Living God's Love (Part I)
Living God’s Love
Part I
October 23, 2021
Larry R Evans
Introduction
A boy was flying a kite on a misty day. The kite was invisible in the fog. A passerby wondered what fun there could be flying a kite that could not be seen, to which the boy replied, “I cannot see it, but something is tugging on it.” Living God’s love is something like flying a kite on a misty day. We can’t see Him, but we feel him tugging on our hearts. Living with God’s presence is what it takes to give life meaning and purpose. Knowing God becomes our north star, the foundation, the One who guides and keeps tugging at our hearts. Given a chance, He changes the way we see ourselves and others. When that happens, when we allow it to happen, we begin to think differently and to relate with others and with God in different ways.
This week’s study could easily be focused on the characteristics of God’s love. That would certainly be time well spent. Today, however, we will examine God’s love but more from the perspective of “living God’s love” than from an effort to define it. In 1975 the Pacific Press published a book by Douglas Cooper entitled, Living God’s Love. As I recall, it was a popular book, but for sure it was popular with me.
Cooper tells the story of Mrs. Woodrum a 55-year-old widow who lived in Chicago. She ended her life by jumping from the 12th floor in her apartment building. What is both strange and sad are the few moments leading to the jump.
Just before she jumped, she smiled and waved at the janitor. She left a note in her room which read,
I cannot stand one more day of this loneliness. I have no friends. I receive no mail. No one calls me on the telephone. I cannot stand it any longer.
Her neighbors said, “We did not know she felt that way.”
I suppose we could blame the neighbors for not being more friendly or we could even blame Mrs. Woodrum for being self-centered. Perhaps, but what does it take to change the way any of us think? Maybe we all should step back and take another look at what it means to love and discover what the Bible has to say about the source of love. We can begin our study with the question, “What is love?” and “How does God get involved with the love we have for others, for Him, and even with ourselves?”
Learning to Love God
One reason why some disbelieve in God is that they have become trapped in ideas that began when they were young. Sometimes they saw God as the omniscient Policeman or the cranky old Judge. Others dislike God because they were abused by the very ones who claimed to be following God’s “truth.”
We need to pause for a moment and remember that the Second Commandment teaches us not to make graven images. What is a “graven image”? Graven images are not limited to statues made of stone or wood or marble. Graven images can be images carved into our minds by ideas or conceptions we were wrongly taught or learned by experience. Graven images are misrepresentations of God.
We need to let God tell us who He is. The book of Deuteronomy is a lesson book about God’s character and the kind of love, and relationships that He makes possible by His grace and forgiveness. With this in mind, let’s consider the message behind Deuteronomy 7:8,
But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
QUESTIONS: If God did not choose to love this generation because they loved Him, but because of a promise He had made to their ancestors, what does this say about His kind of love?
What causes God to love in the first place? If love begins with God and is not prompted by the persons being loved, what causes God to love? What can we learn from this about how we can love a God whom we cannot see? (The kite in the mist).
How do you understand, Deuteronomy 6:4,5,
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
First, let’s take verse 4,
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”
QUESTION: What does that mean to you?
Is God saying the Lord is the only God? Is He simply denouncing the idea of polytheism? Is this denying what we call the “Godhead” composed of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Why do you think God describes Himself as “a jealous God” (Deut. 4:24)? Why do you think this is important for His people to know this? Why is it important to know this today?
Deuteronomy 5 and 6 make it clear that there is no basis for polytheism. The word LORD is in caps which refers to Yahweh/Jehovah. This emphasizes that God keeps His promises. He makes Himself known through what He has done deeds for Israel. What He revealed then also applies to what He has done by making the provision for the salvation of the whole world!
How should we respond to what God has done? Consider Deuteronomy 6:5,
Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
The motive for love is personalized. Motivation is built on the words “your God.” Israel’s God manifested Himself as the one God who acted on their behalf. He can be trusted. He acted in ways that were for their good. They may not have seen it at every turn in the road, but the road led to their freedom. Isaiah describes this dilemma this way,
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the LORD.—Isaiah 55:8
A few verses later we find the outcome of God’s wisdom,
You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
The response to God’s oneness poured out on Israel’s behalf called for a response identified “with all your strength.”
QUESTION: What kind of response involves heart, soul, and strength?
The commentary by Keil-Delitzsch suggests,
The heart is mentioned first, as the seat of the emotions generally and of love in particular; then follows the soul as the center of personality in man, to depict the love as pervading the entire self-consciousness; and to this is added with all the strength of body and soul.
Loving the Lord with all the heart and soul and strength is the intended response for keeping the commandments. True godliness means that all our abilities, as well as all we possess, are given to God. Why should this be our response? Note how the 10 Commandments are introduced in Deuteronomy 5:6,7.
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
“You shall have no other gods before me.
God loved first and not because of anything the people had done.
QUESTION: Why is it important that God loved first? What kind of response does that call for? Considering this, what do you think Jesus meant, “If you love me, keep my commandments?” (Matt. 22:37-40)?
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
QUESTION: Would it work to reverse the order: Love your neighbor and yourself first, and God second? Why or why not? What kind of love would result?
Living with “the Fear of God”
These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. – Deut. 6:1-2
QUESTION: We have read that we are to love the Lord with all our heart, yet our children are to fear the Lord as long as they live. Is this a contradiction?
Does Psalm 111:10 and Proverbs 3:7 help explain the kind of fear that the Bible is talking about?
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise. – Psalm 111:10
Do not be wise in your own eyes;
fear the LORD and shun evil.
This will bring health to your body
and nourishment to your bones.
– Proverbs 3:7,8
How can the judgment bring both fear and the desire to give God glory? How does judgment become part of the good news?
Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth —to every nation, tribe, language and people. He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.” – Revelation 14:6,7
QUESTION: What similarities are there between the first angel’s message (Rev. 14:6,7) and the message given in Deuteronomy regarding love and fear?
Living for God without His Love
The agnostic philosopher Nietzsche, once asked: “If Christians wish us to believe in their Redeemer, why don’t they look a little more redeemed?” It was the same Nietzsche who coined the phrase, so sadly common in our own days: “God is dead.”
In the 1920s, the philosopher of American Communism was a Jew named Mike Gold. After communism fell into general disrepute in this country, Mike God became a man of oblivion. In this oblivion, he wrote a book, A Jew Without Knowing It. In describing his childhood in New York City, he tells of his mother’s instructions never to wander beyond four certain streets. She could not tell him that it was a Jewish ghetto. She could not tell him that he had the wrong kind of blood in his veins. Children do not understand prejudice. Prejudice is a poison that must gradually seep into a person’s bloodstream.
In his narration, Mike God tells of the day that curiosity lured him beyond the four streets, outside of his ghetto, and of how he was accosted by a group of older boys who asked him a puzzling question: “Hey, kid, are you a kike?” “I don’t know.” He had never heard the word before. The older boys came back with a paraphrase of their question. “Are you a Christ-killer?” Again, the small boy responded, “I don’t know.” He had never heard that word either. So, the older boys ask him where he lived, and trained like most small boys to recite their address in the case of being lost, Mike Gold told them where he lived, and trained like most small boys to recite their address in the case of being lost, Mike God told them where he lived. “So, you are a kid; you are a Christ-killer. Well, you’re in Christian territory and we are Christians. We’re going to teach you to stay where you belong!” And so they beat the little boy, bloodied his face and tore his clothes and sent him home to the jeering litany: “We are Christians and you killed Christ! Stay where you belong! We are Christians, and you killed Christ . . .”.
When he arrived home, Mike Gold was asked by his frightened mother: “What happened to you, Mike?” He could answer only: “I don’t know.” Who did this to you, Mike?” Again, he answered: “I don’t know.” And so, the mother washed the blood from the face of her little boy and put him into fresh clothes, and took him into her lap as she sat in a rocker and tried to soothe him. Mike God recalled so much later in life that he raised his small, battered lips to the ear of his mother and asked: Mama, who is Christ?”
Mike God died in 1967. His last meals were taken at a Catholic Charity house in New York City, run by Dorothy Day. She once said of him: “Mike God eats every day at the table of Christ, but he will probably never accept him because of the day he first heard his name.” and so he died.
John Powell in Why Am I Afraid to Love? pp. 116,117
Living God’s Love
The 10 Commandments concludes with “You shall not covet.” It strikes at the inner self. To say that we live God’s love implies that it is a passion of the heart. It is not just an act of memory or a hope for the future. It is not just what we do, it is how we think and how we feel. The meaning of Jesus words, “If you love me,” are deeper than just a good performance or external obedience. They call for a relationship with God and with those whom He loves.
We are One in The Spirit,
We are One in The Lord.
We are One in The Spirit,
We are One in The Lord.
And we pray that all unity may one day be restored.
Chorus
And they'll know we are Christians by our love,
By our Love,
Yes, they'll know we are Christians by our love.
NEXT WEEK is Part 2 of Living God’s Love, but this time we will focus on “Living God’s Love with the Stranger in Your Gates.”
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