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THE KINGDOM OF GOD
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LOVE FOR GOD
By Mae Shurow
The Lord speaks very strongly of His great love for mankind in Scripture. And in return for His great love, He asks that we respond to Him with love. But we are hard-hearted creatures, and I believe God wrote the Old Covenant commandments on STONE to vividly illustrate the hardness of men's hearts!
Ezek. 36:26 “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh…”
But the Lord promised that the day would come when He would no
longer write His law on tablets of stone. He promised to put His laws into our minds, and to write them in our hearts (Hebrews 8:10) in the New Covenant!
The Old Covenant commandments were given to mankind as concrete examples, giving us a picture of what it looks like to love God and to let that love of God flow to others around us. Jesus affirmed that love for God remains of utmost importance in the New Covenant...
Mark 12:33 And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.
...and commanded us love God and others.
1 John 4: 21 “And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.”
If we love God, we WILL keep His commandments, for we will desire to please our Lord and Savior!
John 14:23-25 “…If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings…”
You see, God wants - and has always wanted - our hearts!
Duet. 30:16 “In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments….”
The difference between the Old Covenant (the Law) and the New Covenant of faith in Christ is the difference between the outward and the inward - between going through the motions or serving God FROM THE HEART.
God reaches out to us in love, and He desires that we
respond, not out of obligation, but in love.
God still requires obedience under the New Covenant, but obedience at a far
greater level than He asked for under the Old. The Law contained
instructions for mere outward obedience, but Scripture makes it clear that under the
New Covenant the need is for obedience from our hearts – because we love Him! The
love for God that is in our hearts will then manifest itself in our actions toward God and toward others.
I greatly fear that
people are not learning this great truth in most churches today. Instead,
people learn to go through the outward
motions
rather than learning to serve God out of love for Him.
Matt. 15:8-9 “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”
People learn to do and say all the right things in church, but for the most part churches don’t teach and consequently the people don’t understand that all we do must be out of a heart of love for God or it is worthless.
Isaiah 66:3 “He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog’s neck; he that offereth an oblation as if he offered swine’s blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations.”
Vain means "empty." I believe that means there's no love for God in it!
Much, much of what we do in our churches is not pleasing to the Lord. Our churches should be places of loving Him – houses of worship, houses of prayer. Instead, they have become houses of behavior modification. A great majority of our churches are unwittingly teaching that eternal life is of works, not of faith springing forth from a love for God… People learn from most churches today that they MUST go to church, tithe, work in the church, etc, and “we have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith” (Matthew 23:23). We stand guilty of measuring people by outward appearances and works instead of by their faith and love of God.
The word "faith" actually means loyal, stedfast LOVE, and
Ephes.
2:8-9
For by grace are ye saved through faith…
9Not of works, lest
any man should boast.
When love for God is no
longer of primary focus, churches become houses of entertainment and houses of
merchandise...offering this program and that new study and evangelism classes and dinners
for special days …
..on and on and on…
…so many activities…
…when all He ever wanted was our hearts…
What God requires of us is not complex, it is simple. It's SIMPLE, but not EASY. It's like that "single eye" in Matthew 6:22 - without duplicity….For we must abandon the idols that our hearts hold dear...repent and turn from those things we have loved but that are not pleasing to the One who must reign supreme in our hearts. Whatever, whoever, we love more than Him must give place to our Lord who has loved us with an everlasting love. This is the baulking point for most... "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:24).
Written
May 29, 2005
*All
emphasis mine.
Copyright
©2005 by Mae Shurow
Permission is granted for non-commercial (free) distribution
provided proper citation of
authorship is included.