goforwardinfaith Christianity, Religion, Theology

Unattached

By Linda Tancs

The Bible urges us to be unattached to outcomes—or incomes, for that matter (1 John 2:15-17; Hebrews 13:5-6). That means we are encouraged to purge attachments we have to who we are, attachments to our belongings, attachments to our jobs, labels, titles, and roles, attachments to our judgments and attachments to old memories that keep us stuck.

What attachments can you release? Maybe you can remove your attachment to distractions like mindless TV, popular culture or sensational headlines. The result of all this attachment is sin (Galatians 5:19-21) so it’s easy to understand why it needs to go. Easy to say, not so easy to do, you say. Indeed, the story of the rich young man in Mark 10:17-22 illustrates how hard it is to let go. When he asked Jesus how to inherit eternal life, Jesus told him to sell all he had and follow Him. The man went away sad because he had many possessions. So long as there’s attachment, there’s another idol in your heart (Exodus 34:14).

 The rewards of detachment are many, giving way to the fruits of the Spirit, like love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). Moreover, Jesus promised a reward both now and in eternity for giving up worldly things for His sake (Mark 10:28-31). It’s about giving up pain for gain. Who wouldn’t want that trade?

goforwardinfaith Christianity, Religion, Theology

The Better Love

By Linda Tancs

St. Augustine of Hippo remarked that there are two loves: love of God and love of the world. We should look at each of these as dually faceted—love of God relates to your love toward God and God’s love toward you, and love of the world relates to your love of the things of this world as well as the world’s love of you (in the form of adulation, reputation, etc.).

The Bible is replete with evidence of God’s love for us. After all, He gave us His only Son so that we might have eternal life (John 3:16). He loves us with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3) that brings with it a spirit of adoption as children of God by which we cry “Abba” (Romans 8:15), an Aramaic word for father. Conversely, we are able to love others (including God) because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). God is love (1 John 4:8), and therefore He commands us to love Him as well as our neighbor (Luke 10:27).

Augustine aims at the fact that when we’re unable to love, then we do not know God. And when we do not know God, then love of the world is likely to ensue. First John 2:15-17 instructs that all of the things of this world— the pursuit of self-sufficient materialism that drives the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—are at odds with God. Likewise, the importance you place on the world’s love of you is a barrier to God’s love dwelling in you. The concept of “keeping up with the Joneses” epitomizes the point. It manifests in an upset of the love people/use things equilibrium. When one desires to be on a par with everyone else or to increase one’s standing or reputation at the expense of others, the result is often the use of people to get more of the things one loves, failing to recognize that other people or circumstances do not dictate our riches. Only God gives, and God can take away (Job 1:21).

God’s love is the better love, and Augustine exhorts us to let it take over. Will you?