One of the atheists roaming through this blog said that the only reason that I do anything good is because I love Jesus. Apparently that’s a bad thing.
Hmm, let’s think about this.
Because I love my wife:
I do things that please her
I don’t do things that annoy her
I do put my clothes in the laundry
I don’t leave the toilet seat up
I do tell her that I love her
I don’t have sex with or fantasise about other women
I do carry in the groceries
I don’t do less than my share of the house work
I do listen to her
I don’t spend money carelessly
I do help with the children
I don’t drink too much
I do trust her in everything
I don’t try to change her
I do treat her with kindness
I don’t tell her that she can’t go out with friends
I do appreciate her gifts and talents
I don’t speak to her with rudeness
I do try to focus on her strengths
I don’t say everything that I’m thinking
I do maintain my eternal commitment to the relationship
I don’t . . . well, you get the idea.
The thing is, according to atheists, doing good things for someone because of love somehow renders the good deeds invalid. What atheists are not able to understand is, because God exists, everything is important. Everyone is important. Everything that I do has meaning and context and purpose. Because of God’s love for me and in me I am compelled to do good. I am powerless to not do good. The love that I have, to the extent that I have love, exists because of the love that God has poured into me.
Now you may say that you don’t need God in order to love others and I say, “Good for you.”
Not everyone is like that. In fact Jesus has nothing to offer people like you. “I have come not to save those who believe in their own righteousness but to save those who know that they are not good.”
Prior to Jesus coming into my life I had a heart of cold stone. My explanation is that years of childhood sexual abuse coupled with arthritis starting at age ten turned me into one of the most bitter, angry, shut-down people I’ve met. I had no love of my own. I was seething with rage.
What God promised to do for His people in the Old Testament He has done for me. “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.” Ezekiel 11:19,20
According to atheists, that’s somehow a bad thing.
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