The Reverend Billy Graham once asked this telling question: If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?
Early in his book, The True Christian’s Love to the Unseen Christ, Thomas Vincent addresses that same concern when he laments that many proclaim a love for Christ yet exhibit little evidence of it in the way they live their lives.
Now it is true that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and that God alone can rightly judge the sincerity of our faith in and love for Him, as well as our true motives in all that we do (Ephesians 2:8-9) (Proverbs 21:2) (1 Samuel 16:7).
That being said, true faith in and love for God is never without evidence of it in the way we live our lives in relationship to both God and our neighbor (James 2:14-17) (1 John 5:2-3) (Deuteronomy 10:12-13).
The Gospel of grace produces in those who receive Christ as Savior and Lord, a new heart with new affections and desires centered on God, wherein knowing, loving and being loved by God in Christ becomes more important to us than anything else in life (Romans 10:9-13) (Jeremiah 24:7).
Jesus tells us the outward evidence of our love for Him will be our glad obedience to His commandments, which is also an outward expression of our trust or faith in His love for us. This obedience will be part of our new nature, coming from the recognition that all of His commandments are given to promote human flourishing and individual happiness in Him (John 14:15) (Ezekiel 36:26-27) (Psalm 19:7-11).
Vincent, in his book, emphasizes that our sincere and glad obedience will be motivated out of a desire to honor and please God in all that we do (1 Corinthians 10:31). Obedience out of burdensome duty, out of attempts at earning favor from God or the applause of others demonstrates no love for God, but the basest form of self-love (John 12:42-43). Vincent notes how it is ultimately our sincere love for Christ that restrains us from sin and evil and compels us to do good; good being that which honors and glorifies God and promotes human flourishing and individual happiness in relationship with God (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).
Another evidence of our love for Christ is our joyful desire to promote and contribute to the welfare of Christ’s church, demonstrated both in service to and identification with all who are part of His body (Galatians 6:10) (Romans 12:4-8).
We are told throughout the Epistle of 1 John that evidence of our love for God is our love for others, particularly our brothers and sisters in Christ (1 John 3:16-18) (1 John 4:20-21).
Vincent identifies another evidence of our love for Christ as being our diligent efforts to deepen our knowledge of and relationship with Him daily, learning more of His glorious truths with an ever-growing desire to share those truths, particularly as they are displayed in and through the gospel (Matthew 11:28-30) (John 8:31-32) (Psalm 105:1).
Vincent then speaks of evidence of our great love for God being displayed in our unwavering resistance to both God’s and our truest enemies; namely this present evil world that Jesus came to deliver us from, our traitor flesh (our ongoing sinful inclinations) and the ultimate enemy, the devil (Galatians 1:4) (Galatians 5:17) (1 Peter 5:8-9).
This is consistent with what God’s word presents to us as evidence of our love for Him, and that is an unflinching, unequivocal, enduring hatred of and active opposition to evil, both the evil of this world and the evil that remains in us (1 Thessalonians 5:22) (Romans 7:18-25).
Psalm 97:10 exclaims, You who love the Lord, hate evil. Hate here means to abhor, loath or detest from our hearts. Romans 12:9 commands, Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
There are many definitions of evil, both academic and theological. However, the simplest and clearest definition of the word evil as used here that I have come across is, “That which opposes, resists, contradicts our Heavenly Father’s design and order for human flourishing and individual happiness in Him”. Good, can conversely be defined as I noted above, as all that honors and glorifies God and promotes human flourishing and individual happiness in Him, which is revealed most clearly for us within His law (Romans 7:12) (Micah 6:8).
All evil should be hated, abhorred, opposed and shunned, not just because it brings pain, sorrow and suffering into the world and into our individual lives, but primarily because every evil thought, every evil word and every evil deed blasphemes the holiness of God, denigrates the majesty of God, slanders the glory of God and denies the goodness of God; the God whom we love because He first loved us, and demonstrated that love 2000 years ago on a Roman cross (1 John 4:10) (Romans 5:8) (Galatians 2:20).
Vincent gives us two more evidences of the true Christian’s love for Christ. One is our passionate desire to be like Him, imaging His glory, and the second is our all-consuming longing to be with Him, to see and behold, to worship and enjoy Him in all of His glory (John 17:22-24). We will look more closely at these evidences, God willing, in my next two posts.
Grace and Peace ×