Emphasis on the First Commandment
Aug0
There are two commandments that stand out within the entire Bible and are particularly emphasized by Jesus in the New Testament. The first commandment is to love God and the second is to love other people. The first is first and the second is second–they aren’t equal. If we forget to love God, it really doesn’t matter how much we love people (1 Cor 13). The first commandment is a requirement for the second, and it is greater (Mat 22:37-38).
I’ve mentioned these commandments before, but it’s very important to recognize the difference between them. They wouldn’t be highlighted separately if they were the same; thus, we do not love God BY loving other people, we love God THEN we love other people. This is not a subtle difference.
So how do we love God? Scripture says we love God by keeping His commandments–we completely submit ourselves to God in obedience of whatever He has for us (John 15:1-11).
This is why loving God has to happen before the loving of people: God has a specific design for how we should individually love those in our spheres of influence. We aren’t called to random acts of kindness; we’re called to specific works which He prepared beforehand for us to do (Eph 2:10)!
If we neglect to focus on a relationship with the Lord foremost (on truly and wholeheartedly loving Him), then instead of being led by His voice to pour out His love, we become recklessly attempting to earn or prove our salvation to God, ourselves and the world. We may help people to feel good in the now, but aren’t able to offer them insight toward a stable relationship with the Lord because we don’t have it for ourselves; what is Christianity unless Christians can offer both? This ‘being good’ wears us out, makes us feel constantly inadequate or in competition with others, and most importantly, it doesn’t work–God knows our heart.
The ‘goodness’ has to come from the inside out. As we spend time with Him, we know Him and love Him. He gives us a heart to love Him–more and more as we seek Him–because He knows how small we are. And as we completely submit to Him in love, we can’t help but be stirred in our spirits to help His other loves. It really does happen naturally. And it brings with it a confidence of being a true heir and son or daughter to the Most High God.
The Holy Spirit
Jul0
The Holy Spirit is literally the Spirit of God. 1 Corinthians 2:10-16 tells us that just as we have a spirit in us that knows the depths of our thoughts, so does God have a Spirit that knows the depths of His being–and that’s the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the same Spirit that resides in God the Father and Jesus themselves. He’s the third person in the trinity God.
Since the Holy Spirit is the inner Spirit of God Himself, He knows all things. This more than qualifies Him to be the Spirit of truth, the Helper, who Jesus promises will teach us all things (John 14:17 & 26) and guide us into all truth (John 16:13).
This is really exciting! And it means that when we ask for more of the Holy Spirit, what we’re getting is the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16)! Even recognizing only the surface level issues of our flesh, we know that the mind of Christ is something we need much more of; we should be diligently pursuing the Holy Spirit so that we can closely partner and connect with God in the way He intended.
Jesus IS the Word; the Bible is His transcript.
Jul0
The Bible is the key to the heart of God. There’s power in it, because it’s the testimony of the true God, and He Himself speaks in and through it (literally). It’s a powerful thing to capture the words of the Lord–and this is just what the Bible has done. It’s the transcript of dialogs with God throughout history.
A friend asked me once whether we can trust the Bible since the translations vary slightly from language to language and version to version. She, being linguistic minded, felt it wrong to credit God for potential human errors–and how can we say that each are the inspired Word of God when they aren’t exactly the same?
All good questions. But here’s the thing: it is the HOLY SPIRIT who reveals the Word to us (John 14 & 16).
Well, wait! What about the Bible? Yes, it starts with the Bible. Our lives should revolve around the Bible because it IS the inspired Word of God–it’s His transcript to us. But Jesus is the Word that became flesh (John 1). The Holy Spirit is the spirit of God Himself, and it’s the Holy Spirit speaking through the Bible that makes the Word come alive for us (1 Cor 2)! In essense, it’s the Bible plus the Holy Spirit–the Bible is the living Word only when read with the Holy Spirit’s divine guidance. So, it’s all about the Bible (which is Jesus, the Word, as a lingual transcription for us); and it’s all about Jesus, who is the Word Himself and still speaks through His Spirit!
Does God love everyone?
Jun0
God not only loves everyone, but He loves all of us with the same fervor with which He loves Jesus!!! Jesus Himself tells us that “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in my love” (John 15:9)!
Isn’t this excellent!?! There is nothing we can do to fall out of the love of God. He can’t love us more and He can’t love us less. His love is already at full saturation for us whether or not we know Him or have pursued a relationship with Him!
We may not always feel like He likes us (let alone loves us), but this is a lack of perspective on our part. God sees us within an eternal perspective: He knows where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going. So, we can’t let our circumstances convince us that God doesn’t care. God does allow us (and in some cases, causes us) to go through difficult circumstances in order to expose our weaknesses that we might cry out to Him. He wants a relationship with us. He wants to be a Father to us. And because He knows the eternal consequences for our choices, He will do whatever it takes to shake us now so that when eternity comes we might receive His full blessing.
What’s the point of Jesus?
Jun0
God created. His creations chose to sin (disobey God). The world was no longer good. But God STILL wanted a relationship with us, so He chose the smallest and weakest of the people groups (the Jews) and gave them extraordinary favor that they may demonstrate His glory to the nations. God always wanted the nations, but He chose the Jews to be the evangelical messengers.
To the Jews, God made four covenants (with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David). In the covenant with Moses, God gave 613 commands for His people to follow, and the idea was that by acting out righteousness, their hearts would begin to manifest a burning desire for God. Unfortunately (and quite fortunately for us gentiles!), there were very few Jewish people who really developed that love. And sacrifice without love is meaningless. That’s where Jesus comes in.
Jesus is God. He’s the physical representation of the invisible God (Col 1:15). He’s the outward manifestation–the exact representation–of God (Heb 1:3). And He’s God’s Son (Matt 3:17, Matt 17:5, Mark 9:7, Luke 9:35).
When God saw that the Jewish people struggled to keep His commandments and develop true love for Him, He spoke to His prophets about a new covenant that He would bring. The new covenant would allow the people to really connect with Him because His commandments would be written on their hearts (internally) instead of on stone (externally). And though Christians are still to follow the commands of the Lord, Jesus promises that we would find rest for our souls, for His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matt 11:29-30).
Jesus came to earth for several reasons (He tells us many in the gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). But these I want to highlight:
- He came to fulfill the law (Matt 5:17),
- to declare Himself the Messiah (Mark 14:62),
- and to overcome the world by setting the standard of Truth (John 16:33, John 18:37).
Without Jesus, it would be impossible for us to overcome; but when He died, was buried, and was resurrected for our sins, He also sent power through the Holy Spirit that we may intimately connect with Him and the Father (John 16:7). It is such a powerful promise that we would be able to intimately communicate with the God of the universe!
This blog addresses the 'sticky' topics of Western Christianity in an attempt to shake, refocus, and unite the body of Christ, and to reveal the true gospel message to unbelievers.
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