Living in the Love of GOD – The human race worships at the altar of self, when they should be worshipping GOD who created them…they worship the creation more than the creator!
Romans 1:21-25 (MSG) – “What happened was this: People knew GOD perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat Him like GOD, refusing to worship Him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. 22 They pretended to know it all but were illiterate regarding life. 23 They traded the Glory of GOD Who holds the whole world in His hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand.
24 So GOD said, in effect, ‘If that’s what you want, that’s what you get.’ It wasn’t long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out (and they didn’t even realize that they were living like pigs). 25 And all this because they traded the true GOD for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the GOD Who made them – the GOD we bless, the GOD Who blesses us. Oh, yes!”
Paul saw the junkyard of idols in Athens…playing up to idols made of stone…stone that GOD made. People begin to separate GOD from their everyday activities – Oh, they read the Bible, but when that Bible is closed, it’s as if there are two realms in the people’s lives…one realm that they can think about GOD (just for a moment) and another realm that is devoid of GOD. For the root of all things pertaining to idolatry is SELF!
1 John 2:15-17 (MSG) – “Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. 16 Practically everything that goes on in the world – wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important – has nothing to do with the Father; it just isolates you from Him. 17 The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out – but whoever does what GOD wants is set for eternity.”
All idolatry of self has its root in the following three areas:
1) You want your own way – the lust of the flesh, 2) You want what you see! – the lust of the eyes, 3) You want to appear important – Boastful Pride of life. The three things that drove Eve to rebellion against GOD…what she saw, what she wanted and the idea of being like GOD.
1 John 2:16-17 (NASB) – “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17 The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of GOD lives forever!“
Self-help books bring about a spirit of idolatry because you’re focusing on yourself and getting the help you need. Anything “self-help” looks nice and necessary, but it will never bring satisfaction and fulfillment. If you put yourself High, you will experience Low.
We are by nature ego-centric: Isaiah 14:12-17 (NASB) – “How you have fallen from heaven, O Star of the Morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, you who have weakened the nations! 13 You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of GOD, and I will sit on the mount of assembly. 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High. 15 Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol, to the pit.”
If your life is made up of me, me, me, you will find yourself very alone and “in want.” In Christ it’s about others = humility = the antidote for pride…placing your life in GOD’s hand and submitting to GOD’s ways. As you examine your days, how much of that day do you spend on thoughts about yourself or going shopping for yourself or grabbing something to eat for yourself? We can and must change our attitudes about SELF and begin to realize that we are here to worship and commune with GOD…AND we are also here for others.
James 4 tells us how to live a godly life: “If all you want is your own way, flirting with the world every chance you get, you end up enemies of GOD and His way. 5 And do you suppose GOD doesn’t care? The proverb has it that ‘He’s a fiercely jealous Lover.’ 6 And what He gives in love is far better than anything else you’ll find. It’s common knowledge that ‘GOD goes against (opposes) the willful proud; GOD gives Grace to the willing humble.’ 7 So let GOD work His will in you. Yell a loud NO! to the devil and watch him scamper. 8 Say a quiet ‘YES’ to GOD and He’ll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life; quit playing the field…sitting on the fence. 9 Hit bottom and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious. 10 Get down on your knees before the Master; it’s the only way you’ll get on your feet.”
JESUS answered a question asked by a lawyer as to what the greatest commandment was in Matthew 22:36-39: “You shall love the LORD your GOD with all your heart, and with all your should and with all your mind…and the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The Passion states, “You must love your friend in the same way you love and dote on yourself.”
1 Corinthians 10:23-24 (MSG) – “Looking at it one way, you could say, ‘Anything goes. Because of GOD’s immense generosity and grace, we don’t have to dissect and scrutinize every action to see if it will pass muster.’ But the point is not to just get by. 24 We want to live well, but our foremost efforts should be to help others live well.”
I Corinthians 13:5-6 (MSG) – “If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 2) If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.
3-7If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
8-10Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
11When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
12We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
13But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.
Love doesn’t force itself on others, isn’t always ‘me first’, doesn’t fly off the handle, doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, 6 doesn’t revel when others grovel, but takes pleasure in the flowering of truth….” Do not seek your own agenda.
Agape Love – GOD’s Kind of Love –
is the GOAL of GOD’s People!