Tag: Love of God

October 12, 2023 – Matthew 22 – Love God and Others

It is amazing how we humans like to rank and rate things. If you’re not first your last… We want to have the best products if possible. If not the best, we certainly don’t want the worst.

The Jewish religious leaders of Jesus’ day were not strangers to the ranking and rating game. They had greater and lesser prophets. They were also interested in ranking the commandments. One day as others were trying to trip Jesus up in something he might say, an expert in the law joined in.

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew22:36–40NIV

According to Jesus, the greatest commandment is to love God. Quoting Deuteronomy 6:5, Jesus points us to something very important. God is not interested in us simply keeping rules or the law. God wants us to love him with all our heart, soul, and mind… essentially all that we are.

Next Jesus ranks loving our neighbor the way we would love ourselves as the second greatest commandment. Not just the neighbor that lives next door, but anyone that we may encounter in life as was pointed out in the Parable of the Good Samaritan. We are to love those who God loves (that’s everybody) the way we love ourselves.

These two commandments are so important that Jesus said everything else in scripture hangs on them. That seems to put them far and ahead of the big ten and the hundreds of other commandments in scripture.

If we want to please God, we must love him with all that we are, and love others as much as we love ourselves. Nothing else is more important.

Prayer: Dear loving God, help me to love you and those you love. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

February 21 2023 – 1 John 4 – God is Love

If you ever wondered what the essence of our faith is you should read 1 John 4. In it we understand that we are, as God’s children to be loving. We are to love one another. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” 1 John4:7NASB1995  John even goes so far as to say if we don’t love others, we don’t even know God because, God is love.

It is a given that we should love our brothers and sisters in Christ. We have that familial language… we are children of God, thereby brothers and sisters to others who have been born again. Knowing how families work, it is an unspoken norm that we should love one another no matter what.

John shows us how God loves and that is how we should love. “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” 1 John4:9–11NASB1995

What John is saying is God loves first and so should we. God didn’t wait until we found him and pursued him to love us, he loved us first and so much so that he sent Jesus to pay the price for our sins. It is what we affirm when we celebrate Holy Communion. “Hear the good news: Christ died for us while we were yet sinners; that proves God’s love toward us. In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven!”1

We are to love God because God is love and God first loved us. We are to love those in the family of God, those who are born again to be children of God, not because we always agree with them or even like them, but because they are our family. We are to love others and not just as a reciprocation of their love, we are to love them even if they don’t love us, because God, our Father, loves first.

Brothers and sisters, our faith is about love because God is love. Let us be like our Father and love others as God has loved us!

Prayer:

God thank you for your love! Help me to love others, even the unlovable. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

 

1A Service of Word and Table I

January 24 – Leviticus 25 – Jubilee

If you look on the internet, you will discover that around 22% of the world’s population lives in poverty. You could assume, as some would have us to believe, the world is over populated and we need to reduce the number of people living on the planet. However, if you think about other possibilities, such as war, exploitation, and greed, you realize that some in the world are profiting off of the systems in place while others are suffering. The world can support the population, and then some, if we used it’s resources justly. Before someone reads something into my comments that isn’t there, let me say I am for a free market economy and for having a military to defend our nation.

Although, I am for a free market economy and do support our military, just a little critical thinking reveals a banking system that has been gamed to benefit the lenders. War has also been exploited and gamed to benefit lenders. War is destructive and costly for the nations that engage in it. It is doubly costly if it happens on a nation’s home soil.  Throughout history lenders have financed both sides of the war. No matter who wins the war, or if their cause was just or not, it is a win-win for the lenders.

Interest and interest rates have also been gamed to benefit the lender. The goal for them is not to necessarily have us pay our loans off. It is for us to continue to pay interest on the loan. They would rather refinance a loan when we get in trouble than take the collateral because they make money off of the interest we pay. If you want to see how the banking system has been gamed to be very lucrative for a few while making many more impoverished, read The Creature from Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin.

Sometimes we wonder what the world will be like when Jesus returns. I don’t believe Jesus will be content with a world where more than 20% of the population languishes in poverty. In Leviticus 25, we hear of a concept that God set up called Jubilee. In the year of Jubilee, certain properties that were sold were returned to their original owners. In the year of Jubilee, debts were canceled. In the year of Jubilee if one had sold themselves into slavery to pay debts, they were set free. There is a clear message that comes from the concept of Jubilee. In the explanation of Jubilee in Leviticus we read, “Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God. I am the Lord your God.” Leviticus25:17NIV

Poverty and the systems that keep some people in poverty for generations are not God’s plan for humanity. One day when Jesus returns, systems that have enslaved people will be broken. Until that day, we should help others when we can with the resources God has given us. We should also work to free people from oppressive systems by either fixing the systems or replacing them with something better.

Jubilee was God’s idea! Let’s work toward it for the benefit of all mankind.

Prayer:

Dear God, Thank you for creating a world of abundance! Thank you for your love for me and for my fellow man. Help me not to take advantage of others for personal gain and help me to work to free people from poverty. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

January 15, 2023 – Leviticus 16 – An Audience with a Holy God

Because of the lovingkindness, patience, and forgiveness we receive through the grace offered to us in Jesus Christ we sometimes forget that God is a Holy God. Now, we are always able to go to God with our praises and petitions. There isn’t a time too early or too late. We are told to be in a constant conversation with God. The Apostle Paul tells us to, “pray without ceasing,” 1 Thessalonians5:17NRSV  However, it wasn’t always that way.

In Leviticus 16, God is giving Moses instructions to give to Aaron about when and how he is to approach him. The Lord said to Moses: “Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die. For I will appear in the cloud over the atonement cover.” Leviticus16:2NIV He goes on in detail giving instructions on how Aaron is to make atonement for his sins and for the sins of the people. All of this is important because God is a Holy God. Our sinfulness and our sins make it impossible to live in the presence of a Holy and righteous God without having atoned for our sins.

Thank God, he removed the barriers and now we can come to him without fear, fully atoned for through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews4:14–16NIV

Let us never forget that God is a Holy God. It will help us to appreciate the wonderful work of atonement that Jesus the Christ did for us in his death and resurrection!

Prayer:

Holy God, thank you for Jesus, his death, and resurrection that made atonement for all of my sins. Help me to come to you in complete confidence in the grace you offered to me and the world in Jesus. Amen.

January 11, 2023 – 1 Timothy 2 – God Wants All People to be Saved

Leviticus 12, Matthew 12, 1 Timothy 2

There has always been intense competition between our political parties. If you talk to some older folks, they can tell you of political corruption… vote buying, ballot boxes ending up in the bottom of lakes, and opponent smear campaigns… that would make your jaw drop. Our political system, both sides and even the minor parties in the middle, seem to have embraced a win at all costs mentality. The end justifies the means and so on. That leaves Christians having to try to align themselves with the lesser of two evils. You would think since we read the same book, the Bible, we would all identify with the party that most aligns with it’s teaching. Instead, you find well-meaning, sincere Christians in both of the main parties and everywhere in between.

One thing that I can remember hearing back as far as George W. Bush, is the phrase, “he’s not my president.” I think I first heard the Dixie Chicks say it of Bush. You may not agree with the president or with this or that politician’s policies, you may not particularly like the person or their past. However, we are told that we are supposed to pray for the person. In fact, there are probably lots of people we don’t like, but according to the Apostle Paul, we are to pray for everyone.

In 1 Timothy 2, Paul says, “I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.” 1 Timothy2:1–2NIV  One reason to pray for people is that we are engaged in spiritual warfare. Our fight is not against flesh and blood… so we need to pray to bring down satanic strongholds and the influence those have in peoples’ lives.

Another reason to pray is because, God wants to save everyone. Paul says, “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” 1 Timothy2:3-4 NIV We pray to pull down spiritual strongholds and influences. We also pray for everyone so that all people will see God actively at work bringing them to salvation.

It is easy to pray for friends and loved ones. As we think about those we dislike and disagree with, let’s begin praying for all people by praying that God would help us to see them as he sees us… a person he loves and wants to save. Let’s pray for ourselves, that when we are tempted to loathe, that God would remind us to pray for them.

Prayer:

God, thank you for saving me, and your desire to save all people. Help me to pray for all people. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

January 2, 2023 – 1 Thessalonians 1 – What Your Motivation?

Leviticus 3, Matthew 3, 1 Thessalonians 1

There are lots of reasons we do something for someone else. In the case of our employers, we do what we do for the reward of a paycheck. In school, we would do what we were told for the grade, or as in my case, out of fear of the consequences. We may do something for someone thinking it will be good for our reputation.

What is our motivation for what we do for God? Do we do what we are doing because we are trying to prove ourselves worthy? That is a gross misunderstanding of the Gospel. Jesus Christ alone and our faith in him makes us worthy. Do we do what we do for treasure in heaven? I don’t think there are literal piles of gold waiting for us as a reward for our good deeds. What waits for us in eternity with God and our loved ones is far more valuable than gold. Do we do what we do out of the fear of the eternal fires of hell?

In giving thanks for the Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul remembers their kingdom work and the motivation for it. “We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians1:3NIV

In giving thanks for their kingdom efforts of work, labor, and endurance he mentions their motivation… faith, love, and hope. The best motivators for what we do for the kingdom are faith, love, and hope. We may have began this journey motivated by other reasons, for instance you may have been moved out of a fear of hell to receive Jesus, but as we grow in the faith, our motivations for what we do become purer. The purest is faith, love, and hope.

As we become more and more like Jesus our Lord, our motivations continue to develop until ultimately we are motivated entirely by love, love for God and love for our neighbor. If that happens in this lifetime, we will have been perfected in love.

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians13:13NIV

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, thank you for making me worthy through your life, death, and resurrection. As I seek to please you by joining you in the work of your kingdom, help me to grow in my motivations. Help me to operate out of faith, love, and hope, moving on to being perfected in love. Amen.