Last Sunday, I was supposed to share on Love, with its connection to trust. In the process I think I overdid the emphasis of something we’ve already established before – that is, that you cannot talk about love without talking about God, and when you talk about God, you’re automatically also talking about love… and when you do talk about God’s love, you automatically mention Jesus Christ – Who Himself is the ultimate expression of Love.
In the process, we pulled up valuable Scripture from 1 John 4, but I eventually pushed to end the entire message with what was in 1 Corinthians 13… the famous ‘love’ verse. That was the intention all along, really – to lead up to where it says that love ultimately has its connection to trust because it’s trust that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
That was verse 7. But in an attempt to draw out all context as possible, we had to go through the preceding verses, which went as follows:
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 1 Corinthians 13:4-6
I was reading this out, but in true Pastor Joedy style I wasn’t saying love was patient and kind, but because God’s love is automatically linked to Jesus Christ, I was saying Christ is patient to us, Christ is kind to us… and did you notice the next feature of love? See, as I was reading and saying that Christ does not envy, nor does He boast, my anticipation became reality – someone pointed out that God is a jealous God.
Of course, right then and there, I went ahead and addressed that by saying that it’s not to say that God is a sensitive God who would feel bad the moment we took our eyes off of Him. Rather, I think I took a cue from Crowder and said that if God is a jealous God, then He is jealous for us.
Thinking about it now, I don’t know if that was a substantial response to that, and I think I’d like to take some time to give it a little more thought. The first mention of God being a jealous God was in Exodus 20, just after He shared on the third Commandment, regarding idols and graven images:
You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me…
Exodus 20:5
Not sure why I’m bringing that up, considering that I researched in advance, only to find out that the Hebrew word for ‘jealous’ here was… well, just ‘jealous’. Nothing else about it.
And before I’m ever seen as someone twisting the words of the divine, I will say it as it is – Yes, God is a jealous God, but One whose love for us is so confident that, as it is patient and kind, is not so quick to envy or boast, if at all envious or boastful.
Yes, I think that when God was saying that He is a jealous God, it was less, or absolutely not to say that the focus was on our faithfulness to Him, more than it is on His faithfulness to us – That He loves us THAT much, that He is jealous for anything else that we give deep devotion to.
Consequently, that’s precisely WHY we can trust God in the first place – on top of understanding that Christ paid a great price for us to be forever reconciled to God who bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things for us… well, it’s but natural for us to trust in our good God who is, before all these things – patient, kind, rejoicing in the truth; We can trust in God, because He is not (read: definitively ‘not’, and different from’not quick to’) envious, boastful, arrogant or rude… Nor is He insistent in His own way, irritable, resentful (‘matampuhin’ in Tagalog, I guess), or One who rejoices at wrongdoing.
Writing about all of this and putting it all down, I suppose my ultimate point here is that we would see God as a jealous God differently (and a whole lot more pleasantly) in the light of Christ’s finished work, compared to the added pressure it would impose, if we see if from the point of view of our works… as if our works had anything to do with it.
So there you have it. Before Valentines’ Day, let’s have a look at just how great of a God we have, all seen through the great love He has for us… and if there’s anything we want to remember in all of this, it’s that there’s no greater way for us to behold this said great, perfect love… no greater love, than Christ Himself.
God bless us all!
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#Reflections #Revelations #GodsLove #JealousGod #JesusChrist #Bible #Exodus #TrustInTheLord #2024YearOfTrust #BenefitsOfSalvation #PracticalChristianity
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