Love Isn't a Stick

Fear No Fear is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture that reject fear in any form. Fear is a spiritual force used by Satan to keep people down. Instead, they champion faith as an allegiance to God and accept the evidence of His word as truth. Fear robs us of our equilibrium, reason, and time. The law was given as a signpost, pointing to God and showing the standard required for fellowship with Him. However, no human can fulfill the law completely. Jesus paid the price for sin, nullifying the law and enabling salvation. Fellowship with God is more than adherence to rules, it is about love and obedience. Abraham obeyed God out of love and was credited as righteous. We are called to abide in Jesus and move from fear-based worship to friendship with God. Welcome to Fear No Fear. Grace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Holy Spirit embrace you today. This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture. We reject fear in any and all forms. Fear is a spiritual force, the currency of darkness and ignorance. It's what we inherited when Adam gave up his faith and Satan uses it to keep people down. His only weapon is words. If he can get you believing or looking at words of fear, he's got you. Instead, we champion faith as an allegiance to God, as a belief and trust and loyalty to the Lord God Almighty. We accept the evidence of his word as unvarnished truth, as is, just as it's written. We get close to his perfect love through the word, and perfect love casts out fear. 1 John 4.18 All scripture is taken from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Visit eBible.org Psalm 119.165 Those who love your law have great peace. Nothing causes them to stumble. Fear robs us of our equilibrium. Fear robs us of our reason. Fear robs us of our time. The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life and may have it abundantly. John 10.10 Everything about fear steals something. When something is done out of fear, there is always a negative attached to it, even when we think we're doing a positive. We teach our children to behave in the home primarily out of fear of punishment. Not to be scared or to tremble because of the punishment. That would be abuse. But simply to weigh their actions and decide not to do A, because then a punishment of some kind follows. But this doesn't breed real obedience. It only makes them follow a pattern of behavior so they don't experience loss of freedom or loss of entertainment or whatever. It's adherence to rules, not obedience. You see it every day on the roads. Drivers are told not to speed or they will get a ticket. Consequently, they follow the posted limits whenever they see a police vehicle. The rest of the time, they speed and hope not to get caught. Not true obedience. God created mankind in order to have fellowship with us. In order to have fellowship with God, we need to adhere to a certain standard of behavior. God is righteous, and we need to be righteous in order to be in His presence. Adam had that. Eve had that. Jewish scripture, when going through the days of creation, tell us that there was a first day, a second day, a third, a fourth, a fifth, and then the sixth. The word is different. A character is added to the beginning of the word sixth that has the numerical value of five. Rabbis teach that God was saying to Adam in creation itself that if you accept the Torah, the first five books of the word comprising the totality of the law, then all this will be yours. God offered a lot to Adam on the sixth day. Dominion, purpose, sustenance, authority, an equal partner, and fellowship with the Lord God Almighty. All Adam and Eve had to do was adhere to the principles of righteous living that they knew in their hearts. But they didn't do that. They fell. And we, as their genetic and spiritual descendants, share in that fallenness. But God would not be diverted. He still wanted to fellowship with us. So the law was given. It was not given to justify us before God, because it cannot do that, Hebrews 10.4. As good as the law is, it is not a tool for righteousness, but for judgment, Romans 3.19. The law was, and is, a signpost. It points to God, 1 Peter 1, 15-16. It shows the contrast between sin and holiness, between where we are and where God is, and our need for a bridge, Galatians 3.19-20. And it shows the standard that is required for us to come to God in fellowship. The earth is the Lord's with its fullness, the world and those who dwell in it. For He has founded it on the seas and established it on the floods. Who may ascend to the Lord's hill? Who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood and has not sworn deceitfully. He shall receive a blessing from the Lord, righteousness from the God of His salvation. This is the generation of those who seek Him, who seek Your face, even Jacob. Psalm 24, 1-6. There's a lot in the law, a lot of things that mankind needs to do. God's righteousness isn't a joke. It isn't a light thing. It is a huge thing. It is a part of who He is. There's no getting around it. The law was impossible to fulfill. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. James 2.10. No human being could keep all the points of the law. They could try and be really, really good at it. They can become fantastic people, but there will always be something that they fail at. The law proves that we need a mediator, that we need someone to save us. The law points to Jesus in a thousand different ways. And the law is fear-based on face value. Fear? Yes, fear. Do this or that will happen. The same as what we were saying about children and drivers. It isn't true obedience. It's only adherence to a set of rules. But the law wasn't the first covenant. It was the third after the fall. The sixth day was really the first, but it isn't on the list because it was a covenant of natures. Their nature was to be part of that agreement. Adam and Eve's very nature was righteous as God was righteous. They were the exact duplicate image of God. But they fell. They lost that. And so a covenant of agreement needed to be made with humanity. So the first was the Noahic covenant. Despite the fallen nature of humanity, Yahweh's covenants do not destroy the world again with water. He will preserve the world until the Savior can arrive. Genesis 3.15 and then 8.20-9.17 The second was the Abrahamic covenant. The vehicle by which the Savior would come. It was a promise of a huge family who would inherit a place on the earth to dwell in and by which the world would be blessed. Genesis 12-17. The third, echoing the pre-fall sixth day, is the Mosaic covenant or the law. Which as we know promises blessing if they follow it and curses if they do not. That's the books of Exodus through Deuteronomy. Follow the law and stay where I can give you things or walk out of my yard into the curse that is on the earth. Genesis 3.14-19. So how can we do it? How can we keep our side of the bargain? Short answer, we can't. Humanity cannot. We need a Savior. But the covenant of the Savior, the new covenant, is different. For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant. Since a death has occurred for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant that those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. Hebrews 9.15. Jesus paid the price for sin, nullifying the law and enabling us to be saved, washed clean and live in righteousness. But we can't do it on our own. We need to do it by Jesus and through Jesus. John 15. Seems simple. Jesus accepted His Savior means fellowship with God. And Jesus rejected His Savior means no fellowship with God. But fellowship with God means heaven and reward. No fellowship with God means hell and punishment. Right. Isn't that just the fear-based obedience thing all over again? Isn't that adherence and not obedience? It wasn't meant to be. It can be in order to get your foot through the door. You can choose to interact with God at that level. He does meet us where we are. Sadly, whole churches have been built on and maintained on this model. But fear-based obedience isn't real obedience. It's flesh-based. It can be name only because it's simply a series of actions in order to get a result. God calls us to deeper things than that. Revelation 3.20 says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him and will dine with him and he with me. That is more than just accepting Jesus. That's fellowship with Jesus. We are again called to fellowship. But let him who is taught in the word share all good things with him who teaches. Galatians 6.6 Sharing with God who teaches us. Dining with the Lord. These are fellowship verses. They aren't following rules verses. These aren't you do and I'll do verses. There's a place for that but not as a threat. It isn't do this and I will therefore bless you. It really is us being a certain way and then finding ourselves in the blessing zone. What it really is about is love. Abraham lived before the law was given. He obeyed the Lord. He did not obey out of fear because there were no stated penalties for disobedience. He was simply asked to do things and he chose to do them. He believed in the Lord who credited to him for righteousness. Genesis 15.6 His obedience was such a big deal that it was the basis for God's interactions with Isaac. I will multiply your offspring as the stars of the sky and will give all these lands to your offspring. In your offspring all the nations of the earth will be blessed because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my requirements, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. Genesis 26.4-5 How is this love? 1 John 5.3 reads, For this is loving God that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not grievous. Abraham obeyed God out of love. But we don't find things standing alone in the Bible. Principles are echoed. James 2.23 tells us, So the scripture was fulfilled which says, Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness. And he was called the friend of God. A friend. In friendship Abraham obeyed. And that obedience was credited to him as righteousness. He walked righteous before God and fellowshiped with him as a friend. That was the basis of his covenant with Yahweh God. We have a better covenant. Why aren't we counted as friends? Why aren't we credited as righteous? Because so few of us ever get out of fear-based worship. That's why. As long as we are in a spiritual primary school we are never going to get into friendship. Can we abide in Jesus that way? Yes. Are we saved like that? Yes. We're still saved. Can we continue in the things of God like that? Yes. But it will be work. We'll always be fighting the flesh over what we are doing, what we are accomplishing, what we don't manage to get right. We will always be struggling in the matrix of Jesus doing it faith versus us doing it works. Which is silly. Just as works come from our faith, James 2, 14-26, obedience comes from our love. That's right. That's the move to higher things. To leave fear-based obedience behind and travel into the realms that Abraham, Moses, Elijah, and Jesus walked. They loved God. They loved God and they followed God. Abraham, Elijah, and Moses missed it sometimes. Jesus never stepped forth. But all were motivated by love for Yahweh. They didn't love because they obeyed. They didn't obey because they loved. Because they loved, they found themselves obedient. In loving Yahweh God with their whole heart, mind, and body, they found that they kept the commandments of God. We're in a new covenant, a better covenant, Hebrews 8-6. When we abide in Jesus, we let him sanctify us, which is the process by which we become more and more like him. But if we love the Father, if we love Jesus, if we love the Holy Spirit, if we love God, there will be no struggle. Everything we do will be an opportunity. Just as every command of God was an opportunity for Abraham to show how much he loved God, every moment of our day is an opportunity for us to show how much we love God. It's as simple and it's as easy as that. If we love God, that is all that it takes. If we love God, we will accomplish it. That's what love is. It is a decision to behave a certain way toward another person. We can do the same with God, but with God it's a guaranteed two-way street. When we choose to actively love God, we allow God's love in. When we realize how much God really loves us, we move from a decision to a way of living. True, deep, and real love of God is more than lip service, more than decision, more than singing songs and reading words. It isn't, I'll do this so God loves me. God already loves you. He loved you when you were a heinous sinner. He loves you as a lip service Easter and Christmas Christian. He loves you as a spirit-filled, faith-talking, terror-to-demons Christian. He loves you when you're ordinary, extraordinary, plain, dazzling, single, married, parent, grandparent, teen, senior, and everything in between. He loves you, period. This isn't about His love for us. This is about us realizing His love for us. When we truly understand His love, we will love Him in truth. If we love Him in truth, we will obey. We'll obey because He is righteous, and in inhabiting Jesus, we also will be righteous. We will do what He says because it is an opportunity to show Him that we love Him. We'll obey because we want to see Him smile, hear His giggle, and see His guffaw. We'll think of all those little ways we can show Him we love Him, like caring for those around us, making sure strangers are treated well, seeing that our neighbors have great opportunities to succeed, folding the laundry because we know a neat and tidy house can help keep us stress-free. We'll talk nicely to others, even in the heat of the moment, because they deserve it. We'll stay people of peace instead of fighting, bickering, and disagreeing because we respect those around us, and negative words have no positive effect. We'll end up keeping the whole of the law because it is the standard to meeting God, and we cannot conceive of life without being face-to-face with Him. We won't stumble because our every move and every step will be informed by our love of Yahweh God. That's right. Love for God will prevent sin. Every time we sin, it's because we're being selfish. Whenever we put God first, we don't sin, ever. It's possible in Jesus. It's impossible on our own. We need Jesus in order to love God effectively. We need Jesus in order to understand the love God has for us. We need Jesus in order to express our love to God in response to His love for us. For this cause, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, that you may be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner person, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, to the end that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strengthened to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth, and to know Christ's love, which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3, 14-19 That we may know the width, length, height, and depth of God's love for us. We can know it. Jesus can show it to us. And when we see it, when we realize it, when we truly comprehend it, we will be filled with the fullness of God, who is righteousness, who is peace, in whom there is no fear. We will have great peace because we love the Lord, the Word, and His law. We will not stumble, because when we are focused on the Lord, there is nothing that can cause us to stumble. Each step is placed delicately, carefully, and with love, in love, on His love, which is our all in all. It's simple, it's doable, and it is possible. Seek Him. Seek His face. Every day, all day, start today and do it in Jesus. When you move from fear-based to real obedience, it will be because of love, and it will transform your life from a struggle against flesh to a dance at peace with Almighty God. Our daily affirmation of God's love? The whole Bible. All of it. It's a love letter from Yahweh God to you and to me. Every page, every word, every dot and twiddle. It is Yahweh God trying to get across to you something that is the most important thing you can ever know. His love for you. It takes Jesus to get it to you. It takes the mind of Christ the Lord to alter our minds, to retrain them to see what they were designed to see, to move our consciousness from our pants to our prayers, to change who we present ourselves to be into who we really are, to leave behind ego and embrace our Embracer. God's love letter to us is honest and raw. It shows all that He has for us, and it shows what we have done with it. It doesn't aggrandize our disobedience. It just records it. But it only records it to show that while we run around like spastic, drug-addled animals, He is steady. He is the rock we break ourselves against instead of the sheltering rock keeping our water calm. We're called and designed to be tide pools teeming with life, not surf and turf in a Friday night dive. God's love for us is in spite of ourselves. God's love never changes. God's love never leads. God's love is a universal constant, always has been, always will be. He loves you. You can believe Him or not. You can reciprocate or not. But it won't ever change. God loves you, as you, for who you are. You. He's smiling on you right now, and He is never, ever going to give up. As we close, remember that you have earth. You are precious and valuable. Declare this. Today, God loves that I, now you, fill in the blank. Was it a meal you made? A smile you gave? Did you get out of bed? Read? Put on socks? There's no wrong answers here. There is no end to God's love and no end to the things about you that He loves each and every day. Pick one. And remember, the Lord loves you, just because you're you. 1 John 4, 9-10 tells us, By this, God's love was revealed in us. That God has sent His only-born Son into the world that we might live through Him. And this is love. Not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. His perfect love turned away God's wrath because of sin. And it casts out our fear, too. See verses 18 and 19. We love because He first loved us. He just loves us. Can't get enough of us. And that is wonderful. See you next time.