The Community of Love

"Luther did not do away with the notion of good works, works of love; he repositioned good works so that they follow necessarily from the working of the Word. Good works do not effect salvation; they are its flowering. The communio sanctorum, the community of love, is thus a necessary result of the Word" (Thomas J. Davis, This Is My Body: The Presence of Christ in Reformation Thought, 58).

What Proceedeth?

1 John 4:20-21 -- If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

John Calvin commenting on these verses said that true love for God cannot exists unless it generates brotherly love.

In 1 John, the author is instructing the readers that love (righteousness) proceedeth from the Beloved (the righteous). However, wickedness proceedeth from the wicked (1 Samuel 24:13a). Love and desire will always manifest itself in concrete realities, generating either love/righteousness or wickedness. Our works/the concrete realities generated by our desires, therefore, are testaments of whether we love the works of Satan or love the works of a righteous God.

Love, Again

"Love is the overflow of joy in God that gladly meets the needs of others....[Love] is first a deeply satisfying experience of the fullness of God's grace, and then a doubly satisfying experience of sharing that grace with another person" (John Piper, Desiring God, 119-120).

Love

"Love is not a bare choice or a mere act. It involves the affections. It does not just do the truth. Nor does it just choose the right. It rejoices in the way of truth" (John Piper, Desiring God, 114-115).

Reading List: Saint Augustine

Recently I have re-visited a handful of Saint Augustine's works. For my undergraduate studies I was fortunate enough to take a course on Saint Augustine taught by Dr. Chris Bounds (fantastic course, fantastic teacher), but once again I have found the happy pleasure of marching through Augustine's Confessions and Christian Teaching, and the experience has been, yet again, quite uplifting.

I find his writings utterly compelling. When I read his writings I feel as though they have been written and addressed to me. This feeling is similar to the way I feel on the Lord's Day; I am sitting in a pew, I am listening to the sermon, and I feel as though the Pastor has peered into my soul and addressed my very own sin.

So, in addition to that, what is it exactly that I find to be so compelling about Saint Augustine? If I had to pin it down, I would emphasize three points: First, his hermeneutic of love; second, his pastoral concern; and third, his ability to write with the utmost emotion and sincerity. Pastor D.M. Lloyd-Jones once commented that the "lightning and thunder" of a pastor is oftentimes lost in a written text, but, with Saint Augustine, "lightning and thunder" is commonplace. His ability to communicate in love with livelihood is absolutely gripping.