Jesus Loves you.

Dear Cooper:

If you were paying attention to my first letter, and if you were really thinking hard (which I am sure you were) you might have thought; ‘Hey you forgot Someone! Jesus Loves me!’ And so He does! Thanks for reminding me.

1 John 4:16

And so we know and rely on the love

God has for us. God is love.

Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

Pretty much everything we look at from here on has at its centre that simple statement of God’s Love. Jesus does Love us.

I mentioned in the first letter that those that God has drawn together in your Baptism are a pretty diverse bunch of humans. Our Christian upbringing spans a great breadth from Roman Catholic to Pentecostal and so embraces a really wide range of Christian thinking; and, as you might guess, a really wide range of thinking about Baptism. So, in some way, God must be bringing this really wide and fuzzy range of thinking together and into focus. How do I know? Well, its because He is God and it is what He does. I trust Him. We love Him and we know that all things work together for the good for those who love God (Romans 2:28).

Roman Catholics have given Baptism really careful thought over the last two thousand years. They have read the Bible very closely and have concluded that infant baptism (or paedobaptism) is appropriate. A bit of an odd word that! Paedobaptism? ‘Paedo’ in Latin is related to ‘pais’ in Greek which translates child or infant in English. So your Roman Catholic family would most likely all have been baptized as infants. They love God and they love their children - it would be wrong to presume in this Baptism anything less than a genuine desire to act obediently and humbly, according to Scripture, and in Love.

However, Pentecostals are what I called Anabaptists in my last letter – ‘ana’ is Greek for “re” - so they are re-baptizers. They have also given Baptism really careful thought and have read the Bible very closely; they have concluded that only adults, who have humbly repented of their sins, who profess Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour and who freely offer themselves to God can be Baptized. So that is where re-baptizing becomes necessary. Infants simply cannot meet these requirements for Baptism; so baptized infants must be re-baptized as humbly confessing adults. Again, presume here a deep desire to humbly obey God and live according to the Bible.

Sadly, these conflicting ideas have caused a lot of controversy among us Christians. I may talk about each of these ideas a bit more over the next few letters. Why? Because they will help us draw out something important for what we will do together on February 5^th.

But know this: at the centre of Baptism is God and His Love for us. The reason for the controversy and conflict is because people got distracted from God and the fact that He is Love.

So, tomorrow maybe some thoughts on God’s Love and Baptism.
Friday and Saturday, maybe we can look at what the Bible says about what is going on in Baptism (this will explain a bit about the ‘paedo’ and ‘ana’ baptism thing). Then we can look at another ‘controversy’ on Monday and Tuesday. Fun huh? Exploring why Christians debate things and feel so strongly about them! We are fallen in our sin and, as you will see, that in many ways explains what God is up to.

So for today, you are very right to remind me that God is Love (1 John 4:16). Note this does not say God has Love, or God gives Love. Love is the very nature of God. Love is the precise way God is. So anything we say or do moving forward must reflect God who is Love. We are commanded to Love as God is. Love shapes how we must relate to each other which, because God is perfect and infinite, means perfectly and completely.

✝HE

Wednesday, January 4, 2017