You can watch the two videos (there will be one or two more) that we are doing as part of the Gospel of John Study, and I highly recommend that you take the time to watch this series. The best place to find it is on YouTube at our Christ Reformation Church channel. Then go to the playlist “Does God Love Everyone?” (Here is a link to the first video of this series on our YouTube channel.)
If you are an abuse victim/survivor, then you already know how damaging it is for people to march up to you and insist, “well, you know, God loves everyone and so you need to love your abuser too.” (Of course they wouldn’t call him your “abuser”).
This short phrase, “God loves everyone,” is nothing less than a false gospel with all sorts of nasty tentacles reaching out to enslave people. So please take the time to watch this series.
Author: Jeff Crippen Page 50 of 88
2 Corinthians 10:10 ESV For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.”
The real issue at Corinth was the truth of the gospel and the false gospel wicked “apostles” were introducing. They hated Paul and they hated the truth of Christ, but instead of arguing what we might call the “merits of the case,” they changed the focus and made attacks upon Paul’s style of speech and physical appearance.
This business of shifting the focus from the real issue to some detour topic is a sure sign that evil is afoot, working to pull off another “shift” – the shifting of blame.
The following comment was made recently and I wanted to share it with you, along with my own thoughts on the issue. This is a very important question and I thank our reader for sharing it. Are we required to always “think the best” of whatever people do or say? After all, doesn’t Paul say in 1 Cor 13 that we are to “believe all things.”
Here is the comment:
Most of you know that I teach a videocast Bible study on Wednesdays at 10am Pacific time. This last Wednesday I began to deal with the statement that insists “God loves everyone,” and which, covertly also insists that “you better believe this or else.” It is vital that we get a firm hold on what the Bible says about this subject or else we will be guilted/duped/coerced into further bondage to the wicked.
You can watch the video here. It will take two or three sessions to cover this.
John 3:20 ESV For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.
Many if not most of you have had this experience. You saw it when you asked for help and rescue from an evil abuser. Friends, fellow church members, family members, turned on you and abandoned you. Why?
Over the years I have observed a very common dynamic, and I have experienced it myself many times. Friends. Seemingly good friends. People whose friendship you enjoyed for even years. People you might have even called your best friend. But then suddenly – and I mean with all caps and boldface, SUDDENLY, virtually overnight, they rejected you and betrayed you. It was like some switch got thrown in their brain so that they didn’t even seem to be the person they were before.
But they were that person. It now simply becomes evident.
Hebrews 13:5-6 ESV Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (6) So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”
The wicked leave and forsake. They abandon. Oh, they stick around physically way too long, but only to destroy. They forsake – which means to abandon and desert. They do it everyday, beginning with their marriage vows. Those of you who have been victims of a domestic abuser know this all too well. Abusers forsake their victim economically, emotionally, physically, relationally – really in every way.
Joshua 1:5 ESV No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you.
Isaiah 43:2 ESV When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.
And of course as quoted above,
Hebrews 13:5b ESV …for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Now, what I find interesting in this Hebrews passage is that immediately following this promise to never forsake us is this:
Galatians 6:2 ESV Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
This article was written by a young lady who has suffered the pain of being rejected by friends and by her church. What was her crime? She and her family escaped an abuser father/husband. For that, they were shunned – marked as “unclean.” Their burden was not borne by the people around them who claimed to be fine Christians, and for that they will one day have to give account. Instead of putting the wicked man out in obedience to Christ (see 1 Cor 5), they put the victims out.
Many thanks to Tiffany for sharing her story with us. Here she is:
Are you weary, are you heavyhearted?
Tell it to Jesus,
Tell it to Jesus;
Are you grieving over joys departed?
Tell it to Jesus alone.
Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus,
He is a friend that’s well known;
You’ve no other such a friend or brother,
Tell it to Jesus alone. [Jeremiah Rankin, mid- 1800’s]
There certainly is a category of sinner who is heavy-hearted and grieving. It is this very type of person the Lord addresses in such passages as:
John 7:37 ESV On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
Matthew 11:28 ESV Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Such people thirst and are burdened because of their sin and because the Lord has brought them under conviction of that sin in order to drive them to Christ. This is the function of the Law as it thunders condemnation to the guilty.
Galatians 4:17 ESV They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them.
This morning I was thinking about how, over the years, wicked people have used me. And the thought struck me that “abuser” is a very descriptive word in this regard. Abusers are users. To ab-use is to use someone or something for an abnormal, deviate, twisted and improper purpose. The prefix “ab” means “off” or “differing from.” Ab-normal then means “off normal. Differing from that which is normal.”
To ab-use then means to use someone or something in an “off” manner as opposed to using for a proper purpose. The wicked use their targeted victims for reasons that are “off” what is a right and healthy use. Let me describe my experience in this business for the purpose of helping you see how it has come at you in your life.