God is Love

 

We meet with another couple and pray for our adult children. We also read helpful material about this task and study what the Word of God says. Our latest study takes us through 1 Corinthians 13 and shows us how important it is to love our grown children and family members as God loves us.

We’ve learned not to take parental love for granted. Even though we want the best for our offspring, this is not the same as the way God wants the best for us. While we can pray that they have good jobs, health, safety, and so on, God may use trials and difficulties for His purpose of revealing to them how much they need to rely on Him. This love described and demonstrated in Christ is like this:

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Corinthians 13:1–7)

His love is not necessarily shown in lovely words, prophetic utterances, great understanding or even sacrifices. We can do all of those things in selfish ‘look at me’ motives. Instead, the love of God is not selfish. God needs nothing, even though many Christians think He ‘desires and even needs fellowship with us.’
This verse grants further understanding: “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:8) as today’s reading echos. God is not merely loving, but He is love.

God is patient and kind; God does not envy or boast; He is not arrogant or rude. He does not insist on its own way; He is not irritable or resentful; He does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. God bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

When I read this, I’m also aware of my need because I am not always those things, not even with myself, never mind in my relationship with others including my family. Yet God loves me because He is love and cannot help loving, just as the sun is light and cannot help shining. God does not wait for me to be better than I am to love me.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6–8)

Some say we can love others without liking them. That is not the love of God. I cannot imagine Him doing what He did while feeling disgust or dislike for the people He created. He is not pleased with our sin but He says:

I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul. (Jeremiah 32:41)

The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing. (Zephaniah 3:17)

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:9–10)

I’m aware of the fallacy of thinking love cannot exist for those I don’t like. God shows me that my dislike is a fleshy thing and that love is a Spirit-filled thing. They cannot co-exist. If I’m going to love people, even my enemies, I must walk in the Spirit and consider my old nature as a dead and useless motivation to do anything God wants from me.

PRAY: Jesus, Your love melts hard hearts and exposes sinful reasons for trying to look good when I am not totally obedient. I’m to love others as You do, not just the people that appeal to me and feed my wants, but to those who live in ways that get a disapproval vote from me. Your love is only possible if I’m totally yielded to You, and if it isn’t there, I have sin to confess.

What is justice?

 

At first it seems justice would be easy to define. Most dictionaries say it is giving a person what is due them, being fair, impartial, a moral rightness. One says justice is based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, or equity. These terms can mean something different depending on background, culture, social norms and belief systems.

For instance, if a person kills an innocent bystander, some would say that person should be killed. That is justice. Others might say he or she deserves a fair trial, or maybe the bystander was not innocent and deserved to die. Law gets tricky and what is fair and just very often seems a matter of opinion.

Perhaps this confusion happens because truth has been relegated to personal opinion. Many assure what is true for one person is not necessarily true for others. The Bible is considered objective truth, yet many dismiss it as being true only for those who believe it. In other words, God not longer is considered the standard or truth for anything. Instead, humans decide what is true, or just and what is permissible.

Biblically, justice means: “to make right.” It is mainly a relational term — people living in right relationship with God, one another, and creation — and God determines what that ‘right relationship’ looks like. Our example and standard is Jesus Christ. He lived in right relationship with His heavenly Father and with humanity — by His obedience to His Father. For us to live justly, we need to be in a right relationship with God through faith in His Son. Then in that relationship, we also need to obey our Heavenly Father and treat others as He desires. Some examples include how we deal with those who mistreat us:

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:19–21)

On the other hand, if someone violates law and is guilty, the ‘repayment’ to promote order and punish the guilty has been given by God to government authorities. When private citizens take the law into their own hands, they actually usurp the authority of God. Yet even this is debated. In some countries, if an intruder threatens and their victim takes action, the victim is charged with a crime. In others, that person is applauded for defending themselves.

Justice isn’t just about crime. Micah says: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8). Another OT prophet says:

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause. (Isaiah 1:16–17)

This passage goes on to connect justice with having sins forgiven and then being obedient to God. People who are in His family are to live with consideration for barriers to human thriving and the misuse of power that exploits people’s lives. We are to repair harm and inequities. However, justice is not the same as charity and development. Instead, it is more about challenging corruption, violence and abuse of others.

Unfortunately, the Greek word dikaiosunê has been translated in many English bibles as “righteousness” and North American churches tend to limit the idea of justice to vengeance or punishment in courts and prisons, as opposed to the wider vision of challenging other sinful activities such as greed, and unfair treatment of those who are vulnerable.

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. (James 1:27)

PRAY: Jesus, justice is lacking in an overwhelming way and in every part of the world. Some are called to fight it directly, others to pray for good governments as well as Your intervention. Grant me the ability to listen and be wise in words and actions as well as in praying for justice and mercy where both are missing and most needed.

Every part yielded to Him?

The above diagram explains to me much of what the Bible says about the way I am made and what God has done in His transforming work.

The first and primary grace of God is giving life to the inner man through His Spirit. That life changed the way I think, feel, and choose. He does not remove those faculties but make it clear to me that all three must function according to the new inner life directed by Him. He tells me not to trust in my own understanding (mind), or trust my emotions, many of which are contrary to His. He also gives the example for volition when Jesus said, “Not my will, but thine be done.”

However, I’ve noticed that there are three major denominational groups that tend to focus on the importance of one of those three faculties. While all three facilities should be yielded to the Holy Spirit, there is a danger that the arrows in the diagram run the wrong direction. Instead of being directed and controlled by Him, the mind, emotions, or will is given a high place of importance. For instance…

Some denominations might say: “The will is the stronghold of our being. If God is to get complete possession of us, He must possess our will. When He says, ‘Give me your heart, it is equivalent to saying, ‘Surrender your will to my control, that I may work in it to will and to do of my good pleasure.’ It is not the feelings of a man that God wants but his will.” (Joshua 24:15)

Others might put it this way: Thinking right means living right. If God is to get complete possession of us, He must possess our thoughts. When He says, ‘Give me your heart,’ it is equivalent to saying, ‘Surrender your mind to my control, that I may work in it to will and to do of my good pleasure.’ It is not our feelings or choices that are vital, but God wants us to think right.” (Romans 12:1-2)

The third group might say: “Our feelings are vital to worship. If God is to get complete possession of us, He must control our emotions. When He says, ‘Give me your heart,’ it is equivalent to saying, ‘Surrender all of your feelings to my control, that I may work in you to will and to do of my good pleasure.’ It is not solid thinking or choices alone that God wants but the full expression of how we feel about Him.”

All of this reminds me of the blind people describing an elephant as they touch its different parts, but more than that, thinking each part is all there is to an elephant. Walking with Jesus means realizing that none of the three are supposed to be the ruling force in our lives; He is!

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. (Romans 6:6–7)

The following passage is about the direction of the arrows in the diagram. Doing my own thing apart from God is sin (Isaiah 53:6) so…

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. (Romans 8:3–9)

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery... I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. (Galatians 5: 1; 16–17)

PRAY: More than ever, I know that I need to be filled with the Spirit so that my old nature is not the controlling factor. My will is flawed without You. My thinking is selfish without You. My emotions take me away from faith… but the fullness of Your Spirit means  I can obey You with godly thoughts, godly choices, and experience Your deep joy. Thank You, Jesus.

Not my will…

 
Today’s devotional is about the human will and encourages readers to choose to obey God by exercising their will. Emphasis is put on the power of our will. This is a common theme in this devotional book ironically titled “God is Enough.”

Every time I read the statements that say our power to live the Christian life is in the will, I think of what Jesus said in the garden: “Not my will but Thine be done” and have to assume that there is a difference between my will and the will of God. Jesus had no problem with His will because He didn’t think about Himself or what He wanted that might be contrary to the will of the Father, but I do. My will, which is a strong part of my old nature, wants what I want when I want it.

When Jesus came into my heart, I became aware that His nature and mine were not the same. I too can say, “not my will but Thine be done” — particularly when the conflict is obvious and I’m walking in the Spirit. Even though my old nature wants whatever it wants, the Spirit alerts me to the will of God and the difference. 

For instance, when driving in heavy traffic, I’ve noticed that I can choose patience. That is, this attitude is in me, the attitude of the Spirit of God, and because of Him I choose to live by it instead of the old way. Even in that ordinary situation, this applies:

Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. (Philippians 2:14–16)

God wants me to choose to “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do…” (Galatians 5:16–18)

However, there is another part of this that is often overlooked; I also need the Spirit of God to even make that choice. Without Jesus in my life, there is only one will — mine. With Jesus, there are two, and enabling me to choose His will is part of what He does — simply because my old nature, which died with Him, is persistent to crawl off the altar and live. Again, Jesus comes to the rescue:

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now…. work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12–13)

God works in me to enable me to want His will as well as do it. He knows the weakness of human flesh. A Christian once said that this weakness is a problem, not because it is weak but because it should be considered dead, not able to function at all, never mind interfere with our decisions.

Yes, God is enough. Relying on Him may seem like my choice, but without Him, I would not see the choice, never mind be able to make it. The human will left untouched by the power of redemption will never say “not my will” but will always insist on having its own way. This is why Jesus came and had to die, that He could change hearts and give sinners a new way to live.

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:14–18)

PRAY: The older I get and the longer this walk through time with You, Jesus, the more I realize that You alone are my Savior and the One who enables me to follow You. In all of life, my will needs to be ignored and Your will totally relied on, and to make that choice, I also need Your Spirit and Your grace.