of those things than any of us, satan’s dire eternal fate suggests that he lacks something in his spiritual résumé. It’s something so important and so key that it apparently separates all those who “will be saved” from those who won’t. What is it? For our answer let’s turn to the question that was asked of Jesus: “What is the greatest commandment?” Jesus didn’t answer that it was to “believe” in Him or to believe anything about Him. So, all of satan’s beliefs of Jesus that we heralded yesterday aren’t of supreme eternal value. Instead, Jesus’ answer was a quote from the Old Testament: love the Lord God with your whole heart, soul, and mind. That’s the thing missing from satan’s spiritual résumé: He doesn’t love the Lord God. But wait. Before we pat ourselves too hard on the back for the saving grace that we love God while satan doesn’t, this isn’t just any ole kind of love that Jesus commands. This isn’t the love we have for chocolate, or sports, or Granny, or our pet, or our friends, or even our kids or spouse. No, the type of love we are supposed to have in abundance for God is obedient love. Obedient love is the kind of love that makes us take whatever God says and thus seeks to believe, trust, and obey it with our whole heart, soul, and mind. It’s the kind of love which does not “whitewash” God’s commands, principles, and truths. It’s the kind of love that responds, “If God spoke it, then it is true.” It’s the kind of love that we “Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you.” (Deut. 4:2). So, the type of love we have for the Triune God, which separates Christians from satan and all other types of love, is that our love for God is an obedient one. For fact, Jesus says: “If you love Me, you will obey Me.” (Jn 14:15) “He who does not love Me will not obey My Teaching.” (Jn 14: 24) This obedience to His teaching is not to be diluted by what we think is politically correct, civil, within our sense of fair-play, tolerant, fair, or from the goodness of our own heart. We simply have a love which causes us to obey God’s word or we don’t. For all that satan believes and knows about Christ, he doesn’t have this obedient type of love. Do we?
Friday, February 11, 2011
The Key (Part IV of VI)
For all that we’ve identified that satan believes about Jesus, and he’s arguably more of a believer
of those things than any of us, satan’s dire eternal fate suggests that he lacks something in his spiritual résumé. It’s something so important and so key that it apparently separates all those who “will be saved” from those who won’t. What is it? For our answer let’s turn to the question that was asked of Jesus: “What is the greatest commandment?” Jesus didn’t answer that it was to “believe” in Him or to believe anything about Him. So, all of satan’s beliefs of Jesus that we heralded yesterday aren’t of supreme eternal value. Instead, Jesus’ answer was a quote from the Old Testament: love the Lord God with your whole heart, soul, and mind. That’s the thing missing from satan’s spiritual résumé: He doesn’t love the Lord God. But wait. Before we pat ourselves too hard on the back for the saving grace that we love God while satan doesn’t, this isn’t just any ole kind of love that Jesus commands. This isn’t the love we have for chocolate, or sports, or Granny, or our pet, or our friends, or even our kids or spouse. No, the type of love we are supposed to have in abundance for God is obedient love. Obedient love is the kind of love that makes us take whatever God says and thus seeks to believe, trust, and obey it with our whole heart, soul, and mind. It’s the kind of love which does not “whitewash” God’s commands, principles, and truths. It’s the kind of love that responds, “If God spoke it, then it is true.” It’s the kind of love that we “Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you.” (Deut. 4:2). So, the type of love we have for the Triune God, which separates Christians from satan and all other types of love, is that our love for God is an obedient one. For fact, Jesus says: “If you love Me, you will obey Me.” (Jn 14:15) “He who does not love Me will not obey My Teaching.” (Jn 14: 24) This obedience to His teaching is not to be diluted by what we think is politically correct, civil, within our sense of fair-play, tolerant, fair, or from the goodness of our own heart. We simply have a love which causes us to obey God’s word or we don’t. For all that satan believes and knows about Christ, he doesn’t have this obedient type of love. Do we?
of those things than any of us, satan’s dire eternal fate suggests that he lacks something in his spiritual résumé. It’s something so important and so key that it apparently separates all those who “will be saved” from those who won’t. What is it? For our answer let’s turn to the question that was asked of Jesus: “What is the greatest commandment?” Jesus didn’t answer that it was to “believe” in Him or to believe anything about Him. So, all of satan’s beliefs of Jesus that we heralded yesterday aren’t of supreme eternal value. Instead, Jesus’ answer was a quote from the Old Testament: love the Lord God with your whole heart, soul, and mind. That’s the thing missing from satan’s spiritual résumé: He doesn’t love the Lord God. But wait. Before we pat ourselves too hard on the back for the saving grace that we love God while satan doesn’t, this isn’t just any ole kind of love that Jesus commands. This isn’t the love we have for chocolate, or sports, or Granny, or our pet, or our friends, or even our kids or spouse. No, the type of love we are supposed to have in abundance for God is obedient love. Obedient love is the kind of love that makes us take whatever God says and thus seeks to believe, trust, and obey it with our whole heart, soul, and mind. It’s the kind of love which does not “whitewash” God’s commands, principles, and truths. It’s the kind of love that responds, “If God spoke it, then it is true.” It’s the kind of love that we “Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you.” (Deut. 4:2). So, the type of love we have for the Triune God, which separates Christians from satan and all other types of love, is that our love for God is an obedient one. For fact, Jesus says: “If you love Me, you will obey Me.” (Jn 14:15) “He who does not love Me will not obey My Teaching.” (Jn 14: 24) This obedience to His teaching is not to be diluted by what we think is politically correct, civil, within our sense of fair-play, tolerant, fair, or from the goodness of our own heart. We simply have a love which causes us to obey God’s word or we don’t. For all that satan believes and knows about Christ, he doesn’t have this obedient type of love. Do we?
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