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.
Have you noticed the changes in the church?
Aug0
Some of you may have heard about or noticed a transition in the church–a “new breed” of Christians that are arising (especially out of the pentecostal type churches). Well, there are actually two transitions: some of the church is beginning to adopt New Age doctrine (the emergent church), others of the church are moving into a greater move of the Holy Spirit (we’ll need this outpouring in order to fight the spiritual battle at hand; Acts 2:17-21).
The two transitions seem alike without prudent discernment of the spirits. Many in the fundamentalist churches are confused or mad about the changes. The high percentage of Christians throughout the denominations, I think, haven’t even noticed.
I want to make it clear that the Lord freed me FROM New Age thinking. As a result, I recognize it seeping into the church more clearly than most, and I’m not about to fall back into that movement. That said, God has power (much more power than the enemy!) and He wants to work through His people as a demonstration of His glory. I’m sure I’ll discuss both sides in more detail in the future.
What the church needs is to be fully opened to the Holy Spirit, and fully closed to the multiple deceptive spirits.
Fortunately we know that when we ask God the Father to reveal Himself to us that we may know and love Him more, He will not give us deceptive spirits but His Holy Spirit in abundance (Mat 7:11, Luke 11:13). As long as we’re plugged into the right God, we’ll have the right Spirit. If you love the Lord, there is no reason to fear what He has for you–He loves you too!
On the other hand, some personalities are so good at being open to new things, that they willingly trust and want whatever friends, family, pastors, etc advertise as being excellent ways to connect to God. When it comes to spiritual matters, we should never trust anything but the Word of God (Psalm 146:3, Jer 9:4-6, Mic 7:5, Acts 17:11, Prov 3:5). There are already many false prophets in the world, so it’s very necessary that we test every spirit to know whether or not it’s from God (1 John 4:1-6 and 2 Cor 11:3-4, 13-15).
You will know them by their fruit
Jun0
Jesus warns us about false prophets, saying: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits” (Matt 7:15-16).
But what is that fruit?
Fruit is the outward evidence of the inward seed. So, for instance, if you have the seed for a plum tree, and it grows, it will produce plums. A banana tree will produce bananas. You know that it’s a plum tree and not a banana tree by looking at the fruit.
Sometimes this takes a little discernment. The difference between a plum and a pluot, for instance, isn’t so significant that you could immediately see it unless you were adequately familiar with both. So, to discern God’s fruit, we need to spend time getting to know Him lest we get caught in something that seems true but isn’t.
And if we want to produce God’s fruit, we must first have His seed (a foundation of intimacy with Him).
It’s not the outward things we do that evidence the seed (you can give to charity, feed the poor, love animals, etc whether or not you know God), but it’s the outward manifestations of the inward things (the deep Joy that can’t help but bubble over, the true Peace regardless of circumstance…) that point out whether our fruit is good or bad.
My husband and I were watching the church sermon of a leader we’d never seen before. We’d heard really good things about this speaker, but when we heard him speak it was clear that he wasn’t preaching through the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:22-23; Eph 5:9). Instead of the joy and peace of the Holy Spirit, we distinguished anger, hostility and offense–even though he was quoting the Bible.
You see, it’s not just about what people say–in this case, much of the sermon was from an adequate Biblical perspective. What matters more is the spirit in which the message is given. We don’t want to graft ourselves into the wrong tree by allowing ourselves to be mislead by someone who isn’t connected with the Lord’s heart.
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.
Blog Directories
