Word of Encouragement (03/22/2023)
And of Levi he said, "Give to Levi your Thummim, and your Urim to your godly one, whom you tested at Massah, with whom you quarreled at the waters of Meribah; 9 who said of his father and mother, 'I regard them not'; he disowned his brothers and ignored his children. For they observed your word and kept your covenant. 10 They shall teach Jacob your rules and Israel your law; they shall put incense before you and whole burnt offerings on your altar. 11Bless, O LORD, his substance, and accept the work of his hands; crush the loins of his adversaries, of those who hate him, that they rise not again." (Deut. 33:8-11)
Even though we don’t use force to defend the purity of our religion, the spiritual principle of what Moses says remains: our allegiance to God supersedes our allegiance to any other human being, including our family. Although this is emotionally hard to accept, it is only logical: our family relations are temporary, ending with our death; our relationship with God is eternal, extending beyond our death to all eternity. Besides, it is God, who established our family relations and the principles, which should govern them.
Jesus affirmed this principle when He said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). Jesus is not saying that we should actually hate our family members, even our unbelieving ones. He is speaking of our choice: if we must choose between Christ and anything else (including our family), we should choose Christ readily as if we hated the other things. In other words, our love for Him should be so great that our love for others should seem like hatred. Doesn’t this only make sense? Can there be any comparison between the love that Christ deserves from us and the love that others deserve? Who has loved us as Christ did? Who is higher than Christ and who has stooped down so low to save us? Who has sacrificed for us more than He did?
In fact, it is only when we taste and see how great His love is for us that we can love those around us well. If we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that our love for others is not as unconditional and pure as it should be. We often fail to love even our dearest ones. Even when we manage to love them, it is highly conditional: we love them because they did something that made us happy. It’s amazing how our hearts turn cold when they do something wrong as quickly as they were warmed when they did something nice for us. We also love, expecting something in return from the other, whether it is his love or praise or favor. So, when our love is not reciprocated in some way, we stop loving. How about all the ways we hurt others in the name of love because we love for selfish reasons? We say that we love but we are only trying to control others to make them what we want them to be.
All these deviant ways of loving others stem from whatever sense of void we have inside of us. That inner void distorts even our noble attempt to love others. Only when that void is filled can we love others for their good rather than for ourselves. You know that the void I’m talking about is the God-shaped vacuum God placed in our souls, which can be filled only by the infinite God Himself. We owe Christ our ultimate allegiance because He is the most glorious One and He loved us first while we were yet sinners. But it is also true that we can love only when we turn to Christ in faith and have our hearts filled with His love. Have you done that? Are you abiding in Him and His all-sufficient love for you? When we run on fume with our tank empty, the foul stench of our selfishness will ruin our acts and words of love. Abide in Him and love out of the fullness of His love!