FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

Scripture Reference: Psalm 19

From Last Lesson: Creation reveals the glory of God; God’s Word reveals the way to God. How?

The “testimony of the Lord,” all of what God has told his people, is trustworthy, giving wisdom to the one who needs it (verse 7). It reveals the danger of being out of God’s will even when one is unaware of it. God’s “statutes” are entirely right, not a burden but a source of joy for those who obey them. The “commandment of the Lord,” the entirety of His revealed Word, cleanses one’s eyes, giving one a clear perspective of life. It lights up the eyes revealing the inner joy God’s Word brings (verse 8).

The “fear of the Lord” gives instruction on what it means to reverence Yahweh in awe. It is pure and eternal. The “judgements,” God’s decrees, His commands, on matters, inform us of what is appropriate conduct. Therefore, they are “true and righteous altogether” (verse 9). Nothing compares to the value of God’s Word. The wise will desire it more than anything else in life. True satisfaction and delight comes from the sweetness of knowing God’s Word and faithfully living in accordance to it. Moreover, God’s Word both warns one of dangers that would ruin one’s life and rewards one for listening to it and obeying (verses 10-11).

David displays the proper response to having witnessed God’s revelation of Himself in both His creation and His Word, a prayer for cleansing and purity. David’s concern is not only for the willful sin he is aware of in his life, but he is also troubled by the unknown sin in his life. Our sin nature has such a grip on us that we often sin unintentionally and unknowingly. The Law of Moses recognizes this truth and provides the Sin Offering as a means of atonement for unintentional sins and the sins one commits unknowingly (Leviticus 4:1-5:13). David’s desire is to live completely devoted to Yahweh in every way. He wants the Lord, not his sin, to rule his life. He realizes he cannot keep from ever sinning, but he is asking the Lord to help him be godly and blameless (verse 13). His prayer is for everything he says and thinks to be acceptable to Yahweh. He is offering himself as a living sacrifice to the Lord, His rock, His strength and foundation in life, His Redeemer, His protector, provider, and Savior (verse 14).

Psalm 19 demonstrates that God wants us to know Him, intimately, not just know about Him. He has demonstrated this in creation, by His Word, and ultimately through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:1-4). Like David, we should praise God as we witness the splendor of God’s handiwork. However, as wonderful as God’s creation is, even more magnificent is His written Word. For it is God’s Word, His Logos, that shows us how to know our Creator. We need to be in God’s Word because it is what revives us, guides us, and sustains us. It is also what leads us to Jesus Christ, the living Word, the living Logos, who became flesh according to the apostle John in his epistle (John 1:14). It is because of the person and work of Jesus Christ that we can be cleansed of our sin and made right with God. Therefore, let us seek to know our Lord who graciously invites us to know Him intimately, as a true and glorious Father.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Psalm 19

In Psalm 19, David contemplates how creation proclaims the glory of God and then considers the riches of the Lord’s instruction in the Scriptures. He recognizes that, unlike the gods of the nations who are aloof and silent, Yahweh is a God who graciously makes Himself known through the revelation of creation (verses 1-6) and the revelation of His Word (verses 7-11). David understands that just as all of physical life is dependent on the sun, one’s spiritual life is dependent on the Word of God. David uses the beautiful parallelism of Hebrew poetry to convey these truths. David also realizes such wonderful revelation and communication from God necessitates a response. So, his request is for the cleansing of his sin so that what he does, says, and thinks will be pleasing to God (verses 12-14).

In verses 1-6, David looks to the heavenly host in wonder at how they declare the glory and knowledge of God. First, he focuses on the heavens in general, and then he narrows his focus to the sun. Verse 1 uses synonymous parallelism with three words in the second line matching the three words in the first. The pairs are “heavens” and the “firmament,” “declare” and “shows [proclaims],” and “the glory of God” and “His handiwork [work of His Hands].” The “heavens” and “firmament” both refer to the skies and everything in space beyond. The words “declare” and “shows” are participles in Hebrew, meaning the heavens and firmament are continually declaring and showing as verse 2 also asserts. By recognizing the first two pairs as synonyms, it reveals that the third pair are synonyms too.

So, David is saying that “His handiwork” witnesses to “the glory of God.” “His handiwork” means all of the skies and space above are God’s creation. The word “glory” in the original language means heaviness or weightiness. So, David is saying God’s creation of the heavens gives weight to who God is. He is transcendent, above the highest reaches of space. He is of ultimate importance; there is none like Him, anywhere. Without words, the heavens pour out this knowledge of God’s omnipotence, His wisdom, and splendor for everyone to see.

Most notable of all the heavenly hosts is the sun. David uses similes to describe its splendor. The heavens stand over it like a tent. Like a bridegroom and an athlete, the sun is brilliant and strong. It provides warmth and sustenance for the entire Earth (verses 4-6). The sun is central to life on the earth. It affects the oceans and the weather, providing energy for the plants to grow which in turn provide oxygen and nourishment for life on Earth. Without the sun, we could not survive. The sun not only reveals the power and beauty of God but also the wisdom and goodness of God to provide for all of physical life on Earth.

Likewise, God has provided for our spiritual lives by the revelation of His Word. Once again, employing the beauty of Hebrew parallelism, David expounds the blessing and centrality of God’s Word to all of life. Without God’s Word, we could not survive. Creation reveals the glory of God; God’s Word reveals the way to God. How? The “law [meaning instruction]” of God restores vitality to the spiritually infirmed and life to the spiritually dead (verse 7).

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: 1 John 4:7-21

The Perfecting of Love

The presence of God in us is the way love is “perfected among us.” This is with a view to confidence, “boldness in the day of judgment,” and boldness in that day is the ultimate in confidence. “Because as He is, so are we in this world”: we are children of the Father and Jesus is our model. The world did not welcome Christ and it does not welcome Christ’s people. But on the day of judgment the Judge will know all who are His and He will understand all.

The thought of confidence or “boldness” is developed towards the repudiation of “fear.” This word occurs three times, as a noun, in this verse and as a verb once, but neither is found elsewhere in the letter; there is a strong emphasis that the Apostle uses here on the concept of fear. Believers need not be afraid, for “perfect love casts out fear” (it literally throws it out, as with force). Fear and love are incompatible, and John clarifies this by stating it is “because fear involves torment” (or punishment), but God’s “perfect love” reassures us and gives us “boldness.” His love ensures and assures us that we are saved, not punished. If we fear, that shows in itself that we have not been “made perfect in love” (for the perfecting of love brings boldness and confidence even on the day of judgment as verse 17 stated).

“We love,” specifically and practically in the sense of Christlike love, the love of the unworthy which proceeds from the nature of the lover and not the worth of the loved one, only “because He [God] first loved us.” John is telling how we are able to come to love at all, not how we come to love God. To say “I love God,” while having hatred for one’s “brother” (brother-Christian? brother-man?) is to show oneself to be “a liar.” Pretty strong words from the “Apostle of Love”!

Love for God is shown by love for all people, even the “unlovable”; if the latter is lacking then so is the former. John goes so far as to say of anyone that “does not love his brother” then “how can he love God.” John is implying that without loving others, it is an impossibility to love God. He goes on to make a distinction between the brother who is seen and God who is not. To affirm and proclaim one’s love for the unseen while failing to love the seen is to enter the realm of fantasy and deception.

John finishes this section by reminding his readers of the “commandment” that “we have from Him [Christ Jesus}.” He has already spoken of the commandment to love previously (1 John 3:23) and now reminds us again that love is not merely an option, but it is a positive and explicit command to action.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: 1 John 4:7-21

Living in Love

John has already told us that it is “by the Spirit” that we know that “He abides in us” (1 John 3:24). He now adds the thought that “we abide in Him.” Both are important and both are emphasized in this letter. As in 1 John 1:2 the writer appeals to what “we have seen.” The thought of testimony looms larger as we approach the end of the letter. The verb meaning “testify” is the same as “to witness” which occurs in 1 John 1:2, and it is found four times in chapter 5, while the noun “witness” is found six times in chapter 5. The content of the testimony is that “the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world” (an expression found only here and in John 4:42). “Savior” covers all aspects of Christ’s work for sinners, and “world” of course, the totality of the whole human race. It is a great salvation.

However, it must be stated, not all are saved, for Christ’s atoning act is adequate for the whole world, but it is necessary to “confess that Jesus is the Son of God” if one is to experience that very great salvation. Then and only then does there follow the mutual indwelling of God and the believer.

We do not read anywhere else of having “known and believed the love” (the NIV has translated the original Greek word used with “rely on,” but the meaning is said to be accurately translated “we have believed”). We may fairly say that the thought of “knowing” love is found throughout, but to “have known and believed the love that God has for us” is a most unusual expression.

The love of God is never demonstrated in such a way that the worldly-minded have to see it. It is the people of faith and the people of faith only who see it. John repeats the great thought of verse 8, “God is love,” and he draws the conclusion that to live in love is to live in God. To love other sinners is never a human achievement and where this is found through practice, it shows that God is present.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: 1 John 4:7-21

Love is very important for John and he puts emphasis on it throughout this letter. Here he does this by drawing attention to the fact that love is rooted in God, who is, in fact, the very character of love.

Love One Another

John reinforces “let us love one another” with the reminder that “love is of God.” Love, as Christians understand it, is not a human achievement; it is divine in origin, a gift from God. If anyone loves in this sense it shows that that person “is born of God and knows God.” The negative underlines the point: Whoever “does not love does not know God.” The reason for this is one of the greatest statements in the whole Bible: “God is love.” This means more than God is loving, or that God sometimes loves. It means that He loves, not because He finds objects of His creation worthy of His love, but because it is His nature to love. His love for us depends not on what and/or who we are, but on what and who He is. He loves us because He is that kind of God, because He is the very nature of love. This kind of love is not found everywhere, or indeed anywhere as a human achievement. We know it only because God showed or “manifested” it when He “sent His only begotten Son into the world.” His purpose in doing this was to give us life. Life in the full sense comes to us “through Him” alone.

The real meaning of love and the real source of life are discerned only in the cross. It is “not that we loved God.” We will never find what this love is if we start from the human end (we is emphatic; not that we loved). We find it in that God “loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation” (in other words, “the One who would turn aside His wrath”). To see what love means we must see ourselves as the sinners we are, and thus as the objects of God’s wrath, and yet, even then, as those for whom Christ died.

It is one of the New Testament’s resounding paradoxes that it is God’s love that averts God’s wrath from us, and indeed that it is precisely in this averting of wrath that we see what real love is. This has real-world consequences. When we see that God loves like this we (the word is again, emphatic) “also ought to love one another.” The mainspring of our love for other people is the divine love shown to us in Christ’s atoning work. Christians should love, not because all those they meet are attractive people, but because the love of God has transformed them and made them loving people. They should love now not because attractiveness in other people compels their love, but because, as Christians, it is then in their nature to love. Love for other people is very important as is clear from the fact that it is this love and not just love for God that shows that “God abides in us.”

That “no one has seen God at any time” (compare John 1:18) does not deny the visions in the Old Testament (for example, Exodus 24:11). But such visions were partial and incomplete. It is in Christ that we see God. Therefore, when we love, God lives in us. Indeed, “His love has been perfected in us” (made complete), a staggering statement indeed.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.