1 Timothy 1: The Duality of Love
Over the last week or so we have explored the dualities we find in creation and in God’s person of creator, redeemer and spirit. Today we explore our openness to infinite duality with this favorite from September 17, 2008.
Fidelity to the Message
Restrain false and useless teaching. This is the message of the first chapter of 1 Timothy. Do not nurture the thinking that does not contribute to love within the community. By maintaining faith, we open the conduit through which God’s plan comes to us – we receive revelation through fidelity to God.
Among the list of false teachings we see the lifestyle of homosexuals criticized. This thinking ought to sadden modern Christians who have the benefit of science to know that our sexual identity and our sexual behaviors are formed before birth. In other words, we have before us the scientifically proven facts that we cannot change our sexual orientation any more than we can our eye color. Of course, in this ancient culture of Timothy, which prized reproduction as an assurance of the survival of the human race, homosexual behavior would be looked upon as a waste of creation, an aberrant perspective, a troubling and even insidious lifestyle. Today we know better.
Despite what seems to be a difference in opinion, the key to understanding God’s plan lies in this opening chapter of 1 Timothy: we must remain faithful to God in order to understand fully his message. Anything that gets in the way of a full and open understanding must be jettisoned, i.e.; the belief that our sexual determination is an emotion or a choice. Life is a process, and we occupy a tiny speck on this spectrum of coming to the fullness of God’s message. The evolution of our species is a scientific tenet, proven and documented. We know with certainty that twenty first century humankind has changed in form and chemistry from our earliest ancestors. When we think of God’s plan, we understand that we are finite in our present form; we do not have the capacity to know all that has gone before and all that will follow. When we pause to reflect, we might begin to understand our capacity, or incapacity, to enter into the intricacies of the infinite. The more we open our minds to Christ, the more we will understand the complexity of God’s message, or in other words, we must remain faithful to God in order to understand fully God’s message.
The key to growth in the Spirit is this, as we have been told in this chapter: fidelity brings about understanding. The more we cleave to the Law of Love, the more we will understand that our comprehension of that law must grow and develop. We return to the original thought: we must remain faithful to God in order to understand fully God’s message. Does the message change? No, but our human capacity to understand the divine morphs and grows as we ourselves grow, both as individuals and as a community.
The letters to Timothy and Titus present a manual on the formation and maintenance of a Christian community; but we must place these teachings within the body of science we have available to us today. And we must move forward and away from the false teachings to which we may want to cling for comfort. We must remain faithful to God in order to understand fully God’s message. . . . and we must remain in God so that God’s message comes to us through, and of and in God.
Image from: https://fromalovingplace.com/2021/03/12/daily-aligning-with-love-abundance-and-peace-224/








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