We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

Hebrews 5:11-14

Scripturally speaking there is milk and there is solid food (or meat in the KJV). These terms are often used to stake a claim to ‘what is right’. Some attribute the ‘meat’ tag to the ‘Old Testament God’ (as if there’s more than one); wrath, judgment accountability. More recently with the advent of post-modern and emergent thought folks are planting the ‘meat flag’ into the ‘New Testament God’ (aka Jesus); love, compassion, humility, forgiveness.

In contemplating this recently, I came to wonder that perhaps the REAL meat [sound of a flag thumping into the dirt] is actually the reconciling of the two. See for some, it’s easy to read the Gospel of John, his letters, Corinthians and understand love. It’s easy to grasp. We can understand forgiveness and turning the other cheek. What is difficult is in the light of that love to understand about God’s wrath, judgment and expectation. What is difficult is understand is the tough love of God.

For others it’s easy to understand wrath, accountability and judgment; after all that’s human nature isn’t it?.. diverting attention from our own planks by point out splinters in others? Isn’t it easy to be unforgiving and vengeful, to inflict punishment so that people learn what is right? What is difficult is to love people who don’t love us back. It’s hard enough to love others as much as ourselves, much less more than ourselves; to forgo our own needs for those of others; to forgive the unforgivable. That’s tough.

The conclusion I’ve come to is that the difficult part of scripture is not one or the other; wrath/love – judgment/forgiveness. It’s one IN LIGHT OF the other… and how that plays out in our relationship with God and our understanding of who He is. Both ‘camps’ tend to view things in terms of how we relate to EACH OTHER. Isn’t it more important how we relate with God? Our relationship with others flows out of our relationship with Him. Let’s not put the cart before the horse…