God didn’t create robots who would love Him by
command or demand because love would not be the motivation. Love must be given
willingly from the heart. God gave us hearts and a free will and told us to
choose to love and obey Him.1 John 5:3:
This is love for God: to keep His commands. And His commands are not
burdensome. Jesus and John said that love for God is obedience to Him. Life
is full of choices. Our choices can have life-changing consequences for the
good or for evil – spiritual life or spiritual death, blessing or cursing. We
make choices out of our heart and mind (intellect). The choices we make must emanate from our
love for God. God desires us. He wants us to desire Him.
God told Moses he was to love God with his
heart, soul, mind and strength. Deuteronomy
6:5 This was not a new precept. Jesus repeated this scripture when asked
what commandment was the greatest. God also went on to say to Moses, “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your
God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and
to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul….Deuteronomy 10:12 Jesus said in Mark
12:33 that loving God with all our heart, understanding, soul and strength
and loving our neighbor as ourselves “is
more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” Love for humanity whom He created in His
image and likeness has always been God’s motivation. He wants love to be our
motivation. 1 Timothy 1:5 tells us
that the “goal of His instruction is
love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”
Heart, Soul, Mind and Strength
Matthew, Mark and Luke quoted the scripture
regarding loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Having the
full and abundant life promised by Christ begins with the heart and love.
Heart – Our heart and mind are the ruling and central
places of good and evil that is translated into action. The heart and mind are
the seat of our moral character, our appetites, emotions, passions and courage.
Physically,
we eat to strengthen the heart and body. Spiritually, we eat the spiritual Word
of God to guide our heart, mind, strength and soul. The heart is what moves our
physical body and its actions. Likewise, the milk and meat of the Word of God and
the power of the Holy Spirit move our spiritual man and God’s spiritual Body,
maturing us spiritually and moving us to do what is right and good. Our
physical heart is center for physical, emotional, intellectual and moral
activities. God wants to turn our fleshly heart into a heart that strives to do
His will and walk in His ways to the glory of His Name.
Jesus
says that the “secrets” of our heart are betrayed by the words of our mouth. “Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil,
speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A
good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an
evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.” Matthew 12:34-34 Solomon
says, “a wise man’s heart guides his
mouth.” Proverbs 16:23
Jesus was talking
to the religious leaders of His people. If you want to know who is truly serving
our holy God, listen to the words of his or her mouth. If they are spewing hatred,
division, cursing, and lies, they are bringing forth evil things, not the good
treasure of one who truly serves God. Their character is not moral and good. Our
words and actions reveal our character. “Man
looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel
16:7 Jesus called these leaders a brood of vipers because they were evil. They
were prideful and loved their position of power and continually went against
Jesus. The Pharisees and Sadducees heaped tremendous burden upon God’s people
through their added demands to God’s truth. The Truth Jesus was standing in
front of them talking with them but their jealousy and lust for power blinded
them to the truth. They thought more highly of themselves than they ought. One
who is evil cannot speak good things. He or she will speak evil things that
divide and degrade because this is in his or her heart. Jesus is warning us of
this. Jesus knows our hearts.
Jesus also says that the fruit of a tree reveals
its nature. “Either make the tree good
and its fruit good or make the tree bad
and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit.” Matthew 12:33 Jesus is telling us that we can know who
belong to Him by their fruit. If they are producing the fruit of the Spirit in
their lives, they are the good tree. If not, they are led by the devil and
produce bad fruit. True believers will set their hearts on things above – good,
spiritual character and deeds. The heart’s reasoning and actions depend upon
our moral condition. We are to understand and discern between good and evil and
embrace the good and stay away from the evil.
These are God’s instructions on discerning who
is serving Him and who is not.
(to be continued next week)
No comments:
Post a Comment