Latest / Reformed Thinking / Love, the Sum of All Virtue (1 Corinthians 13:13) | Jonathan Edwards

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Love, the Sum of All Virtue (1 Corinthians 13:13) | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
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  It is really good to have you here with us today.
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  We are opening up a file that, I'll be honest, is a little bit
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  haunting. That's a good word for.
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  It we are doing a deep dive into the mind of the man who is,
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  well, arguably the greatest theologian America has ever
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  produced. Yeah, Jonathan Edwards.
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  The Titan of the First Great Awakening, no question.
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  The very same. Now, usually when you mention
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  Edwards, everyone's mind goes to the same place, right?
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  They picture a spider dangling over a fire.
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  Sinners in the hands of an angry God.
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  Exactly. They think of fear.
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  They think of, you know, Hellfire and brimstone.
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  But the source material we're looking at today, a sermon
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  titled Love the Sum of All Virtue, it just completely flips
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  that script. It does, or at least it adds A
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  dimension that most people miss. If you only know the angry God
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  Edwards you are, you're missing the heartbeat of the man.
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  That's a great way to put it. He was absolutely obsessed with
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  beauty, specifically the beauty of down and this text we are
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  breaking down today. It's his attempt to locate the
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  very soul of the Christian religion.
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  And that is our mission for this deep dive.
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  We aren't just reading a sermon. We are trying to solve a puzzle
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  that Edwards puts right in front of us.
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  He makes a claim in this text that seems, well, it seems
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  almost impossible at first glance.
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  He does. He argues that you can have
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  supernatural power. You can have a PhD in theology,
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  you can even be a martyr who dies for the church, and yet be
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  absolute zero in the eyes of God.
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  Nothing. That's the word he uses straight
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  from the Apostle Paul. It's chilling.
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  It is. So we need to figure out why.
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  Why is love the only thing that counts?
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  We have the sermon text, we have some of Edward's broader
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  theological notes, and we're going to try and piece this all
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  together. And just to set the context for
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  everyone, the primary text Edwards is preaching from here
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  is First Corinthians 13.1 to 3. The love chapter.
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  Right. And I know what you're probably
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  thinking. You're thinking, OK, I heard
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  this at my cousin's wedding. Or I see this on cross stitch
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  pillows at my grandmother's house.
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  Love is patient, love is kind. It feels very soft, very safe.
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  He feels like a guide to good manners, almost.
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  Don't be rude, share your toys. Exactly.
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  But Edwards isn't using this as a wedding homily.
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  He is using it as a scalpel. He is performing a spiritual
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  autopsy. Wow.
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  He's looking at the Corinthian church, which you have to
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  remember, was a mess of a church.
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  An absolute train wreck in some ways.
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  That's the context. We forget the Corinthians had
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  all the gifts. I mean they were speaking in
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  tongues. They are prophesying.
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  They were very spiritual bunch on the surface.
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  All the bells and whistles. But Paul and Edwards, through
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  him, is telling them they are missing the main ingredient, the
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  one thing that matters. And without that ingredient, the
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  result is 0. It's nothing.
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  So Edwards starts his whole argument by clearing up a
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  terminology issue. This is crucial.
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  Right out of the gate, the title of the sermon is Love, the Sum
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  of All Virtue. But if you're reading the King
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  James Version, which Edwards used, the word isn't love.
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  It's charity. Right and now abideth faith,
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  hope, charity, these three. Precisely.
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  And Edwards immediately flags this as a potential pothole for
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  the reader because, let's face it, language drifts over time.
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  If I tell you today that a billionaire is a man of charity,
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  what does that mean to you? It means he writes big checks.
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  It means philanthropy. It's about the external action
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  of, you know, giving to the poor.
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  That's it. Or even in a more social sense,
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  if I say, hey, show some charity to that guy, what am I asking
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  you to do? I'm thinking cut him some slack,
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  give him the benefit of the doubt, be nice, don't judge him
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  too harshly. Exactly.
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  It implies a sort of distant kindness, A calculated
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  benevolence. But Edwards just stops us right
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  there and says, no, that is not what Paul is talking about.
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  The Greek word here is agape, agape, and Edwards defines it
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  very simply, but very, I think, thoughtfully.
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  He says Agape signifies that disposition or affection whereby
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  one person is dear to another. Dear, I like that word.
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  It's so much warmer than just kindness.
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  It's intimate. It is.
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  It's not a cold duty you perform.
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  It's an ardent, affectionate attachment.
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  It implies that your heart is knit to the other person.
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  So when we talk about charity in this deep dive, we need to do a
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  find and replace in our heads. We aren't talking about writing
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  checks. We are talking about Love
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  Capital L. And Edwards points out that the
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  New Testament uses this word in a massive, all-encompassing way.
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  It isn't compartmentalized, and I think that's a mistake we
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  often make. You know we have our God bucket
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  and our People bucket. Oh absolutely.
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  I go to church on Sunday to love God and then I volunteer at the
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  soup kitchen on Saturday to love people.
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  Like, they're two different tasks.
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  Yeah, two different energies. But Edwards, looking at the
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  text, says no, that's a false distinction.
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  Look at First Corinthians 8. Paul says knowledge puffs up,
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  but charity edifies. And then immediately in that
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  same context, Paul links that charity to loving God.
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  So it's not a different subject. Not at all.
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  So when Paul arrives at chapter 13, he isn't switching gears to
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  talk about social ethics. He's talking about the lifeblood
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  of the believer's entire existence.
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  This love is directed vertically toward God and horizontally
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  toward man. But it is the same stuff.
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  It's the same substance. That's a huge take away right at
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  the start. If you think First Corinthians
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  13 is just about being a nice neighbor, you've totally missed
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  the plot. You've missed the whole point.
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  It is about the fundamental orientation of the soul toward
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  reality and God, of course, being the ultimate reality.
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  And because it is that fundamental orientation, the
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  lack of it is catastrophic. Which brings us, I think, to the
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  most terrifying part of the sermon, Section 2.
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  You called it the possibility of nothingness.
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  That's what it is. This is the part of the source
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  material where I really had to slow down and read it twice,
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  because Edwards really leans into the hyperbole.
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  Or maybe it's not hyperbole at all that Paul uses He lists
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  these excellent privileges, and he just systematically
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  dismantles them 1 by 1. Let's walk through the list,
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  because Edwards groups them first.
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  He looks at the gifts of communication and knowledge,
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  Paul writes, though I speak with the tongues of men and of
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  angels. Which is a fascinating phrase in
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  itself. Tons of men.
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  I take that to mean incredible eloquence, the ability to be the
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  greatest orator in history. A Churchill.
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  A Cicero. You could preach A sermon that
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  makes people weep. You could explain the gospel
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  with Shakespearean beauty and power.
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  And then tongues of angels. Now theologians debate what
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  exactly that means, but Edwards takes it to the highest possible
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  degree. Imagine being able to
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  communicate with the power and the clarity and the beauty of a
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  celestial being. Unfiltered truth perfectly
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  articulated. And Paul says through Edwards,
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  you can have that. And without love, you are just
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  sounding brass, a noisy gong. You're just noise.
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  Irritating noise. Then he moves to the intellect,
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  though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all
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  mysteries and all knowledge. This one, this one appeals to
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  the reformed thinking crowd, doesn't it?
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  We love our theology. We love digging into the
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  mysteries. We do, and Edwards is warning us
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  specifically. You could be a theological
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  genius. You could understand the depths
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  of predestination, the hypostatic union of Christ, all
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  the complexities of eschatology. You could score 100% on every
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  doctrinal exam ever written. You could have a library full of
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  books you've memorized, you've mastered.
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  And yet be spiritually dead. How?
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  Well, Edwards argues that the devil himself is a pretty good
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  theologian. That's a sobering thought.
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  Isn't it? He knows all these things are
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  true. He was there.
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  He understands the mysteries, probably better than we do, but
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  he has zero love. He hates God, so intellect
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  alone, no matter how brilliant, is not the marker of saving
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  virtue. OK, so I can be a great speaker
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  and a genius scholar and still be lost.
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  That's already a high bar. But then Paul escalates it.
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  He goes to the power gifts, though I have all faith so that
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  I could remove mountains. So this is the power player.
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  This is the person who prays and miracles happen.
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  The one everyone looks to. Now wait a minute.
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  This is where the modern listeners, I think it's really
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  stuck. And Edwards anticipates this.
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  How can someone have faith to move mountains, actual miracle
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  working power and not be a true Christian?
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  I mean, doesn't the miracle prove God is with them?
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  That is the intuitive assumption is what we all think.
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  If I see a guy heal the sick, my first thought is God approves of
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  this man. But Edwards, being the rigorous
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  biblical scholar he is, points to the exceptions in Scripture.
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  He brings up Judas Iscariot. Yeah.
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  That is a chilling example. It is, but think it through.
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  Judas was one of the 12. Jesus sent the 12 out two by two
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  to cast out demons and heal the sick.
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  The Bible doesn't say the 11 cast out demons.
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  But Judas, well, he couldn't quite do it.
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  No, it says. They all came back rejoicing at
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  the power they had. Exactly.
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  Judas likely performed miracles in Jesus name.
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  He had faith in a functional sense.
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  He believed that if he used the name of Jesus, power would flow,
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  and it did. But he had no love for Christ.
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  He was about to sell him for 30 pieces of silver.
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  Exactly. He was a son of perdition.
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  Or think of Balaam in the Old Testament.
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  He prophesied true things. He spoke the word of God, but
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  his heart was mercenary. He was in it for the money.
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  So Edwards is making a sharp distinction between what we
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  might call miraculous faith and saving faith.
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  That's precisely the distinction, correct?
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  Miraculous faith is a gift of the Spirit, yes, but it's what
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  theologians sometimes call a common grace or a common gift.
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  It's an external power given for the good of the Church, but it
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  doesn't necessarily change the nature of the person using it.
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  That's a hard concept. It is, but think of it this way.
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  God can use a hollow pipe to transport water to a thirsty
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  field. The field gets water, the plants
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  grow, but the pipe remains. Just a pipe.
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  It's just a conduit. Wow.
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  That is a heavy image. You can be the pipe.
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  You can be the vessel of God's power, delivering grace to other
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  people while you yourself are rusting on the inside.
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  That is the danger. That's the warning, and Edwards
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  presses it even further. He moves from excellent
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  privileges, these are gifts you receive to excellent
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  performances, things you do. OK, so this is the list of
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  works. This is what we would call our
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  resume. First, though, I bestow all my
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  goods to feed the poor. He means radical generosity.
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  We aren't talking about 10% tithing.
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  We are talking about liquidating your 4-O1K, selling your house,
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  your car, and getting every last penny to the homeless.
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  An incredible act of self denial.
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  And finally, the ultimate 1 though I give my body to be
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  burned. Martyrdom, the ultimate
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  sacrifice, dying for the cause, going to the stake.
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  This seems almost counterintuitive.
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  I mean, how can someone go to the stake be burned alive for
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  their religion and it profited them nothing?
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  Isn't the fact that they're willing to die for it the
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  ultimate proof that they love God?
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  You'd think so, but not necessarily.
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  And this is where Edwards, the psychologist, steps in.
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  He just analyzes the human heart with such precision.
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  He asks can a person die for A cause out of sheer stubbornness?
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  Oh sure, we see that in political movements and cults,
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  all sorts of things. Pride is a powerful motivator.
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  A very powerful motivator. Can a person die for pride?
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  I will not back down. I will be a hero.
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  My name will go down in history. Yes, absolutely.
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  The desire for glory. Edwards says if it is possible,
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  even in theory, to do these things from a motive other than
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  love, then these things in themselves are not the final
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  proof of salvation. The Pharisees gave alms.
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  They were rigorous givers, but Jesus said they did it to be
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  seen of men. The outward action was identical
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  to a godly action, but the root was rotten.
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  So if we look at the equation that Paul and Edwards are laying
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  out, speaking with eloquence plus genius level knowledge plus
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  mountain moving miracles plus total generosity plus martyrdom
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  minus love equals 0. Correct 0 Neil a complete null
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  set which. Forces us to the logical
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  conclusion that Edwards is driving at If you can have all
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  those things and still be nothing, then those things
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  cannot be the substance of Christianity.
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  No, they are accessories. They are the packaging.
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  They might be wonderful, but they are not the product itself.
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  That's it. Edwards thesis is crystal clear.
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  From that point on, all the virtue that is saving and that
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  distinguishes true Christians from others is summed up in
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  Christian love. Love is not just another virtue
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  on the list alongside patience or courage or whatever.
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  No, it's the category itself. It is the genus, All other
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  virtues are the species that come from it.
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  It's the difference between a wax flower and a real flower.
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  I think that's a very Edward's esque analogy.
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  Oh, I like that, yes. A wax flower can be sculpted to
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  look perfect. In fact, it might look more
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  perfect than the real 1. It has no brown spots.
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  It is perfect symmetry. You can paint it to look like it
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  has zeal. You can mold it to look like
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  generosity. But if you cut the stem.
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  There is no SAP. There is no life.
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  It's just dead structure. It's an imitation of life.
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  And for Edwards, that SAP, that life force is love.
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  And specifically, it is the Holy Spirit.
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  Yeah, this is where we have to pivot to the theology of it,
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  because we have to ask the question, where does this love
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  come from? It's obviously not something we
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  just conjure up by trying really hard, right?
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  It's not just self improvement. No.
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  Edwards argues that this love is a unified spring because it is
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  the very nature of the Spirit of God living inside a human being.
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  Let's dig into that because often when we talk about this
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  spirit, we can get vague. We talk about power or leading
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  or gifts, but Edwards gets ontological here.
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  He gets into the very being of God.
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  He does. He builds a beautiful, simple
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  theological equation. Premise one.
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  Scripture says God is love. Not just that God has love or
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  that God is loving, but that he is love.
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  It's his very essence. Premise 2 The Holy Spirit is the
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  personal Spirit of God. He is God proceeding from the
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  Father and the Son. So when the Holy Spirit enters a
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  human soul in regeneration, when we were born again, when we get
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  saved, what is actually entering the building?
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  Love is entering the building. To participate in the divine
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  nature, as Peter puts it, is to participate in love, Edwards
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  says. That conversion is the Holy
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  Spirit communicating his own nature to the believer.
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  He doesn't just hand you a new rule book, He gives you a new
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  temper. Temper.
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  That's an old word you don't hear that much anymore.
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  No, but in 18th century English, temper meant a disposition, a
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  bent, a prevailing attitude of the mind, like the way metal is
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  tempered, heated and cooled to bend a certain way and hold a
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  certain strength. The spirit bends the soul toward
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  love. And this explains why Edwards
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  insists that love for God and love for man are the same
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  principle. I found this part really
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  helpful, he says. You don't have two different
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  spirits inside you. Right.
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  It is one in the same spirit 1 principle.
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  He says it flows from the same spring in the heart, even if it
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  runs into different channels. Think of it like like gravity.
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  Gravity is one single force, but it pulls the rock down to the
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  earth and it holds the moon in orbit around the earth.
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  Same force, different objects and different effects.
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  Or like light from the sun. The same sunlight hits a mirror
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  and it reflects brilliantly. It hits a dark rock and it warms
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  it up. It hits a plant and causes
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  photosynthesis. Same light, different effects
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  based on the object it hits. That's a perfect analogy.
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  So Edward says this single temper of love exercises itself
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  toward God and what he calls complacency, which is an old
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  word for delight or adoration. We delight in God's perfection,
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  and that same temper exercises itself toward man in benevolence
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  or goodwill. So it's not that the Spirit does
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  2 separate works. It's not like, OK, here is some
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  love for God and let me go back to the divine warehouse and get
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  some love for people. No, no, it's one work.
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  By breathing himself into the soul, he breathes love into the
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  soul, which then naturally flows out in all appropriate
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  directions. And This is why you cannot truly
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  have one without the other. You remember in first John where
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  the apostle asked that piercing question, that loveth not his
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  brother whom he has seen. How can he love God, whom he
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  have not seen? Edwards is essentially writing a
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  massive commentary on that single idea.
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  It's impossible. He is.
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  He traces the shared motives. He asks, Why do we love God?
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  Well, primarily for His Excellency in His Holiness.
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  God is a supreme beauty, the source of all that is good.
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  So we love him for who he is. Then he asks, OK, why do we love
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  the Saints? Other Christians.
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  Because they reflect that beauty, however dimly.
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  Right. We see the image of God in them.
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  We see the family resemblance. We love the reflection of the
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  Father in the face of our brother or sister in Christ.
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  But then here's the harder question.
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  Why do we love our neighbor who isn't a Christian or someone who
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  isn't particularly holy? Maybe they're actually quite
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  difficult or even hostile to us. And Edwards says we love them
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  because of their relation to God as their Creator.
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  They are His workmanship made in his image, even if that image is
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  marred by sin. Which implies you cannot love
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  the artist and hate his art. You can't.
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  You just can't. It's a contradiction.
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  I really like the illustration of a close friend.
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  If I have a dear friend, someone I would, you know, take a bullet
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  for I naturally have a love for his children.
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  Maybe I've never even met the kids.
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  Maybe to be honest, the kids are a little annoying sometimes.
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  It's can be they're. Loud they break things, but
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  because they belong to my friend whom I love, I am disposed to be
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  kind to them. I treat them well for the
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  Father's sake. That is it exactly.
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  That's the principle. If you truly love God, you will
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  love what he has made and what belongs to him.
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  You cannot say I love God and then treat his creation,
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  especially his image bearers, with contempt or indifference,
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  Edwards says. That is a contradiction in
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  terms. It's a lie.
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  This really challenges the way we compartmentalize our lives.
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  You know if I am rude to the barista at the coffee shop or if
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  I am dismissive of a Co worker I disagree with.
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  In Edwards view, it's not just a social slip up.
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  No, it's a theological problem. It indicates a malfunction in my
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  love for God. That is the heavy lifting that
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  Edwards does. He connects the docks between
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  your private prayer life and your public patients in a
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  traffic jam. It's all one system flowing from
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  1 Spring. Now, Edwards was a man of high
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  intellect, a true rationalist in the best sense, and he loved to
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  use reason. He didn't just want to quote
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  Bible verses. He wanted to show the mechanics
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  of how this works. In the next section of the
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  sermon, he moves from pure theology to what he calls an
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  argument from reason. Yeah.
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  He wants to prove that every single virtue we value is
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  actually just love wearing a different hat.
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  He breaks it down so beautifully, separating it into
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  our conduct toward God and our conduct toward man.
• 18:24
  Let's look at the toward God side first.
• 18:26
  He argues that love naturally leads to trust.
• 18:30
  That makes perfect intuitive sense, doesn't it?
• 18:32
  We don't suspect the people we cherish.
• 18:34
  If you truly love someone, your default setting is to believe
• 18:38
  them to trust their character. And if you don't love them, if
• 18:42
  you view them as a tyrant or just a distant, impersonal boss,
• 18:45
  you were always looking for the fine print.
• 18:48
  You suspect they're holding out on you or trying to trick you.
• 18:51
  And Edwards says that the reason we so often struggle to trust
• 18:54
  God and his promises is, at its root, a deficit of love.
• 18:57
  If we truly loved him, we would know with certainty that He has
• 19:00
  our best interest at heart, even when we can't see how.
• 19:04
  Then he moves to submission. He says we are willing to do the
• 19:07
  will of those we love. We actually want to please them.
• 19:10
  Think about a young man who is head over heels in love.
• 19:13
  He will drive 4 hours in the snow just to see the girl for 10
• 19:16
  minutes. He will change his habits.
• 19:19
  He will start listening to music he hates just because she likes
• 19:21
  it. It's not a burden, it's a joy.
• 19:23
  It is. It's a delight to submit to her
• 19:25
  wishes. Edwards says that without love,
• 19:28
  obedience to God is slavery. It's a grind.
• 19:30
  It's duty, but with love, submission becomes a delight.
• 19:34
  I get to do this for him. And humility.
• 19:37
  This is a huge theme for Edwards throughout all of his works.
• 19:40
  Oh, it is the cornerstone. Edwards argues that love
• 19:43
  disposes us to be willing to be low so that God can be high.
• 19:47
  When you truly adore someone, you delight in their exultation.
• 19:50
  You don't compete with them. You want to see them honored.
• 19:53
  So a true Christian then delights to cast themselves in
• 19:56
  the dust so that God can be glorified, because they love God
• 20:00
  more than they love their own image.
• 20:02
  That's it. And that is a tough pill to
• 20:03
  swallow for our modern egos, isn't it?
• 20:05
  We want to be the main character in our own story, Edward says.
• 20:08
  Love makes you happy to be a supporting actor in God's great
• 20:11
  story. OK, so then he pivots to the
• 20:14
  horizontal, our conduct toward man, and he runs through a list
• 20:18
  of virtues that we usually think of as dry duties, but he
• 20:21
  reframes every single one of them as an act of love.
• 20:24
  Let's take justice. Justice.
• 20:26
  We usually think of that as cold, impartial adherence to the
• 20:29
  law. Blind Lady Justice holding the
• 20:31
  scales, no emotion, right? So Edward says if you love your
• 20:35
  neighbor, you will give him his due, not because the law forces
• 20:38
  you to, but because you care about his well-being.
• 20:41
  You won't cheat him in business, you won't harm his reputation,
• 20:45
  you won't steal his property. Why?
• 20:48
  Because that would hurt him, and you cannot bear to hurt what you
• 20:51
  love. Justice is simply love and
• 20:53
  operation regarding rights and property.
• 20:55
  And truth. Same principle.
• 20:57
  You don't lie to a friend. Lying is an act of hostility.
• 21:00
  It treats the other person as an enemy to be manipulated or a
• 21:03
  fool to be tricked. Love speaks truth because it
• 21:06
  values the relationship and respects the dignity of the
• 21:08
  other person, even when the truth is hard.
• 21:11
  What about meekness? That's a word we don't use much
• 21:13
  anymore, and when we do, we kind of misunderstand it.
• 21:15
  We view it as weakness, but it isn't.
• 21:18
  Meekness is love under pressure, Edward says.
• 21:21
  Love covers sins. It isn't bitter.
• 21:23
  It doesn't keep a record of wrongs.
• 21:25
  When someone attacks you or insults you, if you love them,
• 21:28
  your first instinct isn't to destroy them in return.
• 21:31
  It's to absorb the blow and seek reconciliation if possible.
• 21:34
  It's strength under control. And contentment.
• 21:38
  This one really hit me when I was reading the source material
• 21:39
  this week. It should.
• 21:40
  It exposes all of us. Contentment is the opposite of
• 21:43
  envy, and Edwards points out that envy is actually a form of
• 21:47
  self love and hatred of your neighbor.
• 21:49
  Think about what envy is. If I am envious of you, it means
• 21:53
  I am sad that you are happy. What a twisted way to live.
• 21:56
  It is demonic, it's misery. But if I love you, I rejoice
• 21:59
  when you prosper. I am genuinely happy that you
• 22:02
  got the promotion. I am excited you bought the new
• 22:04
  house. Your joy becomes my joy.
• 22:06
  So all these social virtues, justice, truth, meekness,
• 22:10
  contentment, they aren't separate things to work on.
• 22:12
  They're just love in different situations.
• 22:14
  And then Edwards flips the coin. After showing how love produces
• 22:19
  virtue, he warns us about the hypocrisy of duty without love.
• 22:23
  He says any religious act performed without love is
• 22:26
  unsound and hypocritical. This brings us right back to the
• 22:29
  clanging symbol. Without love, obedience is
• 22:32
  forced. Think about a slave who hates
• 22:34
  his master. He might do the work.
• 22:37
  He might plow the field perfectly.
• 22:39
  He might obey every command, but he is doing it to avoid the
• 22:42
  whip. His heart is in rebellion the
• 22:44
  entire time. And Edwards says God doesn't
• 22:47
  want slave labor. He wants sons and daughters who
• 22:49
  work because they love the father and want to please him.
• 22:52
  And he also mentions dead faith in this context.
• 22:54
  Right. Without love there is no real
• 22:56
  trust. It's just a cold intellectual
• 22:58
  calculation. I believe these facts are true,
• 23:00
  so I'll comply to get the benefits.
• 23:02
  There's no affection, no embrace of Christ Himself.
• 23:05
  This leads us naturally to the theological core of the sermon.
• 23:08
  Section 5. And this is where we need to be
• 23:10
  very precise, especially for our audience.
• 23:12
  We are Reformed thinking, We hold to the Westminster
• 23:15
  standards. We believe in justification by
• 23:17
  faith alone. Solo feed.
• 23:18
  Absolutely the bedrock. But Edwards is arguing that love
• 23:22
  is the sum of all virtue. A critic might look at this and
• 23:25
  say, wait a minute, is Edwards slipping into works
• 23:28
  righteousness? Is he saying we are saved by our
• 23:31
  love? It is a valid question, and it's
• 23:33
  one that Edwards answers with typical Calvinist precision.
• 23:36
  He is not. Let me be clear.
• 23:38
  He is not saying that our love earns us salvation.
• 23:40
  He's not saying our love is the merit.
• 23:42
  Christ's perfect righteousness imputed to us is the only merit.
• 23:46
  OK, so how does he connect faith and love then, without
• 23:50
  undermining faith alone? He goes to Galatians 5.6 and
• 23:54
  this is the key verse for his whole argument.
• 23:56
  Paul says For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth
• 23:59
  anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith, which worketh by
• 24:03
  love. Faith working by love.
• 24:05
  That is the hinge. It is the whole thing.
• 24:07
  Edwards makes a distinction between what he calls
• 24:09
  speculative faith and true saving faith.
• 24:12
  Speculative faith is the ascent of the understanding, only it's
• 24:15
  purely intellectual. It's knowing the facts.
• 24:17
  So I believe to Jesus is the Son of God.
• 24:19
  I believe the Bible is true. I believe the tomb is empty.
• 24:22
  I can affirm all the points of the Creed.
• 24:24
  But as we mentioned earlier, the devils have this right.
• 24:26
  James chapter 2 is crystal clear.
• 24:28
  The devils believe and they tremble.
• 24:30
  They have the facts, but they hate the facts.
• 24:32
  They have light, but they have no heat.
• 24:34
  Saving faith, by contrast, is the ascent of the heart.
• 24:37
  It involves choosing Christ. It is an act of the will and the
• 24:40
  affections. It's embracing Him.
• 24:43
  I love the analogy Edwards uses here.
• 24:45
  He says that as the body is dead without the Spirit, so faith is
• 24:49
  dead without works, or more specifically, without love.
• 24:52
  Yes, he's saying that love is the soul of faith.
• 24:55
  It is the active, working, animating spirit inside true
• 24:59
  faith. Think about it this way.
• 25:02
  When we receive Christ for our salvation, we aren't just
• 25:04
  signing a contract for fire insurance.
• 25:07
  We are receiving a person. And to receive Him truly is to
• 25:11
  embrace Him that embraces an act of love.
• 25:14
  You cannot choose Christ as your Savior and your supreme treasure
• 25:16
  without loving Him. The 2 are inseparable.
• 25:19
  So the very act of receiving Christ is in itself an act of
• 25:22
  the hearts affection for him. Correct.
• 25:24
  So we are justified by faith alone.
• 25:27
  But the faith that justifies is never alone.
• 25:30
  It is always a faith that is alive with love.
• 25:32
  If there is no love, there's no life in the faith, and therefore
• 25:35
  there is no justification. It's not that love plus faith
• 25:39
  equals salvation. It is that living faith which
• 25:42
  necessarily contains love as its essence, receives salvation.
• 25:46
  That distinction saves us from legalism on one side, thinking
• 25:49
  our love saves us, and antinomianism or cheap grace on
• 25:53
  the other. Exactly.
• 25:54
  It keeps the gospel of grace intact while demanding A
• 25:57
  genuinely transformed heart. It holds both together
• 26:00
  perfectly. So let's zoom out a bit.
• 26:02
  We've looked at the human heart and the nature of faith.
• 26:04
  Now Edwards looks at the Gospel itself.
• 26:07
  He argues that the entire structure of the Gospel message
• 26:10
  is a revelation of love. This is just beautiful,
• 26:12
  beautiful theology. He takes us right into the inner
• 26:15
  life of the Trinity. The Father loves the Son from
• 26:17
  all eternity, the Son loves the Father.
• 26:19
  The Holy Spirit is the personal bond of that infinite love.
• 26:22
  And the Gospel is simply that intra trinitarian love spilling
• 26:25
  over to include us in that fellowship.
• 26:27
  Edwards references a vision from Revelation chapter 4 verse 3.
• 26:31
  The Apostle John sees a throne in heaven and there is a rainbow
• 26:34
  round about the throne. Insight like unto an emerald.
• 26:38
  It's such a striking image. God sits on a throne of
• 26:41
  authority. Yes, he is the sovereign king.
• 26:43
  He rules all things. But he is surrounded by a
• 26:46
  rainbow, the symbol of the covenant of grace, the promise
• 26:49
  that he will not destroy. And it's emerald green, a color
• 26:53
  Edwards associates with gentleness, life and mercy.
• 26:56
  So the glory that is surrounding God isn't a terrifying,
• 26:59
  consuming fire like at Mount Sinai, it is the glory of His
• 27:03
  love and grace. It is.
• 27:05
  Edwards wants us to see that the atmosphere of God's throne room
• 27:07
  is love. When we approach him through
• 27:10
  Christ, we aren't approaching A reluctant tyrant who has to be
• 27:12
  convinced to bless us. We are approaching a Father
• 27:15
  sitting on a throne of grace and circled by a covenant of peace.
• 27:18
  And this leads to a very practical contrast in the
• 27:20
  sermon. We have the right spirit, this
• 27:22
  emerald rainbow spirit of love, and then we have the wrong
• 27:25
  spirit. Edwards brings up the story from
• 27:26
  Luke Chapter 9 where the disciples James and John want to
• 27:29
  call down fire on the Samaritans.
• 27:31
  Oh, this is such a classic moment.
• 27:33
  The Samaritans reject Jesus, they don't welcome him.
• 27:36
  And James and John are furious. They are zealous for their
• 27:39
  master. They say, Lord, do you want us
• 27:41
  to call down fire from heaven and consume them just like
• 27:44
  Elijah did? They think they are being
• 27:46
  spiritual. They think they are defending
• 27:48
  God's honor. They're ready to fight for
• 27:50
  Jesus. And Jesus rebukes them.
• 27:52
  He turns and says, You know not what manner of spirit ye are of.
• 27:56
  That is a devastating critique. Isn't it?
• 27:59
  They thought they were filled with the Holy Spirit, the spirit
• 28:01
  of zeal for God, but they were actually acting out of a spirit
• 28:04
  of bitterness, revenge and wrath.
• 28:07
  And Edwards applies this to his own time.
• 28:09
  And boy, does it apply to. Ours.
• 28:11
  It applies to every era of Church history.
• 28:13
  People so often mistake bitterness for zeal.
• 28:16
  They think that being angry about heresy or being harsh and
• 28:19
  cutting with their opponents is a sign of their deep piety.
• 28:23
  I'm fighting for the truth. I'm a contender for the faith.
• 28:26
  And Edward says no. If your spirit is revengeful, if
• 28:29
  it is bitter and contentious, it is the opposite of the spirit of
• 28:32
  Christ. The spirit of the Kingdom is a
• 28:35
  dove, not a dragon. That leads us right into section
• 28:37
  seven of his argument, the danger of contention.
• 28:42
  I feel like we could do a whole deep dive just on this section.
• 28:45
  Edwards argues that contention literally kills religion.
• 28:48
  He quotes James 3.16 Where envying and strife is there is
• 28:52
  confusion and every evil work. Edwards takes this literally.
• 28:57
  If love is the sum total of Christianity, then contention,
• 29:01
  strife, malice, envy is the direct negation of it.
• 29:04
  They are polar opposites. They cannot coexist in the same
• 29:07
  heart. So you cannot have a
• 29:09
  controversial fighting Christianity as your primary
• 29:12
  mode of being. No, he says.
• 29:14
  That's an oxymoron. It's a contradiction in terms.
• 29:16
  He uses some incredibly strong language here.
• 29:19
  He says an envious Christian or a malicious Christian is a
• 29:22
  contradiction, like calling something dark, brightness or
• 29:24
  false truth. Dark brightness That just sticks
• 29:27
  with you, doesn't it? You cannot claim to be walking
• 29:29
  in the light while you are actively spewing darkness and
• 29:31
  malice at your brother. It is ontologically impossible.
• 29:35
  But surely we have to stand for truth.
• 29:37
  We have to fight doctrinal errors.
• 29:39
  We're reformed, after all. We have a long history of
• 29:42
  rigorous debate and polemics. We do, and Edwards was a fierce
• 29:46
  defender of the truth. But he would say we must do it
• 29:49
  with the spirit of love. As soon as the defense of truth
• 29:52
  becomes a vehicle for personal malice, or for pride, or for
• 29:55
  party spirit and strife, we have lost the very thing we claim to
• 29:59
  be defending. You can defend the truth of God
• 30:02
  while acting like a child of the devil.
• 30:04
  And Edwards warns that this is an incredibly dangerous place to
• 30:07
  be. This all culminates, really, in
• 30:09
  the command to love our enemies. The ultimate test?
• 30:12
  Why is that command in Matthew 5 so central to the Sermon on the
• 30:15
  Mount? Because loving your friends is
• 30:17
  easy, Jesus says. Even the tax collectors do that.
• 30:20
  Even the worst pagans love the people who are nice to them.
• 30:23
  That's just natural. That's just transactional.
• 30:25
  It is but loving an enemy, someone who hates you, who wants
• 30:28
  to harm you, that requires a supernatural source.
• 30:32
  It tests whether the love you have is genuine divine love or
• 30:35
  merely transactional human affection.
• 30:38
  And it connects right back to the heart of the gospel.
• 30:40
  Yes, Romans 5 God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we
• 30:45
  were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
• 30:48
  While we were enemies, God reconciled us to Himself.
• 30:51
  To be children of the Father, we must imitate that specific kind
• 30:55
  of love, the love that moves toward the hostile to win them,
• 30:58
  not to destroy them. So we've defined love, we've
• 31:01
  seen its absolute necessity, we've seen its divine source,
• 31:05
  and we've seen its practical outworking.
• 31:07
  Now the final part of the sermon.
• 31:09
  Edwards moves to the application.
• 31:11
  He turns the scalpel from the text to the listener.
• 31:14
  He asks us to examine ourselves. And this is where it gets
• 31:16
  uncomfortable. This is where we have to be
• 31:18
  honest. It is easy to talk about all
• 31:20
  this abstractly. It's much harder to actually
• 31:22
  look in the mirror. Edwards asks us to test our
• 31:24
  religious experiences. You have to remember in the
• 31:26
  Great Awakening people were having all kinds of powerful
• 31:29
  experiences, crying, fainting, shouting, intense emotions.
• 31:32
  Right. And Edwards wasn't against
• 31:34
  emotion, but he was for testing it.
• 31:35
  Exactly. And he said the number one test
• 31:37
  of a genuine religious experience is this.
• 31:40
  Does it excite love? Light must bring heat.
• 31:43
  Right. If you learn a new theological
• 31:45
  truth, you get light, but it just makes you proud or it makes
• 31:49
  you look down on others who don't know what you know that is
• 31:51
  not from God. True discovery of God, true
• 31:54
  light always melts the heart. It humbles you and makes you
• 31:57
  love God more and your neighbor more.
• 32:00
  If it breeds pride and division, it's a false light.
• 32:03
  Then he issues a powerful call to action.
• 32:06
  He challenges the excuse that we all make, which is that we don't
• 32:09
  have enough opportunities to show love.
• 32:12
  Oh, I love this imagery he uses. He says a fountain full of water
• 32:16
  must send forth streams. You can't plug it up.
• 32:19
  It will find a crack, It will overflow.
• 32:21
  If your heart is truly full of love, you won't sit around
• 32:23
  waiting for some grand opportunity to be a martyr or
• 32:26
  give away all your money. No, it'll come out in the small
• 32:28
  things. It will find a way to express
• 32:30
  itself. Today.
• 32:31
  You will be kind to your spouse when you're tired.
• 32:33
  You will be patient with your children when they're
• 32:35
  misbehaving. You will serve your church when
• 32:37
  it's inconvenient. Love is pressurized.
• 32:40
  It forces its way out into the world.
• 32:42
  So the flip side of that is if we look at our lives and we see
• 32:45
  very little stream, it might mean the fountain is dry.
• 32:48
  That is the hard, unavoidable truth that Edwards leaves us
• 32:51
  with. It forces us to go back to the
• 32:53
  source, to the Spirit, and ask for that living water because we
• 32:57
  can't produce it ourselves. As we wrap up this deep dive,
• 33:00
  let's try to summarize. Edwards has taken us from the
• 33:03
  heights of the Trinity, the inner life of God, all the way
• 33:06
  down to the grit of our daily behavior and interactions.
• 33:09
  The summary is really this Love is not an optional side dish to
• 33:13
  theology. It isn't the garnish on the
• 33:15
  plate of your Christian life. It is the meat.
• 33:18
  It is the substance of all saving virtue.
• 33:21
  Without it we are nothing. With it, we participate in the
• 33:24
  very life of God Himself. In Edwards ends not with a
• 33:27
  threat, but with a thought on the sheer pleasantness of this
• 33:30
  life. He does.
• 33:31
  He quotes Proverbs. Her ways are ways of
• 33:33
  pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.
• 33:36
  A life of love is a happy life, A life of malice and envy and
• 33:39
  holding grudges is a miserable life.
• 33:41
  It is, in a real sense a foretaste of hell, but a life of
• 33:45
  genuine love is a foretaste of heaven.
• 33:47
  And that is the provocative thought I think I want to leave
• 33:49
  our listeners with today. Edward suggests that heaven is
• 33:54
  essentially a world of love. That's its defining
• 33:57
  characteristic. It is a place where every
• 34:00
  inhabitant loves God supremely and loves every other inhabitant
• 34:04
  perfectly and selflessly. So the piercing question for
• 34:07
  self examination is this. If we find the duties of love
• 34:11
  burdensome here on earth, if we hate forgiving people, if we
• 34:15
  resent serving, if we find patience annoying, how could we
• 34:19
  possibly enjoy an eternity where love is the only atmosphere?
• 34:22
  We wouldn't fit in. We would be miserable there,
• 34:24
  surrounded by all that joy and selflessness.
• 34:27
  That is a thought that will keep you up at night in the best
• 34:30
  possible way. It forces us to ask, is my heart
• 34:33
  being shaped for that world or for this one?
• 34:35
  Am I practicing the language of my eternal home?
• 34:37
  Indeed. Or am I still speaking the
• 34:39
  language of exile? Thank you for joining us for
• 34:41
  this deep dive into Jonathan Edwards.
• 34:44
  It is heavy lifting, but I think it's good for the soul.
• 34:46
  We hope this challenges you to not just read First Corinthians
• 34:49
  13, but to truly live. It Amen to that.
• 34:52
  Until next time, keep thinking and keep loving.