The Message of Love--- Part Thirty<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"BEN: Gal. 5.6 is a remarkable claim--- the only thing that counts is faith working through love. Why should we not see this as typical hyperbole by Paul\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Message of Love--- Part Thirty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"BEN: Gal. 5.6 is a remarkable claim--- the only thing that counts is faith working through love. Why should we not see this as typical hyperbole by Paul\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2020\/04\/20\/the-message-of-love-part-thirty\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-04-20T05:05:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-03-18T12:06:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2020\/02\/41M2zbSu-tL._SX317_BO1204203200_.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2020\/04\/20\/the-message-of-love-part-thirty\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2020\/04\/20\/the-message-of-love-part-thirty\/\",\"name\":\"The Message of Love--- Part Thirty\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-04-20T05:05:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-03-18T12:06:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b\"},\"description\":\"BEN: Gal. 5.6 is a remarkable claim--- the only thing that counts is faith working through love. Why should we not see this as typical hyperbole by Paul\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2020\/04\/20\/the-message-of-love-part-thirty\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2020\/04\/20\/the-message-of-love-part-thirty\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2020\/04\/20\/the-message-of-love-part-thirty\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Message of Love— Part Thirty\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/\",\"name\":\"The Bible and Culture\",\"description\":\"A One-Stop Shop for All Things Biblical and Christian\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b\",\"name\":\"Ben Witherington\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ben Witherington\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/author\/benw333\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Message of Love--- Part Thirty","description":"BEN: Gal. 5.6 is a remarkable claim--- the only thing that counts is faith working through love. Why should we not see this as typical hyperbole by Paul","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Message of Love--- Part Thirty","og_description":"BEN: Gal. 5.6 is a remarkable claim--- the only thing that counts is faith working through love. Why should we not see this as typical hyperbole by Paul","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2020\/04\/20\/the-message-of-love-part-thirty\/","og_site_name":"The Bible and Culture","article_published_time":"2020-04-20T05:05:29+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-03-18T12:06:52+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2020\/02\/41M2zbSu-tL._SX317_BO1204203200_.jpg"}],"author":"Ben Witherington","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ben Witherington","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2020\/04\/20\/the-message-of-love-part-thirty\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2020\/04\/20\/the-message-of-love-part-thirty\/","name":"The Message of Love--- Part Thirty","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-04-20T05:05:29+00:00","dateModified":"2020-03-18T12:06:52+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b"},"description":"BEN: Gal. 5.6 is a remarkable claim--- the only thing that counts is faith working through love. Why should we not see this as typical hyperbole by Paul","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2020\/04\/20\/the-message-of-love-part-thirty\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2020\/04\/20\/the-message-of-love-part-thirty\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2020\/04\/20\/the-message-of-love-part-thirty\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Message of Love— Part Thirty"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/","name":"The Bible and Culture","description":"A One-Stop Shop for All Things Biblical and Christian","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b","name":"Ben Witherington","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Ben Witherington"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/author\/benw333\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35720\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":35720,"date":"2020-04-20T01:05:29","date_gmt":"2020-04-20T05:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?p=35720"},"modified":"2020-03-18T08:06:52","modified_gmt":"2020-03-18T12:06:52","slug":"the-message-of-love-part-thirty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2020\/04\/20\/the-message-of-love-part-thirty\/","title":{"rendered":"The Message of Love— Part Thirty"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

PATRICK: Yes, it\u2019s remarkable and I liked it so much that I made it the strapline of the book. The danger of making it hyperbole is that it becomes too easy to downplay how what Paul says here is fully consistent with his pervasive theology of love \u2013 I\u2019m thinking 1 Corinthians 13, or 1 Cor 16:14 \u2018Do everything in love\u2019, or how love fulfils the law in Galatians 5 and Romans 13:8-10, or walking in love in Ephesians, or Colossians 3:12, \u2018And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2018Faith working through love\u2019 has a sense of dynamic power, Paul knows nothing of faith that is not transformative and love in this sense is the goal and purpose of faith. In other words, I don\u2019t think it is too strong to say that Paul sees love as God\u2019s ultimate agenda for his people. This tends to get missed in hot debates about justification by faith. Paul\u2019s passion in Galatians is not only to correct a false gospel but also to heal a community riven by division who were \u2018biting and devouring one another\u2019. It\u2019s fruit of the Spirit, whose first characteristic is love, that is the only remedy to Galatian divisiveness. In this sense love is a \u2018weapon\u2019 in God\u2019s war against the powers opposes to his good purposes. And if that\u2019s the case, then yes absolutely \u2013 love is the only thing that counts.<\/p>\n

BEN: Paul speaks of Christ setting us free from something and for something. The problem, at least in my context is that Americans here this and think freedom means \u2018free to do as I please\u2019 whereas I assume Paul means something very different\u2014 freedom from sin and freedom to do as God pleases. As you say \u2018we are not set free to live for ourselves, but to love one another as Christ loved us.\u2019 (p. 229). How do we best get this idea across to an increasingly narcissistic and selfy-oriented western culture???<\/p>\n

PATRICK: Christian freedom is a paradox. Galatians 5 begins \u201cIt is for freedom that Christ has set us free\u201d (Gal 5:1) but Paul goes on to make clear that it is liberation is found, not in doing whatever we desire, but in serving one another humbly in love (Gal 5:13). Or as the NRSV translates it \u201cbut through love become slaves to one another.\u201d The irony is that Paul has been pleading with then not to go back to a life of slavery, now he is commending it!<\/p>\n

I guess a start would be to feel the offense of this paradox today in our teaching and preaching within a culture which prizes individual liberty and pursuit of the authentic self. Perhaps this is a particular challenge for the church in America, the home of \u2018freedom\u2019 and capitalism, where freedom is virtually worshipped as an end in itself. Self-made individuals neither need anything from others nor expect to be obligated to others. Capitalism fosters the belief that all we have belongs to us \u2013 including our possessions, our time, our bodies \u2013 and no-one has a right to tell us how to live. That\u2019s a long way from \u201cbecome slaves to each other in love\u201d. If our preaching and teaching leaves Christians untroubled in a cocoon of wealth and self-sufficiency then it\u2019s not doing its job!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"