"Exclusively Loving God through Loving Others"
The title is meant to highlight the seeming paradox that we face as believers and followers of Jesus Christ, called to love God exclusively, and yet called also to honour and love others such as our Mothers today on Mother's Day. How must a Christian, whose whole being is intended for God, view and celebrate Mother's Day? How does a Christian love their mother / family sincerely, when all their allegiance belongs to God?
A relationship with Jesus Christ not only changes the perspective, but also the value and the reality of human relationships.
The coming of Jesus is the coming of the Kingdom of God, the citizenship of which is that of a family; the membership of which is exclusive and trumps any other relationship.
Reading
To do: Read 1 Corinthians 7 (retain the place in life that the Lord has assigned), Colossians 3Luke 14:25-35 "Hate Father and Mother..." - exclusive relationship, all claims of motherhood are abolished, explaining why the word 'hate' is used; also the word 'hate' emphasizes the undivided love for Jesus so that we find our fulfillment in Him.
Matt 10:36 "A man's foes will be those in his household..." - the acceptance of one family member against the rejection of another of the gospel splits the family as a sword splits the family.
1 Cor 7:23 "
"new creation, old has gone, the new has come..." - everything has changed. Every tie cut.
"... not peace, but a sword..." - Jesus comes to cut all ties that tie people to the world
"... cannot serve two masters... hate the one and love the other" - The exclusivity of a relationship with God
"... follow you... but let me first bury my mother ... let the dead bury the dead." - the singleness of purpose
Miracle of Cana - Jesus himself experienced separation from his family relations
"who are my mother and brothers... they that do the will of God" - Jesus talking about his expectations
John 8:36 - "... if the son has set you free... you are free indeed..." - freedom from \
Colossians 3:18-25 "Work as for the Lord..." - everything we do is for the Lord
THE GOOD PURPOSES OF MOTHERHOOD
As mother (ignoring for the moment the purposes as a wife):teach children
build a home
1 Timothy 3:10-17, v14 - motherhood is bestowed a great honor and responsibility, a "calling" that is a long remembered ground of faith for your children and their children....
but
HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS - ITS NATURE AS A SHADOW OF THE RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD
Those who believe in Jesus enter the kingdom of God, become a member of the family of God where loving, treasuring, serving and being obedient to God with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength is the first and greatest commandment; the way of life; the source of joy; and is its own reward whose value is priceless and worthy of the sacrifice it calls for (carrying our cross; selling everything to purchase the field we find it in).The relationship with God is what we were created for. And it is a relationship that all other relationships point to as their perfection. Our relationship with our parents, our fathers and mothers are a shadow of the true relationship of the adopted child with the adoptive Father; a shadow of the relationship between the prodigal son and the merciful and loving father who waits for us and runs to us even when we were still a long way off, and restores us to himself with an embrace that says more eloquently than words: "You are forgiven, you are welcome home", who puts upon us a robe of honour; a ring to let all know we are heirs to his Kingdom - all of which we do not deserve, and cannot deserve.
All other human relationships are but a shadow to this ultimate relationship with God. Like a shadow they in themselves have limited value because they only approximate a shape, a depth, a picture which is incomplete. Our eyes and hearts are designed to see and experience the full picture. The love we are given and give in our families hint only at the love we are all designed for. A mother and a father who loves their child will go through any sacrifice to make sure that their child has the best future - they will give up their sleep so that their children might sleep; they hold back buying things for themselves so that their child would not lack for anything; they will risk shame, embarrassment and society's approval just so they may plead for a better chance for their child (remember James and John's mother in Matthew 20 asking that his sons may sit at Jesus right and left in His Kingdom); and when their children are older they will continue to watch over them, be their advocate no matter if they've made mistakes that no one else in the world would ever support; they will stand by them; they will provide a refuge for their children that is open any time on any day or night so that if they ever want to, they can come home.
But no human parent can reconcile their child to God no matter how much they may want to. No human parent can offer themselves to God in exchange for their child's life. And no human parent can give their child the love that every single created being was designed for - the love that can only be found in the merciful embrace of the Father in heaven. A love that comes into complete focus upon the picture of Jesus Christ
hanging on a cross who signed with his blood the papers of our adoption.
So my first point is that human relationships are meant to point us to the ultimate relationship with God. The best human relationships are signposts to a relationship with God.
HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS - ITS IMPERMANENCE AND OBSOLESCENCE
God's passion for his glory as the driving force behind salvation, propitiation."Everything is thus ordered for this purpose,
including our creation, Christ’s incarnation, His act of propitiation and
expiation, our salvation, and all of history coming to a close in consummation,
all serve a greater end than simply their own act. Their end is so that God will be
glorified.
Our salvation is not so
that you and I will less guilt feelings, or a more positive self-image. Our salvation is not so that we will be able
to do church, or go on missions. Our
salvation is not so that we will become better parents, or spouses. Our salvation and God’s ultimate goal in it
are for us to now have sin dealt with so that we can, as His children, glorify
Him by enjoying Him forever." (source: http://www.kaleochurch.com/sermon/how-then-should-we-fight-part-1)
Jesus' will not share our love with others. He demands an exclusive love.
Not only are human relationships mere shadows to the real thing, in the context of the Kingdom of God that followers of Jesus enter, they are also meant to fade away. To lose its significance against the one relationship we treasure - the relationship with God.
Jesus says of the cost of following him: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brother and sisters - yes, even his own life - he cannot be my disciple".
Unless we have a proper understanding of this teaching, motherthood and parenthood will never have the appropriate place it is meant to have in the church of God. The danger is that today we end up honoring our mothers but not God.
This relationship is also exclusive.This relationship is exclusive and excludes / trumps all other relationships (Jesus brings a sword).
Having been crucified with Christ a Christian no longer lives, but Christ instead lives in them. The old is gone, the new has come. All ties and bonds and allegiances that took us away from God have been severed, and we are free from them.
and having all things made new for us, we have been removed from bondage, from worldly allegiance, from the influence of sin.
Now earlier I painted a picture of what good and loving parents do. Some of us here today sadly may say I never knew that kind of love from my parents. And here in the kingdom of God is where such longing met. Because in the Kingdom there are a multitude of mothers and brothers, and sisters and one Father. In the kingdom of God there are no orphans. Here in the church a Christian is meant to find the kind of family refuge that God always intended for his children.
"Human relationships must not be kept at all costs when the cost is the
relationship with God." As a Christian, you shouldn't feel compelled to
maintain peace and ties if they are not
HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS - CELEBRATING MOTHER'S DAY IN THE CONTEXT OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD - A GOD HONORING CELEBRATION
Are we as a church providing the nurturing care for each other as we should?
obedience to God alone is not the way to honor God, such that you might think obeying Jesus' command to honor mothers today is glorifying to God. What is glorifying to God is that you are delighting to obey Him.
Do we individually seek to honor God in obeying him to honor our fathers and mothers, not for their sake but for God's sake?
Loving our parents and loving God is not standing before two masters, where following one means turning your back on the other. God stands on the far side of those who love, such that we can only love God when we love others (weak argument, put here for completeness...)
CONCLUSION - A MOTHER'S WISH OF JOY FOR HER CHILD - THAT THE CHILD BE JOYFUL IN GOD
"http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/TasteAndSee/ByDate/2003/1245_An_Open_Letter_to_Michael_Prowse/"
We are made not to be made much of; we are made to make much of something great. That's why we seek heroes; we crave ideals; we seek justice; we seek beauty; we seek knowledge - because in us we want to see what is truly great. And seeing, experiencing what is great is the one thing that gives us joy. We were not designed to find joy in the mundane, the ordinary. We were designed to taste the extraordinary. In a life that doesn't know God or chooses not to acknowledge God there will be substitutes. There will be idols, whether we realize they are or not. Sadly because they don't know any better, or choose not to know better, family members out of love and seeking to give the best for each other, push each other to venerate, value the idols. But any endeavour that is not seeking the kingdom of God and the reign of God and the treasures in God is a lost endeavour.
Today I pray that we see Mother's Day as a God honouring day. We thank God today ultimately not because He gave us mothers who did great things for us even if that is true; but we thank God because it was God who used our relationship with our Mothers to bless us.
"http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1207/"
God is on the far end of this relationship with others. We can only get to God as we reach out to the people around us that God commands us to reach out to.
For the mother then, point to God.
For the children, love your parents as though loving God.
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