In Love with the Bible

Learning to love God's Word

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meditation

1 John 3:1

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The first part of 1 John 3:1 says: “See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And so we are.” I was reviewing this scripture today, as part of a regular rotation of scripture I like to ponder, and was struck by how appropriate it is to the Christmas season. God’s love is made visible in the Incarnation: The Son of God taking on human form and going to the cross to take on the guilt of our sin. This price was required if we were to be God’s children. He is holy; we are not.

Life’s circumstances may cause me to question God’s love, but he calls me to look to the places where his love is made visible—Jesus in a manger instead of in glory, on a cross instead of on a throne. If I look to life’s circumstances to decide whether or not God loves me, I can be like someone picking petals off a daisy…he loves me…he loves me not.  When I look at Jesus, I can instead see the extravagance of his love. What a high price he has paid that I might call him, “Dad.”

Thoughts from Jeremiah 2:19 and Hosea 14:9

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Jeremiah 2:19 says, “Your evil will chastise you, and your apostasy will reprove you. Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the Lord your God; the fear of me is not in you, declares the Lord God of hosts.” While there are places where scripture tells us that God raises up enemies to chastise his people, this verse also says choices have natural outcomes that can discipline us. Hosea 14:9 agrees, “For the ways of the Lord are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them.” God’s ways do not change to please us or to accommodate our desires. Reality doesn’t change based on whether or not we like it.

I find the last part of the Jeremiah passage to be particularly cautionary. I doubt the Israelites to whom this verse was addressed woke up one morning and said, “I think I’d like to be evil and apostate,” and went to work on developing those qualities in their lives. My guess is that because they lacked a fear of God, they made small compromises that led them by degrees further and further away from God’s desired path for them. This is a danger for me, too. Little choices can seem insignificant, but added together they can result in a great deviation. God calls for us to be faithful in the small things, and this may be part of the reason why.

What hinders being faithful in small things? I think one hindrance is a lack of clarity about what God has said. When the serpent was tempting Eve, he said, “Has the Lord really said…?” Both his question and Eve’s answer contained things that God had not said. (This looks intentional on the part of the serpent, who went on to tell her that God lied. We, too, can encounter people who intend to deceive.) Being familiar with Scripture, and believing its truth, can help us recognize God’s voice better and be less susceptible to the deception of others. Writing down what we think God is asking us to do is probably wise if it’s a long-term project.

Prompt obedience to God can also help us to be faithful. I remember one time when the idea popped into my mind that I should say something to someone who was beside me. So I did—and immediately felt like an idiot. Why did I say that? And then later the person told me she really needed to hear what I had said. If I had delayed obedience, I would likely have convinced myself that it was an idiotic thing to say and never have said it at all. Abraham acted promptly when God told him to sacrifice Isaac. I think if he had delayed it would have gotten harder and harder to obey.

Another hindrance to faithfulness is trying to do the tasks in my own strength. God asks us to do things that are beyond what we can do on our own. In 2 Corinthians 9:8 we are told that God gives an an abundance of grace so we can abound in good works. If we are not relying on that grace, we may decide a task is too hard, which could easily lead to questioning the task or being satisfied with doing less than God really desired us to do.

I think an aid to faithfulness is to spend time focused on God’s glory, majesty, and power. This helps me remember who he is—and who I am not. It leads to the kind of fear of God that Proverbs 14:27 talks about: a life-giving fountain that turns us from the snares of death.

Psalm 69:30

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In reviewing scriptures on joy, I was struck by these words, “I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.” My thanksgiving magnifies God. It is more than an expression of gratitude; it honors God for who he is and what he has done. In John Piper’s book Don’t Waste Your Life, he says, “Magnify has two distinct meanings…When you magnify like a microscope, you make something tiny look bigger than it is…But when you magnify like a telescope, you make something unimaginably great look like what it really is.” Thanksgiving lets me see God through a telescope. In giving thanks, I can glory in his care for me, expressed through favors, large or small. I can be reminded of his sovereignty in the way he has worked in circumstances or the lives of people. I can relish the goodness of a God who works all things for my good (Romans 8:28). This verse is an invitation to focus on who God is when giving him thanks for what he has done.

A Look at 1 Chronicles 29:14

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I am currently reading through the Bible, and just recently finished reading 1 Chronicles. Chapter 29:14 is a verse I’m familiar with—in fact I know a song based on it—but it spoke to me in a new way. Here’s the verse: “But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer as generously as this. For all things come from Thee, and from Thy hand we have given Thee” (NASB). David is in the process of collecting materials for Solomon to build a temple for God. He is not proud of the generosity of the people, he is awed by God’s goodness that made the generosity possible. And that is the truth that really struck me this time. “We give Thee but Thine own,” says the hymn, and for me it has been an intellectual understanding that we give back to God what he has first given us. But this time the phrase, “and from Thy hand we have given to Thee,” was more than a concept, and it applies to more than my finances.

There is nothing I can do and nothing that I can give without God first giving to me—gifts, skills, and resources are all things that come from him. I take from his hand to serve him and to serve those around me. When what I do blesses or benefits another, it is appropriate to be pleased. It is, however, a pleasure that should be expressed as gratitude toward God. My own natural tendency is to feel pride, which easily leads to me taking more credit than is due to me. I want to rejoice in being a blessing to others, but I need to know I am not the source of the blessing. God is the true giver. I want my joy to be in him and what he has been able to do in and through me. I want a joy-filled gratitude, not a joy-filled pride.

A Look at 2 Peter 2:13b-14

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The second chapter of 2 Peter centers on false prophets and teachers. Peter describes them as sensual, greedy, using people to gain their own ends, and having no esteem for authority (including God’s). He warns of the dangers that come from such people. Here’s how Peter describes them in verses 13b-14: “They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!” (ESV) In studying this book there were two things that particularly struck me in these two verses.

The first is in the phrase, “They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime.” The word “revel” implies indulgent pleasure, softness, luxuriousness. What intrigued me was that my dictionary said the root of the word means to break up, or to enfeeble—especially the mind and the body through indulgence. I know my own tendency to want the soft, easy choices in life—one that is supported by a message from the world that I deserve to be indulged. But at the cost of enfeebling my own mind and body? Seems a bit pricey—it makes indulgence seem less attractive.

The second thing I noticed was that these people have trained their hearts in greed. Whether or not any of them initially set out to deceive and exploit others (verse 3), they made choices along the way that did train their hearts in greed—even if unintentionally. If I do not wish to be like them, I need to train my heart differently. I choose to think of the goal as training my heart in righteousness, which opposes both self-indulgent pleasures and greed.

I find practical application is easy to find for these verses. Opportunities for indulgence abound, which in turn gives many opportunities to train my heart in righteousness. Here’s a couple of examples. I took a quiz to see how susceptible I was to food addiction—I scored a 9 out of 10—and I’m changing the way I eat. Also, when it’s too hot/cold to take a walk, I’m learning to walk anyway. These are not matters of righteousness, but they do train me to make choices based on something besides my desires. In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul said, “I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.” All my choices, not just the “spiritual” ones, can serve to train me in greed or in righteousness. The apparent freedom of self-indulgence is not freedom at all, it is slavery. In 2 Peter 2:19 it says, “They promise them [the people they are seeking to deceive] freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.” Remembering the cost of indulgence can help remind me to seek God’s help when the right choice is hard.

A Look at 2 Peter 1:5-8

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2 Peter begins by telling us some of the things God has done for us to equip us to live for him. Then verses 5-8 tell us the response we should have to God’s work: “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (ESV)

There are three things I see about these qualities that Peter says we should be growing in. First, faith is clearly foundational—these qualities supplement our faith. Secondly, continual growth in these attributes is the goal, not perfection. Thirdly, if they can keep us from being ineffective or unfruitful, it is clear that we can have a knowledge of Jesus that is ineffective and unfruitful. I do not want my knowledge of Jesus to merely mean I am not a pagan. I want to be a part of building his kingdom and helping others to see, know, and love him.

Here are some things I’ve learned about these qualities:

  • Virtue—valor, that which gives a person his/her worth, excellency, courage, fortitude, and resolution. There’s a sense of the heroic in this—helping justice triumph.
  • Knowledge—this word implies an insight and understanding of a subject that influences the one who has the knowledge. It is more than just knowing facts. When I think about this quality I see two kinds of knowledge I need: the knowledge of what God calls good (because it isn’t always the same as what people call good) and the knowledge of his grace to equip me to do the good he desires me to do.
  • Self-control—it is hard for me to see a way I could excel in virtue, steadfastness, or godliness if I’m lacking this one.
  • Steadfastness—this refers to the ability to face difficult things or circumstances without losing hope.
  • Godliness—this word comes from “good” and “worship/reverence.” It is the good behavior that flows from a right relationship with God. I have come to think of this as a life that finds joy in who God is and that reflects his character to the world.
  • Brotherly affection (phileo)—this word denotes the kind of feelings we have for friends.
  • Love (agape)—this is the kind of love that seeks the welfare of others—whether or not there are any feelings of affection

Side Note: I’ve encountered an opinion that agape is more important than phileo. God says we need both. Probably all of us have had the experience of being quite irritated by people we genuinely care for—what is best for them is not always our primary concern at those times. But I would also say that there are relationships where agape cannot stand alone either. If my husband ever tells me his love for me is fully agape because he is now free of all feelings of affection, I will not be pleased! Affection should be a core part of some relationships.

This scripture encourages me to pursue two areas of meditation. One is to meditate on the qualities themselves. What do they mean? What connections do I see between them? How might they work together? What does my life look like if these qualities are being lived out in me? The other is to meditate on how to be continually growing in them. Two of these qualities, self-control and love, are listed in the fruit of the Spirit, which certainly indicates this list is not just some sort of self-improvement project. We are, however, told these qualities should be increasing. To me that indicates the need to develop some patterns that help promote ongoing growth in these areas. What’s my part? What’s God’s part? I’m still pondering that.