- Jun 29, 2019
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How can a person be measured in their love of God? This is a skill that should not be taken lightly, since there are those who purposely or unwittingly can steer us away from God by what they do. And those of us who love God know that if we turn away from Him, He will turn away from us, and any dreams we have of entering His Kingdom would be laid waste. The Bible tells us to keep a watch...not that we would be expected to keep our eyes open 24/7, any more than we can pray 24/7. After all, a person has to eat and sleep and attend to nature among other things. But as with praying, it should be on our minds to do so and plan accordingly in the midst of things we do.
1 John 4:1-2 tells us to test those we encounter to see if they measure up to what we might consider to be a person of righteousness. But on what basis do we even test? What forms of measure do we use? We may strive to be the image that God contemplated when He created Adam, but our perceptions are limited. Contrary to our capabilities, God can perceive man in terms of his heart, as He told Samuel in 1 Samuel 16:7, when He says He “looks on the heart.” Some might say, ‘Well, a heart surgeon looks on a person’s heart. Does that make him any better than the rest of us in terms of considering who follows God and who doesn’t?” Let us leave this as a non-sequitar.
Fact is, we cannot find things in a person’s heart as well as God can find them. The closest we can get to looking on a person’s heart, is to consider some possible indicators. What stands out in terms of a person’s love of God? It may be a degree of a person’s faith in God, and it may be in the degree of their works. But works alone doesn’t cut it. And a person may attempt to demonstrate their faith in God by saying “Lord, Lord,” but as Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:21, it is not enough to just say it; a person needs to also do the Will of God.
We may encounter people who seemingly do good things, but they may be known by others for their resistance to God. In the Parable of the Persistent Widow in Luke 18:1-5, a widow persists in calling on a judge to give her justice. This judge, who “neither fears God nor respects man” as told in the parable, finally gives her justice just to get her out of his sight, but in giving her justice he performed a righteous act regardless of his feelings toward God and man. But would we admit this judge into our home, at the risk of his saying something to the effect of ‘God? Humbug!’?
We may encounter people who happily do favors for us, things that we believe God would look upon and say that’s good if performed by someone whose faith is in God, but the person doing such favors hates other people simply because of their ethnicity without knowing anything else about them. Would you determine that their love and faith is in God, when Galatians 3:28-29 tells us there are no distinctions on that accord since we are all in Christ---Jew or Greek, servant or free, man or woman, and we have the opportunity to share in the Promise God made to Abraham by virtue of Jesus’ lineage to David’s?
How do we know when we encounter a person who is two faced, or three faced for that matter, or whose motives are contrary to God? This is where testing comes in, but testing something is actually more complicated than it sounds. For instance, in order to find out if something is good or evil, you need to know what good and evil are. Furthermore, you need to know the things that lead to being good and evil; you need to know if your leaders are acting out of goodness under God if you are to abide by them and trust in them. The love we have for our neighbors is helpful in this pursuit. A simple measure is that anything which serves to promote mankind is good, but anything that would take away from mankind is evil. Things like preserving the balance of nature so as to provide sustenance and a livable environment is good; things like murder, and destroying the parts of nature that sustain us are evil. Things which are evil are things which God would not stand for in terms of His Creation. And if He doesn’t stand for them, He wouldn’t want us to stand for them either.
So, be on guard in terms of who’s company you keep.
1 John 4:1-2 tells us to test those we encounter to see if they measure up to what we might consider to be a person of righteousness. But on what basis do we even test? What forms of measure do we use? We may strive to be the image that God contemplated when He created Adam, but our perceptions are limited. Contrary to our capabilities, God can perceive man in terms of his heart, as He told Samuel in 1 Samuel 16:7, when He says He “looks on the heart.” Some might say, ‘Well, a heart surgeon looks on a person’s heart. Does that make him any better than the rest of us in terms of considering who follows God and who doesn’t?” Let us leave this as a non-sequitar.
Fact is, we cannot find things in a person’s heart as well as God can find them. The closest we can get to looking on a person’s heart, is to consider some possible indicators. What stands out in terms of a person’s love of God? It may be a degree of a person’s faith in God, and it may be in the degree of their works. But works alone doesn’t cut it. And a person may attempt to demonstrate their faith in God by saying “Lord, Lord,” but as Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:21, it is not enough to just say it; a person needs to also do the Will of God.
We may encounter people who seemingly do good things, but they may be known by others for their resistance to God. In the Parable of the Persistent Widow in Luke 18:1-5, a widow persists in calling on a judge to give her justice. This judge, who “neither fears God nor respects man” as told in the parable, finally gives her justice just to get her out of his sight, but in giving her justice he performed a righteous act regardless of his feelings toward God and man. But would we admit this judge into our home, at the risk of his saying something to the effect of ‘God? Humbug!’?
We may encounter people who happily do favors for us, things that we believe God would look upon and say that’s good if performed by someone whose faith is in God, but the person doing such favors hates other people simply because of their ethnicity without knowing anything else about them. Would you determine that their love and faith is in God, when Galatians 3:28-29 tells us there are no distinctions on that accord since we are all in Christ---Jew or Greek, servant or free, man or woman, and we have the opportunity to share in the Promise God made to Abraham by virtue of Jesus’ lineage to David’s?
How do we know when we encounter a person who is two faced, or three faced for that matter, or whose motives are contrary to God? This is where testing comes in, but testing something is actually more complicated than it sounds. For instance, in order to find out if something is good or evil, you need to know what good and evil are. Furthermore, you need to know the things that lead to being good and evil; you need to know if your leaders are acting out of goodness under God if you are to abide by them and trust in them. The love we have for our neighbors is helpful in this pursuit. A simple measure is that anything which serves to promote mankind is good, but anything that would take away from mankind is evil. Things like preserving the balance of nature so as to provide sustenance and a livable environment is good; things like murder, and destroying the parts of nature that sustain us are evil. Things which are evil are things which God would not stand for in terms of His Creation. And if He doesn’t stand for them, He wouldn’t want us to stand for them either.
So, be on guard in terms of who’s company you keep.
