Our Love Life Matthew 7:7-11

God’s love is without limit, but that doesn’t mean His children have no boundaries. While the world argues that Christianity’s rules stifle the individual, any good parent will attest that setting limits is part of caring for one’s kids. And so is continuing to love them when they break the rules.

This may bring two questions to mind:

1. Why does the Lord have so many rules?

Scriptural principles are designed to protect us and bring peace. But God does not force obedience. The Bible neither says nor implies that we have to live up to the Ten Commandments or the Sermon on the Mount in order to be loved. God’s children discover that following those rules is the path to joy, security, and a sense of well-being. In contrast, disobedience brings heartache and suffering into one’s life.

2. What happens when I sin?

Our obedience is not required for God to love us. He cares for even the most evil and murderous man, which means that no one is able to sin beyond the Lord’s redemptive grace. He will always forgive. But do not fall for the opposite error either. Grace is not a license to sin. God allows us to experience the consequences of wrongdoing. That’s what a loving parent does to be sure a child learns the value of doing right.

God loves without condition. To show His great care, He gave solid principles on which people are to build their lives. His affection is in no way diminished toward those who ignore biblical rules, but His heart is grieved by their defiance. He delights in believers who seek and follow His will (1 Thess. 4:1).

It Will Fit No Head but Mine

There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness.

2 Timothy 4:8

Doubting one, you have often said, “I fear I shall never enter heaven.” Fear not! All the people of God shall enter there. I love the quaint saying of a dying man who exclaimed, “I have no fear of going home; I have sent all ahead of me. God’s finger is on the latch of my door, and I am ready for Him to enter.” “But,” said one, “are you not afraid lest you should miss your inheritance?” “Nay,” said he, “nay; there is one crown in heaven which the angel Gabriel could not wear; it will fit no head but mine. There is one throne in heaven which Paul the apostle could not fill; it was made for me, and I shall have it.” O Christian, what a joyous thought! Your portion is secure; “there remains a rest.” “But cannot I forfeit it?” No, it is entailed. If I be a child of God I shall not lose it. It is mine as securely as if I were there.

Come with me, believer, and let us sit upon the top of Nebo and view the goodly land, even Canaan. Do you see that little river of death glistening in the sunlight, and across it do you see the pinnacles of the eternal city? Do you mark the pleasant country and all its joyous inhabitants? Know, then, that if you could fly across you would see written upon one of its many mansions, “This remains for such a one, preserved for him only. He shall be caught up to dwell forever with God.”

Poor doubting one, see the fair inheritance; it is yours. If you believe in the Lord Jesus, if you have repented of sin, if you have been renewed in heart, you are one of the Lord’s people, there is a place reserved for you, a crown laid up for you, a harp specially provided for you. No one else shall have your portion; it is reserved in heaven for you, and you shall have it before long, for there shall be no vacant thrones in glory when all the chosen are gathered in.

God Is Our Loving Father Luke 15:11-24

Humanity tends to project its own faulty habits onto God. This is especially true regarding the nature of His love. We think we must barter, plead, or try hard to earn the Lord’s favor. But as the prodigal son learned, the Father’s love is unconditional.

The wayward son expected his father’s love to be diminished. Therefore, he went home hoping for a place among the family servants. Imagine the boy’s delight when Dad greeted him with a hug and a celebration. His actions certainly didn’t merit an outpouring of affection, but Jesus’ parable is all about a Father who doesn’t give people what they deserve.

A love based on conduct would keep people guessing, Have I done enough? Instead, God cares for you simply because you’re you, and He expects nothing in return. Consider the prodigal’s life after his homecoming party. He didn’t move into the servants’ quarters and get to work. He was reinstated to his place as the second son of a wealthy man, with all of the privilege that entails. In the same way, believers are the Lord’s cherished children
(2 Cor. 6:18). When God looks at His loved ones, He doesn’t focus upon past failures, faults, or sin. He sees the heirs to His kingdom–men and women who love Him and desire to spend eternity in His presence.

No matter how far we may wander from the Lord’s perfect will for our lives, we are always welcome back. The Bible teaches that God’s love cannot be lost, regardless of sin or poor decisions (though we may have to live with the consequences). Our Father’s arms are always open.

Polluted by Holy Motives?

. . . Guilt from the holy things.

Exodus 28:38

What a veil is lifted up by these words, and what a disclosure is made! It will be humbling and profitable for us to pause awhile and see this sad sight. The iniquities of our public worship, its hypocrisy, formality, lukewarmness, irreverence, wandering of heart, and forgetfulness of God–what a full measure have we there! Our work for the Lord, its emulation, selfishness, carelessness, slackness, unbelief–what a mass of defilement is there! Our private devotions, their laxity, coldness, neglect, sleepiness, and vanity–what a mountain of dead earth is there! If we looked more carefully, we should find this iniquity to be far greater than appears at first sight.

Dr. Payson, writing to his brother, says, “My parish, as well as my heart, very much resembles the garden of the sluggard; and what is worse, I find that very many of my desires for the improvement of both, proceed either from pride or vanity or indolence. I look at the weeds, which overspread my garden, and breathe out an earnest wish that they were eradicated. But why? What prompts the wish? So that I may walk out and say to myself, ‘In what fine order is my garden kept!’ This is pride. Or, so that my neighbors may look over the wall and say, ‘How finely your garden flourishes!’ This is vanity. Or I may wish for the destruction of the weeds, because I am weary of pulling them up. This is indolence.”

So even our desires after holiness may be polluted by ill motives. Under the greenest sods worms hide themselves; we need not look long to discover them. How cheering is the thought that when the High Priest bore the iniquity of the holy things he wore upon his brow the words, “HOLINESS TO THE LORD,” and even so while Jesus bears our sin, He presents before His Father’s face not our unholiness, but His own holiness. O for grace to view our great High Priest by the eye of faith!

The Body of Christ Ephesians 4:11-16

As we saw yesterday, all the people who gather to worship in churches around the world form one body–the body of Christ. Jesus is the head. Paul described Him as “the beginning, the first-born from the dead” (Col. 1:18). He takes priority in the church and in the lives of every believer.

At salvation, you become a part of the body, no matter what your local church’s membership rules may be. By receiving the Savior, a person is made one with Jesus. Therefore, if you’re a believer, you are a breathing and active part of Christ, who is at work on earth through His followers. The church is Jesus’ feet to carry the gospel message, His arms to care for those in need of love, and His hands to uphold the weak.

Christ’s physical body underwent terrible pain and persecution. His church body cannot expect a cozy, easy existence either. Being Jesus to the world means making sacrifices, accepting ridicule, and loving our enemies (Heb. 13:16, Matt. 5:44). God called us to spread the gospel, but that doesn’t mean people always like what we have to say. Sin and accountability aren’t popular messages. Yet being trendy and well liked is not the point. We’re here to carry out the work and mission of God, even when doing so is uncomfortable.

The spiritual makeup of the church is linked to its mission. The gospel cannot be spread except through the strength and wisdom of Jesus Christ, the head. The body of believers is united with Him through the indwelling presence of His Holy Spirit. He reaches the world through His church and its members.

The Aim and End of Life

For to me to live is Christ.

Philippians 1:21

The believer did not always live to Christ. He began to do so when God the Holy Spirit convinced him of sin, and when by grace he was brought to see the dying Savior making a propitiation for his guilt. From the moment of the new and heavenly birth the man begins to live to Christ. Jesus is to believers the one pearl of great price, for whom we are willing to part with all that we have. He has so completely won our heart that it beats alone for Him; to His glory we would live, and in defense of His Gospel we would die. He is the pattern of our life, and the model after which we would sculpture our character.

Paul’s words mean more than most men think; they imply that the aim and end of his life was Christ–nay, his life itself was Jesus. In the words of an ancient saint, he ate and drank and slept eternal life. Jesus was his very breath, the soul of his soul, the heart of his heart, the life of his life. Can you say, as a professing Christian, that you live up to this idea? Can you honestly say that for you to live is Christ? Your business–are you doing it for Christ? Is it not done for self-aggrandizement and for family advantage? Do you ask, “Is that a mean reason?” For the Christian it is. He professes to live for Christ; how can he live for another object without committing spiritual adultery?

There are many who carry out this principle in some measure; but who is there that dares say that he has lived wholly for Christ as the apostle did? Yet this alone is the true life of a Christian–its source, its sustenance, its fashion, its end, all gathered up in one word–Christ. Lord, accept me; I present myself, praying to live only in You and to You. Let me be as the creature that stands between the plow and the altar, to work or to be sacrificed; and let my motto be, “Ready for either.”