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Love God and do what you like?
I believe we are no longer under law but that doesn't mean we have been granted a license for misdemeanor. Some people talk about freedom in Christ but never in the way Paul intended!...
Living by God's grace does not mean doing whatever we feel like, even if it cuts against Biblical precedent. Paul wrote in Romans 6:1-2 Shall we continue sinning so that grace may abound? God forbid! The law acts as a tutor to show us our iniquities, inconsistencies and that we are sinners and points us to the Saviour who came to fulfill the law, Jesus the Messiah.
Love God and do what you like is fine if your definition of 'what you like' equals complete obedience to God because you recognise that His Son died for your sins and out of gratitude you are willing to serve Him and live in a manner pleasing to Him.
Love God and do what you like is not alright if that means that you think God is great and you consider most of His ideas to be generally sound but in some areas He is a little behind the times, is too radical and you think you can pick and choose in what areas you wish to obey Him in!
Jesus said 'IF YOU WANT TO ENTER INTO LIFE, KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS' (Matt 19:17) and 'IF YOU LOVE ME, KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS' (John 14:15) Surely if we love God we will love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength taking heed to the greatest commandment.
We should examine our motives and ask ourselves when we do what we like - is it out of selfish ambition or to please Him? Did Jesus want to die a cruel death on the cross when He was completely innocent on our behalf, or was He acting in accordance with His Father's will?
Sometimes I hear people talking about loving themselves before we love others. Well certainly we should acknowledge that we are fearfully and wonderfully made and God's creation. However we're called to deny ourselves and be ready and willing to take up our cross and follow Him. The concept of an indulgent, generous self love is alien to holy scripture! In addition though we should never undervalue our worth particularly with respect of our Maker who knows us intimately and knows the number of hairs on our head!
We love Him because He first loved us. Amen |
