2Th 2:13-17; Love Without Fear – Showing Itself.Wednesday October 4, 2023
Theme: God’s love is the most wonderful of human interactions. We can fool ourselves into thinking we love with God’s love when we do not. We might love other things more than people, and if they are good things, the deception is even greater.
Love is a strong emotional attachment (desire) to possess or be in the presence of.
The first time the word is used in the Bible is telling.
Gen 22:1-2 Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." 2 He said, "Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you."
God’s love acted so as to possess us in His presence.
God is love. Love is not God. [click to fly in] God’s top priority was not us, but Himself.
God is love and so He acted on our behalf.
God is love and love acted on behalf of those who were perishing.
The gift that love gave was the very life of God.
1Jo 5:11-12 And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.
The cost was the life of Christ, who being God and Man gives us a theological headache. It is unexplainable.
2Co 5:19 God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them.
Rom 5:6-8 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
God’s love is demonstrated by its action on behalf of those who are described as helpless, ungodly, sinners, and enemies (vs. 10).
He didn’t send another creature (cults). He sent Himself.
The life of God had to be given by grace. It could never be attained.
It had to be given by faith. It could not be forced.
More than wanting humans to hang out with for all eternity, God’s love acted in a way that demonstrates itself. This is the key to the love of God in our own lives.
Love is a key theme in the gospels, especially in the teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.
Example of loving representative principles more than people. Jesus breaking Sabbath traditions.
Mar 2:23-28 And it happened that He was passing through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples began to make their way along while picking the heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees were saying to Him, "Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?" 25 And He said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions became hungry; 26 how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the consecrated bread, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests, and he also gave it to those who were with him?" 27 Jesus said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 28 "So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."
Sabbath – the privilege of enjoying the presence of God in the world of His making. Click in (Not doing nothing)
God gave man the Sabbath, initially in the seventh day of creation.
God then gave the Sabbath to Israel and they were to keep it holy.
Now, when David and his men were on the run from Saul and had no food, David requested the bread that had come from the altar and Abiathar the high priest gave it to him. That bread was to be eaten by the priests only (Lev 24:9) and David was not one.
When it is reasonable and good, love dictates that people take precedence over principle.
1Co 8:1 Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies.
The point of David eating the consecrated bread is not how cool it is to be a rebel, but that sometimes personal needs of others take precedent over procedure and tradition.
Jesus then states why the Sabbath was made.
Mar 2:27 Jesus said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.
The Sabbath was made for man. The door to God’s presence was made for man. (Not man for the door)
We don’t protect the door, as if we were door keepers or had to work to keep it open, etc. In Jesus’ parable, He is the door. He is the way into the garden of heaven. We are given the door so that we can live in the peace, rest, and incredible joy of our Lord.
Then the Lord says something astounding.
Mar 2:28 "So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."
“The Son of Man is Lord! Also of the Sabbath.
He claims the title Son of Man (Messianic title of Dan 7). He states His deity with emphasis. And He also states that He is Lord or God of the Sabbath. That means that He is the creator and the giver of the Sabbath.
The Lord Jesus made the Sabbath and He, as its Lord, gave it to mankind for him to enjoy.
Are you enjoying the life He gave you? Do you see and feel His love? Do you know His comfort? Are you a person of hope?
No concessions for the hungry on the Sabbath. How about a man with a severe handicap?
Mar 3:1-6 He entered again into a synagogue; and a man was there whose hand was withered. 2 They were watching Him to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. 3 He said to the man with the withered hand, "Get up and come forward!" 4 And He said to them, "Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?" But they kept silent. 5 After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 6 The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him.
Christ addresses the question of what work is permitted on the Sabbath, but in a very strange fashion. “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm (evil) … to save a life or to kill?”
The answer is yes for the Pharisees.
Because they fail to have within themselves the fabric out of which the Sabbath was made (love for mankind) they violate it in the worst way possible.
In doing good to protect our traditions or principles we may become violators of goodness.
Do not keep a false love in your heart and convince yourself it is God’s love. We must be honest and confess it when we lack God’s love.
The marks of false love. Limitation (something withheld). Control (manipulating). Detachment (remaining self-sufficient, unimpaired, unhurt).
Examine yourself and see if it is the love of God that is growing in you and not something bearing the marks of false love.
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