“I know what you mean,” Roy said. “Some of the things that Paul writes about, and yes, Peter too, are so nit-picky and irrelevant to our times.”
Harold chimed in: “Nit-picky is a good word for it. In the bigger scheme of things, some of the stuff in the Epistles are inconsequential and insignificant. Let me tell you, we have bigger things to worry about. I often tell my friends: don’t worry about failing to dot the ‘i’s and missing a few cross bars on the ‘t’s. I’m sure God has bigger things to worry about than whether or not I do this, look like that or go here or there . I love the Lord; really that’s all that matters!”
Roy wholeheartedly agreed. “I try to focus on the things I like to do and that seem reasonable to me. If I don’t quite make 100% in the big test before the Lord…..well, as long as I get a passing grade, I really don’t care.”
Do you know what is wrong with Roy and Harold’s attitudes? They’re down right scary.
Memorize this verse today:
Talk is cheap. People can talk about how good the Lord is and how much they love the Lord and how the Lord is guiding their lives – they can talk about the Lord until ‘the cows come home.’ God does not measure our love by syllables or decibels – not by how much we say we love Him or how loud we say it. The test of love is whether or not we are submitting to the Word of God and obeying His commandments. Love, obedience and worship form a tight triad. They go hand-in-hand. Often we think about Abraham’s willingness to obey the Lord by taking his only son Isaac to Mount Moriah for a sacrifice. In Genesis 22 we see true love for the Lord in shoe leather (or did Abraham wear sandals??). God asked him to do something that was contrary to human thinking. Without hesitating, stalling or delaying a week or even a day, Abraham arises at the crack of dawn to obey the Lord and to keep his commandments. You will find all three words mentioned in this one chapter: love, obey, and worship.
If submitting to the Word of God is a constant pain for me; if obeying the Scriptures is a daily annoyance and an ongoing chore for me; if bowing to the teachings in the Epistle’s is a struggle or a battle for me, then the warning lights are flashing and the sirens are screaming loudly. Something is wrong big time. If I genuinely love God and adore His Son, the language of my heart will be: “I want to please Thee at any cost. What ever You say, I will do. Whatever makes You happy, makes me happy. If there are some ‘thou shalt not’s’ that You want me to obey, I will cheerfully submit to Thy desires. I am going to read every Word You have given to me in the Bible and search verse by verse for ways to please Thee more and more. Rather than searching for verses that could let me off the hook in some things, I am on a search for ways to honor and obey Thee in every facet of my life and lifestyle.”
That’s the attitude of LOVE. The extent to which such a desire is lacking in my heart, is the true measure of my love for the Lord.
Take the love test today.