John 14:15, “If you love Me,
you will keep My commandments.”
As I continue to explore the
idea of God’s love, and that God is love… I continue to find conclusively that
love, true unconditional love, is not fair. Or should I say love does not in
any way equate with material equality. And yet, in spite of God being love we
somehow blame mankind for the financial disparity. The chasm of wealth
difference between individuals magnified with comparing Bill Gates to the lowliest
Batwa tribal member has us crying foul. (Batwa being the poorest people on earth)
Does God love Bill Gates more? Has Bill Gates “accumulated” too much? Has
mankind and capitalism counteracted God’s love and created the imbalance?
Better yet, in our own little microcosms is Christmas and the gifts of the
season some kind of example of how it “should” be? Are we righting wrongs and
sharing love in giving gifts equally?
The resounding answer to all
these questions is, no! What we fail to see is that God’s love is only concerned
about today to the degree that that our interaction with life improves our
character for some far off day and purpose in eternity. God, and only God knows
the point at which life truly begins. That beginning point is not birth on
earth, but I would suggest that life begins when our soul can walk and talk
with our Creator in eternity. (I wish everyone could see how powerful that
statement is.) All of this time on earth is the classroom of our soul. For some
it is the potter’s wheel of the soul. For some it is the gold smelting furnace
for the soul. For other’s it might be a garden for the soul. But each day, each
interaction, each breath is governed by God’s love and His desire to be truly
with us in eternity.
God is not, nor ever has been
concerned with fairness as it relates to material or even earthly equality.
Leviticus 19:15 says, “… you shall not be partial to the POOR nor defer to the GREAT,
but you are to judge your neighbor fairly.” And so “fair” has nothing to do
with equality, but transcends the earth and considers the soul’s eternal good.
There is, and will always be the poor and the great (rich), but our
interactions should not be governed by that. This is very much the message of
Christ who in fact said, “You will always have the poor with you…” (Matt 26:11)
Have you noticed how the
Bible tells us very little about heaven and the afterlife? Have you ever
wondered why so much is left to the imagination? In part I think it is because
the afterlife is about directly interacting with God, and what environment that
interaction takes place in is irrelevant in comparison to the fact of being
face to face with God. I think also little is known about heaven is because man
in his god complex and sin infested free-will would try to concoct ways to make
it there outside of a character conformed to the image of Christ, and outside
of Love which is God and is the consideration of what is best for a person’s
ETERNAL soul.
It is the unknown, it is
eternity that love is concerned with, and as such must constantly depend on
relationship to God, and not only relationship but obedience to God. “If you
love Me, you will keep My commandments” Christ said. This is not simply the
commandment to love Him and others, but this is perhaps primarily those softly
spoken commandments directly to our soul. The commands that say, give this to
that person, or write this to her, or go here to see him. The individual commandments
that are acts of love and influence eternity are limitless.
Having said all of this I
would like to be practical with this lesson at Christmas time. Christmas has
become a holiday of spending. For many of us, our background, upbringing,
doctrine, sense of social justice dictates that we must be “fair” and therefore
equal in our gifts. For some we must spend the same amount on each child or
family member. Based on the experience above, this is NOT love. What if you as
a parent have 3 children and $100 to spend? Do you spend $33 on each? What if 1
truly needed something that cost $60? Would you be ok with meeting the $60
need, and giving the other 2 something at $15 each knowing they have no
pressing need? Or does your love dictate that a “need” can be sacrificed in the
interest of fairness? Or worse, would you give the all three $60 by borrowing
$80 more from credit cards or the like?
As a child, is your love
offended if your parent(s) seemingly gives more to a sibling?
In any of the above scenarios
do you respond from instinct and education, or do you give prayerful
consideration to it all. Can the offense of one child, and the need being met
of another both be God’s love? Or has man played favorites? Whose plan are we
executing? Whose kingdom are we building? Love is not fair, but love is perfect
and at work saving us from ourselves.
The photo today is from Jim
Spivey’s blog, and here is what he had to say, “…they claim to want to follow
God’s Will for their lives, but they rarely know how to listen for that,
because they are too busy trying to executing their plan, while protecting
themselves, all the while claiming it’s about God. God rarely conveniently fits into or behaves
within our plans. And He rarely protects
us the way we first want protection.
Remember He is always willing to give us more than we know how to ask
for. We know how to ask for
entertainment, pleasure, safety, surface stuff like that. He has created Life, which will demolish our
plans every time, NOT to hurt us, but to save us from ourselves and our busy,
distracted, frenzied castle-making.”
Love with obedience, fully
understanding love has nothing to do with fairness as we know it.
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