Made for love – and fear
As creatures made in the image of God, we were designed to be in relationship to others and to love[1]. Love may be accompanied by feelings, but love is a choice, a decision to choose to give of ourselves for the sake of another, to choose to seek another’s interest. Love is an act of the will that requires the freedom to choose who or what to love. We are told to love God above all others[2], a love which includes the choice to obey. We are told to love not just those who love us, but those who hate us, those who are our enemies[3].
The Creator who loved and made us intended for us to love Him above all other loves. But from the beginning of humanity, we have suffered from a deformed love, where we seem driven to choose to give of ourselves for someone or something above what we give to God. To help us reform our loves, we can choose to practice spiritual disciplines, developing habits that open us up to allow God’s to transform our lives.
As we consider the plea for us to love God – a God who loves us more than we love him, we should consider then another type of plea, to fear God[4]. As we hold these two pleas together, it becomes obvious that cannot be talking about the kind of fear that causes us to cower. Our fear of God instead, should be a reverential awe of the one who is the all-powerful, all-knowing, creator of the universe[5].
Sometimes we can be motivated by the cowering type of fear that God has the power to cast body and soul into hell[6]. While it can be useful for that fear to drive us to good behavior, it is not a fear that compels us to love. Our motivation to love should flow from the love we receive from God. A cowering type of fear can motivate us to change our behavior, but that kind of fear is unable to change our heart.
Only love can change our heart. Christians sometimes mischaracterize the Old Testament as a book of laws, but at the same time that God introduced those laws back in Exodus, he also began to proclaim over and over that He is a God of compassion and mercy, abounding in love and faithfulness[7]. We cannot be properly motivated by laws that we cannot keep and fears that inspire dread.
That is why 1 John 4:18 declares that perfect love drives out fear. We have the witness of thousands of years of generations of people who have clung to and declared and testified to God’s covenant of love. Even though the Jews experienced being exiled from their land, they proclaimed God’s faithfulness to his covenant of love[8]. For countless generations He has remained faithful to all of us who are not. In reverential awe, we can acknowledge the tension that exists in that while God is not safe, he is good[9].
Made for stewardship
In the creation account, the words God used to describe our tasks in the garden, “to work” and “to take care of” had two levels of meaning, tasks for gardening and tasks for priesthood[10]. Our work has physical and spiritual dimensions. The physical space the first humans lived in was both a garden and a temple. Despite our rebellion in the garden, God did not remove his mandate for us to steward his creation. The lesson we should have learned in the garden is that our actions have physical and spiritual dimensions. The physical laws we observe in our world serve to remind us of God’s moral laws. When our physical or moral actions ignore those laws, there are consequences.
Galatians tells us that we will reap what we sow[11], God does not often need to intervene. However, Proverbs reminds us that God disciplines those he loves[12], if God does actively intervene it is not to punish but to correct our behavior. Although, we should be mindful of any attitude that hardens our own hearts, lest God should confirm our rebellion by intervening to further harden our hearts[13].
Sabbath made for us
There tends to be confusion and controversy about the “laws” given in the Old Testament. As Gentiles, while we are not “under the law,” we should be living grace-filled lives in which our grace and love is shaped by the essence of the laws. Laws are about actions, they can tell us to avoid certain behaviors, but only love can change our hearts. Laws about the Sabbath can tell us what to do or not do on one day of the week in order to build a relation to God, but only love can motivate us to desire and seek a relationship with God every day of the week. We are not resting in the Lord all week long if we confine “good” behavior to Sundays only.
When evil seems to triumph
It’s a question that has lingered for generations. We see the suffering of good people and the apparent triumph of people who are not good[14]. We see some people preach like orators on Sunday mornings knowing other parts of their lives are detestable to God, while we try hard to stay faithful to God every day and yet seem to struggle to do the tasks God has given us. Why does it seem that there are no consequences for some of those people who turn from God?
These questions drive us to those great books of Bible wisdom. For this question we will focus on Job[15] and Ecclesiastes[16].
- When Job complained to God about his suffering when he did nothing wrong, God did not have issues with Job complaining, but made it clear that the world God controlled was much more complex than Job could ever imagine.
- In Ecclesiastes, the Teacher had the same types of questions we had, our good things will be forgotten by future generations and bad people seem to succeed in this life. If this life is all there is, then everything is just a vapor (Hebrew ‘hevel’) that disappears and is forgotten. All is just vanity, or meaningless. The author of Ecclesiastes then concludes that there is more to life than what we see, but God sees all things. The meaning of our lives can only be found in God, so our part is to fear God and keep his commandments. God’s part is to bring every deed, seen or hidden, into judgment.
We have to remember that we don’t see everything. Other people’s lives are not perfect, but neither are our lives. (We need to confess our self-righteousness if we start to think, “I may have sinned but not like that.”) It is the Spirit of God that provides spiritual gifts as He sees fit. God has provided us with abundant grace and likewise provides for others. From what we observe in this life, things aren’t fair. Some people are more advantaged than others. Some people have more talents than others.
But in this life, we don’t see everything, even how God may be using those people who are imperfect (let’s not think that they are more imperfect than we are) and better-advantaged (let’s not consider that to be unfair) to carry out His will and bring blessing (even if they are begrudging) to others. Sometimes, we may see that people who were anointed by God to do His work, may lose that anointing. Sometimes, we may see people suffer other consequences. But sometimes we may not see people receive the consequences that we think they should receive. In any case, we need to remember the lessons of Job and Ecclesiastes: we don’t see everything, things are more complicated than we can imagine, we need to trust God. When we heed the admonition of 1 Thessalonians 5:18 and give thanks in all circumstances, then we can more fully rest in His love, mercy and grace – even when the world around us seems awry.
[1] 1 Corinthians 13; Exodus 20:6; 34:6; Numbers 14:18-19; Deuteronomy 6:5; 10:12, 19; Nehemiah 1:5; Psalm 23:6; 103; 136; Proverbs 3:12
[2] Matthew 22:37-39
[3] Matthew 5:43-46
[4] Deuteronomy 10:12; Ps 19:9; 23:23; 111:10; Proverbs 1:7; 2:5; 9:10; 10:27; 14:27; 15:16; 16:6; 19:23; 22:24; Malachi 3:16; Acts 19:31; 2 Corinthians 5:11
[5] Revelation 14:6-7
[6] Matthew 10:28; 18:9
[7] Exodus 22:27; 33:19; 34:6; Deuteronomy 13;17; 30:3
[8] Nehemiah 1:5; 9:32; 2 Chronicles 6:14; 1 Kings 8:23; Deuteronomy 7:9, 12
[9] C.S. Lewis (Chronicles of Narnia. Regarding Aslan, the lion who represents God) “Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good …”
[10] Genesis 1:26-28; 2:25; Walton, John H. The Lost World of Adam and Eve: Genesis 2-3 and the Human Origins Debate (p. 105-106)
[11] Galatians 6:7-8
[12] Proverbs 3:11-12
[13] Exodus 4-14
[14] Psalms 13, 22, 25, 42, 123, 142, 143; Jeremiah 8:18; 15:18; 45:3; Lamentations 1:5;
[15] Job 2:1-46
[16] Ecclesiastes 12:12-14
Transcendent Touched 