Pursuant Love

This past Monday for chapel (at The Master's College) our provost spoke, and the message was labeled "pursuant love." His main passage was 1 John 4:7 which simply states:

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

So what is “pursuant love” and what does it look like?

The very reason we desire to pursue people and desire for people to pursue us is because God in Christ pursued us! He did this for us “while we were yet sinners” so this tells us that this kind of love is not performance based. I think often we live our lives day to day with an underlying fear or unrest that our friendships are at risk. We’re constantly worried at the prospect of not being funny enough, or athletic enough, or even spiritual enough to keep our friends around. But there is peace with pursuant love.

1 Corinthians 14:1 tells us to “pursue love.” It’s active. It also isn’t always easy if you have to pursue it. We can’t ever manipulate our character enough to transform our friendships into pursuant love kind of friendships on our own. It is only when we live at the foot of the cross, realizing that God sought us out when we hated Him, that we can love people without condition.

Another thing Tatlock said was “don’t wait around your entire life for someone to pursue you. You’re wasting time. Be the pursuer.” If this love truly is unconditional then we can love even when we are not, knowing that the love of Christ is perfect and fully satisfying. The result is unity in the body which exemplifies Christ’s love and gives glory to God.

Pastors, Stop For A Moment...

When you preach from the Old Testament does it resemble the way the Apostles preached from the Old Testament? You might think that your preaching is Biblical because you use the Bible, but Biblical preaching from the Old Testament hones in on Christ and the redemptive story--sin and the gospel.

Your sermons are to be Christian, not moralistic or therapuetic. I plead with you to help God's people get their eyes off of themselves and on to something much more grand. Not many of you should want to be teachers of God's Word because the Lord will hold you accountable for aptly teaching His Word or mishandling it. Rightly divide it.

Please stop being selective in preaching only from the New Testament passages of Scripture that address familial life, duty to government and our employers. In context, all of those passages are rooted in the gospel and can only be properly addressed when Christ is front and center. If you're going to teach from a New Testament letter, might I humbly suggest that you teach from the beginning of the letter to the end of it to see how the doctrines of the gospel are to shape our life in Christ. The Apostles admonished the church to live holy lives only after bringing redemption into high definition so that the church would be motivated to honor Christ in the mundane and ordinary moments of life.

In the words of theologians....indicative first, imperative second. Or orthodoxy before orthopraxy. Get them aligned in the gospel before you send them back to the law for obedience. If all you do is lay down the LAW (do this, don't do that) on them you will lay a heavy yoke upon them and they will fail to remember that Christ lived the perfect life for them and died in their place for all their acts of disobedience--even the ones you command them to do in your sermons but they fail to do again and again.

Scripture is not a manual for living. Although there are guidelines for holy living, it is self-declaration of God's work in a fallen world and all that He does through Christ, the Spirit and His Word to effectively change things for His glory. I beg of you to read the beginning of Genesis and see that the story of redemption starts immediately after sin enters the picture and a Savior is promised. Then go to the end of Revelation and see Christ there as well. Everything in between those pages falls within this amazing story. Love it. It is our only hope of ever being delivered from these wretched and sinful bodies. It is our only hope of ever being delivered from the wrath of God. It is our only hope for eternal joy in the presence of God's glorious might.