Matchless love of God

I’m preoccupied with the love of God since yesterday when He reminded me of F.B., a man who overflows the love of Christ, and a few others that do the same. These are people that I want to emulate, yet I know that this love is from God and tied to their love for God. They deeply know how much He loves them.

In other words, if I want to love people as I should, my focus must be on how much God loves me. I cannot do that if I am pridefully trying to earn His favor, or if I think I am already good enough. This is difficult to describe even though I know my failures when they happen.

Tozer writes that the problem with the Pharisees was that they had correct doctrine but without love. They did their religious duties in pride. They were ‘God’s chosen people’ but without realizing the great love of God or their own unworthiness. They thought their ritual ‘righteousness’ made them worthy. I know that I cannot think that way. That attitude in others irritates me. I cannot imagine the way it affects the heart of God.

Instead, God tells me He loves me, shows me He loves me. He sent His Son to die for me. By His grace, He gives me forgiveness and eternal life. Because of that great love, I’m to be filled with it and overflow, passing it on to others . . .

“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But 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? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.” (1 John 3:16–22)

This love is not mere sentiment. It is sacrificial and visible. People know that God loves them when the people of God love them — without strings attached, without needing to earn it, without judgment and finger-pointing. I can never say, “You must live this way before I will care about your or your needs.”

Tozer says it was religion that put Christ on the cross, religion without the indwelling Spirit. Yes, that is true. But it was also the pagan idol worship, the ignorant and stubborn refusal to acknowledge the Creator, the prideful determination that God is not needed, and a host of other anti-God and anti-Christ attitudes. It was certainly my self-centeredness and neglect to obey Him as well.

Tozer stresses the necessity of having “the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit” and calls this not a luxury, not something added now and again to produce a deluxe type of Christian once in a generation, but He is a vital necessity for every child of God.

I agree. I cannot love God apart from knowing His love for me and I certainly cannot love others without the security of being totally loved, without any love needs of my own. In writing this, I realize why there are so few Christian people who exude the love of Christ. They are unaware or have been duped. Satan’s first lie suggested that God does not really love us, and that has been his chief strategy ever since. Love-needy people do not have the freedom of an overflow, the delight of being conduits for God’s love.

^^^^^^^^^

Lord Jesus, this is important and I know my own heart needs to give it attention. The need for Your love is everywhere. Most people doubt or deny it because they measure it by the pain in their lives and in our world rather than measuring it by what You have done. Oh Lord, this world needs to know, to see, to experience the love that transforms lives. So do I.

Pride? Or Humility?

Two weeks ago, an eye doctor removed a cataract from my left eye, replacing the lens and restoring vision. The procedure was painless, quick, and easy. Yesterday, he did the right eye. While that cataract was less of a problem, this time the surgery painful and my eye still hurt this morning. I want to sleep, or at least keep it closed.

The doctor recommended reading glasses from the dollar store until healing is complete. They worked last night, but not today. He said to get three pair in varying strengths. Now I know why. Blurry vision is no fun at all.

Today’s devotional reading reminded me of a story about blurry vision. A pastor once told me that in theology, some people become so focused on their ‘pet doctrine’ that it is like looking through a magnifying glass; the center might be clear and sharp, but everything else around the edges becomes blurry.

With today’s devotional reading again focusing on the author’s view that ‘only the elect will be saved’ I began to wonder about blurry vision in other matters. As I read the passage a few times, I asked the Holy Spirit to speak to me. What is this parable saying?

One Sabbath, when (Jesus) went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” And they could not reply to these things.

Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 14:1–11)

Most Bible scholars say that parables have one main meaning. This one seems to address the issue of pride and the need for humility. As I read it and was thinking about my eyes and the blurred vision of one of them, I thought about a blind man who attends our church. I’m not sure why, but I’ve found his appearance and manner very off-putting and tend to avoid him, not because he is blind. He also came to mind while the doctor worked on my eye.

The first part of the above passage is about the compassion of Jesus. He didn’t care about rules, customs, or anything else but helping those who need help. The Holy Spirit used those verses to remind me that God wants compassion shown to this man, not just because he is blind, but because he is a brother in Christ. I’m not to be like the Pharisees who were more interested in appearing godly than being godly. These verses point to their stuck-up pride and the compassion of Christ. Whose behavior am I demonstrating?

In the parable, Jesus illustrates how their attitude shows up in other ways. They assume they are special because they were invited to dine at the ruler’s house. They exalted themselves by taking a front-row seat instead of giving priority to the other guests. If they are to be exalted, it is their host that ought to do it, not themselves.

In this parable, the Holy Spirit spoke to me again. He repeated the first rebuke — that I am exalting myself over this blind fellow and need to have a different attitude. The second one is that even though God did invite me into His kingdom, there is no way that I can consider myself special. Whether the other guests are Christians or this parable is talking about being in a room full of sinners, the point is not “I was picked” but that I’m to be a humble person.

If I over-focus on what God has done for me, other people drift to the edges and get lost in my blurry vision. I’m aware how easily that can turn into pride at being “a chosen one” (just like the Pharisees did) instead of joyfully and with humility telling others the good news that “whosoever will may come”!

^^^^^^^

Jesus, forgive my pride and poor attitude, not only for this blind man, but whenever I look down my nose on anyone. Keep me from zeroing in on anything that blurs the bigger picture of Your goodness and grace. You could have decided that our sin is too repulsive and too off-putting. You could have refused to come, to seek and save the lost, to die for the sins of the world, mine included. I cannot give sight to the blind, but I can treat him and others with Your great compassion.

Escaping spiritual pride

Spiritual pride takes my eyes off the One who gave me whatever I am proud about, and as soon as that happens, I lose that gift of grace and crash into my own strength. There is no sadder place to be.
 

For instance, loving others is the grace of God to selfish sinners. Loving others, in the strength of Jesus Christ, is a delight. But as soon as I start thinking about the virtue of loving others and that I have it, and that this is a blessing, that introspection is in danger of becoming spiritual pride. Who is loved when I say, “Look at me, look at how much I love others”?

Doing acts of kindness in the grace and power that God gives is another example. Whenever I am engaged in godly ministry to anyone in need, as soon as I begin looking at myself and what I am doing, even patting myself on the back and thinking I am some sort of spiritual hotshot, the kindness dissolves into inflated ego and I fall off my pedestal. 

The Bible is filled with warnings about spiritual pride and the need to humble myself lest pride overcomes me. Pride begins in the mind so I need to fill my mind with better thoughts. One way to do that is reading the stories of God’s people in the Old Testament. Paul explains how these events “took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did” (1 Corinthians 10:6). When I see what happened to those God chose as His people, I know that the same things could happen to me. 

Paul knew that too, so after he points to them and my need to avoid the same mistakes, he warns,

Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:12–13)

I notice two things. One is that the fall from spiritual strength to looking inward and losing that strength does not have to happen. With every temptation, God provides a way of escape. I do not need to gloat in any gift from Him, then become a pain in the experience of those around me. I do not need to yield to that temptation to pat myself on the back as if I am the source and sustainer of my own spiritual life. God does offer a way of escape.

His way of escape from the temptation of pride is the way of humility. While verbally exalting and thanking the Savior for all good things in my life is an important habit, humility goes beyond words. I cannot respond to success or the praises from others by just mouthing the words, “Give God the glory.” I must know deep in my heart that He is God and I am mere mortal, sinner and totally dependent on Him and His grace. 

The note in today’s devotional is short, but it is a humble-reminder. These words put into perspective the ease at which anyone, especially me, can fall into spiritual pride. The reading says only this:

Angels fell in Heaven, Adam in paradise, Peter in Christ’s presence.

No matter what place I am in or how close to God I am, temptation can knock me from that into the mire of self-reliance, or worse, into the muck of more blatant sin. Every day, every moment of every day, I need to remember who God is and who I am.

---

Lord, You often say that Your people are to “humble” ourselves. Life often does that for us as we stumble through it. I learn from falling on my ego that I am nothing and You are everything. Please keep my focus on You today. No matter what happens, I want to remember that You are the Savior and I am merely the saved sinner.