Loving God (How do we?) . . .

In our family worship time we've been spending a lot of time lately on the subject of loving God and loving others—basically the two great commandments given to us by Jesus (Matthew 22:37–40). What does that love look like? Is it a feeling? An act?

In 1 John the Apostle talks over and over about loving others, and repeatedly does so in the context of reminding us of God's great love for us. It seems that as we reflect on, and respond to, God's love for us we inherently love Him more, and that love gives to us a capacity to love others. It tells us that we love because He first loved us. So if our love for others is tied into our love for God (which is made possible by His love for us) then what does it look like to love God?

I asked the question this morning, "If you were to go on trial tonight for the charge of loving God would the evidence of your day be enough to convict you?"In other words, what does a life look like that loves God and has God's love perfect in it?

Obedience: In John 14:15–24 Jesus makes it undeniably clear that a love for Him will result in an obedience to Him and His words. It makes sense. When we love someone we want to please them and honor them. It is a fascinating thing that the Apostle John says, "Whoever says 'I know him' but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected . . ." (1 John 2:4-5). When we keep His word, it perfects, completes, carries to fulfillment, the love of and for God!

Loving Others: John says, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love" (1 John 4:7–8). We love others as a choice. As an action. Love is also a fruit of the Spirit of God in us, and we are given a capacity to love others because as a believer God is in us, and He loves them. Sometimes loving others is an "act" of surrendering to God's love in us for them.

Additionally, John says, "No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us" (1 John 4:12). This is another stunning statement. When we love others, it also brings to perfection His love through us! I love this procession: God loves us, we respond to that love, God comes to dwell in us, God loves others, we love others. God's love is perfected and carried to completion by His first loving us and ultimately our loving others!

Trust: Another "perfection" statement in 1 John that deals with perfecting God's love is found in 1 John 4:17–18 where it says that when we have confidence regarding the day of judgment then God's love is perfected in us—and if we have fear of punishment His love is not perfected in us. His love is perfected in us when we completely trust Him and His work on the cross and His word and His character and promises. And this makes sense, you can't love someone fully if you don't trust them and you despise their character and nature. You can fully commit yourself into someone when you trust them completely.

Time Guarded: Some of my earliest memories are my parents taking an hour or so each day to have a cup of coffee together after work and share the day, catch up, and just talk. Mary Ann and I have guarded this "tradition" of taking time each day to have a cup of coffee and talk in our own marriage. Even when we can't just sit together, but are able to work on a project together, we enjoy each other's presence and company. We are best friends, and just being together is joyful. Ephesians 5:22–33 tells us that a Christian marriage reflects God's love to the world, and I'd like to think that in guarding time together, and enjoying each other's presence in working together, we are revealing a bit about how love for God can look.

Priorities Revealed: Back when everyone wrote checks for everything someone said, "Don't tell me your priorities. Show me your checkbook register for the last month and I'll tell you your priorities." One could say the same today looking over credit card statements, check registers, online payments, etc. Our investments represent our priorities. Be it our financial investments, our time investments, etc. Jesus said to store up our treasures in Heaven, not on earth where moth and thieves and rust destroy. He said that where our treasure is, there our heart will be also. If we want our heart to love God more then we must store up the treasures that He loves. We must invest our money and time in the things that He is invested in. The things eternal. The hurting, the lost, the poor, and the defenseless like the unborn and widows and orphans. Our treasures define our heart.

Along those lines, Jesus warns us against believing the lie that we can love both God and money, etc., when He says, "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money" (Matthew 6:24). The Apostle John confirms this in 1 John 2:15–17 when he writes, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever."

I do not believe this means we aren't to enjoy things. James 1 tells us not to be deceived but to know that every good and perfect thing is a gift from God to us. And the Apostle Paul, in 1 Timothy 6:17–19, tells us God gives us things to enjoy. We just aren't to love those things, or get too fixed on them, but to rather love and be fixed on the One who gives them to us. The full passage is revealing when it says, "As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life."

Least of These: Jesus said that God sees whatever we do for the "least of these" as if it was done for Him—and whatever we neglect to do for them, He sees as having neglected to do for Him (Matthew 25:31–46). So, when we love the "least of these" He says He receives it as loving Him. When we visit the sick, the prisoners. When we feed the hungry. When we defend the unborn. When we spend time with the rejected. When we love them He says we are loving Him, and in 1 John 3:17 the question is asked, "But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?"

Inevitably in any discussion of helping others comes all the questions, "What if I get taken advantage of?" or, "What if I am enabling someone?", etc. I believe the Holy Spirit must guide us in each moment, but I can say in my own life that God has given me ten thousand fold more than I've ever had taken from me. I'd always rather error on the side of love and being taken advantage of, then miss a moment God had positioned me for. Besides, I don't know what fruit my act of kindness might bear down the road as the Holy Spirit moves on someone and convicts their heart and brings them to repentance. Ultimately, in these moments, I have to ask myself, "What is my goal?" Because if my goal is to love God in giving to another, then whatever they do with it is between them and God—I have met my goal.

These are just a few thoughts we've arrived at regarding loving God and others. Maybe you have more. It has been a special week plus talking it over, and I look forward to continuing it. Thanks for sharing in my life. In a way, now, you've sat in on family worship with us . . . you just need a good cup of coffee to "perfect" it.

Too Crazy to Grasp!

In John 15:9 Jesus tells His disciples, "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love." (ESV)

God is perfect and complete. The Son and the Father and the Holy Spirit are all God, unique but One. Their love is perfect and complete for one another. Because God is perfect and complete (not wanting in some area) it means He didn't need us. No, He wanted us! And when we realize that He didn't need us, but made us completely because He wanted us, it makes His love for us even more incredible. It magnifies grace because it magnifies that it is completely one way—everything God did for us, including the most amazing part of giving Himself to us, He did from desire and love, not from any obligation or need. Wow!

Because God is perfect and complete, and has been since before time itself, it means His love within Himself, Father for Son, etc., is perfect and complete. A love that is perfect, free of our fleshly pulls, not self-seeking, not keeping a record of wrongs, never failing, without any shame or condemnation, holy and righteous—this is God's perfect love, expressed within Himself before we were ever created. And now we read that in the same way the Father loved the Son, the Son loves us!!! In reality, since the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are One, we can say that in the same way God loves Himself (and that is perfect love!) God loves us! This is absolutely stunning for a believer to meditate on, and Mary Ann and I have been doing that in our conversations lately as we process a lot of hard things in the lives of many people around us. Reflecting on this reality that God loves us in the same way He loves within Himself does multiple things for me when I reflect on it:

1. It leaves me in awe, and very secure, in the vast height and depth and width of God's love for me. It is so incredible it is something I could meditate on for the rest of my life and never fully grasp. It is so important for us to understand that as shame and guilt and self-attacking are so easy to fall into. God loves us and presents us to Himself as holy and righteous from His good pleasure and with a complete love that is so perfect it is how He the Father loves the Son!

2. It is, I realize, even one more thing that God calls us to do (to love others as we love ourselves) that He first did for us. How amazing, and incredible, that God would do so much for us before ever asking us to do it ourself! It is no wonder the incredible news of God giving Himself to His creation was so amazing and so unthinkable that even the prophets and angels sought to understand the mystery of God He had prepared before the ages but that He only revealed in Christ. God was going to give Himself to His created people! God was going to love them with a love reserved for within the Trinity!

3. This is a self-giving, perfect love from God, to me,that the world can not touch, take away, or alter. It is an anchor not of this world in a world that has so much pain and brokenness.

Who could ever imagine that God would give us Himself? Who could ever even guess that God would love us with the love He Himself loves Himself, His Son? I have to think spending much time dwelling on that would break many a stronghold of the enemy in our heart, and put a fire into our worship! It has been doing great things in Mary Ann and my heart recently and I hope it blesses and encourages you as well.

God is Love

God doesn't just choose to be good, to avoid evil, to act morally, etc. God is holy. He is transcendent from those things—totally set apart and separate from them. It is not just some moral code or ethical law that we find in His law and commands . . . it is the very nature and character of Him. There is such a powerful realization in the truth those few sentences above contain. If someone simply chooses to be a certain way then there is always the option of them choosing not to be that way any longer. But when someone is that way—inherent in who they are, in their very being—and they are completely cut off from, and separated from, the alternative—then we can know with assurance they will always be that way.

The Apostle John tells us twice in 1 John 4 that God is love. It is part of who He is. It is not simply that God chooses to love, but that He is love, and there is a big difference. So, when we don't love another we are partaking in a something that God can't be a part of. He can't be a participant in, or an advocate of, or lend His hand to it when we don't love. So, while I know that He won't ever leave me, and that I am sealed in adoption as His child by my faith in Jesus, there is a sense that each and every time I don't love I am separating myself from God—or separating Him from what I am doing . . . not to mention I am not honoring Him by my choice to disobey Him, and I am failing to love one whom He loves enough to die for.

When I choose to not love another with a love that is patient, kind, not self seeking, not keeping a record of wrongs, not rejoicing in evil, etc., I am, in a sense, choosing to step outside of Him because, He can't be part of "not love" when He is love. I don't know the full "theological" implications (or explanations) of the concept I am trying to convey, but to me it is pretty clear that, up to the edge of losing my salvation, I am separating myself from God in those times (or at least moving outside of Him in my actions, or causing my actions to be outside of His cover and blessing and presence). I don't know if this is what the Bible talks about in quenching the Spirit and grieving the Spirit and things like that, but I do know that if I truly desire Him to be my breath and life, and to bear His image, and to have His voice and Spirit lead me, and to have Him work through me, then I must love. When I don't, in some way He pulls back, because He can't be a part of that because it is against who He is.

Matt 22:37-40   And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.  39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."

1 John 4:7-8   Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 4:16   So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

Museum, or Workshop?

The fellowship I pastor is far from perfect. Beginning with me, we are all works in progress in our Christian life. While eternally completely forgiven, bearing Christ’s righteousness, and sealed in the adoption of the Holy Spirit, in the daily realm of life we all have struggles and victories, strengths and weaknesses, good days and bad days. We have days we (and I) love and bless one another, and days we (and I) let each other down and even wound one another. I would venture to say that any honest pastor would say the same thing about themselves and their fellowship.

The question is, I think, are we OK with that? I don’t mean that we are happy about those things in our life and passive about trying to grow closer to His image—I mean, are we OK realizing that we aren’t there yet, and nor are those around us? I think the minute that we aren’t we start being condemning, unforgiving, judgmental, and divisive, and a poison creeps into the body that is supposed to be united in love as one. (This isn’t about not being the iron that sharpens iron in another’s life, or not humbly holding one another accountable—it is about the attitude we carry in that.)

I have told our fellowship many times that we are a workshop, and not a museum. If they want perfect people, and people that always live up to their expectations, then they are in the wrong place. We are a collection of many people, from many different backgrounds and church experiences (or no church experience at all). Each has their own expectations and hopes and needs . . . and baggage. Isn’t that logical?

I think that if Christians aren’t careful we can become the older brother in the prodigal story, or the Jews struggling to receive Gentiles. We can start to look at how long we’ve walked with Jesus, and how “mature” we’ve become, or how “proper” we act in church, or how much “we” serve, or how “clean” our mouth is, or . . . and then we can look at another, who maybe isn’t as “polished,” and find judgement (or a condescending spirit) enter our heart.

We have to be so careful to love one another, to guard our hearts, to forgive quickly, to serve gratefully, to examine our log more than we focus on their speck, and to recognize that the person we are elevating ourself above may have come to Christ from a far more broken place then we did, and have actually traveled much farther in their Christian journey toward maturity then we have!

How many times churches are divided (literally, or in spirit though they remain “together”) by bitter roots of judgment, unforgiveness, self-focus, self-seeking, etc. Even when there are legitimate offenses to us—how many times have we offended or wounded others (or God) and been so grateful for grace and mercy!

In Acts 10:15 the Lord said to Peter, in this case about Gentiles, "What God has made clean, do not call common." When we speak ill of one of God’s children, or we judge them, or we fail to forgive them, or we hold something against them, or we withhold what He would have us give them, or we seek our own over them, we are doing it unto His own, and we are saying that they, who are good enough for God and loved by God and declared acceptable and clean by God, are not good enough, or clean enough, for us to love and forgive and serve . . . and that is a scary place to find your heart!

We shouldn’t wonder if the world rejects Jesus if they see in those who claim to bear His image nothing different from the world they live in. Workshop, or museum? It is a question to ask. What are we truly OK with?

Viewpoint is Everything . . .

How many GALAXIES can you count?

If any of you have known me, or followed my blog, any length of time, you know that I often turn to space and the stars as the place in which I put things back in proper perspective and remind myself how big and utterly amazing God is. Sometimes just stepping outside and staring up and reflecting for a few moments can bring a peace and restoration to my thoughts and anxieties that have gotten out of order and balance. But, that isn't the case for everyone, and I had a real lesson in how much viewpoint matters the other day . . .

Recently, with all the hype about the star Betelgeuse and whether it was dying next year or not, I spent a little time looking at more facts about it on the internet, and locating it in the night sky. What I learned was amazing (it is in the constellation Orion, by the way, and easy to see from our area at night). While one of the bigger stars, it is far from the biggest star, and yet, according to one video, if you were to take that tiny star and put its center where our sun is, its edges would go 90% of the way to Saturn's orbit! Picture that—this star, if it was put in the place of our sun, would have, inside of it, all the planets between the sun and Saturn—which means that Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and the largest of our planets, Jupiter, would all be inside it . . . along with all the space inbetween them! And it's not the largest star!

According to one video, if a plane flew around the largest known star at 900 km/h (which I believe is 560 mph) it would take it 1,100 years to get around it once! And these are just a couple of stars in our single Milky Way galaxy. To put that in perspective, according to Wikipedia, the Milky Way galaxy alone has 100–400 billion STARS in it, and is 100,000 light years across! That means that, if you traveled at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second—or 700 million miles per hour—a speed that would take you around the earth over seven times in a second) it would take you 100,000 years to cross our galaxy alone . . . and there are billions of galaxies in our universe!

Now, here's where viewpoint matters. The impact that these figures had on the people making the videos I watched, and many of the people commenting on them on YouTube, was to make them feel completely insignificant. One video ended with flashing the words, "You are not the center of the universe!" Another had a quote by Carl Sagan in which he said, "Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people."

Some of the comments posted on these videos included (using their syntax/grammar):

Look? how small & insignificant we are. LOOK how small! We probably (possibly) the most insignificant thing in the galaxy. We are SMALL!!

i agree 100% that most people(including my wife) dont realize how lucky we are to be here.most people could care less about the universe and the planet we live on.what are the odds of there being a planet with the ingredients for life which orbits a sun in the? exact spot to form life with intelligence to figure out how lucky we really are??

"Luck . . . insignificant . . . forgotten corner . . . lost in a galaxy . . ." this is the perspective and viewpoint one gets by looking at these stars, galaxies, and facts without a knowledge of the love of God who made them, and the story of the cross. I, on the other hand, find myself drawn to completely opposite conclusions when I stare at the sky and ponder these same facts that these other people have. For example, the other night at our fire department drill, I stared up and saw Betelgeuse up there and I pictured the graphic I had seen of that single star swallowing our solar system out to almost Saturn, and I felt such a huge sense of how huge my God is, and I thought, "Why do I ever worry about anything when my God who loves me is so big!" Such peace and security flooded me after that.

I look up at these stars, and ponder the size of the universe, and then I realize that the God who made all of that crowned it with the creation of man, in His image. I read in the Word that before He ever formed the earth He had His plan in place to adopt me through His Son's death. I realize that, of this vast universe, He chose to come to our planet to die, to redeem us for His own, to live with us in eternity, and that, with this vast universe, He knows the number of hairs on my head and my every thought and He loves me and calls me His own. For me, the size of the stars and the universe doesn't make me feel insignificant—rather, I find that the more I realize that the God who made all of that knows me intimately and loves me so much that He died for me makes me realize that I am of great worth to the One whose estimate matters most.

I think the difference is that for those who don't know Him and His love they start from here and look farther and farther out and just feel smaller and more lost and more insignificant. I look at the same stars, but I start at the farthest point and I realize that the Father's eyes move from them closer and closer to us, here, who He has loved and made in His image and died for on a cross to have a relationship with of fellowship, love, adoption as His children, and eternal life with Him. When I see it that way I realize that we are, in fact, the center of the universe—because we are the center of His love and eye, and He is all that matters. Yes, the universe displays the glory of God . . . but we, as Christians, carry it . . . He dwells in us and calls us His own. Yes, viewpoint is everything . . .

Loved Before the Earth Was Formed . . .

I wanted to wish each of you a very merry, joyous, peaceful, Spirit-filled Christmas tomorrow, and to thank you for sharing in my life through reading my blog, making me richer with your thoughts and sharings, and blessing me with your prayers. May God pour out His Spirit upon you this Christmas, and may the coming year be, for you, one of growing closer and closer to Him as your relationship with Him deepens and deepens.

As a simple gift to you, this Christmas, I want to share with you the thought that will be at the core of my sharing this evening at our candlelight Christmas Eve celebration. May it take you to a place of deep reflection, and may you rise from that place with a joy and security deeper than any you have ever felt before . . .

As Christians, we all know that the birth of Jesus was for a purpose—and that purpose took Him to the cross where He died for our sins. We also all know that it was love that took Him to the cross. John 3:16–18 are our guidon verses that we raise up to let others know that, ". . . God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God."


The Apostle John shared this recognition of God's love in 1 John 4:9-11 when he wrote, "In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." John shared his awe at such love when he penned 1 John 3:1, "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God . . ."

I know this, and I am filled with gratitude for God's love, that He would give me such a gift. That love is, in itself, so astounding that I could never capture with words or in my heart the amazing wonder of a God who loves me that much when I have loved Him so little, and sinned so much. But, there is something that makes it even more astounding to me, and this truth is found in Ephesians 1:3-10 in which Paul writes, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth."

The "fullness of time" is Christmas, and the cross. Galatians 4:4-7 makes this clear when it uses the same expression: But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.


So, when God said the time was "full" (or had come) He sent Jesus to complete His plan—to unite us with Him through Jesus. And He did this from love. And, and here's the thing that rocks my mind, He did this from a love He had for you and I before He even formed the earth! Read again those Ephesians words, ". . . even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ." Do you realize that before He even formed the earth—before even your grandparents a hundred generations back were born—He knew you and loved you so much that He established a plan to unite you back with Him through His Son, Jesus?


How can we comprehend such love? To be loved before we were even concieved!?!

He LOVED me before He even formed the earth! He loved me before He even formed me in my mother's womb! Back when ". . . the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep" He already knew me and loved me so much that He established a plan to bring me back to Him—a plan that would cost Him His life. Then, as He watched and waited, came "the fullness of time" and He sent forth His Son on that first Christmas morn to complete His plan to unite me with Him, still, long before I was born. Of course, that applies to you as well—not just me—He knew and LOVED you before He ever formed the earth. If that doesn't tell you and I how absolutely special we are to Him, then I don't know what will. To be known, and loved so deeply that He would lay His life down for us, before He ever even formed the earth—wow! Our God is so amazing, and His love for us so incredible—it is a revelation that should alter the very fabric of our lives, focus, anxiety, values, and aim. To be loved like that, by a God who could know and love us before we ever were born. It is a wonderful God we have to lay our lives before. All praise and glory be to Him, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!


God bless you all. Merry Christmas! You are loved!

Jealously Loved . . .

Have you ever been jealous when someone gave their affection or time or attention or admiration to another? Be honest (and no, you don’t have to post a comment and tell us all when and why).

Seriously though, have you ever been jealous of another’s affection or attention? Has it ever been so strong in you that it almost defined who you were? Maybe it was at a younger age over the “love” of one you “loved” being given to another, maybe it is a wounding you have suffered recently when one you love gave themself to another in either heart or body, maybe it was when someone gave praise and admiration to another when you wanted to get it from them instead. You were stirred inside with feelings very deep when you saw affection given to another, from one who you desired affection from, and you felt that the affection they gave that other took it from you. The greater your affection for a person, the greater could be your jealousy toward that person—you don’t care who someone loves if you don’t love that person.

Jealousy can be a powerful, driving force when unharnessed and allowed to drive and define a person. Proverbs 27:4 says, “Wrath is cruel, anger is overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy?” and Galatians 5:20 lists it as a work of the flesh. And yet, during our Family Worship time, or whenever we play worship music, one of our favorite songs has been Jeremy Riddle’s version of “How He Loves.” In it is a line that says God is jealous for me. Having heard it probably 40-50 times, this morning it struck me powerfully and seemed to jump out from all the rest. I thought, “God is jealous for me! Wow!”

Just to nip in the bud any rebuttals in advance—I am not accusing God of sin; nor am I saying that His jealousy for us is identical to the jealousy in us that I asked about in the first paragraph; nor am I saying that any human analogy I use is a perfect or completely correct way to look at God. But, there is the fact that God uses human relationship to illustrate our relationship with Him (Father/child, Bridegroom/Bride). And, there is also the fact that God is a jealous God. Exodus 34:14 says, “(for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God).” Jealous is one of God’s very names, and His names define a part of who He is.

Similarly, Joshua 24:19-20 records Joshua saying to the people: "You are not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you, after having done you good."

Psalm 79:5 asks: How long, O Lord? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire?

Zechariah 8:2 says: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath.

Indicating that there might, in fact, be a “proper” kind of jealousy, in 2 Corinthians 11:2-3 Paul writes to the believers in Corinth: I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

And, to conclude sharing just a few of the many verses on God’s divine jealousy, in James 4:4-5 it says: You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, "He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us"?

The word “jealous,” when used in the Scripture in reference to God, is most often used in the context of God’s anger. They are fearful passages in the Bible that talk about God’s jealousy and the consequences of His pouring out His wrath from jealousy. But, may I suggest, that there is another side to looking at this as well (not meaning in any way we should ignore the first). May I suggest that God is jealous for you because He so loves you? That if you had no worth or meaning to His heart your misplaced affections and worship would mean nothing to Him (i.e., in admittedly flawed human terms, would you be a jealous lover if someone you had no feelings for loved another?). Might the depth of His jealousy toward you be a mirror of the depth of His love for you?

When we look at the brutality of the cross in all its graphic reality, and at the spiritual horror of One who was without sin taking on Himself the sin of the world, we are forced to realize that God loves us with a love more passionate and alive and deep than we can ever fathom or capture. It is no wonder that He is “jealous” for us—He loves us!—and it makes me feel good to know that God loves me so actively and vibrantly and passionately that my highest affections and my “worship” and “service” turned to anything other than Him provokes Him to jealousy (not feeling good that I do that, but that He cares enough to care).

I think that, in our theological talk, we often lose the “aliveness” (my word) of our faith. God becomes an idea, a theology, a “topic,” when, in fact, He is very alive, very passionate about things, ferocious, wonderful, awe inspiring, Holy, able to be grieved and angered, deeply and actively loving, participatory, etc. Any true relationship with Him is alive, dynamic, and an interchange of feelings and communication because He didn’t stay in the tomb, having paid for our sin, but He rose again to dwell with us and in us! “God loves us” is a living reality, not an idea. “God is jealous for us” is an expression and a truth, not a verse. Our sin is against Him, not a Bible. “God is with us” is a physical, real, tangible, truth, not simply a “feel good” platitude. He is real. He is interactive with us. He is mighty, and alive! We get so caught up in our own “feelings” that we forget that God feels things too, and that He has invested Himself completely in relationship with us.

God is holy, and He is awesome. He is worthy of our worship and reverence (and, when appropriate, fear) whether or not He loves us. His jealousy for me is passionate and alive, and that, in some way, tells my childlike understanding that His love for me is too. And, I am glad for that. May the living reality that God’s heart burns for you touch and awaken you throughout the days ahead.