SIMON PHIPPS

This may not come as a shock to anyone, as its an almost universal principle, but I love my son. He brings me the most crazy amount of joy ever. He hasn’t done anything I can think of to make me feel this way, he’s quite demanding and hits me a lot (he’s just turned two). I love him just for who he is. The scriptures express the way that God feels about us. The greek word used for Gods love for us is the word αγαπε ( agape). It means unconditional love. God loves us without condition. Within each society there is a series of things that we do to give ourselves value (these are generally more subliminal than acknowledged). In some cultures these are family orientated, in others they are orientated around financial or occupational success. Our society is heavily built around our appearance and material possessions that we own, influenced by the media and clever marketing. These value judgements can often mean that many people within society who cannot live up to the expectation...

At the end of the recent debate between party leaders, one of them said: ‘do what is best for your family, and do what is best for your country.’ The final book of scripture is the book of revelation, written during exile it is full of political language. Part of that book says: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever”1 In this passage we see the writer proclaiming that the divides between nations mean nothing as all of creation is ultimately God’s kingdom. Paul talks about this when he proclaims that we are citizens of heaven. Not that we are citizens of a distant place, but that we are citizens of a different mind-set, a different understanding of reality, where we look to the best interests of all of creation, of all people, as beings created in God’s image. So we do not ask what is best for me or my country, but instead we ask what is best for the world. We don’t say ‘God bless my country’, bu...