Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz. But Yahweh was gracious to them, and had compassion on them, and favored them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them and he didn’t cast them from his presence as yet.”
(2 Kings 13:22-23)

“One of the scribes came and heard them questioning together, and knowing that he had answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the greatest of all?” Jesus answered, “The greatest is: ‘Hear, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. The second is like this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.””
(Mark 12:28-31)

The Israelites were forgetting the primary directive of the Law. The Lord God should have been number one. He should have been their guide and their protector. The one they looked to for all their needs and all their rest and all their everything. But they kept straying. They kept turning to the left and to the right. They were losing their focus, and as such, losing their ability to be fully blessed by God. They were abandoning the covenant and moving out into the curse, instead of cleaving to the Lord. God, however, was NOT abandoning the covenant and was holding back their just punishment. He did NOT abandon His people, even as they were as a whole abandoning Him.

Jesus also preached looking to God as our Source of all things. Jesus pointed out that not only was looking to God as supreme the most important commandment, it helped keep all the other commandments. God was UNIQUE, the ONLY God there was, and His Word the ONLY AUTHORITATIVE Word about God, humanity, and their relationship. We are to love God with all our being: all our minds, our hearts, and our resources. When we do that, we are enabled to love our neighbours as we love ourselves: through the lens of God’s love for us and ours for Him. When we do those two things, we align ourselves with Him, His moral character, and we find ourselves out of that love obeying His commandments. If we put God first and foremost, everything else comes into focus and enables us to truly live for Him and share that love with the world. When we take our eyes off of Him, or put something else in His place, the world around us starts to shake, shatter, and end (John 10:10).

Summary

This is not an Old Covenant or bible days issue. It persists to this day. “But false prophets also arose among the people, as false teachers will also be among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master who bought them, bringing on themselves swift destruction” (2 Peter 2:1). The internet is SWARMING with people teaching the Word their way. People busy ‘exposing’ pastors, teachers, and leaders who are doing it ‘wrong’. Some of that will be accurate. Some will be based on their own biases. We need to keep God front and centre. We need to consistently and constantly be checking His Word – studying it ourselves to see what it really says (on its own as a given verse and ALSO in the context of the surrounding verses). We need to be willing to look up what words mean in the original languages. We need to be willing to ask God about it and listen to Holy Spirit. There will be messages and doctrines that SOUND good, but aren’t – just like the snake in the garden. There will be messages and doctrines that SOUND good, but are just chains to keep us bound to human reasoning – just like the small group of Judean Pharisees that opposed Jesus. Only by putting God in His proper place and humbly submitting to Him and His way of doing things will we truly maintain a close relationship with our Lord and Saviour. A relationship that is VERY important for us and everyone else.