One of the things we do for influential people is make excuses for them or try to explain what they really meant when they say something that doesn’t align with our worldview, or when people get upset by what that person said. This is clearly evident with our current President. His supporters say they like him because he says what he means, but when he says something outlandish, they don’t accept it, yet they can’t disagree with him, so they rely on the classic phrase they learned in religion and say, “This is what he really meant.”
We start noticing these contradictions even as young children. Children question whether a God who says ‘do not kill’ is justified when He slaughters masses of people, commits genocide against groups, and once killed the entire world. Sunday school teachers and those repeating what they hear from the pulpit quickly learn to make assumptions or repeat the party line to those they teach. Saying “What that means is…” is often a defense mechanism more than an educated response.
When simple explanations fall short, they resort to the standard escape hatch of “God’s ways are not our ways” and emphasize that we cannot truly explain God, even though that is precisely what Bible teachers and scholars claim to do — speak for and clarify God.
When we overlook the contradictions in Scripture, we reveal that we’re uncomfortable with uncertainty and prefer order, even though it is in our uncertainties that we learn, grow, and discover new things. In uncertainty, we find clarity, even if that clarity sometimes destroys our worldview and beliefs.
Let me see if I can illustrate a very central, essential doctrinal stance that is contradictory when we look closely –Love the World / Don’t Love the World.
Most of the passages in this blog are quotes from the Gospel of John and 1 John in the New Testament, as recorded in the New American Standard Bible (NASB). I don’t think it’s worth the time to argue whether the John in the gospel is the same as the one who wrote 1 John (pronounced 1st John). I also don’t have time to consider the fact that it was probably written in Rome, and the Apostle John may have been illiterate and uneducated. My assumption (belief), based on my research and understanding, is that the gospels were written by people other than the apostles, but we don’t have time for that right now.
I also interpreted Greek words from the NASB lexicon, which I accessed from Bible Hub. I encourage you to do this, even in church, type in “LexiconJohn 3:16” on your phone, or whatever verse you are studying. Several options will display a screen like the one below, which will help you study the language in which the New Testament was written.
Image screen prints from biblehub.com
The first column shows the English word or phrase from the translation, as indicated in the heading. In this case, I chose NASB. The second column displays how the Greek word appears, and the word in parentheses is the transliteration, or how it is pronounced. If the transliteration has a slightly different spelling, it is usually due to various tenses, especially with verbs. The third column assists with this by providing a concise definition, along with a link to the Strong’s number assigned to the Greek word and, often, the root Greek word. Clicking that link opens the door to see how and where the word is used. This is often worth the time to help us navigate centuries of assumptions.
Back to our example:Love the World / Don’t Love the World and John 3:16a (NASB) “For God so loved the world…”
Theos is the most common word for God in the New Testament.Godis the noun in this sentence. It is the same noun John used in the first chapter of John, where it says, archē
logos logos theon logos theos (In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God).
What did God do? He loved (ēgapēsen is the past tense of Agape). This is the love usually attributed to God, and the highest form of love, unconditional. As with most things, it can be used to control and dismiss injustice when abused people are forced to forgive quickly.
God loved what? The Universe (world). Kosmon, is the direct object form of Kosmos, which becomes in English, Cosmos. Initially, it meant order, adornment, or universe. Since the established definition by Pythagorus (570-490 BCE), it has meant “The Universe which is seen as a perfectly ordered and harmonious system,” including all its inhabitants.
Left to its own devices, this verse could have served humanity quite well. Even though it is a verse about salvation and drives people to evangelize, it starts with a straightforward statement that God, whom John equates to the creator of the universe, and Jesus, who loves the universe and everything in it. This includes our neighbors, enemies, and political opponents, as well as the large animals, microscopic mycelia, and every aspect of the physical world.
A New Can of Worms – 1 John 2:15
However, then someone else (possibly another John) wrote a few letters, titled 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John (pronounced 1st John, etc.). 1 John 2:15 begins, “Do not love the world or anything in the world.” He then discussed what is generally understood as the three types of sin (lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life) as “all that is in the world” (1 John 2:16).
We could dance around that for days, wondering which part of these few verses to take the most seriously. I am quietly content that these two Johns have a different idea about what it means to love the world and everything in it, because we are part of that world, no matter how much preachers yell and scream and try to segregate it. “We are the world,” or more accurately, we are part of “all its inhabitants (remember the Kosmos?).
The reason this contradiction matters is that throughout Christian history, we’ve allowed ourselves to segregate everyone outside our specific organizations, often calling them “the world.” Using this type of verse and conflicting Old Testament texts, we justified waging war against others by staying committed to the idea that we were right and that God was on our side. We have judged some violence and injustice as acceptable, even though John believed that Jesus said God so loved the universe andeverything in it.
No matter how we interpret the response of John 3:16, Africans were enslaved, and indigenous people were wiped out by colonizers in the US and the British Empire, because of verses like this that permit usnotto love “the world” and everything/everybody in it. Religious wars have been ongoing since the inception of Christianity, particularly since its union with the Roman Empire around 400 CE.
Just like the lawyer in this passage, we ask, “Who is my neighbor?” to simplify our little worlds, as we ignore most of the larger cosmos around us, not really caring whether they live, die, or thrive. God fearing Christians, devout Jews, and committed Muslims, along with all manner of differing faiths, have adopted this double standard by redefining the universe mostly to mean “Me and my tribe.”
In my opinion, it is commonly found among religious people, as they generally believe they are right and that God is on their side. Consequently, they often use their holy books, which are frequently contradictory, and they themselves choose how the scales of justice are administered.
I was helping a child with math at the school where I volunteer. He was a little flustered and rushing through the approaches and strategies to math. At times, I had to pull him back and discuss the fundamental principle we were dealing with. If he didn’t get the base principle, he may learn a lot of techniques, but he won’t know how to apply the rules that govern mathematics.
My hope for everyone around the world, especially for those of a religious faith, is that before you act, you return to the core principle shared by most religions: to love like “God,” embracing the universe and everything within it, Agape the Cosmos!
Before we search for the contradictory verses that justify our position and offer an escape, we must understand what John was saying in the first part of John 3:16. If God exists, to be like God means to love my neighbor whom I disagree with politically, love my queer neighbor even if I’m straight, love people of different races and countries, recognize my privilege, and even love the people at the church down the street that we split from. We must love and respect the animals and land we inherited or stole and work to reverse the negative impacts of our “success.”
Because there are contradictions even among holy book writers, we can’t just pick the verse that suits us and works to our advantage. We have to consider every quote, even from sacred books, and test them against our logic, reasoning, and conscience to determine what is best for all of humanity and every part of the universe.
I don’t think I need religion, but it is imperative that I love the world and everything in it! Its survival, as well as the survival of our organizations, depends on this simple understanding. We have a corporate, universal responsibility to love the universe and everything in it.
Be where you are, Be who you are, Be at peace!
Karl Forehand
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