Treasuring God through loving others
INTRODUCTION
Last week, if you were here, you would have heard the message preached through brother Robert which was about children's responsibilities to their parents. I was really blessed by that especially because what was preached confirmed and supports the message I was preparing for today.
To my mind I summarized the message last week this way:
The faithful performance of the parents responsibility to teach their children, combined with the faithful performance of the children's responsibility to obey and honor their parents, results in:
1. harmony in the family
2. honor to God
Today I want to focus on the link between those two results: 'harmonious families' and 'honoring God'. What I hope to share is that genuinely loving our families and in general, genuinely loving others, is inseparable from loving and honoring God.
And the link is this: that you can only genuinely love your mother, your family, your friend, your neighbor, even your enemy - if you treasure God. Loving others flows from treasuring God. What our family needs is not that we give more of ourselves to them; what they need is that we give ourselves completely to God. Everything else flows from this.
As Jesus said as part of the sermon on the mount in Matthew 6, seek first the kingdom of God, put God first in your life, have faith in God, make God your treasure - then all these things, including improved family relationships, will be added unto you.
PRAYER
READING, GALATIANS 5:13-17
BACKGROUND TO GALATIANS
The letter to the Galatians shows Paul in conflict with other
missionaries. Jewish-Christians from Palestine had visited the
church at Galatia after Paul's visit there and taught that
Paul's Gospel was incomplete. They persuaded some of the Galatians that
salvation required observance of the Torah laws, including
circumcision. Paul writes to rebuke and to persuade the Galatians in
this letter.
Paul's asks them these questions: why are you now following a different gospel and as a result put yourself under the curse of the law? Why believe that salvation is not complete unless you also add to it 'good works'?
He goes on to remind the Galatians what they should know by heart: that no one is justified or freed through the observing of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.
Now the passage we read this morning Paul talks about freedom in Christ; and then encouraging them to use that freedom to love others 'as you love yourself'; and then exhorting the Galatians to live by the Spirit and not by the sinful nature.
This love that Paul is talking about, the love that is possible in the freedom in Christ, is the same love that our family needs. Hopefully we are able to see this truth clearer later on.
WANTING OUR FAMILIES TO WORK
If we are today celebrating our mum for mother's day we are testifying not only to our gratitude to her for all the good things she has done for us, we are also testifying that we value family relationships.
I believe that regardless of where you stand with God, we all have a desire for family, and a desire to make it work.
And 'making it work' is just another way to say we want to see our family as that relationship that:
1. builds its members up
2. encouraging one another
3. cheering each other through the fun times
4. consoling each other through the hard times
In short we want our families to be defined by, permeated and sustained by love.
WHAT IS NEEDED: TREASURING GOD
The last few messages here at Punchbowl has been given to help teach and direct us on how we may enhance our family relationships. Already we've talked about the responsibilties of parents to their children and vice versa, we've talked about what God expects in a married life.
Today I want to crystallize our messages down to its essential point such that we answer with clarity the question:
what do we ultimately need to enhance our family? Or in line with today's thoughts, what do we ultimately need to engender genuine love in our family?
The short answer is we need hearts that treasure God.
The long answer, based on Paul's letter to the Galatians is this:
What is needed are hearts that have been freed (Gal 5:1 & 13) through the faith in Jesus Christ (Gal 2:16),
who in freedom and complete reliance on the Holy Spirit treasures God as their ultimate joy(Gal 3:1-5), and who naturally expresses this treasuring of God through loving
others (Gal 5:6).
Let us unpack this a little more.
FIRST PART OF THE ANSWER - HEARTS FREED THROUGH FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST
The first part of the long answer: hearts that are set free through faith in Jesus Christ
Paul in another letter, the letter to the Romans (Rom 3:11) says that the reality is that no one seeks after God, much less love God.
The state we are in when we do not seek God is compared by Paul in this letter to enslavement. Like slaves we are not free to be who we are, a person created to love God and to love others. In fact our slavery is so complete that we don't even know that we are slaves, and now and then we have a nagging suspicion that we are not complete.
And because we are unable to live out God's commandments in this state, we are condemned to death according to it.
Now Paul says in Gal 5:13 to the Galatian Christians: you are called to be free. And that is the calling of every Christian.
And this is not a simple call that is dependent upon a response. This is what we call 'effectual calling' or 'irresistible grace', that is that it is a call that is a work by the Holy Spirit through which a person is led from sin to the recognition of their sin, then to an understanding of Jesus Christ that leads to a person embracing Jesus Christ as their saviour, freeing them from the slavery of their sin.
Paul confirms this 'effectual calling' in Gal 2:16 and Gal 5:1, saying that we are set free by Jesus Christ through faith in Him:
"16know that a man is not
justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we,
too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by
faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the
law no one will be justified."
" 1It is for freedom that
Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be
burdened again by a yoke of slavery."
So the first part to the answer of what is ultimately needed in our families: hearts that are set free through faith in Jesus Christ.
SECOND PART OF THE ANSWER - THE NATURE OF THAT FREEDOM IS RELIANCE ON THE HOLY SPIRIT TO LOVE GOD
The second part of the long answer: that these freed hearts then live lives that are sustained and empowered by the HS, to treasure God as their ultimate joy.
Notice an interesting thing about Gal 5:1? It effectively says that Christ sets a person free so that they may have freedom. Sounds redundant doesn't it? Doesn't a free person have freedom by default?
If you think about it, this passage hints at what TRUE FREEDOM is all about. A person may be free but not really have true freedom. True freedom is not merely defined as having the opportunity and ability to do anything you desire to do. True freedom is having the opportunity, the ability and the desire to do what gives you ultimate joy forever. Lasting joy is the defining fruit of True freedom.
And you know what I believe would be our ultimate joy? It is that we
live out our lives as we have been designed to - Treasuring God. We were not designed to be made much of, but to make much of something great. And there is nothing greater to contemplate than the majesty and power of the Creator, who has declared in many ways that he loves us!
So rephrasing Gal 5:1 Paul is saying, "Christ has set you free so that you may have all the opportunity, all the ability and all the desire to do what gives you ultimate JOY forever: to love God"
Now when we look at ourselves, do we believe that even as freed people in Christ, do we possess within us the opportunity, the ability and the desire for God? Yes we do, but with this qualification: we possess them through Christ. "I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me."
I think forgetting this is what got the Galatians into trouble - they started believing that they had all they needed to attain joy apart from faith in Jesus Christ.
And so Paul tells them off! And he reminds them that they must live by the Spirit (5:16) and to keep in step with the spirit (5:25), and to throw away conceit.
If you are a professing Christian today this is a timely reminder that we are not to pursue self-confidence nor self-sacrifice nor self-esteem nor self-denial. We are not called to regard ourselves too highly, or too lowly, nor to think that any part of this journey with God can be undertaken in our own terms. But we are to regard ourselves as being dependent upon God through the Holy Spirit.
THE THIRD PART OF THE ANSWER - FREEDOM IN GOD EXPRESSED IN LOVE FOR OTHERS
Here now is where the work of Jesus and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit touches the people around us, including our family. The third part of the answer is this:
A person who is (1) freed through faith in Jesus Christ, (2) upheld by and dependent on the HS, treasuring God as their ultimate Joy, then (3) expresses that treasuring of God through loving others.
Lets look at Galatians 5:13-14 again "...serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: 'Love your neighbor as yourself'. Note here that Paul is reminding the Galatians what God commands them to do - to love others.
The command frames the love for others as the same love we naturally give ourselves.
Now this is impossible apart from the freedom in Christ. Why?
Because the opposite of love is the selfish indulgence of the sinful nature. Love is the sharing of joy from our fullness, but the works of the sinful nature are motivated by the desire to fill our emptiness. The sinful nature uses everything in its power to fill that emptiness: if it is a religious sinful nature it may demand legalism; if it is not religious, it may demand self exaltation. It is fully self focused and therefore cannot love their neighbor as themselves. That is why the command is impossible.
Paul reaffirms this in Gal 5:16-17 where he says that the sinful
nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is
contrary to the sinful nature. The two are mutually exclusive.
Therefore if love is the fruit of the Spirit as expressed in Gal 5:22, then the sinful nature
cannot produce that same fruit.
But is it also a burden to a true Christian?
No, because God has made it so that what he commands us to do, he grants us the power to do through the Holy Spirit.
We see this in Gal 5:22 which as we've seen, Paul says the HS has multiple fruits, the first of which is love. So those who abide by the HS will naturally bear the fruit of love for others.
Furthermore, these acts of love are the visible proof a saving faith in Jesus Christ.
In Gal 5:6 Paul says that the only thing that counts is "faith expressing itself through love".
So faith without love is not faith at all, and love without faith is not love at all. Faith must show itself, naturally and without being coerced, through acts of love.
This is God's design - that faith is not faith unless it expresses itself in love for others.
But why did God do it that way? Why isn't it sufficient that He knows our faith and that is that?
Well you see faith on its own is invisible. Your treasuring of God and your daily reliance on the holy spirit is not visible to the rest of the world. But from the very beginning God has declared and acted and continues to act in ways would bring glory to His name. Everything he does is motivated by his desire to be glorified.
Isaiah 48:11 is the banner over every divine act:
11 For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this.God wants his grace and glory to be praised in the visible acts of his children.
How can I let myself be defamed?
I will not yield my glory to another.
As Matthew 5:16 says, God wants us to let our light shine. Why? so that people will see our good works and give glory to your father in heaven.
SUMMARY OF THE LONG ANSWER AGAIN
Let me now again, for our benefit re-state the question we asked at the start, and the answer we expanded upon:
what do we ultimately need to engender genuine love in our family?
Answer: What is needed are hearts that have been freed (Gal 5:1 & 13) through the faith in Jesus Christ (Gal 2:16),
who in freedom and complete reliance on the Holy Spirit treasures God as their ultimate joy(Gal 3:1-5), and who naturally expresses this treasuring of God through loving
others (Gal 5:6).
Let me share with you one last thing before we close now. In preparing this message I have learned something new about God's commandments, given the fact that because of the freedom in Christ and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit we are able to obey God's command to love others.
I use to think when I thought of 'commandments', that they are
God's way of saying - I'm not happy with who you are so I want you to
change to something completely different, something better than you.
But today I think about commandments differently. I see in them God saying - my child this is who you really are. You were made and designed to love me and treasure me above anything else, and you were designed to love others. You have gone away from this but look, let me call you back to it. Loving me and loving others is your privilege, your inheritance and your ultimate joy.
To
me now, I can see the commandments in the context of the Parable of the
prodigal son. I can rephrase the commandments according to that parable
like this: the commandments is the father saying to the son, you must
come home to me that I may run to you even while you are far off; you
must let me embrace you even as you say you are sorry; You must wear
this best robe and this ring on your finger so that everyone will know
you are mine; and you will inherit everything that is mine, even though
you believe yourself unworthy.
The commandments say we are complete in God. And that is well with my soul.
CLOSING PRAYER
My hope and prayer for you today as we close is this: that as I read this passage from Jeremiah 17, that you might yearn to daily be the kind of person that Jeremiah calls 'blessed':
7 "But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in him.
8 He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit."
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