Love as Being (my title)

Apologetics: Good or Bad? (Written by Peter Mosley, 05/2010, taken from Facebook.)

"My most recent faith struggle is not one of intellect. I don't really do that anymore. Sooner or later you just figure out there are some guys who don't believe in God and they can prove He doesn't exist, and some other guys who do believe in God and they can prove He does exist, and the argument stopped being about God a long time ago and now it's about who is smarter, and honestly I don't care."

--Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz

How important is apologetics?

Many have sentiments like Donald Miller and claim that it doesn't really matter what you know about theology and apologetics when you talk about God. God will use the words you say to help the other person. So because it doesn't matter that much what we say, we don't need to really worry that much about what we say. What we should do instead is help people in more practical ways instead of theologizing things and believing we can convert them with a "formula."

I think this thinking can encourage the same principles it tries to condemn, because many times I hear people use this way of thinking to say something like, "Forget about the apologetics -- do enough good deeds, and you'll convert people to follow God." That sounds similar to, "Know enough apologetics, and you'll convert people to follow God." Both ways of thinking are missing something.

I Corinthians 13 shows this. In the first few verses, Paul says that you can be the best speaker imaginable (speak in the tongues of men and of angels), or be the most generous and sacrificing person imaginable (give all you possess to the poor and become a martyr), or have a strong faith and thorough knowledge of God (can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and have a faith that can move mountains) -- and yet still be nothing because you don't have love.

Which means that it is possible to be a great speaker, a generous person, a sacrificing person, an individual with strong faith, and someone who knows everything there is to know -- and still not have love.

That's a pretty big deal. I mean, that means that you can be doing service projects until you're blue in the face and still not be showing love.

What is love?

It's patient, kind, doesn't envy, doesn't brag, isn't proud, isn't rude, doesn't look out for number one, doesn't get angry easily, and doesn't keep a ledger of things that other people do wrong. It doesn't rejoice at evil, but takes deep joy when someone approaches truth. It always protects the other person, always trusts that there is hope for the other person, and doesn't give up on the other person (according to I Corinthians 13).

Here's my point: There's a lot more to loving people than merely reading a book on theology. There's also a lot more to love than giving money to a homeless person. There's definitely more to love than handing someone a tract.

These things should be done as MANIFESTATIONS of love, not as replacements for it. Otherwise, they don't count for squat (at least, according to the first few verses of I Corinthians 13).

And that's how theology and apologetics matter. They doesn't matter as pure information. But if the person studying is genuinely motivated by love for others, then it is of immense value.

And now, a page from my diary...

I don't want to be a Pharisee, but I want to get to know the God I love better. Because of this desire I really treasure old memories of conversations late at night with me and another person debating a theological issue. I enjoyed it most when it wasn't about who was smarter, but when our motivation for talking was our love for God. We both loved God so much that we wanted to get to know Him better. And we also cared enough about what the other person thought to take that person's thoughts seriously. It wasn't about one-upsmanship. It was a way of showing we cared.

I wasn't always that way. Believe it or not, there was a time in my life when I would avoid theological debates. That changed when I realized that when I get really serious about following God's command to love someone, I can't help but care deeply about the relationship between what they think and what I think and what God thinks.

I'm finding out that love isn't a one-trick pony. It's an internal motivation for all your external actions. It's the blood running through the veins of your thoughts, actions, conversations, and so on. When we say "love is physical action, not intellect," then we are cutting off the bloodflow of love that is keeping us alive by basically telling love: "You can be involved in these actions, but leave my way of thinking alone."

I mean, you are commanded to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. You can't focus on just loving God with your strength and leave your heart at the wayside. And you can't love God with your heart and leave your mind at the wayside.

That's because whatever part of your life you don't strive to love God with, Satan will use for his purposes. And, as I John 2:9 and 4:20 makes clear, you can't love God without loving people. If you love God, then what He thinks becomes important -- but if you love God, you also love people. If you love people, then what they think becomes important.

Here's what I'm getting at: If you don't care about what other people think, you don't love them, and if you don't love other people, you don't love God.

That's why apologetics is important. It's not about being seen as smart. It's about loving people enough to care about what they think, and loving God enough to think about his relevance to what people think.

If you practice apologetics without loving people -- whether you're doing it with a Ph.D. in Philosophy or a simple five-step tract -- you're missing the point. And something else I've observed is that you may not have a very effective ministry -- people aren't often convinced by those they think don't really care about them, no matter how much they know. If you aren't loving people, chances are you aren't really loving God (see I John 2:9 and 4:20), and if you aren't loving God, you may need an evangelist more than the people you're "ministering" to.

If your discussion on apologetics is motivated by loving people -- whether you're doing it with a Ph.D. in Philosophy or a five-step tract -- you've got the right idea. And I think people notice this. I've seen people give tracts half-heartedly, and not make an effect on me. But I can also remember people giving out tracts who seemed to genuinely care about me -- and the effect was powerful.

And when I say "care," I'm not just talking about a fuzzy feeling. I'm talking about people who lean over and listen and sincerely want to hear and interact with what you say. Not as a contest of wits, but as a manifestation of genuine love and concern.

So apologetics are important because God can use us most when we strive to love people practically, emotionally, and intellectually. But how can we love people if we don't care about what they think and feel? And if we avoid apologetics in our Christian walk by doing things for people without wanting to hear and interact with their lives and the beliefs they have, how much can we really say we love people? And if we don't really want to bother striving to love people emotionally, physically, and intellectually, then how much can God really use us?

I try to keep these questions in mind when I live my life. I don't always do the best job, but these questions motivate me and tell me that what I'm learning to do for living doesn't force me to become a heartless intellectual. One the contrary, love is my fundamental motivation -- love for God and love for people.

As a side note -- intellectual struggles concerning God are, I think, God's challenge for us to dedicate our minds to understanding him better and loving people more -- that's my direct answer to Donald Miller. More to say about that -- perhaps in a seperate note.