He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love.
– I John
These words sound so ethereal that most of us cannot connect them with daily life.
What, we ask, do personal relationships have to do with the divine?
I would reply that it is by discovering the unity between ourselves and others – all others – that we find our unity with God.
Jesus taught unity, not a cosmos of dualism.
We don’t first get to know God and then, by some miracle of grace, come to love our fellow human beings.
Loving others comes first.
In this sense, learning to love is practicing religion. Those who can put the welfare of others before their own small personal interests are religious, even if they would deny it.
This posture is possible only through what the scriptures refer to as "faith". This is the only route to life in the Kingdom, Jesus' code word for walking with him in the Spirit, being "born again" or "born from above". It requires a gaze on Christ, on Christ as God...not an inward focus on our own self. Christ then empowers us to love our neighbor as ourselves.
A.W. Tozer, in his book, The Pursuit of God, plainly states that "Faith is the least self regarding of the virtues...that it is by its very nature scarcely conscious of it's own existence. Like the eye that sees everything in front of it and never sees itself, faith as a virtue is occupied with the object upon which it rests and pays no attention to itself at all. While we are looking at God, we do not see ourselves--blessed riddance. The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failure, will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with himself, and his own methodologies and looks away to the perfect One."
When our gaze is focused on Christ, in worship, in contemplation, in prayer, what man cannot do for himself, Christ through His Holy Spirit does--and changes us within without our having done a thing. It is the Spirit of God, working within us "to will and to do".
Grace from the Spirit, gives us eyes to see what we cannot see otherwise.
Christ, through His Spirit, fills our spiritual eyes, and heals our own hearts, enabling us to love others as He loves.
This can help to explain the meaning of the parables of salt and light. Both those elements enhance their object--salt gives flavor to food, light illuminates what we see--both are directed outside themselves.
"Lord Christ, give me the grace to keep the focus of my eyes upon You, and so fulfill your desire for my life, and to obey Your Will. Only through You can I do anything of true value."
Amen.
– I John
These words sound so ethereal that most of us cannot connect them with daily life.
What, we ask, do personal relationships have to do with the divine?
I would reply that it is by discovering the unity between ourselves and others – all others – that we find our unity with God.
Jesus taught unity, not a cosmos of dualism.
We don’t first get to know God and then, by some miracle of grace, come to love our fellow human beings.
Loving others comes first.
In this sense, learning to love is practicing religion. Those who can put the welfare of others before their own small personal interests are religious, even if they would deny it.
This posture is possible only through what the scriptures refer to as "faith". This is the only route to life in the Kingdom, Jesus' code word for walking with him in the Spirit, being "born again" or "born from above". It requires a gaze on Christ, on Christ as God...not an inward focus on our own self. Christ then empowers us to love our neighbor as ourselves.
A.W. Tozer, in his book, The Pursuit of God, plainly states that "Faith is the least self regarding of the virtues...that it is by its very nature scarcely conscious of it's own existence. Like the eye that sees everything in front of it and never sees itself, faith as a virtue is occupied with the object upon which it rests and pays no attention to itself at all. While we are looking at God, we do not see ourselves--blessed riddance. The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failure, will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with himself, and his own methodologies and looks away to the perfect One."
When our gaze is focused on Christ, in worship, in contemplation, in prayer, what man cannot do for himself, Christ through His Holy Spirit does--and changes us within without our having done a thing. It is the Spirit of God, working within us "to will and to do".
Grace from the Spirit, gives us eyes to see what we cannot see otherwise.
Christ, through His Spirit, fills our spiritual eyes, and heals our own hearts, enabling us to love others as He loves.
This can help to explain the meaning of the parables of salt and light. Both those elements enhance their object--salt gives flavor to food, light illuminates what we see--both are directed outside themselves.
"Lord Christ, give me the grace to keep the focus of my eyes upon You, and so fulfill your desire for my life, and to obey Your Will. Only through You can I do anything of true value."
Amen.
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