Love, hate, and anger

James 2:18 (NASB95)

18 But someone may well say, "You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works."

Expand this for a moment. My works make evident my faith. If I believe that “Jesus is the son of God” my works are going to reflect that belief. Am I doing the works that Jesus did, and greater works than these because He returned to the Father?

This is true, not only in the long arc of my lives, but also in the moment-by-moment reactions and responses to the world around me.

One of the things that regularly get said to new Christians is that love is not just an emotion, it is actions. I may have loving emotions, but I cannot show them without works. Or, in other words, love shows itself to others in loving actions. Love , unlike faith, is also expressed in words. it may be expressed in words like, “I love you.” But it may also be expressed in words of encouragement or words of gratitude. Those words may be without any open emotional content, as may be the actions of love.

So, love, to be love, must be expressed by “word or deed.” But the words or deeds, loving as they are, do not need emotions attached to them in order to be loving. I can believe God, and do the loving deed He asks of me, without any emotion of love, and He will reckon that belief to us as righteousness, I have followed James’s example, showing my faith through my works.

Now, I am going to extend this further. If the only way that I can show my love is through loving words and actions. what about hate, anger, fear, or guilt? I can have those emotions and not show them. And no one may know that I have them. How about if I do show them? Is not anger shown through angry words? Does not hate show itself through hateful actions I may speak my angry words without a trace of anger in them, or in my heart, at that moment. Angry words that get rehearsed in an angry mood and released in a calm one are still angry words.

“Revenge is a dish best served cold,” is a common saying in the world. After the emotion of anger or hate or fear is gone, they can still drive the plotting of revenge.

Therefore, anger, hate, or fear can be shown by their deeds, and by their words. There may emotions attached at the moment the deeds or words happen, or there may not.

Or, flipped around, if there are loving actions without the emotion of love, there are also hateful or angry actions (or words) without the emotions of hate or anger. Others can say of me that I hate someone because I show my hate by my hateful words or deeds.

My works reflect my faith. They reflect what I believe in, either in the long arc of my life or in the moment-by moment reaction or response. But something else is true. I react to the world around me, much like all animals do. But I can reflect on my reaction, the emotions triggered by whatever has happened, and what I have done with those emotions.

I may then respond with loving actions and words, despite what has happened to me. I may even need to apologize. I am forbidden by Jesus to take vengeance, and to hate my enemies. I have the ability to reflect and respond. I have that freedom.

Now, animals can only react to the world around them. Their “faith” is simple and direct. Their “emotional” state is what one sees at any given moment. They do not plan revenge. Nor do they plan loving acts. They simply are.

Animals react. Humans may react. Or we may reflect and respond. To apologize is evidence of being human.

Fear of the Lord, part 2

Psalm 111:10a (NASB 95)
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom...

Luke 12:5 (NASB 95)
"But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!

1 Peter 2:17 (NASB 95)
Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.

1 John 4:16-18 (NASB 95)
We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.


Thoughts:

“Perfect love casts out fear.” But what of the “fear of God?”

As I transfer my fears from the wrong things to Him, to my Lord Jesus, I declare that He is the proper recipient of the fear that I am feeling over something else.

So doing, the fear of something that is not God becomes the “reverential awe” of Him who is God. And only God deserves the fear that is also “reverential awe.”

And as I turn my fears over to Jesus, as I make Him to become the correct object of my fears, He casts them out. His love is perfected in me as I see His love for me. Ultimately, I have no fear of Jesus because I have no fear of punishment. The world may have its fears, its terrors, its worries, and its anxieties but the love that God is perfecting in me will drive it out.

I am yet living and as long as I live I will have fears, but now I know better how to deal with them, Who to give them to, and how to triumph over them. Where before I cowered before them, I now have the choice to triumph.

Fear of the Lord, part 1

Psalm 19:9a (NASB 95)
The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever...

Psalm 111:10a (NASB 95)
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom...

Ecclesiastes 3:14 (NASB 95)
I know that everything God does will remain forever; there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take from it, for God has so worked that men should fear Him.

Luke 12:5 (NASB 95)
"But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!

Ephesians 5:21 (NASB 95)
...And be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.

1 Peter 2:17 (NASB 95)
Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.

1 Peter 5:7 (NASB 95)
...Casting all your anxiety [or “worries”] on Him, because He cares for you.

Thoughts:
Old Testament and New, the fear [also translated as “reverential awe”] of the Lord is praised and encouraged. Fear of men, other nations, and idols was discouraged. Only God deserves the fear that is also “reverential awe.”

If I fear something I am saying that it has power over me. But only God has ultimate power over me. Others may injure me, even kill me, but I am told to fear only Him who has authority to cast men into hell.

But I do fear things other than God. And I find it hard to fear a loving God, who gave up His only Son, so that I could know Him.

What then? What do I do with my fear of the wrong things? I found a clue in 1 Peter 5:7. “Casting all your anxiety on Him.” I do not need to keep my fears. I do not need to have my fears focus on things, on people, on events, on idols, that are not God. I can “cast” them onto Him.

I have for years understood this to mean that I give my fears to the Lord in prayer. I tell Him what I fear, and ask Him to set my free from them. I did this knowing that if I do, I will know the peace that passes understanding.

But I also now see that I have to give those fears to the Lord in the sense of transferring them from the wrong things to Him, to my Lord Jesus. I need to declare my Friend, my Savior, Jesus, the proper recipient of the fear that I am feeling over something else.

So doing, the “fear” of something that is not God becomes the “reverential awe” of Him who is God. This is part, for me, of bringing all things into subjection to Jesus. I see Him as the proper recipient of any fears I may have.

Exercising Gratitude

Ecclesiastes 7:18 (NASB 95)
It is good that you grasp one thing and also not let go of the other; for the one who fears God comes forth with both of them.

A very long time ago, I had a dilemma. I thought I had to do one thing or the other. I was asking God, and taking counsel with friends, what I should do. And one of the friends, Lew, quoted this verse to me. I ended up successfully holding on to both things until it came time to let go of one of them.

I am grateful for that man of God, and for the many men and women of God that I have known.

Seeing Jesus - Hidden in Christ

Joshua 1:8 (NASB 95)
"This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success."

Psalm 32:7 (NASB 95)
You are my hiding place; You1 preserve me from trouble;
You surround me with songs of deliverance.

Psalm 31:19-20 (NASB 95)
(19) How great is Your goodness,
Which You have stored up for those who fear You,
Which You have wrought for those who take refuge in You,
Before the sons of men!
(20)You hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the conspiracies of man;
You keep them secretly in a shelter from the strife of tongues.

Psalm 119:114 (NASB 95)
You are my hiding place and my shield;
I wait for Your word.

Colossians 3:1-3 (NASB 95)
(1) Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. (2) Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. (3) For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Philippians 4:8 (NASB 77)
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let you mind dwell on these things.

Thoughts:

I am a "verbal" person. That is, I love words. I think in words. I meditate on the Word. Some people are visual and picture the things of God; some are auditory and sing "songs of deliverance."

I have a "hiding place," a place that I can set my mind on. I may meditate on a word, like "grace." Or a phrase, like "peace beyond understanding." Or a bit of a verse, like "It was for freedom that Christ set us free." As I do, Jesus reveals Himself to me. He brings the word, the phrase, the verse alive to me in a way that it has not been before.

The "hiding place" of others may be a particular style of worship: a "hymn sing" or "soaking" in anything from simple piano playing to a raucous worship band. Others use a "sanctified imagination" to picture Jesus and heaven.

In such a state, in such a place, the things that I call platitudes or cliches, the "trite" sayings that I hear from others, suddenly are profoundly real. There is a simplicity to devotion to Jesus. He gathered the simple to Himself; He gave a simple message in simple words. So simple was His call that it was considered "foolishness" by the wise and powerful.

I have a physical body and I interact with the world, but my life is now hidden with Jesus Christ. That life can be discerned by my actions and words, but in a very real sense it is hidden.

Romans 5:1-2

Romans 5:1-2
1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.

These two verses are an amazing summary of the purpose and accomplishments of Jesus. I am justified by faith. Not by works or accomplishments. Not by emotions or emotional state. Not by any form of political creed. Only by faith in Jesus.

Mankind’s long war with God is over. We can call that war a result of sin or a result of human nature. We have been in conflict God and now are not. But God’s peace is not just the absence of conflict. It “passes understanding;” it is a spiritual force in its own right. However, that peace is not a goal; not a weapon; not a political agenda. That peace, and the justification it springs from is “through our Lord Jesus Christ.” It has no other source, no other mediator. He alone provides the introduction and the access to the grace we stand in.

We believe that Jesus is our savior and our lord. As a result, we receive a permanent gift of salvation and, from it, peace.

Jesus, You are my access, my doorway to peace with God. And I have this access as a free gift. I have done nothing to deserve it. And I am grateful.

Seeing Jesus

Job 42:1-6
Then Job answered the Lord and said, “I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ “Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.” ‘Hear, now, and I will speak; I will ask You, and You instruct me.’ “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees You; Therefore I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes.” (NASB95)

Thoughts:
There is a difference between knowing about someone, and knowing them by experience. Job had heard about God, His mercy, His expectations, His righteousness. But he did not know God, Face to face.
I can chose to hold God at arm’s length, decline to meet with Him, ignore Him. He allows this. But in the end I only know about God, or rather, I think that I know about Him. But even that knowledge is merely what I chose to know about Him, rather than know Him as He is.

When I only know about God, I can chose to know about some facet of Him: His grace or His love, for example. And I can chose to not know about His holiness, His wrath, or His righteousness. I can approach Him as Savior while walking away from Him as Lord and Master. And in the end, I will neither know about Him nor will know Him by experience.

Job had walked to the best of his ability in obedience to the God that he know about. And God had been profoundly good and loving to Job. But Job still did not know God until God had revealed Himself to Job.