Faith in Tension: What Do I Love?

In his short books toward the end of the New Testament, the Apostle John weaves his ideas around one or two ideas. The first is the connection between loving God and obeying God’s Word. The second is a bit thornier, and puts an uncomfortable magnifying glass over the top of Christ-followers relationship with the world around us. He writes:

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. (1 John 2.14-16)

If God is love, then becoming like him and being transformed into his image must include choosing to love what he loves, hate what he hates, support what he supports, and being “holy, for I am Holy” (Lev 11.44, 1 Cor 1.2, I Peter 1.16). So what do we love? How do Christ-followers identify the objects of their love? I think that a believer’s loves are discovered no differently from those who don’t know Christ.

• We love what we spend our time on.
• We love what we spend our money on.
• We love what we give our energy to.
• We love that which occupies our thoughts, emotions, conversation.
• We love the things that we go to when we have time all to ourselves, and no one is looking.
• We love (at all times) because we were created in the image of our Father, and God is love.
• The only question is – What do you love?

Grace, Love and Holiness

Christians walk in a place of grace. I don’t earn God’s love, favor or attention by the things that I do. His love is freely given because he genuinely, deeply and eternally loves us. No, I don’t earn God’s love, affection, and can’t buy my entrance into heaven by what I do. Yet we demonstrate how much his love has transformed us by the things that we pursue. Do don’t earn God’s love. We show God how much we are, or aren’t, in love with him.

Jesus is all about love, desire and affection. He said when we look lustfully at a someone, we may have well as slept together. He said when you hate someone, you are no different from a murderer. He warned his followers to forgive others; otherwise they wouldn’t experience his Father’s forgiveness. He didn’t do away with the law. Instead Jesus expanded it, exploded it by living the intents of the law, and showing us that through his grace, we can live holy, upright and blameless lives that are different than the world around us, and thereby point to a different kingdom, and different God.

When I show love to another, at the core is denying myself and doing what the other person perceives as loving. Denying myself must also be at the center of showing love to my God, Father, the one who gave his life for me. What I love is the central idea of holiness, and personal holiness isn’t an Old Testament idea.

I rarely hear pastors preach on this scripture. Denying myself and not setting my affections on the world seems to be out of liturgical fashion. Jesus doesn’t judge me by the outward appearance. Yet what does my outward activity say about the things that I hold in highest esteem? We can’t judge each other and say, “It’s not Godly for you to have _________________. “ Instead, Jesus calls us, and asks, “Are you placing your affection on these things with which I’ve filled my life? Are you spending your resources building the kingdom, and bringing glory to God?” If not, like the churches in Revelation, Jesus call us to repent, to choose a new direction, and to return to our first love – Him.

So what do you love? Take the lid off the jar, and look inside. What do you really love?

• What do you spend your time on?
• What do you spend your money on?
• What do you give the best of your energy to?
• What do you give your left over energy and time to?
• What occupies our thoughts, emotions and conversation?
• Where do you spend your time, money and energy when you have time all to yourself, and no one is looking?

We love, at all times, because we were created in the image of our Father, and God is love. In the end, the only question is – what do you love?