Love takes two, and it is not a one sided venture
God is love. 1 John 4:19-20 says, “We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.”
When someone loves you, it is much easier to love them back. If you know someone loves you and cares for you, that creates an energy causing you to react to them. It normally causes you to desire them even more. God loves us so much, that He has set a time each year to grow closer to Him during the month on the Jewish calendar that is called Elul. This is a 30-day period of time that we can prepare to know God better. Each year we are to consider where we are in our relationship with God during this time, make some adjustments, and as the Rabbis say, “prepare to go out and meet the King in the field”. This is a time of reflection, and we should do our best to take advantage of this time to make corrections, adjust our attitude, and humble ourselves to prepare to meet the King.
After this 30-day period of time there is an appointed time called Rosh Hashanah. To learn more this day, Alephbeta.org has an excellent guide for Rosh Hashanah.
Love Demands Action
Love must be active, not passive, it demands action, and love has to be deliberate. You can improve and grow love, but you must desire it, express yourself, and act on it. If you desire someone as much as they desire you, then the relationship works out great. If one of the people in the relationship is not desiring to be as involved, they are not engaged in the relationship, it usually doesn’t last. It is not one sided with God either! It cannot be, and it takes effort. In fact, when someone tells you that you do not need to do anything to improve your relationship with God, they are hurting your opportunity to know God, and that only conceals the real knowledge of God from you. 1 John 2:3-6 says we know God when we keep His commandments, which is to take action. In the end, the love of this world produces laziness and only blinds a person from the truth so you cannot know God, and not knowing God will make you become His enemy. The lack of knowledge is very subtle, but in the end that lack will destroy you (Hosea 4:6).
We Are to Rule Over Sin
In Genesis 4:7 God told Cain, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
The world was created for us to take action. We have the opportunity to choose life or death, to choose to know God or not know Him, and to rule over sin. It is a choice we all have to make, and determine in our hearts that we will overcome and rule over sin. Many of us by default chooses this world, God knew that (1 John 3:20), and our wrong choices do damage. That is why He gave us the tool of repentance – to make our wrong choices right and fix the damages.
Join us for our discussion about the sacrifices, the death of Jesus, and the suffering of the righteous and why repentance is an important part of salvation:
In Exodus 34:6-7 it says that God is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness and truth, preserving lovingkindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity, rebellion and sin, and He pardons (these are the 13 attributes of God). In Isaiah 54:10 it says, “… my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you.” God is very clear that he will forgive us and show mercy. God even put such a righteous King in this world, that makes it even possible to repent. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
A Trustworthy Disciple of Jesus
Ezekiel 33:12-13 says, “…the righteous shall not be able to live by his righteousness when he sins. Though I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, yet if he trusts in his righteousness and does injustice, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered, but in his injustice that he has done he shall die.”
This means a person cannot be shielded from punishment because they have acted righteously. They are not free to sin because they originally repented, and then think that they can return to sin.
To “believe in him” is to be trustworthy, it is to be active not passive, and it is to be deliberate and act on what we believe. There are many scriptures throughout the Bible that explain the overwhelming amount of love and mercy God has on us, how much we know that God desires us, but it also explains how we will be seen if we do not express our love in return. If love is not two-sided then the relationship will grow cold. It says in Matthew 7:23 that Jesus will tell many, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness”. This is almost like saying our relationship did not work out, you did not put enough into it, now leave.
If you desire Jesus as much as He desires you, then you will find the strength that God places inside of you to be able to be a trustworthy disciple of Jesus.
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