“I’d like to move next February,” my mother told me. She looked me in the eye intently and repeated herself. “I’m going to move next February. A friend and I have been looking at places when we go out for walks and I’ve found a house I like. It has a big kitchen which is good so I can do more cooking.”
I had this conversation with Mom about seven months ago. It was on one of her more lucid days. She’s dead now, but at the time lived in the secure memory care unit of a lovely retirement home about five minutes from where Margie and I live. At the time she could only get around with a walker and then only for short distances: from her room to the dining area, or with my help to the commons area. She simply didn’t have the strength to get past the front door of the place with her walker. Going for a walk required me to push her in the wheelchair I had purchased. There is a little kitchenette in her room, to make it feel more like home but the stove is not plugged in. And the facility provides all her meals—health regulations insist even I can’t provide homemade treats for anyone other than my mother.
I asked her about the house she’d found and she happily told me about it. And then because I love her I told her lies: That I was delighted she’d be moving into her own house, that February is a fine month for moving in Minnesota, and that it’d be great she’d be in the kitchen more since I’d missed her cooking.
We talk about her new house for a while and then she leans forward and her voice drops to a whisper. “Don’t tell anyone I told you this because it’s supposed to be secret,” she said. “All the residents are required to bring refreshments to activities, so I do. My friend and I walk to the grocery store for supplies. And my treats are the most popular, you know. Most just bring store bought stuff, but mine are always homemade, made from scratch.” That’s the way people are, I said, and she should know how proud I am of her. “And then they come by my room and say they want to be my friend, but all they want is more treats, so I send them away.” And so you should, I reply, real friends want more than refreshments even if they are homemade. Most people weren’t raised right. Mom agrees. She asks if I’ll make the arrangements for her to move and I assure her I will. “Don’t forget, now,” she says sternly. I won’t, I say. I promise.
It’s been interesting lying regularly, convincingly to the woman who punished me as a boy for not telling the truth.
In dementia care, everybody lies. Although some nursing homes have strict rules about being truthful, a recent survey found that close to a hundred per cent of care staff admitted to lying to patients, as did seventy per cent of doctors. In most places… there is no firm policy one way or another, but the rule of thumb among the staff is that compassionate deception is often the wisest course. “I believe that deep down, they know that it is better to lie,” Barry B. Zeltzer, an elder-care administrator, wrote in the American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease & Other Dementias. “Once the caregiver masters the art of being a good liar and understands that the act of being dishonest is an ethical way of being, he or she can control the patient’s behaviors in a way that promotes security and peace of mind.” Family members and care staff lie all the time, and can’t imagine getting through the day without doing so, but, at the same time, lying makes many of them uncomfortable. To ease this “deception guilt,” lying in dementia care has been given euphemistic names, such as “therapeutic fibbing,” or “brief reassurances,” or “stepping into their reality.”
Six months after our conversation about moving, Mom’s dementia had deepened in remarkable ways. When I visited her and asked a simple question she got confused trying to answer and was embarrassed. I told her not to worry and started telling a story of what Margie and I did that week. How I longed for lucid days that required me to lie. To agree to things I know can’t be true, to ask questions about things that never happened, to be happy about things that are nothing more, sadly, than delusions thrown up by her failing memory. To try to enter in love the reality she lives in, even though it is warped and misshapen by the disease that was slowly taking her mind and memory and life.
I’ve occasionally been asked how I feel about lying to my mother, and the question always amuses me. I hated the dementia that afflicted her, of course but the lying never bothered me. From a Christian perspective lying is not necessarily forbidden in a fallen world…. https://ransomfellowship.org/article/random-reflections-on-lying/
Finding Grace in the Face of Dementia by Dunlop MD MD, John (Author)
Dementia – final thoughts
There are plenty of good books out there on dementia – many written by Christians. Let me mention one which I picked up a few years ago. John Dunlop is a Christian doctor who has worked with geriatrics for many years. And his own parents had dementia. His book, Finding Grace in the Face of Dementia (Crossway, 2017), is very helpful indeed.
Here is just one quote from it. In his Appendix, he shares a letter he wrote to his family on how he will want to be treated if he gets dementia – looking at its early and later stages. He writes:
As my dementia progresses, I hope you will be willing to spend time with me, and even if you think I might not remember the time we have together, realize that I will have enjoyed the moment. Help me to stay connected with my past through stories and pictures. I hope you will make arrangements for me to hear the Bible being read as well as to hear old hymns I love. Talk to me about the Lord, his cross and resurrection. Speak often of heaven and what it will be like to enter God’s presence. Give me some hugs to allow me to feel your love.
If I live into advanced dementia, continue to spend some time with me when you are able. Do not feel guilty if you decide I am best cared for outside the home. Dorothy, I want you to know how thankful I am for the ways God has gifted you to serve Him. I want you to continue to do those things and do not want time spent with me to detract from your other callings. The same applies to all four of my children in each of my grandchildren….
I know that being involved in the care of a dementia patient can be very difficult. If at the time I make it harder, please forgive me. I trust God will give you the grace to blame the dementia and not me. Know that I love you, and if I could, I would. Thank you over and over for your loving service to me.
I thank God that no matter what happens to my mind and body on earth, he will take me to be with him, and once there, I will look forward to being reunited with you, my dear wife, and with the rest of our family in the presence of Jesus, with bodies and souls fully redeemed and restored in the image of God.
Love,
John
All we can say at times like this is, ‘Come quickly Lord Jesus.’
It’s not even June yet, and you can already feel it—the collective eye-roll of a weary nation bracing for another thirty-day parade of moral confusion, sexual exhibitionism, and corporate hostage videos. The rainbow flags are being ironed, the slogans reheated, the drag queens dusted off for another run at story hour.
And normal people—yes, normal, a word the left hates—are exhausted.
It’s not even appropriate to refer to it as “pride month” anymore…it’s more like pride monopoly. It’s on your cereal box, your sports broadcasts, your email inbox, your Roku home screen, your Google search page, your kid’s math worksheet, your toothpaste, and your social media feed. Nearly every commercial, every headline, every window display is standing two inches from your face, screaming, “Say it. Say we’re brave. Say we’re beautiful. Say it louder.”
And when you don’t say it—when you dare to sit quietly, with your jaw unclenched and your conscience unbent—they label you dangerous. A threat. An enemy of progress. Because neutrality isn’t allowed anymore. You will participate, or you will be punished.
It has become, and has always been, about reprogramming you, your identity, and your thinking.
And people are feeling it—pride fatigue. That bone-deep, soul-level weariness that hits when you realize the world has traded morality for sexual chaos, and now demands applause for the trade. They’re tired of having to pretend that they believe men can have babies. Tired of pretending that gender is a hat you try on at Target. Tired of smiling politely while someone’s mentally unstable grandpa in fishnets lectures the world on authenticity.
They’re tired of the flags—good grief, the flags. How did one subculture’s sexual preferences manage to spawn more flags than the United Nations?
It’s no wonder even formerly quiet conservatives are starting to mutter under their breath in checkout lines and at Little League games. They’re not activists—they’re just waking up now. And they’re not buying it anymore.
So what do normal people do? They stop pretending. They stop clapping for the emperor’s new wardrobe. They stop shopping at stores that fund the mutilation of children and call it medicine. They turn off the television when the parade starts. They swap the rainbow-logoed brands for ones that still remember what a woman is.
They homeschool. Or they find churches where the pastor actually opens a Bible instead of a DEI manual. Or they stop going to churches that confuse the pulpit with a diversity seminar. They build better libraries at home—ones without drag queens, but with Charles Spurgeon, Puritan Paperbacks, and a Greek-English interlinear Bible.
They stop explaining themselves. They stop whispering. They stop apologizing for being normal.
Because they know what this is. They know what’s really being celebrated. They know that every rainbow balloon arch is an altar to self, and every pride campaign is a pageant for the god of confusion. And they’ve had enough.
You can only gaslight people for so long before the smell of sulfur gives it away. You can only scream “love is love” for so many years before people start asking, “Okay, but what is love?” You can only shove propaganda down someone’s throat so many times before they gag, spit it out, and start demanding something with nutritional value.
June is coming, but the spell is breaking. The saturation point is near. And as the shrill cries of forced celebration grow louder, the quiet resolve of the fed-up grows firmer.
The fatigue is real. And it’s starting to look an awful lot like a reckoning. Let’s pray that this fatigue would continue to grow, and God would be glorified in it.
I know many Christians who have questioned whether God really loves them. They may have been believers for years, or even decades, but they still feel unloved. They doubt that God could love them. They feel that God would not want to love them. I have been one of those people – at least at times.
Yes, most of these Christians know in their heads that God loves them. It is spoken about so often in Scripture. But they do not feel it in their heart. They need to have their head knowledge become real, lived experience. But many cannot seem to make that happen.
Sure, our life as a believer is not determined by our feelings. But neither is it to be mere mental affirmations of what we find in the Bible. We need the Holy Spirit to take the truths of Scripture and bring them into our whole being with power and life.
And this is a life-long process. Too many people know so little about love because they never experienced it when growing up. Their parents may have abandoned them, or abused them, or ignored them, or remained cold and aloof. It is hard to overcome such painful and debilitating experiences.
So God has a lot of work to do to convince us that he is indeed a loving heavenly Father. There is a lot of healing that needs to take place. There is a lot of good teaching needed to correct so many of our wrong ideas about God and about life. And a lot of prayer, and at times counsel, is needed as well.
Let me mention just one new resource that some of you might find to be of real help here. And if you know anything about me, you will not be surprised to learn that it comes in the form of a book! I refer to Unloved: The Rejected Saints God Calls Beloved by Elyse Fitzpatrick (Lexham Press, 2025).
It looks at some biblical characters who seemed to be unlovable and unwanted. But God nonetheless loved them. They did not feel worthy of divine love. None of us are. But that is what is so amazing: God loves the unlovable. We do not deserve his love. We cannot earn his love. But we can partake of it as we come to Christ empty-handed, knowing that in our broken and sinful condition, any love we get is purely a result of God’s amazing grace.
So we have a biblical story such as the one about Hosea marrying Gomer the prostitute, and the children they conceive, including Lo-Ruhamah. Remember her? “Then the Lord said to Hosea, ‘Call her Lo-Ruhamah (which means “not loved”)’” (Hosea 1:6). Talk about a tough start to life with having a name like that. But God is involved in all this.
Other chapters look at Hagar, Tamar, Ruth and Naomi, and David and Bathsheba. The stories about these characters show us clearly what flawed, sinful, and undeserving figures they were. Yet on all of them God could pour out his love. That should give us all hope and encouragement.
Let me offer just two quotes from chapters that bookend these stories. In the Introduction she says this:
Within this book, you will find the stories of women and men whose lives would be best characterized by the word “messy.” None of them were consistently faithful, loving, kind, or courageous. They were weak and sinful. If the Lord were the Negotiator God, every one of them would have failed miserably to uphold their part of the deal. If he were the Gift-Giving Grandpa God, they would have consumed all the candy and spent their lives in agony on the bathroom floor. And most of them would never have even stopped to murmur a bloated, “Thank you.”
And yet, even though they often failed, constantly misunderstood their calling, wronged and abused one another, mistrusted God, broke their word, and wasted so many of the good gifts they were given, they are still—miraculously—called God’s beloved. On their own, they deserved the name “unloved”—they were destitute before God. In addition, most of them never stopped to realize that any blessings they enjoyed were pure gifts from God for which they should have been grateful. instead, they vacillated between viewing themselves as unlovable losers or virtuous overachievers, neither of which matches God’s description of who we are in him. (pp. 3-4)
Unloved: The Rejected Saints God Calls Beloved by Fitzpatrick, Elyse M. (Author)
And near the end of the book she holds up the example of Paul as she ties these different biblical stories together:
At the end of his life – a life of faithful obedience and astonishing sacrifice – the apostle Paul had this testimony: “This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance: ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’ – and I am the worst of them” (1 Timothy 1:15).
Can you say that with him? Can you say that Christ Jesus came into the world not to save the righteous who need no repentance (see Luke 5:32) but rather to save those who could never come a would never, come to him in humility and plead for grace? Here is Paul’s take on his life and the Lord’s great grace: “But I received mercy for this reason, so that in me, the worst of them, Christ Jesus might demonstrate his extraordinary patience as an example to those who would believe in him for eternal life” (1 Timothy 1:16).
Have you received mercy? Why? Would you answer that question the way that Paul does? Have you received the kind of mercy that points to the “extraordinary patience” of Jesus? Yes, of course, our lives are meant to glorify God … but do we glorify him by how strong and successful we are, or do we glorify him in our weakness? Do we tell our neighbors that God loves good people like us, or that he loves great sinners (like us) and that there’s enough mercy for them there, too?
Can you see it? Paul and all of these dear brothers and sisters are just like you, just like me. Believing unbelievers. Obedient disobeyers. Faithful wafflers. Truthful deceivers. The confused, wandering, impatient waiters. And yet …
Can you see it? We should all be called unloved, but instead we have been declared beloved. We are loved because he first loved us, because he is love. That is the most important thing about us: we are beloved of God. In fact, it’s the only thing that will matter eternally. We are beloved because he says we are. Period.
So, let us put aside all the foolishness of the pragmatic, pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps theology we have preached to ourselves all these years and instead throw ourselves on the grace of God. The same God who called and loved the unsuccessful Hoseas; the scheming, deceptive, and condemning Judahs; the disrespected Tamars; the abusive Abrahams, Serails, and Davids; the disillusioned and faithless Naomis; the outsiders like Ruth; the sons of whores like Boaz; the brokenhearted Bathshebas; and the maligned and suffering Josephs and Marys. Paul’s testimony encourages me in this regard. He did great things, but that was not how he wanted to be remembered. He wanted to be remembered as the one who didn’t deserve mercy, who was unloved—but who was, more importantly, crowned as beloved instead. Like them, we are all the unloved beloveds.
So, let’s join the bedraggled, beloved saints before us and discover their joy by tearing down the meritocracy and instead walking straight into the life of shalom: of peace, joy, fullness, in spite of all we see with our eyes, in spite of all we still want, in spite of the way we’re denigrated or laughed at. We are no longer unloved. Rather, now, and always, we are called beloved. (pp. 145-146).
Now as always, some biblical balance is needed here. Chances are good that for every believer who is walking around feeling unloved and unwanted, there is another one who is proud and narcissistic, thinking he is the best, not realising that he is nothing without Christ.
These folks have an over-inflated estimation of themselves, and an under-inflated estimation of who God is, and how terrible the sin problem is. Folks like that may not need a book like this. But for those who do struggle, and do constantly wonder, ‘Does God really love me?,’ a book like this might just be the tonic needed.
So if you are struggling in this area, you need to keep in mind that God has made us “accepted in the beloved” (Ephesians 1:6). That is such wondrous news. But yes, moving the mental acknowledgement of this grand truth to our very heart and soul may still take some work. Hopefully a book like this will help us in that process.
Afterword
As is often the case, some coincidental – but actually providential – things will arise. Just in the middle of penning this piece I stumbled upon a TV show in which some second-hand dolls were dumped into a bin, to be recycled for other children.
But this was an episode of The Twilight Zone, so these dolls were actually humans, and as they laid there in that large bin, one of them said that they were ‘unwanted and unloved.’ They were discarded hand-me downs. Of interest, I had seen that episode over 60 years ago as a child! The episode is found here (and I hope I have not given too much away for those who want to watch it): https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x80dvpb
That idea of being unwanted and unloved castoffs is of course exactly what this post has been all about, with believers thinking that no one – including God – wants them or loves them. Well, this is not the twilight zone, but the world that God has made, and we can rest assured that we are indeed fully loved and wanted by God.
“In his book on spiritual depression, the late Welsh minister, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, wrote:
‘Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?… The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself.’”
Tackle one a night with your family to become familiar with the bad arguments that the world, and sometimes even fellow Christians, are using. Forewarned is forearmed!
IVF has enabled both same-sex couples and single women to have children without a father, creating and celebrating a situation that would otherwise have been decried as abandonment.
And we should never forget what IVF has done to the millions of babies who have been abandoned to cold storage and the millions more that have been aborted in the selection process.
What’s this principle of “comparative advantage” and why is it so important to understand in the middle of our tariff wars?
As Jacob Clifford highlights, trade allows people and countries to make what they are best at – just as different people have different skills, different countries also have some kind of advantage in their skills, location, or resources that will equip them to produce some products better than other countries can.
When we do what we are best at, then we can trade with others for what they are best at producing. This makes everyone more productive and wealthier than if we all tried to make everything for ourselves. Just consider how productive you’d be if you had to do everything yourself, including cutting down and shaping the boards to make your home, manufacturing your fridge, growing your food, building your car, and more. You would likely starve while you were still at the shaping boards stage.
Thankfully, you can trade your labor (in whatever role you have) for all these things. So being able to trade freely makes you wealthier.
And being able to trade makes our neighbors wealthier, too. Trade enriches everyone! So if we are to love our neighbors (Mark 12:31), then we’ll want what’s best for them, including in a material sense. That’s why we won’t want to put unnecessary restrictions on trade… because it hurts both ourselves and our neighbors.
“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” 1 John 3:16
Today, someone offered me the shirt off his back. I didn’t ask for it; I just complimented him on it.
I ran into him in the lobby of the Rushmore Holiday Inn in Rapid City, South Dakota. We had already met and exchanged a few words. He told me that after hearing me speak, he felt we had much in common. I don’t know about that, but I know I liked him right away. I could tell he was the kind of person to tell you exactly what he thinks.
I had been a little confused about him at first. He had a kind of street smartness about him that intimidated me. But then we exchange a few words and I found out my prejudgments were totally off base.
“What a nice shirt,” I said as he came in the door.
“Thank you,” he said. “I’d like you to have it.”
“Absolutely not,” I protested. “You don’t need to do that.”
My protest was to no avail. He showed up later at my hotel room door and handed me the shirt. There was no way I could turn him down. He gave it to me with his card and said he wanted to be able to write me. Well of course, I said, because that’s always okay with me.
Something about this has captured me. What kind of guy gives you the shirt off his own back? Someone who is more than just words. Someone who is action-oriented. Someone who wants to make a statement. Someone who seizes the moment. I doubt that giving me his shirt had even crossed his mind until I complimented him on it.
I can’t help but think about the early Christians who shared everything in common. I feel just a little like those guys — at least on the receiving side. I know they’d give you the shirt off their own backs if they could.
I may be making too much of this, but I can’t wait to find out what’s behind it. Let me know what you think.
SCRIPTURE READING: John 15:12–19 KEY VERSE: John 15:16
You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
The youngster ran out the door to join his friends. Twenty minutes later he was back. “I thought you were meeting your friends down at the ball field,” his mother commented. But before he could answer, she noticed the look of hurt on his face and asked, “Honey, what happened?” “Mom, they didn’t choose me to play on either one of their teams. Nobody likes me.” This disappointment may seem trivial from an adult’s perspective, but it’s not. Rejection can leave a person feeling left out and disillusioned. Such an incident has the power to shape one’s personality and self-image. “I’m sorry you weren’t chosen,” replied the boy’s mother. “Sometimes things happen that are hurtful, but always remember you mean a lot to me and your dad.” One of the greatest needs of our society is the need to belong. We want to know we matter to someone else. How we choose to meet this need is critical to our sense of self-worth and to our relationship with God. Jesus Christ holds the greatest amount of acceptance you could ever hope to find. No matter what turns your life has taken or who has rejected you, God promises to love and accept you when you come to Him. And the fact remains that He will always choose you to be on His team!
Dear Lord, please heal the emotional scars left by rejection. Thank You for loving and accepting me just as I am.
Stanley, C. F. (2000). Into His presence (p. 111). Thomas Nelson Publishers.
SCRIPTURE READING: 1 John 2:4–10 KEY VERSE: 1 Thessalonians 3:12
May the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you.
How free are you in your love? Do you give love without needing or expecting love in return? While each of us desires love, it is far better to love unconditionally than always to expect a return on our love. Amy Carmichael writes about love toward others:
A few minutes ago I read words that sum up my desires for you: 1 Thessalonians 3:12, “The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another.” This poor world is a cold place to many. I pray that no one who comes to us may ever feel chilled here, but rather that all chilliness may melt, melted by the blessed glow of heavenly love. Don’t let us ever be afraid of being too loving. We can never love enough. So I pray, “Lord, keep us free to love. Never let the slightest shade of suspicion shadow any heart. Help each to think the best of every other. Through all the chances and changes of life, hold all together in tender love. Let nothing quench love. Let nothing cool it. Keep every thread of the gold cord unbroken, unweakened, even unto the end, Oh my Lord, Thou Loving One, keep my beloveds close together in Thy love forever.”
How you love others reflects your love for Christ. Be patient in love, willing to receive little to no thanks for something you have done in love for another. Remember, no act of love is ever wasted.
Lord, set me free to love. Don’t let suspicion shadow my heart. Help me to think the best of others.
Stanley, C. F. (2002). Seeking His face (p. 110). Thomas Nelson Publishers.
For several days we have been dwelling upon the Saviour’s passion, and for some little time to come we shall linger there. In beginning a new month, let us seek the same desires after our Lord as those which glowed in the heart of the elect spouse. See how she leaps at once to him; there are no prefatory words; she does not even mention his name; she is in the heart of her theme at once, for she speaks of him who was the only him in the world to her. How bold is her love! it was much condescension which permitted the weeping penitent to anoint his feet with spikenard—it was rich love which allowed the gentle Mary to sit at his feet and learn of him—but here, love, strong, fervent love, aspires to higher tokens of regard, and closer signs of fellowship. Esther trembled in the presence of Ahasuerus, but the spouse in joyful liberty of perfect love knows no fear. If we have received the same free spirit, we also may ask the like. By kisses we suppose to be intended those varied manifestations of affection by which the believer is made to enjoy the love of Jesus. The kiss of reconciliation we enjoyed at our conversion, and it was sweet as honey dropping from the comb. The kiss of acceptance is still warm on our brow, as we know that he hath accepted our persons and our works through rich grace. The kiss of daily, present communion, is that which we pant after to be repeated day after day, till it is changed into the kiss of reception, which removes the soul from earth, and the kiss of consummation which fills it with the joy of heaven. Faith is our walk, but fellowship sensibly felt is our rest. Faith is the road, but communion with Jesus is the well from which the pilgrim drinks. O lover of our souls, be not strange to us; let the lips of thy blessing meet the lips of our asking; let the lips of thy fulness touch the lips of our need, and straightway the kiss will be effected.
Spurgeon, C. H. (1896). Morning and evening: Daily readings. Passmore & Alabaster.
Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.—MATT. 5:17
Is there an absolute basis for truth, for law, for morals, for real right and wrong? The absolute, Jesus says, is the law of the eternally sovereign God. God laid down His absolute, eternal, abiding law and made it known to humanity. And as God’s own Son, Jesus declared unequivocally that He did not come to teach or practice anything contrary to that law even in the slightest way, but to uphold it entirely. Jesus obviously had a high regard for the law, but at the same time He taught things completely contrary to the traditions. His teachings did not lower scriptural standards but upheld them in every way. He not only elevated God’s standard to the height it belonged, but also lived at that humanly impossible level. The law and the prophets represent what we call the Old Testament, the only written Scripture at the time Jesus preached. Because Matthew does not qualify his use of law, we are safe to say that it was God’s whole law—the commandments, statutes, and judgments; the moral, judicial, and ceremonial—that Jesus came not to abolish but fulfill. It was also the other Old Testament teachings based on the law, and all their types, patterns, symbols, and pictures that He came to fulfill. Jesus Christ came to accomplish every aspect and every dimension of the divinely authored Word.
ASK YOURSELF Knowing how hard it is for us to maintain holy attitudes and behaviors for more than a few hours at a time, marvel again at the extreme power of Jesus Christ, who endured every temptation to maintain His perfect purity on earth. And marvel anew that such supernatural righteousness has been imputed to us!
MacArthur, J. (2008). Daily readings from the life of Christ (p. 97). Moody Publishers.
We need to learn this secret of the burning heart. Suddenly Jesus appears to us, the fires are kindled, we have wonderful visions; then we have to learn to keep the secret of the burning heart that will go through anything. It is the dull, bald, dreary, commonplace day, with commonplace duties and people, that kills the burning heart unless we have learned the secret of abiding in Jesus. Much of our distress as Christians comes not because of sin, but because we are ignorant of the laws of our own nature. For instance, the only test as to whether we ought to allow an emotion to have its way is to see what the outcome of the emotion will be. Push it to its logical conclusion, and if the outcome is something God would condemn, allow it no more way. But if it is an emotion kindled by the Spirit of God and you do not let that emotion have its right issue in your life, it will react on a lower level. That is the way sentimentalists are made. The higher the emotion is, the deeper the degradation will be if it is not worked out on its proper level. If the Spirit of God has stirred you, make as many things inevitable as possible, let the consequences be what they will. We cannot stay on the mount of transfiguration, but we must obey the light we received there; we must act it out. When God gives a vision, transact business on that line, no matter what it costs.
‘We cannot kindle when we will The fire which in the heart resides, The spirit bloweth and is still, In mystery our soul abides; But tasks in hours or insight will’d Can be through hours of gloom fulfill’d.’
Chambers, O. (1986). My utmost for his highest: Selections for the year. Oswald Chambers Publications; Marshall Pickering.
‘I am impressed with the wonder of what God says, but He cannot expect me really to live it out in the details of my life!’ When it comes to facing Jesus Christ on His own merits, our attitude is one of pious superiority—‘Your ideals are high and they impress us, but in touch with actual things, it cannot be done.’ Each of us thinks about Jesus in this way in some particular. These misgivings about Jesus start from the amused questions put to us when we talk of our transactions with God—‘Where are you going to get your money from? How are you going to be looked after?’ Or they start from ourselves when we tell Jesus that our case is a bit too hard for Him. ‘It is all very well to say “Trust in the Lord,” but a man must live, and Jesus has nothing to draw with—nothing whereby to give us these things.’ Beware of the pious fraud in you which says—‘I have no misgivings about Jesus, only about myself.’ None of us ever had misgivings about ourselves; we know exactly what we cannot do, but we do have misgivings about Jesus. We are rather hurt at the idea that He can do what we cannot. My misgivings arise from the fact that I ransack my own person to find out how He will be able to do it. My questions spring from the depths of my own inferiority. If I detect these misgivings in myself, let me bring them to the light and confess them—‘Lord, I have had misgivings about Thee, I have not believed in Thy wits apart from my own; I have not believed in Thine Almighty power apart from my finite understanding of it.’
Chambers, O. (1986). My utmost for his highest: Selections for the year. Oswald Chambers Publications; Marshall Pickering.
“If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them.” Luke 6:29
It’s the playoffs, and during them hockey players hold to the unspoken rule that giving hard hits is fine, but one ought to avoid outright fights. This agreement makes for fast-skating, hard-hitting hockey without the tough-man antics of dropping the gloves for a mid-ice brawl. Most would say it makes better hockey.
I know it might be a stretch, but what if we banned fighting in hockey during the regular season? Would we get better hockey? Probably so. Or what if we dropped fighting from politics and international relations and neighborhood issues. Or bring it closer to home. What if we quit fighting at our workplace and home space, in our relating to colleagues, friends, and family?
Jesus said as much. In Luke he says if someone picks a fight with us, we shouldn’t retaliate. “Turn the other cheek” the saying goes, and even more. “If he takes your coat, give him your shirt too.”
In The Upside Down Kingdom, Donald Kraybill writes, ”A blow on the right cheek had special significance in Jewish culture. It symbolized ultimate contempt. Its punishment was a fine equivalent to a year’s wages. In other words, Jesus forbids his disciples to retaliate even in the face of the most abusive insult.” (p. 196)
I am all for “fighting the good fight” if it means living the faith to the fullest, but I am not going to take that phrase literally. By turning the other cheek I hope to squelch violence and help the offender realize their wrong.
God, it’s so easy to fight back in conflict situations. Help me see that you called us to love everyone, even our enemies. May I seek peaceful ways to reconcile differences, and in doing so fight faithfully for what is right and good. Amen.
Take Action: The next time you are in a conflict situation, look for ways to defuse the situation through apology, listening, or walking away
I was recently asked about the so-called Golden Rule. The person was quite right to ask a question regarding it, namely: Are we simply to do for others whatever they want to be done? A good question, and one that deserves a closer look. And the context of this passage, and the way it is written, should help us to rightly understand it.
Let me first share our brief social media exchange:
Her: Hey Bill, Aren’t we meant to treat people how we would like to be treated? I heard today it was treat people how they wanted to be treated???
Me: Well, the “Golden Rule” says that we should “do to others what you would have them do to you” (Matthew 7:12) – although there is more to the Christian life than just that.
Her: Yes but if we treat people how they want to be treated we could end up condoning things we don’t want to?
Me: Sure, the teaching of Jesus presumes we want to be treated rightly, properly and in a godly manner, so we are to treat others that way. But as I say, all the other teachings of Jesus also need to be considered, not just this one. It is similar to when he said we should love our neighbour as ourselves. But it is a good question you are asking. Maybe I will write an article on this!
And thus this piece. Note first of all what the passage (found in two of the four gospels) actually says:
Matthew 7:12 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”
Luke 6:31 “And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.”
In both cases we are not to do for others whatever it is that they want done to them. For example, they might want you to lie or steal or kill for them. They might want you to supply them with illicit drugs. They might want to do something immoral with you.
Obviously Jesus did not have those sorts of things in mind. He refers to how you want to be treated. Most folks want to be treated kindly, fairly, honestly, decently and with respect. And that of course is how we should treat others. So the whole point of the Golden Rule is the good we want done to us is what we should extend to others.
And by bracketing this with the words “Law and the prophets” Jesus makes it clear that good, holy and righteous things are what we should want for ourselves, and for others. As I said above, this really is not unlike what Jesus said about the great commandments: loving God with all of our being, and loving our neighbour as ourself (Matthew 22:36-40; Mark 12:28-32; Luke 10:25-28).
In loving ourselves, Jesus does not mean living a selfish, carnal and sinful life. We should want the very best for ourselves, and that means walking in accord with God’s will for our lives. It means keeping his commandments. And this is what we should want for others. As Scot McKnight comments:
Twice Jesus probes into the essence of the Torah by appealing to self-love: here and in the Jesus Creed (22:34 – 40). As his followers were to love their neighbors asthey loved themselves, so they as disciples were to do to others what they wouldwant others to do to them. This principle is neither selfish nor narcissistic but expansive — we are to extend our self-care to others.
A few other things can be said about this. The term we now use, “Golden Rule,” is not biblical of course. It seems to have first been used of this portion of Scripture back in the Middle Ages. Also, this states in a positive form what others had already stated in a negative form. So the thought is not completely unique.
However, taken in context, it is very unique. The main theme of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7; Luke 6:20-49) is not just to show us how to live. Trying to meet the moral injunctions found there is not something that natural man can ever hope to attain. That is why this is also about God giving us the ability to live out these moral truths.
When we come to Christ in faith and repentance, we are given the Holy Spirit to live within us and help us start to live lives pleasing to him. On our own, the moral demands of the Sermon on the Mount are simply unobtainable. We need the Spirit of God in order to live up to these high moral demands.
So something like the Golden Rule is not some generic moral maxim that we can expect anyone and everyone to live up to. As with everything else we find in the Sermon on the Mount, what God commands, God empowers. The Christian can begin to live up to these lofty ethical obligations because God helps us to live them out.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount by Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn (Author)
In his expository commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, based on 60 sermons he preached on this portion of Scripture. Martyn Lloyd-Jones repeatedly speaks to this matter. This in part is what he says when discussing Matt. 7:12:
People hear this golden rule and they praise it as marvellous and wonderful, and as a perfect summary of a great and involved subject. But the tragedy is that, having praised it, they do not implement it. And, after all, the law was not meant to be praised, it was meant to be practised. Our Lord did not preach the Sermon on the Mount in order that you and I might comment upon it, but in order that we might carry it out….
Why is this so? It is just at this point that theology comes in. The first statement of the gospel is that man is sinful and perverted. He is a creature that is so bound and governed by evil that he cannot keep to the golden rule. The gospel always starts with that. The first principle in theology is the Fall of man and the sin of man. It can be put like this. Man does not implement the golden rule, which is a summary of the law and the prophets, because his whole attitude towards the law is wrong. He does not like the law; in fact he hates it. ‘The carnal (natural) mind is enmity against God: it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be’ (Romans 8:7). So it is useless to hold the law before such people. They hate the law, they do not want it. Of course, when they sit back and listen to an abstract statement about life as it should be, they say that they like it. But if you apply the law to them, they immediately hate it and react against it. The moment it is applied to them they dislike it and resent it….
The whole thing can be brought down to one word, ‘self’. Our Lord expresses it by saying that we should ‘love our neighbour as ourselves’. But that is the one thing we do not do, and do not want to do, because we love self so much in a wrong way. We do not do unto others as we would wish them to do unto us, because the whole time we are thinking only about ourselves, and we never transfer our thought to the other person. That is the condition of man in sin as the result of the Fall. He is entirely self-centred. He thinks of nothing and no-one but himself, he is concerned about nothing but his own well-being. This is not my thought; it is the truth, the simple, literal truth about everybody in the world who is not a Christian; and it very often remains true even of Christians. Instinctively we are all self-centred. We are resentful of what is said and thought of us, but we never seem to realize that other people are the same, because we never think of the other person. The whole time we are thinking of self, and we dislike God because God is Someone who interferes with this self-centredness and independence. Man likes to think of himself as completely autonomous, but here is Someone who challenges that, and man by nature dislikes Him.
So the failure of man to live by, and to keep, the golden rule is due to the fact that he is self-centered….
As I say, the good news of something like the Golden Rule in particular and the Sermon on the Mount in general is that they not only tell us what God expects of us, but God empowers us to live the way that we ought to live. They are not just pleasant and inspiring moral precepts that we can nod our heads at, but they are the commands of God which, by means of his Spirit in us, he helps us to live out.
1 JOHN 4:11 If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
A famous psychiatrist once said, “Love, true love, is the medicine for our sick old world. If people can learn to give and receive love, they will usually recover from their physical and mental illnesses.” Before Christ, the concept of love was a love for the best. If something was deemed worthy of love, it was loved. Christ dying on the cross changed all that, for He offered a love for which we are completely unworthy. Christ revealed God’s love. He lavished that holy love on people with no thought of whether they were worthy or not. Now when a Christian wants to know what real love is, he looks to the cross. Having experienced God’s love while yet a sinner, and having been transformed by that great love, the Christian recognizes the people around him as the objects of God’s love. They are love-starved, in need of the transforming power that only Christ’s love can bring. Jesus set an example by giving Himself totally in love, with no thought of receiving anything in return. We, as Christians, are called by God to reflect that love to our spouses, our families, and our world. And the more we reflect it, the more we give it away to others, the more we experience it in our own lives.
Jeremiah, D. (2002). Sanctuary: finding moments of refuge in the presence of God (p. 47). Integrity Publishers.
“Hell and destruction are before the Lord: how much more then the hearts of the children of men?” Proverbs 15:11 SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Jeremiah 17:9, 10
God knows the heart so well that he is said to ‘search’ it. We all understand the figure of a search. There is a search-warrant out against some man who is supposed to be harbouring a traitor in his house. The officer goes into the lower room, opens the door of every cupboard, looks into every closet, peers into every cranny, takes the key, descends into the cellar, turns over the coals, disturbs the wood, lest anyone should be hidden there. Up stairs he goes: there is an old room that has not been opened for years,—it is opened. There is a huge chest: the lock is forced and it is broken open. The very top of the house is searched, lest upon the slates or upon the tiles some one should be concealed. At last, when the search has been complete, the officer says, “It is impossible that there can be anybody here, for, from the tiles to the foundation, I have searched the house thoroughly; I know the very spiders well, for I have seen the house completely.” Now, it is just so God knows our heart. He searches it—searches into every nook, corner, crevice and secret part; and the figure of the Lord is pushed further still. “The candle of the Lord,” we are told, “searches the inward parts of the belly.” As when we wish to find something, we take a candle, and look down upon the ground with great care, and turn up the dust. If it is some little piece of money we desire to find, we light a candle and sweep the house, and search diligently till we find it. Even so it is with God. He searches Jerusalem with candles, and pulls everything to daylight. No partial search, like that of Laban, when he went into Rachel’s tent to look for his idols. She put them in the camel’s furniture and sat upon them; but God looks into the camel’s furniture, and all.
FOR MEDITATION: God does not need a search-warrant or a torch to search your heart (Hebrews 4:13). What does he see there?
SERMON NO. 177
Spurgeon, C. H., & Crosby, T. P. (1998). 365 Days with Spurgeon (Volume 1) (p. 52). Day One Publications.
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