The
Bible is about relationships, the most important one being with God:
John 17:3: Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
John 13:34,35 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."...
The most important thing that will distinguish us from the world is loving like God loves. How do we do this? If it's commanded it's probably because we have to learn how to do it. It is only possible by knowing God and His love for us. Coming into Christ we only know the love of the world. Therefore we need to let His Spirit teach us, and we must make a daily choice to love like God, or love according to the world, which is idolatry.
Many use the word "love" on an everyday basis without ever knowing what it really means. We've been conditioned to "love" people as we "love" things. In one sentence we say, “I love pizza!” and in the next one we say, “I love my kids!” Thus we may end up thinking that loving pizza and loving our kids has to do with the same emotional satisfaction we are deriving from either of them. If I am getting usefulness and satisfaction from my automobile, then I love it! If one morning it refuses to start and gives me regular problems, slowly my emotional satisfaction from owning it will ebb away and I will be left with a lack of satisfaction expressed in the phrase, “I hate this car!” That’s how it is usually isn’t it? We have a love-hate relationship with the things of the world. We love when they are useful to us, and we hate things or situations that are inconvenient or useless to us. Let’s get some insight into how Satan prevents you from getting out of this type of thinking:
2 Thessalonians 2:9-12
The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan
displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every
sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they
refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a
powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be
condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
Satan uses what appear to be miracles and the associated emotions (wonders) that go along with it to deflect truth. Since Satan doesn't want you to learn and understand God's freeing and life-giving love, he's set up a counterfeit love that feels the right way for you. It looks like it, and it feels like it, and it even brings you some satisfaction in a very limited sense, as it can only satisfy the insatiable longing of the flesh in a very limited way. If you refuse to love the truth and continue to give into your emotions, you will be deluded and will believe in your own little world with its little explanations, ending in your own condemnation. It is important that you accept from God’s Word the truth that will save you and the relationship with God that will deliver you from death.
Most of us have conditioned ourselves to accept this love of the world to mean that we need to get something out of these objects, people, or relationships when we want, like we want and how we want. Since we grow accustomed to manipulate objects and things to our liking, we try to apply this conditioning to our relationships with disastrous results.
Think about this: When you were in high school, did you ever think of trying to date or get into a relationship with the ugliest, most useless person you could find that had nothing to offer you at all? Think about why your relationships with your parents become “useless” in your rebellious teenager years; you don’t see what you can get, when you can get and how to get from them. So you go on with your “friends”, thinking you have friends when it’s all counterfeit love. You are a slave to your friend’s perception of this counterfeit love as well.
What about you parents? Are you trying to get something out of your
kids? Do you manipulate your kids so they can make you look good? Do you
measure your love for them by how useful they are to you or the family as a
whole?
Let’s
contrast this kind of love we learn from the world to God’s love:
Romans 3:12 “All have turned away, they have together
become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
Titus 3:3-7 {3} At one time we too
were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and
pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. {4}
But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, {5} he saved us, not
because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us
through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, {6} whom he
poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, {7} so that,
having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of
eternal life.
God’s love for us cannot be based on how useful we are to Him. There is
nothing He can obtain from us, nor anything He needs from us.
Matthew 20:28 …just as the Son of Man did not come to be
served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
God’s love gives us value, not because we are worth something, but
because God is worth everything. God is worthy, and we become worthy because we
receive His love and act upon it (Ephesians 4:1).
People are made valuable because of what they can draw from God, and that is
His love. We have nothing to offer anybody that will make them worthy, unless
it is God’s love flowing through you. Only in Christ can you give value to
another by allowing God’s love to flow from you towards that person.
Matthew 5:38-48 illustrates this as perfect love, because
it comes from God. God loves because of who He is, not because of who we are.
Therefore, to love like our Heavenly Father and be perfect in love, we
must love other because of who we are, and we are children of God.
You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But
I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right
cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take
your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one
mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away
from the one who wants to borrow from you. "You have heard that it was
said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your
enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your
Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and
sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you
(this is the love of the world!), what reward will you get? Are not even the tax
collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing
more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your
heavenly Father is perfect.
We need to learn to love God's way:
Principle #1: Distinguish between
the two kinds of love:
1- From the
world: Looks at what you can get (1
Corinthians 13:1-4)
{1} If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not
love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. [God-given talent or ability]
{2} If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and
all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not
love, I am nothing. [Knowledge, power, wisdom,
experience]
{3} If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the
flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. [Sacrifice,
hard work, merit]
2- From God:
God is love: God loves because of who He is. His love does not vary, nor
does it change because of who receives His love. Love is from God and only
those born of God can really love. 1 John
4:7-16
{7} Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.
Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
From Matthew 5:48 we know God has
a perfect love-o-meter. He always reads
100% on His love scale, since we are completely useless on our own and with our
own. How does your love-o-meter read? I tell you, for years I used to wonder
why some people acted so funny around those of us who are labeled “handicapped,
disabled or crippled” in some way or another. In my senior year of high school
I began working in a special school for disabled kids. Notice how the language
we assign to this population already betrays the kind of love or service we
intend to give them. We have to treat them in a special way because we
perceive their use to us is limited. Anyway, I was pretty intimidated my first
day there, not knowing how to relate to this population because my
relationships were always self-centered and self-serving. My desire to
associate or have friends was based on their use to me. Since
this population was of no use to me whatsoever, it was quite difficult for me
to find out how to engage them. That situation showed how
unacquainted with God’s love I was. My love-o-meter was reading zero.
In high school is where we perfect our manipulation to such an extent
that we are professionals at it when we get married. We marry professional
manipulators, which is why our relationships are scarred with hate, bitterness
and vengeance.
Many years later, as a Christian, I worked at a school for the
developmentally disabled for a year, and was reminded of the telling way people
act around those we perceive as disabled. That’s how the love-o-meter works.
Around situations you cannot control or manipulate, your love-o-meter is
capable of showing if you are letting God’s love flow through you. How’s your
love-o-meter when your spouse is not doing what you want, when you want, like
you want? What’s it reading when your kids don’t follow your protocol or your
visions for them? How’s the love-o-meter when your computer crashes, or your
car won’t start, or you get fired or accused of something you didn’t do? What
does it read when you become the center of a joke at work, or when you get
persecuted for doing the right thing in God’s eyes?
Principle #2: You cannot love with
God’s Love if you idolize.
One of the most practical ways to teach the love of God is to explain it
in contrast to idolatry:
John 17:3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you,
the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
John 6:68 Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall
we go? You have the words of eternal life.
1 John 5:20,21 {20} We know also that the Son of God has come and
has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in
him who is true-- even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal
life. {21} Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.
If you
look to some other source for completion, satisfaction or purpose; to get when
you want how you want like you want it, then you are being
idolatrous.
Perhaps God is giving to you when you want, how you want and like you
want. You, wanting to be in control will go right into manipulation mode. When
you want to control you cannot love with God’s love.
Let’s play an opposites game for a minute to help you understand
something:
1-
Tall? Short
2-
Light? Dark
3-
Love? Most people say Hate
But is hate really the opposite of love? Actually, if we
go back to 1 Corinthians 13,
appropriately called the Love Chapter, we can see Paul did not contrast love
with hate, but with idolatry, that is, self-centered love.
We have been fooled by the spirit of idolatry into thinking hate is the
opposite of love, when we associate these words with strong emotions. But if we know God’s love is not an emotion,
then can it be an emotion if we practice the opposite of God’s love? See, this is where Satan tries to sell you a
cheap, futile “love”. If he can get you to believe love is an emotion, then as
long as you’re doing something that makes you feel good you think you are
loving, when in fact you are being an idolater to yourself!
The
opposite of God’s love is idolatry – hate is the fruit of
idolatry.
Isn’t that why Jesus said you cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24)? But let’s go even further. Let’s
examine the first commandment:
Exodus 20:3, 4 3 "You
shall have no other gods before me. 4 "You shall not make for yourself an
idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the
waters below.
John says it in a different way:
1 John 2:15-17 15 Do not
love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of
the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world-- the cravings of
sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--
comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass
away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
1 John 4:7, 8 7 Dear
friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves
has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God,
because God is love.
1 John 4:12 12 No one
has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is
made complete in us.
1 John 4:16-21 16 And so
we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love
lives in God, and God in him. 17 In this way, love is made complete among us so
that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we
are like him. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear,
because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect
in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, "I love
God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love
his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 And he
has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
1 John 5:2-4 2 This is
how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out
his commands. 3 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands
are not burdensome, 4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the
victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
1 John 5:21 Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.
As I hope you understand from the love letters, whenever you are seeking to gain or get something from anyone; your husband, wife, children, co-workers, brethren in the church, you are not loving. You are being an idolater, and the fruit of it will show: Hate, anger, frustration… when you don’t get what you want, when you want like you want…
I hope you learn to recognize the fruit of idolatrous love in your life,
so you can cleanse the temple and allow yourself to become an instrument of the
love of God. This passage in Ephesians
shows the mental process Satan tries to use to trap you in worthless idolatrous
thinking:
Ephesians 4:17-32
17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no
longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.
18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated
from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the
hardening of their hearts.
19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have
given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity,
with a continual lust for more.
20 You, however, did not come to
know Christ that way.
21 Surely you heard of him and
were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.
22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life,
to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;
23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds;
24 and to put on the new self, created to be
like God in true righteousness and holiness.
25 Therefore each of you must put
off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of
one body.
26 "In your anger do not
sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry,
27 and do not give the devil a
foothold.
28 He who has been stealing must
steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that
he may have something to share with those in need.
29 Do not let any unwholesome
talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up
according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
30 And do not grieve the Holy
Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
31 Get rid of all bitterness,
rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.
32 Be kind and compassionate to
one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
As you
can see, idolatry leads to a whole bunch of sin.
How then, can we learn to love like God loves?
Galatians 5:22 – 26 22 But the
fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no
law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with
its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step
with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each
other.
Learn to recognize the fruit produced by you. Jesus said you will know
them by their fruit (Matthew 7:17-20),
God says, you will be rewarded according to the fruit of your doings (Jeremiah 17:10 NKJV), not the feelings in your
heart.
Galatians 5:14-16 14 The
entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as
yourself." {14 Lev. 19:18} 15 If you keep on biting and devouring each
other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. 16 So I say, live by
the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
To understand what idolatry is then we need to look closely at the commands,
for within them we learn to identify the Spirit of Idolatry at work in the
flesh.
Remember, to be equipped to love you must have these principles clearly
established:
1- Distinguish between the love that comes from the world and the love
that is of God
2- You cannot love if you idolize
3-Identify the Spirit of Idolatry in you
Principle #3: Learn to recognize
the Spirit of Idolatry.
Most of what leads to idolatry was given to the Israelites on Mt. Sinai:
3”You shall have no
other Gods before me.
4 "You shall not make
for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in
the waters below.
5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD
your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers
to the third and fourth generation
of those who hate
me,
6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those
who love me and keep my commandments
1- verse 3—Your sole
provider must be the Lord God. God is
under control. Jesus lives now to intercede for the saints at the right hand of
God. Once you look to some other source because you want more control, you will
immediately see the fruit of your idolatry in your bitterness, anger,
frustration and worry.
2- verse 4 -- The idolater
2000 years ago carved images because he wanted to control. Remember the reason
why the Israelites wanted an idol when Moses was gone for 40 days in the
mountain?
They felt out of control, they couldn't trust God's timing and supply.
They wanted to supply when they wanted, what they wanted, how they wanted it,
like they wanted. Notice how SELF is at the center of this warning. Idol-making
is all about US, all about YOU. This is especially dangerous because you won’t
trust God’s timing or way of supplying. You want to CONROL, which is why you
MAKE an idol.
We have carving tool sets we use on each other and on God, and sometimes
even on things because we want to manipulate and get what we want, when we
want, how we want it. It can be described as occurring in three phases:
Positive reinforcement of certain behaviors you like or approve of. Ex.,
Smiling or complimenting when something pleasing is done. Trying to get what
you want by doing favors, especially trying to do things that you know someone
you want to please likes. This is the first phase of carving we try on new
relationships. It doesn’t last too long before we go into phase two because we
don’t get quick results.
Negative Reinforcement by the same means. Using anger, attitudes and
other emotional attacks to get what you want or show disapproval of something.
We step into this phase and seem to get stuck here until the fruit of this idol-making
tears us to pieces or consumes us. By
the time we get married we are professional idolaters, and the only way we
learn to respond to each other is by carving on each other. How would you feel if you’ve been carved on
for years? You put up walls. This is how we end up living with each other but
not knowing or loving each other. I also believe this is the main cause for
teenage rebellion or any other kind of rebelling in a family.
The rod can become a carving tool, if used in direct proportion to your
anger of disapproval, when you use it to control. Discipline can also become a carving tool, a
means to get your children to do what you want.
Isn’t that what parenting is all about, you may ask? Perhaps that’s how
you view your relationship with God then, as Him trying to make you do
something, trying to control you as opposed to helping you reach your full
potential. Remember God doesn’t force His discipline on anyone, but He punishes
the wicked. In Colossians 3 we will look for some clues to what idolatry can
bring into your life and how to keep it away.
Sometimes we try to manipulate God as well by thinking that if we do
spiritual things we should be OK. Thus we use these disciplines with
superstition. Even baptism! Think about
those who believe and are baptized, but then something happens in their life
and they are gone from the church. What happened? Did they really believe God
or were they looking to control? Were they just idolaters?
3- Idolatry takes the FORM of created things, not the CREATOR. Whenever you look for the supply in things or creatures of God, as opposed to God, you fall into the trap of idolatry.
20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-- his
eternal power and divine nature-- have been clearly seen, being understood from
what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God,
they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking
became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
22 Although they claimed to be
wise, they became fools
23 and exchanged the glory of the
immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and
reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over
in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of
their bodies with one another.
25 They exchanged the truth of
God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the
Creator-- who is forever praised. Amen.
If you are depending on people as opposed to God, you will suffer the
consequence of the idolatrous fruit. Look at these instances in King Asa’s
life:
11 Then Asa called to the LORD his God and said, "LORD, there is no
one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, O LORD our God,
for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. O
LORD, you are our God; do not let man prevail against you."
12 The LORD struck down the
Cushites before Asa and Judah. The Cushites fled,
13 and Asa and his army pursued
them as far as Gerar. Such a great number of Cushites fell that they could not
recover; they were crushed before the LORD and his forces. The men of Judah
carried off a large amount of plunder.
7 At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to
him: "Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the LORD your God,
the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand.
8 Were not the Cushites {8 That
is, people from the upper Nile region} and Libyans a mighty army with great
numbers of chariots and horsemen? {8 Or <charioteers>} Yet when you
relied on the LORD, he delivered them into your hand.
9 For the eyes of the LORD range
throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to
him. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war."
12 In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted with a
disease in his feet. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did
not seek help from the LORD, but only from the physicians.
13 Then in the forty-first year
of his reign Asa died and rested with his fathers.
Only the Lord is able to carry all our burdens and take on all our
infirmities. Who do you trust? Most of us rely on ourselves and have been
taught to be our sole suppliers, which builds up our pride. The opposite
extreme is parents who become gods to their children and provide everything for
them, teaching them to rely on people.
Husband, are you setting yourself up before your wife and children as a
mayor idol in their lives and in yours? Wives, are you depending on your husbands
and later resenting them for not supplying you as you want, when you want, how
you want?
4- The funny thing about
idolatry is that even though your intent on making idols is to try to control
them, they end up controlling you. (Exodus 20:5 You shall not bow down to
them or worship them…)
You end up giving these things the control over your life. Think about,
at this minute, what is it that irritates you in your life? What is the one
thing about your job that bothers you? Who is the person that most annoys you
at this time? You have given these things and these people the control over
your life! You gave them the permission
to influence your attitude and behavior after you carved them! Then you end up hating them anyway! What
losers!
5- Do not bow down to
them or worship THEM… Idolatry is a plural thing. You can’t have just one,
there as a whole closet full of idols in your life when you think you have just
one. How can you identify them? They
leave a trail… Look at you idolatry trail à When you come home
irritated and lash out at you family members, it is usually because of someone
or something you carved on at your job, which is the result of you wanting
something that you’re not getting, which is the result of not being in the word
and not having your mind on kingdom things, which is the result of not looking
to God for everything…. Is this how it
is for you?
6- God punishes the
children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation… Idolatry is something you teach and pass down
to your kids, You are their gods for the first dozen of years on their life,
and perhaps you pass on to them the behaviors and attitudes that cause them to
learn to manipulate and carve out their own idols. Most of the tools you have in your idolatry
carving set are tools that you’ve learned from your parents, which they learned
from your grandparents!
Don’t fatal flaws like alcohol addiction, abuse, and incest tend to be
repeated in family lines? However, we
need to put a stop to these in the Kingdom. More on that in Colossians 3.
7- punishing the sins of
those who HATE me… Idolatry always leads you to a LOVE – HATE
relationships, especially with God. How
many times have you heard of those who said they tried church, they tried
JESUS, they tried God but left disappointed or disillusioned? Perhaps they were carving on God Himself,
trying to control what they wanted from Him and how they wanted it when they
wanted it! They end up hating God, and therefore hating themselves and everyone
else around them. How do they show this hate? Manipulation, turning to other
idols of created things rather than the Creator Himself! Sounds familiar?
1 Since, then, you have been
raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at
the right hand of God.
2 Set your minds on things above,
not on earthly things. (Do
not make idols of anything on earth)
3 For you died, and your life is
now hidden with Christ in God. (Your life is now spiritual, not material)
4 When Christ, who is your life,
appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
5 Put to death, therefore,
whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust,
evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
6 Because of these, the wrath of
God is coming.
7 You used to walk in these ways,
in the life you once lived. (You
were taught to idolize)
8 But now you must rid yourselves
of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language
from your lips. (Negative
carving tools)
9 Do not lie to each other, since
you have taken off your old self with its practices
10 and have put on the new self,
which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. (The new self does not walk in
the fruit of idolatry)
11 Here there is no Greek or Jew,
circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is
all, and is in all.
12 Therefore, as God's chosen
people, holy and dearly loved, clothe
yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
(God’s love is active, not
emotional)
13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances
you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. (Unidirectional, agape love; always directed outwardly)
14 And over all these virtues put
on love, which binds
them all together in perfect unity.
15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your
hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.
(Peace in your heart is a
sign of idolatry –free relationships)
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you
richly as you teach and
admonish one another
with all wisdom, and as you sing
psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. (Fruit of meditation and study
of God’s Word)
17 And whatever you do, whether
in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the
Father through him. (Thankfulness
is another sign of idolatry-free relationships)
18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
19 Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.
20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases
the Lord.
21 Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become
discouraged.
22 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only
when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.
23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working
for the Lord, not for men,
24 since you know that you will
receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are
serving.
25 Anyone who does wrong will be
repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism. (God doesn’t try to manipulate you. Manipulation
(carving) often results in favoritism)
Illustration of the man who is drowning and God send a man, then a man
in a boat, then a man in a chopper, but the man refuses to escape the flood
until he dies.
Don't Limit your life by your limited love, be filled with God's love
and LIVE!