We love the Lord
As we think about discipleship at The Street, there are four words we use as an overarching framework. Upwards, Inwards, Outwards and Onwards. The first is “Upwards: We love the Lord.”
Upwards means the goal of our growth as followers of Jesus and our helping one another grow is not simply to grow in our knowledge of God. Our goal is to grow in our love of the Lord. This moves our faith from the head to the heart from which everything else we do flows. Can you see how important it is? Jesus summarised Israel’s Law—all 613 laws—into just two. Love God with all that you are and love others as yourself. Even the goal of the Law was love.
At the moment, I’m reading through the Psalms and this morning I found David coming to the same conclusion.
“Because I love your commands more than gold, more than pure gold, and because I consider all your precepts right, I hate every wrong path.” (Ps 119:127-8)
When David thought about the privilege that the eternal God of creation had spoken authoritatively and accurately to his people, he knew that those written words were more precious than any gold he could amass. He also knew that God had a perspective on life that was more accurate and life giving than the collective wisdom of humanity. He knew that in these commands was the opportunity for a full life and it led him to love God’s commands. What’s more astounding is that his love wasn’t for the gospels but for the Torah - the first five books of our Bible.
What is your motivation for reading Scripture today? Is it obligation? Is it routine? Is it to grow in knowledge? Or is it to grow in your love for the Lord? Routine and knowledge aren’t bad things so long as they lead us to love. Only that will be truly life giving.
As you think about your view of Scripture, what is a step you could take today to help it lead you to love the Lord? One of the things I have changed over time is to not worry about how much I’m reading and focus more on processing and applying what I’m reading. How about you?
Much love,
Simon
This post is part of the Senior Pastor’s weekly blog. Go to the the blog feed >>