[To receive the most benefit from this study, please begin at Part 1 which can be selected from the menu to the right.]
Love of the World and Worldly Love
"…but God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." (Galatians 6:14)
This is a powerful and telling statement about the apostle Paul. I believe it is the key to the power of his ministry in Jesus Christ….that because of Jesus Christ, the world is dead to Paul and Paul is dead to the world; meaning of course, that even though he lives in the world, he is dead to the draw of worldly things. Paul speaks a lot about dying in his letters; and about our true identity being found in Jesus Christ alone.
We hear the words, but we don't always act upon them. Paul is giving us instruction, showing us that we MUST die, in order that Christ might live in us. Sometimes we begin on the right course, but are drawn off course by the bright lights of a distant city as it beckons to us.
I speak of this world, of course. And of our society, with whom, perhaps we have a close identification. Sometimes, it is difficult to tell the Christians from those of the world. That wasn't a problem in Paul's case.
So, let's try to put this into practical terms with.
What is the most frequent subject of our conversation? What do we speak about more than anything else during the day? Some people spend a lot of time talking about their children. Others about their animals or pets. Others about their jobs. Still others about politics, whether on a national level or within the community. Others speak about their talents, or their hobbies. Others speak about their travels. Some just spend a lot of time talking, about anything and everything, but seldom about the Lord.
The things we speak about are the things we "glory" in.
The thing that Paul gloried in was the cross of Jesus Christ. That is what he spent his time speaking of.
"But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." (Matthew 12: 36-37)
Will our words justify us because they bring glory to Jesus; or will they condemn us because they showed that our hearts were focused on things of the world? And what about the love that we have shown one to another? Will that love justify us or condemn us?
The Lord showed me something in scripture recently that I had not seen before, but which gave me some understanding into a question that I had long held in my heart concerning the destruction of the pagan people, especially the children. Love as the world knows it would never harm a child. But in the passage below, we will see that in obedience to the command of the Lord, Moses led the Israelites into a campaign against Sihon, king of Heshbon, in which all living persons, subjects of this evil king, were destroyed:
"And the Lord said to me, Behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his land before thee: begin to possess, that thou mayest inherit his land….and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people. And we took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones, of every city, we left none to remain…" (Deuteronomy 2:31-34)
What struck me about this passage, the last time I read it, was the use by Moses, of the term "little ones." It sounded like an endearment to me. I saw for the first time, that Moses took no joy in slaughtering the people, perhaps especially when it came to the children. How it must have actually grieved him to do so, and yet he knew that God knew better than he did. He understood that God knew what He was doing and why. And he understood that no matter how painful the command might be, he could do no other than obey. I don't believe Moses was cold, heartless and unfeeling when it came to destroying the pagan children. But he trusted God more than his own heart.
We, on the other hand, who at times seem to be so far away from being excellent examples of unquestioning trust in God….we lean to our hearts, rather than to the Word of God, in so many things. For us mothers, especially, we rely on our "motherly instincts." And many times the love we offer our children, or others around us, is not that which God would have us offer, for we dare not ask God: He might tell us to do something that our hearts could not bear to do. Better not to ask! Better to trust our own instincts!
But this posting does not apply to mothers alone. Whatever manner with which we have chosen to show love for one another, whether to the brethren within the church or to the lost outside of the church, must have as its source, obedience to God, rather than what we, or the world around us, consider to be love. Because of this lack of understanding, we again see many fleshly forms of love being distributed amongst believers. Not in illicit ways, but in ways that on the surface appear to come from a good heart, but underneath, the source is really only the desire to be seen and recognized; having nothing to do with the love of God at all. Many of us are "people-pleasers" rather than "God-pleasers". And, as for the world, do we love as the world loves, supplying all types of "good works" but not necessarily "Good News"? So that, once more, the works we do are not born out of faith in God, but out of wanting to "out-do" the world? We are not in competition with the world. We are simply servants of the Most High God.
If we are submitted to the authority of God in Jesus Christ, then our love will spring up out of a desire to please God and not man. When we walk in obedience to God, the world will see in us a love that bears little similarity to that with which they are familiar; because our love will "glorify" God rather than man.
"…and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." (Romans 12:2)
Tomorrow, part 7 of Mighty Through God: "Speaking Evil of Authorities"
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