The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"To Love - In Sincerity"
Every born again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ feels a sense of indebtedness to God. God, however, does not view the matter in this way.
"Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Romans 4:4-5).
By definition, one cannot owe for a free gift. After giving our children Christmas or birthday presents, we do not add, "That will be $29.95. Plus tax." We rather give from a motivation of love, and with the desire to bless our loved ones with an expression from our hearts to theirs. Such motivation proceeds directly from God's own heart.
"He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32).
Every grace of life, from salvation to "all things," comes to us with no accompanying bill. "Paid in full" declares our Heavenly Father of the next breath, and of all others He will provide in this life and forevermore to His sons and daughters through Christ's offering of Himself on the cross of Calvary. Thus, we may feel indebted to God. However, we never actually are. This raises the question: what is our motivation to be if obligation cannot serve to motivate, lead, and guide us?
The answer, of course, is love, that is, love as defined by God and His Word. "We love Him because He first loved us" (I John 4:19). Indeed, 1 Corinthians 13 clearly reveals that our Heavenly Father has no interest in a fellowship with Him that does not begin with the loving devotion of His heart to ours, and the corollary response of our heart to His. How do we relate to Him accordingly, knowing and experiencing His love, and fulfilling our calling to "love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity?" (Ephesians 6:24). No more important question can serve as the guiding inquiry of our hearts in an existence wherein failure to truly love means "I am nothing" (I Corinthians 13:2).
In the question, we find - or begin to find - the answer. If loving God strikes a chord in us, and if it matters to us that we do so, our journey of discovery has begun. Only those who know the Lord Jesus Christ bear within their hearts this response to the wonder of grace that so freely began their relationship with God, and so freely continues it. They do not always walk accordingly, and they realize how far they have to go in knowing the love of God, and then loving Him in response to His gift given. Again, they feel obligation, but they also know that this is not a true enough or firm enough foundation of motivation upon which to "walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us" (Ephesians 5:2). Only love, the love of God, begets love, our love for Him, in a devotion that is real and genuinely motivating in our hearts.
No more thrilling thought can bless our hearts than the realization that "the love of Christ passeth knowledge" (Ephesians 3:19). We will never fully know how much God loves us, or even what this means. We can, however, know more than we do, which instills the yearning and the enabling to love Him. In God's mind, we owe Him nothing for His saving grace freely given in the Lord Jesus. One does not pay for a "free gift" (Romans 5:15; 16; 18). One does, however, love in response to love. What does this mean? Let us us keep the question ever fresh in heart and mind, directing it to the only One who can and will answer it. He will gladly illuminate us by His Spirit, His Word, and His working in our hearts to make possible and actual our loving the Lord Jesus "in sincerity."
"And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment."
(Mark 12:30)
"And I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them."
(John 17:26)
"The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which is given unto us."
(Romans 5:5)
Weekly Memory Verse
We are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
(Philippians 3:3)
7261
No comments:
Post a Comment