A very common verse, probably in one of the first groups of verses our Sunday School teachers or camp counselors asked us to memorize.
I mean it just fits in so nicely with any topic.
I've heard this verse used before in preaching the story of Abraham, the story of David, Daniel... the list goes on.
Every time the discussion of the Armor of God comes up there will always be someone to bring up this verse along with it.
And that's what's so cool about the Bible... all of the stories mesh together. This guys story, and this woman's story, and that teen's story, and that letter, and that letter, and that gospel... they all form one big story... as if the Bible is God's way of calling out to all of us... we were never meant to be alone.
But...
I had been thinking about this verse recently, in a different way than usual, since we just passed the Easter season.
Just before he is arrested Jesus says this phrase in the Garden of Gethsemane, '...for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.' (Matthew 26:52b)
Now realistically speaking, he was talking about the sword that peter had just drawn and slashed at one of the guards... but as with most of the phrases Jesus used there are always deeper meanings than what the obvious one was.
I began to wonder... are our words swords?
When James talks about the un-tamable tongue...
When Peter says to always have an answer but to do it with 'gentleness and respect'...
Do we use our words to build other people up? Or tear them down?
Do our words and phrases that we cling to align with God's Word?
If God's word is a double edged sword... are our words little daggers?
And when we draw our swords of truth... our swords of the Word of God, is it something we are willing to die for?
What about our own words...our little daggers? Are we willing to die for the things we say?
All who draw the sword will die by it.
Or could it be referencing a different kind of death... a death to ourselves, a surrender of sorts.
We hear it all the time about needing to die to ourselves and live for God.
We hear all the time of people living for God.
Really? We can live FOR God?
Are we really able to do that?
We can meet God's expectations and requirements?
We are able to do anything FOR God?
It's little sayings like these that I think lie at the root of the problem of the Christian Church these days.
Because these sayings, these phrases we often use without really thinking about begin to sink in to the way we present the Gospel, and worse... they sink in to the way we live our lives.
We talk about how totally depraved we were and still are, we talk about our need for a savior, and we speak about knowing God and having a relationship with Him. And how He forgives us and let's us go to Heaven to be with him forever.
And then we say things like,
'I'm living for God.'
'My walk with God isn't too good... OR it's doing great.'
'I need to get right with God'
'How's your prayer life?'
'I love God.'
And I am as guilty as anyone.
But the bottom line is, these things we say... aren't really true.
We can't live for God.
By saying this it brings the attention back to us... as if we are doing God a great favor, or that we are truly living according to all of his standards, of which we can't live up to.
When we talk about our walk with God, or how our prayer life is, we categorize. As if our prayer life is a separate part of our lives... prayer is a lifestyle, not a life of it's own. Or that we are just on a walk with God. God shouldn't be walking with us... He should be living inside of us. His will and His word should be directing every move we make. He should be driving us, carrying us, this journey is too long, this path too steep and too rugged for us to be walking.
When we say we are getting right with God, it again brings the focus to something we do, as if we can get right with God... we can't. That was the whole purpose of Jesus coming to us... Jesus coming to right us, Jesus coming to make us right with Him... we can't do it alone.
And finally, 'I love God'.
Well hold on... I do, I really do love God. And doesn't the Bible say we HAVE to love God?
Jesus said the most important commandment is to love God with all of our heart, mind, strength and soul.
There is nothing wrong with this phrase... if it is truly used.
Charles Finney, a 19th Century Evangelist and modern day Father of the Faith, said this concerning the test as to whether a person truly loves God,
"If you find one who cannot deny himself, but chooses his ways to please himself otherwise than in pleasing God, you may know he does not love God.
If you seek anyone's good with real love, you will certainly avail yourself to every means to learn what will please him. So of loving and pleasing God.
Of course supreme love implies a greater dread of displeasing God than of displeasing anyone else. Nothing will distress one who loves God, so much as the thought of displeasing him.
You may each and all, apply every one of these principles warm and fresh, to your own heart in self-examination. Say, does my love to God bear this test?
Again, if you truly love God, there will always be a spontaneous sorrow if you become conscious of having displeased him. If you should be overcome by temptation, you would not need to make a great effort to feel sorry for it. When you have injured any friend whom you love more than any other being, you can easily regret and sorrow over the sad wrong.
Again, when the heart is supremely engrossed with love to God, the thoughts will turn naturally towards him. Where our treasure is, there will our heart be also.
Moreover God will become the object of our complacent affections. The fact that he is infinitely lovely and good, will secure in our hearts an intense complacency in his character, words, and ways.
We shall find supreme satisfaction in his service. We always find most satisfaction while pursuing the objects on which our affections are concentrated.
There will be a perpetual reference to God in all we do. Take the case of a man supremely devoted to his family; he will see everything in the light of its bearing on his family. So a father will do for his children if he supremely loves them. So a husband for his wife; every thing will be referred to the question of the happiness of the loved one. Thus real love to any friend begets spontaneous sympathy with him and with all his interests, and equally spontaneous sympathy against all his enemies."
We can't love God... without realizing and recognizing His love for us first.
How can we give God what we don't have ourselves?
But even if we do know God's love, do we truly love God? Or do we use that phrase ever so loosely?
Because when we take words such as 'love' and use it without meaning behind it... we lose something when we talk about the love God has for us.
A.W. Tozer, another great theologian of the 20th Century once said,
“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us…. Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God. For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like.”And Francis Chan in his book 'Crazy Love' had these things to say,
“My own love and desire for my kids’ love is so strong that it opened my eyes to how much God desires and loves us. My daughter’s expression of love for me and her desire to be with me is the most amazing thing. Nothing compares to being truly, exuberantly wanted by your children.”
“The irony is that while God doesn’t need us but still wants us, we desperately need God but don’t really want Him most of the time. He treasures us and anticipates our departure from this earth to be with Him—and we wonder, indifferently, how much we have to do for Him to get by.”
“If God is truly the greatest good on this earth, would He be loving us if He didn’t draw us toward what is best for us (even if that happens to be Himself)? Doesn’t His courting, luring, pushing, calling and even ‘threatening’ demonstrate His love? If He didn’t do all of that, wouldn’t we accuse Him of being unloving in the end, when all things are revealed?”
“Do you love this God who is everything, or do you just love everything He gives you?”
God's Word is a double-edged sword.
It penetrates our deepest parts.
It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
What if we began living BECAUSE of God?
Instead of for Him?
Will we make prayer an everyday part of our relationship with God? Or continue to categorize in our own minds?
Will we begin to love God? Truly. And live a life that reflects that change in our hearts and minds?
I've come to find in my own life that the only way I can live that change, and live because of everything God has done in spite of my failures and shortcomings is to die to myself.
And it's not that I can just die to myself... I need God's help in this too.
I want to be like Paul who says in Philippians 1:21, 'For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.'
To die is gain. Complete eradication of me.
He didn't say to live is to live for Christ. Paul wrote to the Philippian church, to live IS CHRIST.
That's what I want. For life to be Christ. This life that I have been given, to be Christ. Not me.
Not what I do.
Not what I do for God.
But what I do because of God.
Because it is Christ in me...
I want my life to reflect Christ in an and every way.
I want my life's prayer to be like the prayer of St. Patrick,
"I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation.
I arise today
Through the strength of Christ's birth and His baptism,
Through the strength of His crucifixion and His burial,
Through the strength of His resurrection and His ascension,
Through the strength of His descent for the judgment of doom.
I arise today
Through the strength of heaven;
Light of the sun,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of the wind,
Depth of the sea,
Stability of the earth,
Firmness of the rock.
I arise today
Through God's strength to pilot me;
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me,
God's shield to protect me,
God's hosts to save me
From snares of the devil,
From temptations of vices,
From every one who desires me ill,
Afar and anear,
Alone or in a multitude.
I summon today all these powers between me and evil,
Against every cruel merciless power that opposes my body and soul,
Against incantations of false prophets,
Against black laws of pagandom,
Against false laws of heretics,
Against craft of idolatry,
Against spells of women and smiths and wizards,
Against every knowledge that corrupts man's body and soul.
Christ shield me today
Against poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So that reward may come to me in abundance.
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me.
I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through a confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation."
I want to open up the Bible and allow it to read me, for me to look upon the Word of God and allow it to cut my heart, allow what it says to cut away more of me.
To prune.
To tear.
To rend.
To rip.
To rip...Hmmm... To rip... like Josiah.
You can find the full discourse 'On Loving God' by Charles Finney here.
