"But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it. See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; in that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: that thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey His voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto Him: for He is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them." (Deuteronomy 30:14-20)
"For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's the same shall save it." (Mark 8:35)
The two scriptures above seem at first glance to be in contradiction to one another. The one tells us to "choose life" and the other tells us to "lose our life" in order to save it. But rather than being a contradiction, it is more of an oxymoron, perhaps, i.e.: dying to live.
We are still in the season of Perfect Love and so this posting will continue to consider that most blessed of things: God's Perfect Love for us in the form of Jesus Christ, our Saviour and our LORD.
But we who are called of God, called to be "light" to the world, as Jesus came to be OUR "light", are on a mission of love, the same kind of love that Jesus demonstrated towards us, and to accomplish that love towards others, we have to consider all aspects of that love.
One aspect of that Perfect Love was willingness to die.
Jesus died that we might live:
"And that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again.." (2 Corinthians 5:15)
In other words, He showed us that to love others, we would have to die in the sense that we no longer live for our own wants and desires, but we live only for Him….for what He desires. In fact, this is exactly what Jesus did. He set aside His own flesh's desire to live and breathe, in order to be obedient to the Father, who loved Him.
"As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in His love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:9-13)
Thus, even though our bodies are still breathing and moving about and still, in fact, alive; we must yet consider ourselves to be dead to ourselves (otherwise known as "the flesh" in which sin, or our own sinful desires, flourish) and alive only in the sense of fulfilling the LORD's desires and purpose for our lives (being obedient to Him) rather than living to fulfill our own desires and purposes.
"Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin….Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord." (Romans 6:6-11))
This "dying" is to be done on a daily basis:
"And He said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily, and follow me." (Luke 9:23)
It is therefore a constant choice, a daily choice, and often a choice made several times throughout each day, to deny our own desires, to consider ourselves to be dead to our flesh, in order to be alive for God's purpose alone, in order to serve and live in obedience to the Word of God (Jesus) as Jesus Himself was obedient to the Father.
This is a tremendously important aspect of Perfect Love that we must not neglect: dying to ourselves daily in order to live for God and, in obedience to Him, love others.
Thus, Perfect Love contains:
- Love that has first been received by us from God;
- Dying to our flesh;
- Living to God (aka obedience).
We will discuss more aspects of Perfect Love in the next posting.
Meanwhile, choose life…by choosing death and the cross.
No comments:
Post a Comment