Recently, I preached on the heart, soul, strength and mind that make up who we are as a whole. I am convinced after preaching this sermon more than ever that wholeness is our first priority.
My arguments for this come from more than one angle, but the heart, soul, strength and mind are the most easily communicated example of why wholeness is so important. We tend to focus on one at the expense of the other, while all of them as a whole is the most important thing.
I like the way one man put it: he pulls together what people tend to pull apart. I believe that God's Word does this through numerous examples. It is not just the arrangement of holy as the umbrella over justice, truth, love and good. It is also the arrangement of sin as an umbrella over iniquity, trespass, transgression and offense. It is also the arrangement of kindness (usually translated as lovingkindness) as an umbrella over mercy, grace, compassion and longsuffering (sometimes translated as slow to anger). It is also the arrangement of responsibility (usually translated as charges) as an umbrella over judgments, laws, commandments and statutes.
It is overwhelming how the wholes pull together the parts and how central this is to Scripture, when you do the frequency counts on these words. The whole wins out over any one part in that regard, when it comes to holy. Holy is far more frequent than love, because it is more important, while still supporting love as a major part of what makes it whole.
I want you to pull out your concordance and consider. Being whole just might be the most frequent and most important character trait as to who God is. May God bless your day.
In Christ,
Pastor Jon
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
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