This Sunday the sermon title is “Freedom to Love.” It’s
based on Paul’s words to the Galatians in Chapter 5:1-12. How interesting to
preach on the dynamics of love, especially the day after the Heart Breakfast!
Last week we embarked on a journey into chapter 5 to see
Paul’s answer to the question, “If Jesus has done everything that needs to be
done to insure our acceptance by His Father forever, then why should we spend
any time trying to please God? Why seek to live godly lives when it doesn’t
affect our standing with God?” And last week, in verse 1-6, we saw part of
Paul’s answer (listen to the podcast or pick up a CD if you missed it). This
week, however, we delve deeper into the heart of the matter.
In preparing for Sunday I took a fresh look at a 1986
edition of Brennan Manning’s work, The
Relentless Tenderness of Jesus. In chapter one he tells the following
story, adding his commentary:
If the question were
put to you, “Do you honestly believe that God likes you?” – not loves you, because theologically He must – how
would you answer? God loves by necessity of His nature; without the eternal,
interior generation of love, He would cease to be God. But if you could answer,
“The Father is very fond of me,” there would come a relaxedness, a serenity and
a compassionate attitude toward yourself that is a reflection of God’s own
tenderness. In Isaiah 49:15, God says: “Does a woman forget her baby at the
breast, or fail to cherish the son of her womb? Yet even if these forget, I
will never forget you” (JB).
One spiritual writer
has observed that human beings are born with two diseases: life, from which we
die; and hope, which says the first disease is not terminal. Hope is built into
the structure of our personalities, into the depths of our unconscious; it plagues
us to the very moment of our death. The critical question is whether hope is
self-deception, the ultimate cruelty of a cruel and tricky universe, or whether
it is just possibly the imprint of reality.
The parables of
Jesus responded to that question. In effect Jesus said: Hope your wildest
hopes, dream your maddest dreams, imagine your most fantastic fantasies. Where
your hopes and your dreams and your imagination leave off, the love of My
heavenly Father only begins. For “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither
have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them
that love him (I Corinthians 2:9 KJV).
Shortly after I was
ordained, I took a graduate course at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. The
professor was an old Dutchman who told the following story:
“I’m one of thirteen
children. One day when I was playing in the street of our hometown in Holland,
I got thirsty and came into the pantry of our house for a glass of water. It
was around noon and my father had just come home from work to have lunch. He
was sitting at the kitchen table having a glass of beer with a neighbor. A door
separated the kitchen from the pantry and my father didn’t know I was there.
The neighbor said to my father, ‘Joe, there’s something I’ve wanted to ask you
for a long time, but if it’s too personal, just forget I ever asked.’
“’What is your
question?”
“Well, you have
thirteen children. Out of all of them is there one that is your favorite, one
you love more than all the others?”
The professor continued
his story: “I had my ear pressed against the door hoping against hope it would
be me. “That’s easy,’ my father said. ‘Sure there’s one I love more than all
the others. That’s Mary, the twelve-year-old. She just got braces on her teeth
and feels so awkward and embarrassed that she won’t go out of the house
anymore. Oh, but you asked about my favorite. That’s my twenty-three-year-old,
Peter. His fiancée just broke their engagement, and he is desolate. But the one
I really love the most is little Michael. He’s totally uncoordinated and
terrible in any sport he tries to play. The other kids on the street make fun
of him. But, of course, the apple of my eye is Susan. Only twenty-four, living
in her own apartment and developing a drinking problem. I cry for Susan. But I
guess of all the kids…’ and my father went on mentioning each of his thirteen
children by name.”
The professor ended
his story, saying: “What I learned was that the one my father loved most was
the one who needed him the most at that time. And that’s the way the Father of
Jesus is: He loves those most who need Him most, who rely on Him, depend upon
Him and trust Him in everything. Little He cares whether you’ve been as pure as
St. John or as sinful as the prostitute in Simon the Pharisee’s house. All that
matters is trust. It seems to me that learning how to trust God defines the
meaning of Christian living. God doesn’t wait until we have our moral life in
order before He starts loving us.”
Again, though, that nagging question: Won’t the awareness
that God loves us no matter what lead to spiritual laziness and moral laxity?
Theoretically, this seems a reasonable fear, but in reality the opposite is
true. You know that your wife loves you as you are and not as you should be. Is
this an invitation to infidelity, indifference, an “anything goes” attitude? On
the contrary. Love calls forth love. Doing your own thing in complete freedom
means, in fact, responding to her love. “The more rooted we are in the love of
God the more generously we live our faith and practice it."
As we will see again on Sunday, when Paul focuses on
obedience, his attention is not on the will, but the heart. And we will see
that again this Sunday as we look at the TRUTH (vv. 7-9), the TRAUMA (v. 11),
and the TREASURE (vv. 5-6).
In preparation for Sunday’s message, you may wish to
consider the following:
- Why doesn’t Paul yield one inch to the false teachers when it comes to grace?
- Why does he say that those who depend at all on the law for their justification are “severed from Christ”? (verse 4)
- What does “hope” mean in the Bible?
- Why is the only thing that counts is faith working through love? (v. 6)
- What is it about our old nature that makes even our obedience self-serving and without love?
- Why does Paul use the word “truth” rather than "law" in his verse 7 question?
- How do Jesus and Paul agree in using the “leaven warning” in verse 9? (see Matthew 16:6)
- What is the “offense of the cross” that Paul’s referring to in verse 11?
- In what way are all human works motivated by love?
- “Every act of goodness and obedience that does not arise from security in Christ is done for yourself.” Do you agree?
