Yesterday, we talked about how God's love isn't centered or conditioned on us, but is centered on God. God doesn't love us because of who we are; God loves us because of who he is.
I as mentioned in the sermon, that strikes at the heart of popular self-esteem psychology. Schools and counselors are obsessed at building a child's "self-worth." And what they mean by that is "we have to make kids feel that they are lovable, valuable, acceptable in and of themselves."
That is a very dangerous message. What if that's true: to be loved you must be lovable. If God's love isn't centered and conditioned in him than we are going to be very insecure about God's love for us. If I need to be lovable to be loved, than how can I be sure that God loves me? How do I really know if I'm "worth it?" Ultimately, I don't. Insecurity will rule the day if God's love and acceptance of us is conditioned on my worthiness because I'll never truly know if I'm worthy.
Instead, when God's love for me is grounded in himself (i.e. that he is loving) I never have to worry if I'm not worthy of love. In fact, I'm very comfortable say, "I'm not worthy of God's love." But that would only make me discouraged if I needed to be worthy for God's love. But thankfully, I don't.
Is understanding these distinctions helpful? What other questions do you have concerning such things?
Pastor Brian
2 comments:
Thanks Brian, this is very helpful to me. And it's a reminder that God wants us to love people who are not lovely or lovable so that they will learn to love God also.
When Christians follow God and obey Biblical principles, they tend to become more prosperous with resulting higher social status (not always--but sin carries a heavy tax). Then they never reach out to the people in our society who might be most open to the gospel. They only associate with people like themselves.
When we see how God loves the unworthy and the unlovely (really, that's us) we sense our call to do the same.
I also was fascinated with the relationship between the word for “work” and “worship” in Exodus. I wonder what application that might have for our work lives?
Lastly, I wondered if the Egyptians worshiped cattle or if God was only targeting their pride and pocketbooks?
Hello James,
Thanks for your thoughts.
There was an Egyptian goddess name Hathor. She was the mother and sky goddess; she was depicted as a cow. So its certainly possible that this was another direct attack on one of the gods of Egypt. Hard to say precisely.
Brian
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