THE GOD OF LOVE - LOVE LIFT YOU UP WHERE YOU BELONG
WEEK FIVE: YOU CAN'T TELL A SHOE BY IT'S LACES
My cause, my cleats.
the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: LOVE, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! (Galatians 5:22-23)
Let’s begin this study with a big statement about a big word; Freedom in Christ is not to lead into any form of antinomianism. This is a very popular belief that the law of God has no relevance for Christians today. It’s the idea that Christians are to be good for goodness sake. Not for any divine sake, or divine truth. The belief is that Christians are made free from the consequences of sin by their belief in Christ Jesus and his redeeming promise of salvation.
Truth is following the law is not required to become a disciple of Christ, but fulfilling the law is expected of the disciples of Christ. Yes, that’s right, God does have certain expectations for his children. Like any good parent He has a purpose in mind (expectation) for (from) the instruction he shares. God wants to see a transformation from them living in The Spirit. He wants to see, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Mark Twain once commented about fearing “the good I know I should do.” And it is right that he fears in this way. The bible makes it clear, "If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them." (James 4:17). For me one of the most powerfully moving scriptures in my own life was Jesus describing his kingdom come to the disciples, and he spoke about the here and now as well saying, “truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” (Matthew 25:45) That simple statement cut me deep and I began to understand that God does in fact have great expectations for us all. And I understood that we can “do” all sorts of things for many reasons, but if these things are truly for the glory of God, then it’s likely our motives are suspect at best. And at worst, these things we do could become for us sin. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, but he has not freed us from the obligation of it. All the law is fulfilled in one understanding, even in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, Gal. 5:14. Love is the sum of the whole law.
Imagine if you always obeyed. And not just you but everyone. Imagine the world if everyone leaned on God and leaned in when he whispered their names.
What if instead of relativizing, rationalizing, and marginalizing we simply obeyed his commands? What would this world look like if we weren’t merely hitching our wagons to the popular social causes for “goodness sake”. Imagine a world that took God at his word, saw his signs and miracles, and gave him the glory by living in His Spirit. What if we understood that God Spirit anoints some fruitfulness and others he doesn’t.
YOU CAN'T TELL A SHOE BY IT'S LACES
Remember as a child learning the shoelace tying poem?
Over, under, around and through, Meet Mr. Bunny Rabbit, pull and through.
Your parents and/or teaching instructors taught you how to tie things together in a way they knew would serve you best. And they tried to make it understandable in a way that you could relate. Now of course your shoelaces weren’t really a bunny rabbit chasing around a tree, and his name wasn’t really Mr. Bunny Rabbit, but imagine if today as an adult you insisted that the world respected your childhood interpretation regarding the identity of your shoelaces. Imagine if you were emotionally wounded by the strange looks and teasing because the world didn’t appreciate your personal traditional shoelace beliefs.
Have you noticed that shoelaces have become a thing? Often the trends are brightly contrasting colors that likely match the wearers faux dyed hair and eye color, or glittering sparkly rhinestones, and maybe even electronics that flash like a lighthouse beacon. And shoelaces have even evolved to become no tie laces which I suppose means they aren’t really what they seem to be at all. All of it not to tie things together, but to draw attention to the wearer. Not draw attention to the shoe or the shoemaker, but to the wearer. But what do we know about the shoe? Do these highly visible laces tell us anything about the shoes?
Conclusion - So, let’s tie things up:
Antinomianism has been around among the Christian churches since the first century Gnostics were invading the congregations trying to preach wantonness and perpetual prodigal lifestyles. And today it’s still slipping and sliding through the lexicon by rewording, rewriting, and recharging itself with multiple personality profile shifts. Like shifting sands, and tumultuous winds of change, the wearer of antinomianism distracts with colorful displays of do-gooding for goodness sake. And it’s no great feat to identify them, they’re happy to make themselves well known. For this reason, we have the scriptures to stand as our guideposts and riverbanks. The scriptures like Galatians 5:22-23 help us to clearly understand both the way we should go and the why we should go there.
Extra Credit:
And if you need maybe just one more nudgy idea, think on this. Jesus said of himself that he came in the manner of a servant. As a servant he removed the shoes of the disciples to wash their dusty feet. He didn’t dress them up with flashy blingy attention drawing accoutrements. He washed them with love and meant for them to do likewise.