The Romance of Romans-Part 112

An Addendum on Locating and Overcoming Negative "Strongholds"

The New Testament doesn't go into a lot of explicit details about the nature of "strongholds" as they have come to be understood among many believers in our generation...the kind of embedded problems (even subconscious ones) like I have been describing in my recent posts. The passage from John's first epistle below may be the best New Testament passage to turn to in which we see how the apostles thought about nature of these stubborn "strongholds" of darkness that commonly become lodged deep in the hearts of human beings...even though John doesn't call them strongholds. I think this is one of the most profound passages in all of scripture regarding personal transformation into the image of Jesus Christ.

1 Jn 3;16-24
16By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

19By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 23And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

I will simply point out some of my observations of this passage as it relates to the "Crabbian" framework about human problems and answers I have previously written about. See if you agree.

1. vs 19: God's intention is to "reassure" our heart in the light of his grace and truth. This Greek word can also be translated "persuade"...our hearts need some persuasion to become whole.

2. vs 21: Our hearts tend to "condemn" us and this robs our "confidence before God". This is the focus of the needed "persuasion"...from condemnation to confidence.

3. vs 22: In turn, this lack of "confidence" before God in our deep heart hinders our intimate communion..our conversational relationship...with the Trinity.

4. vs 23: If, however, we gain confidence before God, our friendship with him goes to new heights, depths and breadth. We will discover a naturally/supernatural flow of prayer, obedience, discernment, faith, love for others and...

5. vs 24: ...the grace and ability to "remain present" to God ...and he to us...at all times (a good definition for "abide"). Finally, we realize how close the Holy Spirit is to us, how involved he is with us in this process and how accessible to us is his presence and power.

6. vs 16: The genesis of this transformation of heart is based in "knowing love". Firstly, the sacrificial love of Jesus for us personally. Then secondly, as a direct outcome, our sacrificial love for others.

7. vs 18: This love is authentic, genuine, divine, true, beyond rhetoric...practical and concrete.

8. vs 17: We can choose to "close our heart" to self-protect in the face of others' needs (as one example among many) which, effectively, walls us off from the "love of God". The result of the profound closing of the heart (can be sudden or gradual)...today we call it "shutting down"...is the formation of a stronghold...like the kind I have been describing.

9. vs 20: When we discover a stronghold...described by John here as a area of our life in which our heart is "condemning" us...we need not panic, they are common to us all. The self-awareness, the exposure, is a gift from God. The reality is that we do not even know the depths of our own heart. Fortunately...the "self-talk" of own heart is not the final judge of our life, for "God is greater than our heart and knows all things"! Nothing true about us can shock him, scandalize him or deter his pursuit of bringing his cleansing and healing into our hearts through Jesus the Son. We need his light to even see the precise nature of our heart's conflicts. We can fall back safely into his strong waiting arms when we are bowled over by the blows of life and our own compromises.

10. vs 19: By this...our hearts go on this journey of discovery and transformation. By what? By our ongoing experience of living in a culture in which the love in human relations goes beyond rhetoric to a more genuine and practical expression. It involves dwelling in a "sweet society"...the true Church of Jesus Christ...that understands the nature of the needs, longings, tendencies, temptations, strongholds of our hearts...and that helps create a practical pathway out of condemnation into confidence for its pilgrims. Terri and I call it a "human life refuge for the wild at heart".

However large it becomes in terms of numbers of people, the believing community must be structured/organized in such a way that it will continue to include: centrality of God himself, scripture and devotion, knowing others and being known by others on a heart level, taking genuine delight in knowing and supporting one another, freedom to be transparent without rejection, welcoming of accountability for sins (confession, restoration and restitution), generosity and compassion for the needy, family-friendliness, vocation-affirming, a sense of mission to those who have yet come to faith and a felt-reliance on the Holy Spirit's gifts and graces.