Sunday Post: Solving the Problem Using the Wrong Variable & Reader Participation

Frank Holbrook 6 Life in General

I’m not much of a mathematician.

But I can do simple algebra.  I remember one of, if not the first,  equation I saw in pre-algebra. It looked like this:

A = B

Pretty simple right?  And then one of the variables was provided. The problem then looked like this:

A = B

B = 1

Solve for A.

Easy peasy, right?  A = 1.  You’re given one variable and you get the answer to the other variable by the substitution property.

One of the most difficult questions Christians grapple with appears to be a simple equation.  God is love.

Put in equation form it looks like this:

God = Love

I’ve thought a lot about that problem over the last few years.  I think the mistake I made for years is that when I solved the equation I provided the value for love.  I think this is a pretty common mistake that a lot of people make.

Love is used to mean a lot of different things in this day and age.  The early Christians probably understood Love better since they had three words available to describe what we call love: fillios, eros, and agapé.

If we belive we’re free to define love then we’re also free to define God.  We make Him in the image we choose.  Our task is to see Him as He is, not as we think He should be.

My problem was that I was working the problem backwards.  I was providing the wrong variable.  Understanding the right variable takes a lot of time, study, reflection, interaction and prayer.  I think that’s a partial definition of discernment.

I have faith that God has been revealed through the Scriptures.  If I understand who God is, then I know what love is.  To solve the God = Love equation I need to discover the value for God.  Then I can get the right value for love.

READER PARTICIPATION

Charles Wesley’s hymns are foundational to Methodism.  Singing hymns was a great way to instruct people, many of whom were illiterate, about basic Wesleyan theology.

A few years ago I heard a speaker deliver a whole sermon on the the phrase “he breaks the power of cancelled sin” from O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing.   Our hymns inform our theology.

Are there songs (outside the current hymnal) that inform your theology?  Have you ever considered how they mesh with our Wesleyan beliefs?

Three examples of songs that I’ve listened to a lot recently follow.  Are they theologically sound?  Do they reflect Wesleyan theology?  Your comments will be appreciated. Also please consider posting a link to other songs, outside our current hymnal, that you listen to and which you think help you have a deeper understanding of God’s love and the work of grace.  By the way, in the songs “No Longer Slaves”  and “Redeemed” I hear the echos of “he breaks the power of cancelled sin.”

The songs are listed in no particular order of preference or importance. Please feel free to post a link to a song that you’d like to share with others.  It may be possible that the comments section will be a non-hymnal sampler.  Limit yourself to one link per comment or the widgets  on the site may relegate your comment to the spam folder.  Thanks and I hope you enjoy.