Friday, January 23, 2009

Every Good and Perfect Gift

James tells us:
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
But Paul says:
To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.
The gift may be "good" and "perfect," but I am not. The Father may not change, but I do. How can a bad man get any good out of anything?

Objectively, the gift are good. Subjectively, I am bad. This would be the end of the story, but for the normative word of God, which reconciles the two:
"What God has made clean, do not call common."
God's imperative presents me with a choice--I can be impure, unbelieving, and disobedient, or I can step into His universe full of good gifts.

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