Love the LORD Your God, Part 3

In Deut 6: 5 Moses commands that you "love the LORD your God with all your heart." What does it mean to love God with all your heart, and what hinders people from doing that? In the Hebrew Bible the "heart" refers to "the totality of man's. . . immaterial nature" (Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, 1: 466). It is more than mere emotion, as we so often think of the heart today. It is the will and one's thoughts as well. With this in mind, loving God with the whole heart means loving God as an act of the will, being devoted to God in your thoughts, and being affectionately attached to God. That sounds pretty comprehensive.

What keeps people from loving God with their whole hearts? First and foremost, I think, is self-love. Today people are encouraged more than ever to love themselves, even in popular preaching (note Robert Schuller). Whitney Houston sings about the "greatest love of all" being the ability to love yourself. But what does the Bible say about self-love? Jesus calls his followers, not to self-love but to self-denial: "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me" (Matt 16: 24 NASB). Rather than thinking that I have some good in me whereby to please God and earn his favor, I need to recognize with Paul that "nothing good dwells in me" (Rom 7: 18 NASB), and so the first step in loving God is renouncing myself, abhoring and loathing my sinful self as something worthy only of God's wrath.

Another barrier to loving God as we ought is loving the world. "Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 John 2: 15 NASB). One of the biggest challenges facing Christians in the affluent West today is love of the world, or worldliness. We've become obsessed with games, television, sports, and a host of other insignificant trivialities. We entertain ourselves to the edge of moral bankruptcy. Church services in many places are either nostalgic adventures into beloved tradition or mere entertainment. Instead of putting money into missions and church planting we build bigger and more lavish buildings. The thing is, we do a lot of this in the name of God and under the pretext of honoring him. In reality we do it for human pride and show that we really don't love him.

True love for God shows itself, not in the accumulation of wealth and possessions but in an open heart to the needs of others. How can you love God and not love others? How can you say you love God and not share the greatest news of all time--the good news of salvation in Christ--with other people? Why does the State feel a compelling need to get involved in relief for the poor and help for the sick? These are things that Christians should be taking care of voluntarily. The State shouldn't even have a pretext for getting involved. If only believers would do what they're supposed to do in caring for others there would be no basis for a welfare state. What will you do today to stand and show your heart's love for God?

Love the Lord Your God, Part 2

"Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God is one LORD. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all you are and have" (Deut 6: 4--5, my translation). The God of the Bible is one God, yet he is one God in three persons (cf. Matt 28: 19, where the Name of God is "the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit"). It is not enough to love just any god with all your heart, soul, and strength. It must be the God who is revealed in the Bible. Foundational to loving the LORD is knowing who he is. He is the one eternal and triune God revealed in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. He is not the fictitious man become god of the Mormons. He is not the distant and inattentive god of deism. He is not the vindictive and unmerciful god of Islam. Nor is he sometimes Father, sometimes Son, and sometimes Holy Spirit as the modalists believe.

You and I are called to love the Lord our God with all our hearts. Once you know who he is you must embrace him as your God. To embrace him in this way means to own his name and his calling on your life. It doesn't mean he belongs to you. On the contrary, you belong to him. As a believer in Christ you have been bought with a price, "with [the] precious blood. . . of Christ" (1 Peter 1: 19 ESV). You have been ransomed and redeemed from bondage to sin and self, and Christ has laid claim to you by his death and resurrection. How could you not respond to such sacrificial love by owning him as your Lord and King?

Because he is your God you are called to "love" him. While the Hebrew word has a broad range of meanings, the New Testament writers render it with the Greek word agapeo, which always signifies a willful and unconditional commitment to another. This love for God is not merely an emotion. It is a choice on the part of the individual, rooted in the gracious actions of God who loved us first in this way, to commit one's life unconditionally to God. God will have first place in your heart because he alone is worthy of it. The real man knows this, and the real man, drawn by grace, lovingly gives himself to the Lord his God in sacrificial commitment. Stand up. Be a man, and love God as you ought.

Love the Lord Your God, Part 1

Yesterday evening and last night I watched a series called "Liberty" about the War for Independence. This was produced by PBS in the 1990s, and my wife checked out the DVD set from our local library. In it were detailed, from the diaries and letters of the actual men and women involved, the sacrifices made for U. S. independence from the tyranny of the British Crown. The signers of the Declaration of Independence pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to the cause of liberty.

For two thousand years Christians have been sealing their testimony of love to God in blood. But today in Western Europe and North America, how many have love enough for God and faith enough in Christ to seal their love with their blood? Are you so sold out to Christ and the gospel that you will die to spread the good news of salvation in Christ to others? Think about it before you answer. If you cannot be inconvenienced to attend a Wednesday evening prayer service or go next door to tell your neighbor about Christ, do you really think you would stand in front of an executioner and bear witness for Christ to the point of death?

The Evangelical Church today is in desperate need of men, real men, godly men of courage and commitment and sold out sacrificial love for God. These men are needed in pulpits, in military chaplaincy, in Scouting packs and troops, in board rooms, in classrooms (public and private, from kindergarten through grad school), in Congress, state legislatures, and municipal governments, and in every walk of life. You don't have to be a seminary educated pastor to be this man. You just have to love God more than anything else and follow him. Where are the men who will stand in the gap and demonstrate what it means to "love the LORD your God"?

Stand for True Righteousness, Part 5

So, if taking a stand for true righteousness involves sacrificial love for others, how should that influence our overall demeanor?

First, in all things be courteous. There is no reason for a Christian ever to be rude to another person, regardless of what the other person says or does. Show acts of kindness in every possible situation. This is doubly true when dealing with persons who are avowed enemies of the Gospel.

Secondly, never leave room for an accusation. Guard your reputation. In a recent conversation in a store I was discussing Boy Scouts Youth Protection training and guidelines and how they are there to protect youth on the one hand and adult leaders from false accusations on the other. False accusations can ruin a person's reputation, and the gentlemen observed, "Where do you go to get your reputation back?" Right now the Evangelical community is reeling from a loss of credibility. At the height of its influence several of its most notable faces (televangelists) in the 1980s and 1990s were discovered to be involved in a variety of moral compromises. The actions of a few prominent people brought shame, disgrace, and loss of respect on all Evangelicals. Where do we go to get that back? We've got to live it down by rising above the accusations and demonstrating truly transformed lives.

Thirdly, be fair, honest, and factual in any debate. I've seen far too many "Christian" books on science that play loose with facts, especially their treatment of their opponents' views, in the interest of winning the debate. It is as if all is fair so long as we win. If you have to misrepresent to win, have your really won? Be sure of your facts. Represent the other side fairly and dispassionately, and be ready at any moment to show where you got your facts. If you find that you've erred, get out in front of it, admit the error, and issue a correction. Eating crow never tastes good, but it sure goes a long way to maintaining credibility.

Stand for True Righteousness, Part 4

Jesus said that the two greatest commandments were "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength," and "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Mark 12: 29--31 ESV). These two commandments sum up the two tables of the law. If the Church would live by these her impact on the world would be much more significant than it is.

A stand for true righteousness comes down to this--living a life of sacrificial love for others. That means doing what is best for others, even when they don't appreciate it, don't want it, and oppose you for it. That's the kind of love God demonstrated to us when he sent his Son to save us from our sins. We like our sin. We don't want to be delivered from it until God makes us aware of how terrible it really is. So when God sent his Son we didn't appreciate it. "He was despised and rejected by men; . . . he was despised, and we esteemed him not." (Isa. 53: 3 ESV). Did that stop him? No. He came anyway. He kept doing what he came to do, even in the face of mounting opposition. "He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him" (John 1: 11 ESV). Finally, to get rid of him they killed him by hanging him on a cross. But that was his plan from the beginning to obtain our salvation (Acts 2: 22--24). He gave everything out of love to a people who did not love him in order to bring us back to God. In that act he provides for us the only way to be righteous before God (Rom 5: 1; 2 Cor 5: 21).

At the heart of the Christian ethic lies the sacrificial love of God in Christ. You and I are called to imitate that sacrificial love to others by our actions, thoughts, and attitudes. "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children" (Eph 5: 1 ESV). A stand for true righteousness means imitating God by loving the unlovable, giving others what they need rather than what they deserve, and treating others with the same compassion you have received from God in Christ. Standing on a sidewalk and yelling at people in an angry tone is not what we're called to do. Rather, with tear-filled eyes and hearts melted with compassion we need to show people the end result of their sin and point them in the direction of the only hope for life. We need to model a life before them that makes them hunger and thirst for what we have. The world sees us as a negative people, angry, hostile, and ignorant. We need to demonstrate to the world that we are hopeful for our own future, grieved over the future of our world, compassionate toward our enemies, and informed--informed to the point of being able to show a better way to live. Make a difference where you live. By exemplifying sacrificial love to others take a stand for true righteousness.

Stand for True Righteousness, Part 3

If the kind of righteousness talked about here, what is often called "horizontal" righteousness, begins with the core commitment that each person is unique and created in the image of God, then how does that play out in actual interchanges between individuals, groups, and in society at large? At the heart of the word "relationship" is the matter of how we "relate" to one another. God, in the Bible, calls us to an ethic of love--of unconditional caring for others. This kind of love is not an emotional attachment but a commitment to seek what is in the best interest of others, putting self in second place.

When you take a stand for true righteousness in a marriage, then your spouse will know it. You will not treat your spouse merely as the means to your financial security, sexual fulfillment, source of happiness, or whatever else you can come up with. Rather, you will look for ways to fulfill your spouse in every area of marital life by giving yourself sacrificially to him or her in every area of life.

In your friendships you will seek the best for your friends. You will build them up, encourage them, and look for opportunities to do them good. In dealing with those who oppose you, you will likewise look for peace--genuine peace. If need be, you will endure persecution without retaliation. Still, it is important to speak the truth, even when doing so seems to hurt. There are times when showing a loving concern for others means opposing their self-destructive and sinful conduct. The Christian engages in the battle for true righteousness when he or she stands for biblical morality in opposition to the degradation of the world. This means saying things others may find offensive or unpleasant. It does not mean saying those things in an offensive and unpleasant way. Even when standing against the prevailing immorality of our day, believers should make every effort to be winsome in their conduct.

Don't be afraid to say that homosexuality, adultery, fornication, theft, murder, abortion, cheating on taxes, lying, political corruption, etc., are wrong. Don't be afraid to say that Jesus is the only way to have real peace with God and escape his wrath. These things are all true, and ultimately to say them is to show genuine love for others, because saying these things points others to the best possible way to live and the only way to eternal life. It is no crime to speak against the evils of our age. However, find ways to do it that are constructive, not destructive, loving, not insensitive. Learn to build bridges, not burn them. Demonstrate a stand for true righteousness by how your relate to others.

Stand for True Righteousness, Part 2

Applied Social Darwinism has given us a society where gang crime is rampant, abortion is legal, and in some places, assisted suicide is also legal. Add to that the current debate about health care, the possibility of socialized medicine and the health-care rationing that is necessarily a part of such a system, and you can see quickly that human life today is not measured by intrinsic worth but on economic terms. At the most fundamental level individuals view one another through a cost-benefits lens when building relationships and exploiting the weaknesses of others. Is this any way to maintain an orderly and cohesive society? No! Such treatment of one another builds distrust in relationships because every relationship becomes "disposable" based on the constant changes in the cost-benefits equation.

In this setting marriages become mere "economic" arrangements that are valued for everything from sexual gratification to obtaining insurance for one's "soul mate". So long as the benefits outweigh the costs, the marriage is not in danger of dissolution. Thus there is a move on today to redefine marriage, in defiance of 5,000 years of written history, not as a formal union between a man and woman for the purpose of establishing a family and propagating the human race, but as any consentual relationship so that homosexual couples may enjoy the economic benefits and social acceptability that married couples enjoy. The push has nothing to do with what's objectively right or wrong but with the cost-benefits equation of a utilitarian ethic. The end result of this redefinition of marriage will also be the eventual legalization of polygamy if marriage is so broadly defined by the courts.

In short, one's worldview defines how one approaches the issue of ethics--of how you treat your fellow human being. If you find yourself uneasy with "defining" what is or is not a "marriage" or "family", or what is or is not morally acceptable conduct, then you need to do a worldview self-check. Yours is not a Christian worldview, whether you profess to be a Christian or not. Christians need to apply a Christian worldview to their ethics and treat every individual as someone created in the image of God. Certainly, the effects of the fall must be taken into account, but still, each person is created in the image of God. Rather than viewing someone from a merely utilitarian perspective, we need to treat all persons with dignity and respect regardless of how they live their lives or what the mental ability or economic status is. We also need to show them the compassion of the Savior by (1) lovingly drawing attention to the problem of sin and (2) mercifully pointing them to the only hope for forgiveness and deliverance from sin. This is one way, and the most fundamental way, to take a stand for true righteousness.