Do You Love God? I Mean Really Love Him?
The desire of obedience in the heart of a Believer
Good Morning,
As we move into the second table of the law in our walk through the Ten Commandments as they are laid out in the Westminster Larger Catechism our Divines are going to want to take a breath and ask a question about what we are doing. It is always helpful to take stock of where things are going and how things are at the moment. Doing both helps assist in making the way clear for positive growth in the future. As we heard of the dangers of atheism, idolatry, blasphemy, and Sabbath breaking the Love Thy Neighbor part of the Law will of course have its do’s and don’ts as well. However, we need to be careful not to spend all our time on the negatives. For Christians the keeping of the statutes of God is always a blessing to us.
We should always be desiring to be conformed to the image of the Son.
The Bible knows nothing about a stagnant believer. The Pharisees were keen on thinking they had arrived at a perfect knowledge of the truth, and then sought to impose that man-made standard on everyone who encountered them. That is one of the reasons why those born again by the Spirit and by the blood are self-effacing in their consideration of their own walk with Christ. Humility is part and parcel of faith in the risen Lord. As we look at the Catechism question today I want you to take a moment and listen to what the writers of the WLC have to say about how not only we should be using the law daily to put to death sin and live to life eternal, but why our attitude towards obedience should always be one grounded in thanksgiving for the grace granted to sinners such as us. Here is this week’s Q/A:
Q. 122. What is the sum of the six commandments which contain our duty to man?
A. The sum of the six commandments which contain our duty to man, is, to love our neighbor as ourselves, and to do to others what we would have them to do to us.
Now, the build up to that one short question may seem to have been overdone. It doesn’t read like a call to meditation or introspection. All it looks to be communicating is a short statement about what the contents of the rest of the commandments are. Yet, it is vital to understand that when God established the division of the two tables He was intimating something that Jesus explains to the fellow who asked Him what the most important part of the law was for man. On one hand it was the kind of inquiry the enemies of Christ often asked as a trap. Whenever that took place our Lord was careful to turn it around and use their malevolence as a teaching time for whoever happened to be around (usually the Disciples). Let’s take a look at the passage:
But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?’ Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.’” – Matt. 22:34-40
I am sure that you probably have read that story a hundred times. Something we sometimes forget is that the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes were friends of convenience. Outside of their interactions with Christ they hated one another. They ascribed to the old adage of the enemy of my enemy is my friend. It’s part of the reason we often see them working together in order to somehow prove Jesus was either not the Messiah or that He was a blasphemer worthy of death, because our Lord showed them consistently that they were about the business of their father the devil rather than the God they professed to serve. How do we know that is true? Remember what He had told His own disciples, “If you love me keep my commandments.” It was that ownership that rankled the Sanhedrin men so much. Every interaction they have with Jesus testifies to the fact that they were a law unto themselves, not friends and lovers of Jehovah.
That is what the Larger Catechism is doing for us today. When we begin to go through the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth commandments are we going to find ourselves devoted to what they teach or are we going to make excuses and find loopholes for our feigned obedience to this portion of God’s law? It’s a question every person who names the name of Christ needs to ask of themselves. Do I love the Lord as He presents Himself in His word, or do I seek a god of my own making who can be molded and shaped as circumstances allow? If we confess that Jesus is our Savior we cannot do that unless we hope and desire that He be our King as well. That’s a large part of what we talked about in the sermon from last Lord’s Day morning, and we will find that it will play a central role in the description of Heaven found in our text for this coming Sabbath, Revelation 21:14-23. It will especially be a central part of our understanding the laments of the Preacher in our September sermon series out of Ecclesiastes.
Not to spoil the fun, but here are the last words of Solomon from that book:
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:
Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all.
In closing, as we enter into consideration of the second table of the law are you going to love the law as it is presented by our Redeemer or is that just too much to ask for a twenty-first century believer? There are two paths to take presented to us in the Scriptures. There is the way of Ruth and there is the way of Felix, who I mentioned last week in the preaching from Hebrews 1:5-14. Is your cry a longing to go into the land of promise, the place of God’s residing? Or are you content to wait for the right time to put aside your Roman pleasures and palaces? Well, remember the fate that befell the latter because he sought a more convenient time. That will be yours as well unless you fall at the feet of mercy and love and rest in His word forever.
Here is a last thought:
https://www.intouch.org/read/daily-devotions/how-obedience-relates-to-love
Blessings in Christ,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser