12/21/2020
Who, or what do we choose to love? Who do we seek out and call our friends? In what way do we come to love them? The answer to these questions tells us a great deal about who we are, and the direction we are inclined to go in our faith. It also tells God if He is the center of our life, or if we have placed something, or someone above Him. God created the garden, and put Adam in it, He meant it to please man and his wife, but never did He intend for it to be loved more than Himself, or for it to be chosen over Him.
“You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
James 4:4 ESV
As people of faith we read the story of Adam and Eve deciding to eat the forbidden fruit and say to one another “How could they do this? I would never have done that!”, and yet we make that same choice in our lives too. We make it whenever we let a football game keep us from going to church, or as young men the desire for a pretty girl redirect us from praying as we should... finding that our infatuation in her has redirected our prayers from asking God to strengthen our faith to pleading that he warm her heart towards us instead. When we choose something of the world over God He becomes jealous of our lack of love and attention... even if we are swayed to a small degree...
“Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?”
James 4:5 ESV
It doesn’t take much to spark jealousy, we experience it all the time! Perhaps we go to a church event and our spouse makes over how well another man played in the church softball game, or maybe you tell your wife how wonderful another woman’s pot luck dish tasted, and mention it a time or two too often. Our children aren’t exempt either... we can complement the voice of another child who sang in the youth choir and bring out a jealous reaction in our own children. We are jealous by nature, and God is too, so when we choose anything, and place it above Him, whether it is in love, praise, or preference, we bring forth a jealous reaction from Him.
“(for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),”
Exodus 34:14 ESV
God knows our heart, and in so doing He knows when we aren’t loving Him as we should, or aren’t placing our desire for Him above the things of the world... its fruits, pleasures, or other contrived gods falling far beneath Him. We are to have unconditional (or Agape) love for God alone.
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world— the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life —is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”
1 John 2:15-17 ESV
So when we choose our friends, and especially in how we come to love them, or we see something beautiful in the world and desire it greatly, putting it above God, then we are raising the Lord’s jealousy, and ire... we are making an enemy of God. We think that since scripture tells us to love that this gives us carte blanch to love as we wish, but it doesn’t, for instance, scripture tells us how to love our wives...
“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,”
Ephesians 5:25 ESV
Yet Jesus loved, and subjected Himself to God, not considering Himself an equal, loving the Father more than all else, even more than a man should love his own flesh, his wife, and Christ is to love the church...
“who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”
Philippians 2:6-7 ESV
So as we go through our day today, we should choose our friends, loves, desires, and how we consciously, or subconsciously, place them in relationship to God, we should be very careful not to choose wrong, or place any of these above God... in either word, or deed. This is our first and greatest commandment, and God knows our heart.
“And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.”
Matthew 22:37-38 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for making us a jealous people so that we can understand you better, and know how to serve, and honor you as we should. Thank you for loving us as you do, and teaching us to love you unconditionally with an agape love. Help us Lord to place you above our every desire, and all that is in the world. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you who reigns over all things, and who deserves to be held above everything in our lives. Praised be your name for your Son Jesus, and His gospel of love that teaches us to love, obey, and honor you as we should. Hear our prayers Lord and help us, through the guidance of your Holy Spirit, to pray as we should... according to your will, and for those things that you would find of most value... Christlike. We worship you Lord, and lay ourselves prostrate at your feet, because nothing of us, nor of the world, is worthy to stand before you. Have mercy on us Father, washing us clean of sin with the blood of Jesus, and thus finding us worthy, through your grace, and our friendship with Christ, to enter into your presence forevermore.
“No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”
John 15:15 ESV
Rich Forbes