2 Thess 1:3, Love Is Not a Toaster.

Class Outline:

Tuesday June 20, 2023

 

God’s love is the love since it is the only original love. We would prefer it to be simple. We can see this in the fact that most of the population wants religion to be simple. Why? They don’t really want it. Well, they want it about as much as they want a toaster. They want it to sit there on the counter, not taking up too much space, not making any noise, and always doing just what they want it to do when they want it to, which might be every day or once a month.

 

C.S. Lewis: “It is no good asking for a simple religion. After all, real things are not simple. They look simple, but they are not. The table I am sitting at looks simple: but ask a scientist to tell you what it is really made of [pic of wood molecule] - about all the atoms and how the light waves rebound from them and hit my eye and what they do to the optic nerve and what it does to my brain - and, of course, you find that what we call “seeing a table” lands you in mysteries and complications which you can hardly get to the end of. … If we ask for something more than simplicity, it is silly then to complain that the something more is not simple. … Besides being complicated, reality, in my experience, is usually odd. It is not neat, not obvious, not what you expect. …Reality, in fact, is usually something you could not have guessed. This is one of the reasons I believe Christianity. It is a religion you could not have guessed. If it offered us just the kind of universe we had always expected, I should feel we were making it up. But, in fact, it is not the sort of thing anyone would have made up. It has just that queer twist about it that real things have. So let us leave behind all these boys’ philosophies - these over simple answers. The problem is not simple and the answer is not going to be simple either.” [C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity]

 

1CO 13:4-7 might seem simple on the surface. These words are not simple. They demand strong faith to understand, which means to live them. They are words from heaven, not earth.

 

We must discover how the words on the page become a reality in our hearts, and then we must soberly face it and make our decision.

 

What makes for strong faith?

 

ISA 55:6-13

Seek the Lord while He may be found;

Call upon Him while He is near.

7 Let the wicked forsake his way

And the unrighteous man his thoughts;

And let him return to the Lord,

And He will have compassion on him,

And to our God,

For He will abundantly pardon.

8 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

Nor are your ways My ways," declares the Lord.

9 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

So are My ways higher than your ways

And My thoughts than your thoughts.

10 "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,

And do not return there without watering the earth

And making it bear and sprout,

And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;

11 So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;

It will not return to Me empty,

Without accomplishing what I desire,

And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.

12 "For you will go out with joy

And be led forth with peace;

The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you,

And all the trees of the field will clap their hands.

13 "Instead of the thorn bush the cypress will come up,

And instead of the nettle the myrtle will come up,

And it will be a memorial to the Lord,

For an everlasting sign which will not be cut off."

 

If this reads to someone like nice poetry, and nothing more, than its incredible message is lost on them.

 

When we look at the kindness of agape love today, when we read these words, how will we see it? How will it affect us?

 

One of the sources of faith is not obvious and certainly not simple. (Love is not a toaster.) Faith, and therefore agape love, comes from the fear of the Lord.

 

Faith grows strong out of a fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is standing in His awesome and mighty presence.

 

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of learning and the vehicle of faith that has strength in reliance and obedience.

 

We fear the Lord and worship the Lord. We have to behold God’s agape love through faith in all that is revealed and by faith discover God who is love and us whom He has made in His image, now in the image of Christ.

 

DEU 10:12-22

Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to keep the Lord's commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good? 14 "Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it. 15 "Yet on your fathers did the Lord set His affection to love them, and He chose their descendants after them, even you above all peoples, as it is this day. 16 "So circumcise your heart, and stiffen your neck no longer. 17 "For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe. 18 "He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing. 19 "So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. 20 "You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him and cling to Him, and you shall swear by His name. 21 "He is your praise and He is your God, who has done these great and awesome things for you which your eyes have seen. 22 "Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons in all, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.

 

The fear of the Lord is learned from God’s word because God is found there.

 

The king of Israel was to write out his own copy of the Scriptures and then read from them every day so that he would learn to fear the Lord and then rule as unto the Lord.

 

DEU 17:19

It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes,

 

JOH 14:21 "He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him."