1 Peter 1:8-9 – Though you have not seen Him you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with the glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
THEME OF THE DAY: THE SIMPLICITY OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. Life is complex. Not because God made it such. Read the account of creation BEFORE the fall of humanity. Meditate on the simplicity of the relationship between God and our first parents. Simple obedience to the Creator, joyful stewardship of His creation, and human relationships untainted and pure. Then . . . the devil, the master deceiver and the author of complexity, comes onto the scene. We know the rest of the story – sin enters into the human experience and life now becomes confusing and complex. As we study the book of Ecclesiastes in our church, I appreciate the author, King Solomon more and more. He cuts no corners and holds back no punches in telling us about life on this earth. It is confusing, complex, discouraging and unless God becomes our interpretive lens, it will be full of nothing but hopeless sorrow and meaningless suffering. Not to overuse the word, but without the Lord, life is a mess of unsolvable complexity.
That is what sin does. It not only ruins us, but it makes life hard, confusing, bewildering, and leaves us in a state of perplexity. And sin does something else, it produces within us deep dissatisfaction about life and its meaning. Think about life for a moment without Christ. We are born, grow up, get educated, have a career, raise a family, retire, settle into old age, and die. Is that it? Is that what life is all about? Without Christ and His perspective on life, that is it. But that isn’t it for the Christian. There is fulfillment, direction, and a simplicity in life making it glorious and with sustaining purpose each and every day we live and that is found in loving Jesus Christ. However, there is a requirement. Christians are not immune from being overtaken by the complexities in life that sin has caused. Unless we understand what the Christian life really is and strive to maintain this simplicity, we will live like unbelievers – caught up in the complex currents of the world and be swept away by its forces and show no one, not even ourselves, the reality of Jesus Christ who is the Christian life.
So, what is this simplicity defining the Christian life? It is revealed by the Apostle Peter in today’s scripture – “Though you have not seen Him you love Him.” The Christian life may be defined by the words “Love for Jesus Christ.” Now, I know this is not a bombshell of truth. I realize all of us would agree and define the Christian life as loving the Lord Jesus. And that is the danger. A real danger. A danger I feel every day. There is a huge difference between saying “The Christian life is loving Jesus” and living the Christian life loving Jesus. There is a wide gulf between me saying, “I love the Lord Jesus” and showing by my life that I love the Lord Jesus. Please don’t gloss over these distinctions. We are easily deceived in this area. Really we are. Let’s consider why this simplicity in the Christian life is one that Christians may misinterpret or be self-deceived. Before we do, this little investigation is not to discourage us but to instruct and encourage us. It is designed to take us back to the Bible and let it, not our own understanding, define what it means to love Jesus Christ. And we begin and end with the words of the Lord Jesus. How does He define love for Him? What did He say was the only evidence we may present to Him verifying we truly do love Him beyond saying we do? Obedience to His Word. Christ says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15).
Love for the Lord Jesus is measured by our obedience to Him. For the sake of our spiritual health, ask the hard questions – “Am I purposefully obeying the commands of God?” “Is my life lived daily doing what He has commanded me to do?” “Do I read my Bible, see commands of God, and make efforts to put those commands into action?” Friends, our love for God is only true as we obey God. It is so easy to just “do life” and do so without conscious obedience to known commands of the Lord. Fight that mindless spiritual condition. Put His Word into actions. We must. It is the way and the only way He has told us we may live out the simplicity of the life He gave us; the simplicity of loving Him.
PRAYER: “Father, grant me a deepening love for You, Your Son, and Your Spirit which consumes my life.”
QUOTE: “To love Christ begins by seeing the beauty of Christ through a diligent seeking of Him in Word and prayer”.