Our youngest son is finally walking. Not only is he walking, but he is already trying to keep up with his bigger brothers. As I write this he giggles as he tries to wrestle with our oldest son. He has no chance at this point to defeat his big brother, but he keeps going back for more. His big brother wrestles back but without using his full strength so that he does not hurt the little guy.
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I remember doing the same thing with my little brothers. They had little fear of me, because as we wrestled I was careful not to hurt them, but because I was so much bigger, they did not worry so much about hurting me. I finally quit wrestling with them when they became big enough that I could no longer pin them without hurting them.
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As I watch my boys I think of Jacob wrestling with God (I believe Jacob wrestled with Jesus Christ taking on human form in Old Testament times). “And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.” (Genesis 32:24-25)
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As we think of Jacob wrestling with God, realize that God could have used His power at any time to subdue him, but that God chose to let the wrestling continue. Also realize that God never has to worry about a little brother growing up and becoming stronger than Him someday.
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Our one year old son has no idea how much power his wrestling opponents have, and as he wrestles with his brothers, he has no fear of them. I sometimes wonder how many people approach God in a similar manner. If my one year old wrestles with me, I have the strength to take his life, but love him enough to protect him rather than harm him.
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God loves us so much that He sent His son to die for us, but He also has the power to take our lives. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
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Though we should never forget about God’s love, we must also remember both His strength and His justice. If I were to wrestle with my sons and one of them continued to kick me as hard as he could, then he would find himself on the receiving end of justice so that he understood that he was not allowed to carelessly hurt others.
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As we remember God’s strength and justice, we must not forget to have a reverent fear of Him as we realize the justice that He can bring to bear. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36) “And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” (Hebrews 12:5-6)
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God does love us, and has shown us mercy by holding back the full power of His wrath from us, but we should view Him with awe (fear) as we realize the power He has and the justice we deserve.
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Friday, May 17, 2013
Biblical Standards and Love
Because we are sinners living in a sin cursed world, all of us have experienced some measure of heartache in our lives because of sin. Perhaps someone was rude to you or you were rude to someone else. It may be tempting to just decide that this is the way things are and there is nothing we can do about it. We may not be able to change other people, but we should be concerned about our own behavior.
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As Christians, we understand that the greatest command is to love God and the second is to love our neighbor. With that in mind it should not surprise us that our love should be growing more and more. Philippians 1:9-11 says, “And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.”
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As our love abounds more and more, the result should be a life that understands what is excellent according to God’s standards, and then that should translate into a life that is lived in a righteous way.
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As we study scripture we find a number of things that should not characterize the Christian life and we also find things that we as Christians should be doing. All of scripture taken together and applied appropriately should show us how to apply our love for God in a way that conforms to His standards.
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Still, we understand that none of us will measure up to those standards. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Still that should not be an excuse to ignore His standards. “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” (Romans 6:1).
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Because of our love of God, we should not make excuses for those who reject God’s standards, but what happens when someone accuses us of rejecting God’s standards as we are trying to apply them? This can sometimes happen among those who have a zeal for serving God.
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For example we have some friends who have a concern for dressing in a modest way as not to offend God or cause others to stumble. We share that same concern. The problem is that our application differs drastically. They believe that for a woman to be dressed modestly she must not wear pants. Though I disagree with their conclusion, I admire their desire to do what they think is right, however, when they invited us to go roller skating with them, I insisted that my wife wear pants. I did this for the same reason that the women in their family wore dresses- modesty. My wife had not skated in years and I figured that if she fell down and her legs went up that it would be much more modest for her to be in pants than in a dress.
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You see, both families were concerned about high standards, but our conclusions were quite different. This is a reminder that we need to be careful about not being judgmental toward those who apply a principle a bit differently than we do. It is also a reminder to let our love for God and our love for others abound more and more as we take care to apply God‘s standards appropriately.
-
As Christians, we understand that the greatest command is to love God and the second is to love our neighbor. With that in mind it should not surprise us that our love should be growing more and more. Philippians 1:9-11 says, “And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.”
-
As our love abounds more and more, the result should be a life that understands what is excellent according to God’s standards, and then that should translate into a life that is lived in a righteous way.
-
As we study scripture we find a number of things that should not characterize the Christian life and we also find things that we as Christians should be doing. All of scripture taken together and applied appropriately should show us how to apply our love for God in a way that conforms to His standards.
-
Still, we understand that none of us will measure up to those standards. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Still that should not be an excuse to ignore His standards. “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” (Romans 6:1).
-
Because of our love of God, we should not make excuses for those who reject God’s standards, but what happens when someone accuses us of rejecting God’s standards as we are trying to apply them? This can sometimes happen among those who have a zeal for serving God.
-
For example we have some friends who have a concern for dressing in a modest way as not to offend God or cause others to stumble. We share that same concern. The problem is that our application differs drastically. They believe that for a woman to be dressed modestly she must not wear pants. Though I disagree with their conclusion, I admire their desire to do what they think is right, however, when they invited us to go roller skating with them, I insisted that my wife wear pants. I did this for the same reason that the women in their family wore dresses- modesty. My wife had not skated in years and I figured that if she fell down and her legs went up that it would be much more modest for her to be in pants than in a dress.
-
You see, both families were concerned about high standards, but our conclusions were quite different. This is a reminder that we need to be careful about not being judgmental toward those who apply a principle a bit differently than we do. It is also a reminder to let our love for God and our love for others abound more and more as we take care to apply God‘s standards appropriately.
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