Snow, Book Recommendation, “Agape Love”

a)

I met a guy here named Snow. It reminded me of the rapper. Then I found this. Check it out.

edit: upon further inspection, there is substantial amounts of booty in the Snow video. The value is just in the listening, so if you are sensitive to such shaking of booty, perhaps you would do well to just listen to it and avoid viewing the actual video. In regards to the Jim Carrey video, there is minimal booty, though you might want to be prepared to skip over one or two parts. Nevertheless, Snow song = good.

b)

One of the most interesting books I’ve read this year is Exegetical Fallacies by DA Carson.

A friend of mine quipped that “if you don’t know what either of those words mean, maybe it’s not the book for you”. But I still recommend it, cause although it might take more attention than a Don Miller book, it’ll definitely help you as you try to daily read and interpret the Bible.

Basically, it’s about typical mistakes (fallacies) people make when interpreting the Bible (doing exegesis). The only part that I felt unable to read was the grammar part (my Greek grammar is… non-existent). You’d probably have no problems either.

One example of how what I read is actually practical to your life:

“One of the most enduring of errors… (is that) every word actually has a meaning bound up with its shape or its components. In this view, meaning is determined by etymology… All this is linguistic nonsense” (28)

“although it is doubtless true that the entire range of agapao and the entire range of phileo are not exactly the same, nevertheless they do enjoy substantial overlap; and where they overlap, appeal to a “root meaning” in order to discern a difference is fallacious…there is nothing intrinsic to the verb agapao or the noun agape to prove its real meaning or hidden meaning refers to some special kind of love” (31-32)

And there’s tonnes more.

c) Why this matters?

A common dangerous teaching I hear is that God has a special “Agape love” (for a more complete argument for why that is fallacious, see Exegetical Fallacies by DA Carson). This love is NOT a feeling, it’s an action (Luv is a Verb haha). Just to get a taste of what people usually say, I googled “agape is not an emotion”. Here’s one of the first things I found:

“agape is a choice. It is based not on emotion but on deliberate decision…. Phileo, storge, and eros can all be legitimate expressions of agape, but not one of them by itself is a sufficient base upon which to build a meaningful and lasting long-term relationship”

That was in a marriage book. Now, usually a careful teacher (like this one) will not go this far, but what I’ve witnessed is that people think they can be loving even if their hearts are totally uncaring towards others. They think they can love God by sheer duty. They think they can obey the standard of Jesus Christ through self-wrought willpower.

This thinking also comes from the erroneous understanding of the Christian life that says, “you can’t control your emotions. Therefore, God can’t command them”.

That is emphatically wrong. Here’s what John Piper writes:

“emotions are not under our immediate control like acts of willpower seem to be. But… Emotions are commanded throughout the Bible. The Scriptures command joy, hope, fear, peace, grief, desire, tenderheartedness, brokenness and contrition, gratitude, lowliness, etc.”

By committing this word-study fallacy (the root fallacy) and not using the context to determine the meaning of the word, both immature Christians and the unregenerate alike are able to justify the lack of supernatural Christlikeness in their hearts.

I can very easily go to Church with a lukewarm heart and sing songs through my own willpower. My willpower cannot give me a spirit of Thanksgiving and Gratitude. I can figure out what 10% of my income is and drop it on a plate without the Holy Spirit. I can’t do so joyfully without the Living God transforming me from the inside-out.

This should drive us to our knees each day asking for the Holy Spirit to fill us instead of trying to eek out man-made obedience.

Christian living is not will-power religion. It’s the overflow of a new mind and new heart created by the Holy Spirit. It is supernatural. You can’t produce it on your own. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17) – John Piper