Trying to Earn Love

Earned love?You Cannot Earn Love

With the coming of Valentine’s Day Sweethearts give red, pink, white, (and in Texas) yellow roses. Chocolate companies all over the world mass produce myriads of boxes of chocolate in anticipation of the day.  The candy aisle in the grocery stores brim with various assortments of confections.  And with much thoughtfulness, geniuses at the Hallmark Corporation contemplate just the right words to use to record the exact sentiments desired by the thoughtful.  These and many other gifts are given to that special someone in order to express one of our deepest needs–the need to love and be loved.  How many will think that they are earning that love?

What is a gift?  Dictionary.com defines the word as follows: “something given voluntarily without payment in return, as to show favor toward someone . . . .”  Consider these key words involved and implied in the definition: voluntary, payment, return, favor, relationship.  The word “voluntary” is related to the English word “volition.”  Volition involves the will, a mental faculty used to choose and make decisions.  A volunteer is someone who does something without payment.  The word “payment” means to exchange one thing for another with currency of some kind.  The word “return” means to turn something around, or send something back.  “Favor” is a wonderful word; it is both a noun and a verb.  As a noun, it is something done or given out of goodwill or graciousness.  As a verb, it involves the idea of preference or inclination toward someone or something.  Considering all of these things, a gift is a gesture (of an item or service) from one person to another, originating within one’s free-will, which demonstrates an inclination of good will, and it carries no expectations of anything to be given back.  A gift is the perfect avenue to demonstrate true love because true love involves all of the same elements in a gift, and much more.

Consider that love is an act which expects nothing in return.  Teaching us to love our enemies, Jesus said:

For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil (Luke 6:32-35).

Jesus is teaching us that true love is free from expectations; it doesn’t expect anything to be given in return.  In fact, that is the blessing in love, because “it is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).

Love also originates within the free-will of an individual’s spirit.  The apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 5:13-14, “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.  For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”  Love is a choice that originates within the freedom of our own spirits; it is a fruit of the spirit (Galatians 5:22).  Our free-will is involved in love.  We are to use our freedom to choose love, and thereby serve each other.

Love is the currency of relationships.  We are all involved in relationships of one kind or another.  I’m not speaking about romantic relationships, though those are included.  A relationship is the circulation of one person with another, and love is the greatest currency to effect the best possible relationship.  Our most important relationship is with God, and the first commandment is to love God.  The second is similar: we are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:37-39).  Love is that aspect of a relationship, among other things, that predisposes one person favorably toward another.

Love demonstrates good will toward others.  Consider what the apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8: “Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth.”  All of these behaviors promotes good-will between persons; they each are not love, but originate in love.  It is why love is the greatest of all the virtues.

Now consider this; love is itself a gift.  Love itself is the greatest gesture, and there is no higher.  God’s love is the greatest, because God IS love (1 John 4:16).  God has demonstrated His love for us by giving us Jesus.  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).  There were no strings attached to that gift.  God gave Jesus expecting absolutely nothing in return.  How could he expect something in return when He was giving to His enemies (Romans 5:10)?  Romans 5:8 says, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  God’s love personified in Jesus was the greatest gift ever given to man.

God’s love is a gift, but all true love is a gift. It cannot be any other way because love is grounded in the existence of God–God is love!  The love of husbands for wives, and wives for husbands is a gift.  The love of parents for children, and children for parents is a gift.  The love a person has for his friend is a gift.  The love we have for our neighbors is a gift.  Even the love we give our enemies–especially that love–is a gift.  One cannot earn a gift precisely because it is given as a favor, a show of good-will, without expectation of return.  We know we cannot earn the love of God, but we cannot even earn the love of our fellows!

This means that love itself is a free gift.  If it could be earned, then it wouldn’t be given freely on our part.  That is the heart and soul of what it truly means to be free.  We are free to accept God, and we are free to reject God, but to be free to accept God, we must be truly free!  We are free to give the gift of love to God just as He is free to give the gift of love to us.  The only difference is that we must first accept His love, and from Him learn to love before we can give Him our love.  John wrote:

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit (1 John 4:10-13).

Some may be thinking, “Free to love?  Weren’t we bought with a price?”  Absolutely.  1 Corinthians 6:20 says: “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”  We have been bought, but we’ve been bought to be free.  That is the heart and soul of the word redemption, and we have been redeemed (1 Peter 1:18).  We’ve been bought out of slavery, and God has graciously given us entrance into His family.  Consider Galatians 4:3-7:

Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

Christians freely choose to love God precisely because they have been bought out of slavery.  Nevertheless, we still give love to God freely as our gift to Him.  It is precisely this motivation that lies behind the free-will offering of 2 Corinthians 8-9.  Paul wrote that he was seeking to prove the sincerity of their love (2 Corinthians 8:8), and their offering was to be freely given (2 Corinthians 9:7).

Can we say, however, that God deserves our love?  Yes.  God deserves to be loved by virtue of the fact that He is love, and because God is intrinsically valuable, and therefore God is worthy of our love. This worth doesn’t originate from us, but from God.  It means that God Himself has within Himself qualities that deserve a person who has free-will to love Him.  It doesn’t mean that God owns someone else’s love, and has thereby forced them to love Him.  Each person is an independent free-will agent with the capacity to choose to love independent of God’s intrinsic qualities.

As great as a gift may be, it must still be accepted.  There is something I must do to accept a gift.  I must receive it. For a physical gift, I would hold out my hands, take hold of it, and bring it into my care.  But how do we receive God’s gift of love?  We accept the truth that God loves us, we trust what God says about us, and we put into practice the wisdom and truth He provides through His plan for our righteousness.  To do anything less is to reject God’s love, but none of these things earn God’s love because it is a gift—given freely, and freely accepted.

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Numbers and Faith

NumbersJust this past week I heard from a young preacher who is planning to step down from his position at a small congregation because he feels that he has not been successful in that role. Why? Numbers! The congregation averages 30–35 in attendance and, while this young man believes the church has grown spiritually over the past several years, because it has not grown numerically he is a failure. It is without question that we live in a consequential and results oriented society. Don’t win enough games, fired! Don’t produce enough sales, fired! Don’t baptize enough people, fired!

If numbers, be it wins, sales, or people in the pews, is the standard Jesus’ ministry was a colossal failure. In John 6:66 we read that, “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.” The apostle Paul, who is often heralded as the greatest missionary of all times, would have been criticized as a failure by many today. He never stayed anywhere too long (“We won’t support a man who isn’t going to be gone for at least four weeks.”); he admitted to not baptizing a lot of people (1 Corinthians 1:16); and he was often times to hard on himself (1 Corinthians 2:1; 1 Timothy 1:15).

It is true that we all too often place too much pressure on the preacher, the elders, and even ourselves to succeed according to current accepted conventions. What is the true measure of success? Winning more games than everyone else? If each year every coach who didn’t win a national championship or Super Bowl were fired only one coach would keep his job! If only the top salesman each month was retained each month the turnover rate would ruin any business in short order!

For you and I as Christians we need to understand that failure in life is not predicated upon how perfect we are (Romans 3:10), how many good deeds we do (Ephesians 2:8–9), or how many people we baptize. Success is determined by one factor, and only one factor: whether or not we go to heaven! Here is how Christ said it, “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). And success or failure is entirely up to us at this point. If one is lost in eternity he will not be able to blame God!

God did His part by sending His Son to die for every man (John 3:16; 2 Peter 3:9; Titus 2:11– 12). Jesus fulfilled all righteousness and did His part by dying on the cross (John 19:30). The Holy Spirit did His part in bringing to fruition the inspired Word of God (John 14:26, 15:26, 16:13; Ephesians 3:1–12). And the Godhead continues to active today in adding the saved to the church (Acts 2:47; Colossians 1:13), answering the prayers of the righteous (John 9:31; James 5:16; 1 Peter 3:12), seals us (2 Timothy 2:19; Romans 8:35–39), intercedes and mediates for us (Hebrews 7:25; 1 Timothy 2:5), continues to cleans us (1 John 1:6–7), and on and on we could go.

But what is our faith in God and His great salvation if we do not respond in obedience and faithfulness? James says, “faith without works is dead” (James 2). Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Salvation does not require great wealth, a terminal degree, or great renown. All anyone needs to do is be obedient to the gospel and live faithful lives of godly service. When Judgment comes and we then hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21, 23), then we will be successful and nothing else will matter. Will you obey Him today? How can we serve you?

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Conversion Examples

To be converted to someone or something basically means “to turn to, return to, turn back,” etc.  Biblical conversion always involves a person turning to the Lord from the heart and is manifested through faith and obedience (Rom. 6:17; Heb. 5:9; cf. Jas. 2:14- 26).  The book of Acts is rife with examples of those who were converted to Christ. While it is not possible to discuss all of them in this article, it is important to notice some facts about them.

What can we learn from those conversion examples? Well, for one thing, no one was ever converted to Christ without first hearing the gospel preached (Acts 2:14-41; 8:12, 35-39; 10:44-48; 16:30-34; etc.). Accordingly, no one was ever converted to Christ without believing the gospel (Acts 2:41; 4:4; 8:12, 35-37; 16:30-34; etc.). “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17). Furthermore, repentance was required if one was to be converted to Christ (Acts 2:38; 3:19; cf. 17:30; 26: 20).  Also, confessing Christ was openly involved in one’s conversion (Acts 8:37; cf. Rom. 10:10; 1 Jn. 4:15).  And of course baptism into Christ (via water – Acts 8:36-39; 10:47-48; cf. 16:33), which was commanded (2:38; 10:48), was vital.  In fact, one could not be converted without it (22:16; cf. Gal. 3:26- 29).

Based on these examples, have you been converted Christ, friend?

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Satan’s Dream Society

Satan’s Dream Society

I recently listened to a sermon that put forth the question, what would a society look like if Satan were completely in control? The immediate answer that comes to mind would look something like a modern Sodom and Gomorrah. Pornography would be plastered everywhere, homosexuality would be rampant, abortions would be available on every corner, violence and theft would be regular occurrences in every neighborhood, and the Bible would be completely absent. While that’s one possible answer and it’s not necessarily wrong, the preacher offered a much more frightening possibility.

Rather than achieving a society completely absent of morality and anything good, many times Satan operates in another way. He offers comfort and a false feeling of safety. Therefore, this alternate society would be one in which homosexuality, pornography, and abortion aren’t really an issue. The family isn’t under attack. Atheism, secular humanism, and postmodernism have no real influence on society. That sounds pretty good, right? The catch – the Gospel is not truly preached within the church buildings and the transformational power of Jesus’ blood has little to no effect on lukewarm Christians. It doesn’t permeate their lives.

Which one of those would we choose? Undoubtedly the second, but each is equally dangerous. Quite frankly, the second scenario was not unlike what we had here in America in the last century, and it was that comfort that led to the first situation described. That brings up the question – what is our aim? What are we hoping to accomplish as a counter-cultural, Christ-preaching, Bible-living church?

While society continues to deteriorate, many of us who are located in the Bible Belt live in communities not unlike the second one described. Are we content to have “good” people around us who haven’t been reached by the Gospel? In most cases, yes. However, just because they aren’t trying to persecute us for being anti-homosexual or for believing in God doesn’t mean we can continue to operate in an “I’m ok, you’re ok” manner. We must view the world the way God views it – either for Him or against Him. Paul described himself and his readers as former enemies of God (Ephesians 2:3, Colossians 1:2). Those good, nice people who make up our neighborhoods, schools, and work environments have been an excuse for Christian stagnation and silence for far too long, and it’s time that changed.

Where does that change start? In our hearts. We can’t look at ourselves as mostly good people who needed a little forgiveness for small, insignificant sins. We need to view ourselves as wretched, worthless sinners who were bought by blood. Once we have an accurate grasp of the cost of just one sin, we can begin to see our comfortable, upstanding communities as they truly are, desperately in need of God’s healing power. We all come together to cry out against media silencing of Phil Robertson, the Benham Brothers, and other public figures who have been labeled hateful because they teach the Bible. Once that storm blows over, though, we go back to our comfortable silence. Until we view the world as a daily battlefield for hearts and minds the way God does, nothing is going to change.

Are you comfortable living in a “good” community that is yet to submit to Jesus Christ as Lord? As long as the answer to that question is “yes,” Satan may just be doing his best work yet.

 

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The Golden Rule

The Golden Rule is as follows: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets” (Matt. 7:12). If we will just read our local newspapers or watch our local television news programs, then we can see a need to practice this principle in our treatment of others.
In learning how to treat our fellow man, divine wisdom teaches many things about human relations. We always need to base the manner that we treat our neighbors with compassion. However, through the temptation of Satan, humanity has chosen other means to deal with neighbors, resulting in uncompassionate condemnation of the righteous and commendation of the wicked.

Solomon wrote, “He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbour: but a man of understanding holdeth his peace” (Prov. 11:12). Proper human relationships towards our neighbors dictate that we will not despise others, but will hold our peace when necessary. We should not ever show contempt or despise those around us, but know the precious value of silence—something difficult for many of us (cf. James 1:19).

Again, Solomon wrote, “Be not a witness against thy neighbour without cause; and deceive not with thy lips. Say not, I will do so to him as he hath done to me: I will render to the man according to his work” (Prov. 24:28-29). We should not possess the evil attitude of revenge. It is disturbing the number of children and teenagers that quickly develop this disposition. Jesus shows the true heart of his disciples (Matt. 5:39).

Even many Christians have a hard time understanding the principle of talking with others about problems rather than with someone else (Prov. 25:9-10), which finds its application in Matthew 18:15-20. Jesus said that we are to first “tell him his fault between thee and him alone.” Only after such action fails do we mention it further to others for reconciliatory purposes, and not for slanderous, gossiping purposes.

God has not made any creature with which He is not concerned (Matt. 6:26; 1 Cor. 9:9-10; Deut. 25:4). Therefore, we are to use this principle in supporting others and caring for our neighbors. Since God created the world, He is interested in everything that He has created—we are to respond in the same manner toward our neighbors. Jesus emphasized this when He gave the second greatest commandment: “And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matt. 22:39). James commented, “If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well” (James 2:8), which James quotes from Leviticus 19.

One does not have to be a licensed counselor to help people with their problems, especially in dealing with other people, if he will simply use the divine revelation God has provided in the Bible (James 3:17).

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