Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4:10)
"But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us!" (Romans 5:8).
Our advent focus to day is love. A key way God has shown is love and care to the world is by establishing covenants with humanity, covenants which culminated in Jesus. As we look at the heart of the toxic dysfunction in Timothy’s church, we will see Paul focus a spotlight on the heart of the problem: the mockery and rejection of covenant. [1]
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We live in a consumer culture. We basically say, “If you please me, I will reward you.” If my garbage doesn’t get picked up, I’m getting a new collector. If another phone company is cheaper and better, I’m switching. It's just business. It’s entirely conditional. If I don't like the product, I move on. A consumer culture is a throw-away culture.
This is not necessarily bad, but it becomes bad when we begin to treat people from a consumer perspective. We can say to our friends, family or spouses: “If you please me, I will reward you. I’ll be good only if you provide something good.” It’s a CONSUMER approach to relationships. It’s entirely conditional. If people don’t give us what we want, we dump them and move on. A consumer culture is a throw-away culture. This leads to disaster.
· If you think you are being consumed you will never be free to openly admit failures and flaws.
· If you think you are being consumed, you will feel a desperate need to impress.
· If you are the consumer, no one will ever fill you sufficiently, and you will move from person to person like a relational vampire.
The gods of the ANE were CONSUMER gods. Even the pagan creation stories said that the gods created humanity to feed and take care of them. If Zeus tired of them sufficiently, he would dump them and move on. Even worse, they weren’t entirely sure what pleased the gods, so there was the tremendous insecurity, which lead to desperate working to please as many gods in as many ways as possible so that they would be rewarded.
The Hebrew God did not relate to humanity as a consumer God. Yahweh was a covenant God.[2] A COVENANT relationship was more than a casual decision. It was meant to bind people together in a way that could not be separated. This was not a CONSUMER relationship based on feelings and started or stopped on a whim. Two people recognized that they wanted to fasten their lives together. “Two parties make binding promises to each other and work together to reach a common goal.”[3]
There was not guesswork, no fear of whims and “Did I make them happy?” A covenant brought the stabilization of commitment. A COVENANT says: “I will be faithful.”[4]
The closest equivalent we have today of a covenant between equals is what we think marriageought to be (though it could apply to close friends and family members as well).
A marriage covenant is not just a casual relationship that forms or continues on a whim: it involves two parties with a desire to have their lives closely bound together, so there is relationship. But it is also sealed with an oath. It put backbone in the commitment, otherwise the agreement was worthless.
· It’s not less loving because it binds with a vow; it’s more loving.
· It's not less binding because it’s approached with emotion and love; it’s more binding.
Marriage will fail with consumers; it will thrive with covenanters. So a COVENANT relationship of this kind is very different from a CONSUMER relationship.
With that in mind, we get to the last three items in Paul’s list of bad fruit coming from bad roots as found in 2 Timothy 3:1-8. It’s the center of the list; we are getting to the heart of things. In, fact, I’m shifting the tree image here.
On my left is the Tree Of The Knowledge Of Good And Evil, the tree where the first covenant God made with mankind was broken. On my right is Cross, the Tree of Life, where the forgiveness for these sins occurred when the final Covenant was established by Jesus. I bring this image up because when Paul gets to the heart of the bad roots and fruits, it has to do with covenant-breaking. If we are going to contrast it properly, we must look at covenant-keeping, and that is found perfectly in Jesus and on the cross.
The first in the final triad Paul offers is those who are “ uncaring, coldhearted; without natural affection.”
“Careless and regardless of the welfare of those connected with them by ties of blood, like spouses, parents and children. Plato says, ‘A child loves his parents, and is loved by them;’ and so, according to St. Paul's judgment in 1 Timothy 5:8, were "worse than infidels." – Pulpit Commentary
Those who by nature they should be most closely tied are the ones from whom they have no natural affection. Remember, they are in the church, so they knew the following:
· With spouses, they have made a covenant.
· With their parents, they owe the honor.
· With their kids, they owe them loving care.
But they just don’t have this. They don’t care about the storge (“natural affection”) they ought to have for their own flesh and blood. I think this works as both an observation about the ripple effect of sin and a concern about how we choose to respond to it.
The observation: Perhaps they have were raised in the kind of family that tended to sever all feelings of natural affection. They didn't ask for that, and yet that is the ring that has been given to them. #LOTR. Okay. They were sinned against, and they bear the scars. That’s just a terrible thing in and of itself. If you struggle with natural affection, you might be reaping the sin someone else sowed in your life.
Now the concern: What have they done with that? I see at least four responses.
· Option #1: They address it. This is the best case scenario. They are now in the church. They claim to be followers of God. Have they brought this part of their life to Christ and His church for healing, forgiveness against the perpetrators, and maybe even (hopefully) restoration? Because Jesus can do that kind of miraculous stuff.
· Option #2: They don’t address it head on, but at least they are motivated by it to do something good. “Well, that didn’t go well, but it’s water under the burned bridge. Nothing to do about it now. We will just live our separate lives, but I will not pass on that legacy to my family.” It’s not ideal –ideally they are finding peace and restoration with those who wounded them - but at least they made a conscious decision to try to make life better for their family than the life they were given.
· Option #3: They ignore it. “It was fine. It was fine.” Dude, you guys scream at each other and somebody gets punched every time more than 5 of you are in a room. “That’s just what families do.” No, it’s not. “Oh, relax.” And then by ignoring it, they fall right back into patterns they were given, and the sins of the fathers will be passed on for generations.
· Option #4: Worst case scenario is that they embrace it. They see the dysfunction and in some sense thrive in it. Maybe conflict is an adrenaline rush. Maybe shame feels like home. Maybe secretly despising others feels good after a while. Maybe they’ve learned that manipulation and bullying and cold-heartedness is power, and they love power.
The second thing Paul mentions is slanderers/false-accusers; the word is diabolos. Commentaries will tell you it’s people who a) have no regard for truth and b) like quarrels. In other words, they love to stir the pot not for any noble reason like the pursuit of truth, but for one of the most ignoble ones: they just love the conflict, and they’ve discovered that you can get conflict rolling pretty quickly with meanness and lies.
This one sent a shiver down my back when I read it: diablos. The devil is among you. He’s not only “out there” in a dark, cold world, crouching by our doors and seeking to devour us. He’s right here. The devil is subtle. People in the church – remember, this is people in the church - who have no regard for the truth….
· aren’t interested in seeing God as God actually is. They want a tame lion, a God of their making and choosing.
· don’t want to know what the Bible actually says. They want to know what they can get the Bible to say.
· don’t want to hear your side of the story. They don’t want to get to know you to better understand you.
· don’t want to see the Big Picture, or walk in another person’s shoes.
They just aren’t interested in truth or peace. No wonder they like quarrels. Keep in mind this isn’t disagreements in pursuit of truth. They aren’t interested in truth. They pick quarrels to show off, or get their way, or embarrass or manipulate you, or get attention, or undermine a group.
Finally, we get to the core around which those two things were tightly wrapped. These are what I will call covenant mockers. They are…
“’without libation.’ Aspondos is an adjective which is the negation of spondē, a libation-sacrifice used for making treaties and covenants.” – HELPS Word Studies
Those unwilling to embrace bonds of treaty or covenant….one who will make no truce or treaty with his enemy.” – Pulpit Commentary.
They are despisers of covenant: not making them if they can help it, and breaking them if they find themselves in them.
· They don’t want the responsibility of responsibility.
· They don’t want to owe anything to anyone.
· No boundaries, nor restraints, no obligations.
· No forgiveness; no obedience; no loyalty; no being a team player or being part of something bigger than themselves.
· No “I’ve got your back” or “we’re in this together.
It’s the summary of everything we’ve read so far. It’s the ultimate narcissist, the one who thinks the world revolves around them, who believes others exist to be used or consumed for our happiness, who will sacrifice everyone around them but never themselves.
“Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers. Or, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, another triad which starts from another breach of the same fifth commandment, the rending of the family ties of love, and advances to a breach of the sixth commandment in a refusal to make peace, and further of the ninth commandment in… attacks and slanders. The threefold contrary spirit is in the same Sermon on the Mount, Luke 6:27, ‘love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, bless them that curse you.’ – Cambridge Bible For Schools And Colleges
Back to the arrival of covenant-making and covenant-keeping God, where Jesus models in his death what he taught in his life: “‘love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, bless them that curse you.’
God made a covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15; he said that He would bless the world through the descendants of Abraham. Abraham just needed to be obedient. God used a standard form of suzerain covenant-making.[5] Abraham killed some animals, cut them in pieces, and arranged them to walk through. While they were waiting, great darkness fell. God passed through (as a fiery pillar) – but never made Abraham do the same.
By passing through the slaughtered animal, God was saying that if He didn’t bless Abraham and honor the covenant and indeed bless the world, God would have to pay the penalty. That alone would be unusual, but that wasn’t the most incredible point. God was saying that if Abraham didn’t keep the covenant, God would pay the penalty for Abraham.
Which God did in the person of Jesus Christ. On the cross, a great darkness descends once again, and Jesus fulfilled the conditions of the covenant by paying the penalty of the covenant-breaking done by Abraham and his covenant descendants. We commemorate this every time we partake in communion – His body broken, His blood spilled. The covenant must be honored. Someone must pay for breaking the agreement.
Because of his death and resurrection, even flawed covenant keepers are seen by God as flawless covenant keepers.
“Christ redeemed us from the curse by becoming the curse so the blessing of Abraham could come to us all by Jesus Christ.” (Galatians 3:13)
“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” 1 John 4:10
We celebrate the birth of Christ on Christmas. That was step one in the covenant Jesus offered. Why did Jesus come? “Mark 10:45 "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."
Born to die. It’s an odd tension in Christmas. “Joy to the world; the Lord has come”…to die, to give His life so that others may live, to fulfill the covenant established with Abraham (Romans 15:8-9; Galatians 3).
In this season of Advent that celebrates His birth, we also celebrate the fulfillment of His purpose: His death, the power of which was confirmed by His resurrection.
"Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4:10)
THREE QUESTIONS
How have you seen consumer culture impact you either in your habits or your relationships? How would embracing covenant culture change the way you live?
How are you doing with the “natural affection” for family? What makes it hard? What does it look like to move away from #4 and toward #1 in the list of responses? How can your group pray for you in this area?
‘Diablos’ is a sobering word. Based on the description in these notes, what is the opposite? What are some practical ways in which living out the opposite could impact our families, friendships, church and culture?
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[1] In the Old Testament, it’s captured by the word hesed. Hesed is variously translated "steadfast love," "loving kindness," "mercy or mercies," "goodness." In several passages it is a term used to describe the character of Yahweh. For example, when Moses was summoned to Mt. Sinai the second time to receive the tablets of the covenant, the Lord passed before him and proclaimed,"Jahweh, Jahweh,a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love (hesed) and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children, to the third and fourth generations" (Exodus 34:6-7).
[2] Find a podcast/sermon called “A Covenant Relationship” by Tim Keller.
[3] So much good stuff on this from The Bible Project. https://bibleproject.com/blog/covenants-the-backbone-bible/
[4] David and Jonathan’s covenant of friendship in 1 Samuel 18 is a good example.
1) Exchanged coats (care)
2) Exchanged weapon belts (protection)
3) Sacrificed an animals (importance)
4) Mingled blood (connection)
5) Mingled names (reputation)
6) Shared bread (hospitality)
7) Planted a tree (visible reminder)
[5] Interestingly, there were only two stipulations for Abraham: leave his home/the gods of his fathers and follow God, and be obedient to the voice of God (Genesis 22). On the other hand, there were at least 14 very specific promises that God puts on himself (http://www.lifeinmessiah.org/resources/articles/gods-covenant-with-abraham)